 After the French conquest in 1668 and the annexation of the Franché-Comte to France, with the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, Louis XIV decided to tolerate the confraternity, despite their resistance to the French invaders.The king authorized the knights to wear their medal of St. George suspended this time from a blue moiré ribbon, identical to that of the Order of the Holy Spirit; this was in order to obtain the support of the local nobility, who provided him with officers for his army.Louis XV and Louis XVI continued this policy and presented the confraternity with their own portraits with the legend "Given by the King to the Knights of Saint-George".