Knight of the Legion of Honour

National Order of the Legion of Honour - the Légion d'honneur
Chevalier (Knight) medal insignia.
Awarded by France
Type	Order of merit
Awarded for	Excellent civil or military conduct delivered, upon official investigation
Statistics
Established	19 May 1802; 215 years ago (1802-05-19)
First awarded	1803
Distinct recipients	00,0  1  Grand Maître 00,067  Grand(s)-Croix 00,314  Grand Officier(s) 03,009  Commandeur(s) 17,032  Officier(s) 74,384  Chevalier(s; plural form)
Precedence
Next (higher)	None
Next (lower)	Order of Liberation (ceased 24 January 1946) National Order of Merit
Order's streamer Grand-Croix Grand Officier Commandeur Officier Chevalier Ribbon bars of the order

The Legion of Honour, full name National Order of the Legion of Honour (French: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, established 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte. The order is divided into five degrees of increasing distinction: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand-Croix (Grand Cross).

The order's motto is "Honneur et Patrie" ("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 River Seine in Paris.

In the French Revolution, all French orders of chivalry were abolished, and replaced with Weapons of Honour. It was the wish of Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul, to create a reward to commend civilians and soldiers and from this wish was instituted a Légion d'Honneur, a body of men that was not an order of chivalry, for Napoleon believed France wanted a recognition of merit rather than a new system of nobility. The Légion however did use the organization of old French orders of chivalry, like the Ordre de Saint-Louis). The badges of the legion also bear a resemblance to the Ordre de Saint-Louis, which also used a red ribbon.