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HOMAGE TO BARON GUICHARD
During the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Fondation Napoléon, 10 February, 2004, the Baron Gourgaud, President of the Fondation Napoléon, spoke in memory of Olivier Guichard, ex-minister and trustee of the Fondation since 1988. The Baron Guichard died on 20 January 2004.
VICTOR-ANDRE MASSENA D'ESSLING, NEW TRUSTEE OF THE FONDATION NAPOLEON
The board of trustees of the Fondation Napoléon coopted, as a replacement for Baron Guichard, Victor-André Masséna, Prince d'Essling, Duc de Rivoli, lawyer by training, founder or administrator of various companies. At 53, the Prince d'Essling is Vice-president of the Board of Trustees of the Musée de l'Armée and Vice-president of the Société des Amis de Malmaison. And you will all have guessed from this short biography that Victor-André Masséna d'Essling is the descendant of André Masséna (1758-1817), Maréchal de France, and for his bravery nicknamed "L'enfant chéri de la Victoire" (the darling child of Victory) by Bonaparte himself after the battle of La Favorita (16 January, 1796).
NEW BICENTENARY PAGE
Visit our new pages on the site dedicated entirely to bicentenary events 1804-2004 and 1805-2005.
THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
Justice and Divine Vengeance pursuing Crime, by Prud'hon
this allegory by Pierre Paul Prud'hon was commissioned by Frochot in 1804 for the Paris Palais de Justice (main law courts) and exhibited at the Salon of 1808. A sombre work half-way between Neoclassicism and Romanticism.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO
In February 1854, Victor Hugo in the pursuance of his long campaign against capital punishment denounced the death sentence (by hanging) passed upon a Guernesey man (a certain Tapner) who had been found guilty of murder and hanged on 10 February. On 11 February, he wrote an official letter to Lord Palmerston, (British Home Office secretary of state who had been asked to have the sentence commuted to life imprisonment), published his book Actes et Paroles, volume II, 1854, Chapter II. Hugo also wrote in his notebook at the time words which he did not send to Palmerston: " To L. Palmerston. Sir, you are hanging this man. Excellent. My compliments to you. One day, several years ago, I dined with you. You have, I suppose, forgotten; I remember, however. What struck me about you was the unusual way in which you did the knot in your tie. They told me that you were renowned for the way you knotted your tied around your neck. I see that you are also good at tying knots around other people's necks, too!."
A decree of 18 February, 1854, granted to the engineer Loubat a concession for the construction of the first tramline in France. Adapted from what Loubat had experienced in America, it was called the "tramway américain" (American tram) - soon shortened to "l'Américain". A carthorse-drawn carriage travelling at a maximum speed of 7 kmh was to carry 40 or so passengers from the Louvre down the banks of the Seine, passing via Boulogne to Sèvres, and eventually on to Versailles.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
On 25 Pluviôse, An XII (15 February, 1804), General Moreau was arrested on suspicion of having participated in a plot against the First Consul. He denied however any relations with the principal suspects, the Vendée chief Cadoudal and the Royalist General Pichegru.
A successful general during the Revolution, Jean-Victor Moreau (1763-1813) was only a lukewarm supporter of the Brumaire coup. His unhappiness with the new regime grew, and he was opposed to most of the major development, such as the Concordat, the establishment of the Légion d'honneur and the Consulat for life. Moreau even refused Bonaparte's personal proposition that he marry the First Consul's step-daughter, the young Hortense de Beauharnais. Indeed, Jean-Victor's opposition to Bonaparte seems to have been entirely personal rather than a committed desire to see the return of the Bourbons. Although acquitted at the first sitting, Moreau was convicted after a second sitting to two years in prison, commuted by Bonaparte to exile, whereupon the general left for the United States. After spending six years there he was called back to Europe by the Czar to fight alongside him against Napoleon. Dying of wounds after the Battle of Dresden, Moreau was buried in Saint Petersburg.
For a full biography of Moreau, see our Biographies section
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Press review
The Member's Bulletin of the Napoleonic Society of America, Bulletin 74, Fall/Winter 2003
Web sites
- The web site of the Napoleonic Society of America (President: Douglas Allan)
Go to the Napoleonic directory and select 'Associations' in the Web Sites scroll bar menu
- Battlefield Anomalies - the Battle of Eylau
Go to the Napoleonic directory and select 'Militaria' in the Web Sites scroll bar menu
What's on
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the sea, a dream of Empire, Paris
- Exhibition: Porphyry. The purple stone, from the Ptolemies to the Bonapartes
- Exhibition: Art booty in the Napoleonic period. The "French gift" to Mainz, 1803
The monthly titles
- This month's book: The Politics of Religion in Napoleonic Italy: The War Against God, 1801-1814, by Michael Broers
- This month's painting: Justice and Divine Vengeance pursuing Crime, by Prud'hon
- This month's article: The Emperor's New Clothes and the Death of Napoleon, back to back
by Peter Hicks
- In the Collectors Corner, The Jouy Cloth - bed cover: "Pallas and Venus"
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