#marshal mortier

[isa-ko]

I think I’m having a napoleonic styled doodle fever. I can’t stop drawing marshals. The drawing brainrot has finally begun.

[mai-von-weissenfels]

I drew all 26 of Napoleon's marshals

[neylo]

Hihi! If you’re drawing requests, may i request a Mortier?🥺

Based on your RP blog of him. He is so proud of his first carrots! The door is also a bit too small for him.

[koda-friedrich]

Morthier🔆

[flowwochair]

girl mortier

[josefavomjaaga]

"Me too" in January 1813

Except that this time, it was after Murat had left the remnants of the Grande Armée on 16 January that apparently everybody lined up in front of Eugène's headquarters and demanded "Going home? Me too, please, and asap."

And to be fair, with this they merely preempted Napoleon's orders. Since at least 9 January Napoleon had written to Berthier (directly and through Clarke) repeatedly to send to France everybody who was sick or wounded and also all superfluous marshals, generals and staff officers still with the army, while keeping only those who were truly necessary for the small amount of soldiers still under arms.

Except that Berthier had fallen gravely ill at the time, and with all the disorder during the hasty retreat that preceded Murat's departure, it's quite possible that Napoleon's orders were never received, or at least not read.

It was only after some calm had returned, that the new (very reluctant) commander of the (very reduced) Grande Armée managed to file through all those probably unopened letters of the last weeks. On 23 January, Eugène wrote to Napoleon:

In accordance with Your Majesty's orders, I have instructed a large number of wounded, sick or tired generals to make themselves and their staffs available to the Minister of War. I gave the same authorisation to Marshals Ney, Macdonald and Mortier. I have kept in the army only the Marshals Prince d'Eckmühl [Davout], Duke of Bellune [Victor], Duke of Istrie [Bessières - of course he would stay to look after the kid] and Saint-Cyr. The Prince Major-General [Berthier] is a little better today, but his condition still gives rise to the same fears.

This apparently led to a flurry of activity and was reflected in various newspaper reports:

Le Moniteur Westphalien, 27 January 1813

Berlin, 23 January: His Excellency the Imperial Marshal Duke of Taranto and His Excellency the Imperial Marshal Duke of Elchingen as well as about 2o Imperial French generals of various ranks, and among them adjutants of His Majesty the King of Naples and the Prince of Neuchatel, arrived here yesterday and the day before yesterday from the army and in some cases passed through here for their further destination.

Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen, 28 January 1813:

His Excellency the Imperial French Imperial Marshal Duke of Treviſo (Mortier) arrived here the day before yesterday; His Excellency the Imperial French Imperial Marshal Duke of Elchingen (Ney) left here for Paris. A large number of Imperial French generals and senior staff officers are constantly returning from the army through here to Paris.

Bayreuther Zeitung, 28 January 1813:

Berlin, 21 January. Arrived here from the Oder on the 19th and 20th: Their Excellencies the Imperial Marshals, Dukes of Elchingen (Ney) and of Tarentum (Macdonald); the Imperial French Division and Brigade Generals Pujol, Defrance, Monnet, Bouvier, Chonard, Benard, Poultier, Dunier, Faure, Corbineau, Roussel, Grouchy, together with several colonels and officers of all grades.

Augsburgische Ordinari-Postzeitung, 3 February 1813:

Leipzig, 30 January. On the 28th of this month, Their Excellencies the Imperial French Imperial Marshals, the Dukes of Treviso (Mortier), of Elchingen (Ney), and of Abrantes (Junot), arrived here from the army and immediately continued their journey to France.

And so on, and so on. The funny part: At the same time - in order to hide what was going on, probably - somebody launched reports in the newspaper about a 40,000-strong army under Ney assembling in Posen. People reading those papers must have been quite confused.

[mandatorycommunistbrunchhour]

DRAGON FLUFF FOR THE PEOPLE

The people (aka me) want more dragon fluff fluff puff puff

The Mortier dragon and le soult dragon design by @cadmusfly

[northernmariette]

A bit more about Bernadotte, a tiny little crumb about Mortier

Just about a year ago, just before Bernadotte's birthday, I kept coming across new discoveries regarding the previous birthday boy, Ney. Well, discoveries new to me, anyway.

