According to William Safire writing in the NY Times:

“The historian Helen Williams wrote in 1815 that the Corsican left “the idéologues of his council to arrange what he calls their revolutionary rubbish, such as sovereign people, equal rights, etc.”.”

Helen Maria Williams was an English-born, French-living poet and translator who supported the French Revolution, was imprisoned during the Reign Of Terror, and who wasn’t a big fan of the Emperor Napoleon, who, it must be noted, allowed her to live and work in Paris while she freely criticised him.

According to Andreas Möllenkamp:

After his return to Paris from the disaster in Russia in 1812, Napoleon blamed the idéologues for the catastrophe into which his own despotism had plunged the country:

“It is to the doctrinaire of the idéologues – to this diffuse metaphysics, which in a contrived manner seeks to find the primary causes and  on this foundation would erect the legislation of peoples, instead of adapting the laws to a  knowledge of the human heart and of the lessons of history – to which one must attribute all the  misfortunes which have befallen our beautiful France.”

(cited in Williams, Raymond (1983): Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana Press).

In his view, the only realistic way to run the country was by making an alliance with the Church.

Staum (Staum, Martin S. (1980): Cabanis: Enlightenment and medical philosophy in the French Revolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.) puts it thus:

“The regime found the Church a more effective control on wayward consciences than the pale natural morality associated with Ideology.”

According to J. Christopher Herold’s “The Age of Napoleon”, Napoleon considered the ideologues to be “babbling fools”. His opinion was that human nature didn’t change – “men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest ” – and that the way to bring stability to France after the horrors of Robespierre and the constant attacks of the united Monarchs of Europe was to resume some of the old means of pacification of the masses – the Catholic Church and social order.

So the next time you hear someone on TV talk about political ideology as being a bad thing – thank Napoleon.

People who pledge $295 or more will receive a four day, 200th anniversary tour of the Waterloo Campaign area in 2015 lead by Game designer and historian Tom Dalgliesh. Tour will include visits to the battlefields of Quatre Bras and Ligny (June 16), Wavre (June 17) and Waterloo (June 18). Includes hotels (4 nights), all meals, museum fees, and transportation each day of the tour. Winner have to pay their own way to Brussels though.  NOTE: Pledge is a DEPOSIT toward a $1295 final cost.

I’ve never heard it before so I thought I’d share it.

In 1820–or so he claimed–he was offered the sum of £40,000 [equivalent to $3 million now] to rescue the emperor Napoleon from bleak exile on the island of St. Helena. This escape was to be effected in an incredible way–down a sheer cliff, using a bosun’s chair, to a pair of primitive submarines waiting off shore. Johnson had to design the submarines himself, since his plot was hatched decades before the invention of the first practical underwater craft.

Even though I’m not an American, I have a deep interest in American politics, as much of it affects all of us in some way or another, also because successful political ideas developed in the USA usually make their way into Australian politics in some watered-down form. Also, I’m married to an American, have American in-laws that I like, and so what affects them also affects me.

Anyhoo…. what would you think about a new show from Markham-Reilly in the near future?

According to author Stephan Talty, Napoleon’s Grand Armee was defeated in Russia during the 1812 campaign, not by Kutusov, the early onset of Winter or the burning of Moscow – but by lice.

For further reading: The Illustrious Dead: The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon’s Greatest Army by Stephen Talty.

So wrote Napoleon in this coded letter dated October 20, 1812 and sold at auction this week for 187,500 euros ($233,800). It had been expected to fetch between 10,000 and 15,000 euros but they didn’t expect the last-minute arrival of Markham with his entourage trailing behind them chariots full of Canadian gold.

The news sources are claiming that Napoleon followed through with his threat. In a coded email to me, Markham says “Leave it to the Brits to keep lying about Napoleon though, as he did not keep his promise to blow up the Kremlin and did not destroy the walls and towers as the article says.” I’ve asked him for clarification. My agents will ride like the wind on fresh horses to deliver this message to him over the next month. Stay tuned for his response, sometime early 2013.

Christopher Plummer.

Orson Welles.

Sergey Bondarchuk’s 1970 film WATERLOO may have flopped at the box office. It may have killed Stanley Kubrick’s chances of making his own Napoleon film. It may be flawed in many ways. Yet it is also wonderful in many ways. Who can ever forget Steiger as Napoleon saying “I found the crown of France lying in the gutter and I picked it up…. WITH MY SWORD!”

Well now you can watch the entire film on YouTube for free!

Unfortunately I can’t find any embed code, but you can check the video out on RT.

Do we have a deal??

Now I know there are a lot more than 1000 of you out there who listen (or have listened) to the show, and yet our Facebook page only has 247 likes as of today. So…. get to it if you want to hear JDM’s sonorous tones in your microphone one more time!

Click below to like the show!

1. “Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.”

2. “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

3. “I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword.”

4. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon.”

5. “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.”

6. “Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

7. “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

8. “If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god.”

9. “Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.”

10. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Via The Guardian:

Last month, one of just a handful of letters written by Napoleon in the language of his arch-enemies and sent to De las Cases for comment was sold at auction for $400,000, more than five times its anticipated price.

The one-page manuscript casts new light on Napoleon’s melancholy exile, which ended with his death, aged 51, in 1821. But it will also strike a chord with any teacher tasked with correcting students’ writing.

De las Cases recorded his time as imperial language teacher in his memoir and he says that Napoleon’s writing practice, often composed, like this letter, during sleepless nights, was returned corrected without delay.

But where did De las Cases start? The 125 word text presents numerous language errors from grammar mistakes to lexis transferred from French.

It opens: “Count Las Case. It is two o’clock after midnight. I have enow [sic] sleep, I go then finish the night into cause with you…” “Cause” has been borrowed from the French word causer meaning to chat.

More….

The actual text of the letter reads:

Count Lascases
it is two o’clock after midnight, j have enow sleep j go then finish the night into to cause with you… he shall land above seven day a ship from Europa that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first january thousand eight hundred sixteen. you shall have for this ocurens a letter from lady Lascases that shall you learn what himself could carry well if she had coceive the your
but j tire myself and you shall have of the ade at conceive any … upon this j intercede god etc etc
Longwood this nine march thousand eight hundred and sixteen after the nativity of our saviour

Now, here’s man in his early 50s, recently Emperor of The French, master of his domain, military genius, sponsor of the Code Napoleon – who has been imprisoned on a dank island in the middle of nowhere, removed from his land, his people, his family, his friends – and yet who has the presence of mind to try to learn, not just a new language, but the language of his enemies and wardens!

How many people in their 50s try to learn a new language?

Instead of poking fun at his attempts to learn English, we should be saluting his boldness. As ever, Napoleon refused to sit still, even when his lucky star had finally deserted him.

Show some respect!

1. UNSUBSCRIBE from the show in iTunes.
2. Then RE-SUBSCRIBE using this link. Just click on it here and it should open iTunes.

If you have any further problems or questions, just let me know.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to join our Facebook page if you haven’t already. It’s a great way to keep up to date with the future of the show.

It’s been nearly 18 months since the last podcast! Can you believe it!?

This is a special episode to celebrate and promote a special Napoleonic event that is currently happening in Melbourne – Napoleon: Revolution to Empire.

I had the chance today to chat with Sophie Matthiesson, one of the curators at the National Gallery of Victoria. We spoke about how the exhibition came to be, a bit about some of the pieces on display (such as the wonderful “Napoleon Crossing The Alps” by David) and what she hopes people who attend the exhibition will learn about Napoleon.

I highly recommend attending the exhibition if you can and, if you can’t, at least check out the NGV website to read up on the exhibition.

The NGV in Melbourne (my old hometown) is running”>a major Napoleon exhibition in Melbourne starting June 2012. Amazingly, neither David nor I have been invited to participate! I am going to reach out to the curator though and try to get an interview with them about the exhibition.

Napoleon: Revolution to Empire is a panoramic exhibition examining French art, culture and life from the 1770s to the 1820s. Its story runs from the first French voyages of discovery to Australia during the reign of Louis XV to the end of Napoleon’s transforming leadership as first Emperor of France. Exhibition organised with Fondation Napoléon, Paris. Co-curator: Karine Huguenaud, Chargée des Collections, Fondation Napoléon

Why simply take your children to pose with Mickey Mouse when they could be re-enacting the battle of Trafalgar in a giant aquarium – or dry-skiing past frozen corpses from Napoleon’s desperate retreat from Russia?

A French MP has laid down the gauntlet for a new generation of history-themed mega-rollercoasters with plans for Europe’s first theme-park based on the French general and emperor Napoleon.

Read the full article!

I know I’ll definitely be making a visit to this place if it gets off the ground. Hopefully they will be selling the DVD pack of this podcast in their gift shop?

The book is called “The Three Illusions” and it looks at science and philosophy. It’s my guide for living with what I call “permanent peace” and the philosophy in it has been the basis of how I’ve lived my life for the last 20 or so years.

Thanks for the folks who have proof read it for me over the last six months and given me notes, including Chrissy, Tony Kynaston and Russell Buckley.

Feel free to read the introduction to the book and to subscribe to the newsletter for updates.

The entire book is available from Amazon in ebook format.

For those of you without an iPad or iPhone or Kindle device, you can download the Kindle app for PC or Mac for free from Amazon’s site. I do plan to publish the book in paperback at some stage in the future.

Napoleonic soldiers’ remains found in northern Poland
18.11.2011 08:02
Archaeologists believe that the remains of soldiers who died after Napoleon’s doomed march on Moscow have been found during the creation of a new bypass at Olecko, north east Poland.

The skeletons of some 350 people were discovered in the forgotten graveyard, after woodland was cut back to lay the new road.

“Analysis of the bones of several men buried there shows changes characteristic of people who rode on horseback for much of their lives,” archaeologist Hubert Augustyniak told the Polish Press Agency.

About half of those buried were children, and experts believe that they were from the local village. Tests confirm that the villagers suffered from a poor diet and were exposed to hard labour.

A number of coins minted between the years 1710 and 1842 was also found at the site, as well as some jewellery and an iron cross.

It is believed that the soldiers’ uniforms were stolen.

Some 400,000 French troops – many of them Poles hoping for the complete rebirth of their country – are estimated to have died during Napoleon’s Moscow campaign.

Napoleon had created the so-called Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, and called the 1812 war his “second Polish campaign.”

However, the retreat from the Russian capital in the winter of 1812/1813 left victims strewn across much of Eastern Europe.

The defeat marked the beginning of the end both for Bonaparte and the empire that he had created.

via Napoleonic soldiers remains found in northern Poland – National.

Click on the comic to read more about it and to visit the author’s site!

Napoleon’s height is, of course, one of the things most people know about him. David and I discussed the matter in our very first episode of this podcast.

“At an auction in the shadow of the grand Chateau de Fontainebleau outside Paris yesterday, the Michael Kroger Collection, including imperial eagles, towering bronze candelabra, antique clocks, vases, paintings, chairs, sideboards, gilt mirrors and military paraphernalia, went under the hammer, raising more than $500,000 for the businessman.”

The article briefly mentions this podcast but neglects to mention it by title or provide a link. Typical!

Read more.

PARIS – Scientists examining the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte admit they are “deeply puzzled” by the discovery of a half-inch long microchip embedded in his skull.

