Let's Judge The Signatures Of Dead Frenchmen - Marshals of the Empire Edition
plus some bonuses at the bottom
This is a shitpost I've just wanted to do ever since I noticed Masséna's signature.
I know signatures are not meant to be legible, god knows mine isn't, but look at it, it's all the same letter!
I'm lazy so I'm only going to judge the ones on wikimedia and a few extra from letters, sorry to Marmont and others who did not get their signatures scanned and then made transparent for osme reason who is going to forge a dead frenchman's signature
Of course Bessières has a nice one:
Berthier is also pretty nice:
Loopy! Wait as has been pointed out to me, that could be an Alex. Did anyone ever call him Alex or Al
I love Lannes' because he circles his name!
A fancy guy like Murat's gotta have a fancy one, right?
Nice but not as loopy as Berthier's, honestly not the fanciest here
Davout has a nice legible one
Let's look at Soult's-
Woah, he's taking up a bit of space there! Where are you going with that t, champ?
Augereau is nice and straight I'm in awe as someone physicalyl incapable of writing in a straight line even on lined paper
Mortier is also really nice!
but also Ed Mortier. He called himself Ed. Do you think his friends also called him Ed or perhaps Eddie
MacDonald is Massena tier
can you guess who this next one is
hint: not french
Lefebvre's goin for the loop:
Jourdan is all classical:
Cant find Bernadotte pre-kinging but dude why is your kingograph so large who transcribed it like this
@phatburd linked me St Cyr's and
Very nice!
Victor lets see
I think I see a V in there. And a treble clef.
Oudinot:
I can kinda make it out!
But anyway I've been saving the best for last.
I have no words for this artistic masterpiece by Marshal Michel Ney.
Is that an umlaut or an emoticon? What are the two lines doing - error of transcription or part of the actual signature? Why do the loops just keep on going????
Is he just self conscious of how short his name is?????
Bonus!
Eugène de Beauharnais how's your-
he just didnt know when to stop.
Junot:
circle! pretty circle! napoleon did say he has pretty handwriting
Duroc:
Man he turned that c into an underline
This was fun! Next I'll rate all their coat of arms of something
123 notes
·
View notes
Ida Saint-Elme about Junot
Some of the most colourful descriptions of Junot's decline in 1813, while he was gouvernor of the Illyrian provinces, actually comes from Ney-fangirl No. 1, La Contemporaine, Ida Saint-Elme. And while there seems to be some doubt about Ida really going to Illyria during the first half of 1813, what she describes may still be very true. Her editor was one Charles Nodier, who had been called to Trieste as a librarian by Junot's predecessor Bertrand and who must have been an eye-witness to most events. But before she goes into details about her pretended sojourn in Trieste, Ida gives a short description of Junot:
Much has been said about the Duc d'Abrantès. Few soldiers have deserved to be immortalized in the bulletins through more brilliant and more numerous feats of arms.
I'm not quite sure was she is referring to here. What were Junot's major feats of arms?
But it would be unfair to see him as nothing more than a common soldier. A writing master would have envied his pen and a fencing master his fine bearing under arms. He held himself marvellously in a salon; a little upright, a little tense, showing off with some affectation his height, his legs, those natural and brilliant advantages which were disputed in the army only by Count Pajol, his rival in bravery and loyalty. He fired weapons like M. de Bondy, and recognised only Fournier and Delmas as his rivals for the pistol. He had less successful ambitions as a dancer. I think that his merit in this area has been somewhat exaggerated and I do not see that his memory has much to gain from succeeding in the Anglaise and the Montferrine.
Like Chamillard, the minister of Louis XIV, Junot played billiards in a remarkable manner. When it came to billiards in particular, he should not have been offended by any rival claims. In this genre, he had tried everything, executed everything, perfected everything. He was prouder of it than of the most brilliant memory of his military successes. For example, it was to him that we owe the instrument that cuts the billiard cue without slowing down the game, which Bouvard had just brought to him from Paris. I have seen high lords, grave diplomats, bishops and princes compliment him on it.
She then continues with the, I believe, rather infamous anecdote of Junot drinking "sulphuric ether" at dinner.
33 notes
·
View notes
Just some doodles
Just some doodles of General Lasalle after reading the book by Marcel Dupont. Now I think he might be an interesting guy...what a mischievous boy!
3 notes
·
View notes
The one niche thing im good at is historical clothing. so. Historically inspired l'manberg uniforms :)
The uniforms are from the french imperial guard circa late 1800s/early 1810s: Wilbur's uniform is a chef de bataillon, fusiliers-grenadiers regiment. The other one is of a lieutenant general. Tommy and tubbo's uniforms are the same; cuirassiers (which yes is a cavalry regiment but shhh). Eret's is a trumpeter of line infantry if im not mistaken and Fundy's is from the medical regiment.
(Most of my choices were purely based on aesthetics, researching this far back in military history is hell as is and im not about to spend another week doing it. )
Anyway Happy birthday to the one and only country for which im a patriot
3K notes
·
View notes
Napoleon about Laure Junot
A letter I came across in the newly published correspondence on Napoleonica.org (thank you so much for pointing this publication out, @joachimnapoleon!). It's written shortly after Junot's death.
To General Savary, Minister of the General Police
Dresden, 7 August 1813
I approve of your arrangement with the Duchesse d'Abrantès to designate a country where she can retire and live from now on. You will let her know that, having been governess in Paris, having behaved badly there, having disrupted her family's affairs in such a way as to ruin it and leave her children without bread, it is time for this to come to an end and for her not to be spoken of any more.
This strong emphasis on financial affairs and "bad behaviour" by the duchess (read: her sexual affairs) makes me wonder if dear Laure, when she enriched her memoirs with the dramatic scene of Savary breaking into Junot's safe to take out his private correspondence with Napoleon, may not have left out a tiny bit of information about other stuff he looked for...
44 notes
·
View notes