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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No 735, 14-20 NOVEMBER, 2014
PASSIONATE ABOUT THE PAST
Sometimes our cultural heritage vanishes; last week's painting of the month – Josephine's residence in rue Chantereine - is an eloquent example of the paltry remains of an iconic building long gone… At other times, our cultural heritage is gloriously restored: as with the Vendôme column which should reappear in 2015 clothed in its original splendour (thanks to the sponsorship of the Ritz Hotel); but also as with the estates of Saint Helena and Longwood House which will open its refurbished doors in 2016. And this is because of you and your generosity! that is to say, because of the international subscription, launched in 2010 by the Fondation Napoléon, the minister of Foreign Affairs and the Souvenir Napoléonien, which led to the reconstruction of the part of Longwood House known as the “Generals' Wing”, and the restoration of the Emperor's apartments and furniture. If you visit the site and check out the monthly appeal updates you can see that on the 1st November, more than 1, 575 donors have pledged 1,350,673 € (for a total budget of 2.3 million). Whether the gift was modest, or huge, the driving factor behind them all was a passionate interest in the Napoleonic period and possibly even a sense of duty that the past should be preserved for the benefit of future generations. Thanks to you, Longwood House - unlike Josephine's Parisian residence – will continue to brave the damp wind and the rain! The rate of progress and quality of the work carried out by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, honorary consul of France and curator of the national estates of Saint Helena, have been such that we can confidently announce that everything will be ready for view, spick and span, for the first air-borne tourists passing through arrivals at the new the Saint Helena International Airport in 2016. Given this happy state of affairs, we are delighted announce that on the 31st December of this year, operation “Save the Emperor's house” will come to an end, mission accomplished. If you wish to make one final donation – this will go towards the restoration of further elements of furniture from Longwood House – you can do so not only by post but also online thanks to our partner the Fondation du Patrimoine. And if you pay tax in France, you get a tax break. What's not to like?
Thank you all for your generosity and support!
Irène Delage and Peter Hicks
Erratum: Please excuse the phantom letter which arrived earlier this morning. This here is the final version. Please accept our humble apologies.
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH > WELLINGTON'S MULES
Mules 'without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity' have served the fighting soldier for almost as long as the horse. R. J. Tennant, using contemporary accounts, letters and diary entries as well as later historical works, explores the role of the Equus mulus, otherwise known as the humble mule, in the Peninsular War. The article discusses their work, the prices paid for them, their muleteers and their role in the British, Portuguese and Spanish artillery and the commissariat.
This is an updated version of the article.
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LISTEN ONLINE > “NAPOLEON AND WELLINGTON IN WAR AND PEACE,” AT THE BRITISH EMBASSY IN PARIS, FRANCE
On Tuesday 21 October, as part of a series of events to celebrate the bicentenary of the British Ambassador's Residence in Paris, Thierry Lentz, Pierre Branda and Peter Hicks (amongst many other historians, British and French) participated in an historical colloque on ‘Napoleon and Wellington in War and Peace'.
The talks focused on the European situation in 1814, that year of hope as 300 delegations descended on Vienna for the Congress, before the 100 Days and all that followed. As the British Embassy noted: "this was an occassion that summed up what the house has done so well for the last 200 years: bringing British and French people together in a spirit of enquiry and debate." Click on the link in the title here to enjoy that day via the audio files.
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THE SUEZ CANAL > 145th ANNIVERSARY OF THE INAUGURATION
On 16 November, 1869, ten years after work began, the Suez Canal was inaugurated. Our 'mini-site' traces its roots, the construction of the canal and the various difficulties that Ferdinand de Lesseps, the driving force behind the project, encountered. Indeed this story, one of the most extraordinary in the history of the 19th century, is the tale of the passion, the almost super-human will, and the genius of just one man, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who by his piercing of the Suez Isthmus joined East to West and brought life to the desert.
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THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA > BICENTENARY ACTIVITY
Continuing are watch on all things bicentennial, we bring you here a new book on the Vienna Congress, a wonderful exhibition of carriages used during the sixth-month-long congress, and the publication in German of our director's ground-breaking book on the diplomatic encounter that brought a certain peace to Europe for nearly five decades. Enjoy.
