#charge of eylau

[illustratus]

General d'Hautpoul and the Cuirassiers at Eylau 1807

by Alphonse Lalauze

[worldhistoryfacts]

A couple of paintings that try to capture the role of horses in Napoleonic warfare:

Elizabeth Thompson’s “Scotland Forever!” centers the horses — look in their eyes and you can see the adrenaline flowing — in the charge of the Royal Scots at Waterloo:

And while the painting above highlights the individual horses and soldiers, this painting of Napoleon’s cavalry stretching as far as the eye can see in their preparation for the Battle of Eylau gives a sense of the sheer number of horses that these armies demanded.

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

Much more on horses at war here:

[josefavomjaaga]

Marbot and his memoirs

It’s occurred to me that I have been rather harsh in my judgement of Marbot’s memoirs, so I thought I should give an explanation. For those who read French this article may be of interest: Ètudes critiques sur les sources narratives […] - Les mèmoires de Marbot. This attempt to figure out how much of Marbot’s memoirs is actually true (or rather, how little) dates back to 1902 already, i.e., mere ten years after the memoirs were published.

For those who don’t read French, some major lies in Marbot’s story:

He was not the one who brought the message that Masséna had given up Genoa to Napoleon, meaning that all the compliments Napoleon flatters Marbot with at this occasion are also an invention

As he was still in Genoa at the time, he also did not take part in the battle of Marengo.

He most likely was a total nobody at the time and not in contact with anybody higher up the ladder, as he had problems to see his provisional rank of sous-lieutenant confirmed after the campaign.

He was not at the battle of Austerlitz as he claims, he probably was not around the imperial headquarters at all during the important combats.

He was not present during a meeting of Prussian ambassador Haugwitz with Napoleon at Brünn, because such a meeting never happened.

He did not save any Russian officer from drowning in the lakes of Satschan because… well. This has been discussed to death over Ridley Scott’s movie. Thanks for providing that Brit with ammunition, Marcellin!

He was not sent to Berlin in August 1806 in order to bring to the Prussian king an ultimatum from Napoleon, such a letter does not even exist.

After he had been wounded at Eylau, he did not miss out on the decoration of the Légion d’Honneur due to a confusion with his brother Adolphe; Adolphe had been decorated before that battle.

After Eylau, he was sent back to Paris to take care of his wounds, and he stayed there for the rest of the campaign. So he was not transferred to the staff of Marshal Lannes, he did not take part in the battles of Heilsberg and Friedland and he was not present at the meeting between Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit.

He did not bring the news of the Dos de Mayo uprising to Napoleon, as a matter of fact, he was not even in Spain before mid-June.

He also was not charged with taking the news of the victory at Tudela to Napoleon by Lannes, who at this occasion, according to Marbot, refused to give him an escort, he was not wounded in an ambush on the road during that trip and was not replaced by Lannes’ brother-in-law, who then received a promotion for having delived a dispatch "bathed in Marbot’s blood". It was even a different aide who took that dispatch to Napoleon.

Marbot in fact is the only of his aides whom Lannes does not mention by name in his reports to Napoleon, which makes you wonder if he was even there

And so on, and so on. Marbot is a brilliant writer, but he seems to have been one of the young, still rather insignificant officers in the shadow of the giants from the Revolutionary Wars, who had to wait their turn and who never got the chance to truly rise because the empire fell too soon. So, if we call Ida’s memoirs (in part) a self-insert fanfiction, the same is true for Marbot’s. And in his case, the lies even can be proven.

[flowwochair]

I'm tempted to try my hand at writing my own BessiMu fanfiction, specifically an angst/comfort one set in the aftermath of the eylau charge.

If you're in the bubble server you know that this technically wouldn't be my first fic as atm I am working on a longer aimevout fic (which I am still considering making public via AO3 but I'm scared), but omg I just love them so much, drawing them is not enough I need to write about them too I could make all my headcanons come true

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Albert Gregorius - Portrait of Nicolas Dahlman, Général de brigade - 1814

Nicolas Dahlmann (7 November 1769 – 10 February 1807) was a French cavalry general of the Napoleonic wars.

