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THIS MONTH'S OBJECT
A Mamluk's Harness
On 21 July, 1798, the French army, led by the general Bonaparte fought a battle on the Gizeh plain against Murad Bey and his Mamluk troops. The Mamluk equipment and arms left on the battlefield was gathered up the day after the battle and offered by Bonaparte's staff to Bonaparte.
NAPOLEONICA.ORG > Correspondance of Vivant Denon
Appointed director of the Musée Napoléon (today the Louvre) by Bonaparte on 19 Brumaire, An X (10 November, 1801), Vivant Denon (1747-1825) corresponded with many important figures of the First Empire during his term of office. On napoleonica.org, the Fondation Napoléon's second site, these 4,000 or so letters (plus more than to Napoleon) can be read and searched online!.
Napoleonica.org, the online site for Napoleonic primary sources: a veritable goldmine!
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO: Period Glossary
Appearance of the adjective "napoléonien" ("Napoleonic")
It was circa 1850 that the term "napoléonien" ("Napoleonic") appeared: it was principally related to Napoleon I, but also by extension to Napoleon III. It was also the period when people began talking about the "épopée napoléonienne" ("Napoleonic epic").
Source: Le Petit Robert. Dictionnaire de langue française, Paris: 1986, p. 1255
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO: Period glossary
Taking the King's shilling
The expression 'to take the king's shilling, meant to sign up to join the army. Rather like with the 'prest' money for the 'impressed' man, a bonus payment of a shilling was offered to tempt lowly paid workers to leave their trade (an average daily wage during the Napoleonic period was 2p (at 12p to a shilling, this represented six days wages in one go). Once the shilling had been accepted, it was almost impossible to leave the army.
Grog
The word 'grog' (which first appeared in English in the mid-eighteenth century) is an abbreviation of the mid-sixteenth century word 'Grosgram' (itself a corruption of the French expression 'gros grain', literally 'coarse grain cloth'). 'Old Grog' was the name given to Admiral Vernon (1684-1757), famed for his bold taking of Porto Bello (Panama) from the Spanish (21 November, 1739). And he received it because of his habit of wearing a 'grogram' cloak when walking the deck in bad weather. Whether out of parsimony or in order to have seamen less inebriated, Admiral Vernon famously ordered that the neat rum which his sailors used to receive should be cut with water (some also say citrus juice). This new drink was baptised with the nickname of its first 'perpetrator'.
Read the other period words and expression in our Period Glossary, in the Funstuff section.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Snippets
- The book "Autour de l'empoisonnement de Napoléon": translated into Polish!
Web sites
- The Redoubt Fortress, Eastbourne
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, scroll down to Web sites, select 'Museums'
- What the Industrial Revolution did for us
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, scroll down to Web sites, select 'History'
Just Published
- West Point Atlas for the Wars of Napoleon, by Thomas Griess
- Historical Maps of the Napoleonic Wars, by Simon Forty and Michael Swift
What's on
- The Exhibition/Antiques Fair in Montecchio Emilia
- Joint Annual Conference - Napoleonic Society of America/Napoleonic Alliance
- Exhibition: Napoleon in Brazil
- Exhibition: Art booty in the Napoleonic period. The "French gift" to Mainz, 1803
- Exhibition: Bonaparte or Buonaparte - closing soon!
The monthly titles
- This month's book: Journal de Voyage du Général Desaix: Suisse et Italie (1797), by Louis-Charles-Antoine des Aix
- This month's painting: The Birth of Venus, painted in 1863 by Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889)
- This month's article: A tale of Napoleonic forgeries?, by Peter Hicks
- In the Collectors Corner, a Mamluk's harness
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