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project of Alexander Ioan Cuza, whose design was later copied by Carol I (in the Crossing of the Danube and Elisabeta Crosses) and then the Bulgarian prince. Or perhaps the example at the Military Museum is a variant of an unknown award of Battenberg. The design of the cross has survived in Romanian heraldry to this day, in the form of the Cross of the Royal House of Romania awarded by former king Michael I. The Order of the Union (1864)

After the offical union of the two Romanian principalities in 1862, Cuza resumed his earlier efforts to establish a national order. The project was abandoned almost immediately after a negative report by Costache Negri, the Romanian envoy at Constantinople. The National Museum of History in Bucharest owns the insignia of an order described as an early design of the Order of the Union. It is a red-enameled cross with brilliants, the central medallion contains the letter A (Figure 16). It doesn’t match the description of the Order of the Golden

Sheaf, so it could be a prototype of the 1862 project.

After gaining increased power through a coup d’état in 1864, the prince made a new attempt to institute a national award. In September, Cuza approved in a letter the award designs proposed by Prime Minister Mihail Kogalniceanu that included the two silver medals and perhaps the controversial Iron Cross. The insignia were ordered from Paris and Costache Negri received an official letter in which the sultan and the foreign ambassadors in the Ottoman capital announced the founding of the order. Negri managed to persuade Cuza to postpone the handing of the letter until the resolution of the very important negotiations on the statute of the lands owned by Greek monasteries in Romania. However, the rumor was published by the Turkish press and Le journal de Constantinople wrote that the Order would be instituted on January 24, 1865 to celebrate the election of Cuza.

In early November Grand Vizier Aali Pasha demanded a clarification on this issue from Romanian envoys Negri and Bordeanu and handed them an official protest a few days later. Aali Pahsa suggested that the sultan would approve the order if he was named as its grandmaster, a solution also suggested by Bordeanu and the French ambassador in Constantinople. However, Cuza rejected the proposal and sent a new letter at the end of the month notifying the Ottomans of the establishment of the order. The reaction of the Sublime Porte was very negative and Negri told the prince that this issue of lower importance would ruin the ongoing talks on the crucial subject of the monasteries.

Figure 14: Obverse of a cross similar to the Iron Cross but with the heraldic

lion of Bulgaria.

Figure 15: Reverse of the cross in Figure 14.

Figure 16: Obverse of a possible prototype of a national order

proposed in 1862.

12 JOMSA

In early December the Ottoman foreign minister suggested again that the order would be approved if certain formalities (appointing the sultan as its honorific head) were met. The Romanian envoys and the French ambassador advised Cuza to either accept this childish request or to postpone the issue for the time being. The prince chose the second option and waited for a favorable moment, which did not come before his forced abdication in 1866.

Despite the diplomatic issues, the insignia were ordered from the house of Kretly in Paris. Some sources claim that the design was made by a French engraver, but surviving letters indicate that Cuza’s envoy (Godillot) carried the drawings from Bucharest. It seems that the author was Carol Popp of Szathmari, the offical photographer of the prince.

The Order of the Union had five classes: knight, officer, commander, grand officer and grand cross. The highest two classes are very rare and until 1940 it was believed that the order only had the lower three classes (one can find this incorrect information in older articles).

The insignia is a blue-enameled cross surrounded by rays. The obverse of the red enamel central medallion has the numbers 5-24 (indicating the dates of the double election) surrounded by the motto GENERE ET CORDE FRATRES on a blue background, surrounded in turn by green

circular oak leaves. The reverse has Cuza’s monogram on a red-enamel background, circled by oak leaves. The ribbon was attached through a princely crown identical to the one found on the Medal of Military Virtue and many later awards of the Romanian kings. The ribbon is red with thin, double, blue strips on the sides.

The knight class is made of silver, with a diameter of 40mm. The officer insignia has the same diameter but is made of gold and a rosette is added on the ribbon (Figures 17 and 18). The commander class (Figure 19) is made of gold with a diameter of 60mm and was worn on the neck, same as the grand officer class that has in addition a 90mm breast star. Finally, the grand cross (Figure20) has the greatest size (70mm) and includes the same breast star.

Figure 17: Obverse of the insignia of an Officer of the Order of the Union.

Figure 18: Reverse of the insignia of an Officer of the Order of the Union.

Figure 19: Obverse of the Grand Cross (left) and Officer insignia of the Order of the Union.

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Cuza ordered a total of 1000 insignia of all classes from Kretly. Since the order was never officially established only a few were given as personal gifts. It seems that a number of ministers received it, among them Mihail Kogălniceanu (grand officer), I. Strat (commander), Vasile Alecsandri, Costache Negri, etc. Most of the orders were found in crates in the palace after the abdication of Cuza (under the prince’s be, according to one source).

