Post-Austerlitz Complaints and Recriminations

(aka Imperial Alert: The girls are fightingggg)

"After Austerlitz, as after Ulm, there was a rich crop of mutual complaints and recriminations among the Marshals. A bitter feud between Bernadotte and Davout was developing and there were respective rows between Lannes and Soult, Soult and Davout, and Murat and Lannes. To crown everything Lannes to offense at the Emperor's bulletin which he felt, gave insufficient credit to the work done by Lannes' corps, and took himself off on a prolonged, self-awarded leave. It is significant that while Napoleon was swift to punish dereliction of duty by his Marshals in future years, he let this peccadillo pass."

(Humble, Richard. Napoleon’s Peninsular Marshals. 1975.)

Marshal Bernadotte /King of Sweden as Karl XIV Johan

I sleep on coffee shop AU, but something something Ikea

Gascons be Gascons™ — Halloween Edition 👻

Almost finished with all the marshals!!

Baltic Sea - Stockholm

The founder of the current Swedish royal family (King Charles XIV John) was a marshal of France (Marshal Bernadotte) during the Napoleonic Wars.

Hiiiii 😫💖How are you guyssss?

Here’re some cute and silly drawings. THEY ALL LOOK SO FUNNY (especially Ney 🥲) There’re so many things I wanna draw, but I just don’t have the time waaahhh 😭

Anyways, I hope y’all are doing fantastic 💐😚

I’m losing it at the guy who posted on r/napoleon asking if it was worth it to make a side trip to Paris from a trip to Poland to see Napoleon’s tomb

mentioned that losing his virginity was on his bucket list

Receiving comments being baffled and a few comments going “lose your virginity on/at the tomb!”

And then clarifying that he meant his napoleonic virginity, never visited Austerlitz or Waterloo or held a genuine sword

why would you fucking phrase it that way

ON THE LEFT WE HAVE A NERD

WITHOUT HIM THE ENTIRE GRANDE ARMEE WOULD FALL APART!!!! HE ALSO GOT HIS MISTRESS TO LIVE IN THE SAME HOUSE WITH HIS WIFE BECAUSE HES JUST THAT GOOD AT DIPLOMACY AND HE HAD A CREEPY STALKER SHRINE TO THAT MISTRESS BEFORE HE WAS FORCED TO GET MARRIED

ON THE RIGHT WE HAVE A KING

I STILL HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA HOW A FRENCHMAN BECAME THE KING OF SWEDEN ALSO HES REALLY CLOSE WITH HIS MINISTER MAGNUS BRAHE AND APPARENTLY IT WAS REALLY SUSPICIOUS WHEN THEY WERE HAVING “POLICY MEETINGS” IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN BED

WHICH OF NAPOLEONS MARSHALS OF THE EMPIRE IS GOING TO WIN THE TITLE OF MOST PEOPLE CLICKING ON THEIR BUTTON???

LINKS TO SEE WHAT YOU MISSED OUT ON

MARSHALATE POPULARITY POLL

MARSHALATE PITY POLL

Some outdated memes but with Napoleonic personalities

And Desaix about another fan favourite

Bernadotte: young, full of fire, vigour, fine passions, above all of character, very estimable; he is not loved because he passes for crazy, his troops the best kept in the army

Bernadotte, Minister of War

"While Napoleon was campaigning in Egypt, in July 1799 Bernadotte was appointed Minister of the War with the support of Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte. His abrasive style meant he didn’t last for long. When informed there was no money in the treasury, he sent orders to stir up the men at the front, and before long the necessary supplies were furnished. After the incident Directory was alarmed at Bernadotte’s popularity and dismissed him from office in September. When Napoleon returned to France from Egypt, Bernadotte unsuccessfully attempted to have him arrested for desertion and breaking the quarantine that applied to ships returning from Egypt. When asked by his brother-in-law whether he would support the coup of 18 Brumaire, Bernadotte remained neutral."

(Debutify. “Jean Baptiste Bernadotte - Part 1: French Soldier to Swedish King.” Napoleonic Impressions, 15 Jan. 2021, napoleonicimpressions.com/blogs/napoleonic-impressions/jean-baptiste-bernadotte-part-1-french-soldier-to-swedish-king.)

i imagine this is how card games went between them

Hello there! In the last few weeks your page turned into one of my favourite places on the internet through your knowledge and your posts about Murat and all around about the napoleonic era. I do wonder: Do you know about Murat‘s relationship with the other marshals? I am aware about your really nice post about Murat‘s relationship with Lannes but what about the others? I believe to have read that Murat disliked Davout. At the other hand he seemed to have a positive relationship with Bernadotte and Ney? I could be wrong though. I hope I do not annoy with that question and wish you a beautiful day. c:

Hello! Glad you’ve been enjoying my page, always nice to see more fans of Murat/the Napoleonic era in general popping up here. ^_^

Regarding Murat’s relationships with his fellow marshals, this is one of those subjects in which the amount of information is frustratingly sparse, so most of my views are just from piecing together what fragments I’ve come across here and there. And my guesswork may very well be wrong; my knowledge about the marshals is nowhere near complete. 