Dahlmann was born in Thionville as the son of a trumpeter and enlisted in the French Army in 1777 at the age of 8, where his father and older brother were already serving in the Regiment Dauphin Cavalerie, which later in 1791 became the 12e Régiment de Cavalerie.

Dahlmann served with the infantry and was deployed at the Armee de la Moselle and the Armee des Pyrenees Orientales. He was wounded at his right leg at Peyrestortes on 17 September 1793. From 1796 to 1798 he saw action with the Armee d'Italie and joined the Guides-a-Cheval de Bonaparte when they were formed in June 1796.

He went to Egypt with the Armee d'Orient and served at Salahieh and Aboukir. He returned to France with Napoleon in 1798 and became Chef d'Escadron of the Chasseurs-a-Cheval in October 1802. He served at Austerlitz and was promoted Colonel-Major of the Chasseurs-a-Cheval de la Garde Imperiale.

Dahlmann saw further action at the Battle of Jena and was promoted to General-de-Brigade in the age of 36.

Throughout the Battle of Eylau in February 1807 he was attached to the Imperial staff but requested to lead his old unit, the Chasseurs à Cheval, in a cavalry charge on 8 February 1807. He was seriously wounded in his right hip from a heavy calibre artillery piece and died on 10 February 1807 in the manor house of Worienen.

Napoleon granted Dahlmann's widow a pension of 6,000 francs and in 1811 accorded his only son the title of Baron de l'Empire at the age of 10. On the instructions of Napoleon, Dahlmann's heart was embalmed and taken to Paris where it was laid to rest in the Pantheon.

Albert Jacob Frans Gregorius, or Albert Jacques François Grégorius (26 October 1774, Bruges - 25 February 1853, Bruges) was a Flemish-Belgian portrait painter and Director of the art academy in Bruges.

[microcosme11]

French Heroes - Murat (1771-1815)

Murat, by his impetuous bravery, often decided victory; notably at the battle of Eylau, where, at the head of [illegible] squadrons he charged with so much heroism that no enemy square could resist him.

[songedunmatindhiver-iii]

Il y a d'abord des traits finement ciselés, une peau tendue et lisse, éternellement figée dans le temps de la jeunesse. Une mâchoire carrée au menton brisé. Un sourire qui s'étire malicieusement sans remonter, signe de défi envoyé à l'existence. Un regard d'aigle qui darde l'insolence de celui sûr de ses facultés.

Cet homme spectaculairement beau ne retiendrait que brièvement l'attention si son visage ne semblait crispé par une inquiétude fugace, s'il n'était creusé par une intranquillité qu'il tentait vainement de dissiper en tirant nerveusement sur sa cigarette comme il tirait sur la vie, si un feu ardent ne crépitait dans ses yeux alertes. Julien Gracq, son professeur au lycée Claude-Bernard, le rassembla dans cette formule brillante: «Il rappelait obstinément le plein vent». Tout Huguenin tient dans ces trois mots: le plein vent.

La littérature réserve aussi ses foudroiements. Le nom d'un écrivain entre distraitement par une oreille, l'œuvre s'entame sans appréhension, une trame agrippe l'attention, un style séduit, le temps s'éclipse et il arrive qu'une collision se produise entre le lecteur et l'auteur tapi dans l'ombre de l'œuvre. Le journal, qui est un exercice de mise à nu, facilite cette rencontre singulière car il le révèle intimement.

Une attitude face à l'existence, des perceptions du monde extérieur, un tempérament nervuré d'élans, de sentiments, de peurs font résonner chez le lecteur attentif de profonds échos. Par le seul truchement des mots, un inconnu semble extraordinairement proche. Le Journal de Jean-René Huguenin évoque la fameuse charge de cavalerie de Murat à Eylau.

