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THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
2007 brings with it new Napoleonic bicentenaries: some military, as with the Polish campaign, some diplomatic, such as the Treaty of Tilsit and the creation of the Duchy of Warsaw, some political, namely the reform of the Corps législatif, the abolition of the Tribunat, the promulgation of the Code de commerce and the creation of the Cour des Comptes.
2007 will also be for the Fondation Napoléon a year for consolidation, comprising not only the publication of two volumes of the Correspondance générale de Napoléon (May and November), but also active participation in international events in Poland, Italy and the US, the strengthening of the library's collection as a result of a large donation, and the exhibition of our art collection in two German cities in February, etc.
Of primary importance, however, is the decision taken by the board of trustees to approve the renovation of the website napoleon.org. The upcoming months will be devoted to the preparatory work for this huge project, and the aim will be to achieve completion in the spring of 2008. It will be a slow, almost imperceptible business, but we hope that the result will make your visits to the site even more effective, as we bring to you all the new possibilities offered by the internet today.
In this respect, the new year has begun in the way we mean to go on: with an 18% leap in connections to the site, giving a total of about 3.1 million visitors for 2006. As Madame Mère might have said: "Pourvu que cela dure" (Long may it last). We'll do all we can to make it happen.
And so on behalf of the board of trustees and the Fondation Napoléon executive team, and for my own part, I wish you all an excellent 2007.
Victor-André Masséna, Prince d'Essling
President of the Fondation Napoléon
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FONDATION NAPOLEON NEWS
The board of trustees of the Fondation Napoléon, meeting on 19 December, 2006, with president Victor-André Masséna, Prince d'Essling, in the chair, appointed Doctor Anne-Marie Desbordes as secretary of the Fondation Napoléon. She is to replace Ronald Zins, President of the Souvenir Napoléonien, who wished to stand down from this post.
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200 YEARS AGO
The Polish Campaign continues
In reply to the Berlin decree (21 November, 1806), Britain retaliated with the Orders in Council of 7 January, 1807, declaring that all ports in France and in her colonies would be blockaded.
For more on the Berlin Decree and the Continental System, see our Bicentenary dossier
Having been besieged since 6 December, 1806, by Jerome Bonaparte and Vandamme, the town of Breslau (Wroclaw) surrendered on 7 January, 1807, officially capitulating on the 8th. An order was sent to Prince Jerome to blockade Brieg, Kosel and Schweidnitz and to keep a reserve corps of infantry, cavalry and artillery in Breslau. (Correspondance n°11575)
Fashion
Paris, on 10 January: «New year gifts this year are seals, penknives, punches and scrapers with nacre handles, all bearing vermeil shields designed to receive the owners engraved initials.» (Courrier français, 11 January, 1807).
150 YEARS AGO
International politics
On 6 January, 1857, a protocol fixing the border between continental Turkey and Russia was signed in Paris at the ministry of foreign affairs by representatives of the signing powers to Paris Congress (see Bulletins n°360 and 366). The frontier was to «follow the Trajan vallery to the Yalpuk river, leaving Bolgrad and Tobak to Moldavia.» Russia would «retain the right bank of that river, the town of Komrat with a territory of about 330 acres. It is decreed that this border shall be effective by 30 March, 1857, at the latest, and that Austrian and British troops will have evacuated the Danube principalities and Turkey's inland waters.»
(Moniteur universel, 7 January, 1857)
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, New Year.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 397, 5 - 11 January, 2007
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
WHAT'S ON
Conferences:
Napoleon at the Zenith: a bi-centennial seminar, Liverpool, UK
Exhibitions:
- Manet and the Execution of Maximilian, MoMA, New York, USA
- Champignon Bonaparte - illustrations by Gilles Bachelet
- 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 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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