Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era

by George F Nafziger

  WÜRTTEMBERG. Württemberg was ruled by Duke Karl Eugen from 1744 to 1793. Duke Karl was succeeded by Duke Ludwig Eugen, who ruled until 1795. In turn, he was succeeded by Friedrich Eugen who ruled from 1795–97. Because of his marriage with Sophie Dorothee, a niece of Frederick the Great, Duke Friedrich Eugen became an evangelical and Württemberg was ruled by a Protestant line. Though neither Ludwig Eugen or Friedrich Eugen ruled long, this one marriage provided the only significant act committed by either that had a positive long term impact on Württemberg’s history.

  Duke Friedrich II had Czar Paul of Russia as his brother-in-law and his wife was George II of England’s daughter. Both connections obliged his active cooperation with the two major anti-French antigonists, and coupled with his geographical proximity to France, made him a prime target for military action. His acts were those of self-preservation. One of his first actions upon ascending the throne was the reorganization and enlargement of his army. His second major action was a separate peace with France signed in 1798.

  On 2 July 1799 he signed an alliance with Austria and became part of the Second Coalition against France until the signing of the Treaty of Lunéville on 9 February 1801. On 20 May 1802 he signed another separate peace treaty with France. The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (Imperial Deputation Principal Decree) of Regensburg on 25 February 1803 provided him with territorial adjustments on the right bank of the Rhine to compensate him for the territories lost to the French on the left bank of the Rhine since 1796. These gains included the Baily of Ellwangen, the cloisters of Zweifalten, Rottenmünster, Schöntal, Heiligkreuztal, Margrethausen, Comburg, Oberstenfeld, the imperial cities of Aalen, Esslingen, Gmund, Gingen, Hall, Heilbronn, Rottweil and the city of Weil. These territories were organized into Neu (new) Württemberg, set up as a totally independent state ruled by an absolute monarch.

  On 12 December 1805 the War of the Third Coalition erupted, but the Duke of Württemberg had the political wisdom to ally himself with France. As a result, when the war was over, Württemberg was further enlarged with the addition of the Austrian cities of Hohenberg, Nellenburg, Ehingen and the province of Schwaben.

  On 30 December 1805 Friedrich II was crowned King of Württemberg as reward for his support of Napoleon. On 12 July 1806 Württemberg formally joined the Confederation of the Rhine and became part of the French geopolitical organization in Germany. This further increased the territories of Württemberg, but this time at the expense of Bavaria. It gained Wiesensteig, Fürstenburg, Hohenlohe, Waldburg, Thurn, Taxis and the cloisters in Oberschwaben with the exception of Biberach. The eastern border of Württemberg was taken to the Iller with the transfer of the County of Montfort-Tettnang, the imperial cities of Ulm, Ravensburg, Buchhorn, Wangen, Leutkirch, Bopfingen, Aemter Crailsheim, Gerabroon and Creglingen.

  On 23 October 1813 after the French disaster at Leipzig and the overrunning of Germany by the Allies at the end of the 1813 campaign Württemberg signed a military convention with Austria. Friedrich’s marital and family ties to England and Russia ensured him that he not only retained his title, but all of the territories that had been transferred to him. Württemberg was one of the few states to retain everything that it had obtained during the period of the Confederation of the Rhine.

  WÜRZBURG. Historically Würzburg was very closely tied to Bavaria. The Reichs-Deputations-Hauptrezess of 25 February 1803, which enacted various clauses of the Treaty of Lunéville, compensated Bavaria for the loss of various territories on the Rhine by transferring to it Würzburg and other small territories that were contiguous to Bavaria proper. It became independent of Bavaria upon the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg and it received the territories of Zeil, Hellerstadt, Lichtenfels, Kronach and Tetschnitz. Its infantry regiment, however, was retained by Bavaria and mutinied when the men learned they were not to be returned to Würzburg. The mutiny was suppressed, harsh punishment metted out, and the regiment was disbanded.

  On 1 May 1806 the new ruler of Würzburg occupied his residence and on the first day of August those troops that had served in the Bavarian army arrived in Würzburg. Not all of these Würzburger troops wished to remain in the military and they were released from service. On 30 September 1806 Würzburg became a Grossherzogtum (grand duchy) and the ruler became a Kurfürst (prince).

