personal marriage gift. In 1878 the King named several diplomatic dignitaries Grand Cordon in honour of his silver wedding celebration, among them Vannutelli. In 1900 the occasion of the wedding of Prince Albert was used to send 15 Grand Cordons to the Bavarian Court. Among the recipients were Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria and his two sons, Princes Ludwig (the future Ludwig III of Bavaria) and Arnulf, Duke Louis of Bavaria and the father of the bride Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria. The brother of the new Princess, Duke Ludwig Wilhelm was still a minor at the time of the wedding, and Minister de Favereau opposed this wedding gift for an adolescent. However, the young prince, aged 14, received the gift by royal decree. Others People who fought in the Belgian revolution became members in great numbers. In 1838 the King lost his right to create members, this was from then on the responsibility of the foreign office. In 1836 Meyerbeer was made knight of the Order, by royal Command. At the end of his reign the major political elite were members of the order. King Leopold II bestowed the order upon notable Belgian artists, generals and clergy. His successors continued to bestow the Order; among the thousands of recipients are some famous people like Porfirio Díaz, Pope Leo XIII, Mohamed Ennaceur, Pierre-Jean De Smet, Eugène Scribe, Alfred Belpaire, Victor Horta, Joseph Geefs, Gustave Van de Woestijne, Raymond Poincaré, Constant Permeke, Henry Morton Stanley, Lou Tseng-Tsiang, Amschel Mayer Rothschild, Emile Claus, Fernand Khnopff, Paul Saintenoy, Joseph Jongen, Eugène Ysaÿe, Alfred Bastien, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Thomas Vinçotte, Mgr. Rafael Merry del Val, John Browning, James Blyth, 1st Baron Blyth, Brand Whitlock, Charles Lindbergh, George S. Patton, Bernard Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower, Wesley Clark, Charles de Gaulle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Count Kiyoura Keigo, Count Jacques Rogge, Prince Fulco Ruffo di Calabria and Prince Emmanuel de Merode. At the end of World War I, the order became internationally recognised for its famous members. In 1919 King Albert granted all Lieutenant-Generals of the Belgian Army the Grand Cordon in Brussels. The King bestowed the Major Generals with the Grand Cordon, amongst the recipients some important generals like Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude, knight Antonin de Selliers de Moranville and Baron Édouard Michel du Faing d'Aigremont. Foreign recipients include admiral Hugh Rodman and Vice Admiral William Sowden Sims One of the rare Ladies in