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- The Royal Victorian Order is an order of knighthood awarded by the sovereign of the United Kingdom and several Commonwealth realms. It is granted personally by the monarch and recognises personal service to the monarchy, the Royal Household, royal family members, and the organisation of important royal events. The order was officially created and instituted on 23 April 1896 by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm by Queen Victoria. It was instituted with five grades, the highest of which was Knight Grand Cross (GCVO), which conferred the status of knighthood on holders (apart from foreigners, who typically received honorary awards not entitling them to the style of a knight). No limit was placed on the number of appointments which could be made. King Edward VII appointed 97 Knights Grand Cross, plus an additional 239 honorary Knights Grand Cross, between his accession to the throne on 22 January 1901 and his death on 6 May 1910. Of those 97, 6 were members of his own family, 3 were Indian princes, 1 was an archbishop, 31 were already peers and 56 were knights (including 8 baronets). Of the total substantive appointments, 30 were to serving commissioned officers, including General Sir John French and Admiral of the Fleet John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher. Amongst the civilian appointments was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who had been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times: 1885–86, 1886–92 and 1895–1902. The foreign appointments comprised 55 Germans, 26 Austro-Hungarians, 22 Spaniards, 18 Danes, 18 Swedes (including 6 from Sweden and Norway), 16 Frenchmen, 15 Portuguese, 14 Italians, 13 Russians, 12 Greeks, 12 Japanese, 5 Norwegians, 3 Belgians and Bulgarians, 2 Ottoman Turks, and 1 Chinese, Egyptian, Persian and Thai, plus 2 royals of mixed nationality. Royalty feature heavily; the King of Greece was among them, as were the future kings of Norway, Denmark, Greece and Thailand. Also among the honorary appointments are four Prime Ministers: Georgios Theotokis (Greece), Antonio Maura y Montaner (Spain), Arvid Lindman (Sweden) and Pyotr Stolypin (Russia); they feature alongside politicians, military officers and diplomats from numerous European powers as well as China, Egypt, Japan, the Ottoman Empire and Persia. (en)
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- The Royal Victorian Order is an order of knighthood awarded by the sovereign of the United Kingdom and several Commonwealth realms. It is granted personally by the monarch and recognises personal service to the monarchy, the Royal Household, royal family members, and the organisation of important royal events. The order was officially created and instituted on 23 April 1896 by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm by Queen Victoria. It was instituted with five grades, the highest of which was Knight Grand Cross (GCVO), which conferred the status of knighthood on holders (apart from foreigners, who typically received honorary awards not entitling them to the style of a knight). (en)
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