Badge, Order of the Tower and Sword, Portugal, 1816

From a medal group awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Maxwell Grant, 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot.

The Prince Regent John of Portugal (later King John VI) revived the Royal Order of the Tower and Sword in 1808, to acknowledge the contribution of Portuguese and foreign individuals in aiding the Portuguese Crown and resisting the invading French.

'The London Gazette' records the British Prince Regent bestowing the award upon 'Sir Maxwell Grant, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, and Colonel of the 6th Regiment of Portuguese Infantry', at Whitehall on 4 April 1816.

The 'Gazette' entry notes, 'His Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Portugal has been pleased to honour those Officers, in testimony of the high sense that [the] Prince entertains of the signal intrepidity displayed by them in several actions with the enemy, during the recent arduous campaigns in the Peninsula'.