Napoleon the Great

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by Andrew Roberts




  Andrew Roberts

  NAPOLEON THE GREAT

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  The Bonaparte Family Trees

  Introduction

  PART ONE

  Rise

  1 Corsica

  2 Revolution

  3 Desire

  4 Italy

  5 Victory

  6 Peace

  7 Egypt

  8 Acre

  9 Brumaire

  PART TWO

  Mastery

  10 Consul

  11 Marengo

  12 Lawgiver

  13 Plots

  14 Amiens

  15 Coronation

  16 Austerlitz

  17 Jena

  18 Blockades

  19 Tilsit

  20 Iberia

  21 Wagram

  22 Zenith

  PART THREE

  Denouement

  23 Russia

  24 Trapped

  25 Retreat

  26 Resilience

  27 Leipzig

  28 Defiance

  29 Elba

  30 Waterloo

  31 St Helena

  Conclusion

  Illustrations

  Envoi

  Bibliography

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  Follow Penguin

  To my siblings, Ashley Gurdon and Matthew and Eliot Roberts

  List of Illustrations

  Endpapers: Louis Lafitte, drawing of General Bonaparte (detail). Bibliothèque Thiers, Paris. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais / Agence Bulloz

  Illustrations in the Text

  Jacques-Louis David, sketches of Napoleon, 1797. Musee d’Art et d’Histoire, Palais Masséna, Nice. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Baron Dominique Vivant-Denon, title page of ‘The Description of Egypt’, 1809. Photograph: akg-images / Pietro Baguzzi

  Charles-Joseph Minard, Graph to illustrate the successive losses in men of the French army in the Russian Campaign of 1812–13, pub. 1869. Photograph: © Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

  Sèvres Manufactory after Antoine Denis Chaudet, Bust of Emperor Napoleon I, 1806. Bibliothèque Marmottan, Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Colour Plates

  Andrea Appiani the Elder, Napoleon I Bonaparte, 1796. Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan. Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library / © Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana–Milano / Bridgeman Images

  Léonard-Alexis Daligé de Fontenay, The Casa Bonaparte in Ajaccio, 1849. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Jean Schormans

  Caricature of Paoli and Bonaparte, from the atlas of a student named Vagoudy, c. 1785. Photograph: Archives Nationales, Paris

  Louis-François Lejeune, The Battle of Lodi, c. 1804. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Daniel Arnaudet / Gérard Blot

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon on the Bridge at Arcole, 1796. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Louis-François Lejeune, The Battle of the Pyramids, 1806. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon visiting the wounded at Jaffa, 1804 (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Thierry Le Mage

  I. Helman and J. Duplessi-Bertaux after Charles Monnet, The Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire 1799, published 1800. Photograph © Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

  François-Xavier Fabre, portrait of Lucien Bonaparte. Photograph: The Art Archive / Napoleonic Museum Rome / Gianni Dagli Orti

  Jean-Baptiste Wicar, portrait of Joseph Bonaparte, 1808. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Fontainebleau) / Gérard Blot

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Marie-Laetitia Ramolino (detail), 1803. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Daniel Arnaudet / Jean Schormans

  Salomon-Guillaume Counis, portrait of Marie-Anne Elisa Bonaparte, 1813. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Gérard Blot

  Charles Howard Hodges, portrait of Louis Bonaparte (detail), 1809. Photograph: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais. Private collection. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Robert Lefèvre, portrait of Pauline Bonaparte, 1806. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Caroline Murat, 1800s. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Fesch, Ajaccio. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais / Gérard Blot

  François Kinson, portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte and his wife Catarina of Württemberg. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of the Empress Josephine, c. 1809. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Daniel Arnaudet / Gérard Blot

  Andrea Appiani the Elder, portrait of Eugène de Beauharnais, 1810. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Daniel Arnaudet / Jean Schormans

  Nécessaire of the Empress Josephine, made by Félix Remond. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Gérard Blot

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon as First Consul. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais / Gérard Blot

  French School, Allegory of the Concordat, 1802. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Louis Charon after Poisson, Costume of a Member of the Institut de France, c. 1802–10. Private collection. Photograph: Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Images

  Jean-Baptiste Greuze, portrait of Jean-Jacques de Cambacérès. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais / Agence Bulloz

  Andrea Appiani the Elder, Louis-Charles-Antoine Desaix reading the order of General Bonaparte to two Egyptians. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Jean Lannes. Private collection. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Henri-François Riesener (after), portrait of Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1805. Photograph © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image musée de l’Armée

  Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson, portrait of Géraud Christophe Michel Duroc. Musée Bonnat, Bayonne. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais / René-Gabriel Ojéda

  French School, caricature of William Pitt the Younger and King George III observing the French squadron, 1803. Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Copy by Mudie of a Napoleonic medal celebrating the planned invasion of Britain, 1804. Photograph © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

  Jean-Baptiste Debret, The First Distribution of the Cross of the Légion d’Honneur, 14 July 1804, 1812. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés

  Jacques-Louis David, study of Napoleon crowning himself Emperor, c. 1804–7. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Thierry Le Mage

  Baron François Gérard, The Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805, 1808. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés

  Pierre-Michel Alix after Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, 1798. Photograph © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Pascal Segrette

  Flavie Renault after Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of Marshal André Masséna, 1834. Photograph: © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image musée de l’Armée

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Marshal Michel Ney, c. 1805. Photograph: © Christie’s Images


  Louis Henri de Rudder, portrait of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux

  Tito Marzocchi de Belluchi, portrait of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout (detail), 1852. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Raymond-Quinsac Monvoison, portrait of Nicolas-Charles Oudinot as he appeared in 1792. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Daniel Arnaudet / Jean Schormans

  Robert Lefèvre, portrait of Marshal Charles-Pierre-François Augereau (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of Joachim Murat (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi

  Edme Bovinet after Jacques-François Swebach, The Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806. Photograph: JoJan

  George Dawe, portrait of Field Marshal Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, c. 1816. The Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  W. Herbig, portrait of King Frederick William III of Prussia (detail). The Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon I in Imperial Costume, 1805. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais / Philipp Bernard

  Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort, The Battle of Eylau, 8 February 1807. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés

  Thomas Naudet, The Battle of Friedland, 1807, c. 1807–12. Photograph: Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, Providence, RI

  Adolphe Roehn, The Meeting of Napoleon I and Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit, 25 June 1807. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Tsar Alexander I, c. 1814. Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Photograph: akg-images / André Held

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of Désirée Clary. Photograph: Alexis Daflos. The Royal Court, Sweden

  Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Pauline Fourès. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Droits réservés

  Ferdinando Quaglia, portrait of Giuseppina Grassini. Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library / A. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman Images

  Pierre-Auguste Vafflard, portrait of Marguerite Weimer (Mademoiselle Georges), 1805. Photograph © Collections Comédie-Française / P. Lorette

  Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Countess Maria Walewska. Collection of the Patrimoine Comte Colonna-Walewski. Photograph Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Scala, Florence

  Mayer & Pierson, Photograph of Comte Alexander Colonna-Walewski. Photograph: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

  Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (attr.), Portrait of a Lady said to be Éléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne with her son, 1814. Private collection. Photograph © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

  Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Anne Hippolyte Boutet Salvetat (Mademoiselle Mars), 1819. Photograph: © By kind permission of the Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London.

  Albine de Montholon. Photograph: Roger-Viollet / Topfoto

  Sèvres Manufactory, spindle vase owned by Madame Mère, depicting Napoleon crossing the Alps at the Great St Bernard pass, 1811. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Droits réservés

  François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter, Bernard Poyet and Agustin-François-André Picot, the imperial throne of Napoleon for sittings of the Legislative Body, 1805. Photograph: © Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris / Jean Tholance. Tous droits réservés

  Henri Auguste, the Emperor’s Nef, 1804. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Fontainebleau) / Jean-Pierre Lagiewski

  French School, The Construction of the Vendôme Column, c. 1803–10. Musée National du Château de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Henri Courvoisier-Voisin, The Palais de la Bourse, c. 1826. Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Paris. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images

  Claude François de Méneval. Photograph: Mary Evans Picture Library / Epic

  Lemercier, portrait of Baron Agathon-Jean-François Fain. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Photograph: Roger-Viollet / Topfoto

  Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, A heroic feat! With dead men!, illustration from The Disasters of War, pub. 1863. Photograph: Index / Bridgeman Images

  Adolphe Roehn, Bivouac of Napoleon on the battlefield at Wagram during the night of 5–6 July 1809 (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, The Meeting of Napoleon and Francis II after the Battle of Austerlitz, 4 December 1805 (detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Daniel Arnaudet

