Order of chivalry in the context of "Order of the Dannebrog"

Investiture (from the Latin preposition in and verb vestire, "dress" from vestis "robe") is a formal installation ceremony that a person undergoes, often to mark or celebrate their taking up membership in—or leadership of—a Christian religious institute, an order of chivalry (which may include knighthoods, damehoods, or other honours), or a governmental leadership role or office.

In an investiture, a person may receive (or be 'invested with') an outward symbol or marker of their membership, such as a religious habit (as with monastic communities), an ecclesiastical decoration (as with christian chivalric orders), a badge or medal (as with an honours investiture), a particular coloured veil (as with religious orders of women), or a scapular (as with confraternities). A person assuming political or clerical office (eg, as a bishop) may be given the symbols of authority or particular (usually historical) regalia of that office; these items often come to be regarded as manifestations of the polity or the religious order or institution itself, and are passed down from office-holder to their successor. Investiture can include formal dress and adornment, such as a robe of state, crown, or headdress; it often takes place in a particular space (a church or a parliament building etc) and other regalia such as a staff, sword, throne or sceptre may also play a role. An investiture is also often part of, or is similar to, a coronation rite or an episcopal enthronement.

A military order (Latin: Ordo militaris) is a Latin Catholic religious order of knights. The original military orders were the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, the Order of Saint James, the Order of Calatrava, and the Teutonic Knights. They arose in the Middle Ages in association with the Crusades – the Crusader states (mainly the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Holy Land), the Baltics, and the Iberian peninsula; their members being initially dedicated to the protection of Christian pilgrims, and eventually to the defence of the Crusader states and the conquest of non-Christian or even non-Catholic lands. They are the predecessors of chivalric orders.

Most members of military orders were laymen who took religious vows, such as of poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to monastic ideals. The orders owned houses called commanderies all across Europe and had a hierarchical structure of leadership with the grand master at the top.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or a dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with the order, but are not members of it.

The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V, who created the order to recognise 'such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire'. Equal recognition was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas. Today, the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order. Honorary awards may be made to citizens of other nations of which the order's sovereign is not the head of state.

An order of merit is an honorific order that is conferred by a state, government, royal family, or other sovereign entity to an individual in recognition of military or civil merit. The historical background of the modern honours system of orders of merit may be traced to the emergence of chivalric orders during the Middle Ages.

Orders of merit may be bestowed as official awards by states, or as dynastic orders by royal families. In the case of modern republics, an order of merit may constitute the highest award conferred by the state authority.

The Order of the Holy Spirit (French: Ordre du Saint-Esprit; sometimes translated into English as the Order of the Holy Ghost) is a French order of chivalry founded by Henry III of France in 1578. Today, it is a dynastic order under the House of France.

It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the religious Order of the Holy Ghost. It was the senior chivalric order of France by precedence, although not by age, since the Order of Saint Michael was established more than a century earlier.

Sir is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in (English) French only as part of "Monsieur", with the equivalent: My (Mon) Lord (sieur) in English.

Traditionally, as governed by law and custom, Sir is used for men who are knights and belong to certain orders of chivalry, as well as later applied to baronets and other offices.

The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1190 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, having historically served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land and the Northern Crusades during the Middle Ages, as well as supplying military protection for Catholics in Eastern Europe.

Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods. The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order, a Protestant chivalric order, is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work.

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior military officers or senior civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His Majesty's Government. The name derives from an elaborate medieval ceremony for preparing a candidate to receive his knighthood, of which ritual bathing (as a symbol of purification) was an element. While not all knights went through such an elaborate ceremony, knights so created were known as "knights of the Bath".

George I constituted the Knights of the Bath as a regular military order. He did not revive the order, which did not previously exist, in the sense of a body of knights governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred.

The Order of the Elephant (Danish: Elefantordenen) is a Danish order 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.