#aglae and michel ney

[pobodleru]

Dear friends, today is my birthday, and I would be glad to see your reblogs of my arts and some kind words for me ❤️‍🔥

[michel-feuilly]

Night trip to the kitchen

[yaggy031910]

This is the main reason why I despise Marmont. My goodness, he didn't have to be such an ass about this and give Aglaé false hope... ☹

“Break this very gently to my dear father...”

Michel Ney’s last letter (written to his brother-in-law), and final meeting with his wife and children before his execution, as described by biographer Raymond Horricks. (Source: Marshal Ney: The Romance and the Real, Raymond Horricks, 1982, page 269)

***

The Marshal had prepared detailed instructions for him [note: Ney’s notary, Monsieur Batardy] and it was simply a question of going over certain points and then saying goodbye. Among the items which the notary took away was a letter addressed to Monsieur Monnier, his sister Marguerite’s husband, in which he stated:

My trial is finished. I am condemned to die. Break this very gently to my dear father, who is himself on the verge of the grave. Before another twenty-four hours are gone I shall appear before God, full of deep regrets over not being able to serve my country for much longer. God will know, as I have openly claimed, that I have no other feelings of remorse. Embrace my sister for me, and give my children my love. I hope they will love my own children, in spite of this terrible tragedy which has fallen upon them. Farewell. I embrace you with all the feelings of a devoted brother. The Marshal, Prince of the Moscowa. Ney. 

Afterwards Michel bathed, shaved and lay down on his bed to doze before Aglaé arrived with his sons at six o’clock. 

When they entered the room Aglaé screamed and fainted. The strain upon her had been considerable. His sons, now aged between twelve and three, broke into fits of weeping. Michel remained the only calm person present. When Aglaé recovered he spoke to her with great affection and tenderness on several domestic matters, and instructed his sons to protect her at all times. “Honour the name Ney,” he told them, “because I am leaving it to you without stain, and after the hates and passions of these last few days are over I believe the world will also come to remember it with honour.”

Recovering somewhat, Aglaé announced that she was setting off for the Tuileries. Marshal Marmont, she said, had promised to go with her to see the King. 

Michel avoided mentioning what he already knew. That Marmont had twice in the same night voted for his death. Nevertheless he encouraged her to go, deciding that at least she would leave him with feelings of hope. Afterwards Antoinette Gamot took the boys to her home while Aglaé set off for the palace…

[araiz-zaria]

Napoleonic Halloween Party — Greek Gods And Goddesses Edition✨

Remember that way back then I made Napoleonic Halloween Party costume assignments for Napoleonic era figures? Well, now is time for another assignment, this time with an overarching theme — Greek Gods And Goddesses 😏😉✨

And here goes...

Napoleon Bonaparte: Zeus

Josephine Bonaparte: Hera

Geraud Duroc: Ganymede

Pauline Bonaparte: Aphrodite

Louis Alexandre Berthier: Castor

Jean Baptiste Bessieres: Polydeukes

Elisa Bonaparte: Athena

Joachim Murat: Hades

Caroline Murat: Persephone

Letizia Bonaparte: Demeter

Jean Lannes: Thanatos

Michel Ney: Moros

Aglae Ney: Elpis

Andre Massena: Hermes

Dominique Jean Larrey: Asclepius

Louis Nicolas Davout: Ares

Aimée Davout: Artemis

Nicolas Oudinot: Hephaestus

Laurent Gouvion St Cyr: Apollo

Pierre Augereau: Kratos

Jean Baptiste Bernadotte: Deimos

Jean De Dieu Soult: Hypnos

A portrait of Suffren: Poseidon

Pyotr Bagration: Dionysus

[blackwidowmarshal123]

Bollywood Film Singers the I wish to see fit for Napoleonic Era figures

{I know nobody is familiar with these artists, but does it matter? It’s only a matter of creativity. It only depends on the execution of the performance. Each one of these singers have been part of my childhood growing up. They are my jibon (life)}

Napoleon Bonaparte: Kumar Sanu

Josephine de Beauharnais: Alga Yagnik (or Kavita Krishnamurti)

