Napoleon : a life

1242 Pages·2014·50.74 MB·English

VIKING
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First published in Great Britain by Allan Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd.
Map and Bonaparte family tree illustrations by John Gilkes Other illustration credits appear on pages ix–xv.
ISBN 978-0-670-02532-9
Version_1
To my siblings, Ashley Gurdon and Matthew and Eliot Roberts
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Acknowledgements
The Bonaparte Family Trees

Introduction
PART ONE
Rise
1 Corsica
2 Revolution
3 Desire
4 Italy
5 Victory
6 Peace
7 Egypt
8 Acre
9 Brumaire
PART TWO
Mastery
10 Consul
11 Marengo
12 Lawgiver
13 Plots
14 Amiens
15 Coronation
16 Austerlitz
17 Jena
18 Blockades
19 Tilsit
20 Iberia
21 Wagram
22 Zenith
PART THREE
Denouement
23 Russia
24 Trapped
25 Retreat
26 Resilience
27 Leipzig
28 Defiance
29 Elba
30 Waterloo
31 St Helena
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
Illustrations in the Text
1 Jacques-Louis David, sketches of Napoleon, 1797. Musee d’Art et d’Histoire,
Palais Masséna, Nice. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
2 Baron Dominique Vivant-Denon, title page of ‘The Description of Egypt’,
1809. Photograph: akg-images / Pietro Baguzzi
3 Charles-Joseph Minard, Graph to illustrate the successive losses in men of the
French army in the Russian Campaign of 1812–13, pub. 1869. Photograph:
© Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 4 Sèvres Manufactory after Antoine Denis
Chaudet, Bust of Emperor Napoleon I, 1806. Bibliothèque Marmottan,
Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
Colour Plates
1 Andrea Appiani the Elder, Napoleon I Bonaparte, 1796. Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana, Milan. Photograph: De Agostini Picture Library / © Veneranda
Biblioteca Ambrosiana–Milano / Bridgeman Images 2 Léonard-Alexis
Daligé de Fontenay, The Casa Bonaparte in Ajaccio, 1849. Photograph: ©
RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) /
Jean Schormans 3 Caricature of Paoli and Bonaparte, from the atlas of a
student named Vagoudy, c. 1785. Photograph: Archives Nationales, Paris
4 Louis-François Lejeune, The Battle of Lodi, c. 1804. Photograph: © RMN-
Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) Daniel Arnaudet Gérard Blot 5 Baron
Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon on the Bridge at Arcole, 1796. Photograph: ©
RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot 6 Louis-François
Lejeune, The Battle of the Pyramids, 1806. Photograph: © RMN-Grand
Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot
7 Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon visiting the wounded at Jaffa, 1804
(detail). Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Thierry Le
Mage 8 I. Helman and J. Duplessi-Bertaux after Charles Monnet, The Coup
d’état of 18 Brumaire 1799, published 1800. Photograph © Bibliothèque
Nationale de France, Paris 9 François-Xavier Fabre, portrait of Lucien
Bonaparte. Photograph: The Art Archive / Napoleonic Museum Rome /
Gianni Dagli Orti
10 Jean-Baptiste Wicar, portrait of Joseph Bonaparte, 1808. Photograph: ©
RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Fontainebleau) / Gérard Blot
11 Baron François Gérard, portrait of Marie-Laetitia Ramolino (detail), 1803.
Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de
Bois-Préau) Daniel Arnaudet Jean Schormans 12 Salomon-Guillaume
Counis, portrait of Marie-Anne Elisa Bonaparte, 1813. Photograph © RMN-
Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Gérard Blot
13 Charles Howard Hodges, portrait of Louis Bonaparte (detail), 1809.
Photograph: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
14 Baron François Gérard, portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais. Private
collection. Photograph: Bridgeman Images
15 Robert Lefèvre, portrait of Pauline Bonaparte, 1806. Photograph: © RMN-
Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés
16 Baron François Gérard, portrait of Caroline Murat, 1800s. Musée des Beaux-
Arts, Palais Fesch, Ajaccio. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais / Gérard Blot
17 François Kinson, portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte and his wife Catarina of
Württemberg. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) /
Franck Raux 18 Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of the Empress
Josephine, c. 1809. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux
de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) Daniel Arnaudet Gérard Blot 19 Andrea
Appiani the Elder, portrait of Eugène de Beauharnais, 1810. Photograph: ©
RMN-Grand Palais (musée des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau)
Daniel Arnaudet Jean Schormans 20 Nécessaire of the Empress Josephine,
made by Félix Remond. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée des
châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau) / Gérard Blot 21 Baron Antoine-
Jean Gros, Napoleon as First Consul. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais /
Gérard Blot
22 French School, Allegory of the Concordat, 1802. Bibliothèque Nationale,
Paris. Photograph: Bridgeman Images
23 Louis Charon after Poisson, Costume of a Member of the Institut de France,
c. 1802–10. Private collection. Photograph: Archives Charmet / Bridgeman
Images 24 Jean-Baptiste Greuze, portrait of Jean-Jacques de Cambacérès.
Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais / Agence Bulloz
25 Andrea Appiani the Elder, Louis-Charles-Antoine Desaix reading the order
of General Bonaparte to two Egyptians. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais
(Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot 26 Baron François Gérard, portrait of
Jean Lannes. Private collection. Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
27 Henri-François Riesener (after), portrait of Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1805.
Photograph © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image
musée de l’Armée 28 Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson, portrait of
Géraud Christophe Michel Duroc. Musée Bonnat, Bayonne. Photograph ©
RMN-Grand Palais / René-Gabriel Ojéda 29 French School, caricature of
William Pitt the Younger and King George III observing the French
squadron, 1803. Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
Photograph: Giraudon / Bridgeman Images 30 Copy by Mudie of a
Napoleonic medal celebrating the planned invasion of Britain, 1804.
Photograph © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
31 Jean-Baptiste Debret, The First Distribution of the Cross of the Légion
d’Honneur, 14 July 1804, 1812. Photograph © RMN-Grand Palais (Château
de Versailles) / Droits réservés 32 Jacques-Louis David, study of Napoleon
crowning himself Emperor, c. 1804–7. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais
(musée du Louvre) / Thierry Le Mage 33 Baron François Gérard, The Battle
of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805, 1808. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais
(Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés 34 Pierre-Michel Alix after Baron
Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, 1798.
Photograph © Paris–Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Pascal
Segrette 35 Flavie Renault after Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of
Marshal André Masséna, 1834. Photograph: © Paris–Musée de l’Armée,
Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / image musée de l’Armée 36 Baron François
Gérard, portrait of Marshal Michel Ney, c. 1805. Photograph: © Christie’s
Images
37 Louis Henri de Rudder, portrait of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult (detail).
Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux 38
Tito Marzocchi de Belluchi, portrait of Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout
(detail), 1852. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) /
Gérard Blot 39 Raymond-Quinsac Monvoison, portrait of Nicolas-Charles
Oudinot as he appeared in 1792. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais
(Château de Versailles) Daniel Arnaudet Jean Schormans 40 Robert
Lefèvre, portrait of Marshal Charles-Pierre-François Augereau (detail).
Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés
41 Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, portrait of Joachim Murat (detail). Photograph:
© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
42 Edme Bovinet after Jacques-François Swebach, The Battle of Jena, 14
October 1806. Photograph: JoJan
43 George Dawe, portrait of Field Marshal Prince Gebhard Leberecht von
Blücher, c. 1816. The Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London.
Photograph: Bridgeman Images 44 W. Herbig, portrait of King Frederick
William III of Prussia (detail). The Wellington Museum, Apsley House,
London. Photograph: Bridgeman Images 45 Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon
I in Imperial Costume, 1805. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. Photograph: ©
RMN-Grand Palais / Philipp Bernard 46 Jean-Antoine-Siméon Fort, The
Battle of Eylau, 8 February 1807. Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais
(Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés 47 Thomas Naudet, The Battle of
Friedland, 1807, c. 1807–12. Photograph: Anne S. K. Brown Military
Collection, Brown University Library, Providence, RI 48 Adolphe Roehn,
The Meeting of Napoleon I and Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit, 25 June 1807.
Photograph: © RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Franck Raux 49
Baron François Gérard, portrait of Tsar Alexander I, c. 1814. Musée
Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne. Photograph: akg-images / André Held
50 Baron François Gérard, portrait of Désirée Clary. Photograph: Alexis
Daflos. The Royal Court, Sweden
51 Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Pauline Fourès. Photograph: © RMN-Grand
Palais (musée du Louvre) / Droits réservés
52 Ferdinando Quaglia, portrait of Giuseppina Grassini. Photograph: De
Agostini Picture Library / A. Dagli Orti / Bridgeman Images
53 Pierre-Auguste Vafflard, portrait of Marguerite Weimer (Mademoiselle
Georges), 1805. Photograph © Collections Comédie-Française / P. Lorette
54 Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Countess Maria Walewska. Collection of
the Patrimoine Comte Colonna-Walewski. Photograph Fine Art Images
Heritage Images Scala, Florence 55 Mayer & Pierson, Photograph of
Comte Alexander Colonna-Walewski. Photograph: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist.
RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt 56 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (attr.),
Portrait of a Lady said to be Éléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne with her son,
1814. Private collection. Photograph © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman
Images 57 Jean-Baptiste Isabey, portrait of Anne Hippolyte Boutet Salvetat
(Mademoiselle Mars), 1819. Photograph: © By kind permission of the
Trustees of the Wallace Collection, London.
58 Albine de Montholon. Photograph: Roger-Viollet / Topfoto
59 Sèvres Manufactory, spindle vase owned by Madame Mère, depicting
Napoleon crossing the Alps at the Great St Bernard pass, 1811. Photograph: