Order of Charles III

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (December 2009) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Orden de Carlos III]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Orden de Carlos III}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Order of Charles III
Star and sash of the Order
Awarded by the King of Spain
Type	Order of merit, Knighthood
Established	1771; 253 years ago (1771)
Royal house	House of Bourbon
Motto	VIRTUTI ET MERITO ("Virtue and Merit")
Awarded for	Actions in benefit to Spain and the Crown
Status	Currently Constituted
Sovereign	King Felipe VI
Grand Chancellor	Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister
Grades	Knight/Dame of the Collar Knight/Dame Grand Cross Commander by Number Commander Knight's/Dame's Cross
Precedence
Next (higher)	None. Although the Order of the Golden Fleece is recognized by the Spanish State, and awards of it are made by Royal Decrees countersigned by the Prime Minister and published in the Official Bulletin of the State, it is considered a Dynastic Order and not strictly a State Order, being thus set apart from the rest of the Spanish honours system, and the regulations of the Order of Charles III expressly declare it to be the highest civilian award of the State.
Next (lower)	Order of Isabella the Catholic
Sash & ribbon of a Collar grade member of the order Sash & ribbon of an ordinary member of the order

The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (Spanish: Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally Spanish: Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was established by the King of Spain Charles III by means of the Royal Decree of 19 September 1771, with the motto Virtuti et mérito. Its objective is to reward people for their actions in benefit to Spain and the Crown.

In theory, the Order of Charles III is the highest civil honor granted by the Kingdom of Spain (the Order of the Golden Fleece is a dynastic order, not under the control of the State); however, its statutes reserve their membership primarily to political appointees, heads of State and high-ranking government officials. For this reason, the de facto highest civil honor in Spain is the Order of Isabella the Catholic.^[1]