OUR HISTORY

The St. George and St. Stephen Imperial Military Nemagnic Angelic Constantinian Holy Order, also known as Constantinian Nemagnic Order of the Column of St. Stephen, boasts ancient historical origins.
The first Christian Roman Emperor St. Constantine Flavius Julius Valerius, the Great, in the year 312, after dissolving the body of the Praetorian Guard, which had fought in the opposite camp in favor of the pagan Massentius in the battle of Milvian Bridge, establish the Palatine Schools, new body of excellence. From the Palatine Schools are taken fifty candidates (soldiers 'by the white robes'), for whom enrollment was required the Christian faith, for the custody and defense of the imperial labarum as well as soldiers involved in the personal protection of the Emperor: the Imperial Guard.
It represents the 'model' and 'prototype' of the Constantinian Order, which is made up as a genuine Military Chivalric Order, as it is understood today, by Isaac II Angelus Comnenus in 1190. He reorganizes the old Imperial Guard as Military Order of St. George which, restored and reformed by Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1260 and confirmed as the dynastic prerogative of the Roman-Byzantine Crown and its heirs in 1450 by Constantine Palaeologus Dragazete, last Emperor effectively reigning in Constantinople, is part of the hereditary patrimony linked to the pretentions on the Roman-Byzantine Empire.
The Roman-Byzantine Empire undergoes a first serious injury as a result of the Fourth Crusade and the birth of the Latin Kingdom of the East and then it dissolves after the Turkish invasion in 1453. Its dissolution was followed by the formation of new nation-states and their sovereigns, together with the descendants of the Imperial House of Byzantium, were singularly considered the legitimate continuers of the Empire and brought with them the Grand Magistracy of the Constantinian Order, of which were formed several legitimate branches, both in the East and in the West.
In the East, already after the Fourth Crusade, Stephen IX Urosh IV Dusan, King and Emperor of the Serbs and the Greeks - both de facto, having the state of Serbia annexed various Byzantine possessions, both de jure, as a descendant of Stephen II Radoslav, who had married Anna Angel Comnenus (eldest daughter of Theodore Angel Comnenus, despot of Epirus), heiress thus of the Byzantine imperial families, the Doukas, the Comneni and the Angels - in 1346 reorganizes the Order of St. George as Order of the Column of St. Stephen of Serbia.
The last reigning sovereign was Stephen XII John Urosh VII whose son, Stephen Theodore Urosh of Kaponik, in 1460 reaches, exiled, the Land of Otranto. He, King and Titular Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, head of Capone Dynasty (Italianisation of Kaponik) Nemanja Palaeologus, legitimately holds the Grand Magistracy of the Order, which transmits to its descendants. Among them Oronzo, who in 1903 succeed as next of kin, the Serbian King Alexander Obrenović, massacred with his entire family.
At the death of Prince Nicola in 1948, the last member of the House Capone Nemanja Palaeologus, the Grand Magistracy of the Order receives by right the collateral branch of the Lavarello Lascaris Ventimiglia Palaeologus family in the person of Prince Marziano II. He finds himself exercising the Grand Magistracy of the Order as a descendant of the Byzantine Emperors of Nicaea Lascaris, close relative and heraldic heir of the Capone Nemanja Paleologus Princes and descendant of King Alexander Obrenović of Serbia.
To Prince Marziano II succeed in 1992 Princess Philomena Vitellozzi Monti of Ljubljana and in 2004, at her death, Prince Luigi Maria Picco of Montenero and Pola, Basileus of Constantinople, head of the House Lascaris Comnenus Palaeologus Obrenović of Constantinople - Serbia, Despot of Nicaea and Bitinja, Porfirogenet of Nemanja Palaeologus, legitimate Sovereign Grand Master.

HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II, Haggi Marziano Francesco Giuseppe Maria Pio Lavarello Obrenović Angelo Flavio of Ancient Serbia, Prince of Ancient Serbia and Roman-Byzantine Empire.

It is in detail and irrefutably demonstrated the descent, in agnatic line up to HI&RH the Prince NICOLA, known as ‘Haggi Nicola Giuseppe IV Kapone-Urosio Cerneo Balscia Nemanja Duca Angelo Flavio Commeno Palaeologus of Ancient Serbia’, and testamentary transmission by public deed drawn up in Naples on October 31st, 1944 ‘Title of legitimate heir’, in the absence of direct heirs, the agnatic branch, in the person of HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II, known as ‘Haggi Marziano Francesco Giuseppe Maria Pio Lavarello Obrenović Angelo Flavio of Ancient Serbia’, descendant of the Roman Emperors Constantius Chlorus, St. Constantine the Great, and of the Kings of Serbia and Bosnia. The dynastic inheritance, in accordance with Article 1 of the 1859 Law specifically concerning the Family Succession of the Kings of Serbia, passed ‘ope legis’ to the 3rd Princely-Ducal Branch of the Royal House, direct successor of Lavarello of Ancient Serbia-Italy-Neustria. In short this is the documental story of the last Sovereign owner of the Throne of Serbia, Bosnia and Dushanovo Zarstvo descendant of Constantius I Flavius Valerius Chlorus, born in the year 250 of the Christian era, Royal Prince by right of the Eneade Ancestry of the first Kings of Dardania and Lazio, Caesar in 291, Roman Emperor in 305, died in 306 year of Rome 1059, direct ancestor of HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II.
The Royal and Imperial Family Obrenović freed Serbia in 1815 and exerted the Principality from 1817 to 1842, then ruled the Serbian state as Sovereign and with the title of ‘King of Serbia’ from 1882 to 1903. These Imperial and Royal native qualities can not be more doubted, given the numerous existing documents, and to which is inherent, as ancient teaching of the doctrine, the Sovereignty.
In the specification of the attribution of the Sovereignty to HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II Lavarello Obrenović, the Sovereignty has also been recognized by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the State of New York - USA.
The Sovereign, even if he has lost its territorial power, within the dynastic orders that belong to him, always exerts a complete ‘sovereign authority’. However the Royal and Imperial House of Lavarello Obrenović of Serbia and Bosnia, whose last head was HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II, had acknowledgments from various reigning or pretender Kings and international nobility, as: H.M. Hussein ibn Tallal King of Jordan, H.I.H. the Princess Marie Antoine of Habsburg Lorraine of Austria, H.R.H. the Prince Louis Bourban of France, H.R.H. the Princess Maria Cristina Blais of Braganza Infanta of Portugal, H.R.H. the Prince Jacques Henri de Bourbon et Bourbon of Spain, H.M. the Prince Cyrillo Romanov pretender to the Imperial Throne of Russia, H.M. Petros Palaiologos King of Armenia, H.I.H. the Prince Nicolas von Luxemburg-Lignytz, H.I.M. the Prince Georges Soliman of Osman-Medjid pretender to the Imperial Throne of Turkey, etc…
In October 1992, HI&RH the Prince MARZIANO II feeling nearing the epilogue of his earthly life, embittered of the lack of its own legitimate descent, accepting God's will as a gentleman and a perfect Christian, and however wanting to perpetuate the honor and history of his millennial House, ‘adopted heraldically’¹ , leaving all his historical, heraldic and honor heritage, H.H. Grand Duke of Arcadia Luigi Maria Picco, Marquis of Montenero and Pola, Prince of Laudicea and Mistra, son of H.H. Grand Duke of Arcadia the noble Claudio Picco, Venetian Patrician. Shortly after he reached his august ancestors falling asleep in the eternal peace of the Lord.

1 Heraldic adoption or adoption of honor: protected and safeguarded by the Laws of the Italian Republic, of whose warranty are proof the numerous final judgments issued until 2005.