When you’re visiting Madrid, it’s painful to be an admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s similar to how I felt on my visit to Vietnam when I heard the Vietnam War called “the War of American Aggression.” In Madrid, what I know as “the Peninsula War” became “the War for Spanish Independence.” History’s a matter of […]
Finding Napoleon Bonaparte in Madrid – Part 1 Read More »
Napoleon Bonaparte was a brilliant military and political leader, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t make disastrous mistakes. In that regard, the Russian Campaign of 1812 deserves top billing. His misadventures in Spain, poignantly illustrated in this painting from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, come in a close second. I won’t
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Part 1: Napoleon Bonaparte at Wellington’s House When I traveled to London earlier this month, it wasn’t difficult to find traces of Napoleon Bonaparte. After all, he was arguably the British Empire’s greatest foe until the World Wars of the twentieth century. What I found is that, at least in some quarters, Napoleon was
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Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a prominent ornithologist, was married to his cousin, Zénaïde, Joseph Bonaparte’s daughter. Charles named the dove the Zenaida.
Dove Named After Napoleon Bonaparte’s Niece Read More »
As my friend and noted Napoleonic scholar, J. David Markham, likes to say, “Napoleon Bonaparte is everywhere.” You are so right, David! Sure enough, while I was vacationing in Alaska, I came across this species of seagull, commonly called “Bonaparte’s Gull.” It’s not, however, named after Napoleon. It’s named after his nephew, Charles. Charles Lucien
Finding Napoleon in Alaska? Yes! Read More »
I’ve been doing research into Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte―the ex-king of Naples and Spain―and his twenty-year stay in the United States. Along the way, I learned to my surprise that Jacques-Louis David’s grand painting of Napoleon’s coronation (see my recent blog) had visited the United States in 1826. That set me off investigating. I