They say the mysterious object could be an alien implant – suggesting that the French emperor was once abducted by a UFO!

“The possible ramifications of this discovery are almost too enormous to comprehend,” declared Dr. Andre Dubois, who made the astonishing revelation in a French medical journal.

“Until now, every indication has been that victims of alien abduction are ordinary people who play no role in world events.

“Now we have compelling evidence that extraterrestrials acted in the past to influence human history – and may continue to do so!”

Dr. Dubois made the amazing find while studying Napoleon’s exhumed skeleton on a $140,000 grant from the French government.

“I was hoping to learn whether he suffered from a pituitary disorder that contributed to his small stature,” he explained.

But instead the researcher found something far more extraordinary: “As I examined the interior of the skull, my hand brushed across a tiny protrusion.

“I then looked at the area under a magnifying glass – and was stunned to find that the object was some kind of super-advanced microchip.”

From the extent of bone growth around the chip, the expert believes it was implanted when Bonaparte was young.

“Napoleon vanished from sight for a period of several days in July 1794, when he was 25. He later claimed he’d been held prisoner during the Themidorian coup – but no record of that arrest exists. I believe that is when the abduction took place.”

From that time on, Napoleon’s rise was meteoric. By the next year, he’d been put in charge of the French army in Italy.

Miraculously, he was able to transform starving, rag-tag troops into a top-notch fighting force and to crush the Italians.

In 1804, after a string of startling victories, the pint-size general crowned himself emperor of France – and his empire soon expanded to include what is now Germany and Austria, as well as Switzerland, Italy and Denmark.

“Napoleon used military strategies more than a hundred years ahead of his time,” said Dr. Dubois. “Perhaps the implant somehow enhanced his abilities.”

The implant could also explain Napoleon’s famous habit of holding his hand over his heart, he added.

“It’s possible that the device affected the electrical signals from his brain to his heart.”

By the time of his defeat by the British at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon had altered the face of Europe.

“What Western history would have been like had the aliens not intervened, we can only guess,” observed Dr. Dubois. “Thus we cannot know whether they acted to help mankind or harm us.”

Link:

Napoleon’s personality stirs interest even after his death: Voice of Russia.

In a beauty competition with a difference, the Italian public has chosen a marble rendition of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister as their ideal depiction of female beauty.

And in coming top in the poll of over 1,000 Italians, Canova’s early 19th-century sculpture, Paolina Borghese, beat celebrated female figures painted by Botticelli, Titian and Hayez – and left Leonardo’s Mona Lisa for dead.

Click here to read more!

New Orleans-based antique, fine art and jewellery dealer Rau Antiques are offering a custom made sculpture of Napoleon Bonaparte with a price tag of $198,000.

Created by the famous French artist Jean- Léon Gérôme in 1897, the neoclassical sculpture depicts the legendary French military leader on a horse during his attempt to gain control of Egypt in 1798.

Created using “chryselephantine”, an ancient style of creating statues, the art workpiece has a wooden inner core and is overlaid with gold and ivory. The latter material was used for Napolean’s face in order to create a more realistic textured look.

Measuring around 16 and a half inches high, the statue was originally exhibited at the famous Paris Salon art exhibition in 1897, and subsequently bought by the French government for the Galerie du Luxembourg in Paris.

Gérôme’s mastering of ancient Roman and Greek sculpting styles ensured his works are some of the most revered examples of the 19th century neo-classical revival. He died in 1904.

This – The British Library iPad App!

The British Library released more than 1,000 rare books in the form of a single app for the iPad last week. The titles of the books are searchable, but the individual items are viewed as high-resolution scans. The works are drawn from the library’s 19th-century collection and load individually from the network when you touch one to read it.

I just downloaded this wonderful copy of “The Memorable Battle Of Waterloo” by Christopher Kelly Esq. from 1817. Check out the first couple of pages as an example of how high res the scans are!

It was one of the most ambitious projects the world had ever seen. After taking command of the Egyptian campaign around the turn of the 19th century, Napoleon gathered a staff of France’s top scientists, artists, explorers and others to undertake a concept like no other, a complete and comprehensive survey of the country’s monuments, plants, animals and more. The result was the Description de l’Egypte, a multi-volume set which began in 1803 but wasn’t completed until 1830.

Christie’s has announced the sale of the Michel Wittock Collection, Part IV, which will be held in Paris on May 11 which will include an exceptional copy of the Description de l’Egypte, bound by Jean-Joseph Tessier in polished and richly decorated calfskin. The 23 volumes in their original mahogany display case are expected to sell for €500,000 to €700,000. This is the first edition of the publication and is printed on woven paper with handcolored ornithological plates. The final work included more than 900 engraved plates. This copy was bound by the Parisian binder Jean-Joseph Tessier using tools specifically cut for the project. This particular copy belonged to Jean-Joseph Courvoisier (1775-1835) who was appointed the minister of justice in 1829 and received this set as a gift commemorating that occasion.

I know, I know, it’s been 8 months since our last podcast. Sorry folks.

On this episode, our special guest is again Nicholas Stark, a 20-year-old wunderkind who David and I first met in Paris back in 2008, and who is studying at West Chester University in Philadelphia and a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society.

Today Nicholas regales us with the story of Wolfe Tone, a leading figure in the United Irishmen Irish independence movement and who is regarded as the father of Irish republicanism.

Although Napoleon doesn’t feature greatly in this story, as most of it takes place while his career was just beginning, it is a tremendous tale of the French Revolution, the Directory and the Irish independence movement and it leads to some wondrous “what if” scenarios.

What if the French has assisted the Irish in their rebellion?

What impact would a English defeat to the French and Irish in 1796 have had on the rest of the Revolutionary Wars?

Could England have survived a two-front war with one of those on it’s own doorstep?

Nick adds:

The total Irish casualties in 1798 were 20,000 (more than Terror victims in French Rev except for Vendée), plus I want to add an acknowledgment of Cécile Déjardin and Stephen Dunford, who both have helped me with my research.

Music for this show: Sibina McCague and Padraig McGovern Moran’s Hornpipe*Byrnes Hornpipe), Paidin O Raifeartaigh

Napoleon heads for Melbourne – 2012
Raymond Gill – The Age
September 23, 2010 – 3:00AM

THE competition among state governments to stage ”exclusive” blockbusters during the winter months is hotting up.

The Victorian Arts Minister Peter Batchelor has claimed the NSW and Queensland governments have ”plagiarised’ the success of the annual Winter Masterpiece series at the National Gallery of Victoria so yesterday he announced not one but two blockbusters heading for Melbourne.

”Mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery,” Mr Batchelor said at the NGV yesterday as he announced the NGV will present in 2012 Napoleon: Revolution to Empire, which presents French art, design, furniture, court costumes, and armour from the 1770s to the 1820s, with most of the 200 works borrowed from the Fondation Napoleon in Paris.

The 2011 Melbourne Winter Masterpiece Vienna: Art and Design, featuring major works by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele from the Belvedere Palace and Wien Museum in Vienna, was first reported by The Age in June.

The show of 240 works celebrates Vienna as a centre of art and design at the turn of last century and its inclusion of a dozen glittering Klimts includes four of his most famous female portraits, including one of his lover, Emilie Floge.

Both shows are exclusive to Melbourne and funded by the Victorian Major Events Company, which is charged with finding events that will bring tourists to Melbourne.

Mr Batchelor said the twin announcement was not part of a defensive strategy to shore up the city’s position as a magnet for cultural tourism. ”We are leading the way anyway,” Mr Batchelor said.

”This forward notice of themes allows other artistic bodies and restaurants for example to plan complementary events,” he said. Since the Winter Masterpiece Series began in 2004, the shows have attracted a total of 2.4 million people adding an estimated $138 to the state economy, he said.

This story was found at:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-life/napoleon-heads-for-melbourne-20100922-15mz7.html

Today we focus on the claims that Napoleon directly ordered atrocities to be committed in Haiti.

Did Napoleon, as Claude Ribbe claims, invent the gas chamber? (We find no evidence for that.)

Did the French troops in Haiti under Generals Leclerc and Rochambeau commit terrible atrocities against the Haitians?

Did the Haitians under Loverture commit atrocities?

I read from Napoleon’s orders to Leclerc and quote a poem from Wordsworth.

And, most importantly, is it true that Rochambeau invented Rock-Paper-Scissors?

Nick does another amazing job of delving into the primary sources from this period to paint a picture of Napoleon’s motivations for his actions and his subsequent regrets.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful feedback we had from the last episode. I’m sure you’ll agree that Nick does an amazing job for a 19-year old undergrad. He has a huge career ahead of him.

I know – it’s been a long, long…. long time!

But we are glad to be back!

On this episode, our special guest is Nicholas Stark, a 19-year-old wunderkind who David and I first met in Paris back in 2008. Nicholas is an undergraduate at West Chester University and a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society, who has an article published in Volume 3 of the Internatonal Napoleonic Society’s Journal and who authored a paper on Napoleon and Haiti which was recently read (by INS “First Lady” Barbara Markham) at the recent INS Congress held in Malta.

One topic we often get requests to talk about in more detail is Napoleon’s involvement in the restoration of slavery in Haiti after the slave revolt lead by Toussaint L’overture. It’s a fascinating topic that is often dredged up as a criticism of Napoleon and indeed one which requires much further discussion on this podcast. In fact, this is only part one of the discussion and we’ll finish it up in at least one additional episode in coming weeks.

In this episode, Nicholas helps us understand more about the background to the slave revolt in Haiti (or Saint Domingue as it was known at the time), the role of the French Revolution and fascinating characters such as Léger-Félicité Sonthonax.

If you want to follow Nicholas’ activities or chat with him, you can find him on Twitter and his blog.

And don’t forget to keep an eye on the INS site and to buy some of David’s excellent books!

Oh and if anyone is interested, today’s version of La Marsellaise can be found here. It’s the one by Mireille Mathieu.

People have been fixated on Napoleon’s penis since Napoleon’s doctor allegedly cut it off during his autopsy in 1821 and gave it to a priest in Corsica. The penis, which was not properly preserved, has been compared over the years to a piece of leather, a shriveled eel and to beef jerky. In 1927 when it went on display in Manhattan, TIME weighed in, comparing it to a “maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace.” It’s enough to give anyone a complex! In 1977, a urologist living in New Jersey purchased the modern-day relic for $3,000 and stored it under his bed until he died 30 years later. His daughter inherited Napoleon’s penis and has fielded at least one $100,000 offer.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988719_1988728_1988695,00.html#ixzz0pTG4ZUA5

You have to ask yourself…. WHY???

Listen to David’s interview here!

Meanwhile, here’s a snippet of news for you from Down Under:

A FEW clippings of hair apparently taken from Napoleon Bonaparte on his death bed have been found in Sydney’s town hall.

The hair was found after the vaults of the 130-year-old building were cleaned out, AFP reported today.

The tiny swatch of light-brown hairs was for years stored in the archives of the imposing sandstone building along with a letter but nobody knows when, why or how they were received.

Read more here and thanks to Rob Irwin for the link!

Another episode coming soon folks – I’m working on some very special guests!

