Georges Lefebvre: Napoleon was more than anything else a temperament

Georges Lefebre, Napoleon (3rd edition, 1947) originally published in 1935 first translated into English in the late 1960's.

It is some time since I mentioned that I had received my Folio Society edition of George Lefebvre's masterly study of Napoleon.

I have now had time to read and reflect on it. It is almost 600 pages long, and not a book for the casual reader. As indicated previously, it is not strictly a biography but a study of France under Napoleon's leadership from 1799 until 1815.

As one would expect of a founder member of the Annales School, Lefebvre places Napoleon's career in an historical context: the clash of social classes; the fear of and reaction against the revolution by the established order; the waning of democracy in the French revolution and the ascendancy of the bourgeoisie; the development of industrial capitalism; rationalism and challenges to the authority of the Catholic church; romanticism and the awakening of nationalism; the expansion of French territory; the challenge to England's naval supremacy; the struggle for European hegemony and empire.

Lefebvre sees the emergence of autocratic rule by an army general as no accident; it was driven there by inner necessity. As for Napoleon himself, he was a man whose temperament, even more than his genius, was unable to adapt to peace and moderation. (1)

Within the wider context Napoleon was seen by the ruling order as an upstart:

in the eyes of Wellington and other noble lords Napoleon was never anything else but 'Bony', and the king of Rome was his bastard. The kings too were full of the same haughty pride. Deep down in their hearts they could not admit the legitimacy of a man who had unceremoniously unseated so many of royal line. (2)

So, somewhat paradoxically given his counter revolutionary role in France, whatever Napoleon might do: in the eyes of Europe, he was still the soldier of the Revolution.

England, although it had a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system was not much different; its rulers shared the fear of and hostility towards the ideas of 1789 with the rulers of the absolute monarchies on the continent.

England remained antiquated, encumbered by sinecures and inclined to corruption. .. England's ruling oligarchy did not abound in talent, but it regarded the nation as its patrimony and defended it with tenacity and discipline. .. England began to impress sailors and recruit soldiers for the war effort, both drawn from the poorer classes of society. These men were led by volunteers from the aristocracy, who purchased their commissions.(3)

Napoleon the Man

Overall the book is highly critical of Napoleon, but the most fascinating part perhaps is the short section in which Lefebvre reflects on Napoleon's character. Only 5 or so pages in length, this part was closely analysed by Pieter Geyl in his classic study of French historians and Napoleon. (4) Not for Lefebvre the trite amateur psychology and the facile and ahistorical analogies so beloved of many who now write about Napoleon.

For Lefebvre, Napoleon was the last and most illustrious enlightened despot a man steeped in the classics, and above all a man of great complexity: his personality evolved in so singular a manner that it defies portrayal, and Beneath the soldier's uniform, however, there dwelled in him several personalities, and it is this diversity, as much as the variety and brilliance of his gifts which makes him so fascinating.

- he longed to equal the semi-legendary heroes of Plutarch and Corneille. His greatest ambition was glory.
- His eyes were fixed on the world's great leaders: Alexander, Caesar, Augustus, Charlemagne ..
- He was an artist, a poet of action, for whom France and mankind were but instruments.
- a passionate desire to know and understand everything.
- an over-tender care for his family
- a certain pleasure in stepping on those who had once snubbed him
- a taste for ostentatious splendour
- natural propensity for dictatorship
- pride in himself and contempt for others
- he could have become a man of letters
- Having entered into a life of action, he still remained a thinker
- The warrior was never happier than in the silence of his own study, surrounded by papers and documents
- A typical man of the eighteenth century, a rationalist a philosophe
- firm and strong intellect
- romantic melancholia
- the ability to stand off from himself and take a detached look at his own life, and to reflect wistfully on his fate
- something of the uprooted person remained in him, something of the declassé as well
- neither entirely a gentleman, nor entirely common (5)

Then in the famous passage quoted extensively by Geyl:

His mind was one of the most perfect that has ever been: his unflagging attention tirelessly swept in facts and ideas which his memory registered and classified; his imagination played with them freely, and being in a permanent state of concealed tension, it never wearied of inventing political and strategic motifs which manifested themselves in unexpected flashes of intuition like those experienced by poets and mathematicians. .. He rendered a fair account of himself when he said, 'I consider myself a good man at heart,' and indeed he showed generosity, and even kindness to those who were close to him. .. He knew himself well: ' It is said that I am an ambitious man but that is not so; or at least my ambition is so closely bound to my being that they are both one and the same.' How very true! Napoleon was more than anything else a temperament. (6)

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1. Georges Lefebvre, Napoleon , London, The Folio Society 2009, p. 57.
2. Lefebvre p. 493
3. Lefebvre p.31
4. Pieter Geyl, Napoleon For and Against first published in English in 1949.
5. Lefebvre pp 59-64
6 Lefebvre p. 60

The Artist of St Helena

Interesting that two of the bloggers that I follow regularly, Michel and Carmi, are talented artists. Michel apparently had not taken up a paint brush for two years until his recent painting of the St Helena Ebony. What a fine talent. I hope that it will not be another two years before he takes up the paint brush again.

