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THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
Saint Helena Miscellany, by Thierry Lentz and Peter Hicks
In effect two short articles, the two texts here presented deal with two Saint Helena chestnuts. Has Cipriani's tomb really disappeared (as the substitutionists maintain) or could it be there. Thierry Lentz invites all those who want to know to visit Saint Helena. And who wrote the 'Letters from the Cape'? Napoleon or Las Cases? Click here to find out more...
SPECIAL BICENTENAIRE DU CODE CIVIL
"My real glory was not to have won forty battles and to have dictated the law to those kings who dared to forbid the French people to change the form of their government. Waterloo will wipe out the memory of so many victories; just as the last act effaces the memory of the first. That which nothing can erase and which will live for ever is my Civil Code" declared Napoleon on Saint Helena. On 30 Ventôse, An XII (21 March, 1804) the founding text of modern French and European law was promulgated.
We bring you our special dossier: article, biographies, bibliography, iconography, events.
HAPPY EVENT
A birth at the Fondation Napoléon! Pauline, daughter of François Houdecek, collaborator on the project for the publication of the Correspondance of Napoleon, was born in the evening of 12 March, 2004. Mother and baby are doing well. Indeed, so is the father. Congratulations.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO
On 20 March, 1854, the Russians invaded Bulgaria, then Ottoman territory. A week later, Napoleon III declared war on Russia.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
On 30 Ventôse, An XII (21 March, 1804), the Duc d'Enghien was executed in the dry moat around the Château de Vincennes. A controversial decision which Napoleon was still considering even on Saint Helena: 'I would do it again', were his words.
The day preceding, the 29 Ventôse, An XII (20 March, 1804), Bonaparte had warned the commandant of the Château de Vincennes, Harel, of the arrival of his prisoner: "An individual whose name must not be divulged, Citizen Commandant, is to be brought to the château under your command; you will put him into an empty cell, taking all suitable precautions for his security. It is the intention of the Government that everything related to this man is to be kept top secret, and he is not to be asked who he is or the reasons for his detention. It is necessary that you yourself be unaware of his identity."
Correspondance, letter n° 7,638
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Snippets
For a small fee, download the English version of Napoleon's last will and testament
Journal News
Times Literary Supplement, 19 March 2004: reviews of Chateaubriand and Hugo
Just published
Wellington's Scapegoat, by Archie Hunter
Warfare in the Age of Bonaparte, Michael Glover
Waterloo in the footsteps of the commanders, by Jonathan Gillespie-Payne
Defiant but dismasted at Trafalgar: the life and times of admiral Sir William Hargood, by Mary McGrigor
What's on
- Commemoration/Day: Napoleon and the city of Graz
- Exhibition: Napoleon in Coblenz
- Workshop: University courses in Jena 1800
- Exhibition: The Albums of Napoleon III
- Commemoration: 9th annual commemorative ceremony for the anniversary of the death of the Prince Imperial
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the sea, a dream of Empire, Paris
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the Jouy Cloth
The monthly titles
- This month's book: Eugenie: The Empress and Her Empire, by Desmond Seward
- This month's painting: The destruction of l'Orient during the Battle of the Nile (Aboukir), by Georges Arnald
- This month's article: 'Saint Helena Miscellany', by Thierry Lentz and Peter Hicks
- In the Collectors Corner, The Roi de Rome's cradle
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