Order of St Patrick The Order of St Patrick, which pertains to Ireland, is the most junior of these three in precedence and age. Its equivalent in England, The Most Noble Order of the Garter, is the oldest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom, dating to the middle fourteenth century. The Scottish equivalent is The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, dating in its modern form to 1687. The order was founded in 1783, a year after the grant of substantial autonomy to Ireland, as a means of rewarding (or obtaining) political support in the Irish Parliament. The Order of
Order of chivalry in the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Late Medieval Europe" (1987), the Canadian heraldist D'Arcy Boulton classifies chivalric orders as follows: Based on Boulton, this article distinguishes: Another occurrent chronological categorisation is into: Confraternal orders are orders of chivalry with the presidency attached to a nobleman: Fraternal orders are orders of chivalry that were formed off a vow & for a certain enterprise: Votive orders are orders of chivalry, temporarily formed on the basis of a vow. These were courtly chivalric games rather than actual pledges as in the case of the fraternal orders. Three are known from