NAPOLÉON Ier (1769-1821) Empereur.

Lot 199
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10000 - 12000 EUR
NAPOLÉON Ier (1769-1821) Empereur.
autograph manuscript; 2 pages in-fol. in pencil on a sheet of laid English paper (watermark with the effigy of the "Britannia"; 2 small cracks at the top of the sheet not affecting the text). Unpublished text on the situation in Italy after the battle of Trebbia (June 19, 1799). Napoleon evokes the defeat of the Parthenopean Republic and the capture of NAPLES by cardinal RUFFO, and the defense of ANCONE by general MONNIER. This text, written on St. Helena, was to take its place in the Memoirs that Napoleon was writing; it is not found in the Précis des événements militaires de 1799 (in volume XXX of the Correspondence). "When one learned in Naples the defeat of Scherer at the battles of Verona and Magnano, the armistice of Mantoue, the loss of the battle of Cassano, the entry of Souvarow in Milan, that the spirits were strongly agitated, the cardinal Ruffo put himself at the head of the insurrection of Calabria and advanced on June 19 on Naples. The patriots took one of the detachments of the garrisons of the English and Russian ships before Naples. The patriots defended themselves in Naples but were finally forced to withdraw into the forts of St. Elmo, which had a French garrison, the new castle, the one of the egg [...] Ruffo, repulsed in all his attacks, had recourse to a negotiation", and signed a generous armistice which spared the lives of the patriots... Further on, Napoleon recounts the heroic defense of Ancona by General Monnier: "Froelich then moved on Ancona. For six months general Monnier, commander of the three departments of the Roman Republic of the Adriatic, had been defending this city against general Lahoz, who was at the head of the insurgents of Apenin," supported by a Turkish-Russian squadron "which had taken Corfu. There were in the port of Ancona 3 ships of 64 fregates and many bricks and a great quantity of artillery taken from the Venice harbour"... Monnier defended the city with heroism, but the enemy was too powerful. Monnier defended the city heroically, but the enemy was too powerful. "Having no hope of delivering it, he capitulated on November 16 and returned to France with his garrison. [He was the last to remain in Italy 8 months after the defeat of Scherer, 5 months after the loss of the battle of Trebbia.
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