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THIS WEEK'S LETTER...
Final preparations are underway for the first study day in the "Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon" series which takes place next Tuesday. If you happen to be in the area (Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris), then registration is still open; see below for all the details. It promises to be an enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable day. Elsewhere in the letter, we have our new object of the month, which this time around is a cross of the Order of the Jerome Bonaparte Crown of Westphalia. Following up last month's book, Les Cent-Jours ou la tentation de l'impossible, we have an excerpt from an interview with the author, Emmanuel de Waresquiel. And just as the details of 2008's Fondation Napoléon research grant awards are about to be announced, one of our previous awardees, Nicolas Cadet, is coming to the end of his research and will be undergoing his PhD viva next week. Finally, as always, we have this week's article from Napoleonica. La Revue and our weekly look at what was going on 200 and 150 years ago. And don't forget the Magazine section on the right-hand side, either. We have two new books this week: Nicholas Tracy's Nelson's Battles and The Emperor and the Irishman by gynaecologist and former rugby international, Dr. Hubert O'Connor. Last week we mentioned the reinterment in Belarus, but it is still in the magazine because this Sunday a ceremony commemorating the Grande Armée's crossing of the Berezina takes place. Finally, worth noting in our upcoming events is the conference on French intervention in Mexico, which takes place on 27 and 28 November.
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OBJECT OF THE MONTH
Cross of the Order of the Jerome Bonaparte Crown of Westphalia
Following the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia for Jerome Bonaparte. Jerome, the youngest of the Bonaparte brothers, was extravagant, enjoyed the splendour of the royal court and very early on sought to found his own royal order. He was however forced to wait two years for his brother to sign the decree that would authorise the creation of the order, an act that was completed on 25 December 1809.
Click here for this month's objet d'art.
© Fondation Napoléon
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INTERVIEW WITH EMMANUEL DE WARESQUIEL
Les Cent-Jours ou la tentation de l'impossible was recently our book of the month, and this week we are offering you an excerpt from the interview with the author, conducted by Irène Delage.
Click here to read the interview.
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NEWS FROM THE FONDATION
PhD viva
On Tuesday 25 November at 2pm, Nicolas Cadet, a Fondation Napoléon research grant winner, will defend his PhD thesis on the Calabrian campaign of 1806-1807 in front of an examining committee. The viva will take place in Reid Hall, 4 rue de Chevreuse, Paris, in the VIe arrondissement (RER station Port Royal or Metro station Vavin). Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Annie Crépin (MCF université d'Artois), Bernard Gainot (MCF Paris I), Natalie Petiteau and Francis Pomponi (Professor at the Université d'Aix) will make up the jury.
Les Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon: "The Masterpieces of Napoleonic Art"
As mentioned last week, on Tuesday 25 November the Fondation Napoléon is holding the first in its series of study days. The event, entitled Autour de quelques chefs-d'oeuvres de la peinture napoléonienne (The Masterpieces of Napoleonic Art), takes place at the Bibliothèque Paul Marmottan between 10am and 4pm and is a great opportunity to participate in some free and informed discussions on a number of the great artworks of the Napoleonic period. Attendance is free but advance registration is required. This can be done by contacting Pauline Lefebvre or the secretariat on + 33 (0)1 56 43 46 00 between 10am and 5pm.
Click here for more information and the full programme.
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200 YEARS AGO
The Spanish campaign
Pushing on...
