Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era

by George F Nafziger

  The ruling family, the house of Vögte, is traceable to the 12th century. The name Reuss comes from the head of the family, Henry the Russian (so designated, it appears, after his marriage to a Russian princess), Reuss being a corruption of the German for Russian— Russe.

  The family split into three lines, Elder: Reuss-Greitz, Middle: Reuss-Schleitz-Gera (extinct in 1616) and Younger: Reuss. The Elder and Younger lines acquired the rank of count in the Holy Roman Empire in 1673. The Elder became a prince in 1778, and the Younger, Schleitz, Lobenstein and Ebersdorf branches, were raised to the rank of prince in 1806 by Napoleon when Reuss joined the Confederation of the Rhine.

  The history of Reuss is marked with a most unusual practice. It was the practice of the ruling family to christen all male members of the ruling house of both states Heinrich (Henry) and each was then issued a number to distinguish each from the others. In Reuss-Greiz, this system would eventually be continued until the number 100 was reached, at which time the next male child was christened Heinrich I. In Reuss-Schleitz-Gera the first prince of the new century was numbered Heinrich I and the numbering continued until the next century was reached. As a result, Heinrich XIV (younger line) was born in 1832 and was the 14th prince of the Reuss-Schleitz-Gera line born in the 19th century. He was the son of Heinrich LXVII (1789–1867), the 67th prince born in the 18th century.

  In July 1806, 16 German princes, including that of Reuss, negotiated with Napoleon’s emissaries a pact that would become the Confederation of the Rhine on 1 August 1806. Reuss provided a small contingent that was merged with those of other smaller German states. It served with Napoleon’s forces in Spain until 1811, when its survivors were returned to Germany. In 1814 Reuss joined the Allies, and in 1815, it joined the German Confederation.

  REZANOV, NICOLAI PETROVICH DE (1764–1807). Rezanov was of a noble family and served as an administrator under Catherine II, Paul I and Alexander I. He was the first Russian representative to Japan, serving in that capacity in 1804 and it was, for him, a humiliating experience. Rezanov was also responsible for and commanded the first Russian attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1803. His greatest achievement sprang from a 1788 meeting with the merchant Shelikov, chief of the Shelikov-Golikov Fur Company. Shelikov sought a monopoly in fur trading in distant Russian dependencies and together he and Rezanov founded the Russian-American Fur Company. Shelikov died in 1795 and Rezanov took over control of the company. Shortly before Catherine II died Rezanov had convinced her to grant him his charter, but with her death he had to go through the process again with the unbalanced Paul. He succeeded just before Paul’s assassination in obtaining a monopoly on fur trading along the coast of northwest America from 55° latitude northward and over the Aleutian Islands and the Russian side of the Bering Strait down the Kamchatka Peninsula to Japan.

  In 1806 Rezanov arrived in San Francisco where he was confronted by the Spanish. His efforts to negotiate a treaty with the Spanish for trade to provide provisions to hunters working the Russian territories to the north succeeded, but his effort to take control of the Columbia River basin failed. Unfortunately, during the return trip to Siberia, he took ill and died in Krasnoiarsk, Siberia, on 8 March 1807.

  RHINE, CONFEDERATION OF THE. The Confederation of the Rhine was a league of German states formed by Napoleon I beginning in 1806 from the remains of the Holy Roman Empire. Its goal was to establish a Germany that would be subservient to Napoleon’s wishes and not pose a threat to France. As such it was the realization of the goals of Louis XIV. Among its members were Saxony, Württemberg and Bavaria, the Grand Duchies of Frankfurt, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt and Clèves-Berg, and a number of other principalities: Anhalt, Reuss, Waldeck, Lippe, Schwarzburg, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Saxe-Hildburghausen, Saxe-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Nassau-Weilsburg, Nassau-Usingen, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

  Of the German states, only Austria and Prussia were excluded. The members disavowed their allegiance to the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon exerted tremendous influence over the internal affairs of these states, and by virtue of their military alliance, was essentially commander in chief of their armies. The confederation fell apart when the Russian campaign failed. The first to defect were the two Mecklenbergs, both of whom had very close links to Prussia. Saxony came close to defecting in the spring, but was drawn back into the fold. In 1813 Bavaria held back, defecting shortly before the battle of Leipzig (11 October 1813) and showing its treachery quickly at the battle of Hanau. Württemberg and Baden were the last to defect. By December 1813 the Confederation of the Rhine was dead.

