Marie Schellinck

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Marie Schellinck (born July 25, 1757 in Ghent , † September 1, 1840 in Menen ) was a Belgian soldier during the French Revolution .

Life

She joined the 2nd Belgian Battalion of the French Army in men's clothing in 1792 and took part in the Battle of Jemappes in the same year , where she was seriously wounded. On November 10, 1792, four days after the battle, she was promoted to second lieutenant. She resigned in 1795/96, now exposed, and married Lieutenant Louis-Joseph Decarmin. She followed her husband on the campaigns to Italy in the following years. She settled with him in Lille after his retirement in January 1808 .

Legend of the Order of the Legion of Honor

It is reported, without mentioning a husband, that after Jemappes she took part in numerous other battles ( Arcole , Marengo , Austerlitz , Jena and Auerstedt and the Polenkampgne 1807) for fourteen years , was only promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1806, and on the 20th. June 1808 Napoleon personally appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor when he entered Ghent and received gifts and a pension of 700 francs from him and the Empress. This is a legend that has been widely circulated since the second half of the 19th century, for which an illustration was made in 1890; According to this legend, she also had the middle name Jeanne .

Napoleon was in Bayonne in the south of France in June 1808 and on the day mentioned he was busy ratifying the Italian constitution. In 1909 Léonce Grabilier replied to his colleague Louis Stroobant, who had republished the legend that Napoleon I never bestowed the medal on a woman, even if he had been asked to do so in 1805. In 1816 and 1821, too, intercessions for Schellinck are said to have been refused, on the grounds of the then Grand Chancellor: No woman is known who was ever part of the order; and by no means had anyone ever been awarded the medal.

The first order of the Legion of Honor to be awarded to a woman did not go to Marie-Angélique Duchemin until 1851 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The life data are not proven with certainty.
  2. ↑ a b Léonce Grabilier: Jeanne Schellinck in: L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux (French) , 1909
  3. ↑ La Belgique militaire in: L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux , November 25, 1885 (French)
  4. ↑ Declaration on the website of the major chancellery of the Legion of Honor ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (en) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.legiondhonneur.fr
personal data
SURNAME Schellinck, Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schellinck, Maria; Schellinck, Marie-Jeanne (incorrectly transmitted name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian-French soldier during the French Revolution
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 1840
Place of death Men