Napoleonic Era

A man of letters in the German struggle against Napoleon, writes Douglas Hilt, August Wilhelm von Schlegel had many French connexions and is a renowned translator both of Shakespeare and Sanskrit writings.

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, writes William Verity, the enterprising family of merchant bankers expanded their activities from Frankfurt to London and Paris.

Harold Kurtz writes that the torments of a false conscience formed a secret experience that was with Talleyrand all his life.

What he had always wanted to be, Talleyrand wrote in later life, was “the man of France”—not the representative of a party, a political system or a sovereign master. Does this ambition, asks Harold Kurtz, explain his various changes of allegiance, including his “betrayal” of Napoleon, for which many French historians cannot forgive him?

D.G. Chandler offers his examination of Napoleonic strategy during the “golden years” of the First Empire.

The exploits of his youngest brother frequently disturbed Napoleon; but, writes Owen Connolly, of all the brother-kings, Jerome was the most useful to him, the most soldierly and the most loyal.

During the last grim stages of the Napoleonic struggle, writes Jane Aiken Hodge, a gay young Englishman and his genial employer made an adventurous journey around Europe.

In contemporary eyes, writes D.W. Brogan, there was a close parallel between the Restoration of the Bourbons and the Restoration of the Stewarts. The revival of the French monarchy was expected to fail, and for the same reasons. Nor did this prophecy prove incorrect.

Despite its failure, writes D.W. Brogan, many French regimes have gone down with less dignity than that of the restored Bourbons.

Had Napoleen been killed or taken prisoner on his way to Egypt, writes W.A.P. Phillips, there would have been no Consulate and no Empire.