Ses phrases tirées au cordeau, précocement empreintes de cette belle gravité que seuls détiennent d'ordinaire les écrivains éprouvés, exultent et insufflent une telle soif de vie qu'elles en deviennent audibles. Quand on le lit, on entend instantanément sa voix, qui vibre encore longtemps à l'oreille après que l'on a relevé les yeux. Son écriture est un rugissement continuellement renouvelé par une incomparable vitalité — «Jetez-vous dans la rue, dans la vie, dans le monde, la tête bien haute et le corps exposé.» Nous aurions été à lui ce que Cassady était à Kerouac. Nous l'aurions regardé avec admiration, lui, armé de tous les dons, se consumer «comme une chandelle romaine»; et nous l'aurions aimé.

Son unique roman, La Côte sauvage, est une manifestation éclatante de prose poétique. Suzanne Julliard associait celle-ci, avec beaucoup d'à-propos, aux vers des Djinns de Victor Hugo: «Un chant sur la grève, par instants s'élève (…)». Dans leur prose, Chateaubriand et Proust brodent minutieusement leur poésie et l'ornent de multiples précisions. À l'inverse, Huguenin progresse en usant d'un style elliptique, comparable à celui de Céline.

Chez ces deux écrivains, on retrouve cette même émotion tenue en bride, distillée par phrases coupées, qui nous retrousse les lèvres, cet art d'esquisser le sentiment par l'allusion. C'est une littérature suggérée — et donc éminemment poétique. La prose de Céline est un chant funèbre tandis que celle d'Huguenin est un chant d'une joie tragique — «Faire du sentiment tragique de la vie non pas une raison de désespoir, mais la source de son exaltation.» Huguenin est un Céline solaire qui a intensément aimé les vives clartés d'un été trop court.

Tous deux fissurent la distinction formalisée par Sartre entre le prosateur qui se sert du langage et le poète qui le sert. Les chants célinien et hugueninien ne sont pas qu'utilitaires, ils ne vont pas droit au but, ils prennent des chemins détournés qui s'adressent à l'imaginaire et servent la langue. En lisant La Côte sauvage, on est écartelé entre la description poétique des journées d'été dans le décor breton et le caractère dérangeant de l'intrigue. Les deux hommes ont également ceci en commun d'être agacés par une légèreté indifférente d'après-guerre.

Quand Céline dit: «Qu'ils étaient lourds.» , il fait allusion aux préoccupations matérialistes de ses contemporains et à leur passion du mouvement frénétique et dérisoire. Huguenin écrit que ce qui n'est pas grave non seulement l'ennuie mais lui fait de la peine, et qu'il éprouve devant la légèreté «une sorte de chagrin d'enfant». La superficialité leur est pesante.

On entend distinctement la voix d'Huguenin parce qu'il rugit, mais aussi parce que ses positions littéraires et politiques dissonent dans un temps de libération des mœurs; et qui continuent de dissoner, avec encore plus de clarté, dans notre époque où cette libération s'aggrave. Il s'étonne de l'optimisme de ses aînés à l'égard de ce nouveau défoulement sexuel. Il est effaré de lire que ceux-ci s'applaudissent d'avoir relevé le défi rimbaldien («L'amour est à réinventer.») L'auteur de La Côte sauvage pense, à l'inverse, qu'aujourd'hui «l'entreprise hardie, insensée, mais peut-être enfin libératrice, ce serait de parler d'amour».

Il écrit que sa génération «commence à être lasse de cette civilisation sans mystère qui prétend lui donner réponse à tout et lui apprendre à ne croire qu'à ce qui se voit, se touche ou se compte. Elle est lasse de posséder si facilement les corps et de perdre, par cette facilité même, l'espoir d'une jouissance plus délicate, qu'elle n'ose pas appeler l'amour. Elle est lasse de ne sentir battre son cœur qu'une trentaine de secondes, sur un lit à peine froissé, le soir même de la première rencontre; (…) et dans le secret de son cœur déchiré, méconnu, elle rêve de béatitudes plus durables».

La critique formulée par Huguenin de la conception moderne de l'amour et, surtout, de la conception moderne de la vie, se prolonge dans celle qu'il fait de la Nouvelle Vague. Il «règle son compte» à ce «mythe» en fustigeant le dégoût du monde, la tristesse de jouir et la fatigue de vivre de ses héros. Michel Poiccard dans À bout de souffle, interprété par Jean-Paul Belmondo, en est une illustration.

