NEW MAP: Europe 1813: Battle of Dresden (26 August 1813) https://buff.ly/3yURbgq In August 1813 the Armistice of Pläswitz came to an end and Austria declared war on France. Now facing all three major continental powers, Napoleon defeated the Allies at Dresden but was unable to follow through on his success. #1810s #1813 #19thcentury #august #august26 #austrianempire #carta #cartographer #cartography #bonaparte #europe #europeanhistory #napoleonic #napoleon #napoleonicwars #historias #historical #historicalatlas #historisch #historydegree #historyfacts #historymatters #historyteacher #maps #prussia #russianempire #saxony #militaryhistory #frenchempire #newmap (at Dresden, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPklxZIAM9P/?utm_medium=tumblr
Prepare yourselves… For a wallpaper version of AvaniaNo.6’s back inside cover illustration, featuring Captains Fontania Eraclare and Alders Wight.
As you might imagine from their detailed uniforms, I spent a while finishing this pic. I am pretty happy with how it turned out though, and both of them sorely needed some updated artwork for their character bios!
Napoleon’s funeral carriage crossing the Place de la Concorde, by Jacques Guiaud
AlthoughNapoleon died in 1821, his body was not transported to France until 1840. On December 15 of that year, his remains were conveyed through Paris in a grand funeral procession, culminating in a mass at the Dôme des Invalides. One observer called it “the strangest mixture of sorrow and triumph that human ingenuity could have derived.”
Although the casket didn’t reach the Invalides until 3 p.m., people with tickets to the event started arriving as early as 8 a.m. One of them wrote:
Several hours elapsed ere the procession appeared, and here it is painful to have to remark how little dignity prevailed in the interim. In one place national guards were seen getting planks, and breaking them for the purpose of making fires; in another national guards, soldiers of the line, &c. formed a ring and danced round a flag; elsewhere an officer was in the centre; and in the third place a hat…. At length, however, the funeral car was perceived on the other side of the river, and some order was restored, the troops that had piled their arms hastened to snatch up their muskets and to form their ranks….As the car passed, each head was uncovered; and although the shouts of ‘Vive Napoleon! Vive l’Empereur!’ joined to the cries of ‘Vive le Roi! Vive le Prince de Joinville!’ were few and far between, a certain degree of emotion prevailed, and many an eye was suffused with tears. To be just, however, it must be said that far less enthusiasm prevailed than was expected on the occasion.
Caricature of the assassination attempt on the Duke of Wellington in Paris, by Charlet, 1818. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
Although the Duke of Wellington did not face as many assassination attempts as Napoleon did, there were at least two serious plots to assassinate him. In the first attempt, the bullet fired by the would-be assassin failed to hit the Duke. The second attempt, in which Wellington was one of many intended victims, was foiled before it could be carried out. For details, see “Assassination Attempts on the Duke of Wellington.”
Emmanuel de Grouchy, later Marshal Grouchy, as Colonel of 2nd Dragoons in 1792, by Georges Rouget, 1835
Marshal Emmanuel de Grouchy was a skilled cavalry officer who had a long career of service in the French army. This record has been overshadowed by accusations – originating with Napoleon and his followers on Saint Helena – that Marshal Grouchy was in large part responsible for Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. After Waterloo, Grouchy went into exile in the United States, where he began the frustrating process of defending himself against allegations of incompetence, cowardice and treachery. For details, see “Marshal Grouchy in America.”
The army takes an oath to the Emperor after the distribution of eagle standards on 5 December 1804, by Jacques-Louis David, 1810
What is it with Napoleon and eagles? Napoleon’s troops carried an eagle standard into battle; his son was nicknamed the eaglet; Napoleon’s return to France in 1815 was called the flight of the eagle. For a look at how the eagle became a symbol of Napoleonic France, and what those Napoleon eagle standards were all about, see “Why is Napoleon associated with eagles?”
