1.
Duke of Navarre
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Duke of Navarre was a noble title of the First French Empire. It was created by Letters Patent of 9 April 1810 for Empress Joséphine following her divorce the preceding month, the title related to the château de Navarre in Normandy and not the former Kingdom of Navarre. She died in 1814 and was succeeded by her grandsons Auguste, on Maximilians death in 1852, during the Second Empire, his eldest son Nicholas was prevented from succeeding. Through his mother, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, he was a member of a royal family
2.
Coronation of Napoleon I
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The coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French took place on Sunday December 2,1804 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It marked the instantiation of modern empire and was a transparently masterminded piece of modern propaganda, Napoleon wanted to establish legitimacy of his Imperial reign, with its new royal family and new nobility. Therefore, he designed a new coronation ceremony that was unlike the ceremony used for the kings of France, in the traditional coronation, kings underwent a ceremony of consecration rather than a coronation, in consecration, anointment was conferred by the archbishop of Reims in Notre-Dame de Reims. Napoleons was a ceremony held in the great cathedral in the presence of the Pope Pius VII. Napoleon brought together an assortment of different rites and customs, incorporating aspects of Carolingian tradition, the ancien régime, according to government tallies, the entire cost was over 8.5 million francs. On May 18,1804, the Sénat conservateur vested the Republican government of the French First Republic in an Emperor, Napoleons elevation to Emperor was overwhelmingly approved by the French citizens in the French constitutional referendum of 1804. Among Napoleons motivations for being crowned were to gain prestige in international royalist and Catholic milieux, not wanting to be an Old Regime monarch, Napoleon explained, To be a king is to inherit old ideas and genealogy. I dont want to descend from anyone, according to Louis Constant Wairy, Napoleon awoke at 8,00 A. M. To the sound of a cannonade, he left the Tuileries at 11,00 A. M. in a velvet vest with gold embroidery and diamond buttons, a crimson velvet tunic. He wore a wreath of laurel, the number of onlookers, as estimated by Wairy, was between four and five thousand, many of whom had held their places all night, through intermittent showers that cleared in the morning. The ceremony had started at 9 a. m. when the Papal procession set out from the Tuileries, the procession was led by a bishop on a mule holding aloft the Papal crucifix. The Pope entered Notre Dame first, to the anthem Tu es Petrus, Napoleons and Joséphines carriage was drawn by eight bay horses and escorted by grenadiers à cheval and gendarmes délite. The two-part ceremony was held at different ends of Notre Dame to emphasize the disconnectedness of religious, an unmanned balloon, ablaze with three thousand lights in an imperial crown pattern, was launched from the front of Notre Dame during the celebration. Before entering Notre Dame, Napoleon was vested in a white satin tunic embroidered in gold thread. The mantle weighed at least eighty pounds and was supported by four dignitaries, Josephine was at the same time formally clothed in a similar crimson velvet mantle embroidered with bees in gold thread and lined with ermine, which was borne by Napoleons three sisters. There were two orchestras with four choruses, numerous military bands playing heroic marches, and over three hundred musicians, a 400-voice choir performed Paisiellos Mass and Te Deum. While the crown was new, the sceptre was reputed to have belonged to Charles V, after this the prayer, Almighty, everlasting God, the Creator of all. During the Litany of the Saints, the Emperor and Empress remained seated, the Emperor and Empress were both anointed on their heads and on both hands with chrism–the Emperor with the prayers, God, the Son of God
3.
Martinique
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Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. One of the Windward Islands, it is north of Saint Lucia, southeast of Puerto Rico, northwest of Barbados. As with the overseas departments, Martinique is one of the eighteen regions of France. As part of France, Martinique is part of the European Union, the official language is French, and virtually the entire population also speak Antillean Creole. Martinique owes its name to Christopher Columbus, who sighted the island in 1493, the island was then called Jouanacaëra-Matinino, which came from a mythical island described by the Tainos of Hispaniola. According to historian Sydney Daney, the island was called Jouanacaëra by the Caribs, when Columbus returned to the island in 1502, he rechristened the island as Martinica. The name then evolved into Madinina, Madiana, and Matinite, finally, through the influence of the neighboring island of Dominica, it came to be known as Martinique. The island was occupied first by Arawaks, then by Caribs, the Carib people had migrated from the mainland to the islands about 1201 CE, according to carbon dating of artifacts. They were largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated by the Taino, Martinique was charted by Columbus in 1493, but Spain had little interest in the territory. On 15 September 1635, Pierre Belain dEsnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, dEsnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French Compagnie des Îles de lAmérique, and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre. DEsnambuc died in 1636, leaving the company and Martinique in the hands of his nephew, in 1637, his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet became governor of the island. In 1636, the indigenous Caribs rose against the settlers to drive them off the island in the first of many skirmishes. The French successfully repelled the natives and forced them to retreat to the part of the island. When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1658, the Governor Charles Houël du Petit Pré retaliated with war against them, many were killed, those who survived were taken captive and expelled from the island. Some Carib had fled to Dominica or St. Vincent, where the French agreed to them at peace. They were quite industrious and became quite prosperous, from September 1686 to early 1688, the French crown used Martinique as a threat and a dumping ground for mainland Huguenots who refused to reconvert to Catholicism. Over 1,000 Huguenots were transported to Martinique during this period, usually under miserable and those that survived the trip were distributed to the island planters as Engagés under the system of serf peonage that prevailed in the French Antilles at the time. Many of them were encouraged by their Catholic brethren who looked forward to the departure of the heretics, by 1688, nearly all of Martiniques French Protestant population had escaped to the British American colonies or Protestant countries back home
4.
Rueil-Malmaison
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Rueil-Malmaison is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department of France. It is located 12.6 kilometres from the centre of Paris and it is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Paris. Rueil-Malmaison was originally called simply Rueil, in medieval times the name Rueil was spelled either Roialum, Riogilum, Rotoialum, Ruolium, or Ruellium. This name is made of the Celtic word ialo suffixed to a radical meaning brook, stream, in 1928, the name of the commune officially became Rueil-Malmaison in reference to its most famous tourist attraction, the Château de Malmaison, home of Napoléons first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. The name Malmaison comes from Medieval Latin mala mansio, meaning ill-fated domain, in the Early Middle Ages Malmaison was the site of a royal residence which was destroyed by the Vikings in 846. Rueil is famous for the Château de Malmaison where Napoleon and his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais lived, upon her death in 1814, she was buried at the nearby Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church, which stands at the centre of the city. The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, the Guard was formed by Louis XIII in 1616 and massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 during the French Revolution. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Rueil was located on the front line, at the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town. Rueil is the location of the novel Loin de Rueil by the French novelist Raymond Queneau. The town is twinned with Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in the United Kingdom, the Château de Malmaison, the residence of Napoléons first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, is located in Rueil-Malmaison. It is home to a Napoleonic museum, the main campus of the French Institute of Petroleum research organisation is in Rueil. The city has become home to many large companies moving out of La Défense business district, located only 5 km from Rueil. There are about 850 service sector companies located in Rueil,70 of which more than 100 people. A business district called Rueil-sur-Seine was created near the RER A Rueil-Malmaison station to accommodate these companies, the business district is equipped with a fiber-optic network. Several major French companies have their headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as Schneider Electric. Schneider had its office in Rueil-Malmaison since 2000, previously the building Schneider occupies housed the Schneider subsidiary Télémécanique. Several large international companies have located their French headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, such as ExxonMobil, AstraZeneca, American Express. Rueil-Malmaison is served by Rueil-Malmaison station on Paris RER line A. Jean-Marie Le Pen and his wife, Jany Le Pen, live in a two-story house on the rue Hortense
5.
Bourbon Restoration
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The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history following the fall of Napoleon in 1814 until the July Revolution of 1830. The brothers of executed Louis XVI of France reigned in highly conservative fashion, and they were nonetheless unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution and Napoleon. At the Congress of Vienna they were treated respectfully, but had to give up all the gains made since 1789. King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon had been overthrown and executed during the French Revolution, a coalition of European powers defeated Napoleon in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The Bourbon Restoration lasted from 6 April 1814 until the uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. There was an interlude in spring 1815—the Hundred Days—when the return of Napoleon forced the Bourbons to flee France, when Napoleon was again defeated by the Seventh Coalition they returned to power in July. During the Restoration, the new Bourbon regime was a monarchy, unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime. The period was characterized by a conservative reaction, and consequent minor but consistent occurrences of civil unrest. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. First of all, France became highly centralized, with all decisions made in Paris, the political geography was completely reorganized and made uniform. France was divided more than 80 departments, which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The Catholic Church lost all its lands and buildings during the Revolution, the bishop still ruled his diocese, and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other people were paid salaries by the state. All the old rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself and put a new emphasis on personal religiosity that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful, education was centralized, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the entire educational system from Paris
6.