On a beaucoup vanté la «fureur de vivre» des personnages archétypaux de cette époque — Sagan, par exemple, qu'Huguenin écorne à plusieurs reprises —, mais ils semblent plutôt habités d'une fureur de se fuir, une fureur face à leur insensibilité et leur ennui qu'ils comblent par des succédanés d'existence: l'alcool, la vitesse, «tout ce qui grise, fait tourner la tête et fermer les yeux». À rebours, Huguenin détestait la dispersion. Son Journal est traversé par une lutte perpétuelle avec lui-même pour échapper à la facilité, la faiblesse et l'indifférence.

Son exigence envers lui-même était impitoyable. Il voulait à tout prix se résister, se vaincre. Il recherchait la compagnie de la solitude et de la souffrance pour mieux descendre en lui et bâtir son œuvre. À l'heure où nous laissons la tyrannie du divertissement distraire nos vies et éventrer nos résolutions, Huguenin se dresse comme un rappel à l'ordre salutaire.

Aymeric de Lamotte à propos de Jean-René Huguenin, Le Figaro.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.8

421 – Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. 1238 – The Mongols burn the Russian city of Vladimir. 1250 – Seventh Crusade: Crusaders engage Ayyubid forces in the Battle of Al Mansurah. 1347 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 ends with a power-sharing agreement between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos. 1575 – Leiden University is founded, and given the motto Praesidium Libertatis. 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. 1590 – Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva is tortured by the Inquisition in Mexico, charged with concealing the practice of Judaism of his sister and her children. 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, rebels against Queen Elizabeth I and the revolt is quickly crushed. 1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, America, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II. 1807 – After two days of bitter fighting, the Russians under Bennigsen and the Prussians under L'Estocq concede the Battle of Eylau to Napoleon. 1817 – Las Heras completes his crossing of the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain. 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate. 1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was outlawed in the United States, including Delaware, when the Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 6, 1865. Delaware ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 12, 1901, which was the ninety-second anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. 1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute. 1879 – The England cricket team led by Lord Harris is attacked in a riot during a match in Sydney. 1885 – The first government-approved Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii. 1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments. 1904 – Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, Japan starts the Russo-Japanese War. 1904 – Aceh War: Dutch Colonial Army's Marechaussee regiment led by General G.C.E. van Daalen launch military campaign to capture Gayo Highland, Alas Highland, and Batak Highland in Dutch East Indies' Northern Sumatra region, which ends with genocide to Acehnese and Bataks people. 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce. 1915 – D. W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles. 1922 – United States President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio set in the White House. 1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Republicans establish the Interprovincial Council of Santander, Palencia and Burgos in Cantabria. 1942 – World War II: Japan invades Singapore. 1942 – World War II: Dutch Colonial Army General Destruction Unit (AVC, Algemene Vernielings Corps) burns Banjarmasin, South Borneo to avoid Japanese capture. 1945 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada commence Operation Veritable to occupy the west bank of the Rhine. 1945 – World War II: Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet inmates from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde on the island of Usedom by hijacking the camp commandant's Heinkel He 111. 1946 – The first portion of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first serious challenge to the popularity of the Authorized King James Version, is published. 1946 – The People's Republic of Korea is dissolved in the North, establishing the communist-controlled Provisional People's Committee of North Korea. 1950 – Cold War: The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established. 1955 – The Government of Sindh, Pakistan, abolishes the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4,000 km2) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants. 1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor. 1960 – The Hollywood Walk of Fame is established. 1962 – Charonne massacre: Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police. 1963 – The regime of Prime Minister of Iraq, Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim is overthrown by the Ba'ath Party. 1965 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and explodes, killing everyone aboard. 1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre: An attack on black students from South Carolina State University who are protesting racial segregation at the town's only bowling alley, leaves three or four dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina. 1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time. 1971 – South Vietnamese ground troops launch an incursion into Laos to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail and stop communist infiltration. 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth. 1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time. 1981 – Twenty-one association football spectators are trampled to death at Karaiskakis Stadium in Neo Faliro, Greece, after a football match between Olympiacos F.C. and AEK Athens F.C. 1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night. 1983 – Irish race horse Shergar is stolen by gunmen. 1986 – Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton. It is the worst rail accident in Canada until the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec derailment in 2013 which killed forty-seven people. 1989 – Independent Air Flight 1851 strikes Pico Alto mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport (Azores) killing all 144 passengers on board. 1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day. 1993 – An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 and an Iranian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 collide in mid-air near Qods, Iran, killing all 133 people on board both aircraft. 1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act. 2005 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil politician and former MP A. Chandranehru dies of injuries sustained in an ambush the previous day. 2010 – A freak storm in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, burying over 2 miles (3.2 km) of road, killing at least 172 people and trapping over 2,000 travelers. 2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada. 2014 – A hotel fire in Medina, Saudi Arabia kills 15 Egyptian pilgrims with 130 others injured.

