Autobiographies

The Chapter of the Royal Orders of Chivalry holds a large collection of the autobiographies submitted by recipients of the Royal Danish Orders of Chivalry since 1808. The entire collection was lost in the fire at Christiansborg Palace in 1884, so no autobiographies predate that year. The original order registers from 1808 onwards have, however, been preserved, and in some cases individual biographical details can be drawn from them.

In 1904, the collection of autobiographies was extended to include recipients of Dannebrogsmændenes Hæderstegn. Since 1981, recipients of medals of merit and reward have also been asked to submit an autobiography. Not all recipients have complied with the request, and foreign recipients are not asked to submit an autobiography.

To allow authors to write freely and in confidence, autobiographies are not accessible until 50 years after submission, unless the author has specified otherwise.

For autobiographies submitted between 1 July 1995 and 1 December 2026, however, the general rule is that they are not accessible until 50 years after the author’s death, unless otherwise specified.

Applications to view an autobiography should be sent to the Historiographer to the Royal Danish Orders of Chivalry:

It is helpful to state in the application the purpose of viewing the autobiography. To locate an autobiography in the archive, the author’s name is required as a minimum. Processing is also made easier if the application includes, as far as possible, the author’s occupation, place of residence, and years of birth and death, and preferably also the date of the decoration.

If you are unsure whether a particular person has been decorated, you can search the Court and State’s Calendar, which was published annually until 2014. It listed all recipients of orders during their lifetime.