Lot 1226

French Order of the Legion of Honour. Knights cross, 1st Model. According to an attached note, this medal belonged to colonel Pierre Lejeune of the 57th line infantry regiment. Lejeune was born in Visé in the Principality of Liege on 11 October 1762 and died on 5 November 1813 after being wounded in the Battle of Leipzig. Lejeune became Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur on 14 June 1804. The story goes that Lejeune's medal eventually ended up with his cousin Aristeole Dethier, the son of the Belgian politician Laurent Francois Dethier. It was this Laurent Francois Dethier who removed the head of Napoleon I from the medal as act of political defiance.