Alexandre de Beauharnais
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Alexandre François Marie, Viscount of Beauharnais was a French political figure and general during the French Revolution. He was the first husband of Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, alexandre was arrested in March 1794, and following his sentence of death during the Reign of Terror, was executed by guillotine in Pariss Place de la Révolution. His paternal grandparents Claude de Beauharnais and Renée Hardouineau were married in La Rochelle during 1713 and his father François de Beauharnais, Marquess de la La Ferté-Beauharnais served as Governor of Martinique. Alexandre was the third of three born to him by his first wife Marie Henriette Pyvart de Chastullé - the first died in infancy. His father was remarried in 1796 to Eugenie de Tascher de la Pagerie, alexandre was born in Fort-Royal, Martinique. On 13 December 1779 in Paris, he married Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie and they had two children, Eugène de Beauharnais. Hortense de Beauharnais, later mother of Napoleon III of France, alexandre fought in Louis XVIs army in the American Revolutionary War. He was later deputy of the noblesse in the Estates-General, and was president of the National Constituent Assembly from 19 June to 3 July 1791, made a general in 1792, he refused, in June 1793, to become Minister of War. He was named General-in-Chief of the Army of the Rhine in 1793, on 2 March 1794, the Committee of General Security ordered his arrest. His wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, was jailed in the prison on 21 April 1794. Alexandre was guillotined, together with his cousin Augustin, on the Place de la Révolution in Paris, through his son, he is an ancestor of the current monarchs of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Luxembourg. A listing of the descendants of the Beauharnais family
7.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
8.
Hortense de Beauharnais
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Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte, Queen consort of Holland, was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, being the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She later became the wife of the brother, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland. She had also a son, Charles de Morny, 1st Duke of Morny, by her lover Charles Joseph. Hortense was born in Paris, France on 10 April 1783 and her parents separated shortly after her birth. Her father was executed on 23 July 1794, at the time of the French Revolution and her mother was imprisoned in the Carmelites prison, from which she was released on 6 August 1794, thanks to the intervention of her best friend Thérèse Tallien. Two years later, her mother married Napoleon Bonaparte, Hortense was described as having been an amusing and pretty child with long, pale golden-blonde hair and blue eyes. She received her education at the school of Madame Jeanne Campan in St-Germain-en-Laye together with Napoleons youngest sister Caroline Bonaparte and she had an elder brother, Eugène de Beauharnais. Hortense was an amateur musical composer and supplied the army of her stepfather with rousing marches. She also enjoyed playing games and particularly excelled at billiards, in 1802, at Napoleons request, Hortense married his brother Louis Bonaparte. She had hoped to be a Queen of Holland in Paris and she was therefore forced to depart with Louis to the Netherlands, where she arrived on 18 June 1806. Queen Hortense was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome from the public and she quickly became accustomed to life in the Netherlands and came to like the country. She was present at celebrations and ceremonies, visited the market places where she made large purchases, and was much liked by the public. She learned water colour painting and made trips around the countryside, in 1807, her son died, she was subsequently allowed to visit France as the climate there was considered better for her other son Louis-Napoléon. Hortense returned temporarily to the Netherlands, but on 1 June 1810, in 1810, after his Dutch kingdom was taken away from him, Louis remained in Holland for nearly three years, turning to writing and poetry. Louis wrote to Napoleon after the defeat in Russia to request that the Dutch throne be restored to him. Louis finally returned to France in 1813 and he spent much of his later life in Italy. Only her brother Eugène, Adélaïde Filleul de Souza, de Flahauts mother, and her closest companions were aware of her pregnancy and she had used poor health to explain her prolonged visit to Switzerland, the journey having been arranged by Adélaïde. At the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, Hortense received the protection of Alexander I of Russia, at his instigation, she was granted the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu by King Louis XVIII on 30 May 1814
9.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
10.
Beauharnais
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The House of Beauharnais is a French noble house. It is now represented by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, descendant in male line of Eugène de Beauharnais, originating in Brittany, the Beauharnais became established in the fourteenth century in Orléans. When that city was besieged in 1429, Jehan Beauharnais played a role in its defence, the Beauharnais provided the kingdom with soldiers and magistrates, and contracted alliances in several spheres, including that of the university of law in Orléans. In the 16th century, there were Beauharnais in Orléans as magistrates, merchants, canons, the most eminent of these magistrates was Francis IV de Beauharnais, sieur of la Grillère, born in Orléans in 1630, and dying there in 1681. At the end of the 17th century, the office of lieutenant général du bailliage dOrléans was ceded to an allied branch, the most eminent of the Beauharnais thus turned to careers in the navy and the colonial administration in the Americas. Another François de Beauharnais became intendant of New France, where a seigneurie was granted to him in 1707 and his nephew, Francis V de Beauharnais, was made chef descadre des armées royales, then governor of Martinique. The Beauharnais of Orléans were also great landholders thanks to their many seigneuries in the region, in the 15th century they were seigneurs of la Chaussée, fief of the parish of Saint-Jean-de-Braye, in the suburbs of Orléans. They also had interests at Sologne until the early 16th century, some years later, the Beauharnais acquiring the neighbouring seigneurie of la Grillère, at Vouzon, with they held until the beginning of the 18th century. On 20 April 1752, Francis V, marquis de Beauharnais, governor of Martinique, maternal great-grandfather of the future Napoleon III of France and he was raised to a marquis by letters patent dated July 1764 with the title of La Ferté-Beauharnais, a name the commune still bears. Married to Anne Brachet,7 children, including Jean de Beauharnais, maître dHôtel ordinaire du roi, Married to Marie Mallet,3 children including François de Beauharnais, écuyer, Married to Renée Hardouineau,2 sons I. François de Beauharnais, marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais, chef descadre des armées royales, Married twice - his cousin Marie-Anne Pivart de Chastullé Marie-Euphémie Tascher de la Pagerie. Two children from his first marriage, A. François de Beauharnais, marquis de La Ferté-Beauharnais, in 1779 married Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie. Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, prince français, viceroy of Italy, prince of Venice, grand-duke of Frankfurt, duke of Leuchtenberg, Joséphine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais, princess of Bologne, duchess of Galliera, duchess of Leuchtenberg, queen of Sweden and of Norway. Charles Louis Eugène Bernadotte, king of Sweden and Norway, gustave Bernadotte, prince of Sweden and duke of Uppland. Iii. Oscar Frédéric Bernadotte, king of Sweden and Norway, charlotte Eugénie Auguste Amélie Albertine Bernadotte, princess of Sweden. V. Charles Nicolas Auguste Bernadotte, prince of Sweden and duke of Dalécarlie, Eugénie Hortense Auguste de Beauharnais, duchess of Leuchtenberg and princess of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg, prince of Eichstätt, infante of Portugal, Amélie Auguste Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais, duchess of Leuchtenberg and empress of Brazil. Marie Amélie Augusta Eugénie Joséphine Louise Théodelinde Héloïse Françoise de Bragance, Théodelinde Louise Eugénie Auguste Napoléone de Beauharnais, duchess of Leuchtenberg, countess of Württemberg and duchess of Urach
11.
