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CANDIDACY for KNIGHTHOOD

• CANDIDATE APPLICATION PDF
• CANDIDATE APPLICATION Word DOC

Passage fee is a donation given by a newly created knight, his family, or his sponsor in celebration of his investiture into the knighthood. During the Crusades, passage fees, known as droit de passage, were used to cover the cost of actual travel to the Holy Land for the knight, his horses, and his retinue (usually at least 3, and usually over 10 persons). The passage fee is still present in modern chivalric orders, such as the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. In the medieval era, the passage fee for the Knights Hospitaller was around 360 Spanish pistoles.

Today, several orders still expect the candidate or his/her sponsor to donate thousands of dollar initially and make significant additional donation annually. The passage fee of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is rumoured to be one of the highest at $50,000.00 USD.

Our approach is different. A candidate is expected to donate funds, materials, or labor to the works of the Order, but we strive to keep it reasonable, and low enough to not exclude otherwise worthy candidates.

Each time a knight or dame of our Order is created, the funds are divided; a portion of passage fees are directly given to the Church for the directed charity in need. The other portion is allotted for the upkeep of the Order, to offset fees and materials. Donations may be tax deductible and each knight or dame should check with his or her accountant.

In these cases, the standard passage fee of $110 USD may be adjusted at the discretion of the Knight Grand Commander of the commandery in question.

A formal ceremony of investiture may be carried out by the commandery. Receiving the accolade (the touch of a sword on each shoulder) is called by some a "dubbing", from the Norman French word for the process, adoubement. Some say the word does not come from a colada, "with sword", but from the same phrase in Occitan French, which derives from Latin ad ("to") + collum ("neck"), and originally meant "embrace". In some orders, the sovereign delivers the accolade with a bare hand to the candidate's left shoulder or left side of the head.

However, one's knighthood is confirmed at the time the candidate's name is enterred into the records of the Order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prince William delivers the accolade to a candidate.