An archive of primary source material relating to Joachim Murat, Marshal of France and King of Naples
"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 …
Continue reading “From the prison to the tomb is but a short step…”
A fairly balanced view of Murat from Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine, and adopted daughter of Napoleon. Murat was a good man. He was dashingly brave, and possessed military talents together with a great desire to please and to be admired. He sought to have good manners and overdid them. One saw by his …
Continue reading “He had an excellent heart, a mediocre mind…”
A recollection of Murat at the Battle of Leipzig (October 1813): "At that moment, a polished military staff arrived from the right, at the head of which was a superb horseman wearing a toque surmounted with a great plume, dressed in a sort of Brandenbourg tunic, his beautiful horse covered with a golden-clawed tiger skin. …
Continue reading “I want to live another quarter of an hour…”
Madame Louise Fusil relates a brief encounter with Murat during the 1812 campaign, prior to the crossing of the Berezina River as the French army was in retreat. "The King of Naples held his horse by lash, and his hand was set on the door of my carriage. He spoke an obliging word when he …
Source: Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon, by Constant, Premier Valet de Chambre, Vol. III, translated by Walter Clark. Akron (The Saalfield Pub. Co.), 1900, pgs 207-208.
-Josephine Bonaparte to Caroline Murat, undated. Source: Memoirs of the Empress Josephine: With Anecdotes of the Courts of Navarre and Malmaison, Volume 1, by Georgette Ducrest. London (H. Colburn), 1828, pgs 231-232.
Source: Memoirs of Constant: First Valet de Chambre of the Emperor, on the Private Life of Napoleon and His Family and His Court, Vol. 4; translated by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. New York (The Century Company), 1907; pg 212.
Source: Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon, by Constant, Premier Valet de Chambre, Vol. I, translated by Walter Clark. Akron (The Saalfield Pub. Co.), 1907, pg 286.
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