Foundation Sources agree that the Order of Saint Hubert honors a military victory of the Duke of Jülich, on Saint Hubert's day, 3 November 1444. Sources differ on the specific date of establishment of the Order, whether it celebrated the victory at the
Battle of Linnich between Gebhard V of
Jülich and
Arnold of Egmont (or Egmond), or commemorated the battle at a future date. Consequently, the date of the founding depends on the source. Still other sources date the founding of the Order as late as 1473 or 1475. Twentieth century investigation has helped to clear up some of the confusion. The original Latin statutes of the foundation use
Good Friday, in this case 26 March 1445. Furthermore, there is clear written evidence that the Order existed prior to March 1445: The original German statutes were dated immediately after the battle. .
Order under the House of Jülich When Reinhold IV, Duke of Gelder, died in 1423, his nephew Arnold inherited the dukedom. Arnold's cousin, Adolf of Berg, inherited territories near
Liège. Arnold believed that Adolf had inherited the better of the two properties, and coveted it for himself. He tried to take it by force and failed; a compromise was reached by which the two agreed to a truce. Adolf of Berg died in 1437 and his cousin, Gerhard IV, the Duke of Jülich and Count of Ravensburg (Westphalia), inherited both the Liège properties and the Duchy of Berg. Arnold reasserted his old claim, maintaining that the truce to which he and Adolf agreed was no longer valid, and prepared to take the duchies by force. Confident in his right to the inheritance, Gerhard met Arnold in battle, at the village of Linnich, in the county of Ravensburg (Westphalia). He and his knights defeated Arnold and his knights on Saint Hubert's day in 1444. In celebration, Gerhard declared the founding of the Order, to reward his loyal and victorious knights. The Order remained in collateral branches of the family of the Dukes of Jülich and Berg until 1521, when the male line holding the two duchies and the
county of Ravensberg became extinct. A daughter,
Maria von Geldern, remained to inherit the duchies and the county, but, under the
Salic law practiced in the northwestern German states, women could only hold property through a husband or guardian. Consequently, the territories passed to her husband—who was also her distant relative—
John III, Duke of Cleves and Mark. The couple had three daughters, one of whom,
Ann of Cleves, married
Henry VIII of England in 1540, and one son,
Wilhelm, who subsequently inherited the duchies and the administration of the Order. The duchies included most of the present-day North Rhine-Westphalia that lay outside the
ecclesiastical territories of the
Electorate of Cologne and
Münster. Wilhelm was known as Wilhelm the Rich.
Order under the House of Wittelsbach-Palatine In March 1609,
Duke John William of Jülich-Cleves-Berg died childless. Both
Duke Wolfgang William of Palatinate-Neuberg and
Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg claimed the territories. In the subsequent succession chaos, the Order fell into disuse. By the late 17th century, the Duchy of Jülich passed into the jurisdiction of the
Prince-Elector Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Neuberg, who descended from a cadet branch of the
Palatine line of the
House of Wittelsbach. In May 1708, he restored the Order of Saint Hubert and assumed the position of
grand master for himself. To reward loyalty and service, he conferred the cross of the Order on several of his courtiers. He also gave the recipients generous pensions on the condition that a tenth be set aside for the poor, and a significant sum be distributed on the day of their reception into the order. In 1777, the death of
Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria without a legitimate male heir ended the main line of Wittelsbach; after the
War of the Bavarian Succession, a brief and relatively bloodless contest,
Charles Theodore inherited his cousin's dignities. The Order moved with the new Elector to Bavaria, where it eventually was confirmed again on 30 March 1800 by
Maximilian IV, Elector of Bavaria. In the
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars, the Order functioned primarily as a
military order, similar to the
Military Order of Maria Theresa or the
Order of Leopold. The present head of the House of Wittelsbach, Franz Bonaventura Adalbert Maria, Duke of Bavaria, is the current Grand Master of the order. ==Structure and requirements==