Guy Stair Sainty, General Editor

Guy Stair Sainty was born in Sussex and educated at Westminster School, in Rome and at the College of law; he is an art dealer by profession specializing in old master paintings, with galleries in New York and London. He has long been interested in the Orders of Knighthood, their histories and modern role, and has served as a staff officer in the Saint John Ambulance Brigade in Sussex, as well as an officer of the council of the Priory in the United States of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John. He is the author of studies of the existing Orders of Saint John and the Orders of the Royal House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, as well as those of Spain, France and Italy, in a variety of scholarly publications, and is a member of the Royal Academy of Heraldry and Genealogy of Madrid and of the International Commission for Orders of Chivalry (Saint John Orders). He has written extensively on the subject of self-styled Orders and is a corresponding member of the False Orders Committee of the Order of Malta and the Alliance Orders of Saint John, and of the Unrecognised Orders Committee of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John.

Essays in World Orders of Knighthood and Merit: Confraternal Orders; various Single Class Collar Orders; German, Italian, Portuguese, and Ethiopian Imperial Orders; Portuguese Ladies Order, State Merit Orders of the Holy See and SMOM; various Noble and Chivalric Institutions; Nobility and Knighthood essay and Military-Religious Confraternal Orders of Knighthood in Italy essay; and Self-Styled Orders.

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Rafal Heydel-Mankoo, Deputy Editor

Rafal Heydel-Mankoo, BA (Hons), LLB (Ottawa), MA (Toronto) was born in the UK and educated in Canada; he holds degrees in history and law. One of Canada’s principal royal commentators and pundits, he has provided live television commentary for events including the Golden Jubilee of HM The Queen, the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and the marriage of HRH The Prince of Wales. A former director of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada, past branch chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada, and former Officer of the Queen Mother Memorial Fund, Mr Heydel-Mankoo is a Trustee of the Canadian Royal Heritage Trust, a council member of the Royal Stuart Society and a Commissioner for the International Commission for Orders of Chivalry (ICOC). He has written and lectured on various aspects of chivalry, heraldry and nobility and has been decorated by the Crown for helping to increase awareness of the role and function of the monarchy. Mr Heydel-Mankoo is a noted authority on the Polish aristocracy and is the author of the Almanach de Polska – the definitive English-language guide to the titled families of Poland. He now lives in London.

Essays in World Orders of Knighthood and Merit: Order of the White Eagle (Poland); various European and non-European Dynastic, House and Ladies’ Orders; various State Merit Orders; various Noble and Chivalric Institutions; Royal Female Membership in the British Orders of Chivalry essay; Heraldic Privilege in the Venerable Order of Saint John essay.