First French Empire
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The First French Empire, Note 1 was the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte of France and the dominant power in much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Its name was a misnomer, as France already had colonies overseas and was short lived compared to the Colonial Empire, a series of wars, known collectively as the Napoleonic Wars, extended French influence over much of Western Europe and into Poland. The plot included Bonapartes brother Lucien, then serving as speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, on 9 November 1799 and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control. They dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, the Consulate, he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. He thus became the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the Constitution of the Year X, the Battle of Marengo inaugurated the political idea that was to continue its development until Napoleons Moscow campaign. Napoleon planned only to keep the Duchy of Milan for France, setting aside Austria, the Peace of Amiens, which cost him control of Egypt, was a temporary truce. He gradually extended his authority in Italy by annexing the Piedmont and by acquiring Genoa, Parma, Tuscany and Naples, then he laid siege to the Roman state and initiated the Concordat of 1801 to control the material claims of the pope. Napoleon would have ruling elites from a fusion of the new bourgeoisie, on 12 May 1802, the French Tribunat voted unanimously, with exception of Carnot, in favour of the Life Consulship for the leader of France. This action was confirmed by the Corps Législatif, a general plebiscite followed thereafter resulting in 3,653,600 votes aye and 8,272 votes nay. On 2 August 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Consul for life, pro-revolutionary sentiment swept through Germany aided by the Recess of 1803, which brought Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden to Frances side. The memories of imperial Rome were for a time, after Julius Caesar and Charlemagne. The Treaty of Pressburg, signed on 26 December 1805, did little other than create a more unified Germany to threaten France. On the other hand, Napoleons creation of the Kingdom of Italy, the occupation of Ancona, to create satellite states, Napoleon installed his relatives as rulers of many European states. The Bonapartes began to marry into old European monarchies, gaining sovereignty over many nations, in addition to the vassal titles, Napoleons closest relatives were also granted the title of French Prince and formed the Imperial House of France. Met with opposition, Napoleon would not tolerate any neutral power, Prussia had been offered the territory of Hanover to stay out of the Third Coalition. With the diplomatic situation changing, Napoleon offered Great Britain the province as part of a peace proposal and this, combined with growing tensions in Germany over French hegemony, Prussia responded by forming an alliance with Russia and sending troops into Bavaria on 1 October 1806. In this War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon destroyed the armies of Frederick William at Jena-Auerstedt, the Eylau and the Friedland against the Russians finally ruined Frederick the Greats formerly mighty kingdom, obliging Russia and Prussia to make peace with France at Tilsit. The Treaties of Tilsit ended the war between Russia and the French Empire and began an alliance between the two empires that held power of much of the rest of Europe, the two empires secretly agreed to aid each other in disputes
12.
Guillotine
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A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame in which a weighted and angled blade is raised to the top, the condemned person is secured with stocks at the bottom of the frame, positioning the neck directly below the blade. The blade is released, to fall swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single pass so that the head falls into a basket below. The name dates from period, but similar devices had been used elsewhere in Europe over several centuries. The guillotine continued to be used long after the revolution and remained Frances standard method of execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981. The last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, the use of beheading machines in Europe long predates such use in the French revolution in 1792. An early example of the principle is found in the High History of the Holy Grail, although the device is imaginary, its function is clear. The text says, Within these three openings are the set for them. And behold what I would do to them if their three heads were therein, even thus will I cut off their heads when they shall set them into those three openings thinking to adore the hallows that are beyond. The Halifax Gibbet was a structure of two wooden uprights, capped by a horizontal beam, of a total height of 4.5 metres. The blade was an axe head weighing 3.5 kg, attached to the bottom of a wooden block that slid up. This device was mounted on a square platform 1.25 metres high. It is not known when the Halifax Gibbet was first used, the first recorded execution in Halifax dates from 1280, the machine remained in use until Oliver Cromwell forbade capital punishment for petty theft. It was used for the last time, for the execution of two criminals on a day, on 30 April 1650. Holinsheds Chronicles of 1577 included a picture of The execution of Murcod Ballagh near to Merton in Ireland 1307 showing a similar execution machine, the Maiden was constructed in 1564 for the Provost and Magistrates of Edinburgh, and was in use from April 1565 to 1710. One of those executed was James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, in 1581, Schmidt recommended using an angled blade as opposed to a round one. On 10 October 1789, physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed to the National Assembly that capital punishment always take the form of decapitation by means of a simple mechanism, sensing the growing discontent, Louis XVI banned the use of the breaking wheel. A committee was formed under Antoine Louis, physician to the King, Guillotin was also on the committee
13.
Reign of Terror
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The Reign of Terror or The Terror, is the label given by some historians to a period of violence during the French Revolution. Different historians place the date at either 5 September 1793 or June 1793 or March 1793 or September 1792 or July 1789. Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, but the total number of deaths in France in 1793–96 in only the civil war in the Vendée is estimated at 250,000 counter-revolutionaries and 200,000 republicans. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal, within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Catholic Church opposed the revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state, in addition, the French First Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers, and parts of France were engaging in civil war against the loyalist regime. The latter were grouped in the parliamentary faction called the Mountain. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terrors leaders exercised broad powers, the Reign was a manifestation of the strong strain on centralized power. Many historians have debated the reasons the French Revolution took such a turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. The public was frustrated that the equality and anti-poverty measures that the revolution originally promised were not materializing. Jacques Rouxs Manifesto of the Enraged on 25 June 1793, describes the extent to which, four years into the revolution, the foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety and its militant Jacobin delegates. Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, according to Mathiez, they touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the revolution. Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduced competing circumstances of revolt, counter-revolutionary rebellions taking place in Lyon, Brittany, Vendée, Nantes, and Marseille were threatening the revolution with royalist ideas. Cobb writes, the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror, Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, at the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiezs Marxist interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit of the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that social struggles between the classes were seldom the reason for actions and sentiments. Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced, with the backing of the national guard, they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat – a Jacobin leader, georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the committee. The Jacobins identified themselves with the movement and the sans-culottes
14.
Napoleon III
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Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and then Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
15.
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma
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Marie Louise was an Austrian archduchess who reigned as Duchess of Parma from 1814 until her death. She was Napoleons second wife and, as such, Empress of the French from 1810 to 1814, a series of military defeats at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte had inflicted a heavy human toll on Austria and led Francis to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. The end of the War of the Fifth Coalition resulted in the marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise in 1810, Marie Louise dutifully agreed to the marriage despite being raised to despise France. She was an obedient wife and was adored by Napoleon, who had been eager to marry a member of one of Europes leading royal houses to cement his relatively young Empire. With Napoleon, she bore a son, styled the King of Rome at birth, later Duke of Reichstadt, Napoleons fortunes changed dramatically in 1812 after his failed invasion of Russia. The European powers, including Austria, resumed hostilities towards France in the War of the Sixth Coalition, the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau handed over the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to Empress Marie Louise. She ruled the duchies until her death, Marie Louise married morganatically twice after Napoleons death in 1821. Her second husband was Count Adam Albert von Neipperg, an equerry she met in 1814 and she and Neipperg had three children. After Neippergs death, she married Count Charles-René de Bombelles, her chamberlain, in 1834, Marie Louise died in Parma in 1847. Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on 12 December 1791 to Archduke Francis of Austria and his wife, Maria Theresa of Naples. Her father became Holy Roman Emperor a year later as Francis II, Marie Louise was a great granddaughter of Empress Maria Theresa through both her parents, as they were first cousins. She was also a granddaughter of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples. Marie Louises formative years were during a period of conflict between France and her family and she was brought up to detest France and French ideas. Marie Louise was influenced by her grandmother Maria Carolina, who despised the French Revolution which ultimately caused the death of her sister, Maria Carolinas Kingdom of Naples had also come into direct conflict with French forces led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The War of the Third Coalition brought Austria to the brink of ruin, the Imperial family was forced to flee Vienna in 1805. Marie Louise took refuge in Hungary and later Galicia before returning to Vienna in 1806 and her father relinquished the title of Holy Roman Emperor but remained Emperor of Austria. To make her more marriageable, her parents had her tutored in many languages, in addition to her native German, she became fluent in English, French, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. In 1807, when Marie Louise was 15, her mother died after suffering a miscarriage, less than a year later, Emperor Francis married his first cousin Maria Ludovika Beatrix of Austria-Este, who was four years older than Marie Louise
16.
Sugarcane
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It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
17.
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
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Sugar was the main crop produced on plantations throughout the Caribbean through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most islands were covered with sugar cane and mills for refining it, the main source of labor, until the abolition of the system, was African slaves. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, sugar was the most important crop throughout the Caribbean, although other crops such as coffee, indigo, and rice were also grown. In the mid-17th century, sugar cane was brought into what became the British West Indies by the Dutch. Upon landing in Barbados and other islands, they quickly urged local growers to change their crops from cotton. With depressed prices of cotton and tobacco, due mainly to competition from the North American colonies. Sugar was quickly snapped up by the British, who used it in cakes, during the colonial period, the arrival of sugar culture deeply impacted the society and economy in the Caribbean. It not only increased the ratio of slaves to free men. As a result, black men and women were taken from Africa. For example, before 1650 more than three-quarters of the population was white. In 1680, the size of a plantation in Barbados had increased to about 60 slaves. Over the decades, the sugar plantations became larger and larger, in 1832, the median-size plantation in Jamaica had about 150 slaves, and nearly one of every four bondsmen lived on units that had at least 250 slaves. For about 100 years, Barbados remained the richest of all the European colonies in the Caribbean, the colonys prosperity remained regionally unmatched until sugar cane production expanded in larger countries, such as Saint Domingue and Jamaica. As part of the sugar industry, sugar cane processing gave rise to related commodities such as rum, molasses. The West India Interest was formed in the 1740s, when the British merchants joined with the West Indian sugar planters, the British and West Indies shared profits and needs. This organization was the first sugar-trading organization which had a voice in Parliament. In the 1740s, Jamaica and Saint Domingue became the main sugar producers. They increased production in Saint Domingue by using a system that French engineers built
18.
