An archive of primary source material relating to Joachim Murat, Marshal of France and King of Naples
General Auguste-François-Marie Colbert de Chabanais met Murat in 1797, and served as his aide-de-camp in Italy and Egypt, where he was badly wounded; he returned to serve under Murat once more just before the battle of Marengo. In 1803, Murat attended his wedding. Colbert was a promising young officer rising quickly through the ranks; like …
Continue reading “His courage… always grew with his position”
Returning to the memoirs of General Belliard, Murat's close friend and chief of staff, we have a letter from Caroline Murat to Belliard, written on 20 October 1812, two days after her husband's defeat at the Battle of Tarutino. Caroline expresses her hope that the army will arrive in Moscow soon; Napoleon had just begun …
Returning to the memoirs of General Griois with a scene from the Russian retreat. Arriving back at the ruined city of Smolensk on 13 November, Griois, after procuring some shelter and food, seeks out Murat to report on the loss of his artillery. He finds him with his wounded chief of staff, Belliard, and is …
Continue reading “A king… appearing as a friend caring for another friend”
Another excerpt from Dedem de Gelder, backtracking to the 1812 campaign. After Napoleon's abandonment of the Grande Armée (the command of which he had left to Murat), the political ramifications of the disastrous campaign are already being felt; the Prince of Schwarzenberg confirms to Dedem that Austria, Napoleon's reluctant ally since his marriage to Marie-Louise, …
I've been trying to dig more into the relationship between Murat and Fouché lately, which has led me back to an episode I've always found particularly interesting: the alleged plot between Fouché and Talleyrand, while Napoleon was in Spain in late 1808, to have Murat succeed Napoleon in the event that the Emperor died before …
Some entertaining Murat-related excerpts from the rather acerbic diary of Sir Robert Wilson, during and immediately after the peace negotiations at Tilsit. Wilson was a British general and diplomat; in 1806 he joined General Hutchinson on a diplomatic mission to the Prussian court, and witnessed the battles of Eylau and Friedland. He would later participate …
I know many of my readers here are already aware of this from following me on social media, but it's only fitting that I announce the publication of my very first book here too! Joachim Murat: A Portrait in Letters, is nowavailable through Amazon, in both paperback and Kindle editions. In the coming weeks, it …
A little interlude before I get back to translating Vandal: three letters from Napoleon’s chief of staff, Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, to Murat. The first letter is written weeks before Murat was officially crowned King of Naples; the other two are several months into his reign, carrying into the 1809 campaign, which Murat was forced to …
Murat entered Warsaw on the 28th of November, 1806, enthusiastically welcomed by the Poles, who believed the French would bring them independence. Even the Duchess d'Abrantes, who was no great admirer of Murat, wrote of that his "splendid type of chivalrous valour... pleased that brave and most impressionable people, which was ready to follow with …
Continue reading “It once served… one of our most valiant sovereigns”
My good friend JosefaVomJaaga has graciously allowed me to share her translation of an excerpt on Murat from Friedrich von Müller’s Erinnerungen aus den Kriegszeiten von (Memoirs of the Wartime of) 1806-1813. Müller (1779-1849) was a Bavarian statesman, and a friend of Goethe; he would eventually manage to persuade Napoleon to permit Weimar to retain …
Project Murat 