To return to the site, www.napoleon.org, please click here.   Bulletin - Bulletin                    EDITO > BLACK WEDNESDAY Traditionally, the editorial of the New Year is my prerogative. In it, I announce our programme for the coming months. And I had a good number of things I wanted to mention: books, conferences, commemorations, our new websites, and many other things too. I would have liked to express our delight and satisfaction, first for H.I.H. the Princess Napoléon's promotion to the rank of Officer, and second for our Director, Thierry Lentz's appointment as “chevalier” of the “Légion d'Honneur”. I had also wanted to pay my homage to the Duke of Wellington, who died a few days ago aged 99, a man I knew well.   And then, we had our black Wednesday, black as blind stupidity, black as death, black as the flag of those who want to deprive us of our liberties, black as our society would be without respect for one another and our respective ideas.   The Fondation Napoléon is “of the city” and composed of citizens. It lives in its times and knows the excesses and dangers of its era. It is not “alongside” daily life, but “in” it. It must, via the voice of its president, and in the name of all those who work there, express its sadness, its solidarity with the victims and their families, but also underline its support for all those who keep our democracy alive and for those who protect our society. This dramatic event hits us all, concerns us all, indeed has taken the wind out of all our sails. However, “they” have attacked us, and “they” want to deprive us of our freedom of opinion. We must be stronger than this enemy, whose sole glory will only ever be that it has fired on the defenceless and executed the wounded. Yes, we will be strong! Strong against those who have struck us, strong to fight tirelessly to preserve that which sets us apart from such self-appointed “warriors”, strong to resist our own demons.   I never thought that I would write, with so many others: « Je suis Charlie ». But I do it today, without hesitation.   Victor-André Masséna President   LÉGION d'HONNEUR H.I.H. the Princess Napoléon has been promoted to the rank of Officer of the order of the Légion d'honneur, and Thierry Lentz, Director of the Fondation Napoléon, has been appointed ‘Chevalier'. Yves Saint-Geours, Director at the French Foreign Office of the Direction générale de l'administration au ministère des Affaires étrangères, heavily involved on behalf of his ministry in the Longwood restoration project, has also been appointed ‘Chevalier', as has Agnès Magnien, ex-Director of the French Archives Nationales (2012-2014). Hearty congratulations to all.   FONDATION NAPOLÉON > BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees welcomes a new co-opted member of the board of trustees: General Robert Bresse, ex-director of the Musée de l'Armée (2003-2011). He replaces Bernard Chevallier, whose second mandate had run its course and who did not wish for a third. During the meeting of the Board of Trustees, dated 8 January, 2015, the steering committee was re-elected for a further three years.   NAPOLEON.ORG As for the napoleon.org team, we have been joined by Rebecca Young who replaces Francesca Whitlum Cooper as web editor for the English side of the site. We welcome her, and we wish Francesca all the best as she returns to the UK to finish her PhD.        HERITAGE > END OF THE APPEAL "SAVE NAPOLEON'S HOUSE ON ST HELENA" The international appeal, "Save Napoleon's House on St Helena", launched in 2010, is now over (as of 31 December, 2014). Thanks to your generosity, we more than reached our target, and Napoleon's house and museum within are now safe for generations to come. If you want to follow the restoration work, you can do so online here via the French Domains on St Helena Facebook page (in French). For photos of the work before the creation of this page, the curator, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau's blog remains online (in French). Whilst this appeal is now successfully over, you can still make a donation to the Fondation Napoléon and ask that it be directed to the French Domains on St Helena for the upkeep of this realm of Napoleonic memory. COMMEMORATION On this day, 9th January 1873, Napoleon III died in exile in the United Kingdom. A commemorative event is being held this evening in the Parisian church of Saint Augustin at 6.30pm.        BOOK OF THE MONTH > IN THESE TIMES: LIVING IN BRITAIN THROUGH NAPOLEON'S WARS, 1793–1815, BY JENNY UGLOW We are very excited for Jenny Uglow's latest release, In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815. The prize-winning author looks at the Napoleonic wars through the prism of those left behind – the ordinary people who “lived and loved and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century ahead..." Read more about In These Times in a glowing review from The Spectator, which includes a video introduction from the author!          EXHIBITIONS Since it's Waterloo year, there's going to be lots to see in London. Here's a foretaste of what's in store. There are two military-themed events: “Waterloo at Windsor”, a trail at Windsor Castle including the Waterloo Chamber; a Waterloo Bicentenary Exhibition at the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum, including a massive diorama of the the battle. As for visual culture, the British Museum is planning a fantastic exhibition of caricatures and printed propaganda entitled “Bonaparte and the British”. And the London National Portrait Gallery is to hold a monographic exhibition on the life and career of the Duke of Wellington. Finally, in “Unseen Waterloo: The Conflict Revisited” at Somerset House, the photographer Sam Faulkner explores how we remember fallen soldiers from a time before photography.        RE-ENACTMENTS If you fancy a trip to the Côte d'Azur this spring, the town of Golfe-Juan will be holding a weekend of events at the end of February to celebrate Napoleon's landing and, of course, the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo itself will be celebrated with 4-day event in June including what promise to be spectacular re-enactments of 2 different phases of the battle with five thousand participants, 300 horses and 100 canons! LECTURES If you are in London at the end of January, don't miss this talk by Jenny Uglow - author of our book of the month - at the Army and Navy Club “Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars". The series continues in April with “Waterloo, Stories of Love, Death and War” by Alwyn Collinson and again in June “The Hundred Days: Napoleon's Road from Elba to Waterloo”  by Mark Adkin. In February Windsor Castle will host a talk by Dr Kate Heard: “The Winner Takes it All? George IV and Memorabilia from Waterloo”. CALL FOR PAPERS Last chance to submit a paper for the International and Interdisciplinary Congress in June 2015: From Battlefield to Drawing Room, Textile and Military Fashion around 1815 (deadline extended until 15 January 2015!)        