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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 682, 20-26 SEPTEMBER, 2013
EDITORIAL
The Grumbler's back, and he's annoyed about the reportage on the auction of a copy of a part of Napoleon's will
On 6 November, 2013, an extraordinary document is to go under the hammer, namely: a copy of two codicils of the will of the Emperor who asked to be "buried on the banks of the Seine". The value of these scraps of paper is thought to be approximately 80,000 - 120,000 Euros. This event was not only front-page news in the French newspaper Le Figaro but also reported in the English-speaking world, notably in the London Times. And it is in itself indeed newsworthy. But that being said, the paper should not have tried to add extra sensation, because by so doing it published remarks on the nature and history of the document which are inexact to put it mildly. I shall not take issue with all the imprecisions and errors in the article but simply give the broad lines of the manuscript history of the document. Roughly speaking, there are in existence three St Helena exemplars of the will.
1 - Napoleon's last will and testament proper, copied in his own hand. This document is today in the “iron cabinet” in the Paris Archives Nationales. It was not “kidnapped” by the British (as implied by Le Figaro and repeated in the English-speaking press) but simply held in court archives until the beginning of the 1850s. The Emperor died on British soil and in order for his final wishes to be validated, they had to be registered by a British court; Montholon went especially to London to expedite this indispensable formality, for the accomplishment of which he encountered no impediment. Queen Victoria gave the holograph will to France, on the request of Napoleon III and Alexandre Walewski, then French ambassador in London.
2 – An exemplar in the hand of Montholon, but signed by the Emperor (known as the "Vignali exemplar"). This is also held at the Paris Archives Nationales, in the Fonds Napoléon (400 AP).
3 – A copy of the will made on St Helena by Montholon, of which the documents shortly to be auctioned are a small part: only Montholon's signature appears (to be absolutely clear: Napoleon's signature is not on it). These documents were used in France in attempts to expedite the payments stipulated in the Emperor's will. Montholon's family then sold this document (comprising 20 or so leaves in total), and it was cut up and parts of it appear from time to time at auction. The Paris Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits bought one a few years ago.
Though important, the pieces up for auction are thus not THE "last will and testament of Napoleon", but rather pieces of a copy of the will. This fact does not in any way diminish the historical importance of these documents, but a little precision from the journalists in question would have been nice.
Thierry Lentz, Director of the Fondation Napoléon
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH > Don Barry, "Monumental meaning at Marengo 1800"
It is impossible to appreciate the significance of that campaign without a consideration of the state of affairs in France and Europe at the beginning of the year 1800. France had been convulsed by more than a decade of Revolutionary turmoil, chaos, and uncertainty in the political, social, economic, cultural, and religious realms that exposed deep divisions among the French populace. Don Barry takes us into the importance of this iconic battle.
Also see our French Article of the Month: "Napoléon et l'Hôtel des Invalides, Panthéon des gloires militaires", by Céline Gautier (in French).
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FONDATION NAPOLEON NEWS
- There's still time to apply for the Fondation Napoléon Study Grants! You have until 30 September, 2013. Apply now!
- Don't forget the inaugural Masséna Society panel at the Society of Military History (SMH) annual conference 3-6 April, 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri – application deadline on 23 September. Named after Marshal André Masséna, the society was founded to promote scholarly work in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. If you're a young scholar, think about applying – there's a $500 travel grant if your proposal is accepted!
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WHAT'S ON?
- Next week: Study Day on Napoleon I in Montréal (Canada), MBAM, Tuesday 1 October, 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm. As an accompaniment to the publication of Senator Serge Joyal's book, Le mythe de Napoléon au Canada français, three specialists who have recently published books on new aspects of the Napoleonic era will present their works. Talks by Fondation Director Thierry Lentz and Fondation Capital, Real Estate and Collection Manager Pierre Branda, and Sylvain Pagé.
- This week! National Army Museum Lunchtime Lectures: don't miss Dr Neil Faulkner's talk on “The Rise and Fall of British Battlefield Supremacy, 1759-1815” on 26 September.
- Reservations are still open for the first lecture in the Fondation Napoléon's Cercle d'Etudes autumn series on Thursday 3 October: Jacques Jourquin on the Mamelouk Ali (in French).
- If you are in Canada, there's a series of lectures about the War of 1812 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, over the next few weeks, on the role of two local historical figures: brothers Peter Buell Porter and Augustus Porter, on 25 September, 2 and 9 October.
