| |
|
|
|
|
| |
Object of the Month - May
The Légion d'Honneur was «like a jewel dripping from a wound», wrote Rostand in L'Aiglon. The principal French national honour, the star and the ribbon, continues to fascinate even today.
200 Hundred Years Ago
The law of 28 Floréal, An X (18 May, 1802) made it legal for a conscript to pay someone to replace him.
17 May, 1802, the Tribunat adopted the law which created the Order of the Légion d'honneur, after an agitated session, with only 58 votes 'for' and 38 'against. The bill subsequently passed to the Corps législatif, which voted on 19 May, 1802 (29 floréal, An X): there again, strong opposition was voiced during the vote without discussion, with 166 'for' and 110 'against'. Napoleon was to promulgate the bill on 18 May, 1804, and finally to publish it on 11 July, 1804.
The 19 May, 1802, however, was the date accepted by historians as the day upon which the order was founded. The decree's introductory text runs as follows:
"In the name of the French people. Bonaparte, First Consul, proclaims as Law of the Republic the following decree delivered by the Corps législatif, 29 Floréal, An X, in conformity with the proposition made by the government, 25 of the same month, communicated to the Tribunat on 27 inst."
During the very lively preparatory debates in the Conseil d'Etat at the beginning of May, Bonaparte declared: "I defy anyone to show me any republic, ancient or modern, in which there is no distinction. They call this baubles. Well, let me tell you, it's with baubles that men are led!" The aim of the order of the Légion d'honneur was to reward "the services and excellence" (art. I) of both soldiers and civilians, from all the social and economic stratas of society. The organisation of the order was to quarter first France and subsequently the Empire, in order to make central power accessible to all parts of the realm and the spread the glory of Bonaparte, and subsequently Napoleon: each of the 16 cohorts was led by a 'chef de cohorte' (Cohort leader), a chancellor and a treasorer, the latter of whom managed the funds which each legionnaire received and the legion's mutual assistance institutions (hospices, retirement homes, orphan pensions, etc.).
The order as a whole was run by a Grand chancelier (the first appointed - in August 1803 - was Bernard-Germain-Etienne de La Ville, Comte de Lacépède 1756-1825) and a Grand trésorier (the first appointed - in August 1803 - was General Comte Jean-François-Aimé Dejean, minister, 1749-1824).
The institution was established in the Hôtel de Salm in Paris (May 1803). It remains there today.
In honour of the bicentenary of the Légion d'honneur
The Légion d'Honneur, by Peter Hicks (based on André Damien)
20 May, 1802 (30 Floréal, An X), law passed re-establishing slavery in French colonies.
In 1801, the colonies of Martinique and Santa Lucia (both ex-British colonies in which slavery continued to operate) had been returned to France: from this came the contradiction within the French colonial system whereby certain colonies maintained slavery and other did not (notably Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue) - the Convention had emancipated all slaves in French possessions in 1794. The continuance of this double statute, which had been Bonanparte's initial scheme in the April of 1802 (and which could have led to the establishment of a regime of 'obligatory labour'), was rejected by the Senate and Bonaparte then decided in favour of slavery in all colonies.
21 May, 1802 (1 Prairial, An X), voting in the referendum on the life consulship closed in Paris; it was prolonged however to the 23 May for neighbouring communes.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
THIS WEEK:
Snippets
- The handlist of the Archives Napoléon online on the website of the Paris Archives nationales
- Chinese website on Napoleon
What's on
- Conference for the bicentenary of the Peace of Amiens
- French Presence Symposium in South Africa
Just Published
- Napoleon, by Paul Johnson
- Reprint: In the words of Napoleon: the Emperor Day by Day, ed. R. M. Johnston
The monthly titles: May
- Book of the Month: 1815: The Return of Napoleon by Paul Britten Austin
- This month's picture, The return of Marcus Sextus
- Article of the Month, The Cinco de Mayo and French Imperialism, by Peter Hicks
- Object of the Month, The Légion d'Honneur<<
|
|
