Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece

The Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece is the Habsburgs’ premier dynastic chivalric order, founded in Burgundy in 1430. It passed to the Habsburgs via Mary of Burgundy’s marriage to Maximilian, and after the War of the Spanish Succession, Emperor Charles VI created a distinct Austrian line in 1713. Traditionally, for leading Roman Catholic nobles, it continues as a Habsburg family order; the sovereign and grand master is Karl von Habsburg. Its emblem is a collar with a golden ram’s fleece, and many historic insignia are housed in Vienna’s Imperial Treasury. /prussia