These days Britain's system consists of six main orders of chivalry, each with its own ranks (as many as seven) and two orders of merit. Until the early 19th century British chivalric orders were dispensed only to members of the aristocracy (hereditary dukes, earls, marquises, and barons) and distinguished military figures. Norman kings bestowed knighthoods, orders of chivalry, and hereditary titles as part of England's feudal government, replacing the Anglo-Saxon tradition of rewarding faithful service and gallantry in battle with grants of land, money, or weapons. Only an ardent snob could relish the distinction, but it is tempting to imagine a spoof episode of Downton Abbey, set in the present, in which Dame Maggie Smith recoils in horror on observing the sylphlike Jolie, DCMG, usurping her prime place at a formal dinner party by being seated, according to protocol, to the right of the host.īritain's honors system, founded on more rugged battlefields, has been around since the Middle Ages. Venerable thespians such as Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Helen Mirren are dames of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire-technically two rungs lower than Jolie on the gilded ladder. Remarkably, in Britain's pecking order Jolie's damehood out-ranks that of any other actress, living or deceased. As Harry Mount of the Telegraph noted, "If you try to base honors on some formally organized hierarchy of merit, the whole stitched-together fabric-of medieval chivalry mixed with faux-democratic, Blairite tinkering-falls apart, through its own internal contradictions." The Government shouldn't be trying to cover itself with Hollywood sparkle." Whatever your sentiment on the subject, it's nearly impossible to decipher the inherent inconsistencies of the system. (As a non- Brit, Jolie cannot be addressed as "Dame Angelina." She is, however, entitled to use the order's post-nominal acronym: Angelina Jolie DCMG.) Calling it an "absurdity," the Daily Mail noted testily, "If she has done some good, that should be reward enough for her.
The controversial decision to honor Jolie drew some derision from the British press. This somewhat surreal encounter-a film publicist's dream come true-is the stuff People magazine covers are made of, but press cameras were not permitted to chronicle the family's meet-and-greet with the monarch. Jolie arrived at the palace with her husband Brad Pitt and the couple's six kids, who met privately with the queen. Michael holding a flaming sword and trampling Satan. foreign policy and the campaign to end war zone sexual violence." Fittingly for such valor, the order's blue and pink ribbon comes with a silvery medal depicting St. In a private midday audience with the sovereign, the star of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was presented with the regalia of Dame Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St.
Last year the astonishing sight of Hollywood's own Angelina Jolie curtseying to Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace signaled to the world that the 39-year-old actress had been elevated to the status of dame. Making up for lost time, perhaps, a smattering of distinguished Americans have recently been welcomed into the royal fold. My father had been knighted, and it would have made him so happy that I was knighted too." It's not a kingdom! But I'm very grateful. "I think it's rather absurd to go around with a title here. "I never mention my knighthood in America," says John Richardson, the New York–based art historian and Picasso biographer, of his Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), bestowed by the queen in 2012. "They don't need an honors system when they can make another billion on the stock market." That may be so, but the confusion is hardly surprising when you consider that the genteel flow of British honors to the New World was so rudely preempted by the War of Independence. for his starring role as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in Homeland, received an OBE, he observed that people in the United States "don't quite understand our honors." Another recent honoree remarked that Americans are "faintly envious." "They believe in money instead," he sniffed. When Damian Lewis, the British actor famous in the U.S. Britain's honors system, with its myriad ranks, snobbish distinctions, and opaque decision-making, may seem absurdly anachronistic and bewildering to outsiders, but it is still regarded in the U.K.