Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand

Updated on Nov 24, 2023

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Eligibility Military personnel Established 31 August 1811 Next (lower) Military Medal		Status Currently awarded Next (higher) None

Type Military Order of Merit

The Royal and Military Order of Saint Ferdinand (Spanish: Real y Militar Orden de San Fernando), commonly known as Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand (Spanish: Cruz Laureada de San Fernando), is Spain's highest military award for gallantry. It is awarded in recognition of action, either individual or collective, to protect the nation, its citizens or the peace and security of the international community in the face of immediate risk to the bearer or bearers' life or lives. Those eligible are current and former members of the Spanish Armed Forces.

Among the conditions laid out by the Royal Military Order of Saint Ferdinand for the granting of the award are:

that the sole purpose of the action taken wasn't the saving of own's life;

that the action was not taken motivated by improper ambition to honours unnecessarily disregarding own's (or own's subordinate's) lifes;

that, as far as possible, the damage and number of own casualties caused by the action was minimized;

that the action was taken in the face of significantly adverse odds or other detrimental factors;

that the action taken made a crucial difference to the situation in which it occurred.

The Royal Military Order of Saint Ferdinand was set up by the Cádiz Cortes in 1811 to honour heroic feats of arms. Its awardees include Juan Prim, Juan de la Cruz Mourgeón, Francisco de Albear, José Enrique Varela Iglesias, Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, Frederick Thomas Pelham, Henry Kelly (VC), Francisco Franco Bahamonde and Mohamed Meziane.

References

Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand Wikipedia

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