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More Danish Order of the Dannebrog, we’re now up to Christian VIII (1839-1848).
It’s driving me nuts, there is little documentation and what appears to be a fairly detailed account – in Jørgensen, P.J. (1964) Danish Orders and Medals – doesn’t agree with the existing specimens that I have found! Still, my own notes as well as the ones here in the OMSA Images Database are slowly, oh so slowly, beginning to make some sense of it all. Encouraged by the likes of Ed Haynes and Kevin Beyer, it’s likely they’ll end up in an attempt to write a JOMSA article.
Yes, you guessed it, more Order of the Dannebrog, this time from the reigns of Frederick VII (1848-1863) and Christian IX (1863-1906). At least I’m reaching a point at which there are more images to illustrate the entries.
Only 5 monarchs to go, and I haven’t seen any specimens from the current one – Frederick X, who ascended the throne in 2024!
It’s lovely and warm here in Cheshire today.
Another Sunday and more Order of the Dannebrog – today was (mostly) Frederick VIII (1906-1912) and now there were some images to illustrate the descriptions.
But there’s more. I found a picture from way back when, the collar and badge from Christian V, the founder of the Order. So I backfilled that, too. I keep finding more images so hopefully at least some of the other gaps will be filled in due course!
Yet more Order of the Dannebrog this Sunday… but the end is in sight. Today I added awards from the reigns of Christian X (1912-1947) and Frederick IX (1947-1972). This second is of note because in 1952 women became eligible for admission to the order. Whilst those awarded a Grand Cross could wear a sash, bows were introduced for recipients of the Commander and Knight classes. Interestingly, while male recipients of the Commander Class 1 wore a neck badge and a breast star, female ones only wore the breast star – no badge at all, not even on a bow! The Knight class was also divided into two, with the Knight Class 1 being distinguished by a rosette on the ribbon. I’ve managed to find images for most of these, at least from Grand Cross down.
That leaves Margrethe II (1972-2024) and Frederick X (2024-date) to complete this trek through the Order of the Dannebrog. And a question for you: Denmark had two or three very short-lived orders, do you want me to scrabble around for what little is available or shall I go on to Danish medals?
And we are done(ish) with the Order of the Dannebrog, with the addition of Margrethe II (1972-2024) and Frederick X (2024-date), plus a few in-fills from earlier that I’ve found along the way. Collapses in heap…
Of course, there’s the rest of Denmark to do now, but that should be a little bit more straightforward and I do have a lot of images!!!
Anyway, the weather is good here – nice and warm, and set to stay that way for the coming week.
A slight detour to cover some early short-lived Danish orders that sprung up and withered away in the 17th and 18th centuries. All rather fun even if there are few images. These were the Order of the Armoured Arm, the Order of Fidelity, the Order of Queen Caroline Mathilde, and the Order of King Christian VII.
Even so, there are some fascinating stories. The Order of the Armoured Arm was instituted by Christian IV and only awarded in one ceremony to a few noblemen, but some years later it appears that Christian V toyed with the idea of resurrecting it before he instituted the Order of the Dannebrog instead – there’s a mock up of the insignia with his monogram on it in the Danish royal collection.
As for the Order of Queen Caroline Mathilde, that lasted less than a year owing to said Queen being exiled for being unfaithful to her husband, King Christian VII – amidst rumours of him not being entirely sane and her having got a little too friendly with his doctor! A few years later Christian VII decided that he needed an order to replace it so came up with one bearing his own name.
Not much to show (yet) for a busy afternoon in the Denmark section, in which I added the Cross of Valour and started in on the Medal of Merit – which is an award dating from 1792 in which each monarch (ten of them so far!) has their own obverse and nearly all have gold and silver medals, some having crowns added to the medal as well. The structure is sorted, but I’ve not got very far in setting it all up in the database!
There’s a further complication in that some of the silver medals were awarded with a clasp – this related to an award to a group of people, e.g., participants in a notable expedition – but I decided not to include these, mostly because they’re quite rate and I haven’t found a single image yet!
