Category: On This Day in Napoleonic History

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General Bonaparte finds out about Josephine’s betrayal

Although Napoleon suspected something wasn’t right, no one, not even his brother Joseph, had the courage to tell him about Josephine’s long-running affair with the dashing lieutenant Hippolyte Charles. It was Jean-Andoche Junot who confirmed the rumours to Napoleon during the Egyptian campaign. Junot told Napoleon that the affair was the talk of Paris and showed him an incriminating letter. Why Junot chose this particular moment for his revelation is unclear.

‘I have a great, great deal of domestic sorrow now the veil has been completely lifted,’ Napoleon wrote to Joseph six days later. ‘Only you remain there for me on this Earth. Your friendship is very precious to me. It is my sad condition to have these feelings for one person in my heart alone. You understand me.’

To add insult to injury, this letter was intercepted by the Royal Navy and published in England. Napoleon was adamant in his desire to divorce Josephine as soon as he returned to Paris. He wrote to Joseph, requesting his brother to find a country dwelling for him not far from Paris. ‘I’m so tired of human nature. I need solitude and isolation. My feelings have dried up.’

No letters from Napoleon to Josephine survived from the Egyptian campaign. It was possible that he stopped writing to her when he found out about the affair. Josephine was aware Napoleon knew the truth because of a letter from her son Eugène de Beauharnais, in which he wrote that he hoped she hadn’t been as wicked as everyone claimed.

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Napoleon arrives at Glubokoi

Having left Vilna, Napoleon established his army magazines at Glubokoi, where he stayed for four days in the Carmelite convict, attending mass, setting up a hospital, inspecting the Guards and attending to his army’s needs, of which there were many. The conditions of the march were atrocious and the army wasn’t doing well. ‘Hundreds killed themselves, feeling no longer able to endure such hardships. Every day one heard isolated shots ring out in the woods,’ recalled a German soldier belonging to the Grande Armée. There was hardly any food and a large percentage of the troops contracted typhus.

Napoleon didn’t realise how bad the situation really was. Although he still paid as much personal attention to the army as he always had, the sheer size of the Grande Armée meant that he relied far more on the reports of his commanders than ever before. The culture of the army had changed on this campaign. Napoleon was no longer close to his men. His marshals, who would never before dream of deceiving him, regularly lied to him about the state of the troops.

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Napoleon boards the HMS Bellerophon

Although Napoleon didn’t know it yet, it was to be the first step on his fated journey to Saint Helena. The ship of the line was to take the deposed Emperor to the shores of England. A member of Napoleon’s entourage remembered, ‘The deepest sadness showed on every face and when the British gig arrived to take the Emperor on board, the most heart-rending cries were heard from officers and sailors alike who shouted ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ across the water until he reached Bellerophon. Some trampled on their hats in despair.’

Napoleon didn’t receive a salute, unlike his departure for Elba the previous year. The excuse of the Royal Navy regulations, which stated that it was too early in the day for a salute, was used to avoid giving him one.

‘I come on board your ship to place myself under the protection of the laws of England,’ he said to Captain Frederic Maitland. At dinner the following night Napoleon told the Captain, ‘If it would not have been for you English, I should have been Emperor of the East. But wherever there is water to float a ship, we are sure to find you in our way.’

As Napoleon was about to embark for his final destination, the faraway and isolated island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were finally over.

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Legion of Honour is created

Legion of Honour was established, open to all social classes and aimed to award outstanding services to France. The first medals looked like five-pointed crosses with a red ribbon. The award that had ‘Honneur et Patrie’ as its motto came with a significant monetary stipend. The Legion was not limited to the army, however – civilians could also attain the honour if they could demonstrate military virtues.

The award was not universally popular, however. Republicans believed the Legion of Honours was akin to reintroduction of social distinctions and undermined revolutionary concept of equality. At the meeting of July 14, 10 out of 24 councilors present voted against the institution. Nine of them later accepted either the Cross or the title of Count.

Napoleon said to his critics, ‘You tell me that class distinctions are baubles used by monarchs. I defy you to show me a Republic, ancient or modern, in which distinctions have not existed. You call these medals and ribbons baubles. Well, it is with such baubles that men are led.’

Captain Blaze, an officer of the Imperial Guard, reminisced, ‘The Emperor Napoleon was often known to take off his cross of Legion of Honour and place it with his own hands on the bosom of a brave man. Louis XIV would first enquire if this brave man was noble. Napoleon asked if a noble was brave.’

