#joachimnapoleon

[kaxenart]

@joachimnapoleon replied to your post “For the purposes of suggestions, I do consider...”:

Would love to see you do something with Fouché, as there is not nearly enough fanart of my favorite devious snakeman and his endless trolling of Napoleon.

​I feel like all the Fouche anecdotes slipped through my mind like a sieve. Is this how he got away with things? xD

[josefavomjaaga]

Dedicated obviously to @joachimnapoleon and @histoireettralala but also to all the other fanfic writers and artists who so graciously share their work with us, and to everybody who, like me, does not quite feel in christmas mood yet.

The related stories can be found here and here.

[klara-1838]

So I’ve seen a post made by @joachimnapoleon about Joachim Murat’s poem from 1812. His First Equerry, Michel Caraffa, added music to the words in 1814, and I really wanted to hear it and also play it myself (flute). So I “remade” the note sheet, and here’s the result! I worked in a music app where you can actually replay the music you create. I’m sharing the audio below. I really like how it sounds! It has a really happy mood 😁.

P.S. Sorry for some typos in the lyrics😁

[nordleuchten]

La Fayette and Murat

It is rather well established that La Fayette’s son, Georges Washington de La Fayette, joined the army just like his father had done - but being a La Fayette is not always easy. Napoléon was more often than not unhappy about what the Marquis de La Fayette did or did not do and most of La Fayette’s relatives in the army (especially his son and his son-in-law) only felt that too keenly. Jules Germain Cloquet, La Fayette’s physician and friend, dedicated a short paragraph in his book to the topic and there was one thing that caught my eye in particular:

Napoleon, who was still irritated by Lafayette's vote against the consulship for life, constantly refused to his son the promotion demanded in his favour by all his superior officers, and particularly by Murat, who wished to appoint him his aide-de-camp. His several year’s brilliant success as a lieutenant, his wounds, his gallant achievements, were unable to overcome the obstinacy of the emperor, whose injustice surprised the whole army, and added still further to the well-merited esteem and consideration acquired by the young officer.

Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 228.

Murat wanted to appoint La Fayette’s son as his aide-de-camp? @joachimnapoleon, do you have any more information about that?

[kaxen]

For the Favorite Historical Figure ask game: 7, 8, and 9. :)

I already answered 7 & 8, but of course I have more random facts!

The earliest memory that Lejeune recounts is that Marie Antoinette asked him about his drawings and he couldn't recognize her at first.

It was also my first Lejeune doodle. Lejeune didn't supply her exact questions so I did the shitpostiest question.

In addition to designing the uniform for Berthier's aides-de-camp, Lejeune mentions designing lancers.

Marshal Murat coming in during this conversation, the Emperor said to him: 'You are to equip a hundred men in the costume Lejeune will design, and at once instruct them how to use the lance.' Murat approved of the rough sketch I made; he chose the colours, and formed the hundred men into the guard of the Grand Duchy of Berg. The Emperor was much pleased with the result, and later he introduced whole regiments of lancers into his own guard and the army, retaining the uniform I had designed.

When Lejeune was mistakenly reported dead, Napoleon doubled his widow's pension. It stayed that way despite his popping up very not-dead a few days later.

9. What is your favourite depiction of them (e.g. in painting, sculpture etc.)?

Honestly there's not that many depictions of him to start with, especially if you subtract Lejeune painting himself. He's not a big enough mover or shaker to get that much media, which I guess is why I am his one-person content mill lol. Heck, I'm still not 100% sure how curly/straight his hair is. LEJEUNE Y U ALWAYS DRAW YOURSELF WITH MESSY/WINDSWEPT HAIR OR A HAT ON.

I have his portrait hanging above my fish tank.

[microcosme11]

Thanks histoiretralala for telling us

[klara-1838]

My two drawings of my favourite marshal - Murat!

[josefavomjaaga]

Murat as grand duke of Berg

It’s probably not very polite towards Eugène to post something for his arch-rival Murat on Eugène’s birthday. But I had been looking for something about Murat’s time as grand-duke of Berg for what feels like an eternity for @joachimnapoleon , had been excited to find the text below, had not immediately translated and posted it, had forgotten about it, could not find it anymore, and now that I’ve come across it again I’ll post it, period.

(Plus, Eugène, you used to not celebrate your birthday anyway, and I would need to look up your sister’s letters to find out when your name day is. So there.)

There actually is quite a long and detailed accout of the grand-duchy that I came across, however, written in Cologne, 1877, six years after the Franco-Prussian war. The author didn’t have many nice things to say about Murat, let’s put it that way.

