Order of Leopold (Belgium)

The Belgian court often used the Grand Cordon as a valuable diplomatic gift. However, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the court also used it as a dynastic order to bestow on family members during major family celebrations. The founder gave his French family Grand Cordons as wedding gifts. During weddings the Belgian court sent large numbers of crosses to the new family and its court. For the wedding of Rudolf and Stephanie the father of the bride sent 20 Grand Cordons to the Austrian Court.[2] In return the Belgian court received decorations; these gifts were part of negotiations of the wedding. The order was bestowed by King Leopold II on Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern and Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein as a personal marriage gift. In 1878 the King named several diplomatic dignitaries Grand Cordon in honour of his silver wedding celebration, among them Vannutelli.[9]

In 1900 the occasion of the wedding of Prince Albert was used to send 15 Grand Cordons to the Bavarian Court.[2] Among the recipients were Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria and his two sons, Princes Ludwig (the future Ludwig III of Bavaria) and Arnulf, Duke Louis of Bavaria and the father of the bride Karl Theodor, Duke in Bavaria.[2]

The brother of the new Princess, Duke Ludwig Wilhelm was still a minor at the time of the wedding, and Minister de Favereau opposed this wedding gift for an adolescent. However, the young prince, aged 14, received the gift by royal decree.[2]

People who fought in the Belgian revolution became members in great numbers. In 1838 the King lost his right to create members, this was from then on the responsibility of the foreign office. In 1836 Meyerbeer was made knight of the Order, by royal Command.[10] At the end of his reign the major political elite were members of the order.

King Leopold II bestowed the order upon notable Belgian artists, generals and clergy. His successors continued to bestow the Order; among the thousands of recipients are some famous people like Porfirio Díaz, Pope Leo XIII,[11] Mohamed Ennaceur, Pierre-Jean De Smet, Eugène Scribe, Alfred Belpaire, Victor Horta, Joseph Geefs, Gustave Van de Woestijne, Raymond Poincaré, Constant Permeke, Henry Morton Stanley, Lu Zhengxiang, Amschel Mayer Rothschild, Emile Claus, Fernand Khnopff, Paul Saintenoy, Joseph Jongen, Eugène Ysaÿe, Alfred Bastien, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Thomas Vinçotte, Mgr. Rafael Merry del Val, John Browning, James Blyth, 1st Baron Blyth, Brand Whitlock, Charles Lindbergh, George S. Patton, Bernard Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower, Wesley Clark, Charles de Gaulle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Count Kiyoura Keigo, Count Jacques Rogge, Prince Fulco Ruffo di Calabria and Prince Emmanuel de Merode. At the end of World War I, the order became internationally recognised for its famous members.

In 1919 King Albert granted all Lieutenant-Generals of the Belgian Army the Grand Cordon in Brussels.[12] The King bestowed the Major Generals with the Grand Cordon, amongst the recipients some important generals like Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude, knight Antonin de Selliers de Moranville and Baron Édouard Michel du Faing d'Aigremont. Foreign recipients include admiral Hugh Rodman and Vice Admiral William Sowden Sims One of the rare Ladies in the order was Countess Renée de Merode.

The order can be bestowed posthumously; for example, Emile Verhaeren received the Grand Cordon after his death. Recipients can be deprived of the order, as for example happened during World War I with Alfred Wotquenne.

After the Second World War, the Order of Leopold was bestowed on the several officers of foreign military forces who had helped to liberate Belgium from German occupation. Most illustrious was the grand Cordons with Palms given by the King to Sir Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945. The medal was also granted to Karel Bossart in 1962, and Josip Broz Tito in 1970.

Today membership can only be granted by decree of His Majesty King Philippe of the Belgians and is reserved to the very most important Belgian nationals and to some distinguished foreign persons who contributed in one way to the Belgian military, the Belgian civil society or the Belgian State. Annually, there are two major days when the king normally grants membership, 15 April (King Philip's birthday) and 15 November (Day of the Belgian Dynasty).

During state visits, the Order of Leopold is the most important diplomatic gift of the state. In 2015 some protest was noted when King Philippe offered the Grand Cordon to President Erdoğan of Turkey during his state visit in Belgium.[13] A parliamentary question was consequently submitted by Barbara Pas.[14]

In 2022, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo presented honorary distinctions on behalf of the Belgian state at Belgium's Consulate General in New York. The Belgians honored were scientist and President of the Children’s Tumor Foundation Annette Bakker (Officer of the Order of Leopold), businessman and former CEO of AB InBev Carlos Brito (Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown), banker Georges Ugeux (Commander of the Order of the Crown), psychiatrist Esther Perel (Knight of the Order of the Crown), and artist Marie-Paule Martin (Knight of the Order of Leopold). [15]

The Grand Cordon title is reserved in general for other monarchs, heirs, foreign heads of state, generals, Cardinals, ministers of state, Prime Ministers and high diplomats. The Belgian Court has granted the Grand Cordon to all of its family members often considered a personal marriage gift of the king.

The court has sent grand cordons to other dignitaries like ambassadors, cardinals, important artists and high functionaries. As of the class of commander the decision must be approved by the Council of Ministers.

Following the tradition, it is not allowed that a Belgian minister can accept this gift from the King, during the period of public office.[16]

National orders are awarded by royal decree at fixed dates: 8 April (Birthday of King Albert I), 15 November (King's Feast), and in some cases on 21 July (Belgian national holiday) to reward meritorious services to the Kingdom of Belgium based on the career path and age of the recipient. A number of different regulations rule the award of national order for the various ministries. In addition, the national orders may be awarded by the king for especially meritorious deeds. The royal decrees, except for conferrals on foreigners, are published in the Belgian Official Journal (Belgisch Staatsblad/Moniteur Belge).

1/ Grand Cordon Star - civil and military divisions (left), Grand Cordon sash (middle),
Grand Officer plaques - civil and maritime divisions (right).
Bottom part: Commander's Cross (civil division),
officer's cross (military division), officer's cross (civil division), officer's cross (maritime division),
knight's cross (military division) (courtesy Société de l'Ordre de Léopold)

The minister responsible for Foreign Affairs, currently the Federal Public Service (SPF/FOD) Foreign Affairs, administers the national orders and has a role of advisor in cases not fitting within a regulation.

For the award of national orders for persons to which no regulation apply or has been adopted, the number of awards is limited every year by decision of the Council of Ministers (contingent).

The classes of the national orders are integrated in a combined hierarchy defined by law, whereby within one class the Order of Leopold is senior to the Order of the Crown, which is senior to the Order of Leopold II. Except in some specific cases, one cannot be awarded a national order at a level below the highest that the recipient has already received (example of an exception: a commissioned officer who becomes a Commander of the Order of Leopold II because of meritorious service to the king before he became a Knight of the Order of Leopold may still be awarded the latter decoration for long meritorious service when he or she is eligible).

Persons who are the subject of criminal proceedings will usually not be awarded a national order until they are declared not guilty.

The Order of Leopold in the Military Division (with crossed swords under the crown) is mostly awarded to military personnel on the basis of their length of service, although exceptions to that rule exist where the order is presented to military personnel for exceptional or meritorious service. (e.g. awards to officers or non-commissioned officers for devoted service to His Majesy the King).

• Grand Officer: Awarded to a Lieutenant-General after holding that rank for about 2 years, for exceptional services to the Armed Forces;
• Commander: Awarded after 35 years of meritorious service to a general officer;
• Officer: Awarded after 28 years of meritorious service to a field officer;
• Knight: Awarded after 20 years of meritorious service to a commissioned officer with minimum rank of Captain, and after 40 years of meritorious service for a non-commissioned officer.

The years of service that are counted to calculate the eligibility of the award are not necessarily equal to the (calendar) years of duty. Additional bonuses can be earned for service in the air (a heritage coming from King Albert who want to bestow extra credit upon the pilots in the first World War, who often faced great danger in a new and experimental military branch) or on the battlefield (during wartime) and years of service as a non-commissioned officer or as enlisted personnel count as half for the awards made to officers. For awards to military personnel, there is no minimum age requirement.

The order in the Maritime Division (with crossed anchors under the crown) is only awarded to members of the merchant navy, as members of the Belgian Navy are awarded the order in the Military Division. The Order of Leopold is currently almost never awarded in the Maritime Division.

The Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold may be awarded to workers in the private sector or contractual employees of the public sector after fifty-five years of professional activity.

The Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold is also awarded to the members of the national and provincial committees for the promotion of labour[17] who have reached the age of 42 after a tenure of 20 years (national committee) or 30 years (provincial committee).

• Law of 1 May 2006 on the Award of Honours in the National Orders (Moniteur Belge of 24 October 2006)
• Law of 28 December 1838 Creating the Rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold (Moniteur Belge of 31 December 1838)
• Law of 11 July 1832 Creating a National Order called Order of Leopold (quoted in full in Trinaux, below)
• Royal Decree of 13 October 2006 Defining the Rules and Procedure for the Award of Honours in the National Orders (Moniteur Belge of 24 October 2006)
• Royal Decree of 24 January 1994 Creating the Insignia of Two Crossed Swords topped by a Bar Showing the Mention Korea
• Royal Decree of 18 April 1983 Creating the Insignia of Two Crossed Swords topped by a Bar Showing the Millesimes 40-45
• Royal Decree of 16 February 1934 Creating a Maritime Division to the Order of Leopold (Moniteur Belge of 17 March 1934)
• Royal Decree of 24 June 1919 Creating gold borders, gold stripes and gold stars for the National Orders Awarded in War Time (Moniteur Belge of 11–12 August 1919)
• Royal Decree of 15 November 1915 Creating Palms for the National Orders Awarded in War Time (Moniteur Belge of 28–30 November and 1–4 December 1915)
• Royal Decree of 3 August 1832 Determining the Form of the Decoration of the Order of Leopold (quoted in full in Tripnaux, below)
• Belgian military regulation A83 on Military Decorations
• Belgian military regulation DGHR-REG-DISPSYS-001 of 20 February 2006
• Belgian Ministry of Labour (SPF Emploi, Travail et Concertation Sociale), Clés pour les décorations du travail (Brussels: 2008)
• Borné A.C., Distinctions honorifiques de la Belgique, 1830-1985 (Bruxelles: 1985)
• Van Hoorebeke P., 175 Ans de l'Ordre de Léopold et les Ordres Nationaux Belges (MRA: 2007)
• Tripnaux E., L'Origine de l'Ordre de Léopold (Association of the Order of Leopold: 2008)