Self-styled or Pseudo-chivalric Orders

A self-styled order or pseudo-chivalric order is an organization which claims to be a chivalric order, but is not recognized as legitimate by countries or international bodies. Most self-styled orders arose in or after the mid-18th century, and many have been created recently. Most are short-lived and endure no more than a few decades.

Self-styled orders may share certain other characteristics:

- They long ago were suppressed by the Holy See, protector of mediaeval Western military religious orders in the Holy Land or on the Iberian Peninsula;

- No sovereign Western state recognizes them as legitimate orders of knighthood;

- They claim to be under the high protection of or to be headed by episcopi vagantes or obscure princes;

- They are linked closely to bearers of false titles of nobility.

Examples of such "orders" include:

- Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem
- International Order of Saint Stanislaus
- Knights Hospitaller mimic orders
- Knight of the Golden Spur
- Niadh Nask
- Noble Order of Saint George of Rougemont
- Order of Saint Blaise
- Order of the Crown of Thorns
- Order of the Lion and the Black Cross
- Ordo Sancti Stanislai
- Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Oecumenical Knights of Malta
- Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem