In this excerpt from Louise Murat's memoirs, Louise discusses how her father became drawn into the cause of Italian unification, why he broke away from the Allies in 1815, and his final, disastrous campaign against Austria. Source: Louise Murat, Souvenirs d’enfance d’une fille de Joachim Murat, pages 206-213. *** It was thus that after fall of Napoleon, tranquility was …
Tag: Caroline Bonaparte
“You have deigned to notice that I was a bit late…”
I translated a couple amusing little letters exchanged between Murat & Eugène de Beauharnais recently as part of a longer write-up on their relationship in response to a query from a Tumblr friend of mine, so I figured I'd post them here as well. In June of 1805, Napoleon made his stepson Eugène the Viceroy …
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“The spectators roared with laughter”
In the aftermath of Murat's treaty with Austria, Naples was soon swarming with eager travelers from all over Europe--particularly English aristocrats, who, prior to the Napoleonic wars, had been regular visitors to the area. Perhaps the most famous visitor received by King Joachim and Queen Caroline during this brief, idyllic period, was the controversial Caroline …
“Your generous conduct towards the King”
A letter from Caroline Murat to Joseph Fouché. Fouché had tried to save Murat’s life in 1815 by working behind the scenes to get him passports from Metternich to provide him safe passage to join his family in Trieste, after Murat had fled to Corsica from France (where he was being hunted during the “White Terror” …
“A long absence is very painful for one with a sensitive soul”
I came upon a gem today--a book of published correspondence from the 1812 campaign, specifically a compilation of letters intercepted by the Russians, both from and to soldiers in the Grande Armée. You can find the book on HathiTrust here (it might not be viewable outside the US, but it's probably elsewhere online as well). …
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Project Murat 