A Hereditary Commander is a (Knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

) Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 whose family holds that title by hereditary right.

Hereditary Commanders of the Russian tradition

Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller

Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller

The Russian Tradition of the The Hospitaller Knights emerged when the Mediterranean stronghold of Malta was captured by Napoleon in 1798 when he made his expedition to Egypt...

 was officially launched by Paul I of Russia

Paul I of Russia

Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...

 in January 1797. The original 1797 statute allotted ten revenue-producing estates, the commanderies, to be issued to the most deserving knights of the Order. The award was not hereditary; the recipients (commanders) were obligated to contribute a share of commandery revenue to the Order. In November-December 1798 Paul assumed the title of Grand Master of the Order and expanded its operation in Russia, increasing the number of non-hereditary commanderies to 99. In 1799 Paul decreed the statute for hereditary commanderies . Unlike ordinary commanderies that provided direct financial benefits to their commanders, hereditary commanderies were financed by the applicants themselves. An eligible applicant needed to pledge his own real estate to the order, provided that it was sufficiently large to generate 3,000 roubles annual income. Hereditary commanderies remitted 10% of their revenue to the Order.

Ancestral Commanderies during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

 were:

1. Naryshkin

Naryshkin family

The Naryshkin family was a Moscow boyar family. It became allied to the ruling house in 1671 when the great beauty Natalia Naryshkina married Alexis of Russia, later becoming the mother of Peter the Great...

, 2. Count Sheremetev

Sheremetev

The Sheremetev family was one of the wealthiest and most influential noble families of Russia.The family held many high commanding ranks in the Russian military, governorships and eventually the rank of Count of the Russian Empire...

, 3. Prince Yusupov †, 4. Stroganovs

Stroganovs

The Stroganovs or Strogonovs , also spelled in French manner as Stroganoffs, were a family of highly successful Russian merchants, industrialists, landowners, and statesmen of the 16th – 20th centuries who eventually earned nobility.-Origins:...

 †, 5. Count Samoiloif ‡,
6. Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky

Belosselsky-Belozersky family

The Belosselsky-Belozersky family is an aristocratic Russian family.- Origins :The family of Belosselsky-Belozersky claims the descendance directly from the first Russian Princes, from the "Kiev Rus" period and Rurik , which created its seat in Kiev around the years 870–890...

, 7. Prince Dolgorukov

Dolgorukov

Dolgoroukov is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy. Among its...

, 8. Davydov, 9. Prince Barytinsky, 10. Démidoff

Demidov

The Demidov family, also Demidoff, were an influential Russian merchant, industrialist and later chivalry family, possibly second only to the Tsar himself in wealth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-History:...

, 11. Prince Troubetzkoy, 12. Count Vorontsov

Vorontsov

Vorontsov, also Woronzow, Woroncow is a celebrated Russian family, which attained the dignity of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire in 1744 and Serene Princes of the Russian Empire in 1852....

, 13. Maruzzi †, 14. Beklechev †, 15. Prince Tioufiakine †, 16. Count Olsoufieff, 17. Gerebtzoff, 18. Count Strogonoff †, 19. Boutourline, 20. Prince Potemkin †, 21. Tchirikoff †, 22. Prince Khilkoff ‡, 23. Prince Odoevsky †, 24. Prince Yusupov †.

Key. † Direct Male line from the first Commander extinct. ‡ Direct Male line is extinct, but the family was reinstated via the female line by the Imperium.

There were originally 24 Commanders of Families registered in 23 families (with two Commanderies in one family).
Under the Imperial Ukase

Ukase

A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...

 19.044 of 1799 (July 21 Old Style) it is clear that there can be only one Commander per Commandery. Thus only 24 Hereditary Commanders could ever have existed.
In Article XI, it is also true that more than one Commandery per family could be founded, and this happened (Youssoupoff). However all such Commanderies were created under the regulations given in the Ukase “Ancestral Commanderies of Jus Patronatus” of 1799. Furthermore, pluralities were listed separately.

Changes to the Russian Ancestral Commanderies in 1810 and 1811

The Beneficed Commanderies were weaned of state funds in 1810 (Ukase 24.134. of 1810), their holders being given other posts with comparable compensation, and the affected properties of the Family Commanders were handed back to the families, provided a redemption payment was made (Ukase 24.882. of 1811). The Order's properties were also reclaimed by the state; for example, the Palace of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem in St. Petersburg was given to the Corps des Pages

Page Corps

Page Corps was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service....

 to serve as a military academy.

