tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15767932572116269232024-03-18T07:24:49.886+00:00Reflections on A Journey to St HelenaReflections on St Helena, Napoleon's exile, and English attitudes towards Napoleon.John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.comBlogger320125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-54629425855131106072024-01-06T13:37:00.004+00:002024-01-06T13:47:53.454+00:00Michael Broers on the Ridley Scott film<font color = "black">
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Having read so many bad reviews I decided not to bother with Ridley Scott's film, but I may be more interested in the four hour directors cut not yet released.<br> <p>The film apparently focused very much on war and sex, or more particularly on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine. Phoenix is older than Napoleon was at the end of his career, and Josephine, in the film played by Vanessa Kirby, is portrayed as younger than Napoleon when in fact the reverse was the case. <br> <p>Michael Briers who ironically was involved in the preparation for the film, indicates in a perceptive article that there was <a href="https://bigthink.com/high-culture/napoleon-ridley-scott/"> so much more to Napoleon</a> than is revealed by the film.
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<center>Michael Broers <i>Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire: 1811-1821</i> (Pegasus 2022)</center>
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<p>Broers is for me the best of the historians of the Napoleonic period, and this interview about his latest book,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UH7KxecAEo"> Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire: 1811-1821</a> is also very much worth listening to. Broers offers an interesting perspective on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine, indicating that her aristocratic background was important to a young man who grew up in the <i>ancien regime</i> feeling socially very insecure. <p> Broers concludes that Waterloo was more important for the reputation and career of Wellington than it was for Napoleon. The 100 Days was a gamble with the odds stacked heavily against him. Even had he won that battle, the strength of the armies allied against him made his ultimate defeat almost inevitable. On Elba he very much feared that the only one of his enemies that would treat him fairly was Alexander with whom her personally got on well. So with very real fears that he might well end up on St Helena or worse, the decision to return to France was the last throw of the dice.
<p> Elsewhere on my blog I have written about <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/10/went-day-well-witnessing-waterloo.html">Waterloo and its importance for British nationalist mythology</a> and also on the factors that seem to have <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/02/napoleon-on-elba-he-is-quite-forgotten.html">made Napoleon decide to leave Elba</a>.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-56898664845065829152023-06-07T17:22:00.007+01:002023-06-07T18:36:00.671+01:00Kensal Green Cemetery, St Helena and Napoleon<font color = "black">
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Kensal Green Cemetery, founded in 1833, is the oldest and apparently the <a href="https://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/">most prestigious private cemetery in Britain</a>. The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery have just released an article by <a href="https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-tours-tickets-hidden-history-23241638">Henry Vivian-Neal</a> about its Napoleonic and St Helena connections.
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<center>Tomb of Lt. Col. Gideon Gorrequer, 1780 – 1841</center>
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<p> Here are to be found the remains of some of those who served under Hudson Lowe in guarding Napoleon on St Helena. Most well known is <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2011/02/gorrequers-diary.html">Colonel Gideon Gorrequer</a>, whose diary revealed a deeply unsympathetic view of Sir Hudson and his wife. Less well known are General Wynyard, Lowe's military secretary, Alexander Baxter M.D., the doctor whose services Napoleon declined, and Lt Colonel John Ward who served with the 66th Regiment of Foot, made some sketches of Napoleon and assisted with the death mask. <p>Ward was also present at the exhumation in 1840, as was another inhabitant of the cemetery the Comte de Jarnac, a member of the expedition that returned Napoleon's body to France, who later became French ambassador to the UK.
<p> The man who escorted Napoleon to St Helena in 1815, Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, is also buried in the cemetery, as is the Lt Governor, General Skelton, who was on the island when Cockburn and Napoleon arrived. As the author notes, Longwood House was Skelton's summer residence, he and his wife were among the few senior British officials who got on well with Napoleon and frequently visited him.
<p>Perhaps most interesting of all to followers of this blog is Lucia Abell, better known as <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2009/09/betsy-balcombe-napoleon-and-briars.html">Betsy Balcombe</a>, whose story has been told and probably embroidered many times.
<p> The most famous person mentioned, albeit with rather tenuous St Helena connections is the writer William Thackeray. Thackeray claimed as a child to have been taken to view Napoleon on St Helena. Although it is not mentioned by the author, Thackeray also attended <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2010/02/william-thackeray-and-second-funeral-of.html">Napoleon's second funeral</a> about which he wrote a rather irreverent article.
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<center>Tomb of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex 1773-1843</center>
<p> The Cemetery also has a few royal graves. The first to be buried was the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-duke-of-sussex-and-napoleon-peace.html">Duke of Sussex</a>, who strongly associated himself with Whig criticisms of the Government's treatment of Napoleon, and later gave Queen Victoria a book about Napoleon to give her a more favourable view of his achievements.
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This is an very well researched piece of work. It is only 30 pages long but includes a very informative history of the cemetery, the background to Napoleon's imprisonment, portraits of the subjects discussed, a map identifying the location of each of their graves in the cemetery and an incredibly detailed index. There are a few very minor errors in it, for example Grand Marshall Bertand only lived at Hutts Gate in the early part of the captivity. He and his family soon moved in to a cottage specially built for them at Longwood, which still stands to this day. Like others the author says that the decision to send Napoleon to St Helena was taken while the Bellerophon waited in English waters, but by the time the Bellerophon arrived in Torbay the decision to send Napoleon to St Helena and to appoint Hudson Lowe as Governor had been made although not publicly announced.
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The friends of the cemetery are in September 2023 organising a guided, costumed walk, "Napoleonic Stories at Kensal Green Cemetery."
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-28608168533143109762023-01-30T17:35:00.002+00:002023-01-31T08:57:40.194+00:00The Bulk Fuel Installation & "The Saint"<font color = "black">
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<center><i>"The Saint" 12 January 2022 </i></center>
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I rarely post about modern St Helena, but a recent edition of a new publication, <a href="https://www.thesaint.sh/wp-content/uploads/TheSaint-Issue32-WEB.pdf"><i>The Saint</i></a>
reminded me of a story I came across when I visited a year ago.
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To put it simply, some £80 million of British taxpayers money was spent on a bulk fuel installation in Upper Ruperts and a new gantry in Ruperts Bay, neither of which will probably ever be used.
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<center><i>The new fuel tanks</i></center>
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The airport was a DFID project, and the planning and management was ultimately in Whitehall hands, although "the Saint" seeks to put at least some of the blame on local officials.
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<center><i>The new fuel gantry</i></center>
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Also Ruperts is/was littered with vehicles used
in the airport project now slowly rusting away.
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<center><i>Abandoned vehicles in Upper Ruperts</i></center>
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The airport contractors have apparently gone bankrupt, and nobody seems quite sure who the vehicles belong to. This state of affairs should not I think be laid at the door of the St Helena Government, and certainly not the current one which has only been in office for just over a year.
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<center><i>More vehicles</i></center>
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<center><i>Close up of the fuel tanks</i></center>
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<center><i>The Fuel Gantry now overshadowing Ruperts Bay</i></center>
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</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-37396743267901663182022-11-25T13:17:00.002+00:002022-11-25T13:25:39.858+00:00Napoleon chez the Balcombes- A Review<font color = "black">
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<center>Volume 3 of Michel Dancoisne-Martineau's series, <i>Napoleon and St Helena, the end of an emperor.</i></center>
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<p>This volume provides a very comprehensive account of Napoleon's debarquement from the "Northumberland", his single night in Jamestown at Porteous House, his stay at the Briars and of the people he met during his short time there.
<p>The main character was William Balcombe, "<i>a pathological liar</i>, happy to let people on the island believe he was of royal descent, who because of friends in high places got the apparentlyly lucrative job of procuring supplies for the French and for a time was the host to Napoleon and some of his entourage at the Briars.
<p>Amongst the many unsavoury things we learn about
Balcombe is that he continued to import slaves to St Helena after it was illegal, and when he left in 1818 his "<i>herd"</i>" of blacks, as it was called, consisted of twenty males, nine under sixteen, and ten women, four under the age of thirteen.(1) There is much information here also about the whole family after their time on St Helena, including the story of Betsy and her short, disastrous marriage to Edward Abell. Here too is a full account of the life of the slave Toby whom Napoleon befriended and tried to free. A year or so after Napoleon's death Toby was robbed of what was left of the significant amount of money that Napoleon had given him. Fellow slave, Sam, was convicted of the robbery and duly executed in August 1823.
<p> The biggest surprise of this volume was the background about Napoleon's decision to stay at the Briars. The usual version is that on his way back from Longwood to Jamestown Napoleon spotted the heart shaped waterfall and the pleasant property in front of it at the Briars, was taken down to it, and asked if he could stay rather than go back to Jamestown. The author suggests that this turn of events was in fact the culmination of a plan agreed between Balcombe and Admiral Cockburn, and perhaps originally the idea of former governor Alexander Beatson. <p>Cockburn had consulted Beatson before sailing for St Helena, and he had recommended Balcombe, "<i>a respectable inhabitant</i>" to him. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Balcombe's unfailing supporter was informed of this by Beatson, and wrote to Balcombe telling him that the choice of place to confine Napoleon would be left to the two commanders, Cockburn and Bingham, but that Beatson thought that "<i>when this inspection has taken place, they will fix upon the Briars</i>." This of course was before the decision to locate Napoleon at Longwood was thought of
<p>In October 1815 Cockburn visited Balcombe while Napoleon was still on board the <i>Northumberland</i> to discuss Balcombe's role in procuring supplies for Longwood. On that visit Cockburn spotted the new pavilion at the Briars and agreed to hire it for a year for himself and for those admirals who would follow him. So when Napoleon arrived at the Briars on his return from Longwood, he asked if he could stay at the Pavilion, but was told by Balcombe that he had rented it to Cochburn the previous day. Cockburn,"<i>feigning surprise </i>" said that since it pleased "<i>the general</i>" he would give it up to him, and he himself would remain in Jamestown. (2) <p>
This interpretation somewhat undermines the speculation of <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-emperors-shadow-strange-story-of.html">Anne Whitehead</a> that Napoleon cultivated the Balcombes because of their connection to the Prince Regent through their benefactor Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt. On one minor detail though Anne Whitehead was right, Betsy's daughter was born in 1822, not 1825 as this book says. (3) Betsy was pregnant at the time of her ill-fated marriage, which perhaps explains her parents absence and relocation to France.
<p>
Anyone interested in Napoleon's time on St Helena or in the Balcombe family will find this an interesting and informative read. Like the other volumes of this bilingual series, it can be purchased from the <a href="https://www.napoleonsthelena.com/en/shop-2/">online shop</a>, with a relatively small charge for packing and postage. Unfortunately the two books on Napoleon's stay at Longwood, vols 6 & 7 are not yet available.
<p>
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1. Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, <i>The Briars, Napoleon's stay with the Balcombe family</i> pp. 36, 42, 98, 100.
2. <i>The Briars</i> pp 50-58.
<br>
3.Ann Whitehead, <i>The Emperor's Shadow, Bonaparte, Betsy and the Balcombes </i> (London 2015)
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-55278753887586814802022-11-15T14:09:00.010+00:002022-11-25T13:26:24.580+00:00Elba 1814: Napoleon meets a man from Bungay. <font color = "black">
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<center><i>John Barber Scott (1792-1862)</i></center>
<p>
John Barber Scott was the much travelled son of a wealthy merchant from Bungay in Suffolk. His diaries, provide a fascinating glimpse of life in the Waveney valley in the first half of the nineteenth century from the perspective of the mercantile-gentry class. (1)
<p>His early diary provides several accounts of his being in the presence of the great people of his day: Byron speaking in the House of Lords in support of the Luddites and again at the opening of the Drury Lane New Theatre; the exiled Louis XVIII speaking at Cambridge; a Bible Society meeting in Dover at which Lord Liverpool and Wilberforce were present; Madame de Staël at her booksellers in Bond Street; and accompanying 150 Cambride graduates with a petition to the Prince Regent congratulating him on the victories of 2013 in the presence of too many Dukes and Lords to mention.
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<center><i>Waveney House, Bungay</i></center>
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<p>
He was also outside the doors of Westminster Abbey on the day of George IV's coronation, and "<i>saw the doings of the Queen Caroline.</i>" (2) He noted the coronation celebrations in Bungay, at which his father gave a feast to 300 of the poorer citizens of the town in front of Waveney House. He also noted
<blockquote>
A Queen riot in the evening, when all the flags and laurels in the town were pulled down and destroyed, except those of my father, which were not touched.(3) </blockquote>
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<p>
Probably the most memorable day of Scott's life occurred in 1814 when like a number of his countrymen, including future Prime Minister Lord John Russell,
Scott made his way to a small island off the Italian coast, in the hope of seeing the legendary Napoleon Bonaparte, now for a short time Emperor of Elba.
