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EDITO > CARRIAGES, SHIPS, AND SUBMARINES
This week's letter comes with a transport theme. Since we've been following the events of the Congress of Vienna in our recent letters (nos 729 and 730), we were delighted to learn of an exhibition at Schönbrunn of the sumptuously decorated carriages that carried diplomats around the Congress. Our Article of the Month deals with another, very special carriage – Napoleon's military carriage. Captured by the British at Waterloo and destroyed in a fire in 1925, it is reconstructed here in all its glory, with both technical drawings and contemporary descriptions. If Napoleon's carriage had all mod cons (including a gold teapot!), the submarine that planned to rescue him from St. Helena presumably had fewer creature comforts. Read all about the plan in our Napoleonica.La Revue article below (and since we're cruising along with the transport metaphors, and creature comforts/uncomfortable creatures, don't forget our article on Wellington's mules). Of course, we can't let 21 October slip by without marking the Battle of Trafalgar: you can find everything you need to know on our site, as well as links to other material online below.
If it's not sailing too close to the wind, we hope you'll be moved by this week's letter, transported to different times, and driven to find out more about the two fascinating empires we cover at napoleon.org.
Enjoy the ride!
Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
Web Editor
> BIBLIOTHEQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE
The Fondation Napoléon library will operate holiday hours between 20 and 31 October: Monday and Tuesday, 1pm-5pm, and Thursday, 10am-3pm.
> DONATIONS FOR ST HELENA FINISH AT THE END OF THE YEAR
That's just over two months left to join the almost 2,000 donors who have already given. Make a donation and a difference.
> FONDATION NAPOLEON RESEARCH GRANT
Congratulations to Raphaël Cahen, grant award winner in 2013, for the successful defence of his thesis, summa cum laude. Bravo!
> CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY OF LOUIS BERGERON
We were greatly saddened to learn of the death of Louis Bergeron on 10 October, 2014. Louis Bergeron was a major historian of the Revolution and First Empire, and his works on the economic and social history of the period (published in both French and English) remain cornerstones of Napoleonic scholarship.
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH > “NAPOLEON'S MILITARY CARRIAGE,” BY COLONEL PAUL H. DOWNING
This month's article vividly reconstructs “the most remarkable carriage ever seen by man”, from its bedstead to its cutlery! Using contemporary descriptions, cloudy photographs, and an amazing breadth of knowledge, Paul H. Downing illustrates this extraordinary vehicle. We're very grateful to The Carriage Museum of America for letting us reproduce it here.
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EXHIBITION > COACHING THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA ALONG
For eight months two centuries ago, Vienna was the centre of the world – and no small part of its role as host to the famous Congress was the transport and entertainment of diplomats and visitors from across Europe. Until June next year, you can visit the Imperial Carriage Museum at Schönbrunn to discover the sumptuous, elegant, dazzling carriages that literally drove the Congress along. You can also watch a video about the exhibition (in German with English subtitles). See also Robert Ouvrard's fantastic new book about the Congress of Vienna, published by the Fondation Napoléon Nouveau Monde Editions (in French).
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EVENT > AN EVENING WITH BERNARD CORNWELL AT APSLEY HOUSE
If 21 October, 1805 was the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October, 2014 offers you the chance to learn about a very different – but by no means less decisive! – battle. Join author Bernard Cornwell in Apsley House's magnificent Waterloo Gallery for an exclusive event as he presents his brand new book - his first non-fiction title - Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles. Find out more, and watch a video of the author, here. And if you can't make it to Apsley, never fear, our Waterloo Reading List has all the latest publications about the battle and its consequences.
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NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE > “THE ATTEMPT TO RESCUE NAPOLEON WITH A SUBMARINE: FACT OR FICTION?” BY EMILIO OCAMPO
For this transport-themed newsletter, what better article from Napoleonica.La Revue than Emilio Ocampo's exploration of the plot to rescue the Emperor from St Helena by submarine? Find out all about Johnstone the Smuggler and his fantastic scheme here (and there are all the other issues of Napoleonica, too, if you're in the mood for exploring).