Madame de Remusat: Kavita Krishnamurti

Lestizia Ramolino: Lata Mangeshkar

Marie Walewska: Asha Bhoshle

Joachim Murat: Sukhwinder Singh (alt. Mika Singh)

Marie Louise: Shreya Ghoshal

Desiree Clary: Anuradha Paudwal

Hortense de Beauharnais: Shreya Ghoshal

Caroline Murat: Sunidhi Chauhan

Pauline Borghese: Vaishali Made

Elisa Bonaparte: Shalmali Kholgade

Eleanor de La Plaigne: Mamta Sharma

Jean Lannes: Shaan

Louise Lannes: Neha Kakkar

Michel Ney: Mika Singh

Bessieres: Atif Aslam

Eugene de Beauharnais: Sonu Nigam

Louis Alexander Berthier: Udit Narayan

Louis Bonaparte: Arijit Singh

Joseph Bonaparte: Shankar Mahadevan

Lucien Bonaparte: Abhijeet

Jerome Bonaparte: Benny Dayal

Aglae Auguie : Kunal Ganjawala

Nicholas Jean de dieu Soult: Adnan Sami

Louis Nicholas Davout: Hariharan

Andre Massena: Vinod Rathod

Oudinot: Badshah

Russia

Alexander I: Suresh Wadkar

[napoleondidthat]

What Happened to Michel Ney?

So maybe you don't want to read the book, let's talk about this crazy situation in Napoleonic history. I've gotten a few inquries through the years on here that occasionally bring up P.S. Ney and the possibility that it could have been Marshal Ney. So let's delve a bit.

This whole event is like, to quote Churchill, a mystery wrapped inside a riddle, wrapped inside an engima.

Let's not get too bogged down in the life of Michel Ney. Most will have a working knowledge of the man. He was the last man out of Russia. He lead out the rear guard from Russia, encountering hellish conditions, Cossack attacks and every other type of FUBAR event that he could. He helped with Napoleon's first abdication and then famously said he would bring Napoleon back in an iron cage when he escaped from Elba (spoiler alert: he didn't). He fought at Waterloo, though by this time his relationship with Napoleon had grown colder. He practically went nuts on the Waterloo battlefield, fighting until the bloody end and until his sword had broken in two. Still he carried on, one of the last to leave the battlefield.

He was later arrested, tried for treason, found guilty and shot.

Other things to know in order to piece Michel Ney with P.S. Ney, would be that Ney was gruff in manner, but kind-hearted. Had a "plain way" of speaking. Shied away from notoriety, money and promotions. Married to Aglae (whom he called Louise) with whom he shared four sons. It is known he spoke both French and German and apparently a bit of English as well. He played the flute.

Trial of Ney:

Ney's trial was a bit of a mess and to abbreviate it down, let's say that he cooperated, gave answers in his interrogations, and his lawyers tried to argue that he (Ney) was protected by Article 2 of a treaty that was drawn up after Waterloo and when that didn't work, argued that Ney wasn't beholden to French law, because he really wasn't French but German, because of the part of France he hailed from. This did not sit well with Ney, who shouted out at the trial that was French and would die French. He also gave a different and incorrect(?) birthdate at the start and in a strange twist told his lawyers to stand down in the middle of the trial.

Ney was found guilty, something Ney seemed to know was going to be the conclusion, and his death was voted on in the House of Peers. Strangely, most of the men who voted on it, then immediately went to Richelieu and let it be known that even though they voted for his death, they didn't want to see the sentence carried out. This leads to people from Richelieu and maybe even Wellington seeing if the sentence could be commuted. The King had no interest in doing so.

During his trial, Ney was jailed first at the Concergerie and then the Luxembourg, back to the Conceergerie, back to the Luxembourg where he had a huge security detail surrounding him at all times. The government had heard word of the various plots out there hoping to rescue Ney and became paranoid to keep him jailed.

Execution:

Instructions were sent on how the execution was to take place, and in a change of plans, Ney would be executed outside the Luxembourg and not in a military ground where executions usually took place. The deceased was to be shot, then lie there for those to see for a quarter of an hour at least. Ney met his fate calmly when the news was read to him and was driven out a few feet to the firing squad. Here eyewitness accounts vary on what was said and how he died. He was to be blindfolded and put on his knees, something he declined to do. Instead, he faced the squad, upright, hand on his heart, proclaiming his innocence and saying to "aim high". Shots were fired, Ney dropped face first and a pool of blood was on the ground under him.

