The most illustrious order : the Order of St Patrick and its knights
"For one hundred and forty years the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick was the national honour of Ireland. Founded in 1783 in the aftermath of the granting of legislative independence to the Irish parliament, it disappeared into obscurity in the years after the partition of Ireland in 1922, until it was forgotten. With the death of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the last Knight of Saint Patrick, in 1974, the Order effectively ceased to exist." "Initially a symbolic adjunct of Irish independence, it was used to recognise and reward loyal support to the government from Irish peers, and the Order became a prominent and coveted feature of the social world of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy." "This extensive history not only tells the complete story of this forgotten Order, but sets it in its context as a political, social, cultural and ceremonial constituent of the long departed world of viceregal Ireland."--BOOK JACKET
Print Book, English, 1999, ©1998
Unicorn, London, 1999, ©1998