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<center><i>Souvenir that Scott brought back from Elba</i></center>
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<p>
Initially Scott was unimpressed with Napoleon, "<i>the figure that has awed emperors and kings, has gained victory on victory, and the sight of whom has been equivalent to ten thousand men on the field of battle </i>", now appeared a "<i>graceless figure so clumsy and awkward</i>" whose countenance seemed to "<i>indicate stupidity</i>", and who had "<i> a very large corporation, and his thighs are large - out of all proportion</i>." Scott did however, correctly estimate Napoleon's height,which was rather greater than British caricature and propaganda suggested
"<i>about five feet seven inches</i>", about average height for his day. (4)
<p>
Like many who were to meet him on St Helena, Scott was soon charmed by Napoleon. He noted his constant half-smile, "<i>which gives one a feeling of confidence and ease. His eyes are remarkably expressive and quick, his voice is deep, his entire manner indicates great talent and he certainly inspires respect</i>" (5)
<p> Napoleon spent 22 minutes talking to Scott and his companions, and betrayed his usual curiosity, peppering them with questions. To a Scottish artillery officer he said, "<i>They say you don't have any trousers </i>" and being told that Scottish soldiers did indeed wear "<i>skirts</i>" asked if the officer had them with him, and was disappointed that the answer was no:"<i>Je voudrais bien les voir.</i>" (6) When it came to Scott's turn to be questioned he declared that as yet he had no profession but was a member of the University of Cambridge, which Napoleon had trouble pronouncing, "<i>Quoi? Camerige" Camerige? </i>" Napoleon then decided that one day Scott would become Lord Chancellor, and asked if "Skine - kini- Erskine" still held that position, to which the polite young Scott addressing Napoleon as "<i>Sire </i>" informed him that Lord Eldon was the Lord Chancellor, to which Napoleon characteristically replied, "<i>ah yes, I remember.</i>"(7)
<p> At the end of the conversation Napoleon took off his hat and bowed to them, which people who knew him claimed he had never done before. Scott and his companions, all army officers,
<blockquote>were so delighted with the reception he gave us that I must confess we drank "Napoleon" unanimously, in a bumper, on our return - a part of the afternoon on which, upon reflection I feel rather ashamed (8)</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Apparently Napoleon invited them to meet him again the next day, but because of the slowness of one of their party, Major Maxwell at his toilette they were too late. Scott was convinced that had they arrived sooner they would have been invited to accompany Napoleon and his party on a three day trip to the island of Pianosa. From his boat Napoleon again took off his hat and bowed to them two or three times.
<blockquote>we have been so fortunate that we ought not to lament anything; yet we cannot help abusing Maxwell. .. We remained a long time on the shore looking at the boat which bore this wonderful man away. (9)</blockquote>
<p> Scott speculated that Napoleon might escape from Elba, but "<i>where to go?</i>", perhaps to Italy to "<i>erect her into an independent kingdom.</i>" On the return journey he conversed with a Frenchman who had told General Bertrand that he thought Napoleon would not remain long in Elba. Bertrand, who within a year was to faithfully follow Napoleon to St Helena, told him
that Napoleon was content, and that he would always remain on Elba! (10)
<p>Scott came from a Tory background, and had accompanied his father in campaigning against Coke of Holkham, the Foxite Whig and famous agricultural reformer, and would himself have gone into politics but for his father's loss of much of his wealth. Unsurprisingly then, for all his admiration of Napoleon, Scott's reaction to Waterloo and Napoleon's death was fairly conventional. On hearing of the Waterloo victory he recorded with characteristic Loyalist hyperbole, "<i>the days of Agincourt and Cressy are come again.</i>" In his diary he wrote at some length on the news of Napoleon's death.
<blockquote>This extraordinary man is no more! He has closed his mortal career, leaving behind him but the name of one on whom the gaze of mankind was more intensely fixed than on any that has found a place in the pages of history. His end, however questionable the justice of his treatment in his latter days, is a fine lesson of the vanity of what has too often been called greatness. </blockquote><p> He concluded with the hope that Napoleon's death<blockquote>may do more to strip of their tinsel the Alexanders and Caesars of the world than any event that ever occurred.(11)</blockquote>
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1. <i>An Englishman at Home and Abroad 1792-1828</i> (London 1930) and <I>An Englishman at Home and Abroad 1829-1862</i> (Bungay 1996)
<br>
2. Caroline, the estranged Queen of George IV was denied admittance to the coronation. There was much popular support for her in England, particularly
among the radicals.
<br>
3. Diary 1792-1828 p. 190. Perhaps the generous feast given to the poor was the reason why Scott's decorations were spared.
<br>
4. Diary 1792-1828 pp 96-98.
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5. Diary p. 102
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6. "I would very much like to see them". Diary 1792-1828 p. 99
<br>
7. <i>ibid </i>
<br>
8. Diary 1792-1828 p. 102.
<br>
9. Diary 1792-1828 p.103
,br>
10. Diary 1792-1828 p 107
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11. Diary p 188-189
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-13037146373956592362022-04-07T19:21:00.022+01:002022-04-07T20:13:32.546+01:00The Man on the Rock - Kenneth Griffith (1975)<font color = "black">
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<p>
On our recent visit to St Helena we were privileged to be able to watch this powerful performance by Kenneth Griffith on a large screen. It first appeared in 1975, but has long since been forgotten, and it was difficult to find a copy. We
were surprised and pleased to find that it is now available on youtube<p> <font color = "red"><a href="https://youtu.be/WZU18nk7rg4"> Click Here To View </a> </font>.
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<p>
It was filmed on St Helena and one of my friends on the island remembers Griffith coming to the local amateur dramatic group on a number
of occasions during his stay.
<p>Griffith plays Napoleon's gaoler Sir Hudson Lowe as well as Napoleon, which is a remarkable achievement in itself. His portrayal of Lowe is at times rather amusing and after half a century and much scholarly activity still seems an accurate one. <p>Any recent visitor to St Helena will note how the presentation of the French Properties has greatly changed since the film was made.
<p>
It is very highly recommended viewing for anyone interested in the captivity of Napoleon.
<p>
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-28524707413373942632022-03-17T04:08:00.012+00:002023-07-31T07:47:57.973+01:00Sir Hudson Lowe and Antonomasia - A Review<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Sir Hudson Lowe, Victime of St Helena</i> by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau</center>
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<p>
This book, one of a series of 12, is only available from the Longwood House souvenir shop on the island of St Helena. It contains parallel French and English text, as well as numerous pictures, newspaper cuttings and historical documents. The author rivals Napoleon in his capacity for hard work, and has over the years done a tremendous amount of research on his subject, rather more than is normal for such a book, as the 369 footnotes testify.
<p>
From relatively humble origins, Lowe received the job of guarding the most illustrious person of his age, and probably of many ages, and this gave him an inflated sense of his own importance. He came to believe that he was at least Napoleon’s equal, and perhaps his superior. With an undistinguished military career, Lowe had gained for himself a reputation for good foreign language and writing skills. His promotion was based on his abilities as an administrator and an observer, on his loyalism and obedience, and on the fact that nobody of suitable rank could be found to carry out such an assignment.
<p>
The author provides an apt judgement on why Sir Hudson Lowe was such a good choice for the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/04/henry-bathurst-who-was-he.html">Lord Bathurst</a> and the British Government.
<blockquote>“.. the man Bathurst needed to subject Napoleon to the petty restrictions, even humiliations, he wished to inflict on him, without exposing himself to the opprobrium of opposition and history. Two centuries after the events, the appointment of a civil servant reputed to be meticulous, undiscerning, quarrelsome, vain, petty, zealous and stubborn looks like a fool’s bargain. If one had to decide who was to blame, one should probably look to those who invited him to the table of the great and powerful.” </blockquote>
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<center>Flier for Exhibition at Plantation House, St Helena, cut short by decision of the present Governor's wife!</center>
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<p>
The book reveals a sound knowledge of the British or more accurately English society from which Lowe sprang: a highly ordered, corrupt society dominated by a small oligarchy,
ruthless in its suppression of dissent and desirous of turning back the ideas of the French Revolution of which Napoleon had become the symbol. It correctly identifies Lowe as an ultra-loyalist Tory, whose political views would have been reinforced by his association with the absolutist continental rulers to whom he was often attached during the wars against Napoleon. He was in short the most loyal of subjects of George III and the Prince Regent, and of the aristocratic world in which he thought he had secured a foothold. In his entourage on St Helena he sought people with similar views to himself, and was most suspicious of those known to be sympathetic to the Whigs and to Napoleon.
<p>
The study takes issue with those who see Lowe as a vindictive gaoler as well as those who see him as the victim of cruel manipulation by Napoleon and his entourage. It paints a picture of a well meaning but flawed man, appointed to a job for which he was not suited, who let his sudden promotion rather go to his head, and who was never able to free himself from the delusions acquired from his appointment. Much of the material is new, particularly for the period after his return from St Helena when Lowe was never able to get a senior position that matched the St Helena appointment, and had to withstand increasingly unpleasant and often public shows of unpopularity, which the author describes as “mobbing”.
<p>
The most astonishing revelation of this study was the amount of wealth that Lowe gained from his five years in charge of Napoleon, despite losing a significant amount from fraud. As this book explains, this helped reinforce the delusion which was a feature of his conduct both on St Helena and after. In 1824 he continually changed his mind as to whether to accept the post of Governor of Antigua, and his frequent changes often appeared to be related to decisions of the local Assembly to lower and then raise the salary. Despite not taking the job he still submitted an account for £302 for expenses, around £27,000 in 2018 money! The author also reveals Lowe’s attempts to get back-pay from the East India Company as well as pay for the year after he left the island. The Company resisted, but for some reason the British Government in the person of Lord Bathurst acceded to his wishes.
<p>
Perhaps the most telling and amusing part is the account of his ten months long ostentatious overland journey with his family from Paris to Ceylon to take up his appointment as Lieutenant Governor, in the forlorn expectation that he would shortly thereafter receive the appointment as Governor. During the whole of this trip Lowe basked in the temporary title the Govt had given him of Lieutenant General of His Gracious Majesty, but he was not always as well received as he wished in the capitals of Europe. In Vienna the Emperor Franz refused to see him, and Metternich encouraged him to leave the city where Napoleon’s son then resided!
<p>
Among the belongings auctioned after his death was a lock of the King of Rome’s hair, the subject of over 1000 pages of correspondence while he was on St Helena, which had supposedly been destroyed. There were also other articles bearing inscriptions “N” and “Emperor” which would have got anyone severe penalties had they been written by anyone on the island during Lowe’s term as Governor.
<p>
Finally, I have learned a new word from this book, antonomasia, the use of a proper name to describe the characteristics of a person. According to Hazlitt (1826) a “Sir Hudson Lowe” is someone who appears <blockquote>“ so much the creatures of the head and so little of the heart, they are so cold, so lifeless, so mechanical, so much governed by calculation, and so little by impulse …”. </blockquote> Such was Lowe’s reputation that the term was even used in the House of Commons during Lowe’s lifetime.
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<p>
This is an important, well researched book. It is a pity that it is so difficult to obtain.
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ps. I also learned that Sir Hudson Lowe was a couple of centimetres shorter than Napoleon! The British propaganda about <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-pocket-sized-emperor-letter-to.html">Napoleon's height</a> is a subject I have often referred to over the years!.
John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-68800369018186482452022-01-15T16:34:00.002+00:002022-04-07T20:14:32.702+01:00Queen Victoria and the Empress Eugénie<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Queen Victoria's portrait of Eugénie, May 1855</i></center>
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By the last decades of the nineteenth century the Bonaparte family had gained legitimacy among Europe's rulers. No longer identified with opposition to the British oligarchy and its absolutist allies on the continent, they had become part of the established order, allies against Republican and working class movements which increasingly put fear into the heads of Europe's ruling classes.
<p>The Bonapartes themselves exhibited a certain sense of entitlement, all the more curious since their claims derived entirely from the upstart Emperor, exiled on St Helena and insultingly referred to as "General Bonaparte" by his British gaolers. At least one of the family, Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904), daughter of Napoleon's brother Jerome, recognised this, apparently telling Marcel Proust that if it weren't for her famous uncle she would be "<i>selling oranges in the streets of Ajaccio, </i>" but there is no evidence that it made her feel any less entitled.
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One of the Bonapartes, Prince Louis-Lucien(1813-1891) was apparently devoted to Queen Victoria. She always addressed him as Imperial Highness although he had no right to the title. According to his cousin Caroline Murat he lived so long in England and had "<i>became almost an Englishman</i>", and a rather conservative one at that. (1) Having met Gladstone at Eugenie's he commented "<i>I didn't know a Liberal could be a true gentleman</i>". (2) The closest relationship though was between Queen Victoria and Eugénie, Empress of the French (1826-1920).
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<center><i>Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portrait of Eugénie, Empress of the French, copied by Mary Curtis in December 1855 for Queen Victoria </i></center>
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The world in which Victoria and Eugenie became friends was very different from that of the first Napoleon. Britain was at the pinnacle of its global power, and the centuries old struggle with France had come to an end, although not everyone had noticed it.(3) The Enlightenment ideas with which Napoleon was identified, the rights of property, secularism and legal equality had for the most part become mainstream among the English ruling class, and most of England's rulers still shared Napoleon's distrust of democracy.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKVYKcNMMJNGCrJXdF7SAdm9p_redcRsq8xA7QsJ5N2UELBkMvtFI4UhHB95vJLjysLX1jPyEfLWPBnylT6GEb911dREMYfZtOXX8bzdJHxhm4nyM0wnKdd184Trpw_ncY81xoIigR9NfErt25wXPVmPLAovY03rgwg6Lk1fLLi-QLs1xtsq4wpUa_=s538" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKVYKcNMMJNGCrJXdF7SAdm9p_redcRsq8xA7QsJ5N2UELBkMvtFI4UhHB95vJLjysLX1jPyEfLWPBnylT6GEb911dREMYfZtOXX8bzdJHxhm4nyM0wnKdd184Trpw_ncY81xoIigR9NfErt25wXPVmPLAovY03rgwg6Lk1fLLi-QLs1xtsq4wpUa_=s400"/></a><i>Victoria and Albert with Napoleon III and Eugénie, London 1855 </i></div>
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<p>Queen Victoria had been told in 1850 by Lord Aberdeen that the future Napoleon III had good manners and was "<i> very quiet, not at all French </i>" (4), which perhaps reconciled her to the fall of King Louis Philippe, "<i>the one person fitted to govern such an unmanageable people. </i>" (5).
