Could someone translate this French text?

[Herr General]

Leopold III

Roi des Belges

A tous pr?sents et a venir Salut

Voulant donner a Monsieur ---- , Sagnais a la Cour de La Majest? la Reine des Pays-Bas,

un T?moignage de Notre bienveillance; Nous avons arret? et arretons;

Art.1. La medaille de 3eme classe instutu?e pas Notre arret? du 2 Avril 1934 est accord?e a Monsieur ---- pregnalifie,

Art.2. Le Chef de Notre Cabinet est charge de l'execution du pr?sent arr?t?.

Donn? a Bruscelles, le 27 d?cembre 1938.

Se Leopold

Par le Roi:

Le Chef du Cabinet du Roi ff

Se Baron Capelle

Certifi? conforme;

Le secr?taire du Cabinet du Roi,

[Hendrik]

Oh great, Belgian French language officialese ... you can't but hate it

Here goes :

Leopold III, King of the Belgians,

To all those present and to come, our greetings.

Wishing to extend to Mr. ....., "sagnais" (don't think this is the right word, please check) to the court of Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, our benevolent recognition, we have decided and decide :

Art. 1 the 3rd class medal, instituted by our Decree of 2 April 1934, is awarded to Mr. .... - "pregnalifie" (again I think you misread the word here)

Art. 2 The Head of our Office is charged with the execution of the present decree.

Given in Brussels, 27 December 1938

"Se" (Could that be SA = Son Altesse = His Highness ???) Leopold

For the King :

Head of the King's Office

Baron Capelle

Certified for conformity :

The Secretary to the King's Office

[Christophe]

Excellent translation by Hendrick !!!

To "discover" the few words remaining, it would be interesting to see a scan of the doc.

Cheers.

Ch.

[Herr General]

Here are the unknown words, a full scan will follow:

[Herr General]

Here is the full document

[Christophe]

The 1st word is "laquais", which means "lackey".

The 2nd one is "pr?qualifi?", which means "prequalified". There is certainly one word missing there... Prequalified for what ?

Cheers.

Ch.

[Christophe]

Thanks for the doc, a nice one!!!!

In fact, "pr?qualifi?" seems to corrspond to a kind of status. Hendrik, any more information about this ?

Cheers.

Ch.

[Herr General]

Some more info. This Lackey retired from his service to the court in 1934. Could the unknown word have something to do with him receiving the document years after receiving the medal?

[Christophe]

Maybe, but, this could could also mean he qualified a time ago (when still in service) and not at the time of the awarding when he aws not any more... And in 1938, was in the position of a "pr?qualifi?" awardee... To be checked with the regulations of the medal... Hendrik ?

Cheers.

Ch.

[Hendrik]

Sorry guys, I'm stumped at the "pr?qualifi?" as well ... unless it some odd way of indeed indicating that the recipient earned it at an earlier stage

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Christophe]

Sorry guys, I'm stumped at the "pr?qualifi?" as well ... unless it some odd way of indeed indicating that the recipient earned it at an earlier stage

Cheers,

Hendrik

What I think...

Cheers.

Ch.

[Herr General]

I think that this is the only possibility since this lackey retired 4 years before the document was made.

[Djedj]

Hmm, couldn't it just mean "whose quality we already wrote down" ?

A way of not re-writing the whole "Laquais ? la Cour de Sa Majest? la Reine des Pays-Bas", while stating that this very quality is consubstantial to the awarding of the order in the decree.

It is a bit odd in French, but then again old formal language often is - and it does make sense.

Salutations,

J?r?me

[Hendrik]

Hello J?r?me,

I think you hit the nail right on the head there ! A far better and more logical explanation to that little mystery; well done !!!

And it just dawned on me the "Se" before Leopold stands for "sign?" (signed) ...

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Herr General]

What remains a mistery to me is that a lackey that resigned in 1934 (according to the archive of the Royal House) received a award for servants of foreign courts in 1938....

[Hendrik]

a lackey that resigned in 1934 (according to the archive of the Royal House) received a award for servants of foreign courts in 1938....

Ha, but nobody told the Belgian court he had done so ... and, the mills of administration grind slowly, very slowly indeed ! Belgian veterans of WWI were still awarded medals in the 1950's to give but one example !

Cheers,

Hendrik

[Herr General]

Sounds right Hendrik!

Thanks every one for there comment!