Orders of Knighthood are the most exclusive and prestigious institutions in the world. Originally the preserve of royalty and aristocracy, they now include amongst their membership tycoons such as Rupert Murdoch, entertainers (Sir Mick Jagger, for example) and world leaders (Nelson Mandela).

Burke's Peerage and Gentry have now produced a major new study of the extant orders of knighthood and merit of every state, the result of the collaboration of many of the world's leading specialists.

It is split into three sections:
 

		The first section gives detailed histories of the surviving confraternal orders, beginning with the famous Order of Malta.
		The second relates the histories of all the great European single class Collar Orders, by date of foundation, beginning with the Order of the Garter and including the Orders from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Scotland, Spain and Sweden.
		The third includes histories of the most prestigious Orders of Chivalry and the remaining sections include one devoted to royal dynastic Orders, another to ladies' Orders and the largest section: State Merit Orders.