Orders of Knighthood and Orders of Merit

The Portuguese honorific orders have their earliest origins in the Middle Ages, in the Christian monastic-military orders, which were extra-territorial militias headed by a master; they gradually lost autonomy and independence to the crowns, as it happened in Portugal. Likewise, the orders of knighthood, which helped to consolidate alliances in Europe, and the later orders of merit, are at the origin of contemporary honorific orders. The oldest orders gradually lost their initial mission and acquired an honorific character from the end of the Ancien Regime onwards, eventually becoming merely orders of merit. Since then, they have all gained prominence with the development of international diplomatic relations and have been consolidated as an indispensable tool for recognising merit and services of national and foreign citizens.