<p>Over a decade earlier, before Napoleon's body had been brought back from St Helena she had been sent a book by her uncle the Duke of Sussex, a well known <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-duke-of-sussex-and-napoleon-peace.html">Whig supporter of Napoleon</a>. The book had suggested to her the almost treasonous thought that "<i>Napoleon's wars were good </i>" and disabused her of the belief that he had been a coward. (6)
<p>Initially opposed to Louis Napoleon's coup, in October Victoria recorded that the Govt formed was of "<i>people who are nobody</i>". By December though she rejoiced at the big majority that Louis Napoleon had gained in the French elections, "<i>as a sign of moderation</i>" and "<i>a stepping stone to something better</i>". (7)
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlGg5sAsjc7DPL5AvjUHDyhEg_HfdLGr7UB3yvVlww2x6OBRiopzLAz5TEuitUINvoLto2zM6cY3PLQy0reVLDMmit6asdT1jREWHv7B-c8h9W1jg_lZ5bw4xeE_H8IXnLAoU6LLWzYpQHUh_oBuilQb7ZOBc0AFSJ-D0bLMPV6OTbnPx5OJlpNm7q=s585" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlGg5sAsjc7DPL5AvjUHDyhEg_HfdLGr7UB3yvVlww2x6OBRiopzLAz5TEuitUINvoLto2zM6cY3PLQy0reVLDMmit6asdT1jREWHv7B-c8h9W1jg_lZ5bw4xeE_H8IXnLAoU6LLWzYpQHUh_oBuilQb7ZOBc0AFSJ-D0bLMPV6OTbnPx5OJlpNm7q=s400"/></a><i>Napoleon III, Eugénie and the Prince Imperial</i></div>
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<br><p>Her soon to be friend, the Spanish Princess
Eugénie de Montijo, had married Napoleon III in 1853, and their first meeting was in 1855 when she and her husband were guests in London during the Crimean War. Shortly after Victoria returned the visit and in Paris was taken to see <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/queen-victorias-visit-to-napoleons-tomb.html">the tomb of "the great Napoleon"</a>.
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<center><i>Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portrait of Eugénie, Empress of the French, copy by Johann Horrak. </i></center>
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In her diary of December 24th, 1857 commenting on her Christmas presents Queen Victoria singled out a gift by "<i>Dearest Albert</i>" of "<i>a copy of Winterhalter's picture of the Empress Eugénie in a straw hat, which I am so particularly fond of, and which is charming.</i>"
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<p> After the overthrow of the Second Empire Victoria visited the Empress and her son in Kent where Eugénie "<i>very thin & pale, but still very handsome</i>", with "<i>deep sadness in her face</i>" and frequent tears in her eyes, spoke of her dreadful last hours in Paris as the populace stormed the Tuileries. (8)
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After Napoleon III's death the Empress gave Victoria a photograph of him and his travelling clock which had accompanied him everywhere and was beside his bed when he died. Victoria showed it to Eugénie when the latter visited, and wrote in her diary: "<i>Now it stands in my sitting room, & I shall always take it about with me, & leave it as an Heirloom to Windsor!!!</i>" (9)
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Most devastating of all was the tragic death of Eugenie's only child, the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/01/july-1879-great-victorian-spectacle.html">Prince Imperial</a>, while serving with British troops in South Africa. Victoria heard the news before Eugénie, and may have felt some responsibility for it. She recorded that it haunted her all night "<i>seeing those horrid Zulus constantly before me</i>", and "<i>thinking of the poor Empress who did not yet know it.</i>" (10)
Her diary gives a very detailed account of the Prince Imperial's funeral where she met all the assorted Bonapartes, most of whom she seemed to have some knowledge of,
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The Princes & Psse Matilde came in here, & the different Princes were presented by Pce Napoleon, who has very civil, & very subdued & embarassed. Psse Matilde, I found very little altered
At the door, we were met by Ld Sydney Psse Matilde (whom I had not seen since 55, in Paris) Pce Napoleon, with his 2 sons Victor & Louis, Pce Lucien Bonaparte (the savant, who always resides in England) Pce Charles Napolén Bonaparte (his, nephew) Pce Murat, his daughter Psse Eugénie, & his brother Pce Louis, the Duc de Bassano & others.
Pce Napoleon is aged, & grown balder, & more like to Napoleon I than ever. His eldest son Victor, is tall & nice & intelligent looking, very like the Italian family, but with the fine Bonaparte brow, & complexion. The 2nd, is much shorter & darker, & has quite the Bonaparte features. Pce Lucien, is grey & old looking, very pleasing, & gentlemanlike. He loved the dear young Prince dearly & feels his death acutely. He is the son of Napoleon I's eldest brother. He was present at the painful identification & said "Mais, je l'ai reconnu!" His nephew, Pce Charles, I had never seen before, a good looking elderly man, whose mother, was the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. Besides these, there was Pce Murat's handsome daughter Eugénie & his younger brother Pce Louis. —
(11) </blockquote>
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In her widowhood the Empress Eugénie, often referred to by Victoria as "<i>dear Empress Eugénie</i>" and sometime "<i>poor Empress Eugénie </i>", was a frequent visitor to Osborne House, Balmoral and Windsor. Occasionally Victoria visited her, including a couple of visits to Eugénie's villa, "Cyrnos" in the South of France. Victoria sometimes lent Eugénie a cottage at Osborne house, and also another one in Abergele in the Scottish highlands. In Osborne House gardens were some violets brought back from St Helena in 1880. (12) Sometimes other members of the Bonaparte family accompanied Eugénie on her visits.
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<center><i>Eugénie at her villa, Cyrnos, in the South of France</i></center>
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<p>On one occasion the two friends visited the Demidoff villa in Italy, former home of Anatoly Demidoff (1813-1870), and his wife Mathilde Bonaparte. Victoria noted that
<blockquote>there were busts of the Empr Napoleon & Empress Eugénie, also a bust of myself, which I cannot understand how he got. Took tea, which we had brought with us, in one of the small rooms, & afterwards went up into a magnificent drawing room, which was full of fine & interesting things, amongst others the clock, which had stood in the room at St. Helena, in which Napoleon I died. There was also death mask of him. (13)</blockquote>
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<center><i>Funeral in 1820, attended by King and Queen of England and the Queen of Spain </i></center>
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Bonapartism as a political force effectively ended with the death of the Prince Imperial in 1879. Thereafter the Orleanists became the better bet for the enemies of Republicanism. (14) Nevertheless Victoria's relationship with the Bonapartes remained unbroken. In 1886 she saw the "<i>monstrous</i>" proposal by the French Govt to expel the Orléans & Bonaparte Princes as directed at Prince Napoleon and his son Prince Victor. In the final months of her life she was visited by Prince Napoleon and his brother Princce Louis, who she noted had been serving for some time in the Russian army, which happened to be governed by another Emperor and another relative of hers. (15)
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Eugénie lived to see Victoria's son and then grandson on the throne, and then through the First World War, which destroyed much of the old European order. She died in 1920 on a final visit to Spain, the nation of her birth. Like Napoleon I she had two funerals, one in Madrid, and then her body was returned for burial in England. Her English funeral was attended not only by assorted Bonapartes, but by the King and Queen of England and the Queen of Spain.
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1. <i> My Memoirs</i> The Princess Caroline Murat (New York 1910) p. 80
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2. Murat p 24
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3. There was a <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/palmerstons-follies-a-reply-to-the-french-threat/">war scare in Britain after Napoleon III came to power.</a>
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4. Victoria Diary, 6th Feb 1850.
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5. Victoria Diary 14 August 1839
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6. Victoria Diary, 14 Aug 1839
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7. Victoria Diary, 31st Oct & 14 Dec 1848.
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8. Victoria Diary 30th November 1870
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9. Victoria Diary Osborne House 26th January 1873.
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10. Victoria Diary, Balmoral Castle, Friday June 20th 1879)
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11. Victoria Diary, Windsor 12th July 1879
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12. Victoria Diary, 22 December 1881.
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13 Victoria Diary, Florence (Villa Palieri). 19th April 1888
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14. "Courts in exile: Bourbons, Bonapartes and Orléans in London, from George III to Edward VII" Philip Mansel in <i>A history of the French in London</i>, ed Debra Kelly & Martyn Cornick, p 118. Institute of Historical Research (London 2013)
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15. Victoria Diary 4th June 1886 & 22 November 1900.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-69362652223087139652021-06-12T20:15:00.014+01:002022-04-07T20:14:47.439+01:00Queen Victoria, Count Walewski and a Famous Painting<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 31 March 1814 </i> Paul Delaroche</center>
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<p>There appear to be a number of versions of Delaroche's painting of Napoleon's first abdication. One has been in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris since 1954. (1) Another resides in the Royal Collection.
<p> In 1852 the painting was viewed at Windsor by Alexandre Walewski (1810-1868), Napoleon's natural son, now French emissary to the Court of St James. Victoria entertained Walewski and his wife a few days after the British Government had officially recognised Louis Napoleon as Emperor of the French!
<blockquote>The Walewskis & Lord Malmesbury to dinner, the Count, sitting next to me. He was very amiable & talkative, speaking immediately, & in great admiration, of the fine picture we have here of Napoleon at Fontainebleau, by P. Delaroche. The Counts
own likeness to Napoleon is very striking, & if there was a doubt of the relationship, the fact of his appearance is an infallible proof. (2)</blockquote>
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<center><i>Alexandre Walewski (1810-1858)</i> </center>
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Queen Victoria got to know Walewski and his second wife very well. In the early year things were rather strained. She was concerned that Lord Palmerston had expressed
his approval to Walewski of the coup in which Louis Napoleon had seized power, which cost Palmerston his job. She also refused to give her support to the proposed marriage of Napoleon III to her niece, Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
<p>In her diary she commented on Walewski's lack of tact, and later described him as a rogue when he appeared to criticise Napoleon III, for whom after a rather hostile start, the Queen came to develop a surprisingly close attachment.(3) She also was very well aware of Walewski's relationship with the promiscuous actress <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2010/01/rachel-i-prefer-renters-to-owners.html">Rachel</a>, who had a few years earlier borne him a daughter:
<blockquote>The latter was full of awkward "mal à propas", being famous for want of tact. He is most anxious our Fleets should have an opportunity of acting together, — enquired after the Orléans family, — spoke of Rachel, whose former liaison with him is notorious! &c(4)</blockquote>
<p> A year or two later, during the Crimean War,in which the two great enemies were for the first time allies, Victoria entertained Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, with whom she was to forge a long lasting friendship.
The meeting was a great success, but Victoria could not help appreciate the irony of entertaining a nephew of Napoleon:
<blockquote>Then dancing began, I, dancing a Quadrille with the Emperor, Albert opposite, with the Empress. This was followed by a Reel, in which Vicky danced very nicely, then a Valse which the Emperor asked her to dance with him, & which frightened her very much, &c — Really to think of a Gd Daughter of George IIIrd, dancing with the nephew of our great enemy, the Empr Napoleon now my most firm Ally, in the Waterloo Gallery, — is incredible! And this Ally was only 6 years ago, an exile in England, poor, & not at all thought of! The Emperor led me in to supper & Albert, the Empress. Her manner is the most perfect thing I ever saw, so gentle, graceful & kind, & so modest & retiring. All was over by ½ p. 12. Vicky behaved extremely well, making beautiful curtseys & was much praised by the Emperor & Empress, about whom she raves.(5)</blockquote>
A few months later Victoria was in Paris, the first British monarch to go there for four centuries, and whilst there paid her respects before the tomb of <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2016/08/queen-victorias-visit-to-napoleons-tomb.html"> the "Great Napoleon</a>"!
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1. The Musée de l'Armée version, was bought by the Liverpool industrialist John Naylor, and was for years part of the Naylor Collection in Wales. An article published by the<a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/paintings/napoleon-i-at-fontainebleau-31-march-1814/">Napoleon Foundation</a> says it was bought and donated to the Museum by <a href="https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6nt5t7z">Francis Howard</a>, the Founder of the Grosvenor Art Gallery in London, a European educated American, the great grandson of Benjamin Franklin.
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2. Queen Victoria's Diary, 9th December 1852. DNA has now confirmed Victoria's judgement that Walewski did descend from the male Bonaparte line.
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3. Diary, 10th June 1853, 4th September 1859.
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4. Diary 10th June 1853.