  RICHELIEU, ARMAND EMMANUEL SOPHIE SEPTEMANIE DU PLESSIS, DUC DE (1766–1822). Richelieu was born on 25 September 1766 in Paris, the son of Antoine du Plessis, Duc de Fronsac and grandson of the Marshal de Richelieu (1796–1788). At age 15 he married Rosalie de Rochechouart, a deformed child of 12. This marriage was purely formal. As with most nobles of his day, Richelieu entered the French army and was enrolled into the ranks of the Queen’s Dragoons and in 1783 was given a place in court. In 1790 he left Paris for Vienna and took service in the Russian army on 21 November 1790. When Richelieu’s father died in February 1791 he succeeded to the title of Duc de Richelieu. With the Revolution in full tilt, he was recalled to Paris by Louis XVI, but royal confidence was not sufficient to inform him of the flight to Varennes. In July the National Assembly issued him a passport allowing him to return to military service with Russia. In 1803 Richelieu became governor of Odessa. In 1805 he became governor-general of the Chersonese, of Ekaterinoslav and the Crimea. Under his administration, Odessa grew from a village to a very important city. In 1826 a statue of him was raised in the city center.

  In 1814 Richelieu returned to France and departed with Louis XVIII when Napoleon returned from Elba. He left the king and went to Vienna and joined the headquarters of Czar Alexander. Here, as a personal friend of the Czar, Richelieu could influence the Allies to the benefit of France. Talleyrand offered him a position in the French foreign ministry, but he declined, pleading his long absence from France and his lack of knowledge of its condition. Despite that, when Talleyrand retired, Richelieu succeeded him as prime minister.

  As prime minister, Richelieu was largely responsible for cutting short the occupation of France by the allied armies after Waterloo with negotiations at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. He resigned his office in December 1819. However, after the murder of the Duc de Berry and the forced retirement of Decazes he became president of the Council on 21 February 1821. His position became untenable because of politics and on 12 December 1821 he again retired. Richelieu died on 17 May 1822.

  ROLICA, BATTLE OF. The battle of Rolica was fought on 17 August 1808. General Delaborde commanded a division of approximately 4,765 men and stood in a position near the village of Rolica. Wellington, commanding a force 1,350 Portuguese and 13,500 British, advanced against Delaborde, enveloping him from the east. When the British began to bombard his positions, Delaborde realized what was happening and withdrew before the envelopment could succeed. French losses were around 600. The British lost 531 men.

  ROSETTA STONE. This stone provided Jean-François Champollion with the key to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is a basalt stele inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek with a decree by the Memphis priests in favor of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes. It was found near Fort Julien, four miles north of the town of Rosetta, Egypt, in 1799, by Bouchard, a French officer, while a series of trenches were being dug to defend the city from attack by the British. It was taken as a spoil of war by the British in 1801 upon the capitulation of Alexandria by the French and now resides in the British Museum.

  ROSTOPTSCHIN, FEODOR VASSILIEVICH, COUNT (1763–1826). Rostoptschin was born on 23 March 1763 in the Orel Government. In 1796 Czar Paul made him adjutant general, grand marshal of the court and finally minister of the interior. His hold on power did not last long and in 1801 he was disgraced, remaining out of favor until 1810. R
ostoptschin was appointed military governor of Moscow in 1810 and was charged with its defense in 1812 as Napoleon moved forward to occupy it after the battle of Borodino. He is alleged to be responsible for the burning of Moscow. It is certain that Rostoptschin ordered the opening of the prisons and that he took no steps to stop the fires. Rostoptschin wrote his defense, La Vérité sur l’incendie de Moscou, in 1823, but he soon admitted grave details. Though Rostoptschin accompanied Czar Alexander I to the Congress of Vienna he was again disgraced. He was not permitted to return to Russia until 1825 and died in Moscow on 12 February 1826.

  ROTHSCHILD. Rothschild is the name of a Jewish family originally named Bauer. The founder of the house, Mayer Anselm (1743–1812) was a Jewish merchant from Frankfurt-am-Main. He was a moneylender at the sign of the “Red Shield” (Rothschild) in the Frankfurt Judengasse (Jewish Alley) and became the agent of Wilhelm, 9th Landgrave and later Elector of Hesse-Cassel. In 1801 as the French armies were closing in on his tiny state, the Elector of Hesse-Cassel feared for the treasure he had amassed by renting out his army to various nations, notably the British who used the troops in the American Revolution. Though possibly apocryphal, the story goes that the treasure was too great for the elector to move, so he went to Mayer Rothschild and offered him the interest-free use of the funds until the elector was restored to his kingdom. Mayer died in Frankfurt on 19 September 1812, slightly over a year before the elector returned to his kingdom. The treasure was returned to the elector by the family, with a 5-percent interest, but apparently the growth was far beyond that and this is reputedly the basis for the modern Rothschild fortune.