[histoireettralala]

Eylau

Soult’s corps had half its men out of action. Augereau’s no longer existed as a fighting entity. Davout’s was desperately engaged on the right. Murat brought up the whole of his cavalry, eighty squadrons. At the head of Grouchy’s dragoons, he trotted them across the exposed French front, and then, forming each squadron to the right, galloped them in line after line upon the Russian infantry. Grouchy’s dragoons, followed by Hautpoul’s cuirassiers, followed by Klein’s dragoons, and on the flanks Lasalle’s hussars, Milhaud’s chasseurs. The shock and fury were so great that the first two lines of the Russians were bowled completely over, and the French found themselves halted by the third and last line. They regrouped, but were now faced by the uninjured men who had turned about. They were caught between two fires, with not enough room to gather momentum to burst their way out. But Bessières charged with the mounted grenadiers and chasseurs of the Guard and, reopening the breach made by Murat’s horsemen, drove right through the remaining Russian line.

Napoleon had only to throw in his infantry to complete the destruction of the Russians [..]

Hubert Cole, The Betrayers

[alexvanarsdale]

Ben Pook Art >> https://twitter.com/BPookArt

Just painted a picture of Jacque and Cheval at Eylau! Words cannot express how happy this makes me! It's like seeing them in real life!

The details he captured are just amazing! From Jaque's uniform to Cheval's blond mane and dappled coat. It's just so perfect!!!!If you are not following this fantastic artist already please do! His art is just so good!

[northernmariette]

A quick biographical sketch of Murat

This is my fifth post regarding the Marshals listed in an article about Napoleon’s ability to spot talent. The article is taken from the September 2019 issue of Historia magazine, bearing on its front page’s the title “Napoleon, les secrets d’un chef de guerre”.

After Berthier, Davout, Lannes, and Masséna, Murat is the next Marshal on the alphabetized list of the eight highlighted Marshals:

Murat, the man of the attack

If there ever was a marshal with a sense of panache, it is Murat, perhaps even too much so. On a battlefield, he was the one to draw all eyes. His garish uniforms even earned him some derision from Napoleon. But when on horseback leading a charge, he earned nothing but admiration. During the Prussian campaign in 1806, he vanquished everything in his path. At Eylau, a year later, at the head of more than 10,000 horsemen, he thwarted a vigorous Russian attack. Eight years earlier at the second battle of Aboukir in Egypt, he had captured the enemy leader almost single-handedly, wielding his sparkling oriental sword. Murat was the leading man, the one born for the first attack. A brilliant cavalryman, he was less adept at politics; he committed himself to a failed alliance with Austria in 1813. He was not at Waterloo. He was executed by firing squad at Pizzo in Italy on 13 October 1815, aged 48.

Murat was one of three Marshals whose absence was deeply detrimental at Waterloo; the other two were Davout and Berthier. Berthier, of course, was already dead; but it was Napoleon’s mistake to exclude Murat and Davout. 