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IN FOCUS > NAPOLEON III AND THE SECOND SCHLESWIG WAR
The British Statesman involved in negotiations surrounding the Second Schleswig War, Lord Palmerston, is reported to have said: 'Only three people have ever really understood the Schleswig-Holstein business — the Prince Consort, who is dead — a German professor, who has gone mad — and I, who have forgotten all about it.' We hope that our very own Marie de Bruchard's fascinating article will shed at least some light on this difficult but key moment in late-nineteenth-century European history, namely the Second Schleswig War and its far reaching consequences around the world.
200 YEARS AGO > THE ISLAND OF ELBA: THE LETTERS OF A SPY, AND THE PETITION OF SOME GRENADIERS
Bernotti, the secret agent of consul Mariotti on Elba, kept his employer up to date on Napoleon's life, sending him regular reports not just about the emperor himself but also the activities of his entourage. Thus we find in one of his letters, dated the 15th November, a report on the state of morale among the officers under the command of the emperor of Elba. Interestingly, the fact that Bernotti was able to write this report suggest that some of the officers might have been his accomplices. Bernotti described the growing dissatisfaction of Napoleon's troops. The grenadiers complained of not yet having received the Légion d'Honneur pensions to which they were entitled: they had even gone so far as to put their demands down on paper in a petition, which four of the petitioners had handed over to Napoleon en route to his country house from Portoferraio. Indeed, the grenadiers' pensions were finally paid, but not without a reprimand for those in charge of the movement. However, spies' reports exaggerated the soldiers' dissatisfaction; in fact, defections were not nearly as common as Mariotti had hoped, since the sojourn on Elba would see only 53 of the Emperor's soldiers leave the island, out of troops which numbered 1,000 men.
150 YEARS AGO > THE RAIL NETWORK DURING THE SECOND EMPIRE
On 15 November, 1864, a new section of railway opened between Raon-l'Étape and Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in the Vosges department of north-eastern France, doubling the length of the existing line which started in Lunéville. Construction of the Lunéville-Saint-Dié line was carried out by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est, one of six regional railway companies charged during the Second Empire with extending France's rail network. These six companies – which served the North, East, West, Orléans region, Mediterranean, and Midi – were the product of amalgamating several earlier, independent enterprises, with the aim of providing a more coherent and productive network. Adolphe Demeur's Les Chemins de Fer Français en 1860 makes plain the enormous benefits the rail network brought to France: in 1859, 9,066 kilometres of track were in use in France, bringing in a profit of 400 million francs, with a further 7,242 kilometres planned*. The railways were not, however, without risks: the Moniteur of 7 November, 1864 told the blood-curdling story of a boy in Charleroi whose arm was ripped off when he fell beneath a locomotive, and an article from 16 November, 1864 noted that “we have all too frequently heard of the accidents caused by two trains colliding.” The same article, however, gave an account of a major innovation in train safety: an electric braking system, which the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est had been using to great success on its express route between Paris and Strasbourg. Innovation breeds innovation, and the expansion of the railways and these kind of engineering advances were exactly the sort of grand project the Second Empire prized.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week,
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper (with Emma Simmons)
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No 735, 14-20 NOVEMBER, 2014
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 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
- The Napoleonic Historical Society Newsletter
September-October 2014
- Interview: with Andrew Roberts on the Daily Beast
JUST PUBLISHED
- DWYER, Phillip, Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power, 1799-1815 (London, 2013)
- PERRY, Roland, The Queen, Her Lover and the Most Notorious Spy in History: The Intriguing True Story of Queen Victoria's Secret (St Leonard's, 2014)
WHAT'S ON
- "Coaching the Congress Along" - Exhibition at the Carriage Museum, Vienna [18/09/2014 - 09/06/2015]
- "Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [21/10/2014 - 01/02/2015]
- "Les Adieux à l'Impératrice" at Malmaison [05/11/2014 - 02/02/2015]
- 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
- 10 interesting facts about Napoleon, by author Shannon Selin
- From Napoleon to the Nazis: the 10 most notorious looted artworks (the Guardian)
- Photos of veterans from the Napoleonic Wars
- TCM showing film 'Hearts Divided', as featured on our facebook page
WAR OF 1812
- Ceremony for the War of 1812
- Virginia honours commander during War of 1812
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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