HISTCONT

Historical Continuity and Validity
of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem

(Addressed to the Members of the Supreme Council of the

Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Shickshinny 2,

Pa., U.S.A., in reply to numerous questions propounded

over the years).

Having consulted all of the available facts regarding the legal and historical continuity and validity of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem both before and after the capitulation and surrender of the 69th Grand-Master von Hompesch, and having discussed same with officers of the Athenian Order. I beg to postulate as follows:

However, having neglected to answer this invitation; by their absence, silence and default, they surrendered all further or future claims as active and official Knights of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, which was then fully protected and guaranteed perpetuation by the ratified Treaty of 1797.

All such groups were variously restricted in form and action, forming no part of the original Order and were never officially recognized in the Courts of Europe. They were never sovereign, or free and independent groups, since they were always subjected to the whims and fancies of each succeeding prince or sovereign; supported under one regime only to be suppressed in the next. Thus we find long silent gaps in the continuity of these provincial groups in France, Germany, England, etc. Although each group aspired for international recognition, none ever achieved it.

Precedents for the foregoing points have already been demonstrated in World War 2, when King Leopold of the Belgiums surrendered to Hitler, his realm, with its subjects and his Armed Forces therein, but he could not and did not include in that surrender the Armed Forces of his late Majesty King George VI., then allied with and operating with the Belgium Armed Forces. He could not surrender the subjects of another sovereign.

This argument is based upon the actions and career of my great-great-grandfather. Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson K.B. Duke of Bronte, serving it Italy as Commander-in Chief of the Neapolitan Forces by Land and Sea, as well as H. B. Majesty 's Fleet in the Mediterranean. AFTER the surrender to the French of Baron Karl Mack von Lieberish, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Sicilian Army outside of Rome. Lord Nelson was authorized by King Ferdinand to continue the war against the French Republican Forces Despite the fact that his own (Neapolitan) Army had been defeated.

Thus sovereignty was maintained, even by use of a British Flag Officer under Royal Commission of King Ferdinand de Bourbon.

Further my great-great grandmother, Emma, Lady Hamilton, who was, in 1799, commissioned by Queen Maria Carolina, wife of King Ferdinand, to act as the Queen's Deputy, was negotiating in the Bay of Naples, recruitment of loyal forces of Patrioti in Naples, commanded by the Resistance Leader, Egidio Pallio, who went on board H. B. M. S. "Feudroyant,", Nelsons flagship, to offer Lady Emma, (as the Queen's Deputy), 90,000 Lazzaroni Irregulars, whom Lord Nelson duly armed from his own armoury.

Obviously, therefore, sovereignty cannot be deemed to have "expired" by the surrender of part of any Crown or Sovereign Force or Order, and, according to the foregoing facts, did not expire, nor could such sovereignty be claimed, appropriated by, or included in any other group.

For more than thirty years after the surrender of Malta, the only Order of Malta ever accepted or recognized at the Courts of Europe and by the famous British authority, "The Debrett Peerage,'' (acting as a guide for the Court of St. James), was the Russian Grand Priory, always identified officially as the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, founded and protected internationally by the ratified Treaty of 1797, a treaty always respected and firmly supported by all of the Imperial Families of Russia down to the last Czar.
When Grand Duke Alexander accepted office as the 71st Grand-Master of the Order in New York, in 1913, he was acting as the official representative of the Imperial Romanoff Family*, and, as the custodian of the Treaty of 1797, bringing with him the full obligations of this Treaty which were then incorporated into, accepted by, and to be activated by, the American Order † for all time.
I have the honor to be,
Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully in the Order,

Grand Matre, the Athenian Order,
May 3rd, 1964
* All descendants of hereditary knights, as well as all descendants of the Russian Imperial Families, collectively, represented the full force and effect of the Treaty of 1797.

†Refers to the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Shickshinny, Pa., U.S.A., long classified as a sovereign state under international law, and decisions of the Permanent Court of International Justice. This religious and military Order is not to be confused or identified with any other imitation group operating illegally anywhere in the world, under the same or a similar name or title.

The above is from: Pichel, Colonel Thourot; History of the Hereditary Government of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem +Knights of Malta+, Second Edition, 1970 Maltese Cross Foundation; pp. 163-5.

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