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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
Tactics and experience of battle in the age of Napoleon, by Rory Muir
A fascinating and broad ranging treatment of what it was like to find yourself on a Napoleonic battlefield, in all regiments, seen through of the eyes of those who took part.
SPECIAL (FREE) OPENING
On the occasion of the launch of its new series (in French) "Soldats Napoléonien", the Revue Napoléon is organising a large Napoleonic events at the Musée Napoléon of the Château de Versailles, on 26 April, 2003. For this event, the Musée Napoléon - one of the largest collections of paintings from the Napoleonic period - will have a special, free, opening to the public, from 2 to 5pm.
THE FONDATION NAPOLEON DOCUMENTATION CENTRE 2002 REVIEW
2002 was an excellent year for the Fondation with a great deal of activity in the Documentation Centre. The numbers speak for themselves.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
France
9 Ventôse, An XI (28 February, 1803), responding to pressure from the ruler of Prussia, the Comte de Lille (future Louis XVIII), supported secretly by the British government, publicly refused to abandon any of his rights to Bonaparte: "I do not know what plans God has for my people or for me, but I do know the obligations which he has imposed upon me by my rank, whereby it pleased Him for me to be born Christian. I shall fulfill those obligations until my last breath".
When this declaration was published, Louis was in Warsaw, where he had been living since his expulsion from Russia in January 1801. Throughout the year 1802, Bonaparte, with Talleyrand as his intermediary, had ben trying to get Louis to renounce the crown, both through payment and also by offering him a throne in Germany, Italy or Poland.
15 Ventôse, An XI (6 March, 1803), Decaen and 1,800 men embarked in Brest for Pondichery (India), although the declaration of war between France and England, on 16 May, was to stop the voyage.
After the Peace of Amiens, the British had been dragging their heels on negociation concerning India. Bonaparte had ordered Decaen to use force to deal with the problem and to retake the trading post of Pondichery.
Rome under snow!
"The event has caused, it would appear, great joy amongst Italians: no one has seen such a sight in living memory; spectacles, balls, meetings, everything is cancelled; people travel in sleighs; they let off fireworks on the snow; extempore poets declaim in its honour; professors, and fine ladies, studies the forms of the flakes!"
J. Fr. Reichardt: A winter in Paris during the Consulate, Ed. Tallandier, 2002, p. 411 (according to the newspapers of the period).
International - from The Times
28 February
'Letters have been received from the Victorius, of 74 guns, dated from the Cape of Good Hope, November 21, stating, that she had arrived there from the East-indies, and was to sail in a few days with the Euridice figate, with a division of the British troops, part of the garrison of the Cape. The remainder of the troops were to embark on board other ships.'
Lewes Journal, 2 March, 1803
'In the morning of Sunday se'nnight [a week ago, ed.], the Newhaven Riding Officers, assisted by the crew of the Seaford boat, fell in with a gang of smugglers, in number about one hundred and fifty, near the barracks at Bletchington, from whom after a pretty sharp conflict with cutlasses and pistols, they seized eighty-eight casks of contraband spirits and two horses, with which they were retreating, but being pursued by the smugglers, the conflict was renewed, and obstinately maintained for about a quarter of an hour, during which time the Officers kept constantly firing their pistols at the smugglers, several of whom were wounded, as were many of the horses. The smugglers at length gave way. The officers escaped with some severe bruises; and the smugglers, we believe, without any mortal wounded; but one or two horses have since died.'
3 March
'A new regulation has been made at Vienna, relative to public libraries, etc. None of the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Helvetius, Bayle, and other philsophers, must in future be lent to any person, except to those who intend to refute them!'
3 March
The Times editorial sacracstically spoke of Napoleon and the prospect of war: 'one can never tire of the elegance, the reasoning or the policy of the First Consul. In his Exposé to the Legislative Body, there is a wide field for inexhaustible admiration. He first guarantees to the people of France, that the States of the Continent shall not disturb the peace, and next informs them, that it is not in the power of England, unassisted by some of the States of the Continent, to go to war. Thus, under the ancient régime of logic and induction, a politician of the old school would have concluded to the certainty of the duration of Peace.
England cannot stir without the Continent.
Bonaparte guarantees that the Continenet shall not stir.
Ergo England cannot stir! Q.R.P.'
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Snippets
Mock trial of Jefferson and Napoleon over Louisiana Purchase
Swiss celebrations of the bicentenary of the Act of Mediation
What's on
- Exhibition: Gallery Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings relating to Napoleonic Battles by David Fertig
- Exhibition: Napoleon and Alexander I in Hildesheim (Germany)
- Exhibition: The first Italian Republic, 1802-1805
- Exhibition: Seat of Empire
The monthly titles
- Book of the Month: Tactics and experience of battle in the age of Napoleon, by Rory Muir
- This month's picture, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and his children in 1853, by Courbet
- Article of the Month, Napoleon and the Theatre, by Peter Hicks
- In the Collectors Corner, The Prince Impérial and his dog Néro, by Carpeaux
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