Dr Peter Bander van Duren, who died in April 2004, began work on Orders of Knighthood and of Merit after he finished The Cross on the Sword and as soon as he realised that, as a result of the 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici’s attempts at reducing the specific functions of the Apostolic See, further revision by him of Archbishop H. E. Cardinale’s Orders of Knighthood, Awards and the Holy See would be impossible: a completely new work was essential.

After giving up his academic career in 1970, Peter Bander van Duren wrote and edited ten books, and became one of the foremost authorities on phaleristics, particularly on the Catholic-founded Orders of Knighthood and of Merit, as well as being a leading expert on ecclesiastical heraldry. As well as collaborating with Archbishop Cardinale, he also worked with Bishop Mario Oliveri on The Representatives (1980), with Archbishop Bruno Heim on his Liber Amicorum (1980) and with Cardinal Jacques Martin on Heraldry in the Vatican (1987).

In 1988, he was appointed Professor Catedràtico Convidado at the Universidade Moderna, Portugal. Between 1996 and 1999 he was Director General of the Central Register for Orders of Knighthood and of Merit of the Instituto Histórico Dom Luiz I.

Peter Bander-van Duren was a Fidalgo of the Royal House of Portugal and was the recipient of academic, religious and chivalric honours.

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