I’m in discussions with Sega to arrange one of the programming leads on the game as a guest on the show! The only shame is – the game doesn’t run on Mac!

TASCHEN releases ten books in one tell the fascinating tale of Kubrick’s unfilmed masterpiece!

Tucked inside of a carved-out book, all the elements from Stanley Kubrick’s archives that readers need to imagine what his unmade film about the emperor might have been like, including a facsimile of the script. This collector’s edition is limited to 1,000 numbered copies.

For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director’s mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s “Napoleon” was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. To write his original screenplay, Kubrick embarked on two years of intensive research; with the help of dozens of assistants and an Oxford Napoleon specialist, he amassed an unparalleled trove of research and preproduction material, including approximately 15,000 location scouting photographs and 17,000 slides of Napoleonic imagery. No stone was left unturned in Kubrick’s nearly-obsessive quest to uncover every piece of information history had to offer about Napoleon. But alas, Kubrick’s movie was not destined to be: the film studios, first M.G.M. and then United Artists, decided such an undertaking was too risky at a time when historical epics were out of fashion.

TASCHEN’s sumptuous, limited-edition tribute to this unmade masterpiece makes Kubrick’s valiant work on “Napoleon” available to fans for the first time. Herein, readers can peruse a selection of Kubrick’s correspondence, various costume studies, location scouting photographs, research material, script drafts, and more, each category of material in its own book. Kubrick’s final draft is reproduced in facsimile while the other texts are tidily kenneled into one volume where they dare not interfere with the visual material. All of these books are tucked inside of—or shall we say hiding in?—a carved-out reproduction of a Napoleon history book.

The text book features the complete original treatment, essays examining the screenplay in historical and dramatic contexts, an essay by Jean Tulard on Napoleon in cinema, and a transcript of interviews Kubrick conducted with Oxford professor Felix Markham. The culmination of years of research and preparation, this unique publication offers readers a chance to experience the creative process of one of cinema’s greatest talents as well as a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic figure that was Napoleon Bonaparte.

*Includes exclusive access to searchable/downloadable online research database: Kubrick’s complete picture file of nearly 17,000 Napoleonic images*

(Images via TASCHEN)

Our guest today is Dr Philip Dwyer, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, School of Humanities and Social Science, History Dept, University of Newscastle, Australia. Philip has a long list of credentials:

* Ph.D. University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, 1993
* D.E.A. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) Paris, 1989
* Maîtrise University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Paris, 1988
* Licence University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Paris, 1988
* B.A. Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, 1983

(see his profile page here).

Philip is also the author of “Napoleon: The Path To Power”

His book won the “National Biography Prize” in 2008.

David and I chatted with him last week about his perspectives on Napoleon. While we agreed on some things, we disagreed on other things and it lead to a passionate but always polite debate.

Please jump in the comments section of the show and let us know you’re still out there folks! We need to know if we should continue producing the show!

In another LA Times story, art commissioned by Napoleon was destroyed when some rich guy’s house burned down.

Here’s something you might find interesting: Australian Napoleonic scholar, Dr Philip Dwyer, author of Napoleon: The Path To Power 1769-1799, recently appeared on ABC radio in Australia discussing Napoleon. You can listen to it here. Nothing new in it for those of you who have listened to the series (it’s mostly about the common misconceptions people have about Napoleon), but it’s interesting nonetheless and there’s a quiz on the ABC site that you can take to see how much you really know about Napoleon. Try taking the quiz BEFORE you listen to the interview! (I got 8 out of 8.)

David and I will be back with new episodes soon!

Photo:Dominique Faget/AFP

From AFP:

French lawyer Franck Samson, dressed as Napoleon, takes part with some 1,200 history enthusiasts from 20 European countries in the reeanactment of the battle of Waterloo. On June 18, 1815, Napoleon led his 72,000-strong army into battle with 120,000 mostly British and Prussian soldiers on the gently rolling plateau of Waterloo.

More story here.

If anyone knows how to reach Monsieur Samson, please let me know, as I’d love to invite him onto the show.

(Welcome everyone who is visiting for the first time from iTunes!)

Would you like to share Napoleon with someone? Would you like to have a handy backup of the series in case of hard drive failure? Are you new to the series and don’t want to go to the hassle of downloading the old episodes one at a time?

Well now you can do ALL of those things with the introduction of NAPOLEON 101 on DVD!

This first DVD contains our first ten episodes and spans Napoleon’s early life up to the Battle of Marengo. Click on the link below to be taken to our store on Lulu.com!

Episode 52

—- Abstract —–

The French Revolution of 1789 had a momentous impact on neighboring countries. The French Revolutionary armies during the 1790s and later under Napoleon invaded and controlled large parts of Europe. Together with invasion came various radical institutional changes. French invasion removed the legal and economic barriers that had protected the nobility, clergy, guilds, and urban oligarchies and established the principle of equality before the law. The evidence suggests that areas that were occupied by the French and that underwent radical institutional reform experienced more rapid urbanization and economic growth, especially after 1850. There is no evidence of a negative effect of French invasion. Our interpretation is that the Revolution destroyed (the institutional underpinnings of) the power of oligarchies and elites opposed to economic change; combined with the arrival of new economic and industrial opportunities in the second half of the 19th century, this helped pave the way for future economic growth. The evidence does not provide any support for several other views, most notably, that evolved institutions are inherently superior to those ‘designed’; that institutions must be ‘appropriate’ and cannot be ‘transplanted’; and that the civil code and other French institutions have adverse economic effects.

It’s available for download for $5.

(link)

In the comments section of an old post, Captain Flunky has pointed me to this site HatCrafters.com which seems to make a perfect replica (scroll down to the bottom of the page). The company is based in Philadelphia and their Web site is pretty old (Nicholas Stark – perhaps you can pay them a visit and see if they still exist!).

Would you like to share Napoleon with someone? Would you like to have a handy backup of the series in case of hard drive failure? Are you new to the series and don’t want to go to the hassle of downloading the old episodes one at a time?

Well now you can do ALL of those things with the introduction of NAPOLEON 101 on DVD!

This first DVD contains our first ten episodes and spans Napoleon’s early life up to the Battle of Marengo. Click on the link below to be taken to our store on Lulu.com!

Episode 52

Well now you can do ALL of those things with the introduction of NAPOLEON 101 on DVD!

This first DVD contains our first ten episodes and spans Napoleon’s early life up to the Battle of Marengo. Click on the link below to be taken to our store on Lulu.com!

Alex is assistant professor of European history at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He holds a degree in international law from Tbilisi State University (Republic of Georgia, 1999) and a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University (2003). After working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia (1996-2000), he taught European and Middle Eastern history at Florida State and Mississippi State Universities and lectured on strategy and policy for the U.S. Naval War College. In addition to his articles on various Napoleonic-related topics, Dr. Mikaberidze has written and edited seven books, including The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon versus Kutuzov (2007), Historical Dictionary of Georgia (2007), The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815 (2004, winner of the 2005 Literary Prize of the International Napoleonic Society), The Czar’s General: The Memoirs of a Russian General in the Napoleonic Wars (2005). He has been awarded the International Napoleonic Society’s Legion of Merit Award for his contributions to the Napoleonic studies.

Thought you might be interested in how the iconic portraits of Napoleon – by Ingres, David, Gros and others – almost all resemble the artist’s self-portrait. These are not portraits of Napoleon, as most scholars imagine, but portraits of the artist-as-Napoleon, as a few alert viewers at the time did recognize. Take a look at the comparisons on my website:
http://www.artscholar.org

They are really quite fascinating! I think there might be a whole episode of the podcast on the portraits, something we should do sometime. Thanks Simon!

Thanks to everyone for supporting our little show over the last few years. It’s been an honour to create these shows for you. Can I ask a favour? Would you mind going to our iTunes page and rating the podcast? The more ratings we get, the more people find the show. Click here to open up our page in iTunes.

Our guest today is the wonderful Alexander Mikaberidze.

Alex is assistant professor of European history at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He holds a degree in international law from Tbilisi State University (Republic of Georgia, 1999) and a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University (2003). After working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia (1996-2000), he taught European and Middle Eastern history at Florida State and Mississippi State Universities and lectured on strategy and policy for the U.S. Naval War College. In addition to his articles on various Napoleonic-related topics, Dr. Mikaberidze has written and edited seven books, including The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon versus Kutuzov (2007), Historical Dictionary of Georgia (2007), The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815 (2004, winner of the 2005 Literary Prize of the International Napoleonic Society), The Czar’s General: The Memoirs of a Russian General in the Napoleonic Wars (2005). He has been awarded the International Napoleonic Society’s Legion of Merit Award for his contributions to the Napoleonic studies.

I’ve just been hit with a large hosting bill for TPN’s servers and bandwidth and unfortunately I don’t have the funds to cover it this month. So I have set up a special fund raising exercise via ChipIn which will run for this week. Out of TPN’s hundreds of thousands of listeners, I’m hoping a few hundred will be able to chip in $10 to help us stay on the air. Please click on the widget below if you’re willing to help out.

In other news…

I’ve been trying to get this DVD pack from Ajaccio finished and, while editing the video, I’ve made this “Introduction to Napoleon 101″ clip that David and I shot at his house late last year. I hope you will enjoy this chance of seeing us chat briefly and that the glimpse you’ll get of David’s house and Napoleonic collection will entice you to purchase the DVD when it’s available. By the way, David and I have a recording sessions scheduled for this week!

An Introduction to The Napoleon 101 Podcast from Cameron Reilly on Vimeo.

Finally…

I’ve set up a new Napoleon 101 page over at Facebook. I hope most of you will sign up for it and use it to continue the terrific conversation we’ve started here about Napoleon and other great people from history. Click here to join!

In the meantime, here’s a couple of articles about David that you might enjoy!

An Afternoon of Napoleon in Montreal

The Raucous Royals: Interview with J. David Markham

Thanks Edna!

It’s a really great essay. Here’s the final paragraph as a teaser:

It was not Bonaparte’s fault. He did all that in him lay to live and thrive without moral principle. It was the nature of things, the eternal law of man and of the world which baulked and ruined him; and the result, in a million experiments, will be the same. Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail. The pacific Fourier will be as inefficient as the pernicious Napoleon. As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter, and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.

Who needs a podcast? Anyone in:

- Marketing
- PR
- HR
- Training
- Internal Comms

Especially in this time of financial tightening, podcasting is a tool more companies should be using. It’s a very cost-effective way to reach the key members of your audience on a weekly basis. And, of course, if you’re going to produce social media, you should work with someone who has actually some experience producing media for large audiences and isn’t just all talk.

So, here’s how you can help – if you know of anyone who might be interested in using my services, make sure you point them in my direction. In addition, if you email me the names, email addresses and telephone numbers of the people in your company that fulfill the above roles, I’ll contact them directly and give them the pitch (ideally using you as a point of introduction but, if you’re not comfortable with that, I’ll leave your name out of it).

Here are my contact details to make it easy:

Cameron Reilly
CEO, The Podcast Network
tel: +61 400455334
email: cameron@thepodcastnetwork.com

Thanks for your support!

