Prussia, a country that once shook the world, has given birth to many well-known medals in its long history, such as the "Medal of Merit", which was introduced to everyone before (see "Horn: The Art of the World's Classic Uniform Badge VI."). But the most revered of these, representing Prussia's highest honor, is the Order of the Black Eagle (Hoher Orden vom Schwarzen Adler), which is the highest in the order of the Order of The Prussian Kingdom.
The Black Hawk – the symbol of Prussia
In the early history of Europe, countries usually chose an animal image as a symbol of their own country, the most well-known of which was the Roman eagle emblem that accompanied the Roman army to conquer the vast lands of Asia, Africa and Europe, and used the Mediterranean Sea as the inland sea. In 102 BC, the Senate issued a law declaring the eagle emblem the official symbol of the Roman Republic, representing the "Senate and the Roman People" (Latin Senatus Populusque Romanus, abbreviated SPQR), SPQR is the official name of the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire, this eagle is also known as the "Eagle of SPQR", the Romans hope that this Jupiter eagle will guide them to one victory after another on the battlefield. The Roman legionary flag (Aquila) was fixed as the eagle flag, and after the final demise of the Western Roman Empire in 476 BC due to internal and external troubles, the eagle pattern briefly disappeared from European history.
The Eagle Emblem of the Roman Empire
But in 800 AD, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by the Pope. At this time, in order to show the legitimacy of his succession to the throne of the Western Roman Empire, Charlemagne put the Roman eagle emblem back on the historical stage, and the eagle emblem he adopted was the Black Eagle. However, the Charlemagne Empire was only a flash in the pan, after the death of Louis I, the son of Charlemagne, in 840 AD, his empire was divided among his three sons, and the Imperial Eagle Emblem was used by the Carolingian monarchs of the East and West Francian Kingdoms in turn, and then within the East Frankish Kingdom, four principalities were formed with four Germanic tribes as the mother, namely Saxony, Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria, when the last king of the Carolingian Dynasty, Louis, died in 911 AD. The nobles of East Francia did not choose members of the Carolingian family to succeed to the throne, but instead elected Conrad, Duke of Franconia, as king, and after Conrad's death, Henry, Duke of Saxony, was elected king, beginning the century-long control of the kingdom by the Saxon dynasty.
In 936 AD, Henry's son Otto I was elected king in Aachen, and after Otto's accession to the throne, through a series of measures such as foreign wars, political marriages, and the pacification of civil unrest, he was finally crowned Western Roman Emperor by the Pope in February 962 AD, and Otto I became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. By the time of Frederick I in the 12th century, the empire had become the strongest country in Europe, and Frederick I openly named the empire "sacred", and the empire was officially renamed the Holy Roman Empire. In order to show that the Empire was the orthodox successor of the ancient Roman Empire, the imperial coat of arms continued to use the Roman eagle, designed as a two-headed black eagle with a crown on its head.
Portrait of Frederick I, the first king of the Kingdom of Prussia, please note that this painting faithfully reflects the king wearing a chain of the Black Hawk Medal
At this time, in the Prussian region on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea, there lived ancient Prussians who believed in the nordic tradition of polytheism and spoke Prussian language, and as the Kingdom of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire continued to expand into the Prussian region, Pope Innocent III sent the Cistercian monk Oliva Christian to preach to the pagan Prussians, and in the following decades, fierce conflicts broke out between the two sides.
A drawing of the Black Hawk Medal of the Order of 1701
In 1226 AD, as the Ancient Prussians attacked the domain of Conrad, Duke of Mazoshev, and repeatedly burned churches and monasteries, Emperor Hohenstaufen of the Holy Roman Empire (Emperor Frederick) granted Hermann, the grand head of the Teutonic Knights Schultz, the right to use the "one-headed imperial eagle", and to decorate it on the shield, while granting him the right to conquer the pagan land of Prussia, the right to use Kurmoran granted by Conrad, the Duke of Mazoshev, and all the Prussian lands occupied. The symbol of the one-headed black eagle was henceforth given to the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Knights also lived up to expectations, launching nearly 200 years of crusades in the Prussian region, successively establishing the fortresses of Toruń, Marienburg, Kulm, and Elping, conquering all of Prussia, and forcing it to convert to Christianity and use German. In the centuries that followed, the ancient Prussians were thoroughly assimilated by the Germans.
Reserve Guards officer's insignia with the Black Hawk Medal drawing
In 1525, Albrecht, grand master of the Teutonic Order, declared the secularization of the Teutonic Knights, converted to Protestantism, and established the Duchy of Prussia. By 1618, John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern, had succeeded to the duchy and established the Duchy of Brandenburg-Prussia, and the nascent principality had inherited the Black Hawk symbol.
In 1688, the new monarch of the Principality, Frederick III, ascended the throne, and after his accession to the throne, he devoted himself to the elevation of the principality to a kingdom, but according to the laws of the Holy Roman Empire, there could be no other kings in the Holy Roman Empire except the German and Bohemian kings, who were generally concurrently held by the emperor.
A diamond edition of the Black Hawk Medal Star in the mid-18th century. Courtesy photo/DHM
Frederick III, in order to fulfill his desire to become king, built up an elite army and reformed the politics of the court, at this time the famous "Sun King" King Louis XIV of France set off a series of foreign wars in Europe, Frederick joined the alliance of Britain, Spain, and Sweden against France. By 1701 AD, holy Roman Emperor Leopold I was isolated in the War of the Spanish Succession, frederick was the first to ally with the emperor and send reinforcements. In return, Leopold I agreed to confer the title of king in a secret treaty, but Frederick III could only be called "King of Prussia" (König in Preußen) and not "King of Prussia" or "King of Brandenburg", first because no other king could exist in the territory of the holy Roman Empire mentioned above, and Brandenburg belonged to the Holy Roman Empire; the second part of Prussia (i.e. West Prussia) was Polish territory. This regret was not resolved until Frederick III's grandson Frederick the Great.
A Black Hawk medal from the Napoleonic Wars. Courtesy of photo/eMedals
On January 18, 1701, Frederick III was officially crowned King of Prussia in Königsberg, called Frederick I, the Duchy of Prussia was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Black Hawk officially became the symbol of the Kingdom of Prussia.