Royal Order of the Lion

Royal Order of the Lion
Royal Order of the Lion, 5th class (knight)
Awarded by the King of the Belgians
Type	National order of merit
Established	9 April 1891; 133 years ago (1891-04-09)
Country	Kingdom of Belgium
Motto	Travail et progrès (French)
Awarded for	Services to Congo and its ruler
Status	No longer awarded
Grand master	Philippe of Belgium
Grades	Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander, Officer, Knight
Precedence
Next (higher)	Order of the African Star
Next (lower)	Order of the Crown

The Royal Order of the Lion (French: Ordre Royal du Lion; Dutch: Koninklijke orde van de Leeuw) was established by King Leopold II of Belgium on 9 April 1891, in his capacity as ruler of the Congo Free State, and was awarded for services to the Congo and its ruler that did not deserve the award of the Order of the African Star, and were not necessarily performed from within Belgian Congo.

The order was incorporated into the Belgian honours system following the annexation of the Congo Free State by Belgium in 1908. The motto of the order is Travail et progrès ("Labour and progress"). The King of the Belgians is its Grand Master, with the order awarded by Royal Decree. Following the independence of Congo-Léopoldville in 1960, the order is no longer current, although the wording of its statutes permitted awards after this, for example for services rendered before independence.^[1]