Monsieur Reilly,

I recently discovered that I could acquire high resolution images of
various artworks from Artstor.org. Considering my love of Napoleonic
imagery I could hardly resist finding myself a detailed scan of
Napoleon at the Bridge of Arcole. I trudged through the laborious task
of zooming in and saving high-resolution samples, then followed
reconstructing the 43 images into a perfectly aligned, high-definition
Jpeg file.

The scan is 2917 X 4187 pixel; 30.38 X 43.61 Inch

A store near my house will take images and mount then onto a fake
canvas. I’ve done this with other posters and images and they look
very nice. I am sure there are places down under that do the same.
I would like to share the image so that you – or anyone on Napoleon101 -
could have a copy or, if one is like me, print it out. Such a
masterpiece of Bonaparte propaganda is too difficult to hold to
myself.

-John Holloway

Thanks John! Everyone can download the high res version from my server here.

Michael joins us to discuss his fascination with Napoleon, which extends to having 5 floors of his Melbourne mansion decorated in the Empire Style and owning (among other things) one of only seven original copies of “Napoleon After The Abdication” from the school of Paul Delaroche. He tells us about his love of the work of Percier and Fontaine, the chief exponents of the French Empire style of decorative arts and how he applies the lessons from Napoleon’s fall to both his business and political careers.

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

If you’re a new listener and you want to go back to episode one, you can find all of our episodes here.

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

Subscribe now to the TPN update email (fill in the below box) to get a weekly list of all of the new episodes on TPN in one easy-to-read format!

“At length, after a career of insolent pretensions on one hand, and of strange and ungovernable curiosity on the other, the departure of this disturber of the world has taken place.”

Foreign Intelligence Page 1
Foreign Intelligence Page 2

Continuing our series of chats with eminent Napoleonic scholars, today our guest is Rafe Blaufarb, Ben Weider Eminent Scholar and Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University.

Dr. Blaufarb is a specialist in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. He is the author of several books on the social and political history of the French military during this period: The French Army, 1750-1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (Manchester, 2002) and Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835 (Tuscaloosa, 2006). He has published articles in the American Historical Review, Annales, H.S.S., Comparative Studies in Society and History, French Historical Studies, and Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française on the French army, the French nobility, noble fiscal privilege, and the geopolitics of Latin American independence. His current research focuses on the politics of property during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era.

Rafe joins us to talk about the history and focus of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at FSU, how he got interested in Napoleonic studies, Napoleon’s views on economics and how he might have dealt with America’s current financial crisis, and Napoleon’s legacy in the Western Hemisphere.

Do you think a fan of The Emperor owns this Brisbane Benz I spotted yesterday?

As Nicholas Stark pointed out in the comments to the last show, December 2 was the 204th anniversary of Napoleon and Josephine’s coronation. I hope you all raised a glass of your finest medication in his honour. I did!

Jerry Gallaher is Past President of the Napoleonic Alliance and author of the 1976 classic account of one of Napoleon’s greatest Marshals, Louis Davout – “Iron Marshal – A Biography of Louis N. Davout.” He’s also a true gentleman, scholar and totally charming. Meeting him was one of the highlights of the INS congress in Corsica last July.

So I’m sure it will be of no surprise to you to learn that our subject tonight is The Iron Marshal himself, Louis-Nicolas d’Avout (May 10, 1770 – June 1, 1823), better known as Davout, 1st Duc d’Auerstaedt, 1st Prince d’Eckmühl, and Marshal of France.

Jerry Gallaher and David Markham, Nov 2008

Cameron Reilly and Jerry Gallaher, Ajaccio, Corsica 2008

Can I ask one more time for you to go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it? CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

On behalf of David and myself, I want to sincerely THANK YOU ALL for going on this journey with us over the last couple of years. It’s been a highlight of my podcasting career to be able to produce this for you. Of course I need to thank the one and only J. David Markham for giving us all so much of his time and knowledge freely and willingly over these last couple of years. I really do believe he has not only taken us all on a wonderful journey, but has also left a benchmark in podcasting and education.

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

Subscribe now to the TPN update email (fill in the below box) to get a weekly list of all of the new episodes on TPN in one easy-to-read format!

1. First of all, let me thank EVERYONE who has supported TPN’s Pledge Drive! We appreciate your support for indy media and helping us stay alive.

2. David Markham has written all INS members a letter outlining his new role as President following the passing of INS Founder Ben Weider.

3. Finally, David and I have scheduled time to record new episodes of both our Napoleon and Biography shows for next week! So stay tuned!

Today I received the below letter today from Eric Weider, son of the late Ben Weider, advising me that his father’s wish was for J. David Markham to assume the role of President of the International Napoleonic Society. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that there isn’t a better person to assume the role of promoting the awareness and study of Napoleonic history than David. He has given his time, knowledge and energy freely to helping me produce this podcast over the last few years and, as a result, tens of thousands of people have been introduced to the history of Napoleon who may otherwise have missed out on learning about the fascinating man and period of history.

So on behalf of all of us, I would like to congratulate David! Salute!

PS would one of you like to update David’s profile on Wikipedia? I’m been slapped on the wrist by the Wikipedia moderators for updating David’s profile in the past. Apparently I’m not an objective source.

You know that we spend a LOT of time producing our shows for you.

And as we aren’t making money out of advertising, we’d like to ask for your support to help us keep TPN running. We have real costs in IT support, hardware, bandwidth, etc., as well as our time and effort. For the last four years, we’ve covered these costs ourselves. Outside a small amount of advertising that we have run, the majority of TPN’s costs have been covered by myself and the TPN hosts have donated their time.

Now, we know that paying for online content is probably new to some of you. You are used to getting it for free.

However, we do ask you to think about the idea of the people funding their own media. We all know that if corporate advertising is the main source of funding for the media, it influences the kinds of media that is produced and the messages they carry. We don’t want that kind of media to be the only kind out there. We want an independent media, run by the people and for the people.

If you want to support our efforts to bring you intelligent and entertaining content, please consider one of our donation plans listed here at the TPN Pledge Drive page.

Your support is appreciated!

cheers,
Cameron

My name’s Simon, I’m 20 years old and studying History and English in Duesseldorf (which is – of course – where Heinrich Heine, who was a great admirer of Napoléon, was born); aside of my studies (I just started one month ago) I’m totally into poetry and if there’s any chance to establish my passion as financial basis of my life, I’ll certainly go for it. My first play (‘Menschenfelder’ – only available in german so far) was published in August and I’m storing alot of stuff on my blog (http://simonjustuswalter.blogsport.de – mostly german too). How I got into Napoleonic History, I cannot really recall; we didn’t cover the subject in school (or at least I don’t remember anything) but I internalized the idea of Napoléon as a great and positive force for human history very early in life. When I was 18 I got hold of two biographies and even though they were obviously intended to be critical of Napoléons career, they encouraged me to research this mysterious’ mans life further and I eventually ended up discovering your podcast (around episode ~30); since then I’ve been nothing but enthusiastic. I’ve not been to France yet but one of my primary goals in life is to visit Paris and in fact follow the very route Napoléon took after his return from Elba, before my 30th birthday; I have however read a tremendous amount of literature on Napoléon and visited Schloss Arenenberg this summer (which is where Hortense and her son, the later Napoléon III. lived – they have a very nice museum up there and are rebuilding the beautiful park at the moment), getting more and more absorbed into this outstanding and unique life. What fascinates me the most – finally getting to the subject; no idea whether I’ve already crossed the 200-words-line) is Napoléons steadiness. I think you, Cameron, defined this feeling once as the constant question “What would Napoléon do?”, which, for myself, is not bound to concrete situations, but in fact a greater scheme to approach life successfully. When I wrote my play during the last three years I’d often encounter moments where I felt like “Man, you are just 18/19/20, what’s it all about? Go out and have some fun” or “Nobody will read it anyway, why don’t you spend your time on more practical matters?” and always I somehow found myself confronted with the image of Napoléon and knew I had to stay firm. It’s not like “Oh, I don’t know what to do – What would Napoléon do?” but in fact a way of mastering the everlasting doubts of life; his career, his accomplishments, his glory tell me, that everyone has the power to make his very dreams come true, that everyone can accomplish whatever he or she is aiming for, as long as one stands firm and doesn’t lose trust in him-/herself.
Napoléon will always be there; in fact I’m surrounded by four images of the emperor right now (no originals obviously; all printed out and framed by myself) and when I celebrated my namesday (no idea whether this is common in Australia) on Tuesday, my parents presented me a little golden bell, showing an ancient battle scene, the emperor standing on top in his familiar gesture. I could write so much more about the ideas Napoléon granted me, about the way he has influenced my lyrical projects and will do so in the forseeable future, about how I decided to learn french as a tribute to his input to my life or how his quotes use to touch and inspire me.

However, I think this has gone far beyond the intended 200 words (600+, I just checked) and I’ll therefore come to an end; I just want to add how very grateful I am towards David and you for putting so much time and passion into an excellent show; I’ve never really contributed on the website and this is the very first e-mail I write to you, so obviously I have to make up for quite a bit. Keep up your good work and may the imperial eagle protect you.

Can I ask one more time for you to go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it? CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

On behalf of David and myself, I want to sincerely THANK YOU ALL for going on this journey with us over the last couple of years. It’s been a highlight of my podcasting career to be able to produce this for you. Of course I need to thank the one and only J. David Markham for giving us all so much of his time and knowledge freely and willingly over these last couple of years. I really do believe he has not only taken us all on a wonderful journey, but has also left a benchmark in podcasting and education.

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

I know David was a very close friend of Ben’s and I’m sure he’ll want to talk a lot about him and his contribution to Napoleonic history when I catch up with him for dinner on the weekend. I’ll shoot some video for the site.

I consider myself very fortunate to have received my Legion of Merit certificate and medallion in July, both signed by Ben.

Ben recently donated his awe-inspiring collection of Napoleonic memorabilia (including one of Napoleon’s hats) to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and was to attend the opening on Thursday this week. On the request of the Weider family, the exhibition will open to the public as planned on Friday, October 24.

For those of you who aren’t aware of Ben’s achievements, here’s a short list from his profile on Wikipedia:

- He was the co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) along with brother Joe Weider;

- He co-authored a book, The Murder Of Napoleon, with Sten Forshufvud which promoted the view of Napoleon’s death from arsenic poisoning;

- Weider also founded the International Napoleonic Society, of which he was the President;

- In 1975 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Officer in 2006.

- In 2000, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.

- On October 12, 2000, he received the French Legion of Honor.

- Weider was also a 1984 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize

- The Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at the Florida State University History Department has recently created the Ben Weider Chair in Revolutionary Studies.

- From 1998 to 2005, Ben Weider was Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of the 62nd (Shawinigan) Field Artillery Regiment, RCA. In 2005, he was promoted to be the Honorary Colonel of that military unit. In October 2006 Ben Weider unexpectedly retired as president of the IFBB.

- In 2008, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Arnold Classic 2008.

On behalf of all of our listeners, I’d like to thank Ben for his enormous contribution of the memory of Napoleon and send our sincere condolences to his family. My thanks also to Larry Bertoia for bringing the news of Ben’s passing to our attention.

When I was in Ajaccio in July, I stumbled upon a wonderful store selling unique Napoleonic gifts – t-shirts, etc. All of them were custom designed and of a very high quality. Unfortunately, they don’t have a site I can link you to.

