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In this week's letter...
we apologise for the temporary disruption to the website, which will be out of action over the weekend due to maintenance. As recompense, there's an amusing online selection of caricatures from a current exhibition in London. This week's '200 Years Ago' was a turbulent one for Napoleon, not only in terms of the withdrawal from Moscow, but also at home in the form of General Malet's audacious coup. '150 Years Ago' centres on the birth of trade unionism in France after the International Exhibition in London. On the right hand side there's a YouTube video of a jubilee held at the Malmaison, and an interesting discussion with Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel about writing history.
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News from the Fondation...
With the closing of the exhbition Napoleon: Revolution to Empire at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, comes the final report. Indeed, the words 'huge success' would not be going to far, with the Museum staying open all night on Saturday and Sunday with a constant stream of visitors, with 10,000 people seeing the exhibition in just two days, thus bring the total number of paying visitors to 188,500.
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Seen on the web...
An online exhibition of the prints from Broadsides: Caricature and the Navy, 1775–1815, which you may remember from last week's newsletter. Showcasing some of the prints from the current exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, they are an amusing and yet serious satirical comment on the politics of the time.
See the online exhibition here.
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200 Years Ago
19 October marks Napoleon's “strategic withdrawal” from Moscow. On their exit, the French blew up the Kremlin, a witness described “fire springing from the buildings of the arsenal, and we heard the first explosion which was followed at intervals by six more. Nothing was more terrible; huge pieces of stone were thrown 500 feet.”
Meanwhile, in Paris on 23 October 1812, the ex-general Malet staged a spectacularly audacious coup d'état. And it was not his first. On 16 June, 1808, General Malet and other Republican conspirators had been arrested for conspiring to take advantage of the Napoleon's absence (the emperor was in Bayonne) to overthrow the First Empire. This time, benefitting from the Emperor's prolonged absence during the Russian campaign, Malet was more successful. At 4am on 23 October, he broke out of the sanitarium he had been confined to and announced the death of the Emperor to General Soulier of the 10th cohort of the militia, which he then went to “prove” using forged documents. Under his direction, the cohort followed him to La Force prison where he ordered the release of his accomplices, generals Lahorie and Guidal, who were then charged with arresting senior government officials. Malet then declared a provisional government by order of the senate, headed by himself.
It was at the military headquarters in Paris that the plot was unmasked by Colonel Jean Doucet, who was aware of Malet's past and who was suspicious of the veracity of the forged letters. Malet was eventually physically overpowered and by late morning, the coup had been crushed. Malet and eleven other conspirators were hastily tried and executed by firing squad on 29 October. However concerns over the relative ease with which the conspiracy took root (for example, no cried 'Vive le Roi de Rome' as Napoleon's replacement) lingered. Many drew the conclusion Napoleon's regime really had not laid down deep roots in France.
For more on this, see the most up-to-date account of the affair (in French), by Director of the Fondation Napoléon, Thierry Lentz, published just recently by Perrin.
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150 Years Ago
In October 1862 the international exhibition of London took place, and the technological and industrial innovations exhibited were seen by more than 6 million people.
Amongst them, with formal permission from Napoleon III, was a delegation of workers, which included Henri Tolain. A metal worker by trade, Tolain had already published a letter in favour of the creation of a workers' institution totally independent of government power. The following year, he went to the exhibition with two hundred other French delegates to observe how trade unions were organised in Britain.
His return marked the true beginning of trade unionism in France. On the eve of the election of March 1864, the 'Manifesto of the 60' (a manifesto signed by 60 workers) was published in the then newly-founded l'Opinion Nationale. This text by Tolain, inspired by his London experiences, spoke for the aspirations of the whole working class in France which lacked parliamentary representation when it demanded the right to strike, to create trade unions, and to receive free education
Shortly after this, the Ollivier law of 25 May, 1864, was the first in France to sanction the right to strike, modifying the Le Chapelier law or combination act of 1791 which till that time had forbidden workers' gatherings. In the end, the London universal exhibitions were the catalyst for the international labour movement.
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Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Andrew Miles
Historians and web editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N0 642, 19 - 25 OCTOBER 2012
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation ?
© 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.
You can still donate online to the project via the Friends of the Fondation de France in the US here.
MAGAZINE
Seen on the web (external links)
- Video: The First Imperial Jubilee at Malmaison
- Novel Approches: from academic history to historical fiction, Hilary Mantel in conversation.
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
- The Representation of Italy, Turin, Italy [26/09/2012 - 09/12/2012]
Details here - in Italian - external link.
- National Army Museum, London (UK) lectures: Carole Divall, 'Wellington's Worst Scrape': The Failure at Burgos and the Retreat to Portugal [15/11/2012 - 15/11/2012]
Details here - external link.
NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE
Available free on Cairn.info
NAPOLEONICA ARCHIVES ONLINE
Napoleonica is currently offline because of maintenance. Please accept our apologies for the interruption.
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
The new library opening hours (from 15 November) will be:
Monday and Tuesday 1pm – 6pm and
Thursday to Friday 10am – 3pm.
Wednesday closed.
The library is currently closed for renovation.
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