  On 30 May 1814 there were some territorial adjustments with Austria and in exchange for returning the Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Austria, Bavaria received Würzburg and Aschaffenberg. In an act of reconciliation, King Max of Bavaria ordered the expunging of the shame previously associated with the Würzburg infantry that had mutinied in 1809 with the Directive of 16 July 1814. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna recognized Würzburg as part of Bavaria, but in 1817, a new Bishopric of Würzburg was formed.

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  YORCK VON WARTENBURG, HANS DAVID LUDWIG, GRAF, FELDMARSCHAL (1759–1830). Of English ancestry, Yorck was born on 26 September 1759 in Potsdam. He entered the Prussian army in 1772 only to be cashiered for disobedience in 1779. Yorck then joined the Dutch army serving in the Dutch East Indies in 1783–84 as a captain. In 1785 he returned to Prussia and upon the death of Frederick the Great, he was reinstated to his old service. In 1794 Yorck participated in the final partitioning of Poland. In 1795 he was given command of the Feldjäger Regiment zu Fuss. He would become its inhaber in 1805. In 1805 Yorck commanded an infantry brigade and fought in the rear guard after Jena. He was severely wounded and taken prisoner at Lübeck. When the Prussian army was reorganized from 1810 to 1812, he took a leading role in it with Scharnhorst and Clausewitz. These three compiled a series of revised drill regulations that were issued on 15 January 1812. Yorck was also instrumental in the creation of the Krümper system, by which the Prussians evaded the treaty limitations on their army imposed by the French at Tilsit.

  During the 1812 campaign Yorck commanded the Prussian Hilfkorps, which operated on the northern flank of the Grande Armée under the command of Marshal Macdonald. On 30 December he was convinced by the Russian general, Count von Diebitsch, to neutralize his army through the Convention of Tauroggen. Though officially ordered court-martialed, the move was so popular among the Prussian citizenry that his disobedience to the King of Prussia was ignored. The Convention of Kalisch affirmed his decision and brought Prussia into the war against France. During 1813 Yorck commanded a corps and fought at Bautzen, Katzbach, Wartenberg and Leipzig. In 1814 Yorck fought at Montmirail and Laon and his last battle was at Paris. In 1821 he was promoted to feldmarschal. He died on his estate of Klein-Öls, which had been a gift from the king, on 4 October 1830.

  YORK, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF (1763–1827). Frederick Augustus was born on 16 August 1763 at St. James’s Palace in London, the second son of George III. At the age of six months, his father secured for him the election to the post of the Bishopric of Osnabrück. He became a Knight of the Bath in 1767, a Knight of the Garter in 1771, and was gazetted colonel in 1780, at the age of 17. From 1781 to 1787 he lived in Hanover. In 1782 Frederick Augustus was appointed regimental colonel to the 2nd Horse Grenadier Guards. He was subsequently promoted to major general and made colonel of the Coldstream Guards in 1784.

  Frederick Augustus was made the Duke of York and Albany as well as the Earl of Ulster in 1784, but continued as the Bishop of Osnabrück until 1803. In 1787, when he returned to England, he took up his seat in the House of Lords. Frederick Augustus fought a duel with Colonel Lennox on the Wimbledon Common and in 1791 married Princess Frederica, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia (sister of Frederick the Great). The marriage, however, failed and a separation resulted, whereby the princess retired to Oatlands Park, Wey-bridge. She died there on 6 August 1820.

  In 1793 Frederick Augustus was sent to Flanders in command of the British contingent of Coburg’s army. The campaign was a disaster. He returned to England in 1795 and the king promoted him to field marshal. On 3 April 1798 Frederick Augustus was made commander in chief of the British army. He was given an army and sent to invade Holland with the su
pport of a Russian expeditionary force in 1799. This campaign proved a disaster and on 17 October he signed the Convention of Alkmaar, by which the Allies withdrew after surrendering their French prisoners.

  When Frederick Augustus returned to England he set about reforming the British army until his forced retirement from office on 18 March 1809. The duke was charged in a bribery scandal with his mistress Mary Anne Clarke, but was acquitted of having received bribes.

  In May 1811 Frederick Augustus again became commander in chief of the British army and remained so until his death. He died on 5 January 1827 and is buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.

