Napoleon: A Biography

Navy on permanent red alert, with the astronomical costs this entailed. The British were also wrongfooted diplomatically, by bei ...

suggest that the projected descent on England was always a feint, designed to mask continental ambitions. According to this view ...

rational objective - the invasion of England - being overwhelmed by the 'Oriental complex'? By r8o5 the European powers had lost ...

long-standing Russian desire to be a major diplomatic player in Europe; some said Alexander inherited an acute inferiority compl ...

personal feelings also entered into play: Pitt was involved in an anti­ Bonaparte crusade, Czar Alexander was moved by megaloman ...

get his way the Emperor had to rush through the necessary legislation by senatus consultum. He was now ready for the campaign it ...

Napoleon's army, the allied chain of command was poor. The Russian commander Kutusov was instructed by the Czar to take orders f ...

one to two days' march of each other. Every day Napoleon liked to ride out on a tour of inspection, accompanied by his chief of ...

Napoleon's next objective was Kutusov and the Russians: by threatening Vienna he would force the allies to concentrate there. Bu ...

Battle of Austerlitz French Army Corps ____. French line of march To Oimiitz l \ \ %. t t t To Spaleny, Mlyn, 1, Ia Hongrie 0 ...

was in good spirits which not even terrible falls of snow and hail could dampen. His chamberlain Alexandre Thiard recorded that ...

by horseback; under normal weather conditions a semaphore system conveyed intelligence at a rate of 120 m.p.h. The Russians bega ...

and from 3.30 on began to shoot holes in the ice of the frozen lakes around the Pratzen, making great watery craters. Many of Bu ...

r8os) was draconian. Austria ceded Venice, !stria, and Dalmatia to the Kingdom of Italy; Swabia and the Tyrol were given to the ...

The month before, Joseph and Massena had marched on Naples with an army of 4o,ooo, forcing Ferdinand IV to flee to Sicily; the ...

The issue of morale is crucial. Some historians have overdone this and painted a picture of a citizens' army, fuelled by revolut ...

detail. The other problem was that hardy perennial of all bureaucracies: proliferation. Beginning with 400 officers and s,ooo me ...

Guard was supplemented in r8o6 by the Middle Guard, formed from two fu silier regiments and added to in r812-13 by two regiments ...

CHAPTER SIXTEEN The afterglow of Austerlitz was ruined almost immediately by news of a financial crisis back in France. It must ...

contained as much piety and religious indoctrination as under the ancien regime. The fiasco over the imperial university was par ...