I have, however, found these wonderful Napoleon-themed gifts on Etsy.

Ahem… did I mention it’s my birthday on Oct 10?

We discuss his last two years on St Helena, without a decent doctor to attend to his increasing illness – which, of course, we believe to be symptoms of arsenic poisoning – his death and then his subsequent return to Paris, many years later.

With the end of our chronological story, we might take a rest. Fear not, however – the show isn’t over yet. We’ll be back to do some epiloguecasts, fulfilling some of the requests you’ve made over the last couple of years for us to drill down into some of the other characters in this most amazing story.

Can I ask one more time for you to go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it? CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

On behalf of David and myself, I want to sincerely THANK YOU ALL for going on this journey with us over the last couple of years. It’s been a highlight of my podcasting career to be able to produce this for you. Of course I need to thank the one and only J. David Markham for giving us all so much of his time and knowledge freely and willingly over these last couple of years. I really do believe he has not only taken us all on a wonderful journey, but has also left a benchmark in podcasting and education.

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

The Duke of Wellington later said that he was “a very bad choice; he was a man wanting in education and judgement. He was a stupid man, he knew nothing at all of the world, and like all men who knew nothing of the world, he was suspicious and jealous”.

On today’s show we discuss the arrival of Lowe to St Helena and Napoleon’s forced move to new premises, Longwood.

Longwood today. Photo by G.Wilson (see the Travelling Historian site for more great photos of Longwood.)

We also talk a bit about Corsica and Paris! Keep an eye out for the DVD pack which I’ll hopefully have ready in a few weeks.

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

Well a photo I took of Napoleon’s tomb in Paris back in 2004 has been selected for the Schmap Paris Guide! Check the link below.

PS… a new show coming this week… we promise!!!!

Link – Nicholas Stark’s Weblog

Hey folks! Well I’m back in Australia after an AMAZING two weeks in France. The above photos, and a number of others you can find in the Napoleon 101 Flickr Group, was taken by our new friend Nicholas Stark, a 17 year-old student from the US who joined us for a couple of days in Paris.

On July 14, Bastille Day, we shot some video at Les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe and Les Invalides. David provided some commentary of Napoleon’s tomb, the Arc, and various Napoleonic paintings and exhibits at The Louvre. This video, along with the audio and video recordings from the INS congress at Ajaccio, will be available on the DVD pack I’ll be putting out asap.

By the way, in the Flickr Group you’ll see a couple of photos taken at Changi Airport (Singapore) of the Legion Of Merit medal I was presented with, by David, at the Gala Dinner at the end of the Congress. It was a great honour and something every button pusher aspires to. David was also presented with the Medal Of The City Of Ajaccio by the Mayor of Ajaccio during a cocktail reception held at their city hall, beneath an original painting of Napoleon in his ceremonial robes from the coronation. There will be photos of that, and much much more, going up in the Flickr group over the next week or so, so keep an eye out.

We’re having an UNBELIEVABLE time over here, with a terrific group of Napoleonic scholars and historians, drinking chestnut whisky, smoking Cuban cigars, lying on the beach, and, of course, discussing Napoleon!

One of the highlights of the Congress will be the performance of several musical numbers from Les Cent Jours De Napoleon, a musical about Napoleon’s Hundred Days written by Seattle composer Sean Richarz and performed by Sean, Christine Dunaway and Craig Schell, who are both also from Seattle. Check out the site for the musical, have a listen to excerpts from it, and look forward to it coming to a concert hall near you soon!

Would you like to spend some time with David and I in Paris? Keep an eye on this blog over the next couple of weeks for details but it will be in the evening of July 13th, probably at the Cafe de la Paix around 5pm.

On today’s episode, we discuss Napoleon’s journey on the Northumberland to St Helena and his arrival on the island, one of the most remote locations on earth and the last place he would ever visit.

We also discuss the people who chose to go with Napoleon into exile and their possible motivations, the impression Napoleon made on various people aboard the Northumberland, and the decision to imprison Napoleon in Longwood.

This version of La Marseillaise is sung by the Stade de France crowd, recorded on the occasion of the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final between France and England (source).

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

In this episode of The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast we examine how the British government came to the conclusion that it would be a cold day in hell before “Old Boney” would ever set foot on British soil or given the opportunity of justice before a fair trial. Breaking laws, making up new laws, defying their own people – the British government decided to banish Napoleon forever to a tiny island in the middle of nowhere – St Helena.

David explains that Napoleon *could* have ended up here

… but didn’t.

This version of La Marseillaise is sung by the Stade de France crowd, recorded on the occasion of the 2007 Rugby World Cup semi-final between France and England (source).

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

# ethan Says:

I am Napoleon’s #1 fan! I am 7. I am looking forward to future podcasts. This is very interesting. You should watch my review of “Essential Visual History of the World” for the Storytubes contest. (I had to cut it down to only 2 minutes, though.)
if you like it you can vote for me May 26-June 1 at this site:

http://www.storytubes.info/

If I win I get to give $1000 worth of books to my library. Maybe then other kids can learn about the REAL Napoleon.

His video is great! I think my son Hunter, who is also 7, came home from school last week with two book from the school library – both about Napoleon. I think I should introduce him to Ethan!

Let’s all vote for Ethan on May 26 and help him win some books!

On today’s show, David examines the political machinations the British went through to make sure Napoleon never set foot on British soil. According to the British law of ‘habeas corpus’, Napoleon should have been given a fair trial, but of course several people in England didn’t want that to happen. Did all of the British feel the same way? What were the reasons for denying Napoleon the right to justice?

Listen to today’s show to find out!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes! The music at the end of today’s show is Marche de la Garde à Waterloo. You can find it, along with many other Napoleonic tunes, on this site. Thanks to Ben for the link!

Listener Tim O’Dwyer from Australia, who describes himself as “an old Aussie lawyer (who believes he could do a good plea of guilty for Prince Talleyrand)”, recently visited France and Israel with his wife and submitted some Napoleonis snaps from his visits to Malmaison and Jaffa. See more in the Napoleon 101 Flickr group. Thanks Tim!

By the way, I was prompted to write this by a nice email I just got out of the blue from a guy at Apple telling me he’s a big fan of the new show! When a guy working on iTunes tells you he likes you show, it’s got to count for something!

Today we finally… FINALLY… get Napoleon on “the boat”!

David walks us through Napoleon’s last days in France and his reasons for choosing to surrender himself to the British instead of making a run for the United States.


(Chateau la Malmaison – by Cameron Reilly)

(David in Napoleon’s bed chamber, Aix)

(Napoleon surrendering to Maitland, from the collection of J. David Markham)

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

I’ve found a site that discussed the comic which I’ve translated for your reading pleasure here.

In today’s episode, David explains the range of options Napoleon considered after his abdication of 22 June, 1815. Should he go to England, Russia, Austria or the United States?

(image is from a new comic about Napoleon inspired by this podcast and conceived by listener Per Ove Sleen from Norway!)

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

Paris 2008 Map

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly

Some of the places I’m visiting (and staying) on my trip to Paris in July. If you want to open it in Google Maps, use this link.

Napoleon’s troops in Egypt buy shawls and start a fashion craze.

In Europe the shawls get made on automated, perforated-paper control looms.

This gives an American engineer Herman Hollerith the idea to automate calculation using punch cards.

Which get used to control ENIAC, the first electronic computer!

Thanks for the link Arni, fascinating!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

And it isn’t the one we were expecting to launch first.

Introducing – The Biography Show.

The idea behind The Biography Show is to examine the lives of some of history’s most influential people. We kick off the series with a 90 minute talk about the life of Alexander III of Macedon, otherwise known as Alexander “The Great”.

We still intend on doing a Napoleon-type series on Caesar sometime this year but we’re both waiting for our schedules to clear up a little.

The reason it happened (I think) is that the iTunes feed on the main Napoleon page points to our meta-feed. It will suck down EVERYTHING.

If you want only the audio versions of the show, unsubscribe from the show in iTunes and use THIS AUDIO ONLY FEED.

If you want only the video, get THIS VIDEO ONLY FEED.

If you want it all, GET THE BIG DADDY FEED.

Welcome to a very special edition of the Napoleon podcast – now with added video!

When David and I were recording the latest episode of the show yesterday I sprung on him the idea of capturing the video of our skype chat and putting that up as an added version of the show. My smiling mug is missing from this video (I forgot to check “capture picture-in-picture”) but that just means David takes up more of the screen.

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

We have partnered with a London-based company called Pods in Print to provide written transcriptions of the Napoleon 101 podcast starting at this stage from episode #21. Access to the transcripts requires a subscription. It’s US$12.95 for one month or $120 a year. Check them out here.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes! The music at the end of today’s show is Marche de la Garde à Waterloo. You can find it, along with many other Napoleonic tunes, on this site. Thanks to Ben for the link!

Second, please allow me to apologize – both for the delay in this episode of our little show as well as the audio problems with it. As I explain in the introduction to the show, there was a major technical snafu with the recording (apparently a result of a Skype upgrade not playing nice with my recording software) which left David’s voice sounding like Darth Vader after a couple of Ambien. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to clean it up as best as I can. It’s still not perfect but hopefully won’t hurt your ears too much. I think for future shows I’ll record on the Macbook – we might even do a VIDEO episode (if, of course, any of you would be interested in watching our handsome mugs while we talk).

Now… on with the show notes.

After the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon had to make a series of strategic decisions. Can he save Paris? Can he still raise an army? Is all, finally, lost? In this episode, David takes us through some of Napoleon’s thinking and actions in the days immediately following his last appearance on the battlefields of Europe.

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

To my surprise, at the Benalla and District Historical Society, I discovered this display. It is, apparently, one of the drums used by the Dutch forces at Waterloo and was handed down to a local family.

It’s a very pro-Napoleon book written, I suspect, for high school kids a mere 33 years after Napoleon’s death. Each chapter covers one of his battles and is called “Campfires” because it imagines the stories being told around the bivouacs after the battle. As it is out of copyright, I’m tempted to read each chapter on a podcast designed for kids.

You can read the entire text online thanks to Google Books.

When I originally had the idea to start a podcast about Napoleon, I thought about doing it myself but knew that my knowledge was sorely inadequate. When I started looking for a co-host, I had no idea I would ever be so lucky as to find someone like David willing to do the show. I thought I should share with you how that came about.

On my other podcast, G’Day World, I had earlier interviewed New York-based author Staton Rabin about her book “Betsy and the Emperor” (listen to the interview). When I finally was toying with the idea of the Napoleon show, I thought I’d try to get an author involved in each episode. I sent Staton an email asking if she would be interested in doing an episode on St Helena. She said she didn’t really consider herself an expert on the subject either, but knew a few historians and would be happy to introduce me. Her introductions didn’t need to go further than David. She introduced us via email and he said yes and I was very excited.

