Bulgaria

H.M. King Simeon II

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Grand Master of 

Order of St Alexander - Established:  25 December 1881 by Knyaz Alexander I,  in honour of the patron saint of Alexander Batenberg. Initially it was planned to have five grades and a Necklace but subsequently four grades and Grand and Lesser Necklace were formed and in 1908 a Grand Cross was added. With time wartime grades with swords in the middle and above the cross were added. The order was awarded to Bulgarian and foreign citizens with the personal benevolence of the Bulgarian monarch, who was the Grand Master.

Order of Bravery - Established: 1 January 1880 by Knyaz Alexander Batenberg. It is the first Bulgarian order and was modeled after the Order of Military Merit of the Grand Duchy of Hesse which existed to 1866. The recipients of the order are called cavaliers. The order was one of the many violations of the Berlin Treaty with which Bulgaria demonstrated full independence although the country was deprived of high state decorations - symbols of national independence.

The head of state and the heir to the throne were cavaliers by right to Military Order of Bravery I grade and Military Order of Bravery IV grade respectively. Due to his great respect to the order Tsar Boris III never put on the Order of Bravery I grade and the Grand cross but only the Order of Bravery III grade, 2nd class received during the First Balkan War (1912-1913); the Order of Bravery III grade, 1st class received during the First World War (1915-1918) and the Order of Bravery IV grade, 1st class which he received by right as an heir in 1894.

The order was first awarded on 17 April 1880 when 33 participants in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) received the order. Several days later on 24 April (6 May NS, the Day of St George) the order was awarded for the first time to a civilian person.