Orders
In many orders of knighthood, Commandeur is a high rank, usually above Officier (i.e. Officer), but under one or more ranks with a prefix meaning "Great", e.g. Groot- in Dutch, Grand - in French, which may include Grootcommandeur (Grand Commander; equivalent to Knight), the equivalent of Commendador-mayor (using an equivalent suffix) in Spanish.
- In military orders with extensive territorial possessions, individual estates could be called commenda and enthrusted to an individual Knight, as a de facto fief. Apart from cases where such a fief was ex officio linked to a higher office within the order, his style would then be Commandeur; this etymology is best preserved in the Spanish form Commendador, important in the military orders involved in the Reconquista such as the Order of Santiago.
In this sense only, the equivalent German title is Komthur, of importance mainly in the State of the Teutonic Order and other orders' possessions (throughout Europe).
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
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—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)