The Kretly House kept the original dies for a long time and years later C. Istrati was able to purchase several orders that were manufactured using them. Bucharest-based merchant Mauriciu Fain, who was active in the production and sale of medals and jewelry, is another possible manufacturer of the award. In any case, he owned a number of orders of all classes and most of the examples in the collections of Romanian museums come from his donations. According to engraver Joseph Resch, his father (Gebruder Resch) also produced the Order of the Union in his workshop in Vienna. However, most sources name Kretly as the only manufacturer.

At the start of the War of Independence, on May 10, 1877, Carol I established the Order of the Star of Romania that retained Cuza’s design, changing only the monogram and the motto. Most of the Orders of the Union were sent to Kretly to be modified and the first cases were also produced there. Later, a small number of Cuza’s orders that were found were hastily modified in the Bucharest workshops of Joseph Resch and A. Rosenfeld to meet the demand for bravery awards during the war. At the end of the year, the Ministry of War reported it still had three orders (knight, officer and grand cross) with the monogram of the former prince.

Figure 20: Reverse of the insignia of a Grand Cross of the Order of the Union.

On May 25, 1877 Nicolae Golescu (former member of the 1866 regency) received the grand cross of the Order of the Star, becoming the first member of a Romanian order. The order has survived with several changes in shape until today and remains the most important award of modern Romania.

Bibliography:

Arhivele Naţionale, fond Ministerul de Război, Regimentele 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Infanterie.

Arhivele Naţionale, fond Ministerul Afacerilor Externe, Cancelaria Ordinelor, Corespondenţă în legatură cu acordarea decoraţiilor.

Berindei, D. A. “Cuza Vodă şi ordinul “Unirii”” in Revista Istorică Română, v. 16, no. 1-2. Bucharest: Bibioteca Naţionala a României, Colecţia Monitorul Oficial, 1947, p. 98-106.

Căzănişteanu, C. “Date noi cu privire la lupta din Dealul Spirii de la 13 Septembrie 1848,” in Studii, v. 20, no. 1, Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1967, p. 67-81.

Cojocărescu, M. “O medalie inedita datată 1851, din colecţia Muzeului de Istorie al Municipiului Bucureşti,” in Materiale de istorie şi muzeografie, Bucharest, no. 10, 1981, p. 247-253.

Costandache, Gr. “Medaliile şi decoraţiunile militare româneşti, BSNR,” Anii 29-36, no. 83-90, 1935-1942, p. 185-208 (Bucharest).

Iordache, L. N. and C. Andonie. “Imagini necunoscute ale unor decoraţii româneşti (mai putin) cunoscute,” in Buletinul Muzeului Militar Naţional Regele Ferdinand I, Bucharest, no. 7-8, 2009-2010.

Iorga, N. Viaţa şi domnia lui Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei. Vălenii de Munte: Tipografia Neamul Românesc, 1910.

Istrati, C. “Primele însemne de distincţiuni şi decoraţiuni române,” in Analele Academiei Române, Memoriile secţiunii ştiinţifice, Series II, v. 36, 1913-1914, p. 9-16.

Ivănceanu, V., P. Ionescu, P. P. Sterescu, and C. Tâmpeanu, Ordine, cruci şi medalii române. Imprimeria Statului, Vălenii de Munte, 1927.

Marinescu, N. “Câteva decoraţiuni rare la Muzeul Militar Naţional,” in Buletinul Muzeului Militar Naţional no. 3, 1939-1940, p. 136-141.

Moisil, C. “Încercările lui Cuza Voda de a institui decoraţii naţionale,” in Cronica numismatică şi arheologică, an 15, no.. 117-118, January-June, 1940, (Bucharest), pp. 193-197.

Papazoglu, D. Istoria fondărei oraşului Bucureşti. Bucharest: Fundaţia Culturală “Gheorghe Marin Speteanu,” 2000.

P o t r a , G . D i n B u c u r e ş t i i d e i e r i . B u c h a r e s t : E d i t u r a Ş t i i n ţ i f i c ă ş i E n c i c l o p e d i c ă , 1 9 9 0 Romanulu, anul al decelea, Duminecă, luni, marţi 24,25 si 26 Aprilie 1866, Bucharest.

Vârtosu, E. “Ordinul Jerbii de Aur,” in Cercetări Istorice 13-16, Iaşi 1940, p. 702-706.

Credits for images:The numismatic cabinet of the Romanian Academy of Sciences: Destoinicie si osardie; Firemen Museum in Bucharest: Pro Virtute Military medal and its award certificate; National Military Museum in Bucharest: Virtutea Militara 1864,Cuza Iron Cross, Courage and Loyalty Carol I version, Order of the Union grand cross; the Kunker Iron Cross comes from their auction catalogue and it was posted by Cristian Ciuplea in an older discussion on the Transylvanian Numismatics forum; the National Museum of History in Bucharest: Loyalty and Courage Cuza version, early variant of the Order of the Union, Order of the Union officer class.