Legion of Honour Legion of Honour The Legion of Honour (full name: National Order of the Legion of Honour; ) is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all the divergent governments and regimes later holding power in France, up to the present. The order's motto is ' ("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 Seine in Paris. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: ' (Knight), ' (Officer), '
Legion of Honour a different award than the . Twenty-one schools, mainly schools providing reserve officers during the World Wars, were awarded the Légion d'Honneur. Foreign military units can be decorated with the order, such as the U.S. Military Academy. The Flag or Standard of the following units was decorated with the Cross of a Knight of the Legion of Honour: The order has had five levels since the reign of King Louis XVIII, who restored the order in 1815. Since the reform, the following distinctions have existed: The "badge" of the is a five-armed "Maltese Asterisk" (for want of a better description—see