Ney was dead. Or was he?

P.S. Ney Reporting:

In the United States, a man who roughly fit the description of Michel Ney appeared in the Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia area as a school teacher. He had reddish hair, balding. He was a plain spoken man but kind hearted and imposing. He said he was a French refugee and had served under Napoleon. He wasn't prone to drinking, but when he did and took too much, he let it slip that he was indeed the one and only Marshal Ney who had not died, but escaped. Who helped him? He didn't really say but did mention to a few people Wellington. Others heard the Freemasons, who Ney was a member of, did the work.

Peter Stuart Ney never spoke of his father but did often speak of his mother who he said was Scottish. He said his wife and children were in France and he hoped to return to them one day. He claimed his wife was close to Josephine and Hortense (this is true). He said he had four sons, never spoke of daughters. Others said he said he had two daughters and a son. What they all agreed on was that this P.S. Ney was the best teacher they ever had. He was kind, fair, tough but just. He was the best swordsmen they had ever seen. He was an accomplished horsemen, a good marksmen.

He taught language: English, Latin, Greek. Was reluctant to speak French but could. Also spoke a bit of Polish and Hebrew (?). Some said he had a Scottish brogue, others said a German brogue, others said it just sounded foreign.

He also played the flute. But was also a poet and artist. Drew a wonderful portrait of Napoleon. He was a fierce Bonapartist. When he heard of Napoleon's death, he fainted and later slit his throat in a suicide attempt. It failed and he was doctored. Later when he found out Reichstadt had died and wouldn't be placed on the throne, he despaired and said he'd never return to France or his family now.

He had a portrait of Napoleon and Napoleon's grave on St. Helena in his classroom.

A few who knew him thought he wasn't Marshal Ney, some thought maybe a relation. Some later changed their mind, yes, he was Marshal Ney, some never doubted.

Stories abounded that Ney was spotted by French refugees who served in the Grand Army and would see P.S. Ney and immediately say "It's Marshal Ney!"

P.S. Ney had war wounds. Some of the very same wounds that Ney had had. A wound in the thigh, a wound in the shoulder, the foot. A scar on his face that he said he got at Waterloo.

P.S. Ney never returned to France, died in Virigina of typhus fever but made the deathbed confession that he was indeed Marshal Ney. He escaped. He was given a bladder full of red fluid to hold under his shirt and when he fell he was to crush that bladder so he would look like he had been shot. The firing squad was made up of his old commrades an they recognized his order "Aim high" because Ney in battle would say the opposite, aim low. When they shot, he collapsed and the bullets went over him. Barely. It was a risk, but one that paid off. He sunk into a coma but his last words were akin to "Bessieres is dead. Let me die"

Oddities of the execution:

Ney was shot point-blank range with heavy bullets. According to the official reports, 10 bullets hit Ney, one hit the wall behind him, and the blank. Three hit his head, one is arm, the rest into his chest. The power of the gunblasts should have thrown him backwards, not forwards onto his stomach. There should have been blood spray on the wall, but only one official report says Ney's blood was on the wall and only one says he fell back. Eyewitness accounts say he fell forward and that the only blood was from under him. Ballistic experts haven't been able to answer the question of why on this.

Ney's body was taken to the Maternity Hospital where it was claimed by his brother-in-law and secretary. According to some reports, as many as 500 people saw his body while at the hospital. However, there doesn't seem to be any accounts or mentions by people in power or memoirs that they went to view Ney's body. Not that this proves there was none. Only a few eyewitness accounts do claim to have seen him, one being Ida St. Elme, and there it is mentioned that Ney had his vest buttoned to his throat and there were bullet holes, but no evidence of them hitting the chest. One said that the body was lain in a dark room that made it hard to discern features. Another said he looked peaceful and slumber and no obvious damage had been done from the bullets. Yet...he was shot three times in the head with heavy ammunition and no damage?

