Continuing with another excerpt from the memoirs of Baron Dedem van den Gelder, ambassdor to Naples from the Kingdom of Holland. Dedem, who was very critical of Murat, here gives credit to Murat for the good he did as King of Naples; he also discusses Queen Caroline's contributions towards advancing female education, and her work …
Tag: 19th century
“This latest separation seems more unbearable…”
Apologies for the infrequent updates lately; I've been working on a side project involving Caroline Murat's 1810 letters to her husband, which may or may not turn into something bigger down the line. So here is one of those letters, written in the middle of Caroline's very long absence from Naples that lasted roughly nine …
Continue reading “This latest separation seems more unbearable…”
A marriage of separations
One of the many Murat-related side-projects I've been meaning to get to for a while now, has been to put together a decent estimate of how much time Joachim & Caroline Murat spent apart, for one reason or another, during their fifteen years of marriage. I finally made myself sit down and do the work, …
“His eyes… were very similar to those of cats”
Returning to the memoirs of Louise Murat; Louise pauses from relating the events of the last days of her parents' reign in Naples, to provide some interesting perspectives on two well-known (and controversial) figures who visited the Kingdom in 1813 and 1814, respectively: Joseph Fouché, Napoleon's notorious former Minister of Police; and Louise's aunt, Pauline …
Continue reading “His eyes… were very similar to those of cats”
“The fire of discord continually grew”
Anthony Boldewijn Gijsbert van Dedem, Baron van den Gelder, was a Dutch soldier and diplomat who would serve Louis Bonaparte, during his brief reign as King of Holland, as ambassador to Naples. Taking up his post in Naples in 1806, when Louis's older brother Joseph was its King, Dedem would continue to serve in this …
“He wasted his hours…”
Continuing on with Part 6 of excerpts from the memoirs of Neapolitan General Guglielmo Pépé. The atmosphere of uncertainty in Naples pervades through the winter of 1814-15; Pépé is critical of Murat's inactivity during this crucial time, when Naples and the rest of Italy are teeming with revolutionary sentiments. News of Napoleon's escape from Elba …
“Can you conceive all my unhappiness?”
The memoirs of Chateaubriand contain two letters from Murat--then under a sort of house-arrest near Toulon while Napoleon marched off to his final defeat at Waterloo--written to a woman whose name is not provided. Biographer Hubert Cole gives her name in The Betrayers as one Madame de Civrieux, whom he describes as Murat's "close friend and probably …
“The only happy hours of my life…”
Continuing on with Part 5 of excerpts from General Pépé's memoirs; here we see Pépé puzzling over whether Murat actually liked him or not. On the other hand, he has no doubt whatsoever as to how Caroline felt about him (an animus probably not improved by his disparaging comment about dancing, one of the royal …
“She rushed into the midst of the flames”
Towards the end of the months of festivities and celebrations following Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise, yet another ball was held in honor of the Emperor and his new Empress, on 1 July 1810, this time by the Austrian ambassador, the Prince of Schwarzenberg. A fire broke out, caused by a drooping candle setting one of …
“Pronounce my fate unsparingly”
Following his final defeat against Austria at the battle of Tolentino at the beginning of May 1815, Murat made a hasty retreat to Naples. Advised by Caroline to depart the kingdom, as the Austrians and English flat-out refused to deal with him, Murat left Naples the day after his return, and soon made his way …
Project Murat 