THE REAL NAPOLEON - THE UNTOLD STORY

THE REAL NAPOLEON
THE
UNTOLD
STORY

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Front
Cover

 2

PREFACE



“But
be
not
afraid
of
greatness:
some
men
are
born
great,
some

achieve
greatness,
and
some
have
greatness
thrust
upon
them.”

(William
Shakespeare:
Twelfth
Night)



And
one
man
was
the
product
of
all
three.



Napoleon
Bonaparte
was
both
a
man
of
his
times
and
yet
one
who
rose
above
the

circumstances
that
prevailed
around
him.
Compared
to
the
other
rulers
of
his

day
he
was
in
a
league
of
his
own
–
the
only
one
who
promoted
careers
open
to

talent,
the
only
one
really
open
to
the
new
ways
of
the
Enlightenment.
The
fact

he
took
177
scientists
and
experts
with
him
to
Egypt
proves
that
he
was
more

than
just
another
conqueror.
Only
a
man
with
a
mind
like
Napoleon,
as
he
stood

next
to
the
Great
Pyramid
of
Cheops
in
1798,
would
speculate
that
it
contained

enough
stone
to
build
a
wall
around
the
whole
of
France.




Napoleon
was
born
with
a
phenomenal
memory,
one
of
the
greatest
of
all
time,

and
he
possessed
an
incredible
ability
to
concentrate
on
the
task
in
hand.
His

capacity
to
work
astounded
his
ministers.
He
had
visions
beyond
the
ken
of
his

contemporaries
and
the
willpower
and
sheer
application
to
make
those
visions

come
alive.
As
William
Hazlitt
said
in
his
essay
On
the
Disadvantages
of

Intellectual
Superiority:
“The
chief
disadvantage
of
knowing
more
and
seeing

farther
than
others,
is
not
to
be
generally
understood.”
To
this
day,
Napoleon
is

often
seen
as
but
a
caricature
of
his
real
self.
Many
do
not
want
to
understand,

they
prefer
the
propaganda
of
their
own
nation
and
the
self‐delusion
that
they

alone,
and
their
valiant
army
or
their
heroic
navy,
were
the
ones
that
were

always
in
the
right.




In
an
age
of
persecution,
it
was
Napoleon
who
first
conceived
the
idea
of
a

Jewish
homeland
in
the
Holy
Land
and
only
he
allowed
the
Jews
the
same
rights

as
every
other
person
in
his
Empire.
And
he
was
the
only
ruler
to
employ
those

that
disagreed
with
him.
He
once
said
to
Caulaincourt:
“I
know
you
don’t
like
me,

but
you
always
tell
me
the
truth”.1




The
truth
was
the
last
thing
that
George
III,
Tsar
Alexander,
Francis
of
Austria

and
Fredrick
William
of
Prussia
wanted
to
hear.
Those
feeble
monarchs
believed

they
had
a
divine
right
to
rule
‐
even
though
they
all
proved
to
be
pretty

incompetent
at
the
task.
Their
forbears
had
found
it
easy
enough
to
carve
up

Poland
between
them,
and
they
expected
to
continue
in
the
same
old
way.
But

they
did
not
know
what
to
do
when,
as
they
repeatedly
attacked
France,

Napoleon
defeated
them
time
after
time.
There
wasn’t
enough
gold
in
the
vaults

of
even
the
Bank
of
England
to
buy
Napoleon’s
genius.
Thus,
in
a
military
sense,

did
he
have
greatness
thrust
upon
him.




On
a
personal
level,
he
put
those
arrogant
fools
to
shame.
As
Felix
Markham
has

said,
to
his
servants
and
secretaries:
“he
was
naturally
kind
and
considerate”.2

And
he
was
perhaps
the
only
exception
to
the
rule
that
‘no
man
is
a
hero
to
his

valet’
as
Marchand
proved
so
admirably
at
Saint
Helena
and
afterwards.
He
even

allowed
his
staff
and
officials
to
get
away
with
things
that
would
have
led
to

 3

imprisonment
or
far
worse
with
any
other
ruler.
One
example
is
a
letter
he
wrote

to
Decrès,
his
Minister
of
Marine:

‘I
regret
that
you
should
have
lost
your
temper
with
me;

but
in
a
word,
when
once
the
anger
is
over,
nothing
remains;

I
hope,
therefore,
that
you
feel
no
ill‐will
towards
me.’3




That
was
a
letter
from
Napoleon
to
one
of
his
staff.
For
decades
in
England,

Charles
James
Fox
was
denied
a
place
in
the
Cabinet
because
George
III
did
not

like
him.
Had
Fox
been
in
the
English
Cabinet,
there
would
probably
have
been

peace
between
England
and
France.
Napoleon
did
his
best
to
entice
even
former

enemies
into
his
government
in
order
to
do
the
best
for
France.




