Napoleonic Wars  

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-{{Template}}The '''''Black Paintings''''' are a group of paintings by [[Francisco Goya]] created in the later years of his life (1819-1823) that portray intense, haunting themes.+[[Image:Napoléon Bonaparte abdicated in Fontainebleau.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Napoléon Bonaparte abdicated in Fontainebleau]]'' (1845) by [[Paul Delaroche]]]]
 +{{Template}}
-In 1819 at the age of 72, [[Goya]] moved into a two-story house outside of [[Madrid]] called "[[Quinta del Sordo]]," or "Deaf Man's Villa". Although the house had been named after the previous owner who was deaf, [[Goya]] was himself deaf at the time as a result of an illness he suffered at the age of 46.+The '''Napoleonic Wars''' were a series of conflicts involving [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon's]] [[First French Empire|French Empire]] and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern [[Levée en masse|mass conscription]]. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous [[French invasion of Russia|invasion of Russia in 1812]]. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the [[Bourbon Restoration|restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France]]. The wars resulted in the dissolution of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Meanwhile the [[Spanish Empire]] began to unravel as French occupation of Spain weakened Spain's hold over its colonies, providing an opening for nationalist revolutions in [[Latin America]]. As a direct result of the Napoleonic wars the [[British Empire]] became the foremost [[world power]] for the next century.
-After the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and the turmoil of the Spanish government, [[Goya]] developed an embittered attitude towards humanity. He had an acute awareness of panic, terror, fear, and hysteria. Also surviving two near-fatal illnesses, Goya grew increasingly anxious and impatient in fear of relapse. These factors combined are thought to have led to his production of 14 works known as the '''''Black Paintings'''''.+No consensus exists as to when the [[French Revolutionary Wars]] ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte seized power in France with the [[18 Brumaire|coup of 18 Brumaire]]; 18 May 1803, when a renewed declaration of war between Britain and France ended the only period of peace in Europe between 1792 and 1814; and 2 December 1804, when Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor.
-Using oil paints and working directly onto the walls of his dining and sitting rooms, [[Goya]] created intense, haunting works with dark themes. The paintings were not commissioned, and they were not meant to leave his home. He did not title the paintings, but art historians have since provided titles.+The Napoleonic Wars ended following Napoleon's final [[Battle of Waterloo|defeat at Waterloo]] on 18 June 1815 and the [[Treaty of Paris (1815)|Second Treaty of Paris]].
-Perhaps the best known of the ''Black Paintings'' is ''[[Saturn Devouring His Son]]''. The frightening image portrays the Roman god [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] eating one of his children. (The Greek counterpart to Saturn is [[Cronus]], father of [[Zeus]].) Fearing a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, Saturn ate each of his children upon their birth. [[Goya]] depicts this act of [[cannibalism]] with startling savagery. The background is black, while the limbs and head of Saturn seem to pop out of the shadows. Saturn's eyes are huge and bulging as if he is mad. His fingers dig into the back of his son, whose head and right arm are already consumed. Saturn is about to take another bite of his child's left arm. The only use of color besides flesh-tones is the splash of red blood covering the mutilated outline of the upper part of the partially-eaten, motionless body, which is chillingly depicted in deathly white. +==In fiction==
 +*[[Leo Tolstoy]]'s epic novel, ''[[War and Peace]]'' recounts Napoleon's wars between 1805 and 1812 (especially the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia and subsequent retreat) from a Russian perspective.
 +*[[Stendhal]]'s novel ''[[The Charterhouse of Parma]]'' opens with a ground-level recounting of the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and the subsequent chaotic retreat of French forces.
 +*''[[Les Misérables]]'' by [[Victor Hugo]] takes place against the backdrop of the Napoleonic War and subsequent decades, and in its unabridged form contains an epic telling of the [[Battle of Waterloo]].
 +*''[[Adieu (novella)|Adieu]]'' is a novella by [[Honoré de Balzac]] in which can be found a short description of the French retreat from Russia, particularly the [[battle of Berezina]], where the fictional couple of the story are tragically separated. Years later after imprisonment, the husband returns to find his wife still in a state of utter shock and amnesia. He has the battle and their separation reenacted, hoping the memory will heal her state.
