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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN n° 696, 10-16 JANUARY, 2014
3.6, 90, 8.2…
No, it's not a diabolical Christmas cracker brain teaser! It's our fantastic web statistics for 2013. You and 3.6 million others visited the site napoleon.org last year. This translates as 90,000 separate sessions per month. More than 8,200 readers get the weekly bulletin in their Inbox every Friday.
We would like to take this opportunity thank you for all your visits, your interest, your suggestions, even from time to time your moans. We all form part of the worldwide Napoleonic community, and all our interactions make up the rich Napoleonic tapestry that links us all.
At the beginning of 2014, we wish you all the very best: good health, peace, happiness. This week's letter is as full as usual. Inter alia, there's a ground-breaking book on architecture in France and Italy in the Napoleonic period, there's news from the Fondation's exhibition in Kazakhstan, and in 200 years ago we begin our following of the two cataclysmic months running up to the First Abdication and the exile on Elba... Lots to read, lots to see, lots to enjoy. Here's to a stimulating 2014!
Happy New Year to you all.
The Fondation Napoléon Team
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BOOK OF THE MONTH > L'architecture de l'Empire entre France et Italie, 1795-1815, Silvana Editoriale, 2013
This book is a study of the links between the French and the Italian architectural cultures during the Napoleonic period and in the era which immediately followed. It aims to provide a better understanding of French and Italian cultural influences on the modern architecture in European cities.
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REVUE DU SOUVENIR NAPOLEONIEN
Is learning French one of your New Year Resolutions? Now is the moment to get started. Why not subscribe to the Revue du Souvenir Napoléonien? Go on your own French Campaign, and don't abdicate!
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LA HAVANA LIBRARY
The Fondation Napoléon has recently given a collection of Napoleonic books to the Havana Library in Cuba. The official ceremony of donation took place at the Museo Napoleónico in La Havana on 17 December, 2013, in the presence of the French Ambassador in Cuba, Jean Mendelson, and Sadys Sanchez, director of the Museo Napoleónico in La Havana. The books given by the Fondation include memoirs, biographies, scientific works and the ten volumes of the Correspondance Générale de Napoléon Bonaparte published so far. The ambassador also gave volumes of the Moniteur from his personal collection to the Museo Napoleónico Library, covering almost the totality of the Parliamentary debates which took place in France between the opening of the Etats Généraux in 1789 and the end of the Convention in 1795, published between 1854 and 1859. The Museo Napoleónico was created in 1961.
> The Twelfth International Napoleonic Society Congress, on "Napoleon and Revolutions Around the World" will also take place in La Havana (Cuba) from 7 to 11 July, 2014. The deadline for paper proposals is next week, 15 January.
NAPOLEONICA LA REVUE > "Napoleon and his ministers" by Thierry Lentz
Within the government of both the Consulat and Empire, Napoleon's ministers played a key role in the implementation of decisions and in the direction of the ‘administrations'. The emperor considered them as his representatives in their relevant domains and required obedience to them as if it had been himself. Thus, despite their subordinate role and limited autonomy, ministers remained figures of importance. They were richly rewarded by the Napoleonic regime, in salary, benefits and titles. This paper aims to discuss the place, role, and action of ministers within the Napoleonic state.
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200 YEARS AGO > THE KING OF NAPLES DEFECTS
At the end of August 1813, an Austrian army marched into Italy against Viceroy Eugène and his ill-equipped and inexperienced army of 56,000 men, a majority of whom were not French. Murat had returned to Naples on 5 November. Observing the state of agitation in areas openly expressing their anti-French sentiment, he immediately began negotiations with Austria and with Italian Nationalists. In fact, Murat was preparing for several possible outcomes. Whilst conferring with the Austrians, he was leaving open the possibility of supporting Italian Independence within a unified kingdom under either Eugène… or himself. The state would not be hostile to the Emperor, but it would nevertheless be outside the Empire. This new status for Italy would theoretically have obviated any need for direct intervention from the coalition on Italian soil. Napoleon took no notice of Murat's letters presenting this plan. There were rumours that Murat had joined the enemy camp and that his men were disarming Eugène's troops in Rome. In December, Napoleon sent Fouché to inquire about the position of the king of Naples. Far from informing Napoleon of current intrigues, Fouché delayed the negative reports. Once Napoleon received confirmation that Murat had indeed been negotiating with the Austrians, he fulminated: “the perpetrator of such infamous treason – has there ever been such? – will certainly have to face the consequences”. On 31 December, the Austrian envoy Neipperg, Marie-Louise's future second husband, made it a fundamental condition, if Murat was to keep his throne, that he should declare war on France. On 6 January, Murat's minister, Gallo, negotiated a treaty, which was signed during the night of 7 to 8 January and immediately ratified by the king. Murat was indeed eager to make a pact with Austria, since the British were actively working for a return of the Bourbons to both parts of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Although the text was dated 11 January, negotiations continued for another month. Murat was forced to give up Sicily, which then remained under British influence (Britain and Naples negotiated an armistice at the same time, signed on 26 January), but was allowed to extend his territory northwards at the expense of the states around Rome. Murat then placed 30,000 Neapolitan troops at the disposal of the coalition – the soldiers that Murat had never sent to Eugène back in November – to operate in Northern Italy. The only restriction was that they should not enter French territory.
