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THE BEAUTY'S IN THE DETAIL...
All too often the history of the First Empire finds itself defined by the clash of nations, military campaigns stretching ever further across Europe, and the forceful personalities that drove its events. An when it comes to the final chapter of the Napoleon legend, the deposed French emperor's last years in exile on the rocky outcrop marooned in the South Atlantic, it is easy to overlook the little details that can be found just beneath the surface of this unassuming island's "grande histoire". Our book of the month this time around, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau's Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud, peels away the story of Napoleon to reveal the layers of supporting characters who found themselves caught up - many entirely by accident - in an episode that would come to define St Helenian history. Our interview with the author is a great introduction to the work that went into writing and researching the book, as well as a fascinating insight into what it's like to live on the island today. We continue our letter with another episode in the French emperor's exile, this time an account of Napoleon's stay onboard the Bellerophon, reproduced in its entirety in our digital library. Unfortunately, we also bring you some bad news this week, with the announcement that the British military historian Richard Holmes, well-known for his works on Cromwell, Wellington and Marlborough, has passed away after a battle with cancer. Rounding the letter off is news of 2011's "Museums at Night" festival, as well as a return to the Peninsular campaign (200 years ago) and a look at British opposition to the Suez Canal (150 years ago).
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BOOK OF THE MONTH
Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud, by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau
In October 1815, Napoleon and his companions, accompanied by a British garrison charged with guarding him, landed on a remote and rocky island in the middle of the South Atlantic. The quiet history of this tiny colony was to be changed forever by this unexpected arrival. With the history of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena already well-known, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau approaches it from a different angle, and takes a look at the lives of those who were caught up in the episode. In addition to Hudson Lowe, the reader is introduced to the decidedly odd Reverend Boys, Solomon "the Jew", the feisty Betsy Balcombe, Cipriani the major-domo, the slaves working on the island, the East India Company's Chinese natives, and the prostitutes hanging around the prison; in short a microcosm worthy of Balzac's Comédie humaine.
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NAPOLEON.ORG
Interview: Michel Dancoisne-Martineau: a Saint Helena passion
Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, French honorary consul and curator of the French domains on St Helena, has lived on the island for nearly thirty years. No-one knows the island's history, geography and traditions better than he does. To mark the release of his new book (and our new book of the month), Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud, Michel spoke to napoleon.org about his duties on the island, the research and work that went into Chroniques, and Operation St Helena, launched in November 2010 by the Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien.
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NAPOLEONIC NEWS
Obituary: Richard Holmes, 1946-2011
The distinguished British military historian, Richard Holmes, has died after a battle with cancer. Having won a scholarship to read History at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Holmes graduated and spent a year at Northern Illinois University, completing a PhD on the French army during the Second Empire before joining the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst as a lecturer in 1969. He went on to become deputy head of the Department of War Studies there. His biography of the Duke of Wellington, Wellington: The Iron Duke, was published in 2002, and was followed by an acclaimed documentary series of the same name. He had recently campaigned to preserve a key site from the Battle of Waterloo, the farmyard at Hougemont in Belgium, where the forces of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon faced each other in June 1815.
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DIGITAL LIBRARY
Narrative of the surrender of Buonaparte, by Captain F. L. Maitland
Napoleon's journey into exile on the island of St Helena saw him spend three weeks onboard HMS Bellerophon, the British ship of the line, before joining HMS Northumberland, the ship destined to ferry him to the South Atlantic island. Bellerophon's captain, a certain Frederick Lewis Maitland - who would eventually rise to the rank of Rear Admiral and serve in India - sat down afterwards to write an account of his brush with the deposed French emperor. Originally intended "for the private perusal of my friends", the book was published eleven years later, in 1826, and is now available in its entirety via the Fondation Napoléon's digital library.