I don’t know enough about Murat to comment on his political abilities; were they lesser than those of his siblings? An aspect of his life I am curious about is how he was perceived by his Neapolitan subjects, and how he is perceived in contemporary Italy.

I do question how Napoleon treated Murat, if he wanted more compliance from his brother-in-law: it seems to me that Murat was more responsive to praise than to the kind of upbraiding he so regularly received from the Emperor.

[historyman101]

Prince of the Empire Joachim Murat, King of Naples (1767-1815)

With the Poniatowski saga officially in the works, I figure I should talk about some of the key characters and figures that will be prominent in my story. First up is not Napoleon himself, but one of his right-hand men, Marshal Murat.

He is, of course, Poniatowski’s closest friend in the Grande Armee, and it’s not hard to see why. The two men are very similar to each other and both lived very colorful lives that ended in a similar tragedy.

I realize that @joachimnapoleon is more knowledgeable about Murat than I am, so no doubt I will get some things wrong in my assessments of him. Take all of my opinions on the guy as you will.

Murat fascinates me because his rise and fall mirrors that of Napoleon’s. He came from humble origins (an innkeeper’s son), rose not only to be one of the senior-most Marshals in the empire, but a king. However, he was also a man of contradictions. Exceptionally brave, but ultimately looking out for himself. One of Napoleon’s trusted friends, but ultimately betrayed him (I know about Marshal Marmont, but Marmont isn’t in this story). A superb horseman, but showed a lack of concern for his horses (especially in 1812). A renowned ladies’ man, but happily married with children. An ardent republican, but was made a king.

Before Murat became a legend in military history, he was destined to be a clergyman, but dropped out of college and ran away from home to join the cavalry. He was stuck on the sidelines for much of the Revolutionary Wars until his fateful meeting with Napoleon Bonaparte during the 13 Vendemaire Uprising. Then a captain, he was charged with fetching the cannon that allowed Napoleon to mow down the Royalist mob.

He faithfully served Napoleon in Italy and Egypt, earning a reputation as a courageous leader of cavalry and a dashing beau sabreur. Murat always tried to make a splash and draw as much attention as possible, usually through his extravagant uniforms, and the tiger pelt on his horse’s back. 

As an officer, he had keen tactical instinct. Aggressive, fearless, and charismatic, he was the perfect cavalry commander on the battlefield. He often put himself at great personal risk, such as when he rode into battle at Jena with only his riding crop. His finest moment was probably at Eylau, where his massed cavalry charge saved Napoleon’s army and turned what looked to be a bloody defeat into a bloody draw. 

On the battlefield, he was peerless. But as an administrator, he struggled. Nowhere is this better demonstrated in Spain, where his only answer to every problem was to call out the troops and order firing squads. When you’re a hammer, everything else looks like a nail. 

Spain brings me to what I think is when things began to go downhill for Murat: when he received the throne of the Kingdom of Naples. I’ll probably get some flak for saying this, but I think Napoleon making him a king was perceived as a slight, as I can’t imagine Murat not wanting the throne of Spain. For someone with a big head like his, Naples was seen as second prize, and I don’t think he ever forgave Napoleon for it.

Not to say I don’t understand where he was coming from, but it strikes me as very petty and ungrateful. The guy was a college dropout who had risen to be not only one of the most senior marshals in the empire but also became Napoleon’s brother-in-law. Count your blessings, Prince, and consider yourself fortunate to even be made king. 

However, Murat, from what I’ve read, was well-liked in Naples. He reformed the army and the government, tried his best to limit French influence, and even turned a blind eye to smuggling, which, naturally, hurt his friendship with Napoleon.

He was still trusted enough to lead the cavalry in the Russian campaign, but as in Spain, he showed his limitations as a commander. He drove his men and his horses hard in Russia, and that had disastrous consequences for the French army. Not only did horses die from exhaustion and lack of fodder, but even failed to distribute proper horseshoes. He had no sense of strategy and only knew how to fight, as he did with great skill at the Battle of Borodino and during the retreat from Moscow.