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5. Diary 17th April 1855.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-6719181262054377412021-05-21T08:48:00.008+01:002021-05-21T08:58:29.435+01:00The Bicentenary: An Update<br>
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<center> <i>Napoleon's Grave, St Helena, May 2021 </i></center>
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After years of preparation, the disruption of the pandemic and the debate in France over Napoleon's legacy, the ceremonies on St Helena have now passed.
<p><a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2021/05/may-5th-thoughts-on-bicentenary-of.html">In my previous post</a> I said that the commemoration would be very different from that in 1921. It didn't take any special foresight to say that! Commemoration of the bicentenary took place in a world perhaps even further removed from 1921 than that era was from 1821. <p>In the shadow of the Great War, most if not all of the imperial certainties of a European dominated, Atlantic centred world remained. That era has now long gone. The UK has moved on from Empire to Commonwealth, and now, after a brief semi-detached sojourn in the European Community, in the midst of a global economic and environmental crisis, to the Anglosphere and "Global Britain". One wonders what our descendants will make of that in 2121. One wonders also what place St Helena will have in this new world.
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</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-16387652655132466972021-05-04T23:26:00.007+01:002021-05-13T08:07:10.148+01:00May 5th: Thoughts on the Bicentenary of Napoleon's Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggezse6Tzppj5RLd_sUbE03ULigKxZ9-xSDY4_st_kW1NSmiyLvRso5I48HZUkln8ULwIPpLyQHrSMXbLRTtjCSkKO5POFYlSzi2_sbpqKp3ScKgT5GPDsDK4ZHYMYUt-hoRMJzzV6DF0/s1000/Centenary1821.tiff" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggezse6Tzppj5RLd_sUbE03ULigKxZ9-xSDY4_st_kW1NSmiyLvRso5I48HZUkln8ULwIPpLyQHrSMXbLRTtjCSkKO5POFYlSzi2_sbpqKp3ScKgT5GPDsDK4ZHYMYUt-hoRMJzzV6DF0/s400/Centenary1821.tiff"/></a></div>
<center><i></i>The Centenary of Napoleon's Death, St Helena 1921</center>
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<center><i></i>Napoleon's Tomb, St Helena</center>
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Despite the pandemic an impressive programme has been planned on St Helena both at Longwood House and around the empty grave. It will be a very different atmosphere from a century ago.
I will be surprised if the Union Jack is flown as it was in 1921, and I expect a low key, more informal ceremony with the participation of many ordinary Saints, few if any of whom appear to have been present a century ago.
<p> In Paris President Macron has somewhat controversially decided to lay a wreath beside Napoleon's tomb in Les Invalides. It will probably come as a surprise to many English patriots to find that Napoleon is not universally admired in France. At the risk of over-simplification his memory is more revered on the political Right than on the Left! Macron of course is a centrist.
<p>Macron's aides have let it be known that "<i>Someone at the start of the 21st century does not think like someone at the start of the 19th century. Our history is our history and we accept it. </i>"
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The novelist L.P. Hartley put it more succinctly:
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<blockquote>The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.</blockquote>
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With that in mind I have decided to return to what has been a major theme of this blog: the surprising amount of support for Napoleon in England, in folk songs, in people christening their children "Napoleon", and in the political campaigns of the Radicals, not to mention the better known but more measured support from Lady Holland and the Foxite Whigs.
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<font color = "red"> "The most wonderful man that ever existed" </font>
<p> Henry "Orator" Hunt, the radical leader who was imprisoned after the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, on hearing of Napoleon's death wrote these comments from Ilchester Jail. (1)
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For Radicals Waterloo and Peterloo were of one piece - to cement the hold of autocratic rulers against the forces of liberty on the continent and in England.
<p> Curiously on St. Helena Napoleon spoke of Orator Hunt, and it is fair to say that he did not have that much sympathy for his cause, which he seems to have identified with mob rule from which he believed he had saved France. He marvelled though at the ability of the English aristocracy to laugh at liberty and at freedom of the press. (2)
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<font color = 'Red'> On Hudson Lowe, Napoleon's Gaoler: "very unlike the English to have behaved like that" </font>
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Finally a few comments by Queen Victoria, just under two years old when Napoleon died, but clearly schooled by the Whigs! On hearing of the death of Hudson Lowe in 1844 she wrote:
<blockquote>Sir Hudson Lowe has just died. He was chiefly renowned for his custody of Napoleon at St. Helena, which he is said to have performed with great harshness.(3)</blockquote>
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Napoleon she considered was "<i>one of the most remarkable men in the world's history, though not the best</i>.(4)
A few days later she added:
<blockquote>Sir Robert Gardiner has no good opinion of Sir Hudson Lowe & says his treatment of Napoleon was most unfeeling & harsh, & that altogether the way in which he was treated at St. Helena, was abominable & disgraceful, & most ungenerous towards a Captive of such note as he was. I must say I think it is very unlike the English to have behaved like that.</blockquote>
(5)
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1. <i>To the Radical reformers, male and female, of England, Ireland, and Scotland</i> p. 238-239.
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2. <i>Napoleon at St. Helena, Memoirs of General Bertrand, Grand Marshall of the Palace January to May 1821 </i> (London 1953) p. 71.
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3. Queen Victoria Journal, 12th January 1844.
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4. <i>ibid </i>.
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5. Queen Victoria Journal, 15th January 1844.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-63202097638647386682021-02-19T13:04:00.010+00:002023-09-26T09:47:30.721+01:00Pride of Place at Chartwell - Kent Bylines<font color = "black">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7-Z2SO9hTCevwNS7srlxYybq_LsKCVF9ftZJtMgdz4jhUdVfVzisxK_VgU5UtdmFtfz9NzutFHYCm17KcNtFUkEFa9i-afqclnXklOH2FgRIUNqjNBZvEJfA4d8waZcLrZyDV7rAcqE/s1397/Kent.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7-Z2SO9hTCevwNS7srlxYybq_LsKCVF9ftZJtMgdz4jhUdVfVzisxK_VgU5UtdmFtfz9NzutFHYCm17KcNtFUkEFa9i-afqclnXklOH2FgRIUNqjNBZvEJfA4d8waZcLrZyDV7rAcqE/s320/Kent.jpg"/></a></div>
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The full article can be found on<a href="https://kentandsurreybylines.co.uk/politics/pride-of-place-at-chartwell/"> <b>Kent Bylines </b></a>
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</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-77819749448211244482020-12-29T17:08:00.017+00:002022-04-07T20:15:33.529+01:00Princes Caroline Murat: A Bonaparte in Suffolk<font color = "black">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQkF-ZFwehhQtyu0Dy2kW232hNgMoFK92mTP5aI3DZFMOpsyg9hEc5TDOWgX8Pj6C-_7XSVhSXBAxeVDc2gVzgrcecYoN3xG6ariuVG0-Q65yI-nJk6bPRqJJJtEtHMLANXQPyWDdP_E/s641/CarolineMurat2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="641" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTQkF-ZFwehhQtyu0Dy2kW232hNgMoFK92mTP5aI3DZFMOpsyg9hEc5TDOWgX8Pj6C-_7XSVhSXBAxeVDc2gVzgrcecYoN3xG6ariuVG0-Q65yI-nJk6bPRqJJJtEtHMLANXQPyWDdP_E/s400/CarolineMurat2.jpg"/></a>
<center> <i>Memorial to Princess Caroline Laetitia Murat (1833-1902), Grand Niece of Napoleon, Ringsfield Church, Suffolk </i> </center>
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This remarkable memorial was erected to commemorate Caroline Laetitia Murat, granddaughter of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Murat" target="_blank">Joachim Murat</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Bonaparte" target="_blank">Caroline Bonaparte</a>, sister of the Emperor Napoleon. After the fall of the Second Empire and the death of her first husband, Princess Caroline married a wealthy Englishman, John Lewis Garden, and spent her last years in a grand house in a tiny village in Suffolk.
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<center> <i>Italianate Angels on the Memorial at Ringsfield Church </i> </center>
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She was born to an American mother in the United States, where her father Lucien Charles Joseph Napoleon, Prince Murat, had been exiled along with other members of the Bonaparte family. After the 1848 Revolution she and her family returned to France and became part of the inner circle of the Second Empire. Her sister, the Duchess of Mouchie was close to the Empress Eugenie, her younger brother Achille accompanied Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war and was imprisoned with him after the defeat at Sedan. Caroline herself had apparently in 1849 been considered a suitable wife for the much older Louis Napoleon, by his English mistress Miss Howard.(1)
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<center> <i>Princess Caroline Murat</i> </center>
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In 1850 she married the diplomat Charles de Chassiron (1818-1871) and they had one son, Guy de Chassiron (1863-1932). In 1870 following the defeat by Prussia, Caroline's mother and other members of her family fled to England in the company of Mr Garden, a wealthy English friend of her brother Achille. Mr Garden also obtained a passport for her and her young son, and she soon joined them. The mysterious Mr Garden meanwhile went to Prussia to visit the imprisoned Emperor Napoleon and his companion Achille Murat, and in 1872, a year after her first husband's death, Caroline and he were married. They quickly had two daughters, Eugenie Caroline (1873-1951) and Frances Harriet Doucha (1874-1970). (2)
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<center> <i>Redisham Hall in Suffolk, the family home of John Lewis Garden (1833-1892) and his wife Caroline Murat.</i> </center>
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Caroline Murat's memoirs reveal little about her private life, but give an insight into the highly privileged, titled and perhaps entitled world in which the Bonapartes moved in France and in England. They are of course the reflections of a woman nearing the end of her life and looking back with sadness and maybe some regret on what she regarded as a golden period for her and probably France:
<blockquote> days of glory, of luxury, of love, of folly; with no looking back, with no looking forward - the retreat from Moscow - the life and death of the King of Rome - the battle of Waterloo - the sad drama of St. Helena - all, but forgotten, disappeared in one round of triumphal glory and pleasure (3)</blockquote>
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At the centre of the English connections in the early years was the aforementioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Howard" target="_blank">Miss Howard</a>, Louis Napoleon's mistress whom he had met at the home of Lady Blessington in 1846. Her circle included a number of Dukes and Earls as well as Count d'Orsay.(4) <p> As the Empire drew to its close we learn that the Empress Eugenie and Princess Caroline's sister sent their jewels for safekeeping to Mr Gladstone, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Then after the Empress's flight from France the Duke of Hamilton went in his own yacht to France to retrieve some of the her possesions from the Tuileries. Then we find the Princess writing to her cousin, Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, whose candidature for the throne of Spain was the ostensible reason for the fatal war between France and Prussia, to get him to intercede to prevent Prussian soldiers vandalising her property in occupied France. (5)
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What comes over very clearly is that Princess Caroline had little respect for the Empress Eugenie, the wife and widow of Napoleon III, "<i>an influence always so sinister for France</i>", whom she appeared at least partially to blame for the fall of the second Empire. (6) Neverthess she named her first daughter after her, and asked her to become godmother. This was refused because her daughter was not being baptised into the Catholic faith.
<p> She also criticised the Spanish born Empress for the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/01/july-1879-great-victorian-spectacle.html" target="_blank">Prince Imperial's funeral</a> which was attended by Queen Victoria:
<blockquote>if she had one drop of our blood in her veins no English flag would have covered his coffin, no English princes would have carried him to his grave. (7)</blockquote>
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<center> <i>Memoirs of Caroline Murat, published posthumously in 1910 </i></center>
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Neither did Caroline have much love for England. She loved her home, but after the glitter of Paris she was unsurprisingly unimpressed with Suffolk and its people, "<i>perhaps the most stupid of English counties.</i>" (8) She loved her English daughters, but couldn't forgive the country for the ills the Bonaparte family and France had suffered at its hands. Her last few words though were reserved for the former Empress Eugenie, who once had rebuffed a criticism from Princess Caroline's mother with, <blockquote>Ah! ma cousine, vous etes Louis Seize - n'oubliez pas que je suis Louis Quatorze</blockquote>
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"<i>In those few words</i>", she commented, "<i>we may read the history of the Second Empire and its reverses</i>."(9)
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1. Whether Caroline was informed of this at time is unclear. She was only 16 and says she would not have entertained the idea. Princess Caroline Murat, <i>My Memoirs</i>, New York 1910, pp 211-212
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2. John Lewis Garden(1833-1892) was born at Redisham Hall. It was originally an Elizabethan mansion which his grandfather, John Garden, a wealthy Londoner purchased in 1808, demolished and then rebuilt in the classical style then fashionable amongst England's upper classes. It was completed in 1823, after his death, when the house passed to John Garden (1796-1854), who was depicted as a child in a <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436685" target="_blank">Hoppner painting</a>. See also the description of the painting now in the <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/British_Paintings_in_the_Metropolitan_Mu/FZzL3ey6gDYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=portrait+London+john+lgarden&pg=PA192&printsec=frontcover" target="_blank"> New York Metropolitan Museum.</a> J.L. Garden had the house re-fronted in 1880. <p>He was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, but didn't graduate. He is listed as serving with the East Indian Company. He is sometimes mentioned as a big game hunter, and during his marriage to Princess Caroline he spent over a year away on a game hunt with his younger brother. <i>My Memoirs</i> p. 286-7.
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3. <i>My Memoirs</i> p. 48.
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4. <i>My Memoirs</i> pp. 211-212.
