Order of the Reunion
Encyclopedia
The Order of the Reunion (Ordre de la Réunion) was an order of chivalry of the First French Empire
, set up to be awarded to Frenchmen and foreigners to reward services in the civil service, magistracy and army, particularly those from areas newly annexed to France, such as the Kingdom of Holland
. It was established in 1811 and abolished in 1815. There were similar orders in the other states annexed by France, such as the Palatinate, Papal States, Tuscany and Piedmont, including the Order of the Lion of the Palatinate, the Order of the Golden Spur, the Cross of St John Lateran, the Cross of St Stephen, the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
.
, on his first visit to the Paleis op de Dam in Amsterdam after his 1810 annexation of the Kingdom of Holland
to France. It was set up as an order of merit to replace Louis Bonaparte
's Order of the Union
. It had three ranks and Napoleon himself was its Grand Master. The knights of the order were authorised to bear their old decorations until 1 April or exchange them for ones of the new order. Within the First French Empire
's hierarchy of orders it was second only to the Légion d'honneur
, with the Order of the Iron Crown
being the third in rank. Napoleon disliked the idea of a poor nobility and so assigned 500,000 francs annually to provide pensions to the order's members.
In a letter to Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
, Napoleon wrote that an order with the motto "Bien faire et laisser dire", the motto of the Order of the Union, was not suited to a great empire, saying "We must look for a motto which gives a sense of the advantages of the union of the Baltic, Mediterranean, Adriatic and the [Atlantic] Ocean. This great event that truly characterises the Empire, could be called the Order of the Union.". Napoleon eventually occupied large territories in north-west Germany and the Illyrian provinces on the Dalmatian coast - the name of the order he founded referred to the fact that (for the first time since the Roman Empire) all access points to the sea were under the same authority.
Napoleon reserved himself the exclusive right to exclude someone from the order or nominate them to it - Napoleon felt his brother Louis had been too generous in giving out medals. The order was headed by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny as Grand Chancellor and the Dutchman Maarten van der Goes van Dirxland
as Grand Treasurer and they and the order had a joint base in the Hôtel du Châtelet
at Paris. The knights of the Order of the Reunion had the right to bear the title "Knight" and, when they enjoyed an annual income of 3,000 francs, could also receive letters of nobility making them and their descendants Knights of the Empire. Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance
and Napoleon's representative in Amsterdam as 'Prins-stadhouder', oversaw the order and its membership numbers.
Louis continued to wear ‘his’ Order of the Union throughout his life and old-established nobles did not receive the Order of the Reunion. The Dutch statesmen Godert van der Capellen
, Anton Reinhard Falck
and Vischer did not accept the Order of the Reunion, thinking it humiliating to the Netherlands. Van Capellen noted that “the [Order’s] oath was of such a nature to me that I forever refused it, with better opportunities to cooperate in restoring our independence. All the other Grand Crosses, Commanders and Knights of the Dutch Order of the Union thought the new Order was just [the Order of the Union] under a different name and signed up to it.”.
Knights of the new Order were appointed right up to the end of the First Empire in 1814. On their initial restoration in 1814 the Bourbons neither abolished nor awarded the Order of the Reunion and Napoleon awarded it during the Hundred Days
. On 28 July 1815 Louis XVIII of France
abolished it, asking its knights to return their gold and silver badges to the chancellory of the Legion d’Honneur. Those returned included few from the Netherlands since the cross was the replacement for the Order of the Union and the Dutch – having seen their country looted and drained of manpower for so long by the French – were unwilling to send their gold and silver awards back to Paris.
The reverse is similar to the obverse but bears an empty throne instead of the imperial monogram. In front of the throne is the Capitoline Wolf
suckly Romulus and Remus. The throne is also surrounded by symbols of the lands annexed by France – a Florentine lily, a Dutch lion with a sheaf of nine arrows (symbol of the old Dutch Republic
) supporting the throne, a Piedmontese coat of arms and two tridents symbolizing the ports of Hamburg and Genoa. On the surrounding circlet is ‘TOUT POUR L’EMPIRE’ (all for the Empire). On the front the medal was suspended from a closed crown and on the back by a diadem and blue ring bearing the words ‘FONDATEUR’ (founder) and ‘NAPOLEON’. These were both attached to a moiré-effect blue ribbon. There were two models of the Grand Cross star – a star bearing an embroidered Napoleonic crowned eagle on an oval with a shield and the empty throne, and a massive sterling silver plaque in the shape of the medal.
