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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: (1769 - 1821) The "Little Corporal" whose brilliance in the field of battle a...

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NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: (1769 - 1821) The  Little Corporal  whose brilliance in the field of battle a...
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE: (1769 - 1821) The "Little Corporal" whose brilliance in the field of battle and as Emperor of France has made him perhaps the most important figure of post-Renaissance Europe. Fine content L.S. "Nap" 3pp. 8vo., St. Cloud, June 11, 1811, following the conclusion of the disastrous Portugal Campaign, Napoleon writes bitterly to Berthier about the conduct of his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain! In part: "...I ask that you go see the King of Spain to speak to him about the last diplomatic audience and the impropriety with which several Frenchmen conducted themselves carrying the Spanish insignia. They entered by forcing their way into the Basilica, knowing full well that I do not receive Frenchmen who are in the service of a foreign nation; fortunately, I did not see them. I would have had them thrown out....I had understood, by receiving the Spaniards...their three ministers, and some Spanish chamberlains brought by the King, but it was on the list intended for the minister that I saw the names of several Frenchmen...who did not even have permission to carry the Spanish insignia...I am not opposed to the King doing what he pleases in Spain, but what I cannot venture seeing is Frenchmen coming to Paris as ambassadors in foreign uniform. The remedy for all this is for them to leave today...I don't see the need for the King to bring this lot of people with him...Your letter should thus serve fully as a Rule for him; time will tell, by the conduct he displays, whether the Paris trip was useful for him and whether it has provided him with the prudence necessary to handle these matters...". Napoleon's elder brother JOSEPH BONAPARTE (1768-1844), was a skillful diplomat, appointed King of Spain by Napoleon in 1808, a post he held until 1813. His reign was not a happy one for the Napoleonic Empire as it was weakened by quarrels among its military leaders and the stress of the Peninsular Wars. Joseph was decisively beaten at Vittoria in 1813, retiring to France and eventually residing in Philadelphia. Boldly signed and very good. $1,500-2,000