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5. The Duke of Hamilton was married to Louis Napoleon's cousin, Princess Marie Amelie of Baden. <i>My Memoirs</i> pp. 235, 215-7,214, 358.
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6. <i>My Memoirs</i> pp. 179, 183-4, 305.
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7. <i>My Memoirs</i> p. 334
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8. <i>My Memoirs</i> p. 256
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9. <i>My Memoirs</i> p. 340
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-27931970243802498572020-07-16T16:54:00.000+01:002022-04-07T20:15:55.665+01:00Britain's Wars against Napoleon: Two Reviews<font color = "black">
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<p>
I have recently read two books with very different perspectives on the British Government's wars against Napoleon. David Andress intertwines diplomacy, war and the domestic challenges often brutally faced down by Britain's rulers. He approaches the wars from the viewpoint taken by most British historians: Napoleon wasn't serious about peace, and presented a challenge which had to be defeated.<i>
<p> <blockquote>I do not like the Emperor Napoleon but am prepared to forgive the Duke of Wellington for his outrageous snobbery in the light of his many other virtues.(1)</i> </blockquote>
<p>So Napoleon is never given the benefit of any doubt. He is described in language that makes it clear that he was a thoroughly bad lot. We find him therefore revealing "<i>the depths of his dictatorial nature</i>" having " <i>a growing sense of absolute and monarchical power </i>" and "<i>snuffing out the last lingering elements of the Dutch Republic </i>." (2)
<p>
Despite this declared bias Andress paints a bleak picture of Britain during the wars against France. It was a time of low wages, high living costs and sometimes famine, mass revolt in Ireland, mutiny in the fleet, fear of the press gang, and a time of great corruption.
The elite he admits cared nothing about the costs of war, had contempt for the rights of ordinary people, pursued a witch hunt against radicals, and used a vast network of spies and informers against its internal enemies. <p>He describes in detail the concentration of large numbers of troops in Manchester, Lancashire, the Midlands and Yorkshire that were used to suppress the Luddites, but is still convinced that despite the "<i>brutal suppression</i>" of popular protest, which he describes as "<i>shocking and tragic</i>", the elite received "<i>stout patriotic support from the mass of the population</i>." Less controversially he concludes that the net result was the revival of <blockquote>"aristocratic sense of imperial mission, the revival of hierarchy, a monarchical, paternalistic social order. It was a mark of the resilience of the British elite that it faced all those challenges and prospered. (3)</blockquote>
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<p> Tim Clayton, as his book's title suggests, takes a rather darker view. Whilst making it clear that the book is not a defence of Napoleon, he suggests that while there may have been a germ of truth in British propaganda about Napoleon, the "<i>monster</i>" created was a gross exaggeration and Britain's enduring enmity pushed him to extremes that he probably would not otherwise have entertained and ultimately led to his downfall. It was Britain, not Napoleon that wouldn't make peace.
<p>In his view what kept the long wars against France going was the determination of many in its ruling circles to stamp out the last vestiges of the French Revolution at home as well as overseas. So the final wars in the century long struggle for supremacy between Britain and France were in short more about ideology than realpolitik. It was not so much Britain as the British oligarchic system that was under threat, until the "<i>usurper</i>" was safely on St Helena and "<i>legitimacy</i>" restored to the throne of France
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<center><i>Attentat de la rue Saint-Nicaise à Paris contre le 1er consul, le 3 nivôse au 9 (24 décembre 1800)</i></center>
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<p>
Clayton's focus is on the British state's undercover struggle against Napoleon. This included incitements to civil war, the distribution of fake currency in France and the most mendacious propaganda campaign the world had yet seen. The propaganda was not only designed to destroy Napoleon's reputation and to undermine support for him and the ideas of the French Revolution at home as well as in France, but also to make the assassination attempts which the British Government sponsored seem acceptable. (4)
<p>On December 24th 1800, very early in Napoleon's period of power, royalist insurgents detonated a bomb, the <i>machine infernale</i>, intended to kill Napoleon as he left for the theatre. On arrival at the theatre Napoleon remarked, "<i>Those bastards tried to blow me up. Have someone bring me the libretto of Haydn's oratorio.</i>" This attempt, the first ever use of a bomb in an assassination attempt killed and wounded many and destroyed a number of buildings. It was financed by the British Government, and most of the conspirators had been transported from Britain to France in British naval ships. (5)
<p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiyPthV_LmazDOX2lbibTIiC_uGg9W5mBPBpH6GC0UD4TFq_bJp1_7ZDXdjD1NUw8jNenbkSnBMqELNm_27HD-UniwpXjk57pfdC17vbuBc48rCynCL4GptyJ4OHtgx_abCG97yPnoqI/s1600/Napoleon1801.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiyPthV_LmazDOX2lbibTIiC_uGg9W5mBPBpH6GC0UD4TFq_bJp1_7ZDXdjD1NUw8jNenbkSnBMqELNm_27HD-UniwpXjk57pfdC17vbuBc48rCynCL4GptyJ4OHtgx_abCG97yPnoqI/s400/Napoleon1801.jpeg" width="323" height="400" data-original-width="1282" data-original-height="1589" /></a></div>
<center>1801 Watercolour by Thomas Girton showing bomb damage</center>
<p>
<p>In 1804 a more elaborate plan was plotted by Royalists in London whose agents, Jean-Charles Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal were secretly landed in France on a British ship captained by John Wesley Wright.(6) The plot was uncovered and the agents hunted down. It initiated a chain of events which led to the death of the duc d'Enghien and the decision to make Napoleon an hereditary monarch, an attempt to provide stability and to make assassination less attractive.
<p>The British Government went to extreme lengths to hide its involvement in this plot. Lord Hawkesbury, soon to inherit the title Lord Liverpool and to become a long serving Prime Minister (1812-27), had all the incriminating letters removed from the Foreign Office. He also bought similarly incriminating papers from the children of Francis Drake, Ambassador to Bavaria, one of the most senior British officials involved in undercover plots against Napoleon. (7)
<p>
Clayton concludes that Napoleon was <i>no more tyrannical than any <u>ancien regime</u> monarch</i> and less than most of the regimes set up after his downfall, but Britain's rulers were confident of their ability ultimately to beat the French:
<blockquote>Britain was superior to France at sea and financially, and a lot of people appreciated it. It bred an unattractive sense of national superiority and self-satisfaction that survives today even though the underlying conditions have changed totally. (8)</blockquote>
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-------------------------------------------
<br>
1.David Andress <i>Beating Napoleon, How Britain faced down her greatest challenge</i> (London 2012) p XIV
<br>
2. Andress pp 136-7.
<br>
3. Andress p 381
<br>
4. The 1657 pamphlet <i>Killing No Murder</i>reappared in the 1790's to justify the execution of Louis XVI. It was subseqyuently used to justify the assassination of Napoleon.
<br>
5. Tim Clayton <i>This Dark Business, The secret war against Napoleon </i> (London 2018) pp.7,9. The watercolour by Thomas Girtin was described by him as showing, "Part of the Tuileries the palace where Buonaparte resides .. and the ruins of the houses blown up by the infernal machine." Clayton opp p. 135.
<br>
6. Wright was subsequently captured and died in prison in 1805. Clayton accepts the French Government view that he committed suicide. Clayton p. 354.
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7. He also paid them an annuity on condition that publication was suppressed. Clayton p 356.
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8. Clayton pp 347-349
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-7925962889673463522020-05-22T19:17:00.001+01:002020-05-23T10:42:40.559+01:00The Pen is Mightier than the Sword: St Helena, March 1820<font color = "black">
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<p>
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<center><i> Front cover, "The political house that Jack built", 1819</i></center>
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<p>In March 1820 a naval surgeon named McKenzie arrived on St Helena with a copy of the <i>The political house that Jack built.</i> (1) This pamphlet which was published by William Hone in the wake of the August 1819 <a href="https://john-tyrrell.blogspot.com/2019/07/peterloo-manchester-massacre.html">Peterloo Massacre</a> in Manchester, was to run to several editions and sell 100,000 or so copies.
<p>
McKenzie had, so he claimed, intended to show the pamphlet to <a href="http://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/search?q=Thomas+Reade">Sir Thomas Reade</a>, before giving it to an English resident on the island. Unfortunately he left it in a shop, and two British army officers found it and reported him to Sir Hudson Lowe.
<p>
Lowe immediately sent McKenzie aboard his ship and held him prisoner for 7 days, threatening to send him back to England and force him out of the Navy. Luckily for him there was no ship leaving for England, and so at the end of his confinement he was able to beg Lowe for forgiveness and secure his release. (2)
<p>
Hone was a fierce defender of the freedom of the press who had faced three separate trials on three days in December 1817, one of which was for libelling the Prince Regent.(3) He was acquitted in each trial, to great popular acclaim. Henceforth he was regarded as almost immune from prosecution whilst other radical journalists frequently found themselves in prison, and William Cobbett exiled himself in North America to avoid the same treatment.
<p>
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<center><i>Ruffians are abroad </i> </center>
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<p>
William Hone was a friend of <a href="http://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/search?q=Hazlitt">Hazlitt</a>, and like him and many others did not subscribe to the Loyalist narrative about Napoleon. One of his earlier pamphlets had been Buonaparte-phobia (1815), which satirized the exaggerated anti-Napoleonic language of <i>The Times </i>, whose editor was henceforth referred to as Dr Slop. <p> The frontispiece of The "Political House that Jack Built" (top) carried a cartoon of Wellington, putting his sword on the scales of justice. The <i>Waterloo man</i>, as Hone described him, had been recruited into the Cabinet in late 1818, and his appointment was seen as a sign that the Government was prepared to use military force to put down those calling for reform. The Manchester massacre seemed to confirm this, and it almost immediately became known as "Peterloo".
<pre>These are THE PEOPLE all tatter'd and torn,
Who curse the day wherein they were born,
On account of Taxation too great to be borne,
And pray for relief, from night to morn;
Who, in vain, Petition in every form,
Who, peacably Meeting to ask for Reform,
Were sabred by Yeomanry Cavalry, who,
Were thank'd by THE MAN, all shaven and shorn,
All cover'd with Orders--and all forlorn;
</pre>
The Man of course was the Prince Regent, a Whig in his youth, who had turned against his former political friends and had publicly thanked the troops who broke up the reform meeting in Manchester.
<p>
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<center>George Cruikshank's caricature of the Prince Regent</center>
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<p>
<pre> <i>
THE DANDY OF SIXTY, who bows with a grace,
And has taste in wigs, collars, cuirasses and lace;
Who, to tricksters, and fools, leaves the State
and its treasure,
And, when Britain's in tears, sails about
at his pleasure:
Who spurn'd from his presence the Friends of his youth,
And now has not one who will tell him the truth;
Who took to his counsels, in evil hour,
The Friends of the Reasons of lawless Power; </i></pre>
<br>
<p>
In the poem Hone looked to leading Whigs to save <b>Reform</b> from Wellington and the repressive Tory Government:
<pre>
This WORD is the Watchword--the talisman word,
That the WATERLOO-MAN's to crush with his sword;
But, if shielded by NORFOLK and BEDFORD's alliance,
It will set both his sword, and him, at defiance;
If FITZWILLIAM, and GROSVENOR, and ALBEMARLE aid it,
And assist its best Champions, who then dare invade it?
</pre>
<br>
<p>
It is no wonder that a pamphlet such as this was not welcomed on St Helena at this time. Lowe and Reade were fierce Loyalists, determined to keep opposition newspapers off the island and especially from Longwood House, and naturally suspected anyone who showed any Whig or worse still Radical sympathies. On St Helena where the Governor's word was supreme, there was no recourse to the law to protect press freedom or individual liberties.
<br>
-------------------------------------------------
<br>
1. Jack was a synonym for John Bull. "This is the house that Jack Built" is a traditional English nursery rhyme.
<br>
2. <i>The Morning Chronicle</i>, May 20, 1820.
<br>
3. See also this post on <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2017/08/1815-napoleons-abolition-of-slave-trade.html">Hone</a>.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-14111192771030951692020-05-06T20:23:00.000+01:002020-05-06T21:34:33.370+01:00Napoleon's Tomb St Helena, May 5th 2020.<font color = "black">
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<p>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script async defer crossorigin="anonymous" src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v7.0&appId=735239056639759&autoLogAppEvents=1"></script>
<div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/DomNatFr.SainteHelene/videos/255187975858782/" data-show-text="false" data-width=""><blockquote cite="https://developers.facebook.com/DomNatFr.SainteHelene/videos/255187975858782/" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><a href="https://developers.facebook.com/DomNatFr.SainteHelene/videos/255187975858782/"></a><p>Aujourd’hui, en hommage à l’Empereur… à Sainte Hélène.
</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DomNatFr.SainteHelene/">Domaines nationaux français à l'île de Sainte Hélène, Atlantique Sud</a> on Monday, May 4, 2020</blockquote></div>
<center><i>Napoelon's Tomb, St Helena, May 5th 2020</i></center>
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<p>
St Helena has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. So far no cases have been detected on the island, but there are no longer regular flights bringing in the tourists on which all the island's hopes had been pinned.
<p> Normally a large crowd gathers in the Valley of the Tomb on May 5th to commemorate the death of the Emperor Napoleon, but this year because of social distancing no such event could be held.