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WHAT'S ON
Museums at Night 2011
The Europe-wide "Museums at Night" festival swings round once again, and as has become standard here at the Fondation Napoléon, we have put together a short selection of Napoleonic-esque events that may be of interest to our readers. First up is the Wellington Museum (Waterloo, Belgium) where, on 15 May, there will be two guided tours entitled "When cannon fire arrived on the Iberian Peninsula" (external link in French). These have been organised as part of the "Spain and Portugal: Wellington enters the scene" exhibition currently taking place. There will also be children's activities throughout the day, including figurine painting, music, and Spanish food tasting. Staying with events for children, Explosion! The Museum of Naval Firepower (Gosport, UK) will be hosting a sleepover on the night of 14 May, with activities (external link) organised around different aspects of naval warfare from the 18th-century through to modern times.
200 YEARS AGO
More sinn'd against than sinning...
After the disastrous campaign in Portugal, Masséna was ignominiously removed from his post in command of the Armée de Portugal on 10 May, 1811 in a letter delivered on behalf of Napoleon. Masséna's command had been undermined dramatically by an army severely lacking in ammunition and supplies and desperate to return home, and open insubordination from Ney (who was dismissed from his post on 22 March), a distinctly reticent officer in Reynier, a lack of support from Drouet's 9th corps intended to reinforce the Armée de Portugal, and rank incompetence on the part of Bessières, commander of Old Castille and Leon.
Keep an eye out next week for our timeline on the Portuguese campaign of 1810 and 1811.
150 YEARS AGO
The Suez Canal: Britain remains unconvinced
Despite Ferdinand de Lesseps' assurances that the construction of the Suez Canal, intended as a link between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, could only be of benefit to Britain, the British government remained opposed to the project. The first step in its construction had been taken on 25 April, 1859, but work was then to be held up as British passive-aggressive pressure on the Ottoman Empire - to whom Said Pacha, viceroy of Egypt, owed fealty - began to tell, leading to the Porte issuing orders to the Pacha to halt construction. Britain's opposition - marshalled by Lord Palmerston, the Francophobe British prime minister - was a combination of commercial protectionism, distrust of de Lesseps, and perhaps, most tellingly, a fear regarding France's hegemony over the canal, despite the two countries being allied at the time. These concerns were more often than not cloaked in loudly-voiced protests regarding the feasibility of the project (described by Palmerston in 1857 as "wildly fanciful ideas"). As the Moniteur Universel reported on 8 and 9 May, 1861, practical concerns soon gave way to perhaps the real meat of British opposition, France's involvement in Egypt, traditionally seen as the overland route to Britain's colony in India:
"The union of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, explained the Earl of Carnarvon, the connecting of the east and the west, the realization of hopes which the Pharoahs [sic] dreamt of, and which Alexander half-accomplished, the possible stimulus to commerce, to civilization, and even to Christianity, were enough to invest the scheme in glowing colours. But between the projection and the realization of such a scheme there was a very wide distance, and very serious objections, both commercial and political, could he raised against it.
And even if the construction of such a canal in the shifting sands and mud of the isthmus was successful (Lord Wodehouse described it in the same 6 May session as similar to the "fabled labour of Sisyphus in rolling the stone up the hill"), there was also the concern that the project was no longer a private venture, with the earl arguing that the viceroy had been convinced to sink so much of his own money [90,000,000 francs according to the Hansard minutes, about £3,500,000 at the time] into it that there was a distinct possibility of "the liability [being] held to be binding on the [viceroy's] successors, from [which] moment the Government of Egypt would no longer be free agents." Although reluctant to "say anything in disparagement of the French Government, [...] it was obvious that in the course of time the action of this company might become the action of the French Government; and if so, it was highly objectionable, in point of policy, that any European Power should occupy such a position in the Egyptian state."
For the full story of the Suez canal, including Britain's opposition, de Lesseps' attempts to win the country over, and the eventual completion of the project (in 1869), take a look at our special dossier on the canal. The full discussion in the House of Lords is available here via Hansard (external link).
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 583, 6 – 12 MAY, 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
- "Spain and Portugal: Wellington enters the scene", Waterloo, Belgium [17/02/2011 - 31/05/2011]
Full details
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