Murat & Bernadotte: It’s generally been accepted that they were friends, at least early in their careers, because of their shared revolutionary sympathies and backgrounds. So I was a bit surprised to come across a letter from Murat to Joseph Bonaparte, which I included in my book, in which Murat says he’d resign if Bernadotte were ever given preference over him for a military command, after Bernadotte sided against the Bonapartes on 18 Brumaire. That being said, Murat had invited Bernadotte to his wedding ten months prior to writing that letter (though I’ve always wondered if this was just to nettle Napoleon for having opposed his marriage to Caroline). I really haven’t come across what their relationship was like in later years, but it would be interesting to look into.

Murat & Bessières: These two went off together, as young men from the Lot, to join the Constitutional Guard in 1792. He also attended Murat’s wedding in January 1800. Beyond that, I’ve found depressingly little on their personal relationship. Bessières apparently did become quite close with Eugène de Beauharnais, which does make me wonder if his relationship with Murat might’ve soured at some point, since poor paranoid Murat tended to be one of those “the friend of my enemy is also my enemy” types. Nevertheless, he and Caroline both wrote letters to Bessières’ widow after his death in 1813; sadly I’ve never been able to read them, since they’re in the French Archives. 

Murat & Ney: At least during the 1805 campaign, these two didn’t get along very well. Shortly after Murat’s victory at Wertingen, Napoleon placed the entire right wing of the army (which included the corps of Lannes and Ney) under Murat’s orders, which neither Lannes or Ney were happy about. At one point Ney argued with Murat over his dispositions and whipped out a map to show Murat why he was wrong, to which Murat said “I understand nothing of your plans; it is my way to make mine in the presence of the enemy!” The remark stung Ney enough that he threw it back at Murat prior to the attack at Elchingen, in front of Napoleon, turning to Murat and shouting, “Come, Prince, come with me, and make your plans in the presence of the enemy!” But a lot of the campaign-tension stuff shouldn’t be read too deeply into when it comes to analyzing friendships; Murat and Lannes butted heads on campaign too. War is stressful, and generals/marshals wanted to show each other up and win the most prestige. Ney still took the waters at Barèges with Lannes and Murat in July of 1808, so Lannes and Ney were two of the first people with whom Murat got to share the wonderful news that he was officially a king now. I don’t think Murat and Ney ever became particularly close friends, but they at least seemed to get along, and work together, better during the 1812 campaign. 

Murat & Soult: Apparently disliked each other, but I haven’t found much mentioning them in relation to each other either way. @josefavomjaaga has posted some excerpts from the memoirs of one of Soult’s aides which mention Soult’s displeasure with Murat though.

Murat & Davout: Their mutual dislike really seems to have crystalized during the 1812 campaign, in which they quarreled repeatedly (at one point Murat wanted to fight him, and Belliard held him back as he was about to head for Davout’s tent with a pistol), culminating with Davout accusing Murat of “black ingratitude” towards Napoleon when Murat was ranting about him at one point. I think they were just an oil-and-water pair, totally incompatible with each other personality-wise, and I also think it grated on Davout (and probably many of the other marshals) that Murat had been made a king by Napoleon by virtue of being an imperial brother-in-law, and that they officially had to refer to him as Your Majesty from then on.  

Murat & Berthier: This is an interesting one, and I wish I had more information. Early on, Murat disliked Berthier and seemed to think Berthier had it out for him (and maybe he did, since Murat admitted to having spoken against him; but, again, Murat was kind of a paranoid wreck and thought virtually everybody had it out for him). Between this and the fact that his relationship with Napoleon was on an early down-turn, Murat actually wrote to Barras at the beginning of the Egyptian campaign (I believe from Malta) and asked to be reassigned. At some point though, his relationship with Berthier improved. There are some interesting letters from Berthier to Murat in Murat’s published correspondence which speak to them having a closer relationship. In one, I can’t remember the year off the top of my head but I want to say sometime between 1806-7, Berthier says that he misses the lunches they used to share together. In another from around that time or perhaps 1808, Berthier laments that Murat has been nonresponsive to his previous letters and is clearly wounded by it. In the summer of 1808, Berthier writes Murat another touching letter as Murat is about to become a king, and Berthier regrets that soon he will not be able to write to him with the same effusion. Throughout Murat’s reign, Napoleon would typically leave it to Berthier to kind of “soften the blow,” so to speak, when it came to giving Murat lectures on how he should behave as a king, and to try to soothe his hurt feelings after Napoleon’s typically insensitive reprimands. They both endured Napoleon’s stormy moods during the 1812 campaign and had to figure out how to pick up the pieces together once Napoleon abandoned the army. Berthier initially supported the choice of Murat, due to his rank, to take command rather than Eugène, but soon realized Murat wasn’t capable of handling it, and wrote a ciphered letter to Napoleon saying that he needed to be replaced immediately. I don’t think it was personal; Murat was just terrible under pressure, and wasn’t the right man for that particular job. Anyway, I think anyone would be hard pressed to find two guys who put up with more of Napoleon’s shit over the years than Berthier and Murat, and after 17 or so years of working so closely together and going through so much shared hardship, I can’t help but think they had bonded at least a bit. 

