NAPOLEON BEFORE THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION

Thousands of British people flock to see Napoleon on HMS Bellerophon

by John James Chalon 1816

The  article below appeared in the British paper The Sunday Telegraph on May 5th 2019 and reveals how Napoleon was seen BEFORE the merciless character assassination that occurred after he became First Consul and as he was depicted by subsequent English 'historians' who amplified the lies and distortions even more.

LETTER GIVES SHORT SHRIFT TO THE 'NAPOLEON COMPLEX'

Irish nobleman's account of a meeting in 1803 belies the propaganda image of the French Emperor

by Dalya Alberge

Alfred Adler, the psychoanalyst, was inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte when he diagnosed a syndrome in the last century in which men overcompensate for their short stature through aggressive behaviour. 

But it appears he may have been doing the French leader a great injustice, after a previously unpublished letter described the future Emperor as charm personified.

An Irish nobleman wrote of meeting Napoleon at the Tuileries Palace on January 8th 1803. Charles Vane, third Marquess of Londonderry - who, as a soldier in the British army, was to fight in the Napoleonic Wars - painted a portrait of a friendly, charismatic man who was then Consul, and soon to become Emperor.

In an 11 page letter to his father, he wrote of being presented to Napoleon: "I was excessively struck with Bonaparte's countenance and manners. He is very different from the idea I had formed of him. His face is broad and his forehead vast, cheek bones rather high and chin long. He has the fiercest eyes and most fascinating smile I ever witnessed. He seems to have been born for the honours of a Court. He has something new to say to everyone who is presented to him and there is always something pertinent and original in his remarks."

He did notice Napoleon's diminutive height: [He was actually 5'6" - the average height for a Frenchman of his day] "He is a stouter man than I had imagined, although he is short." Impressed by the Consul's dress "in crimson velvet embroidered with gold", he added: "After Bonaparte's military levee, he changes his dress and puts on the Consular uniform, goes into another suite of apartments with the other two consuls, receives all strangers."

He was flattered by Napoleon's interest in him, and irritated by fellow guest Lord Whitworth, then the British ambassador in Paris. "Bonaparte asked me where I had served - my regiment - the height of my new horses - and seemed pleased to get answers. Lord Whitworth, rather unkindly in my opinion, when Bonaparte asked him if I was a relation of Gen Stewert... did not say I was a brother of Lord Castlereagh, which he might have done and I should have been taken more notice of." He continued: "As to political intelligence, I can give you little... It is rumoured that [Bonaparte] is to be created Emperor of the Gauls. He has increased the Senate to 150 from 30."

On being shown the letter, Dr Mark Braude, author of The Invisible Emperor, about Napoleon's exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, said: "Napoleon could be very charming. One to one, he had respect for the English and saw the political value in charming them on an individual level." But he added: "There was a disconnect between the person in the flesh and the propaganda. Napoleon was kind of short - 5ft 5in - but he was not tiny, compared to the average man at that time. This whole notion of Napoleon the Emperor as this small person is the direct result of British propaganda. The caricaturists could skewer him in that way... The Napoleon Complex harmed his image as well." [Napoleon was taller than Nelson and at 5' 6" - and average height - he was not 'kind of short' at all].

Castlereagh, he pointed out, became foreign minister - "a key person in fighting Napoleon and, barely weeks after the letter was written, Britain and France were at war".

The letter will be sold by Chiswick Auctions in London on May 30. The vendor had discovered it among family papers. Valentina Borghi, Chiswick Auction's specialist in printed books, autographs and manuscripts, spoke of the fascination of reading about Napoleon's personality and charisma "from someone on the ground face-to-face". She added: "This letter is probably one of the most authentic and detailed descriptions of Napoleon's appearance that we will ever read."

John Tarttelin M.A. History 

A Souladream production