Even though the Ancestral Commanderies lost the estates which funded the benefice, those entitled to succeed to the Commandery were by courtesy allowed, on confirmation from the Russian Emperor, the title "Hereditary Commander" with permission to wear the Cross of the Order. Those who wore the Order still came under the due regulations, which were administered by the Chancellor to all the Russian Orders.

Qualifications needed by candidates

Russian Hereditary Commanders, must be confirmed as such under the Russian Laws which gave birth to that category of membership; Ukase 19.044 of 1799 specifies inter alia "5 years of seniority in the Order and 2 years of seniority of military service", in other words five years belonging to the Order, and two years military service.

Even where the candidate is qualified, he must demonstrate that he is the “present representative elder of the masculine posterity of its first beneficiary” .

Hereditary Commanders in exile 1928

On June 24, 1928, twelve Russian Hereditary Commanders met in Paris to establish the "Union of Hereditary Commanders and Knights of the Grand Priory of Russia of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem" . They were supported by three other Russian nobles who were aspirants and admitted as Knights, and a Hereditary Commander of the Catholic Grand Priory of Russia .

The signatories of the founding document were :
Count Dmitri Cheremeteff; Prince Serge Belosselsky-Belozersky; Count Hilarion Worontzoff-Dachkoff ; Paul Demidoff

Demidov

The Demidov family, also Demidoff, were an influential Russian merchant, industrialist and later chivalry family, possibly second only to the Tsar himself in wealth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-History:...

; Prince Wladimir Galitzine (Aspirant); Count Wladimir Borch (HC of the RC Grand Priory); Dmitri Boutourline; Prince Serge Dolgorouki; Denis Davydoff; Léon Narichkine; Count Alexandre Mordvinoff, (Aspirant); Prince Nikita Troubetzkoi; Count André Lanskoi (Aspirant); Dmitri Jerebzoff Nicolas Tchirikoff; Count Dmitri Olzoufieff.

Although Prince Nikita Troubetzkoy was counted as a Commander, and was a subsequent member of the Council, he was a distant cousin to the Prince Troubetkoy who qualified; Prince Cyrille Troubetzkoy. Baron Michael de Taube was aware of the mistake, and had met the qualifying Commander in Paris (Taube ibidem page 43).

By 1955, out of a possible 14 Commanders, only 6 were in membership of the Paris Group .

Under the guidance of claimant to the Russian Throne Grand Duke Vladimir, applicants claiming to the Hereditary Commanders were carefully scrutinised, and those qualifying admitted under the signature of Grand Duke Vladimir.

The numbers of qualifying Commanders in membership of the Paris group continued to decline into the 1970s, and lines of several Hereditary Commanders coming to an end continued. For example, in 1974, Nicholas Tchirikoff, the Dean of the Paris Group died without an heir to the Commandery.

Dissolution of the Union in 1975

The original Union ended with the death of its General Secretary General Georges Rticheff in 1975. Following this, the President of the Union, Grand Duke Vladimir (claimant to the throne) authorised a Bailiff of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to intervene in his "name and to help the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and Malta on any occasions which presents itself to act against the false orders, which, usurping the names belonging to the Sovereign Order of Malta, pretending themselves to be of Russian Imperial origin."

Hereditary Commanders of the Italian Tradition

Similar to those of the Russian Tradition of the Order of St. John, the grade of Hereditary Commander is a traditional rank within the Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus

The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is an order of chivalry awarded by the House of Savoy, the heads of which were formerly Kings of Italy...

, as those who donated a sufficient property to found a commandery, were commanders of Giuspatronato. These privilege

Privilege

A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth...

s were suspended in 1851, but restored when the order's constitution was revised in 1985.

Hereditary Commanders of the French Tradition

In feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, castellans (Châtelain

Châtelain

Châtelain was originally merely the French equivalent of the English castellan, i.e. the commander of a castle....

s), who governed castles without resident nobles, acquired considerable powers, and the position was in few cases hereditary fiefdom

Fiefdom

A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...

, known as sirerie. .

Hereditary Commanders of the Spanish Tradition

In Spain during the Middle Ages and the early renaissance, Hereditary Commanders from noble houses were responsible for the managing the defense and leading the military forces of some cities. For example, Don Luis de Soto, was the Hereditary Commander of Cadiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

during the British attack on that city in 1625. http://www.webstercontent.com/articles/72989/1/An-Unsuccessful-Expedition/Page1.html