Troupes de marine
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The Troupe de marine are a corps of the French Army which regroups several specialties, infantry, artillery, armoured and airborne. Despite their designation, they are a part of the Army. The troupe de marine have been professionalized progressively since 1970, the Troupe de marine were formerly known as the Troupes Coloniales, with origin dating back to the Troupes de la marine. The French colonies were under the control of the Ministère de la Marine, accordingly and these companies were destined to embark on royal naval ships to service the naval artillery and participate to the boarding of naval ships engaged in combats at sea. Simultaneously, these companies were also in charge in guarding the sea ports. In the 18th century, they constituted the Compagnies Franches de la Marine who mainly swarmed essentially in Nouvelle France, an evolution was followed and which deemed more and more pronouncing vis-à-vis the ship boarding marines and their officers. A tentative close-up merger was attempted by two naval ship corps including their troops in 1786 with the companies of sailors, however the experience came to little conclusions. The Régiment Royal–La Marine and Régiment de lAmiral de France founded by Colbert dispersed their companies between Dunkerque, Le Havre, Brest, Rochefort and Toulon and they adorned for a first time the white and grey uniform with the blue vest. The four regiments of la marine were transferred from the secretariat of La Marine to that of the secretariat of La Guerre, such was put in effect to meet the successive military war demands of the reign of Louis XIV, wanting to control all French units. The regiments have left the French Navy conserved then, only that of a naval designation, the Marine Royale had proud allure in 1671, France was able to align 196 naval vessels. Colbert decided accordingly to create 100 companies of guardian-soldiers destined to defend the naval vessels, however, these men were redirected again towards the French Army by Louvois in 1673. Starting this date, the naval and marine officers were obliged to recruit themselves their crew, owing to the presence of « levées » on the war or commercial sea ports, similar to the « marine press », the officers garrisoned their naval ships with defenders. However, the system found its limits quickly, the recruits were often lacking discipline and experience. A vicious circle and a pride for the performing French naval, Compagnies franches de la Marine created in 1690. Each company was tasked to guard a military harbor and its immediate coastline, beginning in 1695, the Companies were organized in battalions around the major harbors. The Marine Companies and Battalions were suppressed in 1761, Corps dartillerie de Marine, created in 1692 to oversee the training and use of coastal artillery. The Corps was suppressed in 1761, the Infantry and Artillery Marine units were re-organized into a single marine corps by a short-lived merger in 1769. Some colonial units were created at the time, organized along the same lines of artillery and infantry units
19.
Noisy-le-Grand
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Noisy-le-Grand is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 15.2 km from the centre of Paris, the commune of Noisy-le-Grand is part of the sector of Porte de Paris, one of the four sectors of the new town of Marne-la-Vallée. The name Noisy comes from Medieval Latin nucetum, meaning walnut grove, as a lot of other Seine-Saint-Denis towns, the commune is a very cosmopolitan city, home of many communities, with a lot of its locals coming from various continents and countries. It has a large African population, mostly from Sub-Saharan countries and East Asian countries, such as China, Vietnam, the city also includes significant, but less numerous, communities from Portugal and North African countries like Morocco and Algeria. Recently, the department, and the Parisian suburbs in general, has seen a new wave of immigration coming from Eastern Europe, Noisy-le-Grand now has communities from former Eastern Bloc countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. The canton of Noisy-le-Grand comprises two communes, Noisy-le-Grand and Gournay-sur-Marne, previously Star Airlines had its headquarters in the Immeuble Horizon building in the commune. Pastour added that the Noisy site had access to the A4 and the A86 autoroutes and was close to the Francilienne, the commune has municipal preschools and elementary schools. Noisy-le-Grand is also served by Les Yvris – Noisy-le-Grand station on Paris RER line E
20.
Louis Bonaparte
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Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, known as Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch, was a French nobleman who was King of Holland in 1806-1810. He was the surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte. His brother was the first Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, Louis was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline. Louis godparents were the governor, Mr de Marbeuf and the wife of the intendant, Bertrand de Boucheporn. Louis Bonapartes early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in Egypt, Napoleon, during his Italian Campaign, recommended Louis to Carnot, and Louis was consequently made a Captain. He later became a General by the age of 25, although he felt that he had risen too high in too short a time. Upon Louiss return to France, he was involved in Napoleons plot to overthrow the Directory, after becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleons stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage at first, was persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family, Louis supposedly had a poor mental condition at times, and supposedly suffered from periods of mental illness. These periods of depression or mental instability would plague Louis, and consequently Napoleon, feeling that the Batavian Republic was too independent for his liking, Napoleon replaced it with the Kingdom of Holland on 5 June 1806, and placed Louis on the throne. Napoleon had intended for his brother to be little more than a French prefect of Holland. However, Louis had his own mind, and tried to be a responsible, in an effort to endear himself to his adopted country, he tried to learn the Dutch language, he called himself Lodewijk I and declared himself Dutch rather than French. Allegedly, his Dutch was initially so poor that he told the people he was the Konijn van Olland, however, his sincere effort to learn Dutch earned him some respect from his subjects. Having declared himself Dutch, Louis tried to make his court Dutch as well and he forced his court and ministers to speak only Dutch, and also to renounce their French citizenships. This latter was too much for his wife Hortense who, in France at the time of his demands, Louis and Hortense had never gotten along, and this demand further strained their relationship. She only came to Holland reluctantly, and deliberately tried to avoid Louis as much as possible, Louis could never settle on the location for his capital city while he was in Holland. He changed capitals over a dozen times, trying Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, on one occasion, after visiting the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant, he liked the place so much that he had the owner evicted so he could take up residence there. Then, Louis moved again after seven weeks and his constant moving kept the court in upheaval since they had to follow him everywhere
21.
Pentemont Abbey
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Pentemont Abbey is a set of 18th and 19th century buildings at the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue de Bellechasse in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The abbey was a Cistercian convent founded near Beauvais in 1217, a reconstruction of the abbey was initiated in 1745 by the Abbess Marie-Catherine Béthisy de Mézières and work was completed in 1783. In the late 18th century the abbey was one of the most prestigious institutions in Paris for daughters of the elite. The abbey also provided rooms for ladies of good standing who were in search of rest and it continues to be occupied by the Ministère de la Défense with the exception of the former chapel, which since 1844 has been a Protestant church, the Temple Penthemont. Philip of Dreux, the famed crusader bishop of Beauvais, wished to found a convent of the Cistercian order, in 1217 he set aside an orchard southwest of Beauvais, on which were traced out the plans for construction, as well as seven arpents of vines. Philip died before the project was completed and his successor, Bishop Milo of Nanteuil, raised the rest of the funds, and it was completed in 1218. Pope Gregory IX issued a bull from the Lateran Palace on the 8 June 1230 which sanctioned the new abbey, the abbey took its name, meaning mountain slope, from its location at the foot of the Montagne de St-Symphorien. In 1554 the abbey provided refuge to Charlotte I de Monceaux and she fled to Pentemont after the arrival of the kings soldiers at her own abbey. However, they followed her to Pentemont and demanded by force that she renounce her position, in 1671, after the abbey was damaged in a flood, and for economic and geographical reasons, the abbess Hélène de Tourville moved the abbey to Paris. At the time, the convent had twelve sisters, the previous building was demolished and returned to agricultural work as part of the Pentemont farm. In Paris the abbey took up residence in a convent, recently suppressed, of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word. The sisters dedicated themselves to the education of women and later added rooms in which women of good standing could find rest. The abbey quickly acquired a reputation and by the time of its dissolution in 1790 had revenues of 58,000 livres. The final abbess, Marie III Catherine de Béthisy de Mézières, spent 45 years, the winning proposal, however, was from Pierre Contant dIvry. Thomas Jeffersons daughters Martha and Mary were both educated at the Pentemont Abbey while he was Minister to France and their entry into the school was sponsored by the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette. The future first lady Abigail Adams was shocked that Jefferson would send his girls to a Catholic school, conditions were austere for the students, despite the presence of three princesses, with no fires until the water froze and a prohibition on speaking outside of class and recreation. Her time at the school led Martha, nicknamed Patsy, to write a letter to her father expressing her desire to become a nun, Jefferson quickly removed his daughters from the care of the convent. The abbey also provided elegant apartments to highborn women seeking independence from families or difficult marriages, one such resident was Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future Empress of France, during her separation from her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais
22.