On 22 November 1808, Marshal Ney entered the town of Soria. In a letter addressed to his brother, Joseph, Napoleon noted that "some shots were fired and a few peasants sabred. [...] You will need to send someone to Soria immediately to organise the region." (Letter from Napoleon to Joseph dated 24 November 1808, Correspondance n°14504)
On 23 November 1808, the battle of Tudela took place. Gaspard de Clermont-Tonerre, Joseph Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, recounted the event in his memoirs: "The French army met [the Spanish troops] at 10 o'clock in the morning, they [the Spanish] offered a line of 40,000 men, half troupes de ligne, half peasants; the French marshals had only 30,000 men, of which 4,000 were cavalry. Morlot's division was given the order to turn the enemy's left-flank, and the others were to attack from the front. The enemy was soon broken. [...] The results of this action were 2,000 men killed, almost all of them by our cavalry, 30 canons abandoned in the olive trees surrounding Tudela and 3,000-4,000 prisoners, amongst which a large number are ranking officers." (Gaspard de Clermont Tonnerre, L'expedition d'Espagne 1808-1810, pp197-198)
150 YEARS AGO
Geopolitics and diplomacy
France in Cochinchina
French interest in East Asia had waned since the signing of the treaty of Whampoa by Louis-Philippe in 1844, a treaty which had accorded French commercial rights and protection of Catholic missions in the area. Tu Duc's arrival on the imperial throne in Cochinchina (today Viet-Nam) in 1847 brought with it bloody Catholic persecution and a severing of all ties with Europe. It was not until 1856, however, after the apostolic vicar, Monsignor Pellerin sought French protection, that Napoleon III decided to intervene again. A French naval expeditionary force was dispatched and arrived in the Bay of Tourane (Da Nang) on 30 August 1858. Comte Horace de Viel Castel, author and publicist of the period, noted simply in his entry for 23 November 1858 that "We are established in Cochinchina" (Mémoires du comte Horace de Viel Castel, p287). Yet the campaign would drag on for ten years, eventually coming to an end with the annexation of the Vinh-Long, Soc-Trang and Chau Doc provinces in 1867. This extended intervention would nevertheless cement French presence in the Indochinese peninsula which would last for nearly a century. The Second Empire also saw renewed French interest in orientalism, a taste that was reflected in Offenbach's hugely popular comic operetta, Ba-Ta-Clan (1855) and the satirical popular-song, Le Sire de Fisch Ton Kan by Antonin Louis and Urbain Roucoux.
Click here for the lyrics and commentary for Le Sire de Fisch Ton Kan in our Words and Music section.
Industry and society
People in glasshouses...
On 26 November 1858, Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie visited the Soudière chemical factory at Chauny and the Saint-Gobain glass manufactory in the Oise département. The Soudière factory was built in 1806 for the mass-production of sheet glass, quickly becoming one of the largest in France which reached a peak during the 1850s. The Second Empire was a "golden age" (in the words of the Second Empire politician and historian, Albert de Broglie) for the glass industry, and in 1860 Saint-Gobain's annual output was 200,000 m². This production was driven by urban growth, new technology, the fashion for glasshouses (like the Musée du Jardin des Plantes) and covered markets (like the Halles Baltard, which were demolished in the 1970s to make way for the Forum des Halles) and a widening client-base.
Sources: Jean Tulard (ed.), Dictionnaire du Second Empire, "Saint-Gobain".
Wishing you the very best "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 475, 21 November - 27 November, 2008
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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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THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
Autumn and winter opening times:
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: 1pm-6pm
Thursday: 10am-3pm
(Closed Friday)
THE MAGAZINE
Just published
November's book of the month (English)
- Richard Harding (ed.), A Great & Glorious Victory - New perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar
November's book of the month (French)
- Jacques-Olivier Boudon, Le Roi Jérôme, frère prodigue de Napoléon
- Nicholas Tracy, Nelson's Battles
- Dr. Hubert O'Connor, The Emperor and the Irishman
Press review
- Re- interment of the mortal remains of 108 soldiers and civilians of the Grande Armée who fell in Belarusian territory in 1812
WHAT'S ON
Conferences
- Les Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon: "The Masterpieces of Napoleonic Art", Paris (France), 25 November 2008
- French intervention in Mexico: the cultural and scientific impact on the two countries, Paris (France), from 27 to 28 November 2008
- Portugal, Brazil and Napoleonic Europe, Lisbon (Portugal) from 4 to 6 December, 2008
Exhibitions
- "Napoleon III and the Romanian principalities", Bucharest, Romania [23/10/2008 - 01/02/2009]
Full details
- "Ben Weider Collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts", Montreal, Canada [Permanent]
Full details
- "Napoleon Bonaparte and Egypt", Paris, France [14/10/2008 - 29/03/2009]
Full details
- "Between the dagger and the cross", Paris, France [21/10/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "From Pompei to Malmaison", Rueil-Malmaison, France [22/10/2008 - 26/01/2009]
Full details
- "Jerome Napoleon, king of Westphalia", Fontainebleau, France [10/10/2008 - 08/01/2009]
Full details
- "Paper Landscapes, a celebration of Napoleonic cartography", La Spezia, Italy [04/10/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "Fine people. Luxury and Fashion at the Time of the Empire", Erfurt, Germany [14/09/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "Spectacle of Power. Rituals in Old Europe 800-1800", Magdeburg, Germany [23/09/2008 - 04/01/2009]
Full details
- "Napoleonic side-arms of the Rocca d'Acquaviva", Acquaviva Picena, Italy [04/10/2008 - 31/12/2008]
Full details
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