ONLINE You can visit this fascinating online exhibition from the National Army Museum in the comfort of your own home! (external link) or, if you'd rather get into the action of the Battle of Waterloo, try this online game from the BBC (external link).     200 YEARS AGO > CONSUL, SAILOR, SOLDIER… SPY? In 1815 as negotiations at the Congress of Vienna continued, on Elba Napoleon was being watched by the French Consul Mariotti's vast network of spies. On 12th January, 1815, as secret talks about the Polish-Saxon crisis occupied leaders in Vienna, on Elba the Inconstant, the brig captained by Taillade, ran aground. This may seem like an unremarkable event; however, Taillade and the Inconstant were at the centre of one of French Consul Mariotti's possible plots against Napoleon. In a letter to Talleyrand of the 28th September, 1814 (discovered by Austrian spies), Mariotti described Napoleon's frequent trips on the brig to the small nearby island of Pianosa, and the opportunity this would offer for them to kidnap him and take him to Île Sainte-Marguerite – home of the famous prison of the Man with the Iron Mask, from which he would have no chance of escape. Taillade, according to Mariotti, would be perfect for the job, since ‘…he is poor, and Napoleon has reduced his salary by half. He hasn't a moment's rest and is unhappy with his lot; the whole matter leads me to believe that he would be easy to win over.' And certainly, this sailing accident in slightly bizarre circumstances, in waters known for their danger in bad weather, could suggest the presence of hidden motives… and we know that Napoleon replaced Taillade following an inquiry on the crash. After all the speculation, however, recent historians have decided that Taillade was not compromised. And unbeknownst to Mariotti, Talleyrand and their co-conspirators, Napoleon would soon take matters into his own hands.   150 YEARS AGO > "WHERE THERE'S MUCK, THERE'S BRASS!" On 14th January 1865, the Moniteur Universel published details of the reduction of import tax on Peruvian guano in order to allow French agriculture to benefit immediately from its increased affordability. Guano, the excrement of sea birds such as cormorants and pelicans produced exclusively on the islands off Peru (notably the Chincha Islands), was in fact an extremely valuable commodity and had become not only a highly-sought-after fertiliser but also a valuable source of saltpetre used in the production of gunpowder in Europe ever since a first consignment arrived in the port of Liverpool in 1835. The Second Empire was to invest heavily in guano, even establishing a government commission on the subject (1864). France was furthermore to get involved in the Chincha Islands War (1863-1866), even going so far as to provide Peru with two frigates (Unión and América), vessels initially proposed to the Confederates in the American Civil War. This assistance was in the end to benefit a little-known Alsatian shopkeeper, Auguste Drefus, a businessman living in Lima, since he would be the sole middleman in the lucrative guano contracts. The subsequent monopoly on the export of the precious excrement provided him with one of the greatest French fortunes of the period. Indeed, his wealth brought new meaning to to the French proverbial expression: “c'est le Perou”!    Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week!   Peter Hicks and Rebecca Young (with Emma Simmons)   THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No. 741, 9-15 JANUARY, 2015 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.          ALWAYS AVAILABLE Problems with a link in this letter? - Check the homepage on: http://www.napoleon.org/en/home.asp - View back numbers of the bulletin: http://www.napoleon.org/en/space/information_bulletin/archive_lettre.asp- Contact us: information@napoleon.org      Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter! napoleon.org - related content:   PRESS REVIEW - Napoleon Review Article (a review of five books on Napoleon), by Professor Charles Esdaile - Two reviews of 'a Royal experiment: the Private life of George III', by Janice Hadlow - Andrew Roberts, 'How Catholics brought Napoleon to his knees' in the Catholic Herald - Two reviews of 'Napoleon the Great' by Andrew Roberts - Radio interview with Andrew Roberts on 'Napoleon the Great', WCMA Northeastern Public Radio WHAT'S ON - "From Dirty Shirts to Bucaneers: The Battle of New Orleans in American Culture" Louisiana State Museum [from 11/01/15] - "Answering the Call: Tennesseans in the Battle of New Orleans" [from 06/01/15] - Exhibition at the Musée Carnavalet: "Napoléon et Paris" [8/04/15-30/08/15] - Bicentenary of Napoleon's Presence on the Island of Elba [11/04/2014 - 26/02/2015] - Treasures from the Royal Archives [17/05/2014 - 25/01/2015] - "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] - “Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East” [07/11/2014 - 22/02/2015]   SEEN ON THE WEB  -HMS Victory in need of repair -Waterloo commemorated in United Kingdom Coins collection -Waterloo medals reissued -British Government doubts British pupils know about events of 1815 -Beethoven and Napoleon -Napoleon in Historical Fiction by Shannon Selin -Napoleon's policeman, Pierre François Réal by Shannon Selin   WAR OF 1812 -Exhibition featuring “Old Ironsides and the War of 1812" -New stamp featuring Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans -Andrew Jackson's gold presentation box recovered THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY The library is open on Mondays and Tuesdays from 1pm to 6pm and on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 3pm. The library is closed on Wednesdays.  Online database catalogue Digital Library  Contact 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  ACCOUNT DETAILS To change your email address, unsubscribe, and sign up for the French information bulletin.