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IN THIS WEEK'S LETTER
A mini dossier on the gifted dynasty of pianist-composer-business men and women, the Pleyels, a presentation of the publication history of the last great Napoleonic memoirs, events in Paris and Elba, the usual 200 and 150 years ago, the contents of the latest number of First Empire Magazine, a special culture week at the Museo Glauco Lombardi and a re-enactment in Pomponesco, Italy…
Enjoy your read!
Peter Hicks
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NAPOLEONIC PAGES : MARCHAND'S MEMOIRS
Louis Marchand entered service in the Imperial Household in 1811 as garçon d'appartement (house servant), subsequently becoming Premier valet de chambre (First Valet of the Emperor's Chamber). He followed Napoleon to Elba and then St Helena, becoming one of the key figures in creation of the legend around the fallen emperor. It was 120 years later that his grandson was to hand over his ancestor's journal to the Napoleonic specialist, Jean Bourguignon, head curator at Malmaison, for publication.
Louis-Joseph Marchand © napoleon.org
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THE MASS FOR THE 5th OF MAY, 2007
As every year, a solemn mass will be celebrated on Saturday 5 May, at 11am, in Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris in memory of Napoleon I (d. 5 May, 1821) and the soldiers of the Grande Armée.
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200 YEARS AGO
Imperial Family Tragedy
The Gazette de France dated 10 May, 1807, reported that Napoleon Charles, the eldest son of King Louis and Queen Hortense of the Netherlands, had died of measles aged four and a half: “Last Tuesday, 5 May, at 5 in the afternoon, at The Hague, the young Prince Royal of the Netherlands, Napoleon Charles, born in Paris on [11] October, 1802, died in the arms of his august parents […] The mourning for the young prince is felt more keenly as a result of the high hopes which people had for him because of the excellent qualities which his precocious spirit had already shown …”
The young prince whom Napoleon at one point intended to succeed him was to be immortalised alongside his mother in David's painting of the coronation.
Napoleon was not to learn of the child's death until 14 May – two days earlier he had written to his doctor Corvisart hoping that the infant had been vaccinated and that he would only have had chicken pox. On hearing the terrible news, he wrote to Josephine (Napoleon Charles' grandmother) on 14 May: “I understand the suffering which the death of poor little Napoleon must be causing you; you can imagine the pain I feel …” (Correspondance n°12577)
Madame de Stael, a thorn in his side...
Napoleon wrote to police chief Fouché on 7 May, 1807, complaining that police surveillance of this opponent of the regime was too lax, but at the same time revealing that he was watching ‘those who guard'. “I see from your bulletin dated 27 April that Madame de Stael had left for Geneva on 21. I am angry that you should be so poorly informed. Madame de Stael was, on 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and probably still is, in Paris. She gave many dinners to people of letters. I do not think that she is in Paris without your permission. However, you should not have told me that she had left for Geneva. It is quite ridiculous every day to force me to perform such a simple act [i.e., to have her expelled from Paris]. If others had not filled Madame de Stael's head with so many illusions, this nonsense [Madame de Stael coming to Paris] would not happen, and she would be at peace. Not to deprive her of the hope of ever coming back to Paris and of starting her chattering again, is simply to increase this woman's misfortunes and to expose her to disagreeable scenes; for I shall have her taken in by gendarmes and then I will be sure that she will not come back to Paris with impunity." Correspondence n°12550.
150 YEARS AGO
On 5 May, 1857, the funeral of the writer, Alfred de Musset, took place in the Paris church of Saint-Roch at 10am (he had died three days earlier, see Bulletin n°413). After the service, the cortege drove to the Cimetière de l'Est (that is, Père Lachaise) where his funeral speech was pronounced. (Moniteur universel, 5 May, 1857)
On 5 May, 1857, took place the commemorative masses for the death of the emperor Napoleon I. The first was celebrated in the Tuileries chapel in the presence of the emperor Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie and members of the imperial family. The second took place in the imperial church of Les Invalides in the presence of the General Comte d'Ornano, governor of Les Invalides. After the mass, visitors were allowed to visit the emperor Napoleon I's tomb (Moniteur universel, 6 May, 1857).
The 9th of May, 1857, saw the beginning of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (known in India as ‘The First War of Independence'. “In Meerut, Sepoys, indigenous regiments, rose against the British and took the Delhi fort on 11 May”
(Almanach de Napoléon, 1858)
The uprising in the Punjab province (North West India) amongst the Sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British Army) began as a result of a refusal to use catridges supposedly containing animal fat. Hindu and Moslem soldiers were particularly offended, cows being sacred to Hindus and pigs being a dirty animal for Moslems. This was the start of general insurrection (which was to last a year and to include huge amounts of bloodshed on both sides) against the exceedingly powerful East India Company. When the rising was put down, government in London was to replace the company in the administration of India.
For the events planned by the Indian parliament, for the 150th anniversary celebrations see the following website.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, Week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 414, 4 – 10 May, 2007
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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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Got a problem with a link in the Bulletin? Go to the homepage: http://www.napoleon.org
EXCEPTIONALLY the Fondation Napoléon and its library will be closed on 7 and 8 May, 2007.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
Press Review
- First Empire, the International Magazine for the Napoleonic Enthusiast, Historian and Gamer May/June 2007
WHAT'S ON
Re-enactments:
- May Napoleonic commemorations on Elba: Imperial presence, Elba, Italy
- Re-enactment at Pomponesco (MN), Italy
- Re-enactment and festivities in Cherasco, Cherasco, Italy
- Re-enactment of the Battle of Rivoli, 1797-2007, Rivoli, Italy
Fairs and Festivals:
- Museo Glauco-Lombardi - IX Culture Week, Parma, Italy
- The 14th International Napoleonic Fair, Cressing Temple, UK
Conferences:
- Napoleon at the Zenith: a bi-centennial seminar, Liverpool, UK
Exhibitions:
- People, portraits, places and the abolition of the Slave trade, National Portrait gallery, London, UK
- "König Lustik!": Jérôme Bonaparte und der Modellstaat Königreich Westphalen ("The merry monarch": Jerome Bonaparte and the model state, the Kingdom of Westphalia), Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
- Napoleon's Description de L'Egypte, Dallas, Texas, USA
- Napoleon, Trikolore und Kaiseradler über Rhein und Weser, Wesel and Minden, Germany
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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