 +*[[William Makepeace Thackeray|William Makepeace Thackeray's]] novel ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'' takes place during the Napoleonic Wars—one of its protagonists dies at the Battle of Waterloo.
 +*''The Duel'', a short story by [[Joseph Conrad]], recounts the story based on true events of two French [[Hussar]] officers who carry a long grudge and fight in duels each time they meet during the Napoleonic wars. The short story was adapted by director [[Ridley Scott]] into the [[1977 Cannes Film Festival]]'s Best First Work award winning film ''[[The Duellists]]''.
 +*''[[Le Colonel Chabert (novel)|Le Colonel Chabert]]'' by [[Honoré de Balzac]]. After being severely wounded during the [[battle of Eylau]] (1807), Chabert, a famous colonel of the [[cuirassier]]s, was erroneously recorded as dead and buried unconscious with French casualties. After extricating himself from his own grave and being nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. When he returns in the Paris of the [[Bourbon Restoration]], he discovers that his "widow", a former prostitute that Chabert made rich and honourable, has married the wealthy Count Ferraud. She has also liquidated all of Chabert's belongings and pretends to not recognize her first husband. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honor.
 +*''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' by [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] starts during the tail-end of the Napoleonic Wars. The main character, [[Edmond Dantès]], suffers imprisonment following false accusations of Bonapartist leanings.
 +*The novelist [[Jane Austen]] lived much of her life during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and two of her brothers served in the [[Royal Navy]]. Austen almost never refers to specific dates or historical events in her novels, but wartime England forms part of the general backdrop to several of them: in [[Pride and Prejudice]] (1813, but possibly written during the 1790s), the local [[militia]] (civilian volunteers) has been called up for home defence and its officers play an important role in the plot; in [[Mansfield Park]] (1814), Fanny Price's brother William is a [[midshipman]] (officer in training) in the [[Royal Navy]]; and in ''[[Persuasion (novel)|Persuasion]]'' (1818), Frederic Wentworth and several other characters are naval officers recently returned from service.
 +*[[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte Brontë's]] novel ''[[Shirley (novel)|Shirley]]'' (1849), set during the Napoleonic Wars, explores some of the economic effects of war on rural Yorkshire.
 +*[[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Brigadier Gerard]] serves as a French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
 +*[[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s book ''[[The Idiot (novel)|The Idiot]]'' had a character, General Ivolgin, who witnessed and recounted his relationship with Napoleon during the Campaign of Russia.
 +*The ''[[Horatio Hornblower|Hornblower]]'' books by [[C.S. Forester]] follow the naval career of Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars.
 +*The ''[[Aubrey–Maturin series]]'' of novels is a sequence of 20 [[historical novel]]s by [[Patrick O'Brian]] portraying the rise of Jack Aubrey from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. The film [[Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World]] starring [[Russell Crowe]] and directed by [[Peter Weir]] is based on this series of books.
 +*The ''[[Richard Sharpe (fictional character)|Sharpe]]'' series by [[Bernard Cornwell]] star the character Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army, who fights throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
 +*The ''[[Bloody Jack (novel)|Bloody Jack]]'' book series by [[Louis A. Meyer]] is set during the Second Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, and retells many famous battles of the age. The heroine, Jacky, soon meets none other than Bonaparte himself.
 +*The Napoleonic Wars provide the backdrop for ''The Emperor'', ''The Victory'', ''The Regency'' and ''The Campaigners'', Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively of [[The Morland Dynasty]], a series of historical novels by author [[Cynthia Harrod-Eagles]].
 +*The [[Richard Bolitho]] series by [[Douglas Reeman|Alexander Kent]] novels portray this period of history from a naval perspective.