In all honesty, when we started the show, I never thought it would find much of an audience, I mean, who wants to listen to a show about a guy who has been dead for 200 years?? I just thought it would be awesome to have an excuse to talk to David once a month about one of my favourite subjects. And here we are, almost two years and 34 episodes later, getting close to wrapping up this series but planning lots of other projects together.
I am very fortunate to consider him a colleague and a friend and so, on behalf of myself, my family (David has had light saber duels with my kids via webcam), and you, his 30,000 closest friends, I’d like to say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIRE!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

Battle map of the Waterloo campaign:

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

I also mention during the show that I was recently extremely honoured to be informed that I am to be made a “Fellow” of the International Napoleonic Society (at the suggestion of their Vice-President J. David Markham) and David plugs the INS conference which we will both be attending in Ajaccio, Corsica, July 7 – 11 2008. We would both love to see all of you there! Download the registration form here (link).

Some images to go with today’s episode:

Napoleon On Elba

The Abdication Desk

Detail from The Abdication Desk

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST

Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!


Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

We have partnered with a London-based company called Pods in Print to provide written transcriptions of the Napoleon 101 podcast starting at this stage from episode #21. Access to the transcripts requires a subscription. It’s US$12.95 for one month or $120 a year. Check them out here.

You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:

• Subscribe to TPN :: Napoleon 1O1 by Email
• If you use iTunes, click here.
• If you use another aggregator, grab our RSS feed here.
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this description in Wikipedia.
• If you stumbled upon this episode of the show and you would like to start from the very beginning, go to our overview page for a full list of episodes.

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes!

This image is from the personal collection of J. David Markham:

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!

David at Leipzig 2007 Giving His Professional Opinion on the Outcome of the Battle

Napoleon Cracks His Teeth On The Hard Nut of Leipzig from the collection of J. David Markham

As our regular listeners know, for some time now David and I have been thinking about doing a new podcast series in addition to the current Napoleon 101 series. One of the challenges we have with producing a new series, however, is time. Although David has recently retired from full-time teaching, we are both busy, David with his writing and research and Cameron with running The Podcast Network.

It looks like the current series might run for another 12 or 13 episodes (40 seems like a nice round number) which, at one episode a month, could take us another year. We continually get requests from people to record more frequently or to start the new series sooner. And there might be a way that we could justify it. We’re calling it “The Premium Edition”.

This “Premium Edition” will not in any way affect the regular series. Think of it as additional “premium” content. We thought we should check with you, our loyal and most wonderful listeners, about what you would like to see/hear from us before we launch ourselves into it. If you wouldn’t mind taking a few minutes to complete this VERY BRIEF (only 5 questions, we promise!) survey, we would really appreciate it. It will help us decide what path we should take.

Click Here to take survey

After the terrible losses Napoleon suffered on his “strategic withdrawal” from Russia, his political position in Europe was significantly weakened. In 1813, Prussia, who had been an ally of France since Prussia’s humiliating defeat in 1806, joined the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain and Portugal in The Sixth Coalition against Napoleonic France. This lead to the Battle of Dresden on 26–27 August 1813 where Napoleon had a terrific return to form, soundly defeating the combined forces of his enemies.

I must show you this marvelous photograph of David modeling the wonderful range of Napoleon 101 clothing available only at The Napoleon 101 Store

In this episode we find Napoleon marching into Moscow, the Russians (yes, the Russians!) setting fire to their ancient city, Napoleon waiting for Alexander to make peace, finally realizing that isn’t going to happen, and then marching (what remains of) the Grand Armee back to France. Of course, this “retreat” (or “strategic withdrawal”, as David insists on calling it) is perhaps one of the most tragic stories in military history.

Some objects from David’s personal collections:

For further reading, I recommend:

• Napoleon’s Expedition to Russia: The Memoirs of General de Segur

Napoleon Gance Poster (2)

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly

Isn’t David Markham the bomb!?! He sent me this marvelous, fully framed and original poster from the 1980 restoration of Abel Gance’s 1927 silent epic “Napoleon”. I love it. This is going in the pool room. Thank you David-san!

For further reading, I recommend:

• The Battle Of Borodino website

A love letter from Napoleon to his future wife, Josephine, has fetched some £276,000 ($556,000; 409,000 euros) at an auction in London.

In the letter – one of only three known to have been sent to Josephine by the French emperor before their marriage – he apologises after a furious row.

The early love letter was written after a heated argument.

“I send you three kisses – one on your heart, one on your mouth and one on your eyes,” Napoleon wrote.

Read the full story here!

I know what you’re thinking: What else can I do to help support my friends at the Napoleon 101 Podcast?

This year for the first time ever we’re going to go for an official Podcast Award from PodcastAwards.com.

Will you help?

1) Just click the link to go to www.podcastawards.com.

2) Click on the small blue text in the top box that says “Click here to nominate.”

3) When there, you can enter us in People’s Choice and one other category. But since we probably will never win the People’s Choice, don’t bother with that one.

Just nominate us in the Education category. Don’t nominate us for any other category – if you nominate us for more than one category (with the exception of “People’s Choice,”) neither vote counts!

You have to fill out our show’s name and our URL like this:

Napoleon 101

http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com

4) Then, you have to go to the bottom of the page and enter your name, your email, and whether you’re a podcaster, listener or both.

5) Hit “Submit” and you’re done!

You can only nominate us once, so when you’ve taken care of this, you’re done!

Will you take three minutes and help us out? We’d really appreciate it.

And if you have other podcasts you enjoy, be sure to nominate them, too. Especially shows on The Podcast Network. Spread the love. (Just not in the “Education” category, OK?)

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It would mean a lot to us to be nominated.

We examine why Napoleon was so confident that the campaign would be a short one and why he was so very, very wrong. We also discuss what was happening in the Russian camp and look at the political implications of their retreat.

Napoleon is often accused of being the instigator of this war (something Tolstoy, a Russian, was happy to suggest) but David and I examine the facts behind this perspective.

While this is a tragic and deeply moving period of Napoleonic history, it is also one of the most fascinating, both from a military and a humanist perspective.

Perhaps the best graphical representation of this unfortunate episode (or, in fact, one of the greatest use of informational graphics ever) is this image by French engineer Charles Minard.

Edward Tufte called it “the best statistical graphic ever drawn” and uses it as a prime example in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. (source)

History buffs from Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Holland and elsewhere said the Waterloo commemoration is one of the most important events on their calendars. The actual anniversary of the battle was Monday but the event was on the weekend.

The sword was carried by Napoleon — who was not yet emperor — into the battle of Marengo in June 1800, when he launched a surprise attack to push the Austrian army from Italy and seal France’s victory, sold Sunday for more than $6.4 million, an auction house said.

Read the full details here.

In this episode we cover some of the events that happened in Napoleon’s private life during the peace that lasted from Wagram in 1809 until The Sixth Coalition in 1812, including:

• Napoleon’s divorce from Josephine
• His attempts to wed Tsar Alexander’s sister Anna
• His eventual marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria
• The birth of his first legitimate son known as the King of Rome aka Napoleon II

At the end of the show we have provided a suggested bibliography for this period, thanks to a suggestion from listener Jackm over on the forums.

Buy yours today and support the show!

By the way, we apologize for the delay in episodes – David is currently in Israel. But we plan to have a new episode with a very special guest out early June!

The War Of The Fifth Coalition (with lots of campaign maps)

I have a favour to ask – it would really help the continued success of the show if each of you would go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes!

If you happen to be in Paris, a solemn mass will be celebrated in his memory and the soldiers of the Grande Armée at Les Invalides at 11am. Details here. If you go, please write us a report. Amongst those present will be S.A.I. the Princess Napoléon, General H. Gobilliard, governor of Les Invalides and Brigadier General R. Bresse, director of the Musée de l’Armée.

In other Napoleon related news today:

There is a new book out on Wellington that sounds interesting. According to this review of “Dancing into Battle: A Social History of the Battle of Waterloo” (Nick Foulkes), “the handsome Wellington spent most of his day dallying with well-born young ladies and the young wives of titled Englishmen, pleasuring them in a carriage screened by the trees of Brussels’s still-lovely park. Almost every evening he gave an expensive ball. He made a point of attending the ball given by the Duchess of Richmond on the eve of the battle, but it was a mixed bag of an evening, as officers kept disappearing to join their regiments. In the days before Waterloo, Wellington forestalled a general tendency to panic by always appearing incredibly nonchalant, not to say cool. His insouciance, a word thoroughly overworked by author Foulkes, was evidently worth at least another 50,000 men.”

The British army wasn’t a meritocracy like the French:
“With the exception of the artillery, all the officers in Wellington’s army had purchased their expensive commissions. Their promotion and higher pay depended in great part on casualties among the more senior ranks.”

The book also describes how the battle changed Wellington, who dropped his cool exterior afterwards. “The victorious Wellington was a changed man. Though used to battle, the carnage at Waterloo appalled him. The mask of insouciance was dropped. With it too went the worship of glory, at least for a long moment.”

There is also a review from the Tribeca Film Festival on the new film “Napoleon and Me”.

“Virzi’s film, which is a mixture of soft comedy and emotional soapboxing about ideals like freedom and honor, focuses on a brief period at the end of the Napoleonic Wars when the vanquished French emperor was sent into exile on the tiny Italian island of Elba.

“If this were Variety, I would point out that pic’s best chance to do well with auds is the inclusion of Monica Bellucci in a prominent role as a baroness floozy who is anxious over turning 40 and aggressively courts 20-something men like Martino who will remind her of how beautiful she is.”

“As Napoleon, French acting legend Daniel Auteuil is more than credible, walking a foot shorter but somehow more imposing than the bodyguards and hangers-on who follow his every step around the island. Auteuil gives a careful, ambitious performance, but the screenplay to let that performance fly is not really in place.”

Finally, Empress Josephine at the Hermitage:

“The famous Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg will open on the 28th of June 2007 a fascinating exhibition, presenting the rich collection assembled by the Empress Josephine at her chateau Malmaison. Many of the works which she cherished – some of those have been chosen for the Hermitage exhibition – were actually gifts from Napoleon, who had acquired them during his military campaigns in Europe. After the Empress’ death, the bulk of the collection, mainly paintings and sculptures, was bought by Tsar Alexander I and later brought to St Petersburg, where it was installed in the Winter Palace.”

Napoleon

Originally uploaded by jables80.

Waterloo Battlefield just outside of Waterloo, Belgium.

In episode #19 we gave you some background on how Napoleon ended up in the Iberian peninsula. Today we pick it up from about the time Joseph was made the King of Spain.

Of course, in discussing Spain we also introduce someone whose story is forever associated with Napoleon’s – Sir Arthur Wellesley, aka the Duke of Wellington. It was during the Peninsula War that their fates first became entwined.

Additional Resources:

The Peninsula War
Map of the Iberian Peninsula
The Continental System
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

I have a favour to ask – it would really help the continued success of the show if each of you would go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes!

“Maybe I missed this aspect of Napoleon already mentioned in one of your episode, but if you didn’t, could talk a little bit about that distinct hat Napoleon is often shown with on pictures of him. Maybe it is a modern invention and has nothing to do with the historical figure.”

Actually, Pascal, the kind of hat Napoleon wore was fairly common with European and American military and naval officers in the 18th and 19th century and it’s called a bicorne or bicorn. It was actually based on the tricorne which was popular in the 17th century. Much like the famous “hand inside jacket” pose, Napoleon wasn’t unique, it’s just that his celebrity status, then and now, makes most of us associate him with such images.

Here’s a photo of one of Napoleon’s actual hats that he wore in 1799, the year he became a Consul.