The Second French Empire
saw high demand for souvenirs from the First Empire and so new medals of the Orders of the Union and Reunion were produced. These are hard to distinguish from the originals, though the silver star is probably a mid-19th-century invention, since in 1811 the star was almost worn in an embroidered form.
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
, set up to be awarded to Frenchmen and foreigners to reward services in the civil service, magistracy and army, particularly those from areas newly annexed to France, such as the Kingdom of Holland
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...
. It was established in 1811 and abolished in 1815. There were similar orders in the other states annexed by France, such as the Palatinate, Papal States, Tuscany and Piedmont, including the Order of the Lion of the Palatinate, the Order of the Golden Spur, the Cross of St John Lateran, the Cross of St Stephen, the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
The Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in mediæval Italy. It eventually was the pinnacle of the honours system in the Kingdom of Italy, which ceased to be a national order when the kingdom became a republic in 1946...
and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is an order of chivalry awarded by the House of Savoy, the heads of which were formerly Kings of Italy...
.
History
It was set up on 11 or 18 October 1811 by Napoleon INapoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, on his first visit to the Paleis op de Dam in Amsterdam after his 1810 annexation of the Kingdom of Holland
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland 1806–1810 was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country...
to France. It was set up as an order of merit to replace Louis Bonaparte
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...
's Order of the Union
Order of the Union
The Order of the Union was a chivalric order established in 1806 by Louis Napoleon, younger brother of Napoleon I, for the Kingdom of Holland. The order was abolished in 1811 when the French Empire absorbed the Kingdom of Holland...
. It had three ranks and Napoleon himself was its Grand Master. The knights of the order were authorised to bear their old decorations until 1 April or exchange them for ones of the new order. Within the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
's hierarchy of orders it was second only to the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, with the Order of the Iron Crown
Order of the Iron Crown
The Imperial Order of the Iron Crown was established June 5, 1805 by Napoleon Bonaparte . It took its name from the ancient Iron Crown of Lombardy, a medieval jewel with an iron ring, forged from what was supposed to be a nail from the True Cross as a band on the inside. This crown also gave its...
being the third in rank. Napoleon disliked the idea of a poor nobility and so assigned 500,000 francs annually to provide pensions to the order's members.
In a letter to Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, 1st Duke of Parma was a French lawyer and statesman during the French Revolution and the First Empire, best remembered as the author of the Napoleonic code, which still forms the basis of French civil law.-Early career:Cambacérès was born in Montpellier, into a...
, Napoleon wrote that an order with the motto "Bien faire et laisser dire", the motto of the Order of the Union, was not suited to a great empire, saying "We must look for a motto which gives a sense of the advantages of the union of the Baltic, Mediterranean, Adriatic and the [Atlantic] Ocean. This great event that truly characterises the Empire, could be called the Order of the Union.". Napoleon eventually occupied large territories in north-west Germany and the Illyrian provinces on the Dalmatian coast - the name of the order he founded referred to the fact that (for the first time since the Roman Empire) all access points to the sea were under the same authority.
Napoleon reserved himself the exclusive right to exclude someone from the order or nominate them to it - Napoleon felt his brother Louis had been too generous in giving out medals. The order was headed by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny as Grand Chancellor and the Dutchman Maarten van der Goes van Dirxland
Maarten van der Goes van Dirxland
Maarten van der Goes van Dirxland was a Dutch politician and government minister. He belonged to the Patriot then moderate party. His son Louis Napoleon van der Goes van Dirxland was also active as a minister.-Life:Van der Goes came from a family of Regenten in the Hague and his father, Adriaan...
as Grand Treasurer and they and the order had a joint base in the Hôtel du Châtelet
Hôtel du Châtelet
The Hôtel du Châtelet is a hôtel particulier in Paris. It is sited at 127, rue de Grenelle, in the 7th arrondissement, and is now the base of the Ministère du Travail, de la Solidarité et de la Fonction Publique et la résidence du ministre du Travail, de la Solidarité et de la Fonction publique.It...
at Paris. The knights of the Order of the Reunion had the right to bear the title "Knight" and, when they enjoyed an annual income of 3,000 francs, could also receive letters of nobility making them and their descendants Knights of the Empire. Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance
Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance
Charles-François Lebrun, 1st Duke of Plaisance, prince of the Empire was a French statesman.-Ancien Régime:...
and Napoleon's representative in Amsterdam as 'Prins-stadhouder', oversaw the order and its membership numbers.
