IDENTIFIERS
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id:	141555
accession number:	CM.1461-2009

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 cannot be awarded the medal in these circumstances, but a variant of it is awarded to generals for leadership. In this class Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt are among the medal's very few foreign recipients.
With the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1870 the monarchical image of Napoléon III which had previously adorned the Médaille Militaire was replaced with a bust of Marianne, the heraldic figure of France, and an appropriate legend.
This example is unnamed, and it cannot now 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 (Republique Française)

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/141555





TECHNIQUES
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struck

CATEGORIES
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category: medal

DATING
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creation date:	1870 - 1915
creation date earliest:	1870
creation date latest:	1915

CREATORS
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maker: Paris
maker: France
maker: Barre, Albert-Désiré
maker: Colmar, Paris

DIMENSIONS
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dimension: Diameter
units: mm
value: 27

dimension: Weight
units: g
value: 17.37



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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