By 1813, Murat was no longer concerned with aiding Napoleon, but hanging on to his kingdom, and thus entered secret negotiations with the Allies to keep his throne. Even as he did so, he still proved an adept leader of cavalry at Dresden and Leipzig, and even came close to turning the tide at the latter. 

But after Leipzig ended in defeat, he switched sides and joined the Coalition. But even on the winning side, he failed to engage the French in a decisive battle and when Napoleon abdicated in 1814, his troops had seen no real fighting. When it became obvious to him that he would lose his kingdom, he tried in vain to ally himself with Napoleon, who refused to give him refgue in France. When his kingdom was overthrown, and he was tried and found guilty by the Neapolitan court, he met his death with courage befitting of Europe’s greatest horseman. 

His last words to his firing squad were, “aim for the heart, but spare my face.”

Murat reminds me a lot of a Greek tragic hero or a French George Armstrong Custer. Courageous and charismatic, but brought down by his own pride and arrogance. He was at his best when facing the enemy on the field, but he never had a mind for strategy or planning. His planning always essentially boiled down to “Let’s get ‘em!” When he tasted power, he became more interested in holding onto it rather than supporting who had given him that power in the first place. He was ultimately self-interested and forgot what allowed him to become royalty to begin with, and that proved his downfall.

Marshal Berthier said it better than I ever could: “You are only a king by the grace of Napoleon and French blood. It’s black ingratitude that’s blinding you.”

[josefavomjaaga]

(Yes! A post about paintings that does not mention Soult … ooops.)

One impression I have got so far on reading up more on the medical service is that Dominique Larrey was an excellent self-promoter. (And no, that does not much endear him to me. But that's me.) In particular, he seems to have been very aware of the importance of (official, propagandistic) art in Napoleon’s Empire, and was keen on figuring in it. He was close friends with painter Anne-Louis Girodet, who after Larrey’s return from Egypt did a portrait of him:

After the battle of Eylau in 1807, when it became clear that the court would commission a painting of the battle, Larrey wrote to Girodet, who he believed would receive that job, in order to tell him that he wanted to be in that painting "in his function of chirurgien-inspecteur général". And just to be on the safe side, he added:

The advantage of being painted by you, my friend, will increase the satisfaction of my heart if I am fortunate enough to occupy a small corner of your canvas. If, against my expectations, you do not wish to treat this subject, please ask Monsieur Gros to grant me this satisfaction. It is a truth that he will place in his painting if he finds it worthy of being there.

Gros in the end did receive the commission – and added the guy to the painting who had actually been in charge of the surgeons during that campaign: Percy.

And then there’s the matter of Lannes’ death. Larrey on June 14 1809 writes a long letter to his wife (after, as he says, having been struck by deep melancholy ever since Lannes had died), and it ends with – yet another idea for how he could figure in a painting:

I wish someone had the idea of painting the moving scene in which the Emperor embraced his worthy friend carried on a stretcher, shortly after having undergone my operation. This is where I could appear with honour, if such a painting were ever done.

While trying to tell myself that a military surgeon who saw people dying every day must have felt very differently about the matter, I still can’t help but find this remark tasteless to the extreme. If he had said something about wanting to be remembered next to his friend or something, I would understand. But no. He wants to be in an official painting with Napoleon, and Lannes’ death is just a nice opportunity for that.

There is even a second letter regarding this matter. When Denon (on Larrey’s suggestion?) really commissioned a painting, the surgeon Ribes in Paris demanded some more details on the event. Larrey complied with this demand on 18 July 1809, adding:

At the request of M. Denon, military painter, who wants to depict the death of Lannes, Larrey sends this information to his friend, but expresses the formal wish that he not be named [as being involved in the matter]; he nevertheless takes the opportunity to ask to appear in this painting.

I do not know if there ever was an "official" painting done in the end. Part of me hopes no.

[joachimnapoleon]

🌟

(Also requested by @josefavomjaaga)

Best Murat Moments (in no particular order) for the historical figure ask meme.