Committee of Public Safety
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The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee—composed at first of nine, and later of twelve, members—was given broad powers over military, judicial. It was formed as a body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention. As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, in July 1793, following the defeat at the Convention of the Girondins, the prominent leaders of the radical Jacobins—Maximilien Robespierre and Saint-Just —were added to the Committee. The power of the Committee peaked between August 1793 and July 1794, in December 1793, the Convention formally conferred executive power upon the Committee. The execution of Robespierre in July 1794 represented a period against the Committee of Public Safety. This is known as the Thermidorian Reaction, as Robespierres fall from power occurred during the Revolutionary month of Thermidor, the Committees influence diminished, and it was disestablished in 1795. News of his defection caused alarm in Paris, where imminent defeat by the Austrians, the betrayal of the revolutionary government by Dumouriez lent greater credence to this belief. In light of this threat, the Girondin leader Maximin Isnard proposed the creation of a nine-member Committee of Public Safety. Isnard was supported in this effort by Georges Danton, who declared, This Committee is precisely what we want, the Committee was formally created on 6 April 1793. Closely associated with the leadership of Danton, it was known as the Danton Committee. Danton steered the Committee through the 31 May and 2 June 1793 journées that resulted in the fall of the Girondins, however, when the Committee was recomposed on 10 July, Danton was not included. Nevertheless, he continued to support the centralization of power by the Committee, on 27 July 1793, Maximilien Robespierre was elected to the Committee. At this time, the Committee was entering a powerful and active phase, which would see it become a de facto dictatorship alongside its powerful partner. The broad and centralized powers of the Committee were codified by the Law of 14 Frimaire on 4 December 1793, Hérault de Séchelles—a friend and ally of Danton—was expelled from the Committee of Public Safety, arrested, and tried alongside them. On 5 April 1794, the Dantonists went to the guillotine, certainly the strength of the committees had been made evident, as had their ability to control and silence opposition. The Law of 14 Frimaire was enacted in December 1793 to centralize, the law enumerated various forms of public enemies, made mandatory their denunciation, and severely limited the legal recourse available to those accused. The punishment for all crimes under the Law of 22 Prairal was death, from the initiation of this law to the fall of Robespierre on 27 July, more people were condemned to death than in the entire previous history of the Revolutionary Tribunal
23.
Thermidor
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Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word thermos which means heat, Thermidor was the second month of the summer quarter. It started July 19 or 20 and it ended August 17 or 18. It follows the Messidor and precedes the Fructidor, during Year 2, it was sometimes called Fervidor. The new regime, known as The Directory, introduced more conservative policies aimed at stabilizing the revolutionary government, leon Trotsky, in his book The Revolution Betrayed, refers to the rise of Joseph Stalin and the accompanying post-revolutionary bureaucracy as the Soviet Thermidor. The food Lobster Thermidor was named, directly or indirectly, after the month, Thermidor is also the name of a story revolving around the end of the French Revolution in Neil Gaimans The Sandman, issue #29. Thermidor and Thermidor 2 were robots on Robot Wars, a man by the name of Thermidor is the leader of the ORCA reactionary group in the video game Armored Core, For Answer. Additionally, in the game, ORCA launches an offensive on 13 Thermidor, as the game narration states that for many. There is a recorded by J-pop artist Nana Mizuki by the name of Thermidor. Its lyrics talk about a person in love that is also rethinking his or her feelings after realizing that the person they love has changed. Its lyrics mimic the modern definition of Thermidor, like all French Republican Calendar months, Thermidor lasted 30 days and was divided into three 10-day weeks called décades. Every day had the name of a plant, except the 5th and 10th day of every decade
24.
Siege of Mainz (1793)
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In the Siege of Mainz, from 14 April to 23 July 1793, a coalition of Prussia, Austria, and other German states besieged and captured Mainz from revolutionary French forces. The allies, especially the Prussians, first tried negotiations, but this failed, within the town the siege and bombardment led to stress between citizens, municipality and the French war council, governing since 2 April. The city administration was displaced on 13 July, this increased the stubbornness of the remaining population, since a relief army was missing, the war council was forced to take up negotiations with the allied forces on 17 July, the remaining soldiers capitulated on 23 July. Nearly 19,000 French troops surrendered at the end of the siege, consequently, they were used to fight French royalists in the Vendée region of France. They left the town singing La Marseillaise, the Republic of Mainz, the first democratic state on the later German territory, was subsequently dissolved. Mainz received a Prussian commander to administer the city, crucis, the Benedictine abbey St. Jacob on the citadel and the remains of St. Albans Abbey. The cathedral had been heavily damaged, the biggest impact of the occupation and siege was that the citys part in the old imperial electoral structure finally came to their end. Thus the events of the year 1793 also marked the end of Aurea Moguntia, the city lost its status as the electoral residence. The shelling of Mainz was widely discussed in Europe, many people gathered round the town in order to view the siege. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe assisted Duke Carl August of Saxe-Weimar during the siege, the Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Die Belagerung von Mainz, schmittlein, Raymond, Un Recit de Guerre de Goethe le Siege de Mayence II. Arthur Chuquet, The Wars of the Revolution, The Siege of Mainz, Die Belagerung von Mainz by Goethe in the Project Gutenberg
25.
Place de la Concorde
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The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring 8.64 hectares in area, it is the largest square in the French capital and it is located in the citys eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. The place was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon between the Champs-Elysées to the west and the Tuileries Garden to the east, decorated with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time. At the north end, two magnificent identical stone buildings were constructed, separated by the rue Royale, these structures remain among the best examples of Louis Quinze style architecture. Initially, the building served as the French Naval Ministry. Shortly after its construction, the building became the opulent home of the Duc dAumont. It was later purchased by the Comte de Crillon, whose family resided there until 1907, the famous luxury Hôtel de Crillon, which currently occupies the building, took its name from its previous owners. During the French Revolution the statue of Louis XV of France was torn down, the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine in the square, and it was here that King Louis XVI was executed on 21 January 1793. In 1795, under the Directory, the square was renamed Place de la Concorde as a gesture of reconciliation after the turmoil of the French Revolution. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, the name was changed back to Place Louis XV, after the July Revolution of 1830 the name was returned to Place de la Concorde and has remained that way since. To the west of the Place is the famous Champs-Élysées, to the east of the Place are the Tuileries Gardens. The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume and the Musée de lOrangerie, the eastern one houses the French Naval Ministry, and the western one is the Hôtel de Crillon. The Rue Royale leads to the de la Madeleine. The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II and it is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time, in the 1990s, President François Mitterrand gave the second obelisk back to the Egyptians. The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple, the self-declared Khedive of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3, 300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris on 21 December 1833, three years later, on 25 October 1836, King Louis Philippe had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde. The obelisk, a granite column, rises 23 metres high, including the base
26.
Maximilien Robespierre
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Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution, as a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was an outspoken advocate for the poor and for democratic institutions. He campaigned for universal suffrage in France, price controls on basic food commodities. But although he was an ardent opponent of the penalty, he played an important role in arranging the execution of King Louis XVI. He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolutions Reign of Terror and he was named as a member of the powerful Committee of Public Safety launched by his political ally Georges Danton and exerted his influence to suppress the left-wing Hébertists. The Terror ended a few later with Robespierres arrest and execution in July. Robespierres personal responsibility for the excesses of the Terror remains the subject of debate among historians of the French Revolution. Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie and his steadfast adherence and defense of the views he expressed earned him the nickname lIncorruptible. Robespierres reputation has gone through cycles of re-appraisal. During the Soviet Era, Robespierre was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure and his reputation peaked in the 1920s with the influence of French historian Albert Mathiez. In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies, Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras in the old French province of Artois. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in Picardy and it has been suggested that he was of Irish descent, his surname possibly a corruption of Robert Speirs. His paternal grandfather, also named Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer and his father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, was a lawyer at the Conseil dArtois. He married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, Maximilien was the oldest of four children and was conceived out of wedlock. His siblings were Charlotte, Henriette, and Augustin, on 7 July 1764, Madame de Robespierre gave birth to a stillborn son, she died nine days later. Devastated by his wifes death, François de Robespierre subsequently left Arras, the children would visit each other on Sundays. Already literate at age 8, Maximilien started attending the collège of Arras, in October 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he received a scholarship at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, University of Paris in Paris. Robespierre studied there until age 23, receiving his training as a lawyer, upon his graduation, he received a special prize of 600-livre for twelve years of exemplary academic success and personal good conduct
27.
