Two letters from Caroline Murat, newly-crowned Queen of Naples; the first to her uncle, Cardinal Fesch; the second, to her sister-in-law/friend/rival Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland. Caroline has only recently arrived in Naples, and is not quite adjusted to her new home yet; her accommodations are dreadful, and she already feels forgotten by her …
Tag: Letters
“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 …
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“One is not a king to obey.”
Hardly any letters from Murat to his wife Caroline still exist; Caroline was in the habit of destroying most of her received correspondence, and Murat rarely kept copies of the letters he sent her. In the eight volumes of his correspondence published by Paul Le Brethon, there is not a single letter from Murat to …
“Perhaps you love me still in the depths of your heart.”
While his wife remained in Paris attending Napoleon's new empress well into the summer of 1810, Murat continued organizing his expedition against Sicily, which he hoped to reunite with Naples under one--his--crown. But unbeknownst to Murat, though his brother-in-law had given the expedition his approval--including a small force of French troops, commanded by French generals--Napoleon …
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“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 …
“We would be driven to a state of barbarism”
Continuing with Louise Murat's memoirs, we arrive at Murat's decision, in 1815, to march in support of Napoleon following his brother-in-law's triumphant return from Elba. Murat had been urged by Joseph Bonaparte to try to convince Emperor Francis of Austria to ally himself to Napoleon; but the letter Murat ends up sending Francis towards the …
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“You can never know how attached to you I am”
Today--25 March--is the shared birthday of Joachim & Caroline Murat (in 1767 & 1782, respectively), so I've put together a little something to provide some insight into their relationship. There's one period in particular during which an abundance of letters exists from Caroline to Joachim: their long separation(s) during most of 1810. Joachim and Caroline …
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“The false words attributed to him”
Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné-Joseph, Count de Las Cases, was one of the few men to voluntarily accompany Napoleon into exile on Saint Helena, along with his son. There, he served the deposed Emperor as a secretary, recording numerous conversations with Napoleon and taking extensive notes, which he later turned into the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène following his expulsion from the island …
“I am for you now only the man who is tolerated with difficulty”
Murat's relationship with Napoleon was tempestuous, and at some point in the near future I'm planning to attempt a thorough, multi-part write-up on it. I've covered a lot of the events/correspondence between them in 1813 leading up to Murat's defection, but it should be understood that their relationship had been in a fairly steady decline …
Continue reading “I am for you now only the man who is tolerated with difficulty”