This year, coming up on Mortier's birthday, I keep coming across new discoveries regarding the previous birthday boy, Bernadotte. This latest one is from "Journal du comte Rodolphe Apponyi, attaché de l'ambassade d'Autriche-Hongrie à Paris", to be found on Gallica. Silly me, I forgot to note the page but it's round about page 15, and it's for the year 1844. It is shortish, so I will transcribe the extract in its entirety, followed by my own rough translation:

"Le roi de Suède est toujours mourant. Il a été si mal, ces derniers temps, que malgré sa défense expresse de ne jamais le saigner, de le laisser mourir plutôt que de faire cette opération, on l'a fait par ordre exprès de la reine, mais quel ne fut pas l'etonnement des assistants, en voyant sur ce bras royal quantité de tatouages cabalistiques et surtout, du haut en bas la phrase suivante en grosses lettres: "Liberté. Égalité. Vive la République!"

On m'a raconté, à ce propos, que lorsque Bernadotte a été en Corse, il a voulu épouser la fille d'un fermier parce qu'elle avait quelque argent; les parents de la jeune fille ne la lui ont pas accordée parce que lui n'en avait point et qu'il n'était que simple soldat. Cette femme vit encore: elle est si pauvre qu'elle est servante dans une petite maison bourgeoise où elle porte de l'eau et fait le gros ouvrage dans la cuisine!"

The King of Sweden is Bernadotte, of course. He did die in 1844, after spending 34 years successfully ruling Sweden, unofficially as the Crown Prince since 1810, then as the actual King from 1818.

Here is my translation of the preceding French text:

"The King of Sweden is still near death. He has been so ill of late that in spite of his formal command never to bleed him, to let him die rather than to carry out this procedure, the Queen ordered it to be done; but the medical assistants were astonished to see on the royal arm a multitude of cabalistic tattoos but especially, from top to bottom, the following phrase in large lettering: "Liberty. Equality. Long live the Republic!"

I have been told that when Bernadotte was stationed in Corsica, he had wanted to marry the daughter of a farmer because she had some money; her parents refused to grant his request, because he had no money of his own and because he was but a soldier. The woman in question is still alive: she is so poor that she is now a servant in a small bourgeois household, where she fetches water and works as a scullery maid."

Bernadotte did serve in Corsica before the Révolution. At the time, Corsica had not been part of France for very long and the political situation there was not terribly stable. I have not looked into this, but I wonder if he and Napoleon might have been there at the same time in the 1780s. I wonder too if Bernadotte knew about the Bonaparte family at least by reputation, as it had at least some degree of prominence on the island, and certainly much prominence in Ajaccio.

Regarding Bernadotte's tattoos, I have seen different versions of what the exact wording was - "Death to Kings" is what I have read elsewhere - where this particular tattoo was located (arm? chest?), and the reason for Bernadotte's reticence. I think it makes more sense that he did not want to be bled than the reason I have seen elsewhere, namely that he was embarrassed that his doctor would see the tattoo. By the time he was at death's door, somehow I doubt he would have cared that much about his doctor's opinion about very old tattoos - including the cabalistic ones, which I think referred to freemasonry symbols.

Now on to the Mortier crumblet.

I am still reading Philip Mansel's "The Eagle in Splendour" with pleasure and interest. I do have a bone to pick with him, which is that he does not sufficiently quote his sources. This drives me nuts when I want to find out more about any particular aspect of his book. I have no idea where the following information comes from, and it does leave me wondering.

On page 59, Mansel writes, concerning Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise:

"Throughout the round of glittering ceremonies, the Emperor and Empress were surrounded by members of the imperial family and, above all, of the court. Duroc, Berthier, Montesquiou and Marshal Mortier were especially prominent (...)."

Huh? Why was Mortier especially prominent at the time of Napoleon's second wedding? Why he, among all the Marshals? No surprise about Berthier, who had been sent to Vienna to finalise the marriage agreement and who had actually married Marie-Louise by proxy; but Mortier? And in what role? This doesn't seem to be something I will find out from Mansel. Not cool.

