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BOOK OF THE MONTH
Mrs (Betsy) ABELL, To Befriend an Emperor: Betsy Balcombe's Memoirs of Napoleon on St Helena, ed. J. David Markham
This excellent little book brings to modern readers the charming (but out-of-print) the account of her time spent with Napoleon written by the 16-year-old Betsy Balcombe, daughter of the William Balcombe, purveyor of suppliers to the island of St Helena during the Emperor's exile.
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200 YEARS AGO
On 31 April, 1805, the prefect of the department of Panaro (the area around the Italian city of Modena) sent a round robin to all the municipalities under his responsibility making the following remarks: "His Majesty the Emperor and King will first set foot on the territory of the kingdom on 6 May. As soon as Their Majesties board a craft in order to cross the river Po, a salvo of 60 cannon shots will be fired. This will be repeated in Pavia, Binasco, at Milan and in all the fortresses in the kingdom, up to the banks of the river Adige; at the same time, bells will be rung in all the domains of the state. As soon as this happy news reaches the principal town in the department [i.e., Modena, ed.] (as a result of these combined signals), you should begin to toll the bells in the great tower of the cathedral; all the peals in the town should immediately answer, as should those of the other communes, and so on in succession."
11 Floréal, An XIII (Wednesday, 1 May, 1805), Napoleon arrived in Alessandria. Four days later he presided over a large military ceremony on the battlefield of Marengo. The weather was beautifully sunny, a huge crowd had gathered, and the Empress was set in a tribune, all to view Lannes (at the head of 25,000 men) perform a large manoeuvre supposed to represent the principal movements of the victory in 1800.
Italy celebrated the arrival of its new king (he had been made king of Italy by decree in Paris): 14 Floréal, An XIII (4 mai 1805), a road under construction in Verona was named Strada Bonaparte (Bonaparte Street), and in Mantua a triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Septimius Severus, built in Rome in 204) was erected in honour of Napoleon. Several years later, when designing the Carrousel Arch in front of the Tuileries Palace, the architects and designers Percier and Fontaine were to use the same arch as their point of departure, copying the large central arch set in between two smaller arches, the detached columns on the façade, and the quadriga (i.e., chariot) on top.
150 YEARS AGO
Seeing that two of his works, The Burial at Ornans (L'enterrement à Ornans) and The Painter's Atelier (L'Atelier du peintre), were rejected by the Universal Exhibition (Exposition Universelle), Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) asked for permission to exhibit them in another place. Despite the painter's spiky reputation and the risk of creating confusion concerning the role of the jury, Nieuwerkerke, Fine Arts Minister, accepted. Courbet had a temporary pavillion built on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris and in it exhibited about forty of his paintings, thus enacting his desire to "translate the customs, ideas and aspect of his time, in short, to make living art." (The catalogue for this exhibition)
Tuesday 1 May, 1855, the Moniteur Universel reported on information gleaned from The London Daily News: "The vessel, Affrica, under Captain O'Neill, which arrived from Bombay last Saturday, has on board two fine thoroughbred Surat oxen, destined for the Universal Exhibition in Paris. These animals are entirely white and are remarkable made, with very delicate extremities, and dewlaps hanging down to the knees and very long ears. They aroused the greatest curiosity in Liverpool."
Surat, north of Bombay, was one of the French East India Company's (Compagnie française des Indes Orientales) most important trading posts from 1667 on, before falling into British hands in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris (10 February) at the end of the Seven Years War. Of her Indian trading posts, France was to keep Karikal, Mahé, Pondicherry, Yanaon and Chandernagor (until 1950).
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Mass on the anniversary of the death of Emperor Napoleon I, 5 May, 2005, at 10-45am, at the church of Saint-Louis des Invalides, Paris.
- Mass on the anniversary of the death of the Empress Josephine Messe anniversaire, 30 May, 2005 at 7pm, in the church of St-Pierre-St-Paul in Rueil-Malmaison.
PERIOD GLOSSARY
- The longest palindrome in English and Napoleon in exile...
PRESS REVIEW
- Napoleon and the Astronomer Herschel in The New Scientist
WEB SITES
- The Murat Network
Go to the Napoleonic Directory and select 'Associations' in the scroll bar menu
WHAT'S ON
- Conference: Europe at War: the Trafalgar campaign in context, Senate House, London University, UK
- Conference: The Battle of Trafalgar Conference, at Action Stations, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, UK
- Conference: Joint Napoleonic Alliance/Napoleonic Society of America Conference, 2005
- Concert: Beethoven, Napoleon and Wellington in Finland
- Re-enactment/Commemoration: Tolentino 815
- Conference/Guided tour: Portsmouth Dockyard in the Age of Nelson
- For Napoleonic and Nelsonian 2005 bicentenaries, watch our 2005 bicentenaries page
MONTHLY TITLES
- This month's book: Mrs (Betsy) ABELL, To Befriend an Emperor: Betsy Balcombe's Memoirs of Napoleon on St Helena
- This month's painting: The Empress Eugénie surrounded by her ladies in waiting, by Winterhalter
- This month's article: Napoleon's English Lessons, by Peter Hicks
- In the Collectors Corner, 'Nécessaire' belonging to the Duchesse d'Otrante
Got a problem with a link in the letter? Try the homepage
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