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  ZEPELIN, KONSTANTIN VON (1771–1834). Zepelin was born on 11 April 1771 in Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Schwerin. His father was a major in Hanoverian service. On 17 February 1787 Zepelin joined the Prussian von Scholten Infantry Regiment as a Gefreiterkorporal and on 24 January 1793 he was commissioned as a Sekondleutnant. Zepelin did not fight in the 1806 campaign, but in 1807 fought at Heilsberg, Jonkendorf, Weichelsmünde and Eylau. On 5 July 1807 Zepelin was awarded the order of Pour le mérite. In 1812 he participated in the Russian campaign, fighting at Eckau and Wollgrund. On 26 March 1813 Zepelin became interim commander of the Leib Infantry Regiment. During the 1813–15 campaigns he fought at Haynau, Lindenau, was wounded at Königswartha, wounded again at Wartenburg, and fought at Laon, Paris, Toulomiers, Trilport, Ligny, Wavre and Versailles. On 31 May 1814 Zepelin was promoted to the rank of oberst (colonel) and on 30 March 1818 to generalmajor. On 30 March 1831 he was promoted to generalleutnant and on 24 February 1842 to general der infanterie. Zepelin died on 25 December 1834 in Stettin.

  ZINGARELLI, NICCOLÒ (1752–1837). Zingarelli was born in Naples on 4 April 1742, the son of Riccardo Tota Zingarelli, a singing master and soloist. Of course, he studied music as a youth and his first dramatic work I quattro Pazzi was produced in 1768. His first opera, Montesuma was produced at San Carlo and then in Vienna, where it was highly regarded by Hayden. Zingarelli settled in Milan and over a period of 11 years produced a number of operas for La Scala, an oratorio, and several cantatas. In 1789 he went to Paris with a commission to compose an opera for the Académie royale de musique. The resulting work, L’Antigone, was performed on 30 April 1790. However, revolutionary Paris was such that Zingarelli fled to Switzerland and was back in Milan by early 1791.

  In 1792 Zingarelli won the appointment to the post of master of the chapel in the Milan cathedral and began to achieve international recognition with a series of comic operas, beginning with La Secchia rapita in 1793. Zingarelli’s masterpiece, however, was Romeo and Juliet, which played at the Scala in 1796.

  Between 1794 and 1804 Zingarelli composed a number of operas, but also a large mass of sacred music. In 1804 he went to Rome as master of the Sistine Chapel and in 1805 produced The Destruction of Jerusalem, which played for five years. His last opera, Berenice, ran for 100 consecutive performances.

  When Napoleon’s son, designated the King of Rome, was born, Napoleon ordered a “Te Deum” to be sung in Rome, but Zingarelli’s principles would not permit him to comply. Upon refusing, he was arrested and brought before Napoleon in Paris. Napoleon, however, chose to release him and provided him with a pension. Zingarelli lost his post in Rome, but in 1813 was appointed as the director of the Real Collegio di Musica at Naples and in 1816 became master of the chapel in the Naples cathedral. Zingarelli died in Naples in 1837.

  ZNAIM, ARMISTICE OF. The Armistice of Znaim was a temporary cease-fire agreed to between Napoleon and Archduke Charles. It was signed on 12 July 1809, after the Austrian defeats at Wagram and Znaim. It preceded the signing of the Treaty of Schönbrunn on 14 October 1809.

  Bibliography

  The Napoleonic era is one of the best-documented periods in world history and there have been, literally, thousands of books written about Napoleon. The documentation of this period began from its birth and continues to this day. Large numbers of soldiers and politicians produced memoirs and where they have left off, a multitude of scholars have filled in with an avid ferocity. This bibliography is a limited collection of works that are available on the period. Any attempt to document all of the pieces written on this period would run to several volumes.

  There are several different types of bibliographical collections that can be consulted to find studies on the Napoleonic era. The first is the traditional bibliography such as R.J. Caldwell’s two-volume collection, The Era of Napoleon: A Bibliography of the History of Western Civilization, 1799–1815 (1991). A more recent bibliography is J.A. Meyer’s An Annotated Bibliography of the Napoleonic Era (1987), but it is limited to recent writings and is far from complete.

  Some bibliographies are lists of what is held in particular private and public collections. The most recent such American work is Dr. Don Horward’s The French Revolution and Napoleonic Collection at Florida State University (1973). Another was edited by Victor Sutcliffe, The Sandler Collection, An Annotated Bibliography of Books Relating to the Military History of the French Revolution and Empire in the Library of John Sandler (1996).

