The British Museum - BBC - The History of the World and the Order of St. Joachim

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld ... HSzF7SCVmQ

The Order of Saint Joachim

Admiral Nelson was wearing the breast cross of the Order of St Joachim when he was shot during the Battle of Trafalgar.Originally confined to the rulers of the German states making up the Holy Roman Empire the Order was unique in that it admitted both Protestant and Catholic nobles and leaders at a time when religion violently divided Europe. Elected a member in 1803, Jerseyman, Philippe d’Auvergne participated in many important events, the search for the North-East Passage, the War of American Independence, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. For eighteen years from his base in Jersey, he ran La Correspondence, the section of the British secret service that operated in the western area of France. His extensive network of 'confidential people' kept Whitehall informed of successive French plans for the invasion of England and encouraged the bloody Royalist risings in Brittany and Normandy by supplying the insurgents there with money and weapons.


Insignia of the the Order of Saint Joachim awarded to Philippe d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon in 1803