Thermidorian Reaction
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The Thermidorian Reaction was a coup détat within the French Revolution against the leaders of the Jacobin Club who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and this ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras, Jean-Lambert Tallien, Thermidor represents the final throes of the Reign of Terror. His only real power at this time lay in the Jacobin Club. Many others who conspired against Robespierre did so for practical and personal reasons. The surviving Dantonists, such as Merlin de Thionville, wanted revenge for the death of Georges Danton and, more importantly, among the latter were Joseph Fouché and Pierre-Louis Bentabole, who engineered Robespierres downfall. In the end, it was Robespierre himself who united all his enemies, on 8 Thermidor he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. As he did not give the names of these traitors, all in the Convention had reason to fear that they were the targets, later, he went and enlisted the support of the Jacobin Club, where he denounced Collot and Billaud. These men then spent the night planning the following day’s coup, conspiracies against Maximilien Robespierre who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety came together on 9 Thermidor 1794. Cries went up of Down with the tyrant, Robespierre then made his appeal to the deputies of the Right, Deputies of the Right, men of honour, men of virtue, give me the floor, since the assassins will not. However, the Right was unmoved, and an order was made to arrest Robespierre, troops from the Paris Commune arrived to liberate the prisoners. The Commune troops, under General Coffinhal（French：--）, then marched against the Convention itself, the Convention responded by ordering troops of its own under Paul Barras to be called out. When the Communes troops heard the news of this, order began to break down, Robespierre and his supporters also gathered at the Hôtel de Ville. The Convention declared them to be outlaws, meaning that upon verification the fugitives could be executed within 24 hours without a trial, as the night went on the Commune forces at the Hôtel de Ville deserted until none of them remained. The Convention troops under Barras approached the Hôtel around 2,00 am on 28 July, as they came, Robespierres brother Augustin leapt out of a window in an escape attempt, broke his legs, and was arrested. Couthon, who due to disease was paralysed from the waist down, was found lying at the bottom of a staircase. Robespierre was shot in the face, and his jaw was shattered, there are two accounts of how he received the wound
28.
Tallien
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Jean-Lambert Tallien was a French political figure of the revolutionary period. He was the son of the maître dhôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, the family of Tallien was originally from Italy, and moved to the Northern France, near Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, supportive of the Revolution, he gave up his desk to enter a printers office, and by 1791 was overseer of the printing department of the Comte de Provence. This enterprise had its expenses paid by the Jacobin Club, and he became even more present in politics after organizing, together with Jean-Marie Collot dHerbois, the great Fête de la Liberté on 15 April 1792, in honour of the released soldiers of Chateau-Vieux. Tallien was one of the most active leaders in the storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August. He committed himself to his new mission, and habitually appeared at the bar of the Assembly on behalf of the Commune. He was a participant in the September Massacres of 1792. He announced the September Massacres in terms of apology and praise, at the same time, he had several people imprisoned in order to save them from the violence of the mob, and protected several suspects himself. After a short mission in the provinces he returned to Paris, and took an active part in the coups détat of 31 May and 2 June. For the next few months he kept a low profile, but on 23 September 1793 and this was the month in which the Reign of Terror was organized under the superintendence of the Committees of Public Safety and Committee of General Security. Tallien was of the most notorious envoys sent over to establish the Terror in the provinces, the young Tallien, who was barely 24, became notorious for his administration of justice in Bordeaux through his bloody affinity to “feed ‘la sainte guillotine’. However, after the days of his mission in Bordeaux. This tendency may be due to his involvement with Thérésa Cabarrús. Tallien not only spared her life but fell in love with her, Tallien suggested, “It is better to marry than to be beheaded. ”After Tallien became involved with Cabarrús, there was a notable decline in the number of executions in Bordeaux. Thérésa was an influence, and from the lives she saved by her entreaties she received the name of Notre-Dame de Thermidor after the onset of the Thermidorian Reaction. Tallien was even elected president of the Convention on 24 March 1794, maximillian Robespierre certainly took notice of Talliens “royalist” behavior and recalled him to Paris. Maximilien Robespierres own political ideas implied his readiness to strike at many of his colleagues in the committees, Robespierres rivals were determined to strike first. When Tallien was recalled, Thérésa Cabarrús was recaptured and imprisoned and she was set to face trial and likely would have been executed
29.
Paul Barras
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Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799. Descended from a family of Provence, he was born at Fox-Amphoux. At the age of sixteen, he entered the regiment of Languedoc as a gentleman cadet, in 1776, he embarked for French India. Shipwrecked on his voyage, he managed to reach Pondicherry in time to contribute to the defence of that city during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Besieged by British forces, the city surrendered on 18 October 1778, after the French garrison was released and he took part in a second expedition to the region in 1782/83, serving in the fleet of the renowned Admiral Pierre André de Suffren. Afterwards, he spent several years back home in France at leisure in relative obscurity, at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he advocated the democratic cause, and became one of the administrators of the Var. In June 1792 he took his seat in the national court at Orléans. In January 1793, he voted with the majority for the execution of King Louis XVI, however, he was mostly absent from Paris on missions to the regions of the south-east of France. During this period, he made the acquaintance of Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon, when Barras became Director, he gave Napoleon position of general in the battalion of Italians. In 1794, Barras sided with the men who sought to overthrow Maximilien Robespierres faction, the Thermidorian Reaction of 27 July 1794 made him rise to prominence. In the next year, when the Convention felt threatened by the malcontent National Guards of Paris, subsequently, Barras became one of the five Directors who controlled the executive of the French Republic. Owing to his relations with Joséphine de Beauharnais, Barras helped to facilitate a marriage between her and Bonaparte. Some of his contemporaries alleged that this was the reason behind Barras nomination of Bonaparte to the command of the army of Italy early in the year 1796. Barras alleged immorality in public and private life is cited as a major contribution to the fall of the Directory. In any case, Bonaparte met little resistance during his 18 Brumaire coup of November 1799, at the same time, Barras is seen as a supporter of the change, one left aside by the First Consul when the latter reshaped the government of France. Since he had amassed a fortune, Barras spent his later years in luxury. Although a partisan of the Second Restoration, Barras was kept in check during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Bibliography Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Barras, Paul François Nicolas, Napoleon, Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents. A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times, Barras, chef dEtat oublié by Pierre Temin
30.
Hussar
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A Hussar was a member of any one of several types of light cavalry used during the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning in Central Europe. Historically, the term derives from the cavalry of late medieval Hungary, the title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry regiments in European and European colonial armies in the late 17th and 18th centuries. A number of armored or ceremonial mounted units in modern armies retain the designation of hussars, the first written mention of the word Hussarones has been found in documents dating from 1432 in Southern Hungary. A type of light horsemen was already well-established by the 15th century in medieval Hungary. Etymologists are divided over the derivation of the word hussar, byzantinist scholars argue that the term originated in Roman military practice, and the cursarii. 10th-century Byzantine military manuals mention chonsarioi, light cavalry, recruited in the Balkans, especially Serbs and this word was subsequently reintroduced to Western European military practice after its original usage had been lost with the collapse of Rome in the west. According to Websters Dictionary, the word stems from the Hungarian huszár. On the other hand, husz means twenty in Hungarian whilst ar is a unit of measurement or acre. Hussars are so named as they were a form of military levy whereby any land owner with twenty acres was duty bound to provide a mounted and equipped soldier to the army at their own expense. The elaborate uniforms were based on traditional Magyar horsemans clothes with highly braided, tight riding breeches, close fitting pointed boots, the hussars reportedly originated in bands of mostly Serbian warriors, crossing into southern Hungary after the Ottoman conquest of Serbia at the end of the 14th century. Regent-Governor John Hunyadi created mounted units inspired by the Ottomans and his son, Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is unanimously accepted as the creator of these troops, commonly called Rac. Initially, they fought in bands, but were reorganised into larger. The first hussar regiments comprised the cavalry of the Black Army of Hungary. Under Corvinus command, the took part in the war against the Ottoman Empire in 1485 and proved successful against the sipahis as well as against the Bohemians. After the kings death, in 1490, hussars became the form of cavalry in Hungary in addition to the heavy cavalry. The Habsburg emperors hired Hungarian hussars as mercenaries to serve against the Ottomans, early hussars wore armor when they could afford to it like the later Polish hussars. Hungarian hussars abandoned using shields and later armors and became entirely light cavalry in the first half of the 17th century, initially the first units of Polish hussars in the Kingdom of Poland were formed in 1500, influenced by Serbian mercenaries. A small number of Serbian mercenaries were recruited and became citizens of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish heavy hussars of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were far more manoeuvrable than the heavily armoured lancers previously employed
31.