150 YEARS AGO > CULTURE FOR THE WORKERS
The sociologist and philosopher Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint Simon's ideas were popular amongst French industrialists. As a result, some of these captains of industry, convinced that this was progress, thought it their mission to contribute to the cultural education of their workforce. Frédéric Engel-Dollfuss (1818-1883) was such a man. Born in Alsace, this Protestant entrepreneur travelled to England, Scotland and Ireland after his studies, during which travels he may have visited the South Kensington Museum in London, founded in 1852 after the Great Exhibition of 1851 (see our dossier on The great British and French universal exhibitions during the Second Empire) with the aim of showing English workers the newest techniques of manufacturing and of industrial design. He must also have witnessed the great experiments in social engineering typical of great British industrial mill towns, with their emphasis on philanthropy and non-conformist religion. Once back in France, Engel-Dollfuss became the director of the famous DMC manufacture. And arguably basing himself on what he had seen in the UK, he not only created hospitals, schools and insurance schemes for his employees, but was convinced of the importance of providing an artistic education for his workforce. Thus in 1864, he founded the Mulhouse Museum of Fine Arts.
> Meanwhile, in Russia…
Whilst most of Europe had been criticising Tsar Alexander II for Russian troops' brutal repression of the Polish insurrections, the Tsar himself defended himself against such accusations in the international press, including the French Moniteur, touting his progressive ideas at the beginning of December 1863 (see Bulletin n° 693). On 13 January, 1864, he took the symbolic but extremely notable gesture of abolishing serfdom in Russia, a goal much discussed by liberals since the first decades of the century.
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Lucie Louvrier
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 696, 10-16 JANUARY, 2014
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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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MAGAZINE
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
- MELLA Alessandro, Il mistero del maresciallo Ney – Romanzo, Gruppo Albatros Il Filo, Collana: Nuove voci, 2011
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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.
WHAT'S ON
- Symposium on the Battle of New Orleans in Chalmette, Louisiana (War of 1812) [10/01/2014 - 12/01/2014]
PRESS REVIEW
- General Allard's life in Persia and India after the Fall of the French Empire
- "I pompieri dell'Imperatore" by Alessandro Mella
- "La medaglia di Sant'Elena" by Alessandro Mella
- "I piemontesi della Guardia Imperiale - Il battaglione dei Veliti di Torino 1809-1814" by Alessandro Mella
- "I testimoni di Waterloo" by Alessandro Mella
- War of 1812 - "Why is Canada naming its warships after U.S. defeats?"
- "Battle of Bladensburg monument edges toward completion" - War of 1812 (USA)
- "Battle of Stonington bicentennial planned" (Connecticut, USA), War of 1812
- War of 1812 - "200 years ago, the village of Buffalo burned - Commemorations held well before anniversary"
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Battle of Waterloo site in Belgium to get permanent memorial (BBC News video)
- More images of the bivouac in Bassenge on Sunday 17 November, 2013
- War of 1812 – Reflexions on the Battle of New Orleans on 8 January, 1815, and its impact on US history: “Understanding a Battle on the Eve of Its Bicentennial”
- War of 1812 – “The Burning of Buffalo, 200 Years Ago”
- War of 1812 – “Havre de Grace sailor killed in famed War of 1812 battle”
- War of 1812 – “War in the Chesapeake”
- War of 1812, Star-Spangled Banner – “Celebrate freedom as national anthem marks 200th year”
- War of 1812 bicentennial continues, including Battle of Lundy's Lane event
- War of 1812 - "Battle of New Orleans is fought, Jan. 8, 1815"
- War of 1812 - "Andrew Jackson's leadership changed U.S. history"
- War of 1812 - "Jackson is victorious at New Orleans"
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