200 YEARS AGO > REACTIONS TO THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
Napoleon's victors did not appreciate the delay to the Congress of Vienna that Talleyrand obtained. In a letter to Wellington of 9 October, 1814, Castlereagh castigated the French king's ingratitude: “It was not for the Bourbons, who were only restored thanks to the Allies, to disrupt the arrangements made by the Allies.” On the French side, this delay greatly pleased Louis XVIII. In a letter of 14 October, 1814, he wrote to Talleyrand of his “real satisfaction”: this delay perfectly served his purpose “to put a stop to the ambitious projects of Russia and Prussia.” Louis XVIII's French delegation seemed to focus all their dissatisfaction on Russia that October: was this because the Russian Tsar Alexander I had been behind the choice of Elba for Napoleon's exile and showed an obvious affection for the Beauharnais family? The Tsar was undoubtedly one of the most vivid and puissant symbols of victory at the Congress. Every occasion on which he moved around the Austrian capital was an occasion to celebrate him, such as the incredible commemoration of the Battle of Leipzig at the Prater on 18 October (this score, which may well have been played at the celebrations, illustrates the festivities). During the extravagant military and religious celebrations organized by Metternich and the Austrian emperor, Alexander I won further renown by raising a toast to the people and to the army which, according to one of the Tsarina's ladies in waiting, sparked the jubilation of the crowd and brought soldiers to tears. This incredible popularity was doubtless reason enough for Talleyrand: either he could try to topple the Tsar and undermine Russia's negotiating goals, or, failing this, he could find an excuse to leave the Congress altogether.
150 YEARS AGO > THE SECOND EMPIRE AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
On 10 October, 1864, Le Moniteur reported that baronet Sir Henry de Hoghton had sent a letter from the people of Great Britain and Ireland to the Governor of New York appealing for the reestablishment of peace in America. The letter, translated into French and printed in Le Moniteur, had 350,000 signatures covering almost 700 metres of paper. The events of the American Civil War (which raged from 12 April, 1861 to 9 May, 1865) were regularly discussed in Le Moniteur, although the dispatches were often, as on 18 October, 1864, “confused and contradictory.” To some extent, this reflected the Second Empire's position towards the conflict. Although France kept up a strict neutrality in public, behind the scenes the Emperor considered formally recognizing the southern Confederate states if the South could guarantee the supply of cotton to Europe (the Union's blockade on southern ports meant that the price of raw cotton had sky-rocketed and France's textile industry had been hit extremely hard). In the end, Napoleon III did not endorse the South, and his proposal that France, Britain and Russia act as joint mediators was rebuffed. For while the Civil War was being fought in North America, Napoleon III's own troops were engaged on Mexican soil. His overt interest in regime change in Central America was one of the main reasons this offer of mediation was refused, since the Mexican campaign was perceived by many as a manoeuvre to lay his hands on the cotton-rich lands in the Gulf of Mexico.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week,
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 731, 17-23 OCTOBER, 2014
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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 that the international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena will accept donations until 31 December, 2014. 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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EVENTS
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
PRESS REVIEW
- David Armitage, “Why politicians need historians”
- “Andrew Roberts's Life of Napoleon is witty, humane and unapologetically admiring”
JUST PUBLISHED
- MURAT, Laure, The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon: Toward a Political History of Madness (Chicago, 2014)
- STRONG, Michele M., Education, Travel and the "Civilisation" of the Victorian Working Classes (London, 2014)
- WELLESLEY, Charles, Wellington Portrayed (London, 2014)
WHAT'S ON
- Niagara 1812 Legacy Council Programme of Commemorative Events [14/04/2014 - 19/10/2014]
- Napoleon's Exile, Napoleon's Travels [19/09/2014 - 19/10/2014]
- An Evening with Bernard Cornwell at Apsley House [21/10/2014 - 21/10/2014]
- Ghost Tours at the Royal Arsenal [30/10/2014 - 01/11/2014]
- The Friends of the Royal Engineers Museum Meeting [04/11/2014 - 04/11/2014]
- Napoleonic Historical Society conference in New Orleans [14/11/2014 - 16/11/2014]
- The Shorncliffe Lectures [15/11/2014 - 15/11/2014]
- Talk by Andrew Roberts in Pittsburgh [17/11/2014 - 17/11/2014]
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Digital technology comes to Napoleon's Elba!
- What do Beyoncé and Jay-Z do in Paris? Visit Napoleon at the Louvre, of course!
- Gun display this Sunday to mark Battle of Trafalgar
- New techniques for restoring textiles at Fontainebleau – a video (in French)
WAR OF 1812
- Historian George Daughan sheds light on the Navy's role in the War of 1812 – a video
- A stitch in time – uniform from the War of 1812
- Remembering Fort Erie's first great citizen
- War of 1812 bicentennial coming to a close
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
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NAPOLEONICA LES ARCHIVES
Site of digitised Napoleonic archival material:
The working papers or 'imprimés' of the Napoleonic Conseil d'Etat, the correspondence of Vivant Denon, etc.
http://www.napoleonica.org
Contact: napoleonica@napoleon.org
NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE
International peer-review interdisciplinary e-review on the history of the two Empires, bilingual French-English, 3 issues per year, free access.
Read the review on Cairn.info
Contact: napoleonicalarevue@napoleon.org
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