Those are the main ones; as far as the other marshals, I haven’t come across enough info on Murat’s relationships with them to have anything to say. If anybody has any more information to add on anything, feel free. :)

Thanks for the ask!

Bernadotte, a traitor? A personal opinion.

It's still Bernadotte's birthday for a few minutes as I start this, so here is my offering for today's birthday boy.

Here is my inexpert, insufficiently researched opinion about Bernadotte being, or not being, a traitor. Right off the bat, a traitor to whom, to what? To Napoléon? To France? In my opinion, he was a traitor to neither. I might be all over the place with this, so please bear with my disorganised rambling.

Someone much wiser than I am wrote something, somewhere, that there are no unmixed motives. So did Bernadotte act from completely noble motives? I doubt it. Were his actions justified after he became heir to the Swedish Throne? In my opinion, yes.

Because there are some people who think that it was inappropriate for Bernadotte to marry Désirée Clary, I will put this to rest right from the get-go. Napoléon had dumped Désirée. He had *dumped* her. He had done so when it was much more serious to break up an engagement than it is now. So Napoléon had no claim at all anymore on Désirée. At the time of her marriage to Bernadotte, Napoléon was certainly more politically and socially prominent, but Bernadotte was no slouch himself.

Personally, I suspect Napoléon was not too proud of the way he had treated Désirée, and this is part of the reason he went easy (sort of) on Bernadotte, a general he disliked, if not more. Similarly Bernadotte had no great affection for Napoléon. These two never got along. Napoléon did not like rivals, for one thing, and Bernadotte had had a successful military career himself and was politically ambitious.

Anyway, enough about the early days. It is well known that Bernadotte had treated his Swedish prisoners well during the napoleonic campaigns, and that this created a very favourable impressions at the Swedish court. In 1810, when Bernadotte was asked to become the Crown Prince of Sweden he was in disfavour with Napoléon and perhaps felt that there was no future for him in France. The Swedish offer must have seemed a gift from Heaven. As I see it, here was his chance to get out from under Napoleon's thumb, acquire some elbow room and satisfy his own political ambitions. Still, he sought Napoleon's consent before accepting the offer. I hardly see any traitorous action yet.

Bernadotte was not naïve about the reasons for the Swedish offer. Russia had just wrested Finland from Sweden, and the Swedes wanted a military man to wrest it back. Bernadotte chose another path: he came to an agreement with Russia, and increased Sweden's territory by seizing Norway instead.

Here is where we get into the whole treason business: it was expected that once Bernadotte assumed de facto rule In Sweden, which happened immediately as the King was no longer fit to reign, he would remain faithful to the interests of France. Bernadotte looked to the interests of Sweden instead. In other words, he refused to keep one foot in each camp and brought both feet into the Swedish camp. In my opinion, this was the right thing to do.

Let me offer this metaphor : suppose you have this legendary sports team. Just for the heck of it, let's say the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. It includes many star players, one of which spent his long career on this team, all the while with a coach who just loved to browbeat him. Then the star player gets a dream offer to become a coach himself for a less prestigious team, but with carte blanche to mold it according to his own ideas and principles. Would this new coach act properly if he enjoined his players to go easy on his former team, just because he owed his fame to his time there as a player? My answer is no, no, no, no! The new coach's loyalty has to be to his present team, the one who wanted him as a coach; anything else would be wrong.

This is an oversimplification, of course, and I have no doubt that jealousy and resentment played a part in Bernadotte's choices. However, on the face of it I am convinced Bernadotte acted properly by protecting the interests of his new country. If the interests of Sweden lay with joining a coalition against Napoléon, then this was the proper decision for Bernadotte to make.

If I were to study Bernadotte's life in greater depth, something I would like to do, I might come to another opinion. In the meantime, I see no treason in his putting Sweden's interests first.

Berna◈