08/19/2026
The presence of women within European chivalry has a long and complex history.
Medieval military and religious orders were overwhelmingly male institutions, yet noblewomen participated in the wider chivalric world as patrons, benefactors and, in certain cases, formally recognized ladies.
The Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, included medieval Ladies of the Garter, although their position differed from that of the Knights Companions and from modern female companionship.
By the early modern period, orders specifically for women had emerged.
Empress Eleonora Gonzaga founded the Order of the Starry Cross in 1668 for Catholic noblewomen, while Peter the Great established the Order of Saint Catherine in 1713, first bestowing its insignia upon Catherine in 1714. It later became Imperial Russia’s highest order for women.
There was no single progression from the medieval Lady to the modern Dame. Each Order developed according to its own statutes and traditions.
Today, in several systems of chivalric honours, Dame is the female counterpart of Knight, continuing a centuries-old — and continually evolving — tradition of women within sovereign, dynastic and chivalric institutions.
