The House-order of the Golden Lion (German: Hausorden vom Goldenen Löwen") of the German state of Hessen-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) was instituted on the 14th. of augustus 1770 by Landgraf (count) Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel. The Order was dedicated to Saint Elisabeth of Hungary

Elisabeth of Hungary

Elizabeth of Hungary, T.O.S.F., was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, Germany and a greatly-venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. She then became one of the first members of the newly-founded Third Order of St. Francis,...

, an ancestor of the founder and was meant to reward auspicious merit.

Literature:

• Maximilian Gritzner
  Maximilian Gritzner
  Adolf Maximilian Ferdinand Gritzner was a German expert on heraldry and a herald in the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin. His reference book on orders of knighthood was still in print in 2000...
  
  , "Handbuch der Ritter- und Verdienstorden" Leipzig 1893