Order of the Union

The Union Medal ( nl.: Koninglijke Orde van de Unie ) was an order of merit for military and civilians and was founded in 1806 by Louis Napoleon. He was an Order of the newly created Kingdom of Holland and had short the name Royal Order of the Netherlands. After 1811, the Order to a French award was. Napoleon dissolved the Order after the annexation of Holland. Some earned were transferred to the Legion of Honour, for other 1811 Napoleon created the French Order of reunification ( impérial Ordre de la Reunion), where a certain number of ceremonies was reserved for Dutchman who is barely come to the ceremony.

History

The newly appointed King of Holland Lodewijk I founded on the day of his arrival in The Hague, June 6, 1806 two medals with the "Grand Order of Holland" ( Grote Orde van Holland ), which should be einklassig, and a Merit, Koninglijke Orde van merits, which should have only two classes, and hence of the commanders and the Knights ( according to other sources: three classes, commanders, knights and squires ). For the "Grand Order" chose Lodewijk I. the motto L' union fait notre force ( unity makes us strong, even today, in slightly modified form, motto of the Kingdom of Belgium). Unauthorized in Napoleon's eyes act provoked a furious reaction of the imperial brother, for his great French empire had only one award, Legion of Honor, and his kingdom of Italy, that was much bigger than Louis Holland, had even a single dreiklassigen Order, the Iron Crown, and the Emperor Ludwig forced to cancel the Foundation. The "big order" was given to anyone, and the Merit existed only until February, 1807. Early 1807 adopted new statutes Ludwig, in which unites the two Orders to a new award, the dreiklassigen " Royal Order of Holland" ( Koninglijke Orde van Holland ) were. In November 1807, the Order was again renamed and contributed to February 1808 the name "Royal Order of the Union ", was renamed in the same month to the " Royal Order of the Union of Holland", and finally during the last three years of its existence until 1811, again to be called " Royal Order of the Union."

Order of classes

The Order had three classes and the king was Grand Master.

• Grand Cross
• Commander
• Knight

Order decoration

The medal decorations were the religious character, a eight-pointed gold star, both sides covered with white enamel breast star 1st class and the Collar of. The Medallion of the front of the religious character was until 1807 the bust of the founder, which was surrounded by an inscription " I Lodewijk Koning van Holland ". In later versions of the religious character, the king was replaced by a picture lying on the shore of the sea lions ( seen earlier on the back of the religious character). On the back of the religious character of this lying lion was shown up to 1808, the surrounding text of the final Order Currency Doe wel en zie niet om. The motto means "Do right and not look around you ." The last model of the religious character then had a bundle of rays in the medallion back, early samples from the time when the award " Order of Merit " was said to show a border Dutch lion on the back. Between the rays of the religious character golden bees were attached, one of the symbols of the First French Empire. The medal decoration hanging on a golden royal crown.

The breast star 1st class was silver, with eight long and fourteen shorter rays, and carried at its center the religious medallion with a recumbent lion by the sea, which was surrounded by the above motto.

The Collar of consisted of 26 members, 13 Plaques with the coat of arms of the Dutch departments and 13 plaques with beams. The Order was also awarded with diamonds.

Ribbon and carrying method

The ribbon was bright blue and the large cross owners contributed the award at a sash over the right shoulder to the left hip side. The second class put the Order around the neck, while the Knights established themselves religious characters in his buttonhole or on the left chest ..

Trivia

The Order is named because of the bee on the religious character of the orders also (of ) the bee.