#Duroc often is very optimistic

[josefavomjaaga]

Letter from Duroc to Eugène about events in Spain

Apologies, I’m lazy. This letter is a bit shorter than the one from 1805 that I actually wanted to translate. I’ll do this one first.

Historical context: This letter is written from Spain, a couple of weeks after the Spanish Bourbon double abdication at Bayonne and the Dos de Mayo uprisings. Joseph has already been made king of Spain, Murat king of Naples. For the moment, everything seems fine. Several marshals and generals, Soult among them, are still in Germany, administering the occupied Prussian provinces.

[Probably Marrac, ca. 17 – 21 July 1808] Monseigneur, the Emperor is about to leave on a tour of Pau, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rochefort, Nantes, Angers, Tours and Blois and if from there or on the way we are not recalled by the affairs of Spain, we can go hunting in Rambouillet or else we will return to Marrac.

The Empress is going to take the waters at Barège, and there has been fighting in Spain. Bessières, with 15,000 men against 35,000, had what can be called a battle and cut to pieces 35,000 men, half peasants, half troops of the line, from the garrisons of Galicia and Asturias. This was a very fortunate event because the forces gathered in the kingdom of Leon were at a point that was essential for army communications and for interesting outposts. Marshal Moncey, after defeating the insurgents in Valencia, has taken up a position closer to Madrid to obtain all that he needs from it.

Madrid is very quiet and the King will soon arrive there. The Grand Duke of Berg - King of Naples - is recovering at the spa. The Grand Duchess has gone to Paris from where she will set off for her kingdom. She is uncertain whether she will pass through Milan. It has occurred to me that there has been a lot of talk about you here and that the Emperor has expressed his satisfaction with you and the hopes he has placed in you. He made no secret of the fact that if circumstances forced him one day to return to the head of the armies, he would take you as his lieutenant in the same way as the Grand Duke. I'm sure that now you'll be making all sorts of wishes for war.

I thought you would be very pleased to know this and I am very happy to know it too. Please accept, Monseigneur, the assurance of my respect and attachment. Le duc de Frioul

[P.S.:] General Sorbier hopes to have returned to favour and to be able to continue as your aide-de-camp. He was very sad to think that he would have to give that up.

-

Events indeed soon would have recalled Napoleon to Spain, with the defeats of Baylén and Vimeiro and Joseph being chased from his throne. Except he didn’t go there because he chose to meet Alexander in Erfurt first and to let Joseph hang a little longer. He will only return late in the year.

Of course Duroc will praise Bessières’s victory to best buddy Eugène. 😁

There is indeed some indication that Eugène’s name was floated around during the discussion in Bayonne, at least such rumours were mentioned in newspapers. This may have been only to distract from Napoleon’s true plans, however. As far as I am aware, he only offered the crown of Spain to his brothers Louis, Jérôme and possibly Lucien (?) before giving it to Joseph and letting Murat choose between Portugal and Naples.

However, there must have been an earlier letter from Duroc to Eugène that is now lost, hinting at Eugène possibly being a candidate for the throne of Naples if Joseph left for Spain. We know this because Eugène, as a footnote states, mentions this letter from Duroc in a letter to his sister in June 1808. And his reaction to that veiled proposal was quite characteristic, too: Dieu me garde de cette galère! - God save me from this mess!

So, presumably, Eugène for once was grateful to Murat for picking Naples as his kingdom.

The passage in which Duroc gossips about Napoleon being satisfied with Eugène’s work reminds me a bit of the brief congratulation to Murat that I posted earlier. Napoleon was not in the habit of praising people to their face, so Duroc made sure they knew that the emperor thought they had done well.

General Sorbier by the way had been Eugène’s aide de camp since 1807 but had then received a promotion and had to move on to take a command in the army of Portugal. I’m not sure why he would have been in disgrace, maybe that’s just a figure of speech. In any case, he did return to Eugène’s side as his ADC, only to get mortally wounded during the battle of Caldiero in 1809. There’s a letter from Eugène to his wife mention that "poor Sorbier has been seriously wounded". Sorbier was transported back to Verona but died of his wounds some time later.