AMARANTE, an order of knighthood instituted in Sweden by Queen Christina in 1653, at the close of an annual feast celebrated in that country called Wirtschaft. This feast was solemnized with entertainments, balls, masquerades, and similar diversions, and continued from evening till the next morning. Christina considering the name too vulgar, changed it into that of the feast of the gods, because each of the party represented some heathen deity. The queen herself assumed the name of Amarante; that is, un-
Amaran-
tacee
Amasis.
fading, or immortal. The young nobility, dressed in the habit of nymphs and shepherds, served the gods at table. At the end of the feast the queen threw off her habit, which was covered with diamonds, leaving it to be pulled in pieces by the maskers; and, in memory of so gallant a feast, founded a military order, called in Swedish Geschilsschaft, into which all that had been present at the feast were admitted, including sixteen lords and as many ladies, besides the queen. Their device was the cipher of Amarante, composed of two A's, the one erect, the other inverted, and interwoven together; the whole enclosed with a laurel crown, with this motto, Dolce nella memoria.