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Order of Saint Stephen | |
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Awarded by The Head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine | |
Type | Dynastic order |
Established | 1764 |
Royal house | House of Habsburg-Lorraine |
Religious affiliation | Catholic |
Sovereign | Archduke Karl |
Grand Master | Archduke Georg |
Classes | Grand Cross Commander Knight |
Precedence | |
Next (higher) | Military Order of Maria Theresa |
Next (lower) | Order of Leopold (Austria) |
Ribbon of the order |
The Order of Saint Stephen (Hungarian: Szent István rend) is an order of chivalry founded in 1764 by Maria Theresa. In 1938, Miklós Horthy took the rights and activities of Grand Master as Regent of Hungary. The name of the Order changed to the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen (German: Königlich Ungarischer Sankt-Stephans-Orden, Latin: Ordo Equitum Sancti Stephani Regis (Hungariae) Apostolici). The Order was terminated at the time of the proclamation of the Second Hungarian Republic in 1946. It was recreated in 2011 as the Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, and to this day remains the highest order in Hungary.[1][2][3]