Napoleon
was
the
epitomization
of
the
New
Age,
a
living
example
that
through

hard
work
and
constant
endeavour,
even
those
from
more
humble
beginnings

could
make
it
to
the
top.
In
this
book
he
is
shown
for
what
he
was,
not
as
his

enemies
constantly
portrayed
him.





We
shall
see
his
passion
for
intellectual
enquiry,
the
kindness
he
showed
to

men
of
all
ranks
and
stations,
and
his
ability
to
identify
with
and
personify
the

hopes
and
dreams
of
his
soldiers
and
the
nation
as
a
whole.
With
the
aid
of

Coignet’s
and
Bourgogne’s
testimony
we
shall
see
the
Emperor
up
close
and

personal
and
how
he
came
across
to
the
common
man.




In
a
review
of
his
career
as
depicted
in
the
recent
English
Press
and
by
English

‘historians’
in
general,
we
shall
see
how
Napoleon
has
been
constantly
maligned

and
misinterpreted
and
a
forthright
rebuttal
of
their
accusations
duly
follows.




Napoleon
would
have
loved
the
Internet
–
so
many
facts
available
at
the
mere

press
of
a
button.
Its
overwhelming
sweep
has
enabled
me
to
glean
information

from
‘forgotten’
historians
like
Abbot
and
Runciman
who
have
a
completely

different
take
on
the
supposed
Corsican
Ogre
and
many
other
germane
facts

from
a
multitude
of
websites.
In
particular,
the
information
on
the
Tamboran

eruption
of
1815
ought
to
fascinate
anyone
who
has
ever
argued
over
the
details

of
that
much
debated
battle
‐
Waterloo.




Recently,
information
on
the
weather
conditions
prevailing
during
the
year

1812,
in
particular
the
lack
of
sunspots,
which
indicate
particular
cold
spells
here

on
Earth,
and
even
a
study
of
the
El
Niño
phenomenon
–
which
also
adds
unusual

turbulence
to
the
global
climate
–
show
that
in
1812
Napoleon
was
incredibly

unlucky
to
have
both
these
adverse
weather
conditions
to
contend
with
at
the

same
time.4




In
particular,
I
hope
a
new
generation
of
readers
will
take
a
fresh
look
at
the

history
of
Napoleon
Bonaparte,
without
that
dead
weight
of
bigoted
tradition

that
smothers
his
achievements
and
his
deserved
claim
to
greatness.



John
Tarttelin,


Conisbrough,
South
Yorkshire,
England,
2013

 4

CONTENTS









PREFACE

























































































































1




THE
REAL
NAPOLEON
































































































2




NAPOLEON’S
ACTS
OF
GENORISITY
AND
KINDNESS







































3




ENGLAND’S
WARS
AGAINST
NAPOLEON





























































4




ENGLAND’S
UNLIKELY
HERO
–
NAPOLEON
























































5




COIGNET
OF
THE
GUARD:
PART
ONE




































































6




COIGNET
OF
THE
GUARD:
PART
TWO



































































7




COIGNET
OF
THE
GUARD:
PART
THREE






























































8




COIGNET
OF
THE
GUARD:
PART
FOUR

































































9




COIGNET
OF
THE
GUARD:
PART
FIVE



































































10


NAPOLEON
AND
RUSSIA



























































































11


MARCH
OR
DIE:
THE
RETREAT
OF
1812





























































12


ASHES
TO
ASHES:
VOLCANOES
AND
NAPOLEON













































13


NAPOLEON
AND
THE
ENGLISH
PRESS
GANG




















































14


THIS
SEPTIC
ISLE:
BRITAIN
IN
THE
EARLY
C19TH









































15


NAPOLEON
THE
TAMBORA
ERUPTION
AND
WATERLOO




























16


HAIRSAY
AND
HERESY:
THE
MURDER
OF
NAPOLEON










































APPENDIX






























































































































IMPORTANT
NAMES









































































































BIBLIOGRAPHY













































































































For
more
information

please
go
to:‐

https://www.createspace.com/4131957



(A
new
Second
Edition
Kindle
version
is
also
available)





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