You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Danish. (September 2017)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Danish Wikipedia article at [[:da:Elefantordenen]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template{{Translated|da|Elefantordenen}} to thetalk page.
Collar of the Order of the Elephant.TheBlome [da;de] family coat of arms with the Order's collar on gravestone inHeiligenstedten.
TheOrder of the Elephant (Danish:Elefantordenen) is aDanishorder of chivalry and is Denmark's highest-ranked honour. It has origins in the 15th century, but has officially existed since 1693, and since the establishment of constitutional monarchy in 1849, is now almost exclusively used to honour royalty and heads of state.[1]
A Danish religiousconfraternity called the "Fellowship of theMother of God", limited to about fifty members of the Danish aristocracy, was founded during the reign ofChristian I during the 15th century. The badge of the confraternity showed theVirgin Mary holding herSon within a crescent moon and surrounded with the rays of the sun, and was hung from a collar of links in the form of elephants much like the present collar of the Order. After theReformation in 1536, the confraternity died out, but a badge in the form of an elephant with his profile on its right side was still awarded byFrederick II.[2] This latter badge may have been inspired by the badge of office of the chaplain of the confraternity which is known to have been in the form of an elephant. The order was instituted in its current form on 1 December 1693 byKing Christian V as having only one class consisting of only 30 noble knights in addition to the Grand Master (i.e., the king) and his sons.[3] The statutes of the order were amended in 1958 by a Royal Ordinance so that both men and women could be members of the order.
The elephant and castle design derives from thehowdah, a carriage that is mounted in the back of anelephant. This type of carriage was mostly utilized in theIndian subcontinent, and the Danish adopted this design since they ruled parts of India as part of theirsmall colonial empire. The unfamiliar Indian howdah has been replaced in this instance by a familiarEuropean castle, although theIndianrider has been kept on the elephant.
The Danish monarch is the head of the order. The members of the royal family are members of the order, and foreign heads of state are also inducted. In very exceptional circumstances a commoner may also be admitted. The most recent member of the order who was neither a current nor former head of state nor royal wasMærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, a leading industrialist and philanthropist.
The order of the Elephant has one class: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (Ridder af Elefantordenen, usually abbreviated asR.E. in letters et cetera). Knights of the order are granted a place in the 1st Class of theDanish order of precedence.
Thecollar of the order is of gold. It consists of alternating elephants and towers. On the cover of the elephants there is a D which stands forDania, mediaevalLatin for Denmark. According to the statutes of the order, the collar is usually worn on New Year's Day (during the Danish monarch's New Year's Court) and on major occasions (coronations or jubilees) only.
Thebadge of the order is an elephant made of white-enamelled gold with blue housings. It is about 5 cm high. On its back the elephant is bearing a watch tower of pink enameled masonry encircled by a row of small table cut diamonds at the bottom with another row just below the crenellation at the top. In front of the tower and behind the elephant's head (which has a diamond set in its forehead and smaller diamonds for its eyes) a colorfully attired and turbanedMoormahout is sitting, holding a golden rod; on the right side of the elephant there is a cross of five large table cut diamonds and on the left side the elephant bears the crowned monogram of the monarch reigning when it was made. At the top of the tower is a large enameled gold ring from which the badge can be hung from the collar or tied to the sash of the Order. There are about 72 elephants at the chancery of the Order or in circulation. It is estimated that together with an unknown number of elephants in museums around the world, the total number of the elephants is about a hundred.[4]
Thestar of the order is an eight-pointed silver star with smooth rays. At its center there is a red enameled disc with a white cross,[5] surrounded by a laurel wreath in silver. It is worn on the left side of the chest.
Thesash of the order is of light-blue silkmoiré and 10 cm wide for men 6 cm wide for women. It is placed on the left shoulder with the elephant resting against the right hip. The collar is not worn when the sash is used.
The order originally had a distinctive habit worn by the knights on very solemn occasions[6] consisting of a whitedoublet, whitebreeches, white stockings and white shoes, over which was worn a redmantle with a white lining and with the star of the order embroidered in silver on left side. Over this red mantle was worn a short white shoulder cape with a standing collar, embroidered with scattering of numerous gold flames, upon which was worn the collar of the order (the habit was always worn with the collar of the order, never its ribbon). The habit also had a black hat with aplume of white and redostrich feathers. This habit was almost identical to that worn by the knights of theOrder of the Dannebrog.
Upon the death of a Knight of the Order of the Elephant, the insignia of the order must be returned. There are a few exceptions known.
Niels Bohr, professor, Dr. Phil. & Scient. & Techn., Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, Manifested Copenhagen interpretation ("atom theory") (1947)[18]
Nicolae Ceaușescu, President of the Socialist Republic of Romania (Note: Awarded on the November 1980 state visit to Denmark, but revoked by the Queen on 23 December 1989. The insignia have been returned to Denmark and Ceaușescu's name has been deleted from the official rolls.)[23]
^The knights of the Order were often called theBlue Knights (in reference to the color of their ribbon), as opposed to theWhite Knights (again, in reference to the color of their ribbon) of the junior Danishorder of chivalry, theOrder of the Dannebrog, also instituted by Christian V.
^In an article entitled "Has anyone seen our elephant?" The 1 July 2004 issue of the Copenhagen Post reported that the original mold for the elephant badge had been stolen from the court jeweler, Georg Jensen.
^Originally this cross was formed of six brilliant cut diamonds, but at present it is formed of six small hemispherical silver beads.
Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre, 1987.The Knights of The Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325–1520, Woodbridge, Suffolk (Boydell Press) (revised edition 2000). History and insignia of the original confraternity of Christian I.
.svg)
.svg)
Christian V of Denmark
Edgars Rinkēvičs
.svg)
