One of the worst books I have ever read -
biased, bigoted and totally one-sided. According to Holmes, Napoleon was
responsible for everything, even Prussia's attack on France in 1806 and the
American war with England in 1812. He writes as a pseudo-historian of the
Esdaille stripe with 'hater of Napoleon' stamped through every one of his
inaccurate historical vignettes. To him and his ilk who class Napoleon as
inherently evil and Great Britain as the font of all justice and mercy, there
can be precious few redeeming features for the French Emperor. I read it in one
day - all the better to swallow the unpalatable tosh it contains and get it
over with. What a massive disappointment this book is. His mistakes are legion
- he even describes the Battle of Waterloo as being fought at 1-30 a.m and 6.00
a.m on page 145! This book hasn't even been proof read!
He talks of Nelson
being made a duke by the King of Naples for his recapture of the territory
without the merest mention of that one-armed bandit's murder of dozens of
so-called rebels in Naples in 1798 who had surrendered in expectation of being
shipped home. Nelson turned up after the surrender had been arranged and took
it upon himself to execute the prisoners instead. No one knows how many he
killed because the King had relevant papers burnt. Holmes mentions the Cadoudal
plot without any reference to the British gold that financed it - one of many
attempts on Napoleon's life financed by London even during the Peace of Amiens!
He concludes his diatribe and character assassination with: "We too easily
forget his overweening egotism and his shocking cynicism, his destructive wars
and vain conquests..." having titled one passage "The 100 days: Return
And Attack". There is no mention of the fact that Napoleon returned to
Paris in 1815 without a drop of blood being spilt; that he was much more
popular than the useless Bourbons; and that he personal wrote to all the
European leaders requesting peace - letters that were ignored by the
reactionary elites who proscribed him as a villain deserving of being murdered
only. Oh what peace lovers were these Coalition members!
Napoleon had sought
peace with England in early 1805 long before Trafalgar and long before the
British bribes that coaxed Austria and Russia to attack France. Britain
instigated most of the so-called 'Napoleonic Wars'. Britain massacred 2,000
Danes, men, women and children, as they slept in Copenhagen when their navy
bombarded this neutral country without a declaration of war in 1807 just in
case Napoleon siezed the Danish navy before they did.
The policy of the corrupt
warmongering British Cabinet was usually to pay other countries to do their
dirty work for them. As Colonel John Elting has written - without British gold
there could have been no European wars because Austria and Russia were
basically bankrupt. Napoleon was attacked in 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1809, and
only after his letters of peace were ignored in 1815 did he very reluctantly go
to war. As an Englishman and historian myself, I despise fellow so-called
historians who lie and misrepresent what REALLY happened merely to put their
own nation or their own national heroes in the best light. In colloquial
parlance - this book sucks.
C. 2015 John Tarttelin
A Souladream Production
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