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EDITORIAL
AN EXCITING AUTUMN
We're delighted to be back in the saddle after our summer break, writing in fact to more than 6,700 of you now every week. And don't forget that the French version of this letter is often different, so don't hesitate to sign up for both versions to get the full napoleon.org experience. The big napoleon.org "experience" of this autumn is the celebration of the site's tenth birthday. We'll be giving the emperor new clothes (defintely not transparent!) and offering fun new services. In order to get ready, make sure you've got loudspeakers attached to your computer!
Thanks for your continuing support!
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OBITUARY
2 August, 2006, Napoléon Marie Joseph, Comte Suchet, 6th duc d'Albufera, passed away aged 94.
Count Suchet was descended from marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet (1770-1826), who was made comte de l'Empire in 1808 and who received the title Duc d'Albufera on 11 January, 1813, as a reward for his success during the Peninsular War, particularly his victory near Valencia (he was named after the Albufera lagoon which lies to the south of Valencia). The 6th duke was also descended, via the female line, from Davout, Masséna, Berthier, and General Cambacérès (the arch-chancellor's half-brother), not to mention Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte.
He began his career as a journalist for Le Jour. He then fought in a cavalry regiment during WWII, being awarded the Croix de Guerre (1939-1940) and being mentioned twice in dispatches. Returning to civilian life after the defeat, he went into hiding, becoming a woodcutter in the period 1943 and 1944. After the liberation, he joined the newspaper L'Époque (founded in 1937), later going to work on Le Figaro where his nom de plume was Hubert Clary. He became one of the paper's editors in 1975.
He was maire of Montgobert (in the Aisne department) for 40 years and the instigators of the wood museum there. The Musée du bois with its collection of more than 3,000 tools related to the timber trade was installed in the count's château in Montgobert. This country house was built at the end of the 18th century and one of its most illustrious owners was Pauline Bonaparte, whose first husband, general Leclerc (1772-1802) was (and still is) buried in the grounds.
Count Suchet is survived by two sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Emmanuel (born in 1944), who is now the 7th Duc d'Albufera, is a member of the Association du Souvenir Napoléonien.
© Le maréchal Suchet, napoléon.org
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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
Frederick W. Kagan, Napoleon and Europe: Volume One, 1801-1805, The End of the Old Order
An account and analysis of the Napoleonic era in Europe concentrating on the interaction of continental politics and the war which shaped our modern world. Perhaps no person in history has dominated his or her own era as much as Napoleon, and for this reason, most historical accounts of the Napoleonic era tell the same Napoleon-dominated story over and over again, or focus narrowly on special aspects of it. Read on...
© Da Capo Press
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FONDATION NAPOLEON RESEARCH GRANTS
Every year the Fondation Napoléon encourages the study of the First and Second Empires by awarding six research grants to six French or non-French students in the first year of their PhD (or MPhil intending to go on to PhD) on a First or Second Empire subject. Candidates should send their completed forms to the Fondation by 30 September, 2006, the closing date for applications.
© Fondation Napoléon
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HONOURS
The prefect Jean-Michel Mehnert, representative of the Ministre de l'Intérieur on the Board of Trustees of the Fondation Napoléon has been appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Mérite.
Thierry Lentz, director of the Fondation Napoléon, has been appointed Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.
Warm congratulations to both.
200 YEARS AGO
Conscription 1806:
Every year the numbers for the different contingents were fixed by decree. In December 1806, conscription was to provide Napoleon with about 80,000 men.
In every canton, able-bodied men were invited to sign up on the conscription lists for their commune. Eight days later, the sub-prefect would visit the principal town in the canton, check the lists and then begin to draw the names out of a hat and examine the medical dossiers of those chosen. Refusal to accept conscription was illegal. The local newspapers and official gazettes would report that everything took place in the greatest calm: «The selection of conscripts continues peacefully. Once the selection process is over, those chosen walk the streets of the town to the accompaniment of drums and appear in high spirits. » (Bulletin from the Ministère de la police générale dated 8 September, 1806)
«From Paris, 8 September: the selection of conscripts for the Seine department ended on Saturday. […] In all places where this exercise took place it was performed with order and calm. At all points, the young men chosen by lot accepted the rosette…» (Publiciste, dated 9 September 1806)
On 9 September 1806, the architect Fontaine visited several houses in Paris with the aim of finding a suitable town mansion for Prince Jérôme, the youngest of Napoleon's brothers who had recently returned from America. Fontaine wrote in his Diary: «The Hôtel de Monaco in Rue de Varennes seems the best of all. It belongs to an Briton who wishes to sell it for a million.»
150 YEARS AGO
On 10 September, 1856, Napoleon III set up a fund for Marshal Randon, governor general of Algeria, to provide financial help to the colonists who had suffered as a result of the serious earthquakes which had occurred in western Algeria on 21 and 22 August 1856. «The order has been given to provide these people with land, shelter and camp supplies.»
(Le Moniteur universel, 11 September, 1856).
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 381, 8-14 September, 2006
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation.
© this Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
PRESS REVIEW
Michael Broers, "Napoleon's Empire: From enlightened absolutism to colonial imperialism", in History Review
JUST PUBLISHED
Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia
WHAT'S ON
Conferences
- Napoleonic Association Conference October 2006, Greenwich, London, UK
- Luigi Emanuele Corvetto (1756-1821), financier, lawyer and politician
Genoa–Imperia, Italy
Study Days
- Napoleon in North-East Italy, Isonzo Valley, Italy/Slovenia
Commemorations:
- Historical Bivouac 1806, Jena, Germany
Exhibitions
- Louis Bonaparte and the Leiden powder explosion, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Adel im Wandel (Changing nobility) Exhibition in the Prinzenbau and Landeshaus Sigmaringen, Germany
- Das Königreich Württemberg 1806–1918. Monarchie und Moderne (The kingdom of Württemberg 1806–1918. Monarchy and modernity) In the old castle, Stuttgart, Germany
- The price of the new crown: Baden and Wurttemberg as Napoleon's vassal – the Confederation of the Rhine 1806 Wehrgeschichtliches Museum Rastatt, Germany
- NAPOLÉON An Intimate Portrait, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
- Louis Napoleon: at the court of the first King of Holland, 1806-1810, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Got a problem with the letter? Try the home page: http://www.napoleon.org
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