History
The badge Order of the White Eagle was originally a red enamel oval gold medal with an image of the Polish white eagle on its front side and bearing Augustus II's royal cypher over crossed swords on its reverse side worn on a light blue ribbon. This was replaced by a Maltese cross in 1709. By 1713 it was worn from the neck, with a blue sash, and a star. Although Augustus the Strong limited the number of knights to seventy-two, he only conferred the Order forty times before his death in 1733. His son, Augustus, however, awarded the Order more than three hundred times. Augustus may have been inspired to found the Order by the example of Peter the Great's recent founding of the Russian Order of Saint Andrew (of which he himself had been made one of the first knights by the Russian emperor), and above all by the example of the prestigious French Order of the Holy Spirit, with which the light blue ribbon, and the star with a bird, have a strong resemblance, and which had also inspired Peter the Great's Order of Saint Andrew. Initially the creation of the Order was strongly opposed by many of the Polish nobility since membership in the Order conferred a distinction which violated the traditional equality of all Polish nobles. Since the Order had no patron saint, Augustus II made August 2nd the feast of the Order. His son, Augustus III, however, changed the Order's feast day to August 3rd.
After the third partitioning of Poland, in 1795, the Order was abolished, though it was renewed by 1807 and became the highest award of the Duchy of Warsaw and of the Kingdom of Poland. It was also popular among the Russian czars, who also conferred the Order upon themselves. In 1830, after a November Uprising against Imperial Russia, to which Poland belonged at the time, the jewel of the Order was modified to more closely resemble those of Russian orders. It remained in this former until the Russian Revolution of 1917, in which the Russian Empire fell.
The Order of the White Eagle officially became Poland's highest decoration by act of Parliament of February 4, 1921, and the insignia was redesigned. In the interbellum the Order was awarded to 24 Polish citizens and 87 foreigners, among whom were 33 monarchs and heads of state, ten prime ministers and fifteen other ministers of state, and twelve members of royal families.
After 1948, when the People's Republic of Poland came into existence, the Order of the White Eagle was no longer awarded, but it was never officially abolished. It was also used by the Polish Government in Exile. Following the collapse of communism, the Order was once again reinstated on October 26, 1992, the Polish Government in Exile having already presented the seal and archives of the Order to Lech Walesa, first post-communist President of Poland. The first person to be awarded the White Eagle after its reinstatement was Pope John Paul II. The President of Poland is always the Grand Master of the Order.
Read more about this topic: Order Of The White Eagle (Poland)
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