Honneur et Fidélité

Honneur et Fidélité ("Honour and Fidelity") is the motto of the French Foreign Legion. It has been inscribed on Legion flags instead of the Honneur et Patrie (Honour and Fatherland) inscribed on flags of the regular French Army of the French Republic. Nevertheless, both mottos share a similar past.

This motto of Honneur et Fidélité was the one written on the banners of Swiss Military units and most notably the Swiss Regiment of Diesbach at the service of France during the Ancien Régime through the , (French: 85e régiment d'infanterie de ligne). The 3rd Foreign Regiment ( before the creation of the French Foreign Legion in 1831), throughout all the campaign battles of the Empire, would remain loyal to the motto of Swiss troops Honneur et Fidélité which would become that adopted by the Foreign Legion of 1831.

Generally, mottos and creeds are chosen by a social organisation, a country, a dynsaty to dictate a line of action or ideal. The French military mottos are old: the Musketeers had their own "one for all, all for one" (French: un pour tous, tous pour un), most of the foreign regiments in service of France during the Ancien Régime had chosen Nec pluribus impar, today the motto of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment. These mottos were suppressed during the Revolution, when foreign regiments were dissolved and transformed to demi-brigades.First Consul Bonaparte chose for the Grande Armée the motto Valeur et Discipline ("Valour and Discipline"), which remained almost until August 1914, when General Joseph Gallieni had the inscription Honneur et Patrie ("Honour and Fatherland") written on all emblems; the motto was already featured on the verso of the regimental colours of the first flag of the Foreign Legion from 1831 to 1835, and from 1840 to 1844 following the cession of the Foreign Legion in Spain. In 1920, Honneur et Fidélité was inscribed on Legion regiments: this motto of the Swiss Regiment of Diesbach under the Ancien Régime was chosen to emphasise on one hand on the perennity of foreign soldiers at the service of France, and on the other the integrity of their service to their institution while serving a country that is not theirs. As a result, and mainly for those two reasons, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Frédéric Rollet, following World War I, vested his power to inscribe Honneur et Fidélité on the 3 Foreign Legion regimental flags. His vocation was received and approved by the minister, and the decree of 1920 precised that "Regimental Colours of the Foreign Legion, in existence or created in the future, will carry the motto Honneur et Fidélité".

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