  Since the wars of the Napoleonic era form a major component of the geopolitical activities of the period, there are specialized military bibliographies that should be consulted. Probably the best, but one of the older ones, is the four-volume piece by Dr. J. Pholer, Bibliotheca historico-militairs (1882), which is devoted to military books of all centuries, but covers a considerable number to studies on Napoleon’s campaigns and the armies of the period.

  Another excellent source of material on the Napoleonic period is to be found in regimental histories. One bibliography of these works is E. Mohr’s Heeres- und Truppengeschichte des Deutschen Reiches und Seiner Länder 1806- bis 1918 (1989).

  Works on the period seem to concentrate on its military aspects, but there is a tremendous literature on just about every aspect of the period. Within the realm of the military one finds memoirs, campaign studies, battle studies, technical studies on weapons, studies on uniforms, and studies on strategy, strategic thought, and even literary battles between authors. Here the arguments between the Comte de Ségur and General Gourgaud come to mind immediately as both men wrote numerous accounts of the campaigns and Gourgaud devoted himself to correcting Ségur. Outside of the military, one can find a multitude of biographies, political histories, studies of economics, studies on the art and artists of the period and even histories of the science of the period.

  The Napoleonic era has fascinated people of all nations and as a result there are titles on the period to be found in every European language. There is even enough interest in eastern Europe for many modern studies to be translated from western European languages for the readers in those nations. For the truly serious student a lack of command of the French language is a tremendous handicap, as there are probably more books in French on the period than any other language. Prior to the 20th century the Germans probably devoted as much effort to the period as did the French, but their historiography has focused more attention in the last 80 years on the events of 1914–18 and 1939–45. There is also a substantial body of English literature on the period. The English were probably the most prolific in publishing memoirs of common soldiers, whereas the memoirs of French officers were probably more frequently published than those of the English.

  At the beginning of the 20th century, the centennial of the Napoleonic era, the period up to 1914 was filled with every sort of work on the Napoleonic era. Several officers of the French army, most notably G. Fabry, published dozens of titles that were compilations of original documents and correspondence, as well as original studies. The Austrian government launched its multivolume military study, Befreiungskrieg l813 und l814, but found World War I forced a rapid wrap up of it. Similarly, the Russian Guerre nationale de 1812, a collection of official documents from before and during the war, stopped with seven volumes published in French ending in 1811 and 16 in Russian ending early in the campaign. In Great Britain, there was a simil
ar surge of publications on the war, most notable among them being the works of Theodore Dodge, F.W.O. Maycock, Sir Charles Oman and F. Lorraine Petre.

  During the bicentennial and the period leading up to it there was another resurgence of interest with works of note in English by David Chandler, Peter Hofschröer, Scotty Bowden, Donald Horward, Piers Mackesy and myself. In French one finds a similar resurgence with titles by Alan Piegard and Jean Tulard.

  As there is so much from which to chose, and so many subjects to be found within the period, it is impossible to make recommendations on specific titles without knowing the interest of the individual reader. As such, I leave it to the readers to browse through the following list and make their own judgments.

  To that end, the following bibliography contains a large number of works, drawn from many sources and not all of which were used in the preparation of this work. The bibliography is intended to be used as a reference by the reader and as a guide to further reading.

  GENERAL WORKS

  Barton, H.A. Scandinavia in the Revolutionary Era, 1760–1815. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

  Beresford, W.C. Colleçao das Ordenes Do Dia do Illustrissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Guilherme Carr Beresford. Lisbon: Antonio Nunes dos Santos. Printer to the General Headquarters, date unknown.

  ——. Further Strictures on Those Parts of Col. Napier’s History of the Peninsular War Which Relate to the Military Opinions and Conduct of General Lord Viscount Beresford to Which Is Added a Report of Operations in the Alemtejo and Spanish Estremadura during the Campaign of 1811 by M. General Sir Benjamin d’Urban. London, 1832. Repr. Sunderland: MST Publishing, 1995.

  ——. Strictures on Certain Passages of Lieut. Col. Napier’s History of the Peninsular War. London: Longman, Rees, Orne, Brown and Green, 1831. Repr. Sunderland: MST Publishing, 1995.