Louis continued to wear ‘his’ Order of the Union throughout his life and old-established nobles did not receive the Order of the Reunion. The Dutch statesmen Godert van der Capellen
Godert van der Capellen
Godert Alexander Gerard Philip, Baron van der Capellen was a Dutch statesman from Utrecht.Van der Capellen was made Prefect of Friesland and soon thereafter Minister of the Interior and a member of the Privy Council. At his advice, King Louis Napoleon abdicated the throne in 1810 in favor of his...
, Anton Reinhard Falck
Anton Reinhard Falck
Anton Reinhard Falck was a Dutch statesman.He studied at the University of Leiden, and entered the Dutch diplomat service, being appointed to the legation at Madrid, Spain...
and Vischer did not accept the Order of the Reunion, thinking it humiliating to the Netherlands. Van Capellen noted that “the [Order’s] oath was of such a nature to me that I forever refused it, with better opportunities to cooperate in restoring our independence. All the other Grand Crosses, Commanders and Knights of the Dutch Order of the Union thought the new Order was just [the Order of the Union] under a different name and signed up to it.”.
Knights of the new Order were appointed right up to the end of the First Empire in 1814. On their initial restoration in 1814 the Bourbons neither abolished nor awarded the Order of the Reunion and Napoleon awarded it during the Hundred Days
Hundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
. On 28 July 1815 Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
abolished it, asking its knights to return their gold and silver badges to the chancellory of the Legion d’Honneur. Those returned included few from the Netherlands since the cross was the replacement for the Order of the Union and the Dutch – having seen their country looted and drained of manpower for so long by the French – were unwilling to send their gold and silver awards back to Paris.
Numbers
The target number of members for the order was at least 10,000 knights, 2,000 commanders and 500 grand cross members, though in the end it only reached 527 (59 from Holland), 90 (21 from Holland) and 64 (29 from Holland) respectively. According to a statement by Van der Goes Dirxland, 11 great crosses, 36 commanders’ crosses and 59 knights’ crosses were handed in and melted down. The French state replaced them, though it was usually paid for by the recipient himself, honouring the awards of the Order of the Reunion. An official statement said that by its end the order had been awarded 1,622 times, with 1,364 knights, 127 commanders and 131 Grand Crosses. 614 of these cases involved a foreigner, that is those who were not subjects of Napoleon. Since the order began as a replacement for the Order of the Union, 681 recipients had previously borne the Order of the Union, one third to one half of whom were Dutch.Decorations
The medal of the Order of the Reunion was a gold enamelled twelve-pointed star with a ball on each point. Between each point was a bundle of golden spears. At its centre was a circle surrounded in gold and blue, encircled by a gold laurel wreath and bearing a gold ‘N’ on a gold ground. On the blue circle was written ‘A JAMAIS’ (forever).The reverse is similar to the obverse but bears an empty throne instead of the imperial monogram. In front of the throne is the Capitoline Wolf
Capitoline Wolf
The Capitoline Wolf is a bronze sculpture of a she-wolf suckling twin infants, inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome. According to the legend, when Numitor, grandfather of the twins Romulus and Remus, was overthrown by his brother Amulius, the usurper ordered the twins to be cast into...
suckly Romulus and Remus. The throne is also surrounded by symbols of the lands annexed by France – a Florentine lily, a Dutch lion with a sheaf of nine arrows (symbol of the old Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
) supporting the throne, a Piedmontese coat of arms and two tridents symbolizing the ports of Hamburg and Genoa. On the surrounding circlet is ‘TOUT POUR L’EMPIRE’ (all for the Empire). On the front the medal was suspended from a closed crown and on the back by a diadem and blue ring bearing the words ‘FONDATEUR’ (founder) and ‘NAPOLEON’. These were both attached to a moiré-effect blue ribbon. There were two models of the Grand Cross star – a star bearing an embroidered Napoleonic crowned eagle on an oval with a shield and the empty throne, and a massive sterling silver plaque in the shape of the medal.
The Second French Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
saw high demand for souvenirs from the First Empire and so new medals of the Orders of the Union and Reunion were produced. These are hard to distinguish from the originals, though the silver star is probably a mid-19th-century invention, since in 1811 the star was almost worn in an embroidered form.