Napoleon was right about the motivational power of the Legion, especially in the army, where it would inspire countless heroic actions.

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The Battle of Chobrakit

As Napoleon traveled from Alexandria to Cairo, his troops were attacked by the Mamluks at Chobrakit. The French army formed battalion squares. The Mamluks, who looked magnificent with their colourful costumes, medieval armour and beautiful horses, circled the army, sometimes galloping and sometimes pacing. They made some ridiculous attempts to break the squares but were unsuccessful. French soldiers were unimpressed. ‘Against a disciplined army, it was only ridiculous,’ recalled an officer. It was true that with their antiquated weapons – axes, bows and arrows, the Mamluks were no match for French muskets.

The encounter enabled Napoleon to practice tactics he would later employ successfully in subsequent battles but it did nothing to discourage the Mamluks. ‘Let the French come. We will crush them beneath our horses’ hooves, we will ride through them and severe their heads from their bodies like watermelons,’ they threatened.

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Napoleon proclaims himself the protector of a new German entity, the Confederation of the Rhine

This move by Napoleon effectively dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and it was formally abolished by the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who merely became Francis I of Austria, on August 6. Confederation of the Rnine consisted of 16 client states allied with France. By 1807 many other kingdoms, principalities and duchies had joined the Confederation, including the Kingdom of Westphalia.

The Confederation was obligated to provide 63,000 German troops for Napoleon, a number that would soon increase. The French Army soon became ‘the army of ten tongues’, as it was known in Russia. Following the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, a nascent sense of German nationalism was born.

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Napoleon surrenders to the British

The deposed Emperor sent Anne Savary and Emmanuel Las Cases to HMS Bellerophon to negotiate the terms of his surrender with the 38-year old Captain Frederick Maitland. Napoleon was willing to do anything possible to avoid being captured by the Bourbons and the Prussians for fear of execution.

The interview with Maitland was promising. The Royal Navy officer told Napoleon that he would be received well in England. Although Maitland had no authority to make any promises, Napoleon assumed from what he heard that he would be given an asylum as the guest of the British rather than a prisoner of war. It was wishful thinking on Napoleon’s part.

On the night of the 14th he composed a letter to the Prince Regent. ‘Your Royal Highness,’ he wrote, ‘Exposed to the factions which divide my country and the enmity of the European Powers, I have ended my political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to seat myself at the hearth of the British people. I put myself under the protection of its laws, which I claim from Your Royal Highness as the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous of my enemies.’ Napoleon’s letter went unanswered.

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National Assembly reconstitutes itself as National Constituent Assembly

The Revolution was underway in Paris. For someone who later displayed great political genius, Napoleon completely misjudged the opening stages of the Revolution. ‘I repeat what I said to you. Calm will return. In a month there will no longer be a question of anything,’ he wrote to Joseph.

The early principles of the Revolution resonated with Napoleon, who read Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other philosophes religiously. The ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality were close to his heart. As an atheist and a realist, he supported the anti-clerical nature of the Revolution. As someone who felt no sympathy for the king, he didn’t mind the weakening of monarchy.

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Napoleon marches to Cairo

Ordering the fleet to be moored in Aboukir Bay, Napoleon and his army set off to Cairo on what was the first desert crossing by a Western army.

The soldiers were unaccustomed to heat. Faced with severe temperatures, mosquitoes, snakes and scorpions, the swirling sandstorms, hostile Mamluks and Bedouin tribesmen riding on their flanks, ready to kill stragglers, morale plummeted.

The army suffered terribly with thirst, since many of the wells along the way had been poisoned or filled with stones. Berthier recalled that water sold for the same price as gold on that march. Soldiers were seen to throw themselves in the Nile in desperation. ‘Well, General, are you going to take us to India like this?’ shouted a disgruntled soldier to Napoleon. General Bonaparte replied, ‘No, I wouldn’t undertake that with soldiers such as you.’

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Queen Louise of Prussia arrives at Tilsit

The queen’s sole objective was the return of Magdeburg on the west bank of the Elbe. Although she was very beautiful, Napoleon merely remarked that she was ‘as handsome as it could be expected at 35.’ Describing their meeting to Berthier, he wrote, ‘She believes I came all the way here for her nice eyes.’ When Napoleon offered her a rose, she replied, ‘Yes, but with Magdeburg.’

Her charms had no effect on Napoleon and Magdeburg was joined to Westphalia.