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EDITORIAL
Just as this letter is being sent to you, Jean Tulard, who is to retire at the end of this academic year, will be beginning his last history lecture at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.
Everyone knows much Napoleonic history owes to his forty-years work and activity in Napoleonic circles. We are all greatly indebted to him.
Given the brevity of this editorial, I cannot say more, but we did want to send our 'maître' this sign of affection and respect, hoping to share with him in new Napoleonic (or otherwise) adventures; for there is indeed life and work after University!
We would also like to take this opportunity to wish his successor, Professor Jacques-Olivier Boudon, all the best as he steps into Jean Tulard's shoes at the Sorbonne.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Thierry Lentz
THIS MONTH'S OBJECT
The First Consul's glaive
The Versailles Manufactory is famed for having provided the honour arms awarded by Bonaparte to those who distinguished themselves on the field of battle. Director of the manufactory from 1798, Nicolas Noël Boutet also provided the First Consul with this sumptuous glaive (1800), with its antique-inspired decoration.
LIBRARY BIBLIOTHEQUE M. Lapeyre-Fondation Napoléon
The library Bibliothèque Martial Lapeyre - Fondation Napoléon will be open during as usual during the summer. However, from 28 July to 14 August will open only on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1 to 6pm. For any further information, please contact either Madame Lheureux-Prévot, Librarian, or Peter Hicks for information in English.
FONDATION NAPOLEON: 2002 REPORT
Significant extracts from the 2002 report presented by the Baron de Méneval and voted by the Board of Trustees on 17 June, 2003, can be read here on the site.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO
Georges Haussmann was appointed Préfet de la Seine, 23 June, 1853.
In this post he significantly transformed Paris, a city feared by administrations for its political resistance, for which its winding mediaeval streets were a great help, notably with barricades. In addition to the opening of the large boulevards - Sébastopol, Magenta, Arago, Voltaire, Diderot, Cours de Vincennes, Malesherbes, Saint-Germain - there was also the building of the drainage system (600 km in 1878), the making of the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes parks, as well as the Place du Trocadéro, the remodelling of the parks and squares … Roads were resurfaced and had gutters and pavements added to them, not to mention benches, kiosques, fountains and trees. Paris grew, and on 1 January, 1860, went from twelve to twenty arrondissements, crossing the wall of the Fermiers généraux (the toll gate barrier) and annexing the communes Belleville, Passy, Auteuil, and Montmartre. The city numbered two million inhabitants in 1870. Many monuments were destroyed and the poor were driven to the outskirts. This construction work was very expensive and in the end caused the Parisians to despair of them. Baron Haussmann was recalled on 5 January, 1870.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
1 Messidor, An XI (20 June, 1803), a boycott place on produce from England and its colonies.
3 Messidor, An XI (22 June, 1803), not wishing to bring his country to war, the Spanish Prime Minister, Godoy, agreed to pay France a six-million franc subsidy every month.
6 Messidor, An XI (25 June, 1803), having signed a Franco-Batavian convention, Hollande agreed to establish and equip a fleet against England.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Press review
- Napoleon III: ‘Hero' or ‘Grotesque Mediocrity'
Web Site
- British Prime Ministers
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, and select 'History' in the 'Web Sites' menu
What's on
- Re-enactment: Napoleonic Association, Re-enactment and Talks, Painshill Park
- Television: the Iron Duke
- Exhibition: 1803 - A Turning Point in European History: the Collapse of Feudalism and the Dawn of the Bourgeois Era
- Festival: Australian Napoleonic Congress, New South Wales
- Re-enactment: Napoleonic Association British Summer Events
- Re-enactment: Napoleonic Association Continental Summer Events
The monthly titles
- Book of the Month: Britain and the defeat of Napoleon, 1807-1815, by Rory Muir
- This month's picture, Officer of the Chasseurs à Cheval of the Garde Impériale charging, by Géricault
- Article of the Month, Impressions of a Trip to Saint Helena: 5 - 23 April, 2003, by Jacques Macé
- In the Collectors Corner, the First Consul's glaive
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