The Rev Graeme Beckett, St Helena's Baptist Minister wanted to play his bugle, and so he stood alone beside the tomb. Brightly edging the tomb were hundreds of Everlastings, the Australian daisies that now cover the island, and were originally sent to Longwood by a friend of Lady Holland, Napoleon's most prominent supporter in England.<br>
<p>
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<center><i> View of the Ceremony from above</i></center>
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<p>
The rather moving ceremony was videoed on a mobile phone by Michel Dancoisne Martineau and posted on Facebook on the same day.
Remember how many weeks it took for news of Napoleon's death to arrive in Europe! <p>On reflection the presence of a nonconformist Minister at this ceremony seems
very appropriate. Two hundred years ago, and much later, Anglicanism was emblematic of Loyalism, whereas radicals and Liberals, who were always much more sympathetic to Napoleon, were drawn from the ranks of nonconformity.
<p>
Next year elaborate plans are being made for a huge ceremony to commemorate the bicentenary of Napoleon's death. It will be very important for the tourist industry on the
island. Let us hope that we are back to some semblance of normality before then.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-73304096194642593932020-02-18T00:42:00.000+00:002020-02-18T01:20:50.649+00:00The Lady Lever Art Gallery Revisited<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Napoleon I by René Théodore Berthon, 1809</i></center>
<p>
I recently returned to the <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/lady-lever-art-gallery">Lady Lever Art Gallery</a>. This was my first visit since the Napoleon room was moved and reconfigured.
<p>I was very taken with the Berthon picture, painted from nature according to the inscription on the surround. It is much easier to see than previously. It is now hung between portraits of Wellington and Nelson, which previously were hung either side of the famous William Quiller Orchardson painting of Napoleon dictating to Count Las Cases on St Helena in 2016.
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<center> <i>Portraits of Wellington, Napoleon and Nelson, the Napoleon Room, Lady Lever Art Gallery </i> </center><br>
<p>
All these paintings were transferred from Lord Lever's private collection in 1922, but it is slightly odd to see Wellington and Nelson in a room named after Napoleon!
<br>
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<center><i>Lord Lever's Collection of Miniatures of Napoleon and his family - now missing</i> </center>
<p>
No longer on display is Lord Lever's collection of miniatures which I photographed on my <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2011/07/william-hesketh-lever-napoleon-of-soap.html">visit in 2011</a>. Some time ago I seem to remember having a communication from Liverpool Art Galleries telling me that when they reassembled the room they could not find it. My photo may be the only record of it in existence. I fear the worst.
<p>
Still there but not in the Napoleon room, is Oliver Cromwell.
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<center><i>Bust of Oliver Cromwell</i> </center>
<p>
The museum's notes now recognise that images of Cromwell were displayed as a political statement by many Whigs. This tradition was maintained by Lord Lever and a number of Liberals in the C19, notably in Manchester Town Hall, the very heart of nineteenth century Liberalism.
<p>
I have lost count of the number of times I have been to the Lady Lever Gallery. I never tire of it, always finding something I have missed on previous visits, and I always marvel at the beautiful village that Lord Lever created for his employees at Port Sunlight over a century ago. He was truly a remarkable man.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-68650937291801881262020-01-24T15:00:00.002+00:002020-05-14T19:06:33.097+01:00December 1940: Return of L'Aiglon Part II<font color = "black">
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<p>
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<center><i>Adolf Hitler at Les Invalides, June 1940</i></center>
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<p>
Following the surrender of France, Adolf Hitler made two visits to Paris in June 1940. On the second visit he went to Les Invalides and whilst looking at Napoleon's tomb declared that he would return the remains of Napoleon II.
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<p>
<font color = red> Origins of the Idea </font>The idea of returning the remains had first been broached by Napoleon III some 90 years earlier. The Emperor Franz-Joseph had refused, saying that the Prince was and should remain a Hapsburg. (1) The idea was revived after the 1st World War, and in 1930 under the leadership of the historian Édouard Driault, President of the Napoleon Institute, a movement was formed to bring it about.
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<center><i>Coffin of Napoleon II, France December 1940 </i></center>
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<center><i>German Troops transporting Coffin of Napoleon II in Paris at night, December 1940 </i> </center>
<br><p>The Hapsburg family, now exiled in Belgium, said they were prepared to agree provided an official request came from the French Government. The Foreign Minister, Édouard Herriot supported the plan. The proposal was that the coffin would be returned on 15 December 1940, the anniversary of the return of Napoleon I's remains from St. Helena. Then the Government fell, and the plan lapsed.
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<center><i>Heinrich Otto Abetz (26 March 1903 – 5 May 1958), founder member of Comité France-Allemagne and later German Ambassador to Vichy</i></center>
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<p> <font color = red> Nazis and Collaborationists </font>The rise of Hitler and the Anschluss with Austria created a totally new political climate in France as well as in Germany and Austria. In 1938 the <i>Comité France-Allemagne </i>, a right wing appeasement supporting group, took up the idea again. Historian Jacques Benoist-Méchin, a member of the fascist <i>Parti Populaire Français</i>, raised it with von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister.
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<center><i>Jacques Benoist-Méchin (1901-1983)</i></center>
<p>
Ribbentrop dismissed the idea, but Otto Abetz a fellow member of <i>Comité France-Allemagne </i> was enthusiastic and claimed to have got the support of Adolf Hitler. Abetz who had a French wife and presented himself as a francophile had attended the Munich conference in 1938, and after the surrender of France he returned to Paris from which he had been expelled in 1939 and subsequently became the German Ambassador to Vichy. (3)
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<center><i>Pierre Laval with Adolf Hitler</i></center>
<p>
After Hitler's visit to Les Invalides in June 1940, Abetz, with the concurrence of Pierre Laval, Deputy Prime Minister of the Vichy Government, made elaborate plans for a ceremony to mark the handing over of the remains.
<p>
<font color = red> The crisis in Vichy and a botched plan </font>
<p>
Abetz's plans seem to have involved a grand ceremony at which Hitler, Goering and Marshal Pétain, Head of the Vichy Government, would all be present. It was also
apparently part of a plan to get Pétain to move to Paris, where he would be isolated from those who were trying to distance the Vichy regime from the German Government.
<br>
Laval was told of the decision to return the remains four days before Pétain. As soon as they found out, Pierre Laval's opponents in the Vichy Government were determined to prevent what they saw would, like the meeting with Hitler at Montoire in October, be another humiliation for Pétain and the Vichy Government.
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<center><i>Marshall Pétain with Adolf Hitler, Montoire Railway Station, October 1940</i></center>
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<p>
Despite a personal letter from Hitler, Pétain took notice of the anti-collaborationists. He declined to go to Paris and he removed Laval from office and placed him under house arrest. So on the night of 14th/15th December the Vichy Government was represented at a very low key handing over ceremony by Admiral Darlan and General Laurencie. (4)
<p>
Ambassador Abetz was furious. The great public relations event he had planned had failed, and he informed the Vichy Government that it was not to say anything about the ceremony at Les Invalides. To the press he made it clear that Pierre Laval had been one of those who had made the hand over possible. It was Laval he said, who had "<i>created the atmosphere of collaboration</i>" and who was "<i>the only guarantor of that policy.</i>" Then with some totally fraudulent history, Abetz claimed Napoleon as a forerunner of Nazism and its associated movements:
<blockquote>He has never been closer to us, not just from a national point of view of his struggle against the reactionaries who had victimised the King of Rome, but from the European point of view since Napoleon was the one who revived the great popular movements whose modern equivalents are Italian fascism, German national socialism, Spanish nationalism that are now also influencing France.(5)</blockquote>
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<center><i>Napoleon II/Roi de Rome's Coffin, Les Invalides </i></center>
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<p>
Adolf Hitler sent a large wreath to Les Invalides, "<i>From Chancellor Hitler to the Duke of Reichstadt</i>", but nobody could find it. It had been seized and destroyed by the
wife of an employee of an ex-servicemen's organisation who lived at Les Invalides.(6) This somehow symbolised the total failure of what was intended to be a propaganda coup
<p>
The coffin was placed in the Chapelle Saint-Jérôme, where Napoleon's coffin had originally been placed. 29 years later after much deliberation it was put under the ground, where it has remained so that nobody can see it. All that is now visible is a slab with the inscription <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2020/01/december-1940-return-of-laiglon-part-i.html">"Napoleon II Roi de Rome 1811 1832"</a>
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<p>
<font color = red> Postscript: Hitler's Motives </font>
It is usually said that Hitler was trying to win over the French people. Georges Poisson, whose account I have followed, discredits this idea. Clearly there is no hard evidence, but Hitler
had nothing but contempt for France and the French people, whom he believed to be irreparably tainted by Jews, blacks and inferior races. He was perhaps trying to associate himself with Napoleon, or maybe he was trying to rekindle French hatred of England, which may have seemed not too difficult in 1940 after the British attack on the French fleet which led to the death of 1200 French sailors. <p>It is unlikely though that he gave it much thought. He had in 1940 a great many other more important things on his mind: the idea had been planted in his head; it had been opposed by von Ribbentrop who was probably concerned not to upset Spain and Italy; it may just have been a spur of the moment decision, inspired by the majesty of Les Invalides. (7)
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1. Georges Poisson, <i>Hitler's Gift to France, The Return of the Remains of Napoleon II Crisis at Vichy</i> Enigma Books, New York 2008, p. 8.
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2. Poisson pp 11-12.
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3. Poisson pp 12-18
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4. Poisson pp 50, 52, 58-59, 90.
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5. Poisson pp 91-92. Apparently the Governments of the US and UK were at this point quite pleased with what was seen as Pthe Vichy Government's stand against Hitler.
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6. Poisson p 93.
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7. Poisson pp 48, 121-123
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-12075572554221782292020-01-18T13:48:00.002+00:002020-01-24T16:23:10.534+00:00December 1940: Return of L'Aiglon Part I<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Napoleon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811-1832), Napoleon's only legitimate son</i> </center>
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<p>
Napoleon's son, titled first King of Rome, then briefly Napoleon II and finally Duke of Reichstadt became known as
<i>L'Aiglon</i> because of the play of the same name by Edmond Rostand which, with Sarah Bernhadt in the title role, captured the imagination of audiences in Paris and London in 1900.
<p>
In 1814, after Napoleon's first abdication, Marie Louise, who initially had every intention of staying loyal to Napoleon, duped by the machinations of Metternich and her father the Emperor Francis, returned with the infant prince to her home in Austria. To the disapproval of her grandmother Maria Carolina, Marie Louise never joined Napoleon on Elba, and Napoleon never again saw his son.
<p>
Renamed Franz, and retitled the Duke of Reichstadt, the young prince remained for the rest of his life a virtual prisoner in the Hapsburg Court, and because of political sensitivities his mother was not allowed to take him to Parma where she was installed as Duchess for life. (1) <p>Alienated from his mother whom he came to see as very weak and compared unfavourably with the Empress Josephine, he was much loved by his grandfather but prevented from any direct communication with the Bonaparte family with whom he increasingly identified.
<p>He died of tuberculosis at the age of 21, and was buried in the Crypt of the Capuchins in Vienna, where his body remained until December 1940, the centenary of the return of Napoleon I's ashes from St. Helena.
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<center> <i>Tomb of Napoleon II, Les Invalides.</i> </center>
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<p> Part II of this post will explore the strange story of the return of these ashes. For anyone who wishes to know anything more about Napoleon II's life and death, the excellent, elegant blog by <a href="https://shannonselin.com/tag/king-of-rome/">Shannon Selin</a> is highly recommended.<br>
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1. After 1815 there was in the UK much probably erroneous speculation that Austria would use his presence to leverage influence on France, and maybe to reinstate him, under a Regency on the French throne. Lord Holland speculated in the House of Lords that at some time in the future he might be placed on the French throne, supported by Austria. (<i>The Examiner, 14 April 1816</i>)
The <i>Leicester Chronicle 2nd Nov 1816</i> printed a report that Austria ultimately wanted to reinstate Napoleon or put his son on the throne. In December 1816 there were reports of a
plot to put Napoleon II on the throne with Marie Louise as Regent. <i>Cobbett Weekly Political Register 28 Dec 1816</i>.
In 1820 there were reports in a number of papers, e.g. <i>Dublin Weekly Register, 15 April 1820</i> that the Austrian Government had asked for indulgence towards Napoleon and
that the young Napoleon "<i>had not been discouraged from entertaining the utmost hatred of the English</i>."
