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geopolitics is about having fun and being yourself
Laure Junot and her memoirs (Part 1 of ?)
Not sure if many people will be interested in this, but it’s been on my mind for a while now. I find evaluating and fact-checking sources both tricky and intriguing, maybe somebody else will feel the same.
Some background information: I understand Laure’s memoirs were originally published in 18 volumes, from 1831 on, by a renowned book trader and publisher named Pierre-François Camille Ladvocat, in Paris. They were edited by equally renowned editors, one of them a certain Honoré de Balzac (who would at some point become Laure’s lover). The books had an enormous success and became true bestsellers, resulting in plenty of translations, abridged versions etc. They also earned their author the famous sobriquet "Duchesse d’Abracadabrantès", due to their unreliability.
First of all: Have I read Laure’s memoirs? A world of no. Eighteen volumes? Come on. I had enough trouble focusing while skimming through the one volume 14 so far. There isn’t much of a clear line in these memoirs; they do tell the main events chronologically, but the narrative is constantly interrupted with seemingly random anecdotes or flashbacks. At one point Laure (or probably rather her editors) put in several chapters summing up another book!
I guess to some degree, this is due to the very mixed audience supposed to read these memoirs. The royalists and former émigrés should also have a reason to buy them. But so some degree, the rather confusing interruptions may have happened on purpose, to muddy the waters and to distract from various topics Laure did not want to talk about in too much detail. Her attitude towards her husband in 1812/3 may be one of them.
That is the time frame, 1812 and 1813, for which I have looked at Laure memoirs somewhat more closely, because Eugène gets mentioned in those volumes. It also happens to be a particularly interesting time, because we actually have several other sources for Laure’s life for this period: mostly her letters to her new lover Balincourt, but also a letter from September 1812 that had been intercepted by the Russians and that shows that the marriage was troubled enough at the time for Laure to call Junot "vous" thoughout the missive, and several intercepted letters from Junot, showing that Laure wrote very rarely. Finally, for 1813 there’s the correspondence between Eugène and Napoleon about Junot that quite often makes me doubt Laure’s narrative.
To start, here’s a rather random occasion where Laure’s story seems to be contradicted by a more credible source. I only stumbled across it because I wanted to know exactly when Junot, who had been in Portugal and Spain under the command of Masséna since early 1810, did return to France. Laure mentions it in volume 14, chapter 1 of her memoirs:
Masséna returned to France and left command of the army of Portugal on 15 May of the same year, 1811, and Marshal Marmont took his place. A letter from the emperor himself had announced to Junot that he had another command in the north, and that the 8th corps was going to be merged into a new organisation of the army of Portugal; he could therefore leave Spain and return to France.
Emphasis in the original. In Napoleon’s correspondence, no such letter from Napoleon to Junot seems to be in existence in the archives (as a matter of fact, as I mentioned before, there is not a single letter from Napoleon to Junot after autumn 1809). Instead, we have the following letter from Napoleon to Berthier:
Alençon, 1 June 1811 My cousin, write to the Duke of Raguse that it is necessary that his artillery be well reassembled and well supplied before making any important movement, [… several more instructions ...] that he is master of giving the order to the Duke of Abrantès and to all the generals who do not suit him, to return to France [...]
So, if anything, Junot owed the opportunity to return to Paris to his old buddy Marmont. Junot must have left for France pretty quickly, because on 26 June there is already another brief note from Napoleon to Berthier, to grant Junot entrance to next morning’s lever. Presumably, Junot had asked for an audience through Berthier, and then was allowed to take part in the emperor’s official morning reception (together with all other courtiers).
While I don’t think we can truly prove that Laure’s lying here, the probability is at least very high. But why? And about such an unimportant thing? Well, as she declares at the beginning of her memoirs, one of her motives for writing the memoirs is to restore her husband’s reputation (from which we can gather that it must have been rather bad at some point). That may have been reason enough for her to let Junot be recalled to France by Napoleon in person. Just to make him look more important than he truly was at this point.
The life of Jean-Andoche Junot
Since I have exceeded the limit of links I can put in the history post catalogue in my pinned post, I'm making a separate post to catalogue everything I've translated and uploaded on Junot!
