The Order of Saint Prince Lazarus is a chivalric order

Chivalric order

Chivalric orders are societies and fellowships of knights that have been created by European monarchs in imitation of the military orders of the Crusades...

 created by King

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

 Alexander I of Serbia to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo

Battle of Kosovo

The Battle of Kosovo took place on St. Vitus' Day, June 15, 1389, between the army led by Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I...

 that took place on the 28 June 1389. It must not be confused with the Order of Saint Lazarus

Order of Saint Lazarus

This article concerns the order of knighthood named after Saint Lazarus. For other uses of the name Lazarus, see Lazarus .The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is an order of chivalry which originated in a leper hospital founded by the Knights Hospitaller in 1098 by the...

. The order is named after Prince Lazarus who commanded the Serbian armies in the battle. The Order is worn only by the King of Serbia and by his Crown Prince

Crown Prince

A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....

 (when of majority).

History

The order of Saint Prince Lazarus was instituted by the Decision of the Parliament, signed by the King Aleksandar I, to commemorate the fifth centenary of the Battle of Kosovo

Battle of Kosovo

The Battle of Kosovo took place on St. Vitus' Day, June 15, 1389, between the army led by Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović, and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I...

 (28 June 1389), that ended in the collapse of the medieval Serbian state. Saint Prince Lazarus, of the House of Hrebeljanović, commanded the Serbian armies that were defeated by the Ottoman Sultan Murat I. The Sultan was assassinated by Serbian knight Milos Obilic

Miloš Obilic

Miloš Obilić was a medieval Serbian knight in the service of Prince Lazar, during the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. He is not mentioned in contemporary sources, but he features prominently in later accounts of the Serbian defeat at the Battle of Kosovo as the legendary assassin of the Ottoman...

, while captured the Serbian Prince was beheaded by the victorious Turks. The cult of the Saint Prince was very strong among Serbs, and the event was reckoned to be the paramount one in the entire history of Serbs. The commemoration of the 500th Anniversary took form of the Anontment of the King, and the Collar of Saint Prince Lazarus ordered to be made by Nicolaus und Dunker of Hannau (Germany). The Order is worn only by the King of Serbia and by his Crown Prince (when of majority). Since inception, the Order has been worn only by the following:

Rewarding

Badge of the Order were allowed to wear only the ruler of Serbia and the heir to the throne:

• King Alexander I Obrenović
• King Peter I
• Prince George
  George, Crown Prince of Serbia
  George, Crown Prince of Serbia was the older brother of Alexander I of Yugoslavia and younger brother of Helen of Serbia, son of Peter I, King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Princess Ljubica of Montenegro and grandson of King Nicholas I of Montenegro.-Early life:George was born in...
  
   (as heir to the throne 1903-1908)
• Prince Regent (later a King) Aleksender I Karađorđević
  Alexander I of Yugoslavia
  Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
  
  
• King Peter II
  Peter II of Yugoslavia
  Peter II, also known as Peter II Karađorđević , was the third and last King of Yugoslavia...
  
  
• Crown Prince Alexander II
  Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
  Alexander II Karadjordjevic, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia , is the former crown prince of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the head of the House of Karadjordjevic. Alexander is the only child of former King Peter II of Yugoslavia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark...
  
  
• 5 February 1998 the heir to the Serbian throne, in exile, Prince Peter III
  Peter, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia
  -References:...
  
   is officially included in the list of holders of the Order of St. Prince Lazar.

Sign and a chain of the Order

Sign and a chain of the Order were made of gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and richly decorated with rubies, sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...

s, emerald

Emerald

Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

s, diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

s and pearl

Pearl

A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...

s. Order for production was the German firm Nicolaus und Dunker. Sketches awards carried a professor of archeology Michael Valtrovich.

See also

• The Order of the Karađorđe's Star with Swords
• The Order of the White Eagle (Yugoslavia)
  Order of the White Eagle (Yugoslavia)
  Order of the White Eagle was a Royal Order in the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . King Milan I of Serbia instituted the Order of the White Eagle on 23 January 1883, concurrently with the Order of St. Sava...
  
  
• The Order of the Yugoslav Crown
  Order of The Yugoslav Crown
  King Alexander I of Yugoslavia instituted the Order of The Yugoslav Crown on 5 April 1930, to commemorate his changing of the name of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.-History:...
  
  
• The Order of St. Sava
  Order of St. Sava
  The Order of St. Sava was a decoration instituted by the order King Milan I of Serbia in 1883. The Order of Saint Sava originally was established to recognize civilians for meritorious achievements in the arts and sciences. In 1914 a change was made permitting military personnel to receive the...