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</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-25365359645934135842020-01-02T21:56:00.001+00:002023-09-27T18:53:43.954+01:00 Churchill and Napoleon: The Desk at Chartwell<font color = "black">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXsgYREtdXH7WDH-j_JTin3Mvv6ZV-D9z-hvmX2QwfGfU_gHUFwRC773xL02hdlm9fJ86E70KeLlGwefZFn78FQ_CEq0tie7G7Ec9Xaczlx26dUxIGiypiI_WxDAJMXDOwF-E0r6gso8/s1600/ChurchillDesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXsgYREtdXH7WDH-j_JTin3Mvv6ZV-D9z-hvmX2QwfGfU_gHUFwRC773xL02hdlm9fJ86E70KeLlGwefZFn78FQ_CEq0tie7G7Ec9Xaczlx26dUxIGiypiI_WxDAJMXDOwF-E0r6gso8/s400/ChurchillDesk.jpg" width="400" height="171" data-original-width="1392" data-original-height="596" /></a></div>
<center><i>Winston Churchill's Desk at Chartwell with a bust of Napoleon in centre</i> </center>
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<p>
I first started posting on <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/search/label/Churchill%20and%20Napoleon">Churchill and Napoleon</a> in 2009, and it should be of no surprise to anyone who has read any of these posts to find a Sevres bust of Napoleon in pride of place on Winston Churchill's desk at Chartwell. Beside Napoleon is a small bust of Nelson, almost completely hidden, and to the right a statuette of Jan Smuts. See also <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2021/02/pride-of-place-at-chartwell-kent-bylines.html">Byline Times Article</a>
<p>
Since I wrote my first post a number of pieces have appeared elsewhere. The Director of the Churchill Archives at Churchill College, Cambridge, wrote an article in 2012 which placed Churchill's admiration of Napoleon firmly in the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2012/06/whigs-and-napoleon.html">Whig tradition</a>, and also attached some weight to Churchill's lifelong francophilia.(1)
<p>
More recently Andrew Roberts, a biographer of Napoleon, and more recently of Churchill also, gave a comprehensive presentation on Churchill and Napoleon to a conference on Winston Churchill at which Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, was the unfortunate choice of keynote speaker. To the delight of his audience, Roberts alluded to this at the beginning of his talk : <blockquote>We have had a series of substantial scholars telling you genuine quotations and true facts about Winston Churchill and we have also had Boris Johnson.(2)</blockquote>
<p>
Johnson of course had just written a biography of Churchill on whom he appears to model his own career. He has since become Prime Minister. I am tempted to conclude with one of Karl Marx's oft repeated quotes, from <i>The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon</i>, <blockquote>Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.</blockquote>
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1. Allen Packwood: <a href="https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-157/france-and-the-french-a-tale-of-two-statesmen-churchill-and-napoleon/">France and the French, A Tale of Two Statesmen, Churchill and Napoleon"</a>
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2. Andrew Roberts, address to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a36GFWEp45g">32nd Annual Churchill Conference</a>, Oxfordshire England, May 2015. The section on Johnson concluded: "<i>I think Boris's attitude towards facts is very much what one would call a la carte. His speech reminded me very much of a friend of mine on Radio Four who said the trouble with Winston Churchill is he thinks he's Boris Johnson</i>."
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-59974867261679473102019-10-21T19:53:00.000+01:002020-01-02T20:37:24.316+00:00Napoleon and Churchill: Thoughts on Two Unrelated Images<font color = "black">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGjfeRpb6wPhN7hYYrbeCckO0yiVUtA2eMv6YDIjAXuDntji8-3Sx3WjyuJLenzEnQWRd9psHrVtD2g5oF5yRvPUWOlc0o_1siZ1xlNWYDnpOJVoa3jF4XmJPFddVEWSucGaKM-uvs7Q/s1600/NapoleonMichel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGjfeRpb6wPhN7hYYrbeCckO0yiVUtA2eMv6YDIjAXuDntji8-3Sx3WjyuJLenzEnQWRd9psHrVtD2g5oF5yRvPUWOlc0o_1siZ1xlNWYDnpOJVoa3jF4XmJPFddVEWSucGaKM-uvs7Q/s400/NapoleonMichel.jpg" width="302" height="400" data-original-width="515" data-original-height="683" /></a></div>
<center> <i>Napoleon St Helena 1816, by Michel Dancoisne Martineau </i></center>
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<p>
The above portrait has just been completed by <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2018/10/michel-dancoisne-martineau-mbe.html">Michel Dancoisne Martineau</a>. Aside from his incredible work with the French Properties on St. Helena, Michel has been extraordinarily productive as a writer and an artist.
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<p>
<p> This painting is based on Sir Pulteney Malcolm's description of Napoleon in the early stages of his captivity, before ill health and bitterness set in.
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<p>
<blockquote>His hair of a brown-black, thin
on the forehead, cropped, but not thin in
the neck, and rather a dirty look ; light blue
or grey eyes ; a capacious forehead ; high
nose ; short upper lip ; good white even
teeth, but small (he rarely showed them) ;
round chin ; the lower part of his face very
full ; pale complexion ; particularly short
neck. Otherwise his figure appeared well
proportioned, but had become too fat ; a
thick, short hand with taper fingers and
beautiful nails, and a well-shaped leg and
foot. He was dressed in an old threadbare
green coat, with green velvet collar and
cuffs ; silver buttons with a beast engraven
upon them, his habit de chasse (it was buttoned close at the neck) ; a silver star of the Legion of Honour ; white waistcoat and breeches ; white silk stockings ; and shoes with oval gold buckles . She was struck with the kindness of his expression, so contrary to the fierceness she had expected. No trace of great ability ; his countenance
seemed rather to indicate goodness (1)</blockquote>
<br>
<p> The portrait is surely also unconsciously influenced by what the artist has absorbed from
other paintings and from numerous written accounts read over the years. The resultant figure that we see, shorn of contemporary conventions of portraiture, seems so realistic and human. Michel
has spoken of the possibility of doing a study for each year of Napoleon's captivity, based on descriptions left by those who witnessed his decline. That would form the basis of a great exhibition for the bicentenary in 1821 and a fitting legacy of Michel's long service on St. Helena.
<p>
The second image is a photograph of Chamberlain's short lived wartime cabinet in September 1939, with Winston Churchill installed as First Lord of the Admiralty. I was intrigued by what each of the cabinet did with their hands. Some had their hands in their knees, some had their arms folded, some had their hands behind their back and one had a hand in his pocket. In the centre though sat Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, nearing the end of his Prime Ministership and of his life, his hands clasped in almost prayer like pose.(2) Behind Chamberlain stood Winston Churchill, his right hand thrust in his jacket, in a pose most commonly associated with Napoleon.(3)
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5hH7geHwVw_WKGimlqlm8OYX1yjLjH-uXXe8trvr4WLApQip6hNITzSCIxlFKTjhxUXVp8WCrC93llEHtkiTbVX9TTXeBqCKQTtxS23ZQhR_TMgBxHVziScOharjHzdnMoHdhrGsw1ik/s1600/Churchill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5hH7geHwVw_WKGimlqlm8OYX1yjLjH-uXXe8trvr4WLApQip6hNITzSCIxlFKTjhxUXVp8WCrC93llEHtkiTbVX9TTXeBqCKQTtxS23ZQhR_TMgBxHVziScOharjHzdnMoHdhrGsw1ik/s400/Churchill.jpg" width="400" height="273" data-original-width="770" data-original-height="526" /></a></div>
<center><i>Chamberlain's War Cabinet, September 1939</i> </center>
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<a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/search?q=Churchill+and+Napoleon">Churchill</a> has appeared a number of times in this blog. A flawed genius, aren't they all, his admiration of Napoleon was well known to contemporaries, and like Napoleon he saw himself as a man of destiny.
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<p>
I often reflect that like Napoleon, Churchill ultimately failed in his main aim. Napoleon failed to establish his Empire and the primacy of France on the continent. By the end of the second world war it was apparent that Churchill too would fail to safeguard the future of the British Empire and preserve its status as a great power. Although he did not preside over the Empire's dissolution, Churchill lived long enough to see others do it. How ironic that St. Helena, the scene of Napoleon's final years, remains one of the last outposts of that Empire that once bestrode the world.
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1. <i>A diary of St.Helena - The Journal of Lady Malcolm (1816, 1817) containing yje conversations of Napoleon with sir Pulteney Malcolm </i> edited by Sir Arthur Wilson, K.C.I.E. with an introduction by Muriel Kent - Ed. by George Allen & Unwin Ltd - 1929
pages 26-27
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2. Within 9 months Churchill was to succeed Chamberlain as Prime Minister, and a few months later, in November 1940, Chamberlain died of cancer.
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3. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-in-waistcoat">hand in jacket</a> pose most often associated with Napoleon was apparently introduced around 1750 and signified calm and firm leadership.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-28037503526058247122019-08-15T21:26:00.000+01:002019-08-16T07:56:57.543+01:00British Napoleons<font color = "black">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUS2VcUb7tnlTMNuYadlKiu0mJuCacntoXIh7LMNZDy_18NoF4cIQZ8s0xLDayayY94pTuKGNU6pdPqaTCfuHBcUqULZGqrQUzHjU2nS0Gbemm1qjR2dej90FnC4ZMiY_g96SXikOGDsk/s1600/Napoleon+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUS2VcUb7tnlTMNuYadlKiu0mJuCacntoXIh7LMNZDy_18NoF4cIQZ8s0xLDayayY94pTuKGNU6pdPqaTCfuHBcUqULZGqrQUzHjU2nS0Gbemm1qjR2dej90FnC4ZMiY_g96SXikOGDsk/s400/Napoleon+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" height="250" data-original-width="999" data-original-height="624" /></a></div>
<center><i>Past.com entries for people baptised Napoleon, 1803-5 </i></center>
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<p>
Some time ago I wrote a blog about the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2015/08/napoleon-buried-in-suffolk-churchyard.html">grave of Napoleon</a> I came across many years ago in a Suffolk church yard. At the time, with a very conventional view of the history of the early nineteenth century, I thought it amusing and rather odd. I know realise that it was a far from isolated occurrence.
<p>
The historian Katrina Navickas did the above search of Napoleons born in 1803-5, at the height of the invasion scare. Her search came up with over 5000 references, some of which were undoubtedly duplicates. My own search in the 1841 census found over 100 people with the name Napoleon, many of which were christenings in the decade before the census. To baptise a child with the name Napoleon at a time when he was the target of an unprecedented amount of state propaganda could not have been an easy matter. Before the introduction of civil registration in 1837 most births were registered in the Church of England, and it seems unlikely that the name "Napoleon" would have been welcomed by Anglican parsons, the very backbone of Loyalism. The incidence of so many cases seems to confirm what the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2017/11/napoleon-and-british-song-1797-1822-by.html">folk songs of the nineteenth century</a> suggest, that Napoleon was a surprisingly popular figure in the United Kingdom.
<p>
On the eve of the Peterloo bicentenary it is worth reflecting on the case of one of the Lancashire radical leaders, William Fitton a self proclaimed surgeon of Royton. Fitton came from a radical family, members of which had from time to time fallen foul of local Loyalist mobs. In 1816, at the age of 23, he founded in Royton what was the first "Hampden Club" outside London.(1) For the next three tumultuous years leading up to Peterloo he was very active in Lancashire radicalism. Sometime in 1819 William Fitton had a new baby son. On September 26th, just over a month after the Manchester Massacre, the boy was baptised with the name "Napoleon". The young Napoleon died in January 1820, but so determined were his parents, or at least his father, that a second son born in 1820 was duly given the same name.(2)
<p>
As a postscript:- Two years after Peterloo, the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2017/09/manchester-1821-toast-to-immortal.html">immortal memory of Napoleon Bonaparte</a> was toasted by 300 people at a dinner in Manchester held to commemorate the massacre.
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1. Hampden Clubs were formed to bring together radical and working class reformers. The movement was led by John Cartwrigth a London based radical leader. The clubs were named after John Hampden, a seventeenth century parliamentarian who played a leading role in the struggle against Charles I in the years leading up to the Civil War.
<br>
2.See this <a href="http://www.peterloo-manchester.uk/william-fitton-lost-reformer.html">brief account of William Fitton</a>.
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-63489749881658022892019-07-01T16:36:00.002+01:002019-07-02T07:50:36.986+01:00The Emperor's Shadow : The Strange Story of the Balcombes <font color = "black">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCA0F2BacO-qIPg_QakBiCwyhOYBwnKbr0NU6114iuWzejQbaNCq1nNbz6bYCe66FrNu8D1Nnf-h87AO6S6fRIyq2lsrR-rjWKBMcVBhIXf_kViIJkDqPcgV9saUEI06QhwlFYWalFZs/s1600/NapoleonShadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCA0F2BacO-qIPg_QakBiCwyhOYBwnKbr0NU6114iuWzejQbaNCq1nNbz6bYCe66FrNu8D1Nnf-h87AO6S6fRIyq2lsrR-rjWKBMcVBhIXf_kViIJkDqPcgV9saUEI06QhwlFYWalFZs/s400/NapoleonShadow.jpg" width="261" height="400" data-original-width="310" data-original-height="476" /></a></div>
<center><i>The Emperor's Shadow, London 2015 </i></center>
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<p>
The author has done a tremendous amount of research, and has gathered together a large amount of information on the Balcombe family, much of which was unknown to me at least. Her basic thesis is that Napoleon, the calculating arch-manipulator, cultivated the Balcombe family because of their connection to the Prince Regent through their benefactor, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt.(1)
<blockquote>"He had no intention of adjusting to the situation; he would devise how best to escape from it - and the Balcombe family might just offer an avenue. Meanwhile, surprisingly, there was some pleasure to be had.(2)
</blockquote>
<p>
And of course whilst Napoleon may have enjoyed himself, Mme de Staël's somewhat biased judgement of him is endorsed:
<blockquote>"doubtless there was calculation on his part even amid the fun and silly games. He knew the accounts of them .. made him seem sympathetic, humanised him." (3)</blockquote>
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<p>
The author makes a good case for Betsy being several months pregnant at the time of her <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2012/01/exminster-devon-may-1822-betsy.html">marriage to Edward Abell</a> in 1822. This she suggests may be the reason the marriage took place at Exminster, rather than Chudleigh where the Balcombes had been living. The author also makes a good case for her daughter being born in St Omer in France, away from the gossip of London and Devon.(4) <p> As for the bridegroom Edward Abell, solid facts are a bit thin on the ground. He was an Indian Army Officer, about 11 years older than Betsy, and the author speculates that they may have met on St Helena four years earlier when his ship docked. The evidence suggests that he married Betsy because of her family's connections. The author speculates that he may have impregnated Betsy deliberately so that he could marry her, "<i>maybe he heard stories that her father was the natural son of George IV.</i>" Abell soon deserted Betsy, but later followed her to Australia, intending to sue William Balcombe for keeping his wife from him. (5)
<p>
The book sheds light on the deal which Balcombe made with Hudson Lowe to support him in his case against O'Meara. This cleared the way for Balcombe's appointment as Colonial Treasurer in New South Wales, where he spent the remaining five years of his life, and some of his heirs were to prosper. (See<a href="https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2011/12/napoleon-briars-and-melbourne.html "> the Melbourne Blogger</a> for more information on the Australian connection.)