  When Mayer Anselm died, his eldest son, Amsel Mayer (1773–1855) assumed control of the Frankfurt house. He would become a member of the Royal Prussian Privy Council on Commerce and in 1820 was a Bavarian counsel and court banker. The second son was Solomon (1774–1825) and he would work closely with Metternich. The third son, Nathan Mayer (1777–1836) is regarded as the financial genius of the house. He went to Manchester, England, 1798–1805 to purchase manufactured goods for his father before moving to London. He displayed an economic acumen and skill in banking that soon had him playing an invaluable role in the British economic war against Napoleon.

  ROUGET DE LISLE, CLAUDE JOSEPH (1760–1836). Rouget was born in Lons-le-Saunier, France, on 10 May 1760. During the Revolution he entered the army as an engineer and rose to the rank of captain. Rouget attained fame as a result of writing a song while in Strasbourg in April 1792. The song was initially named Chant de guerre de l’armée du Rhin. This work was sung by the Fédérés de Marseilles as they marched into Paris before the events of 10 August 1792. The song was renamed La Marseillaise because it was sung by the Fédérés from Marseilles. La Marseillaise was adopted as the national anthem by the National Convention on 14 July 1795. Under Napoleon and the Bourbons it was banned. It was reauthorized during the 1830 revolution and banned yet again under Napoleon III. In 1879 it was finally reestablished as the French national anthem.

  Rouget, a moderate republican, was cashiered and thrown into prison. He was set free by the counterrevolution and lived in obscurity until 26 June 1836 when he died at Choisy-le-Roi. His musical accomplishments were not limited to solely writing what has become the French national anthem. In 1825 Rouget had his Cinquante Chants français published. He also had some poetry published.

  – S –

  SADE, DONATIEN ALPHONSE FRANÇOIS, MARQUIS DE (1740–1814). The Marquis de Sade was born on 2 June 1740 in Paris to one of the great families of Provence. He joined the army at age 14 and saw considerable military service during the Seven Years’ War. The Marquis de Sade returned to Paris in 1766 where his vicious practices became notorious. In 1772 he was condemned to death in Aix for sodomy and for poisoning. He had, apparently, given candies laced with cantharides to stimulate their ardors. He fled to Italy, but in February 1777 was back in Paris and arrested yet again. The Marquis de Sade was sent to Aix for trial and found guilty. In 1778 he escaped from prison but was soon rearrested and committed first to the dungeon of Vincennes for six years, and on 29 February 1784 he was sent to the Bastille. While incarcerated in the Bastille the Marquis de Sade began writing his plays and novels. On 4 July 1789 he was removed from the Bastille for crying from his window that the gaolers were cutting the throats of the prisoners and sent to the Charenton Lunatic Asylum. The Marquis de Sade was discharged from Charenton on 2 April 1790 and began making his living as a writer. He was ordered arrested on 5 December 1793 by the police department of the Paris commune for “moderatism,” but this period of incarceration was quite short and he was liberated on 15 October 1794. The fortunes of the Marquis de Sade were not good during the last part of the Revolution and he was eventually forced to sell his château. In 1801 he wrote Zoloé et ses deux acolytes, a pamphlet that attacked Joséphine and Napoleon, under the pseudonym “d’Orsec” (an anagram on “Corse” or Corsica). This brought the wrath of Napoleon to his door and after the publication of Justine, he was arrested on 6 March 1801, for his “offensive obscenity” and sent to Charenton yet again as an incurable. It is highly probable that his insanity was due to his being in the later stages of syphilis, in which insanity is an extremely common symptom. He died there on 2 December 1814.

  SAINT-CYR, LAURENT GOUVION, COUNT, LATER MARQUIS, MARÉCHAL D’EMPIRE (1764–1830). Saint-Cyr was born in Toul on 13 April 1764. He studied painting in Rome, but abandoned the profession. In 1792 Saint-Cyr enrolled as a volunteer in the 1st Battalion of Republican Chasseurs. On 1 November 1793 he was promoted to the rank of captain. On 5 June 1794 Saint-Cyr was provisionally promoted to the rank of général de brigade and confirmed as a général de division on 2 September 1794. His revolutionary war experience was almost entirely on the Rhine, until 1798 when he was sent to Italy to replace Masséna as commander of the French army in Rome. After a short absence from service Saint-Cyr returned to the German frontier and then again to Italy, where he served as Governor of Genoa and won the battle at Bosco on 16 October 1799. Saint-Cyr was at Novi and won a saber of honor on 26 December. December 1799 saw him back on the Rhine. On 2 November 1801 he was appointed ambassador to Spain, succeeding Lucien Bonaparte. On 6 July 1804 Saint-Cyr became colonel général of the cuirassiers. The year 1805 found him back in Italy under Masséna. In 1808 he commanded forces in Spain and in 1812 he commanded the Bavarians at the two battles fought at Polotsk. Saint-Cyr was promoted to maréchal d’Empire on 27 August 1812. Napoleon placed him in command of the garrison of Dresden while he fought at Leipzig. Dresden capitulated and Saint-Cyr was taken prisoner as a result of a treacherous allied abrogation of the French surrender agreement. During the Hundred Days he remained loyal to the Bourbons and fled France. Saint-Cyr replaced Davout as minister of war from 8 July to 25 September 1815, served as minister of the navy from 23 June to 12 September 1812, voted for the deportation of Marshal Ney, and was made a marquis on 31 August 1817. Saint-Cyr died of an attack of apoplexy at Hyères on 17 March 1830.

