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THE FONDATION NAPOLEON'S PROGRAMME FOR 2008
Last week we gave a presentation of our Napoleon III programme, highlighting our partnership with the new quarterly magazine Napoléon III. Le magazine du Second Empire (on sale at the beginning of January) and our conference entitled Napoléon III. L'homme. Le politique.
This week we bring you our programme for next year.
As you already know, we are working on the makeover of your and our website, napoleon.org. Things are progressing and we hope to have the new site up and running at the beginning of the spring.
At the same time we will be launching a new historical review, entirely online: Napoleonica. La revue. It is to come out three times a year and is to be prepared by a highly qualified editorial board. More on that very soon.
Again, on the web, our librarian, Chantal Lheureux-Prévot, is preparing a catalogue of Napoleonic resources online and a digital library.
But this is not to say that we are abandoning paper. Far from it.
Volume V of the Correspondance générale de Napoléon I is to come out in April. And Volume VI is planned for the autumn.
We also hope to bring out two further titles in our "Bibliothèque Napoléon" collection, published by Nouveau Monde éditions.
And last but not least, the Treasures of the Fondation Napoléon will continue to quarter the globe. On 14 February, the exhibition will open in Rome (Museo Napoleonico). And on 14 June, the collection will be going to the island of Elba. In 2009, the collection may be shown in a major French city, before heading for Latin America.
In 2008, we will also be bringing you news of our work with the Domaines français de Sainte-Hélène and commemorating the 150th anniversary of its purchase by Napoleon III. There will also be important the bicentenary of the Peninsular War, with notably an important conference in Madrid. Finally, there will the publication of Jean Mongrédien's magnum opus on Italian theatre in Paris (8 volumes supported by the Fondation Napoléon and the French Centre National du Livre)...
The board of trustees and executive team at the Fondation Napoléon would like to wish all those signed up for this bulletin, and their nearest and dearest, a happy Christmas and an excellent 2008.
The bulletin will be back on Friday 4 January.
Victor-André Masséna
Président of the Fondation Napoléon
In this week's bulletin
In honour of the bicentenary of the Second Milan decree, we bring you Eli Hecksher's seminal essay on the Continental System. Then there's your chance to review the year's Napoleonic books and cds and perhaps buy one for your nearest and dearest. We also bring you our e-cards, which you could perhaps use creatively at this time of year as ‘Napoleonic' Christmas wishes for your 'entourage'. Then in '200 years ago' there's Napoleon's infamous meeting with his brother, Lucien, in northern Italy and the Milan Decrees… In the Magazine, there are two new books, Paul Deleage on the Prince Impérial's last days (translated by Fleur Webb) and James R. Arnold and Ralph R. Reinertsen on the Eylau campaign.
Enjoy!
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THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
The Continental System: An Economic Interpretation, Part II, Chapters II and III, "The Berlin Decree" and "British Counter-Measures and the French Retort: Possible lines of British Policy", by Eli F. Hecksher
“With the Continental System, Napoleon's intention was to strangle British trade with the Continent. The most natural counterblow of Great Britain in resisting this attempt at strangulation, and one in strict accord with the conceptions of those times, was to maintain the connexion with the Continent in every conceivable way. Nor is there any doubt that this was in reality the main line of action pursued by her, that is to say, chiefly by the British merchants and manufacturers.” Chapter III of this article discusses Britain's reaction to the Berlin Decrees and Napoleon counter-reaction in Milan in 1807.
See also our Bicentenary special dossier on the Continental System.
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CHRISTMAS SELECTION 2007
As every year, we bring you our ‘Christmas box'. For the 'Napoleon' or 'Josephine' in your midst. Enjoy… !
© napoleon.org
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NAPOLEONIC CHRISTMAS WISHES
Why not send your Christmas wishes by e-card this year? You have the whole imperial family to choose from, not to mention some caricatures and some striking Prussian military cards.
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200 YEARS AGO
Keeping it in the family…
In Modena, in Palazzo Guerrieri, on 13 December, 1807, Napoleon met his brother Lucien to discuss dynastic plans. Lucien was to become part of Napoleon's system, perhaps as a king of an annexed territory, and Lucien's daughter, Charlotte, was to marry perhaps the Spanish crown prince, Ferdinand de Bourbon, Prince of the Asturias. Napoleon at that time was in need of an heir, since Louis and Hortense's son, Napoléon-Charles, had died the previous May (see Bulletin 414, 4-10 May, 2007). Though accounts differ as to what was said on that night, it is generally agreed that Napoleon offered Lucien a part in the imperial household, providing he divorce his wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamps – Napoleon demanded the divorce because their marriage had been not been religious but civil. Despite the fact that Alexandrine could have continued to live with Lucien (but without official position) and despite Napoleon's offer of the Duchy of Parma for Alexandrine, Lucien stood firm, refusing to humiliate his wife. According to Méneval, Lucien left the room “shaken, his cheeks bathed in tears”. Napoleon noted to his secretaries, “I shall prove to him that my head is harder than his”, and went to bed without a further word. They were never to be reconciled.
Continental system
The Second Milan Decree was issued on 17 December, 1807. It stated that any vessel searched by a British vessel, which called into a British port, or one which had paid tax to the British would be ipso factor de-nationalised and thus British and so subject seizure on entering French (or French allied) ports. Furthermore, Britain was in a state of blockade “by land and by sea”.
November 1807 saw Napoleon issuing further regulations turning up the heat on Britain via the Continental System. The first Milan decree (issued on November 23, 1807) contained detailed regulations concerning technical matters regarding the provenance and confiscation of cargoes and the specific rules for defining vessels that had called at a British port. After a brief period in Venice, Napoleon returned to Milan (15 December), where he was informed of Britain's Orders in Council issued on 11 November, 1807. These British orders forbade French trade with the United Kingdom, her allies or neutrals and instructed the Royal Navy to blockade ports belonging to France and her allies. Napoleon was to reply with Second Milan Decree which declared that all neutral shipping using British ports, or paying British tariffs, were to be regarded as British and seized. The following day, Champagny was ordered to communicate these orders to France's allies, Holland, Spain, and Denmark.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 438, 14 - 20 December, 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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Got a problem with a link in the Bulletin? Go to the homepage: http://www.napoleon.org
FONDATION NAPOLEON NEWS
The Fondation Napoléon and its library will be closed from 24 December, 2007 to 1 January, 2008 inclusive.
Starting on Tuesday 8 January, 2008, the opening hours of the library will be: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, from 1 to 6pm, and Thursday from 10am to 3pm.
During the French school holidays (Paris zone), the library will open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 1-30 to 6 pm.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
JUST PUBLISHED
- Crisis in the Snows: Russia Confronts Napoleon; The Eylau Campaign 1806-1807, by James R. Arnold and Ralph R. Reinertsen
- End of a Dynasty: The Last Days of the Prince Imperial, Zululand 1879, by Paul Deleage and Fleur Webb (trans.)
WHAT'S ON
Conferences:
- Monarchy and Exile, London, UK
Exhibitions:
- Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815, Boston, USA
- Brilliant Europe - Jewels from the European courts, Brussels, Belgium
- Indispensable nécessaires, Reuil-Malmaisons, France
- Gustave Courbet's works, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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