He was buried the following morning and no one attended in the family except for his brother in law and secretary again. His wife never once came to see the body or claim it. He was placed in a lead coffin and then an oak coffin, a practice usually only done for royalty. Or could it be because there would be no body and the weight of the lead would hide it? His grave became a bit of a place to leave anti-royalist propaganda and they government decided to move Ney to a vault that would be nameless so people couldn't find it. This was done. Later Ney would be removed from that vault and placed back at the gravesite. At this time, his coffins were opened and his grandson said there was a body with three bullet holes in the forehead proving Ney did die and was there. Later, during the reign of Napoleon III, it was a common telling that Ney escaped his execution that Napoleon III had the grave opened and there eyewitnesses said there was no body in the coffins. However, as big as a revelation this would be, the papers are mysteriously quiet on this new discovery at the time.

There are no records of who made up the firing squad. To this day, we don't know who the people were or having any of their testimonies.

Ney's wife never would visit the grave and would later remarry but the marriage would be on the quiet side and only immediate family seems to have known she re-married. When she dies, she is not laid in the Ney grave, but in a church crypt with her sisters.

On the other hand, the Ney family never stopped trying to clear their father's name and worked at it, lost their money and Ney's sons were all under survellience due to their hostilities to the new government. One even challenged Wellington to a duel. All odd behavior if Ney wasn't dead. Or did they not know?

P.S Ney did seem to have the general look and enough in common with Michel Ney to pass as him. The wounds match up, except the the facial wound. Michel Ney wasn't documented of having a facial wound, not to say that he couldn't have gotten one at Waterloo. Ida St Elme claimed to see him on the field of battle with a bloodied face. On the other hand, there was no mention of a wound when he was on trial. P.S. Ney could speak the multiple languages, and though we know Michel Ney spoke more than French, there is no proof he ever spoke Greek or Hebrew. He could have picked up some Polish being stationed with the Army. He could have had an understanding of Latin from his studies and maybe he did learn Hebrew and Greek after. P.S.Ney was also very good at maths, Michel Ney has no documentation that he was a mathematician. P.S Ney was a poet and artist, no documentation Michel Ney was, except for the flute playing. However, all of Ney's sons were quite artistic. Could have Michel Ney become more artistic when he no longer was in the military? Maybe. P.S. Ney seemed to know some intimate details of the life of M. Ney, namely he called his wife Louise and not Agale. He also said she was dark eyed with black hair which seemed true. Could he have seen a picture of her? Michel Ney also also a very quiet man about his personal life, maybe he was these things and it just went undocumented. Michel Ney was with Bessieres when he was killed in battle, right next to him. P.S. Ney's last words harkened back to Bessieres being dead. If P.S. Ney wasn't Michel Ney it seems he certainly believed rightly or wrongly he was.

P.S. Ney didn't get everything right. Namely his mother whom he said was Isabel Stuart, who is not the mother of Michel Ney.

Conclusion:

I don't know. Though I am not convinced P.S. Ney was Michel Ney, I'm not convinced that Ney's execution was completely legit either. There is definitely weirdness abounding here.

If you want to delve into this more I strongly recommend Empire's Eagles by Thomas Crockner. I just gave the briefest of the evidence, but the book goes more into depth in other evidence that both points to things not being right and reasons they are also right.

[northernmariette]

There she is, Marshal Ney's loving wife.

A year after His execution, she remarried secretly. To be fair, it might have been out of financial necessity: the Restoration government charged her for all expenses related to the trial, including those related to the prosecution and Ney's incarceration.

ab. 1812 François Gérard - Aglaée Louise (called Eglée) Auguié Ney, Duchess of Elchingen, Princess of Moscow

(Albany Institute of History and Art)

[pobodleru]

Today is the anniversary of the death of Aglae Ney, one of the most important historical figures for me, the bravest of brave women.

And in this context, I will say what I sincerely believe: it is easier to go into the darkness when you hope that someone close is waiting for you there.

[pobodleru]

Friends, I make jewelry based on Napoleonic and frev motives and I want to share them with you.

