LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2006 October Grand Format Autographs #629  / 

25424

Napoleon Document Reassigning Troops to Spain

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,250.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Napoleon Document Reassigning Troops to Spain
<B>Two days after King Charles IV of Spain abdicates, Napoleon reassigns three French battalions from the French town of Perpignan, across the border into Spain to Barcelona, 120 miles south along the Mediterranean coast</B></I><BR><BR><B>Napoleon 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 Napoleon and three metal plaques, one with Napoleon'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: "<I>Division/of the Pyrenees 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 "Perpignan", lists three battalions. <B>The second column, with another three battalions, was originally headed "Perpignan" but Napoleon has crossed it out and replaced it with "<I>Barcelone</B></I>".</B></I> Perpignan is a town in the Pyrenees-Orientales, a departement 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, Napoleon got permission from Spain to march French troops across Spain to Portugal. With 100,000 French troops in Spain, Napoleon seized frontier forts in the Pyrenees and, by February 29, 1808, had taken Barcelona. King Charles IV of Spain abdicated onMarch 19, 1808, just two days before Napoleon approved this organizational chart. On March 23, 1808, French troops entered Madrid. Charles' son Ferdinand had ascended the throne but, with pressure from Napoleon, was forced to abdicate on May 6, 1808. On June 6, 1808, Napoleon proclaimed his brother Joseph as King of Spain. Henri Clarke, who also signed this document, was Napoleon's Minister of War from 1807-1814. Napoleon created him Duc de Feltre in 1809.<BR><BR>A remarkable document of the Napoleonic Wars revealing Napoleon's personal involvement in the assigning of his troops preparing for battle.
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