Napoleon: A Biography

Fouche's deputy, Pierre Fran�Yois Real, solemnly but gloatingly told Napoleon: 'You've only uncovered about a quarter of this af ...

in the Strasbourg area; and being one of the ringleaders in a plot against the life of the First Consul. D'Enghien did not deny ...

enemy. So what were his motives and how do we assess his moral stature as a result? Napoleon himself mostly tried to brazen the ...

one time both shared the concurrent favours of Mile George and that d'Enghien used to make fr equent clandestine trips to Paris ...

their interests were secure; the gains made by the Revolution were irreversible. Even the doomed Cadoudal realized he had played ...

'Madame Mere de Sa Majeste l'Empereur' that she boycotted the imperial coronation in pique. It was evident that now, above all, ...

or power and fortune, chose the latter. On a promise of a kingdom, he agreed to have his marriage annulled by one of the complic ...

particular liaison but she had less power in Paris, where for a while Napoleon had a 'love nest' in the rue de Vennes. Here he f ...

of undress. The sequel was more outrageous than any jealous scene hitherto. Napoleon came storming back to the drawing-room, cau ...

carry overtones of Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire, aside from convincing royalists and peasantry that the Concordat was h ...

followed by ministers, councillors of state, the diplomatic corps and the sullen Bonaparte princesses. Napoleon made a very late ...

had already been discussed with the Pope at great length. The personal crowning of Josephine which occasioned her tears is more ...

achieved a Canossa in reverse and made the Pope look foolish. As Pius now realized bitterly, he had been gulled: there would be ...

last two batons to representatives of the 'old Army', Serurier and Kellermann. Of mixed social origins, but with a predominance ...

Massena, soon to be Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling, had an annual income of 638,375 francs from five. Davout had six endow ...

Because the Emperor always demanded absolute obedience, they were hopeless when they had to exercise individual initiative, and ...

suffer fools gladly and had an unrivalled eye for the spurious and phoney. He despised Murat and saw right through Bernadotte, w ...

Augereau gradually lost their place as important military actors; Moncey and Mortier spent their later careers away from Napoleo ...

perquisites attaching to them varied widely. An imperial nobleman had no feudal privileges, had to pay tax and was not exempt fr ...

the defect of all parvenus, that of having too great an opinion of the class into which he had risen.' Napoleon's third aim - re ...