Sovereign
| Name | Year of appointment | Present age | Banner |
|---|---|---|---|
| The King (ex officio) | 1958 as The Prince of Wales; Sovereign since 2022 | 75 |  |
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is a British order of chivalry. It is the world's oldest national order of knighthood in continuous existence and the pinnacle of the British honours system (after the Victoria Cross and George Cross). Its membership is extremely limited, consisting of the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales—both being members ex officio and gaining membership upon acceding to one of the titles if not already held—and not more than 24 full members known as Companions. Male members are known as Knights Companion, whilst female members are known as Ladies Companion. The Order can also include supernumerary members (members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs), known as "Royal" and "Stranger" Knights and Ladies (Companion), respectively. The Sovereign alone grants membership to the Order, meaning that ministerial advice is not sought.
| Name | Year of appointment | Present age | Banner |
|---|---|---|---|
| The King (ex officio) | 1958 as The Prince of Wales; Sovereign since 2022 | 75 | |
| Name | Year of appointment | Present age | Banner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Duke of Kent KG , GCMG , GCVO , CD , ADC | 1985 | 89 |  | |
| The Princess Royal KG , KT , GCVO , GCStJ , QSO , GCL , CMM , CD , ADC | 1994 | 74 |  | Royal Knight Companion [1] |
| The Duke of Gloucester KG , GCVO , GCStJ , SSI | 1997 | 80 |  | |
| Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy KG , GCVO , CD | 2003 | 87 |  | Royal Knight Companion [1] |
| The Duke of York KG , GCVO , CD | 2006 | 64 |  | |
| The Duke of Edinburgh KG , KT , GCVO , CD , ADC | 2006 as The Earl of Wessex; The Duke of Edinburgh since 2023 | 60 |  | |
| The Prince of Wales KG , KT , GCB , PC , ADC (ex officio) | 2008 as Prince William of Wales; The Prince of Wales since 2022 | 42 |  | 1000th Knight of the Garter |
| The Queen LG , LT , ONZ , GCVO , GBE , CSM , CD , PC | January 2022 as The Duchess of Cornwall; The Queen since September 2022 | 77 |  | Royal Lady |
| The Duchess of Gloucester LG , GCVO , DStJ , CD | 2024 | 78 |  | Royal Lady Companion |
| Name | Year of appointment | Present age | Banner | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Margrethe II of Denmark LG | 1979 as Queen; abdicated 2024 | 84 |  | Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain |
| The King of Sweden KG | 1983 | 78 |  | Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain; also Honorary Admiral in the Royal Navy |
| King Juan Carlos I of Spain KG | 1988 as King; abdicated 2014 | 86 |  | Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain |
| Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands LG , GCVO | 1989 as Queen; abdicated 2013 | 86 |  | Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain |
| Emperor Akihito of Japan KG , GCVO | 1998 as Emperor; abdicated 2019 | 90 |  | |
| The King of Norway KG , GCVO | 2001 | 87 |  | Recipient of the Royal Victorian Chain; also Honorary Colonel in the Royal Marines and Honorary General in the British Army |
| The King of Spain KG , GCVO | 2017 | 56 |  | |
| The King of the Netherlands KG | 2018 | 57 | | |
| The Emperor of Japan KG | 2024 | 64 | |
In the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories, personal bravery, achievement, or service are rewarded with honours. The honours system consists of three types of award:
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, it is outranked in precedence only by the decorations of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. The Order of the Garter is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England's patron saint.
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. 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, but not members of, the order.
The order of precedence in the United Kingdom is the sequential hierarchy for Peers of the Realm, officers of state, senior members of the clergy, holders of the various Orders of Chivalry, and is mostly determined, but not limited to, birth order, place in the line of succession, or distance from the reigning monarch. The order of precedence can also be applied to other persons in the three legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom:
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 was an element. While not all knights went through such an elaborate ceremony, knights so created were known as "knights of the Bath".
The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by King George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, The 3rd Earl Temple. The regular creation of knights of the Order lasted until 1922, when most of Ireland gained independence as the Irish Free State, a dominion within what was then known as the British Commonwealth of Nations. While the Order technically still exists, no knight of St Patrick has been created since 1936, and the last surviving knight, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974. Charles III, however, remains the Sovereign of the Order, and one officer, the Ulster King of Arms, also survives. Saint Patrick is patron of the order; its motto is Quis separabit?, Latin for "Who will separate [us]?": an allusion to the Vulgate translation of Romans 8:35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour of two military saints, Michael and George.
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland, who asserted that he was reviving an earlier order. The order consists of the sovereign and sixteen knights and ladies, as well as certain "extra" knights. The sovereign alone grants membership of the order; they are not advised by the government, as occurs with most other orders.
The following is the order of precedence in England and Wales as of November 2024. Separate orders exist for men and women.
The order of precedence in Scotland was fixed by Royal Warrant in 1905. Amendments were made by further Warrants in 1912, 1952, 1958, 1999 to coincide with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government and most recently in 2012.
An unofficial order of precedence in Northern Ireland, according to Burke's Peerage, 106th Edition, this is not officially authorised by or published with authority from either Buckingham Palace or the College of Arms, or the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice or the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, or the Northern Ireland Assembly, or the Northern Ireland Executive.
The introduction is a ceremony in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom by which a new member is "introduced" to the existing membership. Introductions in the Lords are more elaborate than those in the House of Commons.
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the monarch. The present monarch, King Charles III, is the sovereign of the order. The order's motto is Victoria. The order's official day is 20 June. The order's chapel is the Savoy Chapel in London.
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:
The Military Knights of Windsor, originally the Alms Knights and informally the Poor Knights, are retired military officers who receive a pension and accommodation at Windsor Castle, and who provide support for the Order of the Garter and for the services of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. They are commanded by a senior retired officer as Governor of the Military Knights of Windsor.
The Society of the Friends of St George's and Descendants of the Knights of the Garter is a constituent group of the Foundation of the College of St George, Windsor Castle which is a national charity in England. The society includes more than 5,100 members worldwide to "protect, preserve and enhance" the college, its St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and the chivalric knighthood, the Order of the Garter.
Blanc Coursier Herald was an officer of arms in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, associated with the Order of the Bath. The name of the office derives from the white horse in the arms of the Hanoverian monarchs.
St George's Chapel, formally titled The King's Free Chapel of the College of St George, Windsor Castle, at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a Royal Peculiar, and the Chapel of the Order of the Garter. St George's Chapel was founded in the 14th century by King Edward III and extensively enlarged in the late 15th century. It is located in the Lower Ward of the castle.
