page_title: Order of the Holy Sepulchre
section_title: Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (1291–1489)
hierarchical_section_title: Order of the Holy Sepulchre / History / Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land (1291–1489)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Graf Eberhard I. von Württemberg. Kolorierte Federzeichnung um 1550, eingeklebt in ein Exemplar der Stiftungsbriefe für das Stift St. Peter zum Einsiedel im Schönbuch, Ulm 1493 (GW 9181).
context_page_description: The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, also called Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the Holy See. The pope is the sovereign of the order which, with the five other papal equestrian orders and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, are the only orders of chivalry that are recognised and protected by the Holy See.
  The order creates canons as well as knights, with the primary mission to "support the Christian presence in the Holy Land".
  The order today is estimated to have some 30,000 knights and dames in 60 lieutenancies around the world. The cardinal grand master has been Fernando Filoni since 2019, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is grand prior. Its headquarters are situated at Palazzo Della Rovere and its official church in Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo, both in Rome, close to the Vatican City.
context_section_description: The ultimate fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to the Muslims in 1291 did not suspend pilgrimages to the tomb of Christ or the custom of receiving knighthood there, and when the Custody of the Holy Land was entrusted to the Franciscan Order they continued this pious custom and gave the order its first grand master after the death of the last king of Jerusalem.
  The friars quickly resumed possession of their convent of Mount Zion at Jerusalem. The Turks tolerated the veneration paid to the tomb of Christ and derived revenue from the taxes levied upon pilgrims. In 1342, in his bull Gratiam agimus, Pope Clement VI officially committed the care of the Holy Land to the Franciscans; only the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem by Pius IX in 1847 superseded the Franciscans.
  With the emergence of the code of conduct of chivalry during the Middle Ages, conferring of knighthoods was pursued also at the Holy Sepulchre. From the period 1291 to 1847, the Franciscan Custodian of Mount Sion was the only authority representing the Holy See in the Holy Land.
  Documented from 1335, the Franciscan Custody was enrolling applicants among the lay order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in ceremonies frequently mentioned in the itineraries of pilgrims. Those pilgrims deemed worthy of the honour were received into the order with a solemn ceremony of ancient chivalry. However, in the ceremonial of reception at the time, the role of the clergy was limited to the benedictio militis, the dubbing with the sword being reserved to a professional knight, since the carrying of the sword was incompatible with the sacerdotal character, and reserved to previous knights.
  In 1346, King Valdemar IV of Denmark went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was made a knight of the Holy Sepulchre. This increased the prestige of Valdemar, who had difficulty in effectively ruling over his kingdom. Saint Bridget of Sweden, one of the future patron saints of Europe, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1371–1373 along with her sons. The oldest, Karl, died prior in Naples, but Birger Ulfsson became a knight of the Holy Sepulchre, followed by Hugo von Montfort (1395) and more to come.
  Duke Albert IV of Austria was made a knight in 1400, followed by his brother Ernest (1414) and by the Kalmar ruler Eric of Pomerania (1420's) and later by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III (1436), accompanied by Georg von Ehingen and numerous other knighted nobles; later were Count Otto II of Mosbach-Neumarkt (1460), Landgrave William III of Thuringia (1461) and Heinrich Reuß von Plauen (1461) who was also grand master of the Teutonic Order.
  The significance of the pilgrimages is indicated by various commemorations of the knights. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Görlitz in Saxony was built by Georg Emmerich, who was knighted in 1465. Of the medieval Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, notably, Emmerich, although a mayor and a wealthy merchant, was neither a monarch nor a nobleman. Eberhard I of Württemberg, knighted together with Christoph I of Baden in 1468, chose a palm as his personal symbol, including in the crest (heraldry) of his coat of arms. Others built church buildings in their hometowns, such as the chapel in Pratteln, Switzerland, by Hans Bernhard von Eptingen (knighted 1460), and Jeruzalemkerk in Bruges, Belgium, built by Anselm Adornes (knighted 1470). The latter still stands to this day, modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and today adorned with the heraldry of the order.
caption: Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg (1492). The Duke chose a palm as his personal symbol in commemoration of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1468 when he became a knight of the Holy Sepulchre.
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