Spain. A Hospitaller Knights of St. John the Baptist, Breast Star by Castells, c.1890

Type II. In bronze gilt Maltese cross with white enamels, maker marked ""CASTELLS"" on the reverse, measuring 56.5 mm (w) x 58 mm (h), vertical pinback flanked by dual prongs, intact enamels, extremely fine.

Footnote: In 1802, a separate Order had been created from the Spanish Langues, with the secularization by King Charles IV of Spain. The Order's property was confiscated in the Revolution in 1820, and restored under Royal control with the aid of the French Army in 1823 and remained so until its confiscation in 1841. In 1848, the Spanish Government sold the property of the Order by Auction, and the Order, a vestage of what it had been, became a Royal Merit Order awarded for services to the State. The Spanish Red Cross, part of the International Red Cross founded at the Geneva Convention in 1864, had replaced the Hospitallers as an active agency in humanitarian works. In 1875, a member of the Executive Council of the Red Cross, Don Eduardo Palou y Flores, a Spanish Senator and a Knights of the SMOM gained the support of a number of other Spanish Knights and revived an active Spanish Hospitaller Order, independent from the Papal Order. The Order was controlled by a Supreme Council and led by Flores. Chapters were created in Madrid, Cádiz, Seville and Barcelona. The first hospital of the Order was the Hospital of Our Lady of Atocha in Madrid. A limited legitimacy was given to the Order in 1876 when King Don Alfonso XII approved of the statutes and rules of the Order. These were confirmed in 1881. Pope Leo XIII granted the Order spiritual benefices in a Brief signed on April 27, 1880. Conscious that they were continuing the Hospitaller tradition, the badge of the Order was designed as a red-enameled medallion displaying a white Maltese Cross, with a gold fleur-de-lys in each intersection of the four arms, and ensigned with a Crown. As a result of protests from the Government, to distinguish their badge from that of the Royal Order, a small capital ""H"" was placed in the centre of the Cross. Perhaps not unconnected with the independent initiative, was the fact that negotiations were undertaken between the SMOM and the Spanish Government with the result that on September 4, 1885, the Government once again recognized the SMOM and the Grand Master Giovanni Battista di Santa Croce. The King of Spain recognized the exclusive rights of the Grand Majesty to receive Knights into the ancient Langues of Castile and Aragón. Reciprocating, the SMOM agreed to recognize those who had received the Royal Merit decoration as Knights of Honour and Devotion, with dispensation over proofs of nobility. The result of the new found recognition of the Papal Order in Spain was that the independent Order was devalued in status. Senator Flores sought to reconcile his group with the SMOM, but in vain. Lacking the prestige of an Order fully validated by the Spanish Crown and the SMOM, the independent Order became reduced to one Chapter in Cádiz. In 1952, the Chapter in Cádiz revised the statutes which were approved by the Spanish Ministries of Interior and Health. The group reformed as ""The Knights Hospitaller of St. John the Baptist of Cádiz.

This offering is a part of the "Dr. Albert Goodwin Collection", a preeminent assemblage of world Orders, Medals, and Decorations composed solely by Dr.Goodwin between 1946-1967. Dr. Goodwin had a successful career as an educator and prominent physician in New York as well as actively serving in both World Wars with the United States Medical Corps. He acted as both President and Vice-President of the Orders and Medals Society of America (OMSA) and is responsible for organizing their first convention in 1960. He maintained further membership with the American Society of Military Collectors, the International Orders Research Society, and the American Numismatic Society. His knowledge and passion for history and awards is evident in this meticulously compiled collection that is now available in its entirety for the first time exclusively on eMedals.com.