Орден Святого Людовика

"Louis-Jean-Grégoire Mirleau de Neuville, Comte de Belle-Isle ", oil, 1821/25.​


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Order of the Phoenix.
In the standard reference source, the list of members of this order published in 1857 (see our image), we tried to find those among the Commanders (!) who, in the period of the Restoration, were of advanced age, of the rank of a "marechal de camp" and in possession only of the Chevalier Cross of St. Louis (and no other French or foreign decorations - the "Decoration of the Lily" was obligatory at that time), in addition to the "Phoenix".
Finally we found a single candidate: the "Gouverneur des Pages du Roi Louis XVIII" (in the same position at the court of Charles X from 1824 until his death in 1829), "marechal de camp" Louis-Jean-Grégoire Mirleau de Neuville, Comte de Belle-Isle, who had been at Versailles since early 1821.

According to his biography (see image) this man was born in 1761, so he is over 60 years old in the 1820s, the time of this portrait.
Moreover, due to the fact that he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honor on May 21, 1825 (it is still absent in this portrait) we can narrow down the period of the portrait's execution to the time between early 1821 (when he was appointed "Gouverneur des Pages" - he came to Versailles from Toulon, where he had been staying since the end of 1815 (see below)) and May 1825. This allows us to estimate his age at between 60 and 64 years, in full accordance with the sitter's appearance.

Louis-Jean-Grégoire Mirleau (sometimes Mirlot) de Neuville, Comte de Belle-Isle (sometimes Belleisle) was born on January 10, 1761 in commune Pierry, départment Marne.
As a young man he entered the Royal Army and became "sous-lieutenant" on December 31, 1779. Before he left France as an emigré in September of 1791 he served in the "Regiment d'Enghien", stationed in Alsatian town Sélestat where he married Anne de Bercheret (or Bergeret; it was her second marriage). She remained in Sélestat when he left France and filed for devorce two years later, surely on advice, since her husband's whereabouts were unknown and also to keep his property. The divorce was thus officially registered in Sélestat on October 31, 1793.
In Germany, Comte de Belle-Isle joined the royalist Army of Conde (also called Army of Princes) which had just formed from French emigrés. Namely its "Hohenlohe Infantry Regiment", sponsored by Count Hohenlohe-Bartenstein (then Grand Master of the Phoenix-Order!) where we find him in 1796 already in the rank of major and bearer of the Commander Cross of "Phoenix" (shortly before he was awarded the Knight Cross).
On February 1, 1798, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Army of Conde, and in 1800 to colonel. Sometime during this period, he was awarded the Chevalier Cross of St. Louis.
In 1803, while still in emigration, he married Anne Françoise Henriette d'Anthès, also a French emigré (an interesting fact: her nephew was the famous Frenchman in Russian military service who allegedly had an affair with the wife of the poet Alexander Pushkin, which led to a duel between the two men that ended with Pushkin's fatal wounding - Georges Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès). With her, his second wife, our Comte de Belle-Isle had several children (some genealogical sources speak of four, others about six).
In the summer of 1815 (the beginning of the 2nd Restoration) the family was already back in France and the husband rejoined the royal military service as an officer of the "Garde du Corps du Roi".
On October 23, 1815 he attained the rank of "marechal de camp" and two weeks later was appointed "lieutenant du roi" (deputy of the head of the royal administration) in the port city of Toulon.
On September 20, 1820, King Louis XVIII appointed him "Gouverneur des Pages" with a duty residence in Versailles (see our image).
He died in Versailles on May 12, 1829.

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Крест Ордена Феникса Дома Германских Государств Гогенлоэ 1820-1830 годов ,орден изначально был известен как Haus und Ritterorden vom Phonix и был учрежден для награждения отдельных лиц за их службу и достижения.
 
Портрет офицера Ричарда Хейли в военной форме.
На нем медаль королевского и военного ордена Сен-Луи.
В руке он держит коробку с табаком. Герб в правом верхнем углу.
Надпись на обороте:
"Родился в 1733 году в Балли-Хали близ Кинсейла, Ирландия, отец 10 детей".
Женился на Анастасии Наветур в 1764 году, умер в 1819 году в Вальер-ле-Гранд.
Французская школа XVIII века.

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