The Tuileries Palace, by Antoine Ignace Melling, between 1815 and 1830
One thing that Napoleon I and Louis XVIII had in common was a fondness for the Tuileries Palace, a magnificent building in Paris that no longer exists. The Tuileries Palace stood on the right (north) bank of the River Seine, at the eastern end of the Tuileries Garden, next to the Louvre Palace, to which it was joined. It was home to the rulers of France for almost 300 years. For glimpses of the Tuileries after the French Revolution, see “The Tuileries Palace under Napoleon I and Louis XVIII.”
Caroline Bonaparte Murat, Queen of Naples, by Louis Ducis, circa 1810
Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte Murat was ambitious and enterprising. Although Caroline and her husband, Joachim Murat, owed their wealth and their crowns to Napoleon, when it looked like Napoleon was going to be defeated in 1814, they allied with Napoleon’s enemies. French Foreign Minister Talleyrand wrote that Caroline “had the head of Cromwell upon the body of a well-shaped woman. Born with much grandeur of character, strong mind, and sublime ideas; possessing a subtle and delicate wit, together with amiability and grace, seductive beyond expression; she was deficient in nothing but in the art of concealing her desire to rule; and when she failed in attaining her end, it was because she sought to reach it too quickly.” For details about this fascinating Bonaparte sibling, see “Caroline Bonapare Murat, Napoleon’s Treasonous Sister.”
“As sun broke over the black wart in the Atlantic, a banging on the door disturbed the island’s governor at his toilet. ‘Your Excellency, he is missing,’ stammered Engelbert Lutyens, Captain of the Twentieth Regiment of Foot. 'General Bonaparte is missing.’”
On this day fictionally in 1821, a new Napoleonic adventure began.
Louis-Victor Baillot, the last surviving veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, died on February 3, 1898, at the age of 104. In an interesting coincidence, the longest-lived Napoleonic Wars veteran, Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, died exactly one year later, on February 3, 1899, at the age of 110. For more, see “Remarkable Cases of Longevity in the 19th Century.”
Following on from @victoriansword‘s post on sword grips and my one showing three more British swords. Here are three French swords of the same era. They are from top to bottom: 1. An XIII Heavy Cavalry troopers sword 2. An XI Light Cavalry troopers sword 3. Light Cavalry officers sword.
Both the AN XIII and AN XI are big swords, larger by some margin than their British counterparts.
This is just a fraction of the illustrations of Richard Knötel on wikimedia commons. They aren’t all French uniforms, they are from all the European nations and different eras.
Among the diplomatic gifts presented to Alexander I during his visit to England in 1814, was the saber, stored now in the Arsenal of the State Hermitage Museum .
The inscription on the left side of the blade :
“This Iron having fallen from the Heavens was, upon his visit to England, presented to His Majesty ALEXANDER EMPEROR of all the RUSSIAS, who has successfully joined in Battle, to spread the Blessings of PEACE throughout EUROPE By James Sowerby FLS GS Honorary Member of the Physical Society of Gottingen &e, June 1814”
Sword, presented to Alexander I, forged from a meteorite Sarah of Good Hope, was found in 1793, at the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape of Good Hope.
The inscription on the right side of the blade:
“PURE METEORIC IRON found near the Cape of Good Hope”
Fantastic example of a Georgian presentation sabre with a lot of interesting quirks going on. To begin the style of sword is more for show than function, with the very curved and light un-fullered blade. Then there is the style, which modern collectors often attribute to infantry ‘Flank officers’ but could just as easily be used for a cavalry officers dress sword.
Finally there is the use of meteoric iron in the forging. The use of meteoric iron for making blades is as old as history, and occurred across multiple cultures. A dagger made of meteoric iron was discovered in the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun, and the kriss short sword of Southeast Asia are said to use it in their forging. And the symbolism of using iron from the heavens was quickly seized upon. However on this blade the multiple imperfections caused by additional impurities clearly illustrate the inherent challenges faced when using this material.
Soon on the blog - photoshoot in my new black #napoleonic era #dress with fancy chemisette #historicalsewing #costuming #regency #reenacting #blackdress #mourning #historicalsewmonthly