[meneeddeadmenyaoi]

Been drawing Mortisoult theyre way too cute TT

[josefavomjaaga]

Regarding Lannes and Murat: Those two were actually very close friends, with Lannes taking care of Murat in 1808 when the latter fell seriously ill in Spain.

did anyone get along ever

[isa-ko]

A good chunk of my doodles are now Ed, I would like to hug him, Just a small quick one😔

Lannes’s supposed to be saying “Who taught Mortier bad words!” but Google translated version :(

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

This one is getting a read more for propaganda. So much stuff here.

Alexander I Pavlovich:

a. “Maybe not the most handsome or charismatic man in this tournament, but he has ample chaotic neutral energy that both baffles and fascinates contemporaries. In short, if you're into mysterious men, you won't find a sexier enigma than our imperator.”

b. “Look. Is this or is this not the monsterfucking website.”

c. There are lots of monuments dedicated to him. There's one in Moscow in the Alexander Garden right by the Red Square. While nowhere near as grand as the Alexander Column, I think it's still worth showcasing!

The monument is meant to celebrate his victory in the 1812 Russian invasion. He's holding a sword, proudly standing on top of his enemies' weapon.

The sculptors, however, have never seen the man in their life - all the people involved in the making are still alive and well (i think), so that should tell how new it is. The monument was opened for the public just a decade ago in 2014.

d. quote about this bust from the memoirs of Sophie de Choiseul-Gouffier: “No painter was able to properly capture the features of his face and especially his soft expression. Alexander didn’t like to pose for portraits and they were mostly done with some stealth. In this case sculpture have produced a better likeness. The famed Thorvaldsen made a bust of this sovereign worthy of a hand of such a remarkable artist.”

e. His family nickname might have been ‘our angel’ and the medal commemorating his death bears the inscription “Our angel is in heaven”, but did you know that to this day Alexander looks down on Sankt Petersburg as an actual angel, wings, cross, trampled snake and all? Alas, you cannot see it from the ground, the Alexander Column being so very tall, but the statue of the angel on top certainly seems to take after our sexy thrice-angel Emperor.

f. Apotheosis of Alexander! An eminently universal image, perfectly serviceable for his rise to the throne… of Napoleonic Sexyman Tournament.

It really looks like Peter and Catherine are instructing the Electorate. Gentlevoters, surely you wouldn’t dream of disappointing Sasha’s Grandmother and his scantily clothed giant of a Great-great-grandfather?

g. What is sexier than a man in a dress???

Edouard Mortier

a. “why does mortier the largest marshal simply not eat the others”

b. "mortier is a cute big huge cute boy, he is just a gentle giant, here's a real picture of him pls consider voting for him (he is also a certified wife enjoyer, he loved his wife a lot and his favorite thing about his wife was her eyes which i think is very cute and wholesome, they had a happy marriage)"

[flowwochair]

mortier and mortisoult doodles from yesterday

[ transcript:

Soult: "have you ever had a single bad thought in your life"

Mortier: "no" ]

(btw I do see a couple of asks in my inbox I swear I will get to them, I'm currently getting through the end of finals pls bare with me 😭)

[josefavomjaaga]

Lefebvre's French

I swear I was looking for stuff related to the Junots. Really! Instead I came across this anecdote in the "Mémoires anecdotiques" by Armand Alexandre Hippolyte de Bonneval, and while I cannot verify its autheticity, it's just too cute to not be repeated. This allegedly happened in 1812, during the march from the Berezina to Vilna.

I had just encountered Marshal Lefebvre. Like the rest of us, he was on foot, with a long stick in his hand, and we were walking side by side. When we reached a bridge cluttered with baggage and troops that made it almost impossible to cross, the marshal found a large six-foot tall figure in front of him, dressed in a cuirassiers' coat. He gave him three or four strokes on the back with his stick, and shouted in his German accent: "Moof ahead, vat the hell, you are blocking my way!"

I just have to add the original French here as I am unable to imitate the effect in English: "Allez tonc, qué tiable, fous m'embechez de basser!"

The other quickly turned around; it was the Duc de Trévise [Marshal Mortier]. - "Ah, my comrade," said a confused Lefèbvre, "if I'd known it vas you, I vouldn't have hit so hard!"

