The Order of Sidonia was the German

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 Kingdom of Saxony

Kingdom of Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...

’s 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...

 for women. Created March 14, 1871 by King Johann, the order was granted to female members of the Saxon nobility until the fall of the monarchy in 1918.

Insignia

Members of the Sidonian Order wore a Maltese cross

Maltese cross

The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta...

of gold and enamel, suspended from a purple bow with white and green stripes. Members of the royal family wore a sash instead of the bow. At the apex of the Maltese cross, a medallion featured an image of a helmeted female figure, surrounded with the name “Sidonia”.

Sources

• Tagore, Rajah Sir Sourindro Mohun. The Orders of Knighthood, British and Foreign. Calcutta: The Catholic Orphan Press, 1884.