  Sir Thomas Lawrence, portrait of Prince Clemens Metternich (detail), 1815. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2014. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Sir Thomas Lawrence, portrait of Carl Philip, Prince Schwarzenberg, 1819. The Royal Collection © 2014 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of the Empress Marie Louise, 1810. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Hervé Lewandowski

  Baron François Gérard, portrait of the King of Rome. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Fontainebleau) / Daniel Arnaudet / Jean Schormans

  Josef Lanzedelli the Elder, portrait of Adam Albert von Neipperg (detail), c. 1810. Photograph: © Stadtverwaltung, Schwaigern

  Antoine Charles Horace Vernet after Étienne-Alexandre Bardin, Uniforms of a line infantryman and second flagbearer, illustration from the Bardin Regulations. Photograph: © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Pascal Segrette

  Christian Johann Oldendorp, View of the Kremlin during the Burning of Moscow, September 1812. Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library / M. Seemuller / Bridgeman Images

  Faber du Faur, On the Road, Not Far From Pneva, 8 November 1812, illustration from Blätter aus meinem Portefeuille, im Laufe des Fel, c. 1830s. Photograph: Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library, Providence, RI

  V. Adam (after), The Berezina Passage. Brown University Library, Providence, RI. Photograph: Bridgeman Images

  Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, portrait of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (detail), 1817. Purchase, Mrs Charles Wrightsman Gift, in memory of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 1994. Accession Number: 1994.190. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  French School, portrait of Joseph Fouché. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Studio of Baron François Gérard, portrait of Charles-Jean Bernadotte, 1811. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin, portrait of Marshal Auguste de Marmont, 1834. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot

  Anon., Napoleon bidding adieux to his army, in the court of the castle of Fontainebleau, 20 April 1814. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Photograph: Roger-Viollet / Topfoto

  George Cruikshank, The Flight of Bonaparte from the field of Waterloo Accompanied by his Guide, 1816. Private collection. Photograph: The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images

  Count Louis-Joseph-Narcisse Marchand, View of Longwood (detail), 1820. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Gérard Blot

  Anon., portrait of Napoleon during his last weeks in St Helena. © Bodleian Library, Oxford (Curzon Atlantic a1 folio 19)

  Charles Joseph Hullmandel after Captain Frederick Marryat, Napoleon Bonaparte laid out after Death, 1821. Photograph: Wellcome Library, London

  List of Maps

  Napoleonic Paris

  Revolutionary and Napoleonic France

  Northern Italy, 1796–97

  Central Europe after the Peace of Campo Formio

  The Egyption and Syrian campaigns, 1798–99r />
  North Italy, 1796–1800

  The Battle of Marengo

  Europe after the Treaty of Lunéville, 1801

  Movement of the Grande Armée from the Channel coast to the Rhine

  From Ulm to Austerlitz

  The Battle of Austerlitz

  The Confederation of the Rhine, 1807

  The Prussian and Polish campaigns, 1806–7

  The Jena campaign and battlefield, 1806

  The Battle of Eylau

  The Battle of Friedland

  Spain and Portugal

  The Landshut campaign, 1809

  The Battle of Wagram

  Napoleonic Europe, 1812

  Napoleon’s route to and from Moscow in 1812

  The Battle of Borodino

  The 1813 campaign

  The Battle of Dresden

  The Battle of Leipzig

  The 1814 campaign

  The Route Napoléon, 1815

  The Waterloo campaign

  The Battle of Waterloo, June 18

  The immediate families of Napoleon and Josephine

  The Bonaparte family

  Introduction

  In October 1944, just as the Netherlands was being liberated from the Nazis, the great Dutch historian Pieter Geyl completed one of the most original books of the many tens of thousands about Napoleon which have appeared over the past 215 years. Its originality lay not in Geyl’s own view of Napoleon (though the book certainly made plain what he thought of him) but in its recounting of the views of others, and in the way it traced the different phases of Napoleon’s reputation between 1815 and his own time. Because Napoleon was such a gigantic figure in the political as well as the historical landscape throughout the nineteenth century and the early twentieth, both romanticized and vilified to a high degree, the views which Geyl distilled were (unsurprisingly) often diametrically opposed to each other, generally reflecting their authors’ own political stances. After Geyl wrote – also unsurprisingly, but I believe misleadingly – the experience of Europe during the Second World War coloured many interpretations of events on the continent during Napoleon’s era, and still sometimes casts a shadow over them.

 

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