wearing the Golden Fleece, by
Sofonisba Anguissola (1565) With the absorption of the Burgundian lands into the
Spanish Habsburg empire, the sovereignty of the order passed to the Habsburg kings of
Spain, where it remained until the death of the last of the Spanish Habsburgs,
Charles II, in 1700. He was succeeded as king by
Philip V, a
Bourbon. The dispute between Philip and the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne, the
Archduke Charles, led to the
War of the Spanish Succession, and also resulted in the division of the order into Spanish and
Austrian branches. In either case the sovereign, as
Duke of Burgundy, writes the letter of appointment in French. The controversial conferral of the Fleece on
Napoleon and his brother
Joseph, while Spain was occupied by French troops, angered the exiled king of
France,
Louis XVIII, and caused him to return his collar in protest. These, and other awards by Joseph, were revoked by King
Ferdinand VII on the restoration of Bourbon rule in 1813.
Napoleon created by order of 15 August 1809 the Order of the Three Golden Fleeces, in view of his sovereignty over Austria, Spain and Burgundy. This was opposed by
Joseph I of Spain and appointments to the new order were never made. In 1812, the acting government of Spain conferred the Fleece upon the
Duke of Wellington, an act confirmed by Ferdinand on his resumption of power, with the approval of
Pope Pius VII. Wellington therefore became the first
Protestant to be honoured with the Golden Fleece. It has subsequently also been conferred upon non-Christians, such as
Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand. There was another crisis in 1833 when
Isabella II became Queen of Spain in defiance of
Salic Law that did not allow women to become heads of state. Her right to confer the Fleece was challenged by Spanish
Carlists. Sovereignty remained with the head of the Spanish House of Bourbon during the republican (1931–1939) and Francoist (1939–1975) periods, and is held today by the present king of Spain,
Felipe VI. There is confusion towards the conferral of the Fleece on
Francisco Franco in 1972. The order was illegally offered by
Infante Jaime to him on the occasion of
his son's wedding to the dictator's granddaughter,
Carmen. Franco kindly refused the order on the basis of legitimacy, stating that the Golden Fleece could only be granted by the reigning king of Spain. Moreover, the right of conferral was in any case a prerogative of Jaime's younger brother,
Infante Juan, as designated heir to the throne of Spain by his father
Alfonso XIII. Knights of the order are entitled to be addressed with the style
His/Her Excellency in front of their name. wearing the Spanish Fleece in 1838
Grand masters of the order •
Charles I (1516–1556) •
Philip II (1556–1598) •
Philip III (1598–1621) •
Philip IV (1621–1665) •
Charles II (1665–1700) •
Philip V (1700–1724) •
Louis I (1724–1724) •
Philip V (1724–1746) •
Ferdinand VI (1746–1759) •
Charles III (1759–1788) •
Charles IV (1788–1808) •
Ferdinand VII (1808–1833) •
Isabella II (1833–1870) •
Amadeo I (1870–1873) •
Alfonso XII (1874–1885) •
Alfonso XIII (1886–1941) •
Juan, Count of Barcelona (1941–1977) •
Juan Carlos I (1977–2014) •
Felipe VI (2014–present) wearing the Spanish Fleece in 1773
Living members Below is a list of the living knights and dames, in chronological order and, in the first sets of brackets, the years when they were inducted into the order: •
Juan Carlos I of Spain (1941), as crown prince; king (1975–2014) •
Felipe VI of Spain (1981), as crown prince; king (2014–present) •
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (1983), as king (1983–present) •
Akihito of Japan (1985), as crown prince; emperor (1989–2019) •
Beatrix of the Netherlands (1985), as queen (1980–2013) •
Margrethe II of Denmark (1985), as queen (1972–2024) •
Albert II of Belgium (1994), as king (1993–2013) •
Harald V of Norway (1995), as king (1991–present) •
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha of Bulgaria (2004), as prime minister (2001–2005); tsar (1943–1946) •
Henri of Luxembourg (2007), as grand duke (2000–2025) •
Javier Solana of Spain (2010) •
Víctor García de la Concha of Spain (2010) •
Nicolas Sarkozy of France (2011), as co-prince of Andorra (2007–2012) •
Enrique V. Iglesias of Spain and Uruguay (2014) •
Leonor of Spain (2015, presented 2018), as crown princess (2014–present) •
Sofía of Spain (2024, presented 2025), as queen mother; queen consort (1975–2014) •
Felipe González (2025), prime minister of Spain (1982–1996) •
Miguel Herrero y Rodríguez de Miñón (2025), a
father of the Spanish constitution •
Miquel Roca (2025), a father of the Spanish constitution
Armorial of the Spanish Golden Fleece ==Austrian (Habsburg) order==