This brief passage however is taken from »Regenten und Volksgeschichte der Länder Cleve, Mark, Jülich, Berg und Ravensberg«, Volume 3, by Dr. J. F. Knapp. Published a lot earlier, in 1836, and in Krefeld, a city that had been under French rule for many years, before becoming Prussian (again) in 1814. And this author seems to look back with some nostalgia and to see the era and particularly Murat in a much more positive light:

By a proclamation of the Emperor Napoleon of 15 March, the two duchies of Cleve and Berg were granted in full sovereignty to Prince Joachim Murat and his natural lawful male heirs with hereditary succession in these lands, and at the same time the dignity of Grand Admiral of France was hereditarily conferred on the Prince and his descendants.

Actually, Murat had become Grand Admiral (and prince) in February 1804, afaik. But quite probably nobody in Berg had ever heard about it before.

The true meaning of these arrangements was expressed by the Prince-Archchancellor of the French Empire [...]

That would be Cambacérès, I presume.

[…] in the speech he gave in the Senate on 21 March: "Prince Murat has been entrusted with the guardianship of an important part of the Empire's borders. Could His Majesty entrust this to worthier hands?"

Awww.

On 20 March, the former governor of the Duchy of Berg, Duke Wilhelm von Baiern, left Düsseldorf with his family. This amiable prince, to whom the people of Berg were very devoted, took an affectionate farewell from the country by a decree dated 20 March 1806.

On a sidenote: This Duke Wilhelm is Berthier’s future father-in-law. The aforementioned family consisted of him, his wife (a sister to King Max Joseph of Bavaria), his daughter Elisabeth (future Madame Berthier) and his son Pius who, as an adult, by his violent conduct would manage to get himself into prison. In Bavaria. As a Wittelsbach. - Pius also is the paternal grandfather of future empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sissi).

While only a short time before, on 17 January, the elevation of Maximilian Joseph to the royal dignity on 1 January 1806 had been proclaimed in Düsseldorf and received with the sincere joy of loyal subjects and even celebrated with festivities, people now received with all the greater sadness the news that from now on the fate of the country was to be entrusted to an imposed foreigner instead of the established native prince.

I have a feeling that the last paragraph was necessary for the book to be allowed to be published in Prussian territory. Just to put things in perspective: The "established native prince" (Max Joseph of Bavaria) resided in Munich, had only inherited the duchy in 1799, had spent all his youth in France and, to my knowledge, had never even visited the region of Berg since he had become elector.

On to Joachim:

[...]

Joachim personally showed much inclination to win the trust of his subjects. He sought to alleviate their plight by importing a considerable amount of grain from the left bank of the Rhine. Even during his imminent departure, he did not forget his new duties. A deputation of merchants from the two duchies, which he had summoned to Paris, had to present their wishes and opinions to him in order to further improve trade and factories. Even when he was in Poland, he obtained favourable trade concessions for the Elberfelders from the Emperor in Warsaw. On 26 January 1807, he issued a detailed decree from Warsaw on the pension status of civil servants, their widows and children. After thirty years of service, every civil servant was to have the right to demand retirement; also, all pension payments were now firmly secured and accurately determined according to the ratio of salaries. He never denied his attitude of admitting in any case that his subjects should be regarded as French subjects, and often, in opposition to the Emperor's will, he openly expressed it and sought to assert it. Without scientific education, he nevertheless had proper tact, which replaced many a theoretical knowledge. He abhorred injustice, cunning and intrigues against everyone in his characteristic military straightforwardness. It is true that his minister Agar was a Frenchman, but he had not entrusted him with this important post for that reason, but because he held him in high esteem personally. On the contrary, he was averse to Frenchmen filling the posts of civil servants, however much he was approached by them. To several French military officers whom he employed in the contingent in 1807, he explicitly made it a duty to honour his choice and to never forget that they were now no longer in French but in German service, with a prince who was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine. Flattery was repugnant to him, and he was often heard to say in the course of the audiences he gave: People are not sincere, and seek to achieve their ends by fine phrases, because they think him weak enough to lend his ear to flattery. "For," he said, "it is impossible that I should be loved in this country, since I have not yet done anything for it; but they will love me, I assure you!"

I can’t help but think that some of this was written intentionally as a slight to the Prussians who ruled the region at the time, and who were very much disliked all throughout the country. "Remember when we had that ‘eeevil’ Frenchman here? Man, those were the days..."