History is a Set of Lies Agreed Upon - Writings about the Great Napoleon Bonaparte

Various

Description

“History is a Set of Lies Agreed Upon” is a collection of biographical sketches of the French military and political leader Napoléon Bonaparte, by various authors. Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was a French political and military leader during the Revolutionary Wars who ruled as Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. Winning the vast amount of battles against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars, he was able to establish a large empire covering continental Europe that lasted until its collapse in 1815. Napoléon is regarded as being among the greatest military commanders in history, and is still a celebrated yet controversial political figure. These fascinating biographical sketches offer details on various aspects of Napoléon's life, from his early military campaigns to the women who had most influence of his life. Highly recommended for those with an interest in the life of Napoléon Bonaparte and European history in general. Contents include: “The Death of Napoleon, by Isaac Mclellan”, “Napoleon I (Bonaparte), by Pierre-Louis-Théophile-Georges Goyau”, “Biographical Sketch, by Ida M. Tarbell”, “Napoleon — Man of the World, by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, “Napoleon Bonaparte, by Sarah Knowles Bolton”, “Napoleon and Marie Walewska, by Lyndon Orr”, “The Story of Pauline Bonaparte, by Lyndon Orr”, “Napoleon's Will”, and “Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Buonaparte, by Richard Whately”. Read & Co. History is proudly publishing this brand new collection complete with the poem “The Death of Napoleon” by Isaac Mclellan.

Sujets

• Napoleón Bonaparte
• Napoleon I
• Totalitarianism
• Animal Farm
• Napoléon Ier

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 06 mai 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528792448
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

HISTORY IS A SET OF LIES AGREED UPON
WRITINGS ABOUT THE GREAT NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
By
VARIOUS



Copyright © 2021 Read & Co. History
This edition is published by Read & Co. History, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk


Contents
THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON
By Is aac Mclellan
NAPOLEON I (BONAPARTE)
By Pierre-Louis-Théophile-G eorges Goyau
BIOGRAP HICAL SKETCH
By Id a M. Tarbell
NAPOLEON — MAN OF THE WORLD
By Ralph W aldo Emerson
NAPOLE ON BONAPARTE
By Sarah Kn owles Bolton
NAPOLEON AND MA RIE WALEWSKA
B y Lyndon Orr
THE STORY OF PAULI NE BONAPARTE
B y Lyndon Orr
NAP OLEON'S WILL
HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO NAPOLEO N BUONAPARTE
By Rich ard Whately


THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON
By Isaac Mclellan
Wild was the night, yet a wilder night
Hung round the soldier's pillow;
In his bosom there waged a fiercer fight
Than the fight on the wrathful billow.

A few fond mourners were kneeling by,
The few that his stern heart cherished;
They knew, by his glazed and unearthly eye,
That life had nearly perished.

They knew by his awful and kingly look,
By the order hastily spoken,
That he dreamed of days when the nations shook,
And the nations' hosts were broken.

He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew,
And triumphed the Frenchman's eagle,
And the struggling Austrian fled anew,
Like the hare before the beagle.

The bearded Russian he scourged again,
The Prussian's camp was routed,
And again on the hills of haughty Spain
His mighty armies shouted.

Over Egypt's sands, over Alpine snows,
At the pyramids, at the mountain,
Where the wave of the lordly Danube flows,
And by the Italian fountain,

On the snowy cliffs where mountain streams
Dash by the Switzer's dwelling,
He led again, in his dying dreams,
His hosts, the proud earth quelling.

Again Marengo's field was won,
And Jena's bloody battle;
Again the world was overrun,
Made pale at his cannon's rattle.

He died at the close of that darksome day,
A day that shall live in story;
In the rocky land they placed his clay,
And left him alone with his glory."
A poem from Poems That Every Child Shoul d Know, 1904


