IDENTIFIERS
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id:	141554
accession number:	CM.1460-2009

DATE AUDIT
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created:	Saturday 6 August 2011
updated:	Monday 15 January 2024

DESCRIPTIVE DATA
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object type: Many of the medals currently on issue in France date back to the reign of Emperor Napoléon III, in whose time France renewed its international rôle in politics without the ignominy of defeat that it had endured under Napoleon I. One such decoration is the Médaille Militaire, which was instituted in 1852 (within days of the then-President Louis Napoléon arrogating supreme power to himself), to be awarded to any junior officer or enlisted man who distinguished himself by an act of bravery. Commissioned officers could not be awarded the medal in these circumstances, but there is a variant of it which is awarded to generals for leadership; in this class Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt are numbered among the medal's very few foreign recipients.
This example of the medal bears the bust and name of Louis Napoléon; after his death a new version was struck in the name of the new Republic. Minor changes to the design that were made after the Crimean War are absent, so that the award of this medal must have been between 1852 and 1855. It is unnamed, so it cannot be known to whom it was awarded. Although this medal is part of the Watson Collection, Lester Watson's own lists give no provenance for it.
title:	Médaille Militaire (Louis-Napoleon)

NOTES
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type: history note
value: Gift of L. Hoyt Watson; ex Lester Watson Collection, no provenance.


LICENSING
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text license status:	CC0
image license status:	CC-BY-NC-SA

OWNERSHIP
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instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum
department: Coins and Medals
collection:	Lester Watson Collection
creditline: Given by Lester Watson through Cambridge in America, 2009

STABLE URL
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url:	https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/141554





TECHNIQUES
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struck

CATEGORIES
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category: medal

DATING
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creation date:	1852 - 1855
creation date earliest:	1852
creation date latest:	1855

CREATORS
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maker: Paris
maker: Napoleon III (1852-70)
maker: Barre, Albert-Désiré
maker: Louis Napoleon
maker: Colmar, Paris

DIMENSIONS
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dimension: Diameter
units: mm
value: 25.4

dimension: Weight
units: g
value: 17.32



CITATIONS
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French Orders and Decorations
British and other Campaign and Gallantry Medals From the Collection of Lester Watson (d. 1959)
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