  ST. PETERSBURG, CONVENTION OF. Signed on 5–9 April 1812 this convention was an agreement between Russia and Sweden for mutual aid in the event of Russo-French or Swedish-Danish conflict.

  SALAMANCA, BATTLE OF. The battle of Salamanca was fought on 15 July 1812. Wellington had laid siege to three forts defending Salamanca and had hoped to lure Marmont to relieve them. Marmont, however, held off until he had received reinforcements and Wellington, learning of those reinforcements, chose to fall back on Portugal. Before Wellington could withdraw, however, Marmont advanced with 45,149 men. Wellington deployed his 48,569 men, carefully concealing them in dead ground, and awaited the French attack. When Marmont saw the British position he attempted to turn its right flank. As he marched his forces large gaps opened up between the separate divisions that the British, lying on the French right in their concealed positions, were able to take great advantage of because of the dispersion of French forces as well as having the French flank presented to British fire. Thomières’s division was
smashed and destroyed. It fled to the rear and disrupted Maucune’s division and as Maucune attempted to deploy, he was overwhelmed and in its turn, the third French division under Brennier was smashed as well.

  The French lost 14,000 casualties and 20 guns. The British lost 5,214 men and broke the French hold on north and central Spain.

  SAN ILDEFONSO, TREATIES OF. The First Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed on 19 August 1796 (2 fructidor Year IV); it was a military alliance between France and Spain. By its requirements, Spain declared war on Britain.

  The Second Treaty of San ldefonso was signed on 1 October 1800. It was a preliminary and secret treaty between the French Republic and the King of Spain. By its clauses the French Republic undertook to increase the territory of the Duke of Parma by the addition of Tuscany or the three Roman legations or “any other continental provinces of Italy which form a rounded state.” Six months after that was concluded the King of Spain would grant title to the Louisiana colony to France. Article 5 also stated that Spain would give France “six ships of war in good condition built for seventy-four guns, armed and equipped and ready to receive French crews and supplies.”

  SAVARY, ANNE JEAN MARIE RENÉ DUC DE ROVIGO (1774–1833). Savary was born on 26 April 1774 in Marcq, France. He was educated at the Collège royal de Saint-Louis in Metz. In 1789 Savary volunteered for the army and served in the Royal Normandy Cavalry Regiment. He was commissioned on 15 September 1791 as a sous-lieutenant and served in the Army of the Rhine from 1792 to 1797 under Custine, then Pichegru and Moreau. In 1798 Savary served under Desaix in Egypt and in 1800 in Italy. On 25 November 1801 he was promoted to the rank of chef de brigade and was given command of the gendarmes who served as Napoleon’s bodyguard. Savary proved his worth quickly by uncovering the Cadoudal-Pichegru Conspiracy. He was the commander of the troops at Vincennes when the Duc d’Enghien was executed. On 29 August 1803 Savary became a général de brigade and général de division on 1 February 1805. He served Napoleon as an aide-de-camp and in early 1805 was sent on a mission to Czar Alexander I. Savary served at Austerlitz and Jena, commanding a brigade of light cavalry detached to pursue the beaten Prussians at the latter battle. In 1807 he took temporary command of the V Corps when Lannes was ill and defeated Essen at Ostrolenka on 16 February. Savary commanded the Fusiliers of the Guard at Heilsburg on 10 June and served at Friedland. Between March and April 1808 Savary served Napoleon in Spain by manipulating the family disputes in the royal family of Spain. It was Savary who persuaded Carlos IV, who had recently been forced to abdicate to his son, Fernando VII, and Fernando VII to submit their dispute to Napoleon for arbitration. Persuading Carlos IV to go to France, Savary allowed Napoleon to take him hostage, strip him of his throne, and put his brother Joseph on it.