LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Apr Books, Manuscripts & Autographs #658  / 

25477

Napoléon Military Organizational Chart Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Napoléon Military Organizational Chart Signed
<B>Napoléon Military Organizational Chart Signed</B></I>: <I>"ap/Np,"</B></I> one page, 18.5" x 9.5". March 21, 1808. Countersigned: <I>"Clarke"</B></I> as Minister of War. In French, translated. Matted and ornately framed to 23.5" by 14.5". Framed under glass on verso as well, displaying the title of the organizational chart. Hinged at the right to a larger ornate frame, 42" x 34", matted with a color portrait of Napoléon and three metal plaques, one with Napoléon's name, years of birth and death, and title, another relating to his conquest of Spain, and a third, under the hinged frame, transcribing the chart and title in English.<BR><BR>The chart is titled on verso: <I>"Division/of the Pyrenées Orientales/Chart of the Organization/of the 7th Regiment of Line Infantry/of which the 2 First Battalions/are Part of this Division."</B></I> The first column, headed <I>"Perpignan,"</B></I> lists three battalions. The second column, with another three battalions, was originally headed <I>"Perpignan"</B></I> but Napoléon has crossed it out and replaced it with <I>"Barcelone."</B></I> Perpignan is a town in the Pyrenées-Orientales (Eastern Pyrenées), a department of southern France, a few miles west of the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona, Spain, is about 120 miles south of Perpignan, along the Mediterranean coastline. Barcelona was the first Spanish city to be occupied by French troops. While attempting to close the ports in Portugal, the last of the European ports still open to the British, Napoléon got permission from Spain to march French troops across Spain to Portugal. With 100,000 French troops in Spain, Napoléon seized frontier forts in the Pyrenées and, by February 29, 1808, had taken Barcelona. King Charles IV of Spain abdicated on March 19, 1808, just two days before Napoléon approved (<I>"ap"</B></I>) this organizational chart. On March 23, 1808, French troops entered Madrid. Charles' son Ferdinand had ascended the throne but, with pressure from Napoléon, was forced to abdicate on May 6, 1808. On June 6, 1808, Napoléon proclaimed his brother Joseph as King of Spain. Henri Clarke, who also signed this document, was Napoléon's Minister of War from 1807-1814. Napoleon created him Duc de Feltre in 1809. A remarkable document of Napoléon's Peninsular Campaign revealing his personal involvement in the assigning of his troops preparing for battle, it would be an exceptional addition to a military collection.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Framed - with Glass, Medium (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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