NAPOLEON I (BONAPARTE)
By Pierre-Louis-Théophile-Georges Goyau
Emperor of the French, second son of Charles Marie Bonaparte and Maria Lætitia Ramolino, b. at Ajaccio, in Corsica, 15 August, 1769; d. on the Island of St. Helena, 5 May, 1821.
His childhood was spent in Corsica; at the end of the year 1778 he entered the college of Autun, in 1779 the military school of Brienne, and in 1783 the military school of Paris. In 1785, when he was in garrison at Valence, as a lieutenant, he occupied his leisure with researches into the history of Corsica and read many of the philosophers of his time, particularly Rousseau. These studies left him attached to a sort of Deism, an admirer of the personality of Christ, a stranger to all religious practices, and breathing defiance against "sacerdotalism" and "theocracy". His attitude under the Revolution was that of a citizen devoted to the new ideas, in testimony of which attitude we have his scolding letter, written in 1790, to Battafuoco, a deputy from the Corsican noblesse , whom the "patriots" regarded as a traitor, and also a work published by Bonaparte in 1793, "Le Souper de Beaucaire", in which he takes the side of the Mountain in the Convention against the Federalist tendencies of th e Girondins.
His military genius revealed itself in December, 1793, when he was twenty-four years of age, in his recapture of Toulon from the English. He was made a general of brigade in the artillery, 20 December, and in 1794 contributed to Masséna's victories in Italy. The political suspicions aroused by his friendship with the younger Robespierre after 9 Thermidor of the Year III (27 July, 1794), the intrigues which led to his being removed from the Italian frontier and sent to command a brigade against the Vendeans in the west, and ill health, which he used as a pretext to refuse this post and remain in Paris, almost brought his career to an end. He contemplated leaving France to take command of the sultan's artillery. But in 1795 when the Convention was threatened, Bonaparte was selected for the duty of pouring grapeshot upon its enemies from the platform of the church of Saint Roch (13 Vendémiaire, Year IV). He displayed great moderation in his hour of victory, and managed to earn at once the gratitude of the Convention and the esteem of its enemies.
The Campaign in Italy
On 8 March, 1798, he contracted a civil marriage with the widow of Alexandre de Beauharnais, Marie Joséphine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, who was born in Martinique, in 1763, of a family originally belonging to the neighbourhood of Blois. In the same month Napoleon set out for Italy, where the Directory, prompted by Carnot, had appointed him commander in chief against the First Coalition. The victory of Montenotte, over the Austrians commanded by Beaulieu, and those of Millesimo, Dego, Ceva, and Mondovi, over Colle's Piedmontese troops, forced Victor Amadeus, King of Sardinia, to conclude the armistice of Cherasco (28 April, 1796). Wishing to effect a junction on the Danube with the Army of the Rhine, Bonaparte spent the following May in driving Beaulieu across Northern Italy, and succeeded in pushing him back into the Tyrol. On 7 May he was ordered by the Directory to leave half of his troops in Lombardy, under Kellermann's command, and march with the other half against Leghorn, Rome, and Naples. Unwilling to share the glory with Kellermann, Bonaparte replied by tendering his resignation, and the order was not insisted on. In a proclamation to his soldiers (20 May, 1796) he declared his intention of leading them to the banks of the Tiber to chastise those who had "whetted the daggers of civil war in France" and "basely assassinated" Basseville, the French minister, to "re-establish the Capitol, place there in honour the statues of heroes who had made themselves famous", and to "arouse the Roman people benumbed by many centuries of bondage". In June he entered the Romagna, appeared at Bologna and Ferrara, and made prisoners of several prelates. The Court of Rome demanded an armistice, and Bonaparte, who was far from eager for this war against the Holy See, granted it. The Peace of Bologna (23 June, 1796) obliged the Holy See to give up Bologna and Ferrara to French occupation, to pay twenty one million francs, to surrender 100 pictures, 500 manuscripts, and the busts of Junius and Marcus Brutus. The Directory thought these terms too easy, and when a prelate was sent to Paris to negotiate the treaty, he was told that as an indispensable condition of peace, Pius VI must revoke the Briefs relating to the Civil Constitution of the clergy and to the Inquisition. The Pope refused, and negotiations were broken off; they failed again at Florence, where an attempt had been made to renew them.
During these pourparlers between Paris and Rome, Bonaparte repulsed the repeated efforts of the Austrian Wurmser to reconquer Lombardy. Between 1 and 5 August, Wurmser was twice beaten at Lonato and again at Castiglione; between 8 and 15 September, the battles of Roveredo, Primolano, Bassano, and San Giorgio forced Wurmser to take refuge in Mantua, and on 16 October Bonaparte created the Cispadan Republic at the expense of the Duchy of Modena and of the Legations, which were pontifical territory. Then, 24 October, he invited Cacault, the French minister at Rome, to reopen negotiations with Pius VI "so as to catch the old fox"; but on 28 October he wrote to the same Cacault: "You may assure the pope that I have always been opposed to the treaty which the Directory has offered him, and above all to the manner of negotiating it. I am more ambitious to be called the preserver than the destroyer of the Holy See. If they will be sensible at Rome, we will profit by it to give peace to that beautiful part of the world and to calm the conscientious fears of many people." Meanwhile the arrival in Venetia of the Austrian troops under Alvinzi caused Cardinal Busca, the pope's secretary of state, to hasten the conclusion of an alliance between the Holy See and the Court of Vienna; of this Bonaparte learned through intercepted letters. His victories at Arcoli (17 November, 1796) and Rivoli (14 January, 1797) and the capitulation of Mantua (2 February, 1797), placed the whole of Northern Italy in his hands, and in the spring of 1797 the Pontifical States were a t his mercy.
The Directory sent him ferocious instructions. "The Roman religion", they wrote, "will always be the irreconcilable enemy of the Republic; first by its essence, and next, because its servants and ministers will never forgive the blows which the Republic has aimed at the fortune and standing of some, and the prejudices and habits of others. The Directory requests you to do all that you deem possible, without rekindling the torch of fanaticis