I will put a flower next to the most important posts 🌷
general information:
Junot's head injuries 🌷
was Junot bisexual?
my refutation of the theory that Junot had syphilis
British caricatures of Junot
early life:
Junot's birth and baptism 🌸
Junot's ancestry
schoolboy memories 🌸
Junot's older brother
Junot in 1789 🌸
relationship with Napoleon:
a note from Napoleon to Junot, 1794
Junot on his attachment to Napoleon 🌹
'Orestes and Pylades'
an anecdote on young Napoleon, Junot and Marmont 🌹
Napoleon and Junot in Italy
Napoleon insults Junot's scars 🌹
a letter from Junot to Napoleon, 1812 🌹
a letter from Junot to Napoleon on his denouncement + Laure's letter on the denouncement 🌹
military and diplomatic career:
Junot's heroic deed in 1794
Junot gets injured at the battle of Lonato, 1796 🌺
Junot meets the Directory
Junot's friend gets assassinated
The battle of Nazareth
a poem on the battle of Nazareth
Junot's helps an Englishman to evade arrest 🌺
Junot as ambassador to Lisbon
Austerlitz 🌺
Napoleon and Wellington's opinions on Junot's actions at the Convention of Cintra 🌺
Junot's 1811 facial injury 🌺
a letter from Wellington to Junot 🌺
an Englishman's opinion of Junot
Junot's defence of his actions at Smolensk 🌺
personal life and interests:
Junot's art collection 🌸
Junot's rare books collection
Junot's talent with a pistol
romance with an Englishwoman 🌸
Junot, Josephine and Hippolyte Charles in Italy
Junot's ghostly encounter
a murder attempt on Junot
Junot stands up for his friend 🌸
Junot's love affair with Xraxarane 🌸
Junot's duel in Egypt 🌸
Junot and Laure's wedding 🌸
an anecdote on pregnancy and pineapple
Junot's friendship with Hippolyte Charles
a letter from Junot to Hippolyte Charles 🌸
Junot's affair with "Mlle V"
Junot takes an acting class 🌸
Junot, Pauline and Caroline
the Chateau du Raincy
Junot's affair with Caroline 🌸
Junot’s famous handwriting
signature as Duc d'Abrantès
a luxury pocket watch
later life and death:
a letter from Junot to Laure on his hopes for a peaceful retirement 🥀
a letter from Junot to his daughter Constance, 1812 🥀
a letter from Junot to Napoleon on his denouncement + Laure's letter on the denouncement
a contemporary impression on Junot in Illyria - 'Achilles' 🥀
Illyria, Icepit, insanity 🥀
the house where Junot died
Laure’s letters on Junot’s death
Junot's original death notice
Junot's grave and funerals 🥀
Big ups to this very, very strangely shaped Barclay de Tolly mug I've had for ages that's from his mausoleum.
I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the dumbest mug ever made in human history. One side is Almost flat, the other is round and then the whole thing is twisted. Cruel joke.
For my paper on what the process of painting truly looks like, my subject is a bowl of fruit based on the story of Napoleon's childhood that Laure Junot first put to writing in 1836. In looking to confirm it's truly the first time this story appeared. I hunted down some variations that popped up later on.
Originally, the story was told as any anecdote and went as such;
but you can never be sure of Laure and her pesky anecdotes. Therefore, I looked to see if there was anything to back her up on this and came upon two variations, published in 1851 and 1895 respectively. Details are changed (pears, not citrons and Elisa, not Marianne, etc.), and both are told as if all this was just a children's story (which it was turned into, so yeah, lol.)
Excerpt from The Boy Life of Napoleon by Eugenie Foa (1895)
(Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9479/9479-h/9479-h.htm)
I think I can be pretty confident in what Madame Junot wrote being the first time an incident along those lines was published, but this change in retelling was an interesting find.
The 1851 magazine version is much shorter. (Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30943/pg30943-images.html, [Pg 822])
Street scene in Sissonne, Picardy region of France
French vintage postcard
Big ups to this very, very strangely shaped Barclay de Tolly mug I've had for ages that's from his mausoleum.
Nothing new here. Only Duroc almost drowned yesterday.
Eugène de Beauharnais giving a rather condensed report of events during the Second Italian campaign to his sister (from Novara, 7 June 1800).
(The rest is Bessières thanking for Hortense's greetings and Eugène sending some of his own).
General Bonaparte during the Italian campaign by Édouard Detaille
A halt in the village by Édouard Detaille
RIP Napoleon, you would have loved Costco
(Source)
💀💀💀
General Bonaparte in Cairo by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Napoleon Bonaparte among the members of the Institute by Édouard Detaille
Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul, 1801 by Joseph Chinard