- Coming next week: "The Great Game in South-East Asia during the Second Empire" on 30 September, 2013, at the Invalides in Paris, with a talk by Peter Hicks (in French).
- Also… The Musée Marmottan (best known for its Monet collection) is preparing an exhibition about “The Sisters of Napoleon, Three Italian Destinies”, opening early October. As a consequence, the museum will be exceptionally closed from 23 September to 2 October. More news about this exciting exhibition coming soon in your Napoleon.org Bulletin!
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DIGITAL LIBRARY > GOLDWORTH, Napoleon's British visitors and captives : 1800-1815, 1904.
British travellers used to go on a 'grand tour' over Europe, but this had stopped after the outbreak of hostilities in 1798. During Napoleon's reign, some British people travelling in France became prime witnesses or actors in French history, either as visitors or as hostages. Learn about this fascinating historical episode by reading online John Goldworth Alger's Napoleon's British Visitors and Captives, 1801-1815.
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200 YEARS AGO > DEATH OF COMPOSER ANDRÉ-ERNEST-MODESTE GRÉTRY (Liège 1741 - Montmorency 1813)
On 24th September, 1813, the Belgian-born superstar composer, André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, died at his home on the outskirts of Paris in Montmorency. Proof that his opéras-comiques were famous and popular - one of Napoleon's favourite military band tunes was “Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille”, a quartet from Grétry's opera Lucile – is revealed by the fact that an estimated crowd of 300,000 Parisians attended his funeral at the church of Saint-Roch. It was an exceptional event. For sheer mass, only the crowd which turned up to pay its respects to the return of Napoleon's mortal remains, the ‘Retour des cendres', in 1840 and the two million people who turned out for Victor Hugo's remarkable Paris funeral in 1885 are comparable.
Source: James Arnold, “Grétry's Lament”, History Today, September 2013, Vol.63, Issue 9, pp.31-38.
150 YEARS AGO > THE LONG JOURNEY TOWARDS POLISH INDEPENDENCE
The anti-Russian Polish Rebellion had already been going on for several weeks (see Bulletins n°657 and n°659) when Le Moniteur published a long and aggressive letter on the 22 September, 1863. As to the provenance of the document, the French government organ merely noted that it had been “published by many French newspapers abroad”. The letter, dated 15 August and signed by Prince Czartoryski, a prominent figure in this Polish revolt, was addressed to a non-identified prince. Nor was the publication date coincidental; the previous day, Le Moniteur had published two scathing letters by the Tsar channelled via his State Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gorchakov, strongly criticising France and Great Britain. The letters had warned the European powers not to meddle in the Polish uprising. Czartoryski - descendent of an important princely Polish family, son of Tsar Alexander I's minister, and grandson of the Marshal of the Sejm appointed by Napoleon I - had been one of the leading figures in the Polish rebellions against Russia in 1830. From his residence in Warsaw, Czartoryski slammed the Tsar's interpretation of international treaties (created in 1815) which had established the status of Poland and as a result Russian rights of intervention in Eastern Poland. By publishing these Russian and Polish letters in quick succession, Napoleon III was in fact giving a “right of reply” to the rebels against Russia, allowing Czartoryski to express Poland's need for her own laws, for self-determination, and for the right to circulate freely. “Russian authority in Poland has never respected the rights of Poles […] In basing herself on the usurpation and violation of the most solemn treaties and by the murder of our most renowned citizens and by the deportation of the State and Church's dignitaries”, thundered Czartoryski, Russia is acting in 1863 in exactly the same ways that led to the Polish uprisings of 1793 and 1831. “There's no point in signing the treaty at all”, noted Czartoryski, and he added with bitterness that the only foreign reinforcements nearby were on the Russian side (implying but not naming Prussia): “We have sympathy from Europe, but only Russia is getting the continent's help.” Czartoryski of course remembered Great Britain's, Austria's and France's efforts at mediation (the French minister of Foreign Affairs Drouyn de Lhuys had sadly noted the fate of the Erstwhile Polish Provinces, a fact which had not gone unnoticed by Czartoryski, a Prince of such an illustrious Polish family and by a part of the Polish elite, which had remained francophile in their remembrance of the Revolution and Napoleon). However, Czartoryski also underlined how these attempts at mediation were vain: Great Britain and France had been reduced to publishing official letters of support and were incapable (or unwilling) of really intervening and forcing Russia to the negotiating table.
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Lucie Louvrier
Historians and Web Editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 682, 20-26 SEPTEMBER, 2013
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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 the prolongation of its 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.
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