 +* [[Dinah Dean]]'s series of historical novels are set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars and are told from a Russian perspective – "The Road to Kaluga", "Flight From the Eagle", "The Eagle's Fate", "The Wheel of Fortune", "The Green Gallant" – follow a small group of soldiers (and their relatives) over months of campaigning from the fall of Moscow up to the liberation of Paris, the last 3 books – "The Ice King", "Tatya's Story", "The River of Time" – fall some years later but have the same cast of characters.
 +*[[Julian Stockwin]]'s Thomas Kydd series portrays one man's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the time of the French and Napoleonic Wars
 +*[[Simon Scarrow]] – Napoleonic series. Rise of Napoleon and Wellington from humble beginnings to history's most remarkable and notable leaders. 4 books in the series.
 +*The [[Lord Ramage]] series by [[Dudley Pope]] takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.
 +*[[Jeanette Winterson]]'s 1987 novel [[The Passion (book)]]
-Another of [[Goya]]'s dark paletted works from the ''Black Paintings'' collection is titled ''The Great He-Goat'' or ''Witches' Sabbath'' (''El aquelarre''). Earlier, [[Goya]] created a version of this work in a more cheerful and optimistic way, however, this image is ominous and gloomy. This earth-toned illustration shows [[Goya]]'s demonstration of the ancient belief that the [[Sabbath (witchcraft)|Sabbath]] was a meeting of [[witches]] supervised by the [[devil]], who took the form of a goat. The goat is painted completely black and appears as a silhouette in front of a crowd of [[witches]] and [[warlocks]]. These "sub-humans" have sunken eyes and near horrifying features. The figures [[huddle]] together, leaning towards the [[devil]]. Only one girl seems resistant to the crowd, and she sits at the far right, dressed in black holding a muff. Though she does not appear involved in the ritual, she does seem to be captivated by the group's relationship to the [[devil]].+;Science fiction and fantasy
- +*[[Bryan Talbot]]'s [[graphic novel]] ''[[Grandville (comics)|Grandville]]'' is set in an [[alternate history]] in which France won the Napoleonic War, invaded Britain and [[guillotine]]d the [[British Royal Family]].
-Not all of the ''Black Paintings'' share the limited colors of the previous two examples. In ''Fight With Clubs'', shows Goya's dramatic use of different shades of blue and red as two men cudgel each other.+*The [[Temeraire (series)|''Temeraire'']] series by [[Naomi Novik]] takes place in [[parallel universe (fiction)|alternate-universe]] Napoleonic Wars where dragons exist and serve in combat.
-While in the original version they were fighting on a meadow, the painting was damaged during the transfer, and the version at Prado has been painted over, stressing the eeriness of the fighters, unable to escape each other's blows due to their knee-deep entrapment in quagmire.+*[[Susanna Clarke]]'s historical fantasy novel, ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell]]'', takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. Much of the plot is driven by Mr. Norrell's successful campaign to convince the [[British government]] that [[magic (paranormal)|magic]] can be employed to prosecute the [[Peninsular War]].
-It has been taken as a premonition of the fight of the [[two Spains]], that would dominate the following decades.+
-''Fantastic Vision'' also uses bright red in the garb of one of the two giant figures hovering over a group of horsemen, and also in the feather of the hat of a rifleman taking aim at these figures.+
- +
-In 1823, an absolutist monarchy, [[Fernando VII]], was re-established in Spain, and Goya went into hiding. A year later, he fled to Bordeaux, France and stayed there in a self-imposed [[exile]] for the remainder of his life.+
- +
-Although [[Goya]] did not intend for anyone other than himself to see the ''Black Paintings'', they have since been taken off the walls and transferred onto canvas because of their deteriorating condition 70 years after they were painted. The owner subsequently donated these canvases to the Spanish state, and they are now on display at the [[Museo del Prado]] in Madrid, Spain.+
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The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts involving Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies and opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to the application of modern mass conscription. French power rose quickly, conquering most of Europe, but collapsed rapidly after France's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon's empire ultimately suffered complete military defeat resulting in the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France. The wars resulted in the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Meanwhile the Spanish Empire began to unravel as French occupation of Spain weakened Spain's hold over its colonies, providing an opening for nationalist revolutions in Latin America. As a direct result of the Napoleonic wars the British Empire became the foremost world power for the next century.