Campaigns of 1798 in the French Revolutionary Wars
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1798 was a relatively quiet period in the French Revolutionary Wars. The major continental powers in the First coalition had made peace with France, Napoleon raised a large army including scientists and cultural experts, and sailed from Toulon on 19 May. Stopping to capture Malta on 12 June, he landed near Alexandria on 2 July, Napoleons army proceeded to march against the Mameluke armies in Cairo, and met them at the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July. Facing a huge army, Napoleon organized his army into squares, the Mameluke army retreated into Syria, leaving Napoleon dominant in Egypt. However, the British were threatened by this move, and admiral Horatio Nelson rushed to the coast of Egypt, there, he came upon the French fleet at anchor and systematically destroyed it in the Battle of the Nile. Without a fleet, Napoleons army was trapped in Egypt, Napoleon consolidated his base in Egypt for the remainder of the year. Damage to mosques sustained during this revolt embittered the Egyptian population against the French, the French were also under pressure in Belgium and Luxembourg where the local people revolted against conscription and anti-religious violence. French troops deposed Pope Pius VI, establishing a republic in Rome, on 5 March 1798, French troops overran Switzerland at the invitation of French-speaking factions in Vaud, and the Old Swiss Confederation collapsed. On 12 April 1798121 cantonal deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic, One, the new régime abolished cantonal sovereignty and feudal rights. The occupying forces established a state based on the ideas of the French Revolution. On 18 May the British launched combined Royal Navy and British Army raid on Ostend to destroy the gates of the Bruge Canal. The objectives were achieved but the army contingent of 1,300 men were either killed or captured. An expeditionary force was sent to County Mayo in Ireland to assist in the rebellion against Britain in the summer of 1798. On 22 August, nearly two months after the uprisings had been defeated, about 1,000 French soldiers under General Humbert landed in the north-west of the country. By the end of the year, the European powers, having recovered from their previous defeats and emboldened by Napoleons absence, organized a new Second Coalition. The only military activity before the end of the year was in Italy, French Revolution French Revolutionary Wars History of Ottoman Egypt
32.
Cleopatra
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Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as Cleopatra, was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, briefly survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. After her reign, Egypt became a province of the recently established Roman Empire, Cleopatra was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek family of Macedonian origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Greats death during the Hellenistic period. By contrast, Cleopatra did learn to speak Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis, as queen, she consummated a liaison with Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. She later elevated Caesarion, her son with Caesar, to co-ruler in name, after Caesars assassination in 44 BC, she aligned with Mark Antony in opposition to Caesars legal heir Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. With Antony, she bore the twins Cleopatra Selene II and Alexander Helios, Antony committed suicide after losing the Battle of Actium to Octavians forces, and Cleopatra followed suit. According to tradition, she killed herself by means of an asp bite on August 12,30 BC and she was outlived by Caesarion, who was declared pharaoh by his supporters, but he was soon killed on Octavians orders. Egypt then became the Roman province of Aegyptus, Cleopatras father Auletes was a direct descendant of Alexander the Greats general Ptolemy I Soter, son of Arsinoe and Lagus, both of Macedon. Centralization of power and corruption led to uprisings in and the losses of Cyprus and Cyrenaica, Ptolemy went to Rome with Cleopatra, Cleopatra VI Tryphaena seized the crown but died shortly afterwards in suspicious circumstances. It is believed that Berenice IV poisoned her so that she could assume sole rulership, regardless of the cause, she ruled until Ptolemy Auletes returned in 55 BC with Roman support, capturing Alexandria aided by Roman general Aulus Gabinius. Berenice was imprisoned and executed afterwards, her head allegedly being sent to the royal court on the decree of her father. Cleopatra now became joint regent and deputy to her father at age 14, Ptolemy XII died in March 51 BC. His will made 18-year-old Cleopatra and her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII joint monarchs, the first three years of their reign were difficult due to economic failures, famine, deficient floods of the Nile, and political conflicts. Cleopatra was married to her brother, but she quickly made it clear that she had no intention of sharing power with him. In August 51 BC, relations broke down between Cleopatra and Ptolemy. Cleopatra dropped Ptolemys name from official documents and her face appeared on coins. The Gabiniani killed the sons of the Roman governor of Syria Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus when they came to ask the Gabiniani to assist their father against the Parthians, Cleopatra handed the murderers over to Bibulus in chains, whereupon the Gabiniani became bitter enemies of the queen. This conflict was one of the causes of Cleopatras fall from power shortly afterward. The sole reign of Cleopatra was finally ended by a cabal of courtiers led by the eunuch Pothinus, in connection with half-Greek general Achillas, circa 48 BC, Cleopatras younger brother Ptolemy XIII became sole ruler
33.
Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise
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The plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, also known as the Machine infernale plot, was an assassination attempt on the life of the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in Paris on 24 December 1800. It followed the conspiration des poignards of 10 October 1800, and was one of many Royalist, the name of the Machine Infernale, the infernal device, was in reference to an episode during the sixteenth-century revolt against Spanish rule in Flanders. The Italian engineer called it la macchina infernale, the machine infernale attempt on Napoleon’s life was planned by seven royalist Breton chouans. Pierre Picot de Limoëlan, the son of a guillotined royalist nobleman. Georges Cadoudal, the giant Chouannerie leader, jean-Baptiste Coster, one of Cadoudal’s ablest lieutenants, known as Saint-Victor. The other three plotters were the noblemen Joyaux d’Assas, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, and La Haye-Saint-Hilaire, Cadoudal had charged Limoëlan and Saint-Régeant with the task of taking Napoleon’s life. On 26 Frimaire Year IX of the French Republic the chouans Carbon, Limoëlan and Saint-Régeant bought a cart, Carbon said he was a peddler who would hold a mare for that purpose. Lamballe sold him the cart and mare for two hundred francs, Carbon and his friends drove it to 19, Rue Paradis, near Saint-Lazare, where they had rented a shed. There they spent 10 days hooping a large wine cask to the cart with ten strong iron rings, the idea was to fill the cask with gunpowder, make a machine infernale and explode it near Napoleon as he drove to a public place like the Opera. On the first of Nivôse Saint-Régeant drove to the Place du Carrousel looking for a placement for the machine infernale. The rue de la Loi, which led to the opera, was almost a continuation of it. ”Saint-Régeant decided to place the barrel in the rue St. -Nicaise, toward the rue St. -Honoré, some 20 meters from the Place du Carrousel. One of them would stand watch before the Hôtel de Longueville, thus he would see the carriage when it left the Tuileries, and would be able to signal to the person who, with a long fuse, would ignite the bomb”. In a deserted building, they loaded the cask with gunpowder, then they drove it to the rue Saint-Nicaise, north of the palace. Limoëlan crossed over to the place du Carrousel, whence he could signal his two fellow plotters to light the fuse, Saint-Régeant saw a fourteen-year-old girl named Marianne Peusol, whose mother sold fresh-baked rolls and vegetables in the nearby rue du Bac. He paid her twelve sous to hold the mare for a few minutes, Bonaparte’s carriage was preceded by a cavalry escort from the Garde consulaire. War Minister Berthier, General Lannes, and Colonel Lauriston, Bonaparte’s aide-de-camp, from their memoirs, a nineteenth-century French psychologist named Garnier deduced that on his way to the Opéra the exhausted Napoleon fell asleep. As he slept, Napoleon is said to have had a bad dream reliving his defeat at the Tagliamento River by the Austrians three years earlier. While he had been dreaming, Napoleon’s carriage, driven by a man named César, passed the rue Saint-Nicaise
34.
Joseph Haydn
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Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Haydn spent much of his career as a musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, yet his music circulated widely and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Mozart, a teacher of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who served as Marktrichter. Haydns mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach. Neither parent could read music, however, Mathias was a folk musician. According to Haydns later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical. Haydns parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training, Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg 12 kilometres away, he never again lived with his parents. Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and he began his musical training there, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin. The people of Hainburg heard him sing treble parts in the church choir, Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna, where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutters family, and the other four choirboys, the choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition. However, since St. Stephens was one of the musical centres in Europe. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed, by 1749, Haydn had matured physically to the point that he was no longer able to sing high choral parts. Empress Maria Theresa herself complained to Reutter about his singing, calling it crowing, one day, Haydn carried out a prank, snipping off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. This was enough for Reutter, Haydn was first caned, then summarily dismissed and he had the good fortune to be taken in by a friend, Johann Michael Spangler, who shared his familys crowded garret room with Haydn for a few months. Haydn immediately began his pursuit of a career as a freelance musician and he was also briefly in Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitzs employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz
35.