What better way to spend my birthday than curled up adding some Danish medals to the Images Database. The Medal of Merit is now complete, with all the images I could find, as is the Ingenio et Arte Medal, which is very rarely awarded. Enjoy!
Today I added the Royal Medal of Recompense – with it being awarded during the reigns of six monarchs and there being 4 classes per monarch, it’s kept me quite busy (indeed I haven’t quite finished but I need to start cooking dinner shortly!). It is always presented as being the gift of the monarch but apparently it’s mostly given as a long service award to people working for private companies – who have to apply (and pay) for it, with strict instructions that the cost may not be passed on to the recipient! Although conferred by the reigning monarch, the medal is sent to the company to present it… however, recipients are entitled to attend an audience with the monarch for the purpose of thanking them for the award. All very modern, these days they book a slot online and have to turn up wearing their award and a pair of gloves (gloves can be provided if they don’t have any), and get a few minutes alone with the monarch.
I actually discovered that although this was instituted in 1865 and has been going ever since, there was an abortive attempt to found a “Medal of Recompense” by Frederick VII in 1860, with just 2 awards being made… and I found an image of one of them! It was awarded to one Nils Elof Holm, valet to the King of Sweden.
Today I finished up the Royal Medal of Recompense and started in on yet another complex award, the Medal for Noble Deeds. This started out as a fairly massive table medal but soon shrunk in size and was provided with a chest ribbon, but is very sparingly awarded for acts of lifesaving in which the rescuer also puts themselves at risk of their lives. As seems normal for the Danes, each monarch has their own obverse but for this award they’ve not put regnal numbers in Roman numerals (Christian VIII for example) but have written them out in Danish (so Christian den Ottende) instead. Got one up so far, but dinner is calling so the rest will follow in due course.
After adding all the images I have of the Danish Medal for Noble Deeds, I added some medals awarded to the armed forces: the Defence Medal for Bravery, the Defence Medal for Excellent Service, and the Medal of the Minister of Defence.
The first two are awarded sparingly and all three were instituted fairly recently – the Defence Medal for Bravery in 1996 and the other two in 2009 – so finding images wasn’t very easy.
Sunday again… so having torn myself away from recent Nigerian medals (which will no doubt eventually end up on here!) I got down to adding some more medals to the Danish section. First up is the Distinguished Flying Medal. That has a diagonally-striped ribbon reminiscent of the British Distinguished Flying Cross. Keen eyes will see that the specimens posted all have the monograph of Frederick IX on the obverse. Unlike some of the medals I’ve posted earlier for Denmark, with military medals they tend to use the monogram of whoever established the medal rather than change it every time there’s a change of monarch.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on the Medal for Those Killed or Wounded in Service and its successors. You see, the original medal was instituted as a response to Denmark’s increased involvement in international peacekeeping operations which naturally put Danish service members in harm’s way. However in 2009 there was a major rethink of Danish military medals and it was decided to split this in two, one for the fallen and one for the wounded. The latter is identical to the original medal when that was awarded to wounded personnel – the medal had a different reverse depending on whether the recipient had been killed or wounded.
And I hear dearly beloved coming downstairs. Best go see what he’d like to drink…
Denmark’s Ministry of Justice instituted an array of medals mainly aimed at their employees – mainly police and corrections officers – so I added three of them today, or tried to… I have figured out what they look like but there don’t seem to be any decent images out there, not helped by them having only got around to actually awarding any last November!
I’ve also started in on the Medal for Saving Life from Drowning, which is another one that changes with every monarch so there will be quite a few to keep me busy next week too!
We now have an (almost) complete set of the Danish Medal for Saving Life from Drowning… well, all the images I could find anyway. (OK I started a bit late as I was delving into Nigerian medals, they’ll end up on here in due course, no doubt.)
There are a couple more decorations and then we start in on Danish campaign medals. See you next time!
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