Louis Marchand entered service in the Imperial Household in 1811 as garçon d'appartement (house servant), subsequently becoming Premier valet de chambre (First Valet of the Emperor's Chamber). He followed Napoleon to Elba and then St Helena, becoming one of the key figures in creation of the legend around the fallen emperor. Marchand returned to France in 1821, living out his life easily between Paris and Auxerre. He died in 1876 aged 85.
It was 120 years later that his grandson was to hand over his ancestor's journal to the Napoleonic specialist, Jean Bourguignon, head curator at Malmaison. Bourguignon was only able to publish a single volume before his death covering the Hundred Days and the period on Elba (1952). The publishing project was picked up by another eminent Napoleon scholar, Commandant Lachouque, and he edited volume two which appeared in 1955 and dealt with the St Helena period.
The existence of the memoirs had long been known, but it was thought that Napoleon III had bought them and had them destroyed! Frédéric Masson received the exceptional favour of being allowed to consult the memoirs for a few days. It was in the end Jean Bourguignon who revealed them to the world.
But readers were not presented with amazing revelations. Marchand's text was a sober and precise account of the daily life of the emperor and his close entourage. There are no swingeing judgements and everything is expressed in a restrained way as befitted a man who knew that his importance lay in the smooth running of the emperor's life, Marchand describes the personal ticks and attitudes of all and excels in giving believable character descriptions of the inhabitants of the closed world of St Helena. Readers are carried along by the anecdotes, conversation transcriptions and description of events and fell that they are following Napoleon in his exile. The memoirs are particularly valuable for their close-up picture of Napoleon, although, as for Marchand, he rarely moves beyond the pose of devoted servant of his emperor.
Particularly moving (though sober) is the description of the emperor's death.
This and the memoirs by general Bertrand (published in the 1950s) were the last to appear by the witnesses of the exile, namely the Comte de Las Cases, general Gourgaud, the Comte de Montholon, the Mamluk Ali, and the Marquis de Montchenu.
Anglophone readers had to wait until 1998 for an English version of Marchand's text produced by Proctor Jones, entitled evocatively In Napoleon's shadow, and with the (for Marchand at any rate) flattering subtitle: the complete memoirs of Louis-Joseph Marchand, valet and friend of the Emperor 1811-1821. To be described as the emperor's friend is without doubt Louis-Joseph-Narcisse Marchand's most glorious title.
Bibliography
Marchand, Louis, Mémoires de Marchand : premier valet de chambre et exécuteur testamentaire de l'empereur Napoléon, publ. d'après le manuscrit original par Jean Bourguignon. I: L'île d'Elbe. Les Cent-Jours, Paris: Plon, 1952
Marchand, Louis, Mémoires de Marchand: premier valet de chambre et exécuteur testamentaire de l'empereur Napoléon, publ. d'après le manuscrit original par Jean Bourguignon et le Commandant Henry Lachouque II: Sainte-Hélène, Paris: Plon, 1955
Marchand, Louis, Mémoires de Marchand: premier valet de chambre et exécuteur testamentaire de l'empereur Napoléon, publ. d'après le manuscrit original par Jean Bourguignon et le Commandant henry Lachouque, index établit par Mlle Tartary, Paris: Tallandier 1985
Marchand, Louis, In Napoleon's shadow: being the First English language edition of the complete Memoirs of Louis-Joseph Marchand, valet and friend of the Emperor, 1811-1821 / including the original notes of Jean Bourguignon and Henry Lachouque; preface of Jean Tulard; San Francisco: Proctor Jones, 1998.