Napoleon Fridge Magnet: Thankyou Carmi

Not many bloggers hand out free gifts to their readers, but Carmi (My Napoleon Obsession) is an exception. I have just received this fridge magnet from her, in a suitably decorated envelope.



Wonder what our Korean postman made of that?
Anyway thanks again Carmi.

L'Autre St Hélène

I posted an initial comment on this book in a post on 25th May.

I have now had the time to read it - the first French book I have read for longer than I care to remember. A detailed account, some 400 pages long, it is nevertheless a thoroughly enjoyable read. Despite frequent recourse to a French dictionary, I found it difficult to put down once I had started. It has given me a number of ideas for topics I wish to pursue, and I shall doubtless refer to it frequently in the future.

As the title suggests, the focus is on Napoleon's health and the medical treatment he received whilst on St Helena. In here is the story of all the doctors associated with the captivity. Some fell foul of the authorities, some never actually got to see Napoleon, some were incompetent, and some were perhaps afraid to tell Sir Hudson Lowe anything he did not want to hear. The book also throws an interesting light on the relations between Napoleon's fellow exiles at Longwood, and helps to re-establish the reputation of Montholon. The feelings of the patient himself are not a prime concern of the book, but in one telling passage the author draws on the evidence of Santini, one of the domestic servants at Longwood, who claimed that neither the loss of his throne nor his exile hurt Napoleon as much as the betrayal of Marie-Louise, the wife and mother of the child whom he was never to see after 1814. As for the hapless Sir Hudson Lowe, this book only confirms his unsuitability for the appointment he was given.

The author, a native French speaker who is based in England, is uniquely placed to be able to use both English and French sources. I cannot recall any previous history of the captivity which is so firmly grounded in both French and British archival material. The author has also drawn on a large number of French printed sources which are sometimes not easily accessible outside France.

With an impressive bibliography, footnotes on each page, and a large number of quotations from original sources, it lacks only an index. Despite the scholarly apparatus, it is very accessible to the general reader.

In conclusion, this is a significant, scholarly, yet highly accessible book which deserves to be read by anyone interested in the captivity of Napoleon.

I eagerly await its publication in English.

( Albert Benhamou L'autre Sainte-Hélène: La Captivité, La Maladie, La Mort, Et Les Médecins Autour De Napoléon Albert Benhamou Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9564654-0-5)

Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (1771 – 1832)

Novelist, poet and author of the first major life of Napoleon - and the first to be allowed to consult the Hudson Lowe Papers, which have since become a staple of historians of the captivity.

Sir Walter also visited Paris and interviewed Napoleon's colleagues.

The Duke of Wellington assisted him with his account of the Russian campaign.

The artist J.M.W. Turner also produced some illustrations.

The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte finally appeared in 1827 - in no fewer than 9 volumes.

Few would now regard Scott's work as an important source for the life of Napoleon, but it represented a milestone in the development of British attitudes. Here for the first time, only six years after his death but more importantly over a decade after his final battle, we have a Napoleon who is neither romantic hero nor total villain.

This balanced approach - "on the one hand .. on the other hand .." - and the search for the Aristotelian golden mean was once a mainstay of much British historiography and public discourse. It still holds true of the BBC but definitely not the tabloid press!
Thus:

In practice, his government was brilliant abroad, and, with few exceptions, liberal and moderate at home

but the execution of the Duc d'Enghien showed the vindictive spirit of a savage, and

If, instead of asserting that he never committed a crime, he had limited his self-eulogy to asserting, that in attaining and wielding supreme power, he had resisted the temptation to commit many, he could not have been contradicted. And this is no small praise.

Thus although ultimately very critical of Napoleon, and a defense of the British Government in its long struggle against him and the French Revolution, The Life .. was nevertheless far more balanced than some Whigs had expected, and certainly far too even handed for many Tories, for whom Napoleon would always remain the "Corsican Ogre".

It also upset Sir Hudson Lowe, whose esteem was at a level befitting his name, and still vainly sought the colonial governorship which he felt he had been promised and certainly deserved. He could not however find anything in The Life .. that would give him any chance of a successful court case.




Gaspard Gourgaud was also displeased about his treatment.

His former colleagues on St Helena buried their once considerable differences and came to his defence.

Excitable as ever, Gourgaud was all for challenging Scott to a duel, but the latter's location in Edinburgh made that rather impractical.

Napoleon's brother, Louis Bonaparte was also displeased and wrote a defense of his brother.

My focus has been on volume 9, dealing with Napoleon's fall and the captivity.

Clearly whilst trying to maintain a balanced view, Scott was keen to defend the British Government against the criticisms that had been levelled against it for the treatment of Napoleon. This presumably is why he had been given access to the public records.

General Napoleon or The Emperor?