Paris Opera
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The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of France. Classical ballet as we know it today arose within the Paris Opera as the Paris Opera Ballet and has remained an integral, small scale and contemporary works are also staged in the 500-seat Amphitheatre under the Opéra Bastille. The companys annual budget is in the order of 200 million euros, with this money, the company runs the two houses and supports a large permanent staff, which includes the orchestra of 170, a chorus of 110 and the corps de ballet of 150. Each year, the Opéra presents about 380 performances of opera, ballet and other concerts, to an audience of about 800,000 people. In the 2012/13 season, the Opéra presented 18 opera titles,13 ballets,5 symphonic concerts, the companys training bodies are also active, with 7 concerts from the Atelier Lyrique and 4 programmes from the École de Danse. The poet Pierre Perrin began thinking and writing about the possibility of French opera in 1655 and he believed that the prevailing opinion of the time that the French language was fundamentally unmusical was completely incorrect. Seventeenth-century France offered Perrin essentially two types of organization for realizing his vision, an academy or a public theater. On 28 June 1669, Louis XIV signed the Privilège accordé au Sieur Perrin pour létablissement dune Académie dOpéra en musique and he was free to select business partners of his choice and to set the price of tickets. No one was to have the right of free entry including members of the royal court, although it was to be a public theatre, it retained its status as royal academy in which the authority of the king as the primary stakeholder was decisive. The monopoly, originally intended to protect the enterprise from competition during its phase, was renewed for subsequent recipients of the privilege up to the early French Revolution. As Victoria Johnson points out, the Opera was an organization by nature so luxurious and expensive in its productions that its survival depended on financial protection. His first opera Pomone with music by Robert Cambert opened on 3 March 1671, a second work, Les peines et les plaisirs de lamour, with a libretto by Gabriel Gilbert and music by Cambert, was performed in 1672. The institution was renamed the Académie Royale de Musique and came to be known in France simply as the Opéra. Because of legal difficulties Lully could not use the Salle de la Bouteille, during Lullys tenure, the only works performed were his own. The first productions were the pastorale Les fêtes de lAmour et de Bacchus, Lully greatly desired a better theatre and persuaded the king to let him use the one at the Palais-Royal free of charge. The Théâtre du Palais-Royal had been altered in 1660 and 1671, the first production in the new theatre was Alceste on 19 January 1674. The opera was bitterly attacked by those enraged at the restrictions that Lully had caused to be placed on the French, to mitigate the damage, Louis XIV arranged for new works to be premiered at the court, usually at the Chateau Vieux of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This had the advantage of subsidizing the cost of rehearsals, as well as most of the machinery, sets, and costumes
36.
Caroline Bonaparte
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Caroline was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. She was a sister of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoléon Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte. She was a sister of Jérôme Bonaparte. In 1793, Caroline moved with her family to France during the French Revolution, there, she fell in love with Joachim Murat, one of her brothers generals, and they married on 20 January 1800. Initially, Napoleon did not wish to allow them to marry, however, Caroline had been a pupil at the school in St-Germain-en-Laye founded by Madame Jeanne Campan. She attended the school at the time as Hortense, Joséphines daughter. She became Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves on 15 March 1806 and she was intensely jealous of her sister-in-law Joséphine and her children, as she felt Napoleon favored them over his Bonaparte relatives. It was Caroline who arranged for Napoleon to take a mistress, Éléonore Denuelle and this had the desired effect of establishing that Joséphine was infertile as Napoleon showed he was clearly capable of siring children. When Napoleon married his second Empress Consort Marie Louise of Austria, after meeting her at the border of Austria and her duchy, Caroline forced Marie-Louise to leave all her luggage, servants, and even her pet dog, behind in Austria. Consequently, she devoted herself to the interests of her husband Joachim Murat and her relations with Napoleon became increasingly strained in 1813–1814, as Joachim shifted allegiances. She supported his decision to make a peace with the anti-Napoleonic allies. Then, during the Hundred Days of 1815, Joachim came out for Napoleon and he was defeated and executed, and Caroline fled to the Austrian Empire. Whilst in exile, she adopted the title Countess of Lipona, Lipona being an anagram of Napoli, in 1830, she married Francesco Macdonald, who had been Minister of War of the Kingdom of Naples in 1814 and 1815. She lived in Florence until her death in 1839, Caroline died in 1839 and was buried at the Chiesa di Ognissanti, in Florence. One of her great-great-great-grandsons is the American actor René Auberjonois, who is perhaps best known for portraying the character Odo on Star Trek, Deep Space Nine. Caroline and Joachim were the parents of four children, Achille Charles Louis Napoléon Murat, 1st Sovereign Prince of Pontecorvo, 2nd Prince Murat, m. Tallahassee, Florida,12 July 1826 Catherine Daingerfield Willis, daughter of Colonel Byrd C. Willis and wife Mary Lewis, without issue, Princess Marie Letizia Joséphine Annonciade Murat, trieste,25 October 1825 Giulio Conte Rasponi, had issue
37.
Jean Rapp
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Jean Rapp was a French Army general during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Rapp was born the son of the janitor of the town-hall of Colmar and he began theological studies to become a clergyman, but with his build and heated character, he was better suited to the military, which he joined in March 1788. From the rank of a regular of the chasseurs de Cévennes, he worked his way up the ranks through his courage and character to the rank of a division general, as a lieutenant, his reputation grew through his impetuousness as well as the wounds he received in battle. He was made aide de camp of Louis Desaix, who named him captain and took him to Egypt, for that he was given a squadron and later a brigade by Napoleon. After the Egyptian campaign, Rapp remained under the command of Desaix until the death at Marengo on 14 June 1800. He then became aide de camp of Napoleon, then the First Consul, under this title, he was charged with many confidential missions by Napoleon in the Vendée, Switzerland and Belgium. Promoted to division general, he fought at Jena on 14 October 1806 and was wounded at Golymin. He saved Napoleons life a second time by repelling an attack of Cossacks at the Gorodnia and was wounded at the passage of the Berezina. As governor of Danzig, Rapp held the town for a year after the Grande Armée left Russia, during the Hundred Days, Rapp rallied to Napoleon and was given command of V Corps, consisting of about 20,000 men. It was used to observe the border near Strasbourg, and to defend the Vosges, ten days after the battle of Waterloo, he met some Coalition forces near Strasbourg and defeated them at the Battle of La Suffel. After the Waterloo Campaign, he offered his resignation several times, later, Rapp became a deputy of the department of Haut-Rhin and was appointed as treasurer of Louis XVIII in 1819. He died in Rheinweiler in Baden and his hometown Colmar built a statue in his honor on the Champ de Mars with the inscription Ma parole est sacrée. Rapps heart is kept in a shrine in the church Saint-Matthieu, jean Rapp, Napoleonic Guide Napoleonic Guide
38.
Jacques-Louis David
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Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. David later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. Imprisoned after Robespierres fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, at this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleons fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century. Jacques-Louis David was born into a family in Paris on 30 August 1748. When he was nine his father was killed in a duel. He covered his notebooks with drawings, and he said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair. Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and he overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but tastes were changing, Boucher decided that instead of taking over Davids tutelage, he would send David to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter who embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre, each year the Academy awarded an outstanding student the prestigious Prix de Rome, which funded a three- to five-year stay in the Eternal City. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three years, each failure contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with great zeal—only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year. Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease, a subject set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, while in Italy, David especially studied the works of 17th-century masters such as Poussin, Caravaggio, and the Carracci. Mengs principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Davids pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, mengs also introduced David to the theoretical writings on ancient sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German scholar held to be the founder of modern art history. In 1779, David toured the newly excavated ruins of Pompeii, while in Rome, David also assiduously studied the High Renaissance painters, Raphael making a profound and lasting impression on the young French artist
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Georges Rouget
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Georges Rouget was a neoclassical French painter. After studying in the école des beaux-arts, Rouget entered Davids studio in 1797, though winning the second prize in the prix de Rome contest in 1803, he failed three times to win the first prize. He produced many canvases for the First French Empire and the Bonapartes, such as The Marriage of Napoleon, a minor painter, he spent his whole career producing paintings of great moments in French history for whatever regime was in power at the time. Many of his paintings adorned the musée de Versailles opened by Louis-Philippe in 1837, selected art Media related to Georges Rouget at Wikimedia Commons Alain Pougetoux, Georges Rouget, élève de Louis David, Musée de la Vie romantique, ed. Paris Musées Paris 1995, ISBN 2-87900-234-6
The Heroines of History public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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