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EDITORIAL
Celebrating Jena in Germany
I'm not going to mention again the discretion with the Napoleonic bicentenaries are treated here in France. It certainly gives full meaning to the expression "continuité de l'Etat", as we approach the bicentenaries of the campaigns of 1806 and 1807. It all starts this weekend at Jena and Auerstedt where the region of Thuringia is organising a series of events including a re-enactment of the battle. The commemoration is designed to be both historical and festive. Historical, because we're talking about history; and the temporal distance has cooled things down so far that you might be tempted to think that the Saxons were trying to get one over on the Prussians. Festive, because - as at Austerlitz last year - Europeans are coming from all over to get together and to re-visit our common history. The region of Thuringia is to be congratulated on the initiative and I wish the event every success. But before leaving you to discover the Jena web dossier brought to you by the napoleon.org team, allow me to say bravo to the French Embassy in Berlin. Not only will they be present at Jena (as should be expected), but also, Monsieur Martin, ambassador, and his team have organised a study day and an exhibition in the embassy. These begin on 27 October, the bicentenary day for Napoleon's entry into Berlin! We might add that the choice of date was not an accident.
An excellent, Napoleonic, week to you all.
Thierry Lentz
Director of the Fondation Napoléon
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SPECIAL BICENTENARY DOSSIER
The Prussian Campaign, the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, 14 October, 1806, on napoleon.org
After Napoleon's victory over the combined armies of Russia and Austria at Austerlitz, on the 2nd of December, 1805, the face of Europe was radically altered. France had occupied Italy and the southern German Länder, a potential source of future wars, against the advice of Talleyrand, Minister for Foreign Affairs. However, against all odds, a new hope had sprung after the treaty of peace at Pressburg, signed on the 26th of December 1805. The ceding of Hanover to Prussia seemed to ensure warmer relations between France and Prussia. But hopes of a lasting peace were soon disappointed. The negociations failed in May 1806. The Prussian ultimatum on the 26th of August 1806, demanding that Napoleon withdraw his troops behind the Rhine before the 8th of October finally obliged him to act.
Timeline
- Jena-Auerstedt, 14 October, 1806
Maps and pictures
- General map of the site of the Battle of Jena
- General map of the site of the Battle of Auerstedt
- Plan of the Battle of Jena
- Plan of the Battle of Auerstedt
- The Emperor Napoleon Ist on his horse at Jena, after Horace Vernet (1836)
Itinerary
- Jena-Auerstedt, 14 October, 1806
Article
- Peter Hicks, Why did the battle of Jena take place?
Bibliography
- The Prussian Campaign and the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, 14 October, 1806
Biographies of the major players
French
- Davout
- Soult
- Augereau
- Lannes
- Murat
- Bernadotte
- Ney
Prussians
- Frederick William III
- Queen Louise
- Rüchel
- Tauentzien
- Hohenlohe
- Blücher
- Duke of Brunswick
- Prince Louis
- Haugwitz
Agenda: some commemorations
- Re-enactment of the Battle of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Historical Bivouac 1806, Jena, Germany
- Conference, Germany and Napoleon 1806-2006, Berlin, Germany
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THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
The Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806, by Horace Vernet, 1836
Born in a family of famous painters, Horace Vernet had a brilliant career, which began at the Salon of 1812 during the First Empire, finishing gloriously during the Second. As a fervant admirer of Napoleon, he here produced one of his best-known pictures, which was commissioned by Louis-Phillipe for the Musée historique de Versailles. Whilst it is entitled The Battle of Jena, it simply shows the emperor in action. © napoleon.org
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200 YEARS AGO
For the Prussian Campaigns of 1806 and the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedtsee the detailed timeline above in our special dossier.
150 YEARS AGO
International politics
In mid-October 1856, the French Consul in Shangai, Charles de Montigny, arrived in Cambodia, anchoring in the bay of Kampot. Positioned between Siam and Annam (modern Vietnam), Cambodia was at the time under the protectorat of the latter. From 1853, the king Ang Duong, fearing that his country would be divided up between the two countries, asked for French assistance. Napoleon III was however slow to reply. He waited until 1855 to send Charles de Montigny on a reconnaissance mission. When he arrived in October 1856, de Montigny gave orders to the Catholic priest in Kampot to have discussions with the king in Oudong. Receiving the messenger before his court and fearing Siamese spies and repercussions, king Ang Duong refused to sign any agreement with the France. The mission was a failure.
Imperial family:
14 October, 1856, Louis de Cambacérès (1832-1868) married Princesse Bathilde Bonaparte (1840-1861), daughter of Zénaïde Bonaparte and Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino.
Auditeur at the Conseil d'Etat, member of parliament for Aisne department, Louis de Cambacérès was the son of Etienne de Cambacérès and Adèle Davout d'Auerstaedt d'Eckmühl.
Click here for more on the genealogy of the imperial family
Art:
Beginning of October 1856, the paintings produced by Thomas Couture for the Chapelle de la Vierge in the Parisian church of Saint Eustache were finally revealed. «There are three major compositions. In the centre, the Virgin presents the divine child to the adoration of the angels and men; on the left stand some shipwreck victims to whom she is bringing succour; on the right stand the afflicted whom she is consoling.»
(Moniteur Universel, 16 October 1856)
The painter Thomas Couture decorated the apse chapel in the church of Saint-Eustache, dedicated to the Virgin, between 1851 and 1854.
Wishing you an excellent, bicentenary, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 386, 13-19 October, 2006
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© 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
WHAT'S ON
Exhibitions:
- Dagoty in Paris - the Empress Josephine's porcelain manufactory, Reuil-Malmaison, France
- Napoleon III and Europe - 1856, Paris, France
- Napoleon, an intimate portrait, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
- Public Portraits, Private Portraits 1770-1830, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- 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
- 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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