-Aboukir when he rode straight at the enemy commander, Murad Bey, demanded his surrender, was shot through the jaw in response, then sliced off a couple of Murad Bey's fingers with his sword in retaliation and took him prisoner. Then proceeded to write an absolute gem of a letter to his dad from his hospital bed, telling him to assure the ladies that he might be slightly less handsome, but no less brave in love. The entire episode is just so perfectly Murat.

-His charges at Eylau and Jena

-Heilsberg where his horse was shot out from under him and he remounted, missing one of his fancy red boots with gold trimming, and went back into battle with one foot bare (the French and Russians proceeded to fight over the fallen boot as if it were a trophy). He ended up getting surrounded by Russians and was saved by General Lasalle; then Murat saved Lasalle's life moments later.

-Borodino where, now a 45-year-old king, he was nevertheless in the thick of the fighting and personally leading charges and attacks all day long, and fending off Cossacks who were hoping to claim him as a prize. Then after the battle, was personally superintending amputations of wounded soldiers (including Russians), and giving them glasses of wine afterwards. And didn't finally retire for the night until he'd taken a moment to write to his ten-year-old daughter to let her know he was okay.

[history-crushes]

Let’s talk about Joachim Murat’s hair. I just…

25-3-1767, Labastide-fortuniere France/13-10-1815 Pizzo Calabro, Italy, shot

Murat was one of Napoleon’s Marshals, the second one created. He was also Napoleon’s brother-in-law and King od Naples. He’s known also as Dandy King or King of the Braves. He was one of the best Cavalry General, he led the biggest charge ever in Eylau.

[historical-babes]

Joachim Murat (1767-1815).

King of Naples and French Marshal.

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He was a Marshal of the Empire and Admiral during the reign of Napoleon. Murat received his titles in part by being Napoleon's brother-in-law through marriage to his younger sister, Caroline Bonaparte, as well as personal merit. He was noted as a daring, brave, and charismatic cavalry officer as well as a flamboyant dresser, for which he was known as "the Dandy King".

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In October 1795 he was on hand in Paris at the moment that Napoleon Bonaparte was entrusted with the mission of suppressing a royalist insurrection; Murat’s contribution in bringing up cannon won him a place as aide-de-camp to Bonaparte for the Italian campaign of 1796–97. He again served his chief well in the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire, year VIII (November 9, 1799), by which Bonaparte seized power as first consul.

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In the Italian campaign of 1800 Murat helped win the decisive Battle of Marengo, and in 1801 he rapidly concluded the campaign against Bourbon-ruled Naples by imposing the Armistice of Foligno. As governor of Paris in 1804, he was included among the first generals promoted to the rank of marshal after Napoleon’s coronation as emperor on December 2. In 1805 he played a conspicuous role in the Austerlitz campaign. At Jena in 1806 his energetic pursuit completed destruction of the Prussian Army, and at Eylau in 1807 his headlong charge saved a desperate tactical situation.

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Rewarded with the title of grand duke of Berg and Clèves, Murat began to have dreams of sovereignty, and when he was sent to act as Napoleon’s lieutenant in Spain he tried to gain possession of the unoccupied Spanish throne. Though Napoleon gave the Spanish throne to his brother Joseph, he rewarded Murat with Joseph’s former place as king of Naples.

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In Naples Murat not only satisfied his own vanity by a lavish court display but also carried out important reforms, breaking up the vast landed estates and introducing the Napoleonic Code.

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In 1812 Murat took part in Napoleon’s Russian campaign and once more distinguished himself at Borodino; but, left in charge of the shattered Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow, he abandoned it to try to save his kingdom of Naples. In 1813 he wavered between loyalty to Napoleon and negotiation with the allies. The Austrians signed a treaty with him, but the former Bourbon rulers of Naples raised objections, and his situation was in doubt when Napoleon returned to France in 1815.

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He then staked his hopes on an appeal to Italian nationalism, but his Neapolitans were defeated by the Austrians at Tolentino, and he was forced to flee to Corsica. In October he made a last, hopeless attempt to recover Naples virtually unaided and was taken prisoner and shot.

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He had four children.

[Submission]