You can read more about the bicorn’s history here. Thanks for the question Pascal!

Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti-Napoleonic, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile whom he deeply hates yet soon begins recording Napoleon’s memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that never less will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.

Here’s a link to the trailer (in Italian).

Incredibly, Mr Napoleon is also 1,120th in line to the British throne, thanks to the marriage in 1807 between Jerome Bonaparte and German princess Katherine of Wurttemberg.

Imagine – a Napoleon on the throne of England. How hard could it be to make 1119 people disappear?

In 1807, Spain was in turmoil, due to infighting between their disinterested Bourbon king Charles IV, his son Ferdinand and the Spanish Prime Minister (also the not-so-secret lover of Queen Marie Louisa), Manuel de Godoy. They turned to Napoleon for assistance to sort out their affairs. Already having occupied Portugal (because they refused to join the Continental System) Napoleon moved his forces into Madrid.

He didn’t count on one thing – the Spanish peasants. The resulting war is where the term “guerrilla” warfare was invented (guerra in Spanish means war and -illa means small - i.e. guerrilla warfare is fought with small, insurgent troops instead of large traditional armies).

The Second of May, 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes, by Francisco de Goya (1814).

The Peninsular War saw an alliance of Spain, Portugal, and Britain battle the French Empire for control of the Iberian Peninsula. It lasted from 1808 until Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814. In this episode we provide an introduction and some background to the war.

Additional Resources:

The Peninsula War
Map of the Iberian Peninsula
The Continental System

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes!

And goodbye, Napoleon’s house

Originally uploaded by bootsintheoven.

Statue de Napoleon

Originally uploaded by shandara.

dangerous position

Originally uploaded by omnia_mutantur.

Napoleon

Originally uploaded by shandara.

Once again, David and I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful feedback and comments we have received since the last episode. We both really appreciate it and it’s added motivation to keep producing the show although, as you know, we have so much fun being Napoleon geeks together that the entire British navy couldn’t keep us away!

Speaking of the British navy…. this episode is about the Battle Of Trafalgar.

On 21 October 1805, the French navy under the command of Villeneuve met disaster against the British navy under the command of Horatio Nelson at Cape Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain, in what is known as The Battle Of Trafalgar

To get a good idea of what naval battles in the early 19th century must have been like, we both recommend watching the 2003 film by Australian director Peter Weir,
Master And Commander.

The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes!

Here’s an interesting story:

At an exhibition in Paris’ Grand Palais entitled Les Trésors Engloutis D’Egypt aka The Sunken Treasures of Egypt, there was a meeting between two representatives of the former Imperial Houses of France and Persia: HIH Princess Napoleon Bonaparte and HIM Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi of Iran. The Former reigning Empress of Iran and the descendant of the French Emperor were the VIP visitors of this exhibition that opened on December 9th 2006.

I confess to not being entirely sure who HIH Princess Napoleon Bonaparte actually is. Judging by the photograph, I am guessing she is either the twin sister, ex-wife or current wife of Charles Napoleon Bonaparte, aka Napoleon VII. Can anyone clarify that?

Dear Cameron and David,

My name is Gavin O’Sullivan.
I’m a letter-carrier living in Vancouver B.C., and around xmas time i picked up the lovely little invention called an ipod.
I must say it entertains me through the day whether listening to songs, books, or podcasts…….which brings me to your Napoleon Podcast.

As mentioned by you Cameron, growing up in a commonwealth country my knowledge of Napoleon was that he was a “tyrant”, or a “little Hitler”.
How my knowledge has grown with the help of your podcast.

I’ve always been interested in military history whether it be the American Civil war, Vietnam conflict, Roman , or WW1, WW2.
My parents grew up in London, England and lived through the blitz. so in some way my interest in human conflict had been instilled.

Your podcasts have entertained, intrigued, and informed me.
I truly feel that you guys are like my old buddies when i listen for your obvious enthusiasm, and friendship comes through in spades.
Even the episode when you guys finally met was brilliant, where i tend to think David’s supply of olde medicine was opened with a fervor.

So around your your 15th 16th podcast, i was at a thrift store mucking around for odds and sods, when in the corner of my eye i spot this huge pic of Mr. Bonaparte.
So after haggling down to a $4.00…..price tag…..i walked out of there with a wicked poster of Napolean which is now up in my living room.(see attached pic)

I do truly look forward to your next podcast, and i am spreading the word as much as I can.
I would help you guys out anyway i can, and think that podcasts will only grow with mates such as you blabbering about on the airwaves……haha.
My vote for your next one would be a Ceasar. or American Civil War.

Keep up the good work,

your fan

Gavin

Nice haggling Gavin! How about you come over here when I attend my next house auction?

Please keep sending us your Napoleon stories folks! After sitting here getting inspired in solitude by Napoleonic stories over the years, I’m really thrilled to see this show helping others find a passion for the subject.

Russian forces, lead by Count von Bennigsen, were crushed by Napoleon’s army at Friedland on June 14, 1807.

Three days later Russia asked for a truce. By the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, France made peace with Russia and forced Prussia to give up half of its territory to France, Jerome Bonaparte‘s Kingdom of Westphalia, and the new Duchy of Warsaw.

Napoleon was virtually in control of western and central Europe. Some historians consider Tilsit to represent the pinnacle of Napoleon’s career. He had conquered all of mainland Europe and secured peace for France. Unfortunately, it was to prove short-lived.

We also talk briefly about Talleyrand‘s resignation from his position of Minster of Foreign Affairs after Tilsit and hint at his role as a traitor to France (or was it just to Napoleon?) in the years to come.

Next episode – The Battle of Trafalgar!

The theme music is La Marseillaise.

The story of how I got the book is almost as magnificent as the stories contained within. I bought it on eBay about 10 months ago from a seller in Wisconsin and several times he sent it to me and several times it never made it hear, always getting rejected by Australia Post for one reason or another and getting returned to sender! I had given up ever seeing it and so was nicely surprised when it arrived today.

I wanted to share with you Stoddard’s magnificent introduction to the book, written a mere 73 years after Napoleon’s death, as it poetically describes the story of Napoleon and, in doing so, reflects some of the debate we’ve had in the comments section lately, demonstrating that debate over Napoleon is certainly not a recent phenomenon.
—————–

NAPOLEON’S history naturally adapts itself to illustration. His whole career was pictorial. His meteoric course revealed itself in scene, each of which seemed more brilliant than its predecessor.

The pictures of his progress from Corsica to the Throne and from the Throne to St. Helena produce a panorama unequalled in the annals of the world. The life of Napoleon was a tragedy which had the whole of Europe for a stage, Napoleon for the star, kings, queens and warriors for subordinate actors, and for an audience a dazzled world. Act after act of this absorbing drama was performed, yet still humanity looked on in wonder. The interest never waned. No one could possibly divine the end. What seemed at one time an incomparable climax, became the next day by comparison a common-place event; as a bright star of dawn is lost in the refulgence of the rising sun. Even when the tragedy drew near its end, and the colossal background of the stage was black with gloom, Napoleon’s dramatic deeds,—such as his duel with united Europe, his farewell to the Imperial Guard at  Fontainebleau, his marvelous return from Elba,—the stroke of Destiny at Waterloo, and the wild death-scene on the tempest-beaten rock of St. Helena,—lit up the Heavens with a supernatural brilliancy, much as we see a landscape outlined by successive gleams of lightning on an inky sky.
It would be natural therefore to suppose that Bonaparte’s would be the best known figure in the long procession of humanity. Far from it. The world is not agreed about his character. No person in history, not even Mary Queen of Scots, has been the object of such bitter controversy. Emerson has well said,—” To be great is to be misunderstood.” Even the founders of the world’s religions, though deified by their followers, are execrated by believers in all other faiths. To Moslems Jesus is no more the Son of God, than Mahomet seems His prophet to most Christians.

Even today with the assistance of the press and telegraph, prominent statesmen are so lauded by their partisans and vilified by their opponents, that it is difficult to ascertain the truth about them. Gladstone, for instance, is by millions called the “Grand old Man,” By other millions lie is looked upon as a consummate by hypocrite and fraud, The greater the man, the larger is the multitude of his inferiors. The higher his position, the vaster is the sea of upturned faces raised towards his in admiration or in envy. In the case of Napoleon there were special causes why he should have been maligned, and why in death, as in life, his foes have been more numerous than his friends.

Most English writers have been naturally against him. Even in France, in the repeated changes of that nation’s government, there have been times when accusations against Bonaparte were the best passports to reward and fame. Especially since the Franco-Prussian war, a sense of national disgrace has made some French Republicans forget the glory of Napoleon the Great in the disasters of “Napoleon the Little.” Yet there never has been an epoch since his death when the career of the great Corsican excited so much interest as now. IT WILL NOT DIE OUT. The theme is as colossal as his genius, as many sided as his empire, as brilliant as his victories. The literature which treats of him is constantly increasing. New memoirs every year call forth fresh statements and critiques by shedding light upon obscure points in his history, It is Napoleon, THE MAN, who is now being specially portrayed. The result completely demolishes the theory that he was a monster of selfishness, devoid of human sympathies.

Viewed in his relations to his mother, his brothers and sisters, his generals, soldiers and the friends of even his earliest years, the careful sifting of unimpeachable testimony proves that Napoleon was naturally magnanimous, tender-hearted, sympathetic and indulgent to a fault. In fact concessions to his greedy and insatiate brothers and sisters contributed to his downfall. The average estimate of Napoleon, formed partly from hearsay and partly I from a limited reading of his history, is that his measureless ambition deluged Europe with a sea of blood, and that he coldly pushed aside a wife whom he no longer loved to wed a daughter of the Hapsburgs. But a study of the conditions of Europe at that time explains the causes of almost all the Napoleonic wars, as well as of the divorce of Josephine. Before the young Napoleon had ever drawn his sword, all Europe was in arms against Re Republican France. The allied kings, in terror lest their thrones should fall, as that of Louis 16th had done, combined to crush out that audacious spirit of Democracy. Napoleon, as the embodiment of that spirit, vanquished them repeatedly; but they invariably rose again, and almost every year a fresh coalition of three or four nations sent armies to hurl Bonaparte from the throne and place again the hated Bourbons there. That these repeated wars led I lie successful Emperor to imprudences and faults, is but to say that he was human. But all his deeds should be examined in the broad clear light of contemporaneous history; one side of Europe being just as carefully surveyed as the other.

As for the divorce, which forms the second popular charge against Napoleon ,—it is difficult to imagine stronger reasons for such a political step than were urged upon him by all the leading statesmen of France, as well as by his family. Absolute master of a colossal empire, and knowing from experience tile chaos from which he had just brought the French nation to a position of glory and stability, it was a question of tremendous importance who was to govern it after his death. His brothers were incompetent. His generals, like those of Alexander, would inevitably quarrel and plunge the nation into civil war. To found a settled dynasty and thus create a legitimate successor seemed an absolute necessity. Moreover, by marrying into one of the reigning families of Europe, it was supposed that the French Emperor would gain at least one ally, and put an end to the powerful coalitions continually formed against him It is a proof of Napoleon’s natural tenderness of heart that, steadily resisting arguments and appeals, he struggled for years against a separation from the only woman he ever really loved.
Refusing to consider the natural longing of a father’s heart to have a son to follow him in a career of glory, he chose at first his brother’s child to be his political heir, and only after the death of that little prince did he allow the question of divorce to be re-opened. Step by step, despite fierce opposition, he had raised Josephine with him even to the Imperial throne, and when they both accepted the necessity of the sacrifice required, Napoleon’s treatment of her, (not merely in generosity, but in delicacy) is unsurpassed in any such act in either public or private history.