You, of course, can buy this from me, but delivery from Russia will, unfortunately, be very expensive :<

[pobodleru]

Something tender and soul-saving

[phatburd]

Adding on to this, Ney's great-grand daughter, Marie Cécile Ney d'Elchingen, married Joachim, 5th Prince Murat, becoming Cécile Murat Ney d'Elchingen. Here's her portrait, painted by the Belle Epoque artist, Giovanni Boldini.

This means that Joachim, Prince of Pontecorvo and the 9th Prince Murat is a descendent of both Murat and Ney.

Ney’s Family, After: “Here’s the Catering Bill for the Executioners, Madame Ney”

This is my latest translation of the French Senat’s file about Marshal Ney, followed by my comments.:

Marshal Ney’s family was held responsible for all trial expenses. These included items such as travel expenses for those witnesses who had come from far away. Nothing was spared Ney’s widow. The Sénat has within its archives a folio of invoices relating to the trial.

La Maréchale Ney, who obtained no favours from Louis XVIII, nevertheless was granted a pension of twenty-five thousand francs by Louis-Philippe. She was not in attendance on 7 December 1853 at the unveiling of Ney’s statue. She died in July 1854, thirty-nine years after the Marshal, without having been granted a review of the 1815 trial.

Marshal Ney and his wife had four sons: Joseph-Napoléon, called Léon (1803-1857), and Michel Louis Félix, called Aloys (1804-1854), the only two who had children; Eugène (1806-1845); and Napoléon Henri Edgar (1812-1882). They all served in the army or in the diplomatic corps, and all four of them campaigned for a revision of their father’s trial, for his reinstatement, and for the promotion of his memory.

The eldest, Joseph-Napoleon, second Prince of Moskowa, began his career as an officer in the service of Sweden, was made a Peer of France in 1831, elected to Parliament in 1848, and raised to the rank of Brigadier General in 1851. He married and had a daughter and a son.

The second son, known as Aloys, the second Duke of Elchingen, also served in Sweden from 1824 to 1830, achieved the rank of Colonel in 1844, was elected Member of Parliament in 1846, and raised to the rank of Brigadier General in 1851. He was married and had a son and two daughters.

The third son, Eugène, was a diplomat (embassy attaché). Seriously ill, he died in 1845, at the age of thirty-nine, unmarried and childless.

The fourth and last son, Napoleon-Henri Edgar, the third Prince of the Moskowa, was a second lieutenant in 1832, appointed Colonel, aide-de-camp to Napoleon III after the coup d'état of 2 December, Brigadier General in 1856 and Major General in 1863. Late in life, in 1869, he married the Comtesse de La Bédoyère, daughter of General de La Bédoyère, one of the first to rally to Napoleon in 1815, who was shot for it on the plain of Grenelle on 19 August 1815. They were childless.

The original text can be found here:

https://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/D26/execution_et_rehabilitations/la_descendance_ney.html

Bernadotte invited Ney’s sons to live in Sweden. That the eldest two served in its army is not surprising, as a military career might have been impossible for them in France until the advent of Louis-Philippe. Bernadotte had been Ney’s friend, as well as his sponsor during the pre-Napoleonic 1790s.

My trusty 1949 Dictionnaire encyclopedique Larousse mentions Ney’s eldest son mostly as a… composer. 

That the youngest son, Edgar, became the third Prince de la Moskova, would seem to indicate that both his nephews pre-deceased him; otherwise, one of them would have inherited the title. I assume therefore that the title of Prince de la Moskova became extinct with Edgar’s death. He remained childless, of course, considering that both he and his bride were in their fifties when they married.

Here can be found extracts from the  book of expenses relating to Ney’s trial:

https://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/D26/ney/extraits_de_ce_recueil.html

Expenses included items such as new uniforms for Ney’s guards; locksmithing, carpentry and furniture for his cell; and catering the Senator’s meals. Here were meals where no one drank to the host’s health.

[pobodleru]

[pobodleru]

deafening sorrow

[pobodleru]

The Ney family and the 19th century game "Le baiser à la Religieuse"

[michel-feuilly]

Meeting

[pobodleru]

I love this sketch depicting a ghostly meeting of the Ney family❤️‍🔥