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<center>Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (1762-1833)</center>
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<p>
Over all the manoeuvering on St Helena and off presided Balcombe's mysterious benefactor, <a href="https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/tyrwhitt-thomas-1762-1833">Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt.</a> Tyrwhitt met Lowe in 1815 before he sailed to St. Helena and helped Balcombe secure his lucrative role procuring supplies for Longwood. It was he who came to Balcombe's aid when Lowe and Lord Bathurst began to have suspicions about his relations with Longwood. It was Tyrwhitt who strongly advised Balcombe to leave the island, whilst at the same time flattering Lowe with Royal gossip and making clear his lack of sympathy with the Whigs who were critical of Lowe's treatment of Napoleon. <p>
<blockquote>Lord Holland is in a week or two to give us a Display upon Napoleon's Calamities; but as long as you keep him close, nobody cares for speeches.(6) </blockquote>
<br>
<p>
It was also probably Tyrwhitt who got the Times to retract a story that the Balcombes had been forced to leave St Helena, and it was Tyrwhitt who again met with Lowe and brokered the deal that removed Lowe's objection to Balcombe's subsequent colonial appointment. (7)
<p>Balcombe, despite his association with Longwood House and Napoleon, was far better connected in London and better rewarded than Sir Hudson Lowe who had done the dirty business of the Liverpool Administration. On return from St Helena, Balcombe is to be found in the company of Sir Pulteney Malcolm and Admiral Sir George Cockburn, neither of them admirers of Sir Hudson Lowe. He is also interviewed three times by Lord Bathurst, who had to endure Lowe's endless long letters from St. Helena and perhaps was looking for an alternative source of information. Bathurst did however over-rule Balcombe's wish to return to St. Helena in 1819.
<p>
The author's conclusion about the famous relationship between Betsy and Napoleon is perhaps worth quoting, although it does overlook Napoleon's acknowledged <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2009/12/uncle-napoleon.html">love of children</a>.
<blockquote>Betsy had brought out the best in Napoleon, that complex, brilliant, calculating and turbulent man, severely formal with others but always approachable for her. She had loved him and she would never recover from knowing him.(8)</blockquote>
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<p>
Overall I have to admit that this book is really not to my taste. It meanders over some 400 pages, and includes material on Peterloo, the Cato Conspiracy, Queen Caroline, the Royal Divorce, the King's Coronation and much else besides. It includes a great deal of speculation and also gives an account of the the extensive travels the author undertook on her research. A more concise, factual treatment would have suited me far better, although I appreciate that I am a far from typical reader. Nevertheless it is a very useful source for anyone interested in the Balcombes and the story of their association with Napoleon,
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1. Apparently the Prince Regent was unusually loyal to Tyrwhitt but he didn't take his advice on the Royal Divorce Bill and it was Tyrwhitt who had to present the divorce bill to Queen Caroline. Whitehead pp 257-259. Tyrwhitt had a number of nicknames among the royal family: ‘the Dwarf’, the ‘twenty third [sic] of June’ or ‘the shortest night’; ‘Saint Thomas’ from ‘the shortest day’, and so to ‘the Saint’.
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2. Whitehead pp 54-55. The author says that says that Napoleon would have remembered Tyrwhitt's visit to Paris in 1801 as secretary and emissary of the Prince Regent.
<br>
3. Mme de Staël is uncritically quoted at some length in support of the author's view, concluding with, "<i>he is a chess-master whose opponents happen to be the rest of humanity</i>". She also quotes Philip Dwyer in claiming that Napoleon dispensed with people when they ceased to be useful. One does wonder about his tolerance of Talleyrand and Fouché in this respect! Anne Whitehead, <i>The Emperor's Shadow, Bonaparte, Betsy and the Balcombes </i> (London 2015) pp 49,62, 94 <br>The author also exaggerates Napoleon's desire to escape, which was virtually non-existent, but which nevertheless understandably preoccupied Hudson Lowe and Lord Bathurst. For example the author comments on a conversation between Napoleon and Admiral Pulteney Malcolm in which the latter said had rowed around the island, that it was "<i>useful information that a rowing boat could approach the cliffs.</i>" Whitehead p. 129.
<br>
4. Whitehead pp 281,300, 330.
<br>
5. The author and I disagree whether William Balcombe was actually at the wedding. I have a copy of the certificate and am pretty certain that the first signatory was Jane Balcombe, not William Balcombe. It could of course be Betsy's mother, but her mother although known as Jane was christened Emma Jane.
<br>According to Betsy, Abell later admitted that he never had any affection for her, and that "<i>he merely married under the hope of gaining something good thru my father and his exalted interests. </i>" Letter from Betsy to Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, 10 August 1824, quoted in Whitead pp330-332.
<br>
6. Tyrwhitt to Hudson Lowe, Dec 8th 1817, quoted in Whithead p 191.
<br>
7. Whitehead pp 203-4, 282-4.
<br>
8. Whitehead p 197
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-23320531519900891422019-06-14T12:47:00.002+01:002019-07-03T17:25:18.473+01:00Prince of Wales at Napoleon's Tomb, 1925<font color = "black">
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<center><i>Visit of Prince of Wales to Napoleon's Tomb, 1925 (1)</i></center>
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Over the years there have been only a handful of Royal visits to St Helena. One of the earliest, perhaps even the first, was that of the Prince of Wales in 1925.
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<center><i>A willow tree being planted to commemorate the visit</i></center>
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<p> The opening passage in the speech he had made on arrival on the island began with a glowing reference to Napoleon, although he was not mentioned by name.
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I need not assure you of the deep interest with which I set foot on an Island whose name is so well known to all students of History, not only because it was here that were written the closing pages of a great and romantic life story – the story of the Emperor whose mortal remains now lie on the banks of the Seine, where many soldiers of France have found a resting place ... (2)
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Delivered in the shadow of the horrific loss of life in the Great War, the speech evokes memories of a time when France was Britain's closest ally, and when Napoleon was looked on far more favourably in the United Kingdom than a half century later.
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<center><i>Commemoration of Centenary of Napoleon's death </i></center>
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Four years earlier there had been a joint Anglo-French commemoration of the centenary of Napoleon's death, with the Union Jack proudly displayed over Napoleon's tomb alongside the French tricolour.
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<center><i>Recent commemoration of Napoleon's death </i></center>
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In recent years the commemoration of Napoleon's death on St Helena has been revived. The emphasis is now far less imperial and euro-centric, and more focus is placed on involving local people
in what is an important part of their heritage.
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Plans are I understand already well underway for the commemoration of the bicentenary. Not everybody who wants to attend can find seats on the scheduled flights nor be accommodated on the island, so I believe two cruise ships are being hired.
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1. I acknowledge the <i>Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France</i> for use of the two photos of the Prince at Napoleon's tomb. The photo of the 1921 commemoration I found on <a href="http://sainthelenaisland.info/infoindex.htm#historypages">Saint Helena Island Info</a> which is a very useful source.
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2. A copy of the speech was, or at least used to be on display at the castle in Jamestown. A friend faithfully transcribed it for me. As far as I am aware it
is not available anywhere else on the internet, so I will include it here.
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<i>I am very grateful to the people of St. Helena for the welcome offered to me on landing at Jamestown this morning, and I much appreciate the good wishes contained in their address.
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I need not assure you of the deep interest with which I set foot on an Island whose name is so well known to all students of History, not only because it was here that were written the closing pages of a great and romantic life story – the story of the Emperor whose mortal remains now lie on the banks of the Seine, where many soldiers of France have found a resting place – but for the fact that during the period of maritime development of our Empire, St. Helena formed one of the most important links in Britain’s chain of communications as an invaluable supply depot and an outpost of the East Indies.
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To-day trade routes have changes with the times, and though the Island, finding that circumstances have deflected the main arteries of traffic, may at times feel somewhat remote from the outer busier world, I know full well that St. Helena still prides herself on her place in the Empire, and that the loyalty of her people to the Crown and to Britain ideals remain undiminished.
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I am hoping in the time at my disposal to meet as many as possible of the people of the Island and to learn something of your interests and your activities.
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This morning before leaving the Castle, I am to see an exhibit of your local domestic industry, that of lace-making, samples of which I know attracted the attention of the general public at Wembley and won commendation from the experts. And tomorrow I look forward to the opportunity of inspecting some of the flax mills and shall be interested to gain some first hand knowledge of this Industry which has been established in your midst and on which much of your material prosperity depends. You have my best wishes for your progress and welfare in the years to come.
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In conclusion I will not fail to convey to the King your assurance of loyalty and devotion, and will at the same time tell His Majesty of the cordiality of the welcome which the people of St. Helena have given to me to-day.
<p>
Edward </i>
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1576793257211626923.post-27627046403357770362019-06-13T12:28:00.001+01:002019-07-01T17:29:18.176+01:00Rev Boys and Illegitimacy on St Helena<font color = "black">
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<center>Rev. Boys,"<i>l'homme que même Hudson Lowe craignait</i>" (1)</center>
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<a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=APq4FmDNpNuHftvKe6ziuojS_rlsNEMVn-P1ksChr7iug7HtT8PhiDdmmQCybLGNNET_Qdn5n1XlNHWMl0th-G5x0zeUilFzJIMUYhp4W7YE55IHbBcysRU6b7P30TSl8z6I25XFdSEj&postId=2762704640335777036&type=POST">Rev. Richard Boys MA (1785–1867)</a> was appointed Junior Chaplin on St. Helena in 1811 and remained on the island until 1829. His stay, particularly during the Governorship of Hudson Lowe, was eventful to say the least. <p>The dubious claims made by his descendants about his alleged meeting(s) with Napoleon, furniture from Longwood, and death masks have appeared from time to time on this blog. <p>He also made an appearance in the <a href="https://johntyrrell.blogspot.com/2017/07/st-helena-1814-1816.html">Judicial Records</a>, for testifying on behalf of a lady of somewhat dubious repute who was given shelter in his home until she left for some reason in the early hours of the morning!
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<center>Table supplied by Chris Hillman</center>
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The story of Rev. Boys' assault on the lax moral standards of the slaveowners of St. Helena is generally accepted by those who have written about St. Helena in the time of Napoleon. Whether the decline in the number of illegitimacies as shown in the table above was due directly to Rev. Boys is perhaps not quite as clear as the accepted narrative suggests. The probable source for most who have written about this is Arnold Chaplin's <i>A St Helena Who's Who, </i> now over a century old.
<blockquote>When, as it sometimes happened, Mr Boys was called upon to record the births of illegitimate children of slave women, begotten of men who were some of the highest and most trusted of Lowe's lieutenants, the chaplain in his righteous indignation did not hesitate to write in bold characters in the registers the titles and high positions of the sires. In these old registers, which have been inspected for me by Major Foulds, <i>it is amusing to observe the frantic attempts that have been made by means of blots and pen-knife to obliterate the damaging evidence </i>. But Mr Boys was determined to write for all time, and the precise titles and positions of the fathers, in spite of the attempted erasures, <i> can still be plainly distinguished </i> . This was probably the real reason for the ostracism of Mr Boys by the high St. Helena society, and the fear of his out-spoken tongue evinced by Sir Hudson Lowe. (2)</blockquote>
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Chris Hillman, who with his wife Sheila, has been working through a set of registers microfilmed on St. Helena in 1989, has now led me to doubt the reliability of Chaplin's account. Chris informs me that the records they have worked on show "<i>no apparent tampering</i>", although as already indicated, it is indisputable that illegitimacy declined significantly in the course of Boys' time on the island. Chaplin as he admits never actually saw the registers nor any photographic images, and depended on the report of Major Foulds, whoever he was. I wonder if Major Foulds made it up, what was his motive? It would be great if someone could clear up this mystery.
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1.Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, <i>Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène</i> (Perrin 2011) pp. 111-117.
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2. Arnold Chaplin, <i>A St Helena Who's Who </i> (London 1919) p. 224
</font>John Tyrrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14840928923304125310noreply@blogger.com0