Nothing is more impressive, as we contemplate Napoleon, than the PERMANENCY OF HIS GREATNESS. Year after year accusers rise, assail his memory, and pass away; but still the Vendome. column rises over Paris, and still its plates of bronze portray in beautiful relief his victories o’er united nations. A maddened populace pulls down that noble shaft and the majestic statue breaks, in pieces in its fall, but it inevitably rises once again, and still the Emperor looks down upon the city which he made the political centre of the world. His enemies call him a usurper; but who was ever so enthusiastically and unanimously chosen by the people for their ruler, as was Napoleon to be Consul of France for life? Others delight in branding him as a parvenu; but where among the sovereigns of the past or present can we discover one, whose coronation has been solemnized by the Pope himself, not at the Vatican, but in a foreign capital hundreds of miles away, whither the venerable Pontiff came, (an act unparalleled in history), to place the crown upon Napoleon’s brow! The men who fought against him, Schwarzenberg, Blucher, and even Wellington, sleep in comparatively unknown graves. But Bonaparte, though buried on a lonely, isolated rock; thousands of miles from Europe, no longer slumbers there. His ashes are brought back to France, and with a solemn pageantry and enthusiasm unequalled in all history are laid beside the Seine and in the midst of the French people he so dearly loved. Critics may come and go, but they can never change the solemn fact that Napoleon Bonaparte reposes in the heart of the nation of which he was the Consul and the Emperor, and in the most magnificent sepulcher on earth.

The memory of Napoleon resembles a gigantic cliff emerging from the sea of Time. The waves of calumny may break against it; the lightning’s bolt of hatred may descend upon its brow; the cutting winds of sarcasm and malice may attack its surface; the clouds of misunderstanding may at times conceal it, and even the disintegrating touch of Time may strive to mar its massiveness; but presently the waves are stilled, the tempest disappears, the mists all clear away, and lo! the cliff is there; serene and indestructible.

It is not, however, the purpose of this introduction to discuss Napoleon’s record in detail; nor is the object of this book a critical examination of his life and character. It is to present in a connected series some of the great events of his career, which shall by word and picture suggest a study of the complex life which lies behind them. They do not form an exhaustive narrative. For such a work not fifty volume nor a thousand illustrations would suffice. These pictures rather serve as milestones on a path of glory leading to the grave.

Nothing is more instructive than a study of this path which they commemorate. For twenty years the history of Bonaparte was the history of Europe; and even now, whatever route we take from Paris to the Pyramids, or from Madrid to Moscow, one name continually greets us, carved on the mountains trodden by his legions, reflected in the rivers where his shadow fell, and traced upon a hundred fields where it was whispered fondly by unnumbered lips, ere they were closed in death. It is the magic name —

NAPOLEON.

Here’s an excerpt from Jawad’s article:

Google, today, is the undisputed champion of the online world. Before long, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and eBay maneuvered to encapsulate Google’s ever-growing strength. Over two hundred years ago, Emperor Napoleon, the Google of his day, found himself in a similar situation. Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain had decided to go to war. It takes more energy to take land than to hold it. Throughout history, defensive tactics have won more battles than the aggressors. After the first wave of siege, the aggressor loses the advantage of surprise attack and leaves himself exposed to a counter attack. The defender can clearly see his strategy and take protective action. Napoleon’s most celebrated victory, the battle of Austerlitz was a counter attack, defeating a larger army with a kill ratio of 15 to 1. A defensive position has become the perfect way to disguise an offensive maneuver, a counter attack. Google has repeatedly asserted that it is not interested in competing with other businesses; it is a web search business only. They have used this facade to make Microsoft’s concerns with the company seem paranoid; a clever move that worked. The fact remains that Google is a powerful secretive company, driven by smart people, and for a cause.

Dies Irae

Originally uploaded by Manuperez.

One of my objectives when I started the series was to promote the case FOR Napoleon, as I believe that the “history” of Napoleon that most of us were taught, especially if you were educated in “The Commonwealth”, was extremely biased towards the negative. It has been said that “history is written by the victor” and that was definitely true in Napoleon’s case. For many years after his downfall, except for a brief interlude during the Second Empire, it was nearly impossible to write positively about him even in France, let alone England or other European countries. If we are slightly biased FOR the man, all we are doing is balancing up the scales!

That said, we do try our best to examine, in the time that we have each episode, the case for and against. David is a very well respected Napoleonic historian and author and he takes this responsibility extremely seriously. I, on the other hand, am just an enthusiast who wants to better understand who Napoleon was. In every episode I try to make sure I get a chance to ask David about the various criticisms of Napoleon that have been put forward and David always gives his honest perspective on what really happened, based on the current historical documents available combined with a deep understanding of the time and circumstances Napoleon was operating under. It is a huge mistake to take 21st century morals and perspectives on democracy and individual rights and then suggest that Napoleon should or could have lived up to ALL of them in late 18th century France. It’s critical to understand the critical condition France was in after the Revolution and the challenges Napoleon faced by constantly having to fight off the other European powers who were determined, for various reasons, to see the Bourbons re-established on the French throne.
As David and I have pointed out time and time again, France was fighting these wars long BEFORE Napoleon ever came to power in France and although he signed lots of peace treaties in his time in power, he rarely, if ever, broke one. So although Napoleon may not have been totally innocent of fault, the blame for the “Napoleonic Wars” needs to be shouldered by the parties truly responsible.
My goal with this present series is to introduce people to Napoleonic history, not present you with a set of ready-made opinions for or against. Hopefully you will listen to this series and be inspired, as I know many of you already have been, to go out and buy a few books on the guy (especially those written by a certain J. David Markham). Then you will all, of course, make up your own mind about who he was and whether or not what he tried to do was positive or negative. Or perhaps a little bit of both.

Napoleon statue @ Il Duce

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly.

By the way, I screwed up the audio on this show yet again. I think my mic was up too high, picking up too much background noise and making it difficult to raise David’s audio without the background buzz coming up as well. I’ll try hard to get improve it before the next episode!

Personally I doubt the veracity of the autopsy done at the time of his death and don’t think we’ll have a definitive answer until the French Government allow his corpse to be exhumed from Les Invalides for a modern autopsy.

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster
• Buy at GroupieTunes
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

Some links to topics discussed on this episode:

Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
The Confederation of the Rhine
and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
Queen Louise of Prussia
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte

David has provided the following photos of objects from his collection which provide a pictorial dimension to this episode:

Austerlitz effectively brought the Third Coalition to an end.

Read more about the Battle of Austerlitz on Wikipedia

Here’s the entire text of the famous Bulletin issues by Napoleon Bonaparte on the day after the battle, which you can find in David’s book “Imperial Glory” (link below):

Proclamation
Headquarters at Austerlitz
3 December 1805

Soldiers! I am pleased with you. On the day of Austerlitz, you have justified what I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated your eagles with an immortal glory. In less than four hours an army of 100,000 men, commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been cut down or dispersed. Those who escaped your iron have drowned in the lakes. Forty flags, the standards of the Russian Imperial Guard, 120 pieces of cannon, twenty generals and more than 30,000 prisoners are the results of this day, to be celebrated forever. That infantry, so vaunted, and superior to you in numbers, could not resist your impact, and henceforth you have no rivals to fear. Thus, in two months the third coalition is conquered and dissolved. Peace can no longer be at a great distance; but, as I promised to my people before crossing the Rhine, I will only make a peace that gives you some guarantees and assures some recompenses to our allies. Soldiers! When the French people placed the Imperial Crown on my head, I entrusted you to keep it always in a high state of glory, which alone could give it value in my eyes; but at that moment our enemies thought to destroy and demean it; and that Iron crown, which was gained by the blood of so many Frenchmen, they would have compelled me to place on the head of our cruelest enemies; an extravagant and foolish proposal, which you have ruined and confounded the very day of the anniversary of your Emperor’s coronation. You have taught them that it is easier for them to defy us and to threaten us than to vanquish us. Soldiers! When everything necessary to the happiness and prosperity of our country will have been achieved, I will lead you back to France. There you will be the objects of my most tender solicitudes. My people will see you again with joy, and it will be enough for you to say: “I was at the battle of Austerlitz,” for them to reply, “There is a brave man!”

Napoleon Bonaparte

David asked me bring to your attention a History Channel DVD that has a segment on Austerlitz. He was one of the featured historians. It also has Caesar’s campaign in Gaul, and he was one of the featured historians on that segment as well.

Don’t forget – we really value your feedback and comments and would love to have you participate in the conversation.

Cameron, Barbara, David

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly.

The basis for the Rothschild fortune was laid during the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars. From 1813 to 1815, the Rothschild family was instrumental in the financing of the British war effort, handling the shipment of bullion to the Duke of Wellington’s army in Portugal and Spain, as well as arranging the payment of British financial subsidies to their Continental allies. Through the commissions earned on these transactions, the Rothschild fortune grew enormously.

In the early 19th century Rothschild set up a Europe-wide network of messengers and carrier pigeon stations, gathering information that could affect his investments. He soon garnered a reputation for being first with the news.

According to popular legend, when the Battle of Waterloo was being fought in June 1815, other speculators watched Rothschild’s stocks in an attempt to guess who would win. Shortly after the battle ended, and long before anyone else knew who was the victor, he began selling stocks. Everyone assumed this meant Napoleon had won and Europe was lost. Panic selling ensued. When prices crashed, Rothschild bought everything in sight and made a profit.

Cameron & David 2

Originally uploaded by cameronreilly.

Here’s a snap of David and I after our recording session in San Francisco, November 2006.

In the Napoleonic Wars, the Third Coalition against the French Empire emerged in 1805 and consisted of an alliance of the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, Naples, and Sweden.

In this episode we discuss:

• the motivation for the creation of the Third Coalition
• the creation of La Grande Armee and Marshals Of The Empire
• “the unfortunate General Mack and the taking of Ulm
• the capture of Vienna

(photo of Arc de Triomphe detail by zakw845)

Originally uploaded by OllieD.

Romeo, Juliette and Napoleon

Originally uploaded by Arnold Pouteau’s.

• William Pitt had been replaced briefly by Henry Addington as Prime Minister of Britian
• The impact of the assassination of Tsar Paul I of Russia in March 1801
• Nelson’s destruction of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen ends Napoleon’s idea of invading England via Ireland
• The reasons behind the Treaty of Amiens which was signed in March 1802
• The terms of Amiens
• Bonaparte made First Consul For Life, August 1802
• The “infernal machine” and the trial of the Duc D’Enghien
• Why Amiens failed
• Britian declares war on France, May 1803

David and I would like to sincerely thank the thousands of listeners who tuned in since our last episode and a special thanks to those of you who have left us some feedback. Please keep it up! It warms the cockles of our hearts to hear that you are being entertained and even in some cases educated.