The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour (French: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 May 1802. The Order is the highest decoration in France and is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand'Croix (Grand Cross).

The order's motto is "Honneur et Patrie" ("Honour and Fatherland") and its seat is the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur next to the Musée d'Orsay, on the left bank of the River Seine in Paris.

History

Consulat

In the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul, to create a reward to commend civilians and soldiers and from this wish was instituted a Légion d'Honneur, a body of men that was not an order of chivalry, for Napoleon believed France wanted a recognition of merit rather than a new system of nobility. The Légion however did use the organization of old French Orders of Chivalry, like the Ordre de Saint-Louis ("Order of Saint Louis"). The badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon.

The Legion of Honor (formerly known as the The California Palace of the Legion of Honor) is a part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). The name is used both for the museum collection and for the building in which it is housed. As of 2014, its director is Colin Bailey.

History

The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, wife of the sugar magnate and thoroughbred racehorse owner/breeder Adolph B. Spreckels. The building is a full-scale replica, by George Applegarth and H. Guillaume, of the French Pavilion at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, which in turn was a three-quarter-scale version of the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur also known as the Hôtel de Salm in Paris, by Pierre Rousseau (1782). At the close of the exposition, which was located just a few miles away, the French government granted Spreckels permission to construct a permanent replica of the French Pavilion, but World War I delayed the groundbreaking until 1921.

The Philippine Legion of Honor (Filipino: Lehiyong Pandangal ng Pilipinas) was established by President Manuel Roxas, through Philippine Army Circular No. 60 dated July 3, 1947. The Philippine Legion of Honor was patterned after the Legion of Merit of the United States of America, and was meant to honor both civilians and members of the military, Filipino or foreign. Originally, like the U.S. Legion of Merit, the Philippine Legion of Honor only had four classes, known as Degrees, with Legionnaire being the basic rank, and Chief Commander being the highest. With the reform of the Philippine system of orders and decorations in 2003, the Philippine Legion of Honor's classes were renamed "ranks" instead of "degrees," and the ranks expanded.

Criteria

Today, the Philippine Legion of Honor is conferred upon a Filipino or foreign citizen in recognition of valuable and meritorious service in relation to the military affairs of the Republic of the Philippines. It is thus the primary order of military merit of the Republic of the Philippines.