No consensus exists as to when the French Revolutionary Wars ended and the Napoleonic Wars began. Possible dates include 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte seized power in France with the coup of 18 Brumaire; 18 May 1803, when a renewed declaration of war between Britain and France ended the only period of peace in Europe between 1792 and 1814; and 2 December 1804, when Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor.

The Napoleonic Wars ended following Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 and the Second Treaty of Paris.

[edit]

In fiction

  • Leo Tolstoy's epic novel, War and Peace recounts Napoleon's wars between 1805 and 1812 (especially the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia and subsequent retreat) from a Russian perspective.
  • Stendhal's novel The Charterhouse of Parma opens with a ground-level recounting of the Battle of Waterloo and the subsequent chaotic retreat of French forces.
  • Les Misérables by Victor Hugo takes place against the backdrop of the Napoleonic War and subsequent decades, and in its unabridged form contains an epic telling of the Battle of Waterloo.
  • Adieu is a novella by Honoré de Balzac in which can be found a short description of the French retreat from Russia, particularly the battle of Berezina, where the fictional couple of the story are tragically separated. Years later after imprisonment, the husband returns to find his wife still in a state of utter shock and amnesia. He has the battle and their separation reenacted, hoping the memory will heal her state.
  • William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair takes place during the Napoleonic Wars—one of its protagonists dies at the Battle of Waterloo.
  • The Duel, a short story by Joseph Conrad, recounts the story based on true events of two French Hussar officers who carry a long grudge and fight in duels each time they meet during the Napoleonic wars. The short story was adapted by director Ridley Scott into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival's Best First Work award winning film The Duellists.
  • Le Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac. After being severely wounded during the battle of Eylau (1807), Chabert, a famous colonel of the cuirassiers, was erroneously recorded as dead and buried unconscious with French casualties. After extricating himself from his own grave and being nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. When he returns in the Paris of the Bourbon Restoration, he discovers that his "widow", a former prostitute that Chabert made rich and honourable, has married the wealthy Count Ferraud. She has also liquidated all of Chabert's belongings and pretends to not recognize her first husband. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honor.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père starts during the tail-end of the Napoleonic Wars. The main character, Edmond Dantès, suffers imprisonment following false accusations of Bonapartist leanings.
  • The novelist Jane Austen lived much of her life during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and two of her brothers served in the Royal Navy. Austen almost never refers to specific dates or historical events in her novels, but wartime England forms part of the general backdrop to several of them: in Pride and Prejudice (1813, but possibly written during the 1790s), the local militia (civilian volunteers) has been called up for home defence and its officers play an important role in the plot; in Mansfield Park (1814), Fanny Price's brother William is a midshipman (officer in training) in the Royal Navy; and in Persuasion (1818), Frederic Wentworth and several other characters are naval officers recently returned from service.
  • Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley (1849), set during the Napoleonic Wars, explores some of the economic effects of war on rural Yorkshire.
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard serves as a French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky's book The Idiot had a character, General Ivolgin, who witnessed and recounted his relationship with Napoleon during the Campaign of Russia.
  • The Hornblower books by C.S. Forester follow the naval career of Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • The Aubrey–Maturin series of novels is a sequence of 20 historical novels by Patrick O'Brian portraying the rise of Jack Aubrey from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. The film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe and directed by Peter Weir is based on this series of books.
  • The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell star the character Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army, who fights throughout the Napoleonic Wars.
  • The Bloody Jack book series by Louis A. Meyer is set during the Second Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, and retells many famous battles of the age. The heroine, Jacky, soon meets none other than Bonaparte himself.
  • The Napoleonic Wars provide the backdrop for The Emperor, The Victory, The Regency and The Campaigners, Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively of The Morland Dynasty, a series of historical novels by author Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.
  • The Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent novels portray this period of history from a naval perspective.
  • Dinah Dean's series of historical novels are set against the background of the Napoleonic Wars and are told from a Russian perspective – "The Road to Kaluga", "Flight From the Eagle", "The Eagle's Fate", "The Wheel of Fortune", "The Green Gallant" – follow a small group of soldiers (and their relatives) over months of campaigning from the fall of Moscow up to the liberation of Paris, the last 3 books – "The Ice King", "Tatya's Story", "The River of Time" – fall some years later but have the same cast of characters.
  • Julian Stockwin's Thomas Kydd series portrays one man's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the time of the French and Napoleonic Wars
  • Simon Scarrow – Napoleonic series. Rise of Napoleon and Wellington from humble beginnings to history's most remarkable and notable leaders. 4 books in the series.
  • The Lord Ramage series by Dudley Pope takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Jeanette Winterson's 1987 novel The Passion (book)
Science fiction and fantasy


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