In Alsacien French: "Ah, mon gamarate, si ch'avais su que c'edait fous, che n'aurais pas dapé si vort!"

[yaggy031910]

A fun little ask: the Marshalate is informed there is cake in the break room. How do each of them react?

Who ever you are, thank you for this sweet little question and I apologise for my late response. 🙈💕

I have ideas for some of them, however I am **not** aware of the maréchals eating habits so any input is welcome here. Also, I don't know all of the marshals well enough but I will try to include as many as possible. Don’t expect any historical accuracy in this.

See this post as a very big headcanon and as one ongoing story where I am going to try to mimic the marshals characters and miserably fail.

Shall we begin? :D

Les Maréchals and cake

Berthier would hear about it and quietly get excited by the idea of having a nice little piece of cake, just for him to be too busy with everything so that he isn't able to leave his desk. Either this or someone (probably one of his adcs) would be nice enough to get for Berthier his piece of cake.

Murat: You bet he is one of the first ones to look at this cake. His reaction might depend on how the cake looks. If it's a huge cake with a lot of golden details, Murat will carry it around so everyone admires this phenomenal cake because it deserves to be looked at.

Augerau and Masséna wonder why there is such a fancy a cake in the break room in the first place and who might have put it there. Augerau asks Masséna with a low voice: “How much money do you want to bet on the cake being poisoned?” Before Masséna is able to answer, Lannes enters the scene.

Lannes runs after Murat with the cake knife demanding to finally get his damn piece of this cake while Murat can't make himself to cut it because this cake is “so damn beautiful that it would be a waste to eat it.” This little game goes on for a minute or two until the other marshals grow impatient, one of them being Ney.

Ney who is known for his hotheadedness tries to save this cake from a disaster aaaaand fails. :) The three of them dispute over who is the actual culprit of this mess.

L: Murat, what have you done? M: I have done nothing. You followed me with a knife. N: You let the cake fall. M: You intervened in my business with Lannes.

The cake has fallen to the ground as Davout, Suchet and Macdonald watched. “Aaand here goes the cake”, Macdonald says; “At least the floor was able to taste it.” Suchet asks: “What do you think was its flavour?” ”Chocolate vanilla.” Davout answers. After a moment of silence, he adds. “Soult has a good recipe.” Mortier walks in, seeing how Lannes, Murat and Ney are loudly disputing while Masséna and Augerau get themselves black coffee and Davout, Suchet and Macdonald talking. Lefebvre who was walking right behind Mortier gestures him to move away from the door so he can get into the break room: “What is going on?”

Suchet: “We found a cake-“ Davout interrupts him: “We found a chocolate vanilla cake which we don’t know how it got here or if it was poisoned and now it’s inedible because his royal highness, the King of Naples, made it fall.”

Murat shouts from the back: “I didn’t let it fall.” Lannes: “Oh, you did.”

Lefebvre offers a solution like the good fatherly figure he is: “Do you still want cake? We could bake a new cake, messieurs.” Davout replies: “This sounds like a smart idea, Monsieur. Maréchal Soult knows an excellent recipe.”

Lefebvre: “Ahh, excellent. Where is our maréchal?”

Mortier: “He is in his office.”

“Then this where our journey goes next.” Lefebvre slams the door open and accidentally hits Oudinot. “Ah, Monsieur, my apologies. If I had known you were there, I wouldn’t have slammed the door as hard as I did. Are you alright? Yes? Until the next time then.”

Davout walks up to his friend to make sure how Oudinot is doing and explains to him in the meanwhile what is going on and also promises Oudinot to bring him a piece of the cake they are going to bake.

Lefebvre takes the lead and walks straight to Soult’s office while Davout and Mortier follow him. Suchet decides to stay behind while Macdonald thinks about it. Lefebvre knocks on Soult’s office door: “Monsieur, le maréchal? Are you here?” *Lefebvre knocks again with his energetic manner.* “Monsieur, le maréchal, it’s me, Lefebvre. Open the door!*

Soult opens the door with his usual unimpressed demeaner: Hm? Lefebvre: “Excusez-moi, mon maréchal