Description
Catalogue 5: Under the Napoleonic Eagle
by Tom C. Bergroth, Catherine Lapinsh
The establishment of the Order of the Legion of Honour brought a radical change in the development of the European awarding system, with the Legion becoming a model for almost all new orders of merit. The Legion of Honour was meant to be an institution – the safeguard and protector of all republican principles and regulations, all laws of equality, and the abolition of all societal rank differences stemming from nobility.
As Napoleon grew his Empire, he put his closest relatives and friends on the thrones of conquered countries: Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Westphalia, the Two Sicilies. For a brief moment in the history of those countries, their old orders (where they existed) were abolished, and new ones were created. These new orders followed the example of the Legion of Honour and had beautiful, original and sometimes unusual designs and fascinating symbology: bees, wolves, lions, snakes and the all-powerful eagle above them all – The Great Napoleonic Eagle – a symbol of power and a connection to an ancient past. Inspired by the eagle standards of the Roman legions, the Eagle was not the only symbol, alluding to Bonaparte’s claim to ancient roots. As Napoleon crowned himself the King of Rome with the famous Iron Crown, he thought of solidifying his status with the Order of the Iron Crown. The Capitoline Wolf of Rome, suckling Romulus and Remus, is depicted on another no longer awarded order – the French Order of the Reunion.
With the exhibition Under the Napoleonic Eagle, the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood tried to pay homage both to the trailblazing order of the Legion of Honour and the orders that closely followed but only shined for a very short, although significant, time in history.
The catalogue contains materials from both the collections of the Tallinn Museum and the Museum of the Legion of Honour (Paris).
76 pages, softcover, in English
