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The fount of honour (, who, by virtue of his or her official position, has the exclusive right of conferring legitimate Titles Of Nobility and Orders Of Chivalry to other persons. ORIGIN During the High Middle Ages , European Knight s were essentially armoured, mounted warriors; it was common practice for knights to confer knighthoods upon their finest Soldiers , who in turn had the right to confer knighthood on others. This "master-apprentice" system of knighthood began to change during the Crusades , when Military Order s of chivalry were founded. As knights under these orders were bound by vows of obedience towards the orders' Grand Master s, they were prohibited from unilaterally granting knighthoods to others. This form of knighthood proved particularly attractive for Monarch s, as a way to ensure their knights owed undivided allegiances to the monarchs themselves; to this end these monarchs either acquired grand masterships of existing orders, or created Orders of their own. (In the case of the British Knight Bachelor , such knights have never been allowed to have their own soldiers in the first place, therefore their allegiances to the British Monarch have never been an issue.) After the end of Feudalism and the rise of the Nation-state s, such orders and knighthoods, along with titles of nobility (in the case of monarchies), became the exclusive domain for the monarchs (heads of state) to reward their loyal subjects (citizens) - in other words, the heads of state became their nations' ''"fountains of honour"''. MODERN APPLICATION Contrary to a popular myth, for a person to be made a noble or a knight does not give him or her the right to confer titles of Nobility or Orders of Chivalry to others. Given the historical background of the Orders of Chivalry as mentioned above, no person or organization, other than the head of state (or the head of the former ruling House), can be a fount of honour; persons and organizations other than the head of state (or the head of the former rulling House), may confer such honours ''only with the explicit permission of the fount of honour (head of state)''. For example, in the United Kingdom , where the fount of honour is the Monarch (the King or Queen), some societies have permissions from the Monarch to award medals, but these are to be worn on the right side of the chest. In France , however, non-government orders and medals are not allowed to be worn at all. SEE ALSO |
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