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EDITORIAL
« Il est né l'impérial enfant »
The date: 20 March, 1811. Napoleon must have thought (as Victor Hugo noted) that the future was assured. After the successes at home and those abroad, he had, with Marie-Louise's help, anchored the legitimacy of his crown via the birth of the King of Rome. You could say that this is the last ‘happy' bicentenary. On this two hundredth anniversary, the napoleon.org team is proposing a full dossier on the young king. And those in France could use it as a springboard to go and see the exhibition on the boy currently on at the Château de Fontainebleau.
This King of Rome, for whom his father had such dreams of thrones and palaces, was in the end relegated to the role of symbol: of the future of the dynasty, of Italian or Polish hopes, of certain revolutionaries of 1830, etc. And after his untimely death, he was caught in the cross-fire of the Bonapartist adventure, becoming the justification for the second emperor's title as Napoleon III, which whilst being juridically correct was a little historically exaggerated. His legend was given a new lease of life (at least in France) by Edmond Rostand via the latter's dramatic play « l'Aiglon ». His mortal remains were even the subject of an attempted instrumentalisation by a diabolical chancellor after a memorable defeat during the WWII, the story of which has been told admirably by Georges Poisson. He remains the subject of a small debate concerning the return of his sarcophagus to the Chapelle Saint-Jérôme at the Hôtel des Invalides so as to free up the cella in which André Malraux had him buried at the beginning of the 1960s. And some books are in the offing which will doubtless provide further details on a life which the king himself described somewhat masochistically as: «My birth and my death, that's me in a nutshell».
Poets are always correct. The life of this Aiglon, as Rostand said, is also «the story of a poor child». But it began nonetheless in the sumptuous pomp of the First Empire and in the whiff of cannon smoke at the Hôtel des Invalides.
Thierry Lentz
Director of the Fondation Napoléon
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NAPOLEON.ORG
A close-up on: the birth of the Roi de Rome
On 20 March, 1811, the long-awaited heir to the French imperial throne was born. Given the title of Roi de Rome, Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie-Louise of Austria (the emperor's second wife), was very briefly proclaimed as Napoleon II, his father's legitimate successor, before being sent into exile, eventually settling in Austria. To mark the bicentenary of his birth, we here at napoleon.org have put together an in-depth close-up of the events and circumstances surrounding his birth, which includes period documents, an article from Pierre Branda on the Maison des Enfants de France, and a timeline taking in the wedding of Napoleon and Marie-Louise to the celebrations that broke out across the empire over the days that followed the event.
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
"Napoleon – Hitler, the improbable comparison", by Thierry Lentz
Thierry Lentz, in a paper originally presented at the 2011 Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850, takes a look at a particular branch of historiography that grew out of the comparative biography trend of the 1980s: the anachronistic comparison of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler. Analysing the arguments of certain historians seeking to associate the French Empire and the Third Reich, the director of the Fondation Napoléon explains the danger of a simplified, ideological vision of history and demonstrates that Hitler and Napoleon, two men of entirely different time periods and circumstances, cannot, in a serious and balanced historical argument, be characters for comparison.
On the French side of the site, the latest article of the month is "La Naissance du Roi de Rome, 20 mars 1811" by Jean Tulard.
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WHAT'S ON
Reopening of the Museo Risorgimento, Turin, Italy
The Museo Risorgimento (external link), at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin, Italy, is set to reopen on 18 March, 2011, after nearly five years of restoration work. Part of the commemorative events taking place this year to mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, the entirely refurbished museum retells the story of the Risorgimento from the Italian, Piedmontese and European viewpoints. With interactive displays, over 2,400 objects and more than four hours of video and film, the museum's rooms take in the Wars of Italian Independence, the Crimean War, the meeting at Plombières, the declaration of a unified kingdom, and the capture of Rome, in 1870. Between 20 and 30 March, 2011, entrance to the museum is free.
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And off the Napoleonic track (again): "Under the aegis of Mars, Armour of the Princes of Europe", Paris, France
For the next couple of months, the Musée de l'Armée will be giving Napoleon a short break whilst they focus on a spectacular temporary exhibition. "Under the aegis of Mars, Armour of the Princes of Europe" has just opened in Paris and runs until 26 June, 2011. The exhibition features several masterpieces of ceremonial armourwork, loaned from some of the most exquisite and prestigious collections in the world. An event not to be missed. And just as an aside, did you know that a few weeks after Austerlitz, Napoleon devoted a lot of energy whilst in Austria to recovering Francis I's armour? His efforts proved successful, and this object, which forms part of the exhibition, is today held in the Musée de l'Armée's own collection. As Victor Hugo once said, "he is everywhere".
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NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE
Issue n° 9
Issue n° 9 of Napoleonica. La Revue was released last week, and our first selection from the new edition is the second part of Patrick Le Carvèse's "Les prisonniers français en Grande-Bretagne de 1803 à 1814", which offers an examination of French prisoners of war held in British detention centres and aboard prison hulks, known as "pontons". All the articles from Napoleonica. La Revue, including the back issues, are freely consultable online at Cairn.info.
200 YEARS AGO
Birth of the Roi de Rome
Late on 19 March, 1811, Marie-Louise, in a great deal of pain, summoned Corvisart, Napoleon's personal physician, who announced that the imperial couple's child would be born "during the night, perhaps, [otherwise] certainly by midday tomorrow".
And at 9.20am on 20 March, 1811, after over fourteen hours of labour and kidney pain, Napoleon's Austrian wife gave birth to the Roi de Rome. Celebrations reigned across Paris, church bells rang out, and fireworks lit up the Parisian skyline as the long-awaited and much desired heir to the imperial throne took his first breaths, surrounded by the principal members of the imperial family.
Find out more about the birth with our close-up on: the birth of the Roi de Rome.
150 YEARS AGO
Eugenie continues to grieve
In his journal entry for 23 March, 1861, Horace de Viel Castel noted that the townhouse on Avenue des Champs-Elysées which was formerly the property of General Lauriston - and, more pertinently, of the Duchess of Alba, sister to Eugenie, French empress - had been sold.
Eugenie had been deeply affected by the untimely death of her sister (news of which had been kept from her by Napoleon III during their trip to Algeria in 1860 and had in large part fuelled her unofficial trip to Scotland in December 1860) and Viel Castel described how this act, which would be followed shortly by the complete demolition of the building, was part of the grieving process, an attempt to "destroy this painful, last remaining memory of her sister". The site of the Duchess of Alba's death was torn down, and in its place was built the Rue d'Albe, which opened on 26 September, 1861. The street is now known as Rue Lincoln, after Abraham Lincoln, in Paris' 8th arrondissement.
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 576, 18 – 24 March, 2011
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© This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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OPERATION ST HELENA
The Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien, in association with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have announced an international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena. All the details regarding the campaign as well as donation forms and advice for donating from outside France, can be found on napoleon.org.
FONDATION NAPOLEON ON THE WEB
Each week we offer you a "mystery" link to somewhere on napoleon.org. Click on the link to discover a part of the website you might not have visited before...
EVENTS
On now and coming up
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
Exhibitions
- "Enfance impériale - le roi de rome, fils de napoléon", Fontainebleau, France [28/02/2011 - 23/05/2011]
Full details
Study days
- Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon: "Napoleon and the family", Créteil, France [31/03/2011]
Full details
NAPOLEON.ORG
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NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE
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