On this, one of the main controversies of the captivity which was taken to ridiculous lengths by Hudson Lowe, Scott defended the Government:

.. there could be no reason why Britain, in compassionate courtesy, should give to her prisoner a title which she had refused to him de jure, even while he wielded the empire de facto ;

This legalistic justification was rather spoiled by the suggestion that Napoleon's refusal to answer to the title General Buonaparte was indicative of his backround:

not the feelings of a man of conscious dignity of mind, but of an upstart, who conceives the honour of preferment not to consist in having enjoyed, or in still possessing, a high situation, gained by superiority of talents, so much as in wearing the robes, or listening to the sounding titles, which are attached to it.

Scott was not the first nor last Englishmen to criticise Napoleon for not being a gentleman! Indeed few of England's enemies and perhaps even its allies have been considered as such by the rulers of Perfidious Albion! (1)

Longwood or Plantation House?

Scott was however, critical of the British Government's choice of Longwood rather than Plantation House

for the residence of the late Imperial captive. We differ from their opinion in this particular, because the very best accommodation was due to fallen greatness; and, in his circumstances, Napoleon, with every respect to the authority of the governor, ought to have been the last person on the island subjected to inconvenience.

But even here and somewhat disingenuously he tempered his criticism of the British Government by claiming that it was all Napoleon's fault. The British Government would have come round to this view anyway,

but for the disposition of the late French Emperor and his followers to use every point of deference, or complaisance, exercised towards them, as an argument for pushing their pretensions farther.

Further in the Government's defense Scott noted that

Some circumstances about the locality, it is believed, had excited doubts about whether the house could be completely guarded.

Then, in an ironic swipe at Napoleon, he observed that Longwood

was approved of by Napoleon, who visited it personally, and expressed himself so much satisfied, that it was difficult to prevail on him to leave the place.

Longwood when completed, was nevertheless

far inferior in accommodation to that which every Englishman would have desired that the distinguished prisoner should have enjoyed whilst in English custody.

But again he could not prevent himself from suggesting that Napoleon might have been worse treated. Whilst the completed Longwood was

a strange contrast with the palaces which Napoleon had lately inhabited .. it was preferable, in the same proportion, to the Tower of the Temple, and the dungeons of Vincennes.

He also pointed out that in his efforts to make Longwood ready for Napoleon, Admiral Cockburn frequently arrived on site very early in the morning. This was apparently necessary to stimulate the St Helena workmen, who, in general are lazy and indolent ..

Sir Hudson Lowe and Napoleon

Scott's judgement on Hudson Lowe was carefully couched so as to prevent any legal redress:

it would require a strong defence on the part of Sir Hudson Lowe himself .. to induce us to consider him as the very rare and highly exalted species of character, to whom, as we have already stated, this important charge ought to have been intrusted.

He also noted that Lowe revealed traces of a warm and irritable temper when he ought, if possible, to have remained cool and unruffled and that his over anxiety led to frequent changes of his regulations, and to the adoption of measures which were afterwards abandoned, and perhaps again resumed. Napoleon himself was of course not spared of blame for the feud with Hudson Lowe. He

became the prey of petty spleen which racked him also to frenzy, and induced him to hazard his health, or perhaps even to throw away his life, rather than submit with dignified patience to that which his misfortunes had rendered unavoidable.

In discussing the fear that Napoleon would escape, which clearly haunted Lowe, Scott interestingly mentioned the Government's concern about the state of England and in particular the discontent and sufferings of the manufacturing districts as well as the revolutionary spirit in Italy and the doubtful state of France.

Scott's Judgement on Napoleon's Character and Achievements

Napoleon was, said Scott, decidedly amiable but his temper, when he received, or thought he received, provocation .. was warm and vindictive, no one was a more liberal rewarder of his friends. He was an excellent husband, a kind relation, and, unless when state policy intervened, a most affectionate brother.
and

There was gentleness, and even softness, in his character. He was affected when he rode over the fields of battle, which his ambition had strewed with the dead and dying, and seemed not only desirous to relieve the victims .. showed himself subject to the influence of that more acute and imaginative species of sympathy which is termed sensibility.

He gave France regular government, schools, institutions, courts of justice, and a court of laws. In Italy, his rule was equally splendid and beneficial, and he was commended for his opening a full career to talent of every kind. To balance this there were the usual negative comments: he destroyed public liberty and freedom of press, built new prisons and established a police force responsible to him.
And finally the book concluded,

In closing the life of NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, we are called upon to observe, that he was a man tried in the two extremities, of the most exalted power and the most ineffable calamity; and if he occasionally appeared presumptuous when supported by the armed forces of half a world, or unreasonably querulous when imprisoned within the narrow limits of St Helena, it is scarcely within the capacity of those whose steps have never led them beyond the middle path of life, to estimate either the strength of the temptations to which he yielded, or the force of mind which he opposed to those he was able to resist.

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1. Scott was of course not an Englishman, but a Scottish Tory. Unlike modern Scots, but like many Englishmen, he did not appear uncomfortable in using the term English as being synonymous with British.