The History of Military Order of the Collar (MOC).

By: Anders U Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Many kingdoms have ruled this earth and have left behind their glorious past, which we enjoy reading in the literature that is treasured in our libraries and on the internet. One such excerpt is from the History of The Royal House of Aragon, Militare Ordine del Collare.

Founded by King Alfonso III of Aragon on the 23rd January 1289, The Military Order of the Collar (MOC) was known as a knightly institution with the purpose of defending Minorca. Only the knights that were members lived in the Fortress of Saint Agatha, which was located in the province of Saint Agatha, and as such became known as “the knights from Saint Agatha”. The cavallerias that the knights were allocated were a plot of land, which would be sufficient to keep them in arms, were active till the year 1600 and were claimed to have existed in the 19th century even.

Later on, the Militare Ordine del Collare was discovered by don Ignazio, Prince of Biscari, who traveled to the Balearics in the mid 18th century. Its existence was revealed to him by the remaining descendants who told him about this ancient chivalric institution. They are also mentioned in the book published in 1849 by the seventh Duke of Carcaci, who compiled information from the notes made by don Ignazio. A great deal of credit goes to Professor Elena Lourie, for her research and findings on the history of Minorca and the founding of the Militare Ordine del Collare.

International law describes the Balearics (Majorca, Minorca and Ibiza) as an independent kingdom in the period from 1276 to 1349. It also states that the subsequent dynastic rights, including those that were linked to chivalric orders and knightly relations, persist through the ancestral office of the Head of the House albeit no conferments in this respect has been done for over a period.

The way the conferments were done was irregular in the past centuries; till the association assumed the form of Military Order of the Collar in the 19th century and increasingly became a dynastic Order. In 1855 it received formal Statutes. Thereafter it became a hierarchical organization when it received official acknowledgment from the reigning monarchs in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The Military Order of the Collar today is a dynastic Order, whose office of Grand Master associates itself with the autonomous prince who is the Head of the Royal House and is inherited by his descendants. Apart from any charitable or spiritual aims, the members of such Orders are bound by a vow of allegiance to the Grand Master of the Order.

The major facts regarding the history of the Order are revealed in the book "L'Ordine del Collare" published by the Duke of Carcaci. He describes how he had made researches among the notes his ancestor, the Prince of Biscari, left to the Etnean Academy many years earlier. Many notes among those documents described the journey of the Prince to the balearics by the end of 16th century.

Thus is the history of the Militare Ordine del Collare.