A continuation of Murat's letters to his eldest daughter Letitia; the letters featured in this part span from August of 1812 through the beginning of the 1813 campaign.
Tag: History
Forty letters to Letitia–Part One (I-X)
Letitia Murat, the eldest daughter of Joachim and Caroline, was born in Paris on 26 April 1802. If Joachim could be said to have a favorite child--and he obsessively doted on and spoiled them all--it would have been Letitia. Certainly she was his favorite correspondent. He wrote to her regularly during his absences, delighting in …
“The arts awaken the imagination, elevate the soul…”
Murat departed from Naples at the beginning of May 1812, to take command of the massive cavalry force assembled by Napoleon for the campaign against Russia. Traveling through Posen on his way to join the Emperor in Danzig, he took the time to write an extraordinary letter to his ten-year-old daughter Letitia. The letter--one of …
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A day in the life of the Murats–24 March 1810
Shortly after Napoleon had resolved to marry the Austrian archduchess Marie-Louise in the wake of his divorce from Josephine, he dispatched his youngest sister, Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples, to meet his bride-to-be in Munich. Caroline's journey began early in March 1810. She was to accompany Marie-Louise to Soissons, where the archduchess was (in …
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“I am sad, when I should be happy…”
I've neglected this blog for far longer than I meant to. Time to get back in the swing of things, with a translated letter from Murat to his daughter Letitia, written during the Russian campaign, on August 11, 1812. From Quarante lettres de Joachim Murat à sa fille Laetitia. I've rendered it in the same …
“Your son who loves you like his own true mother”
(Source: http://www.autographes-manuscripta.com/murat-autographe/) Letter from Joachim Murat to Maria-Letizia Bonaparte (mother of Napoleon; commonly referred to by the Emperor as "Madame Mère), Naples, 29 Feb 1812. At the time that Murat wrote this, his wife Caroline was in Paris, working once more as a go-between to salvage the increasingly fractured relationship between Murat and Napoleon. The …
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1) Joachim Murat in 1792, as a 25-year-old sous-lieutenant in the 12th chasseurs-à-cheval, by Jean-Baptiste-Paulin Guérin. 2) In 1811, as the King of Naples, by Guillaume Deschamps.
“Your father was preserved…”
Murat wrote the following letter to his eleven year-old daughter Letitia in the aftermath of the Battle of Borodino on 7 September, 1812. (I've left my translation of it in all-lowercase, as is the original letter.) The signature initials are for Joachim Napoleon, the name Murat adopted as King of Naples. my beautiful and good …
“After swearing roundly in the French fashion…”
Neapolitan General Pépé, who served Murat during his reign in Naples, relates the following anecdote of the King: One day he was returning from the Campo di Morte, when a woman in tears, and holding a petition in her hand, stood forward to present it to him. His horse, frightened at the sight of the …
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“From the prison to the tomb is but a short step…”
"Thus, I am offered a prison for asylum! From the prison to the tomb is but a short step: a king who cannot keep his crown has only the alternative of a soldier's death. You have arrived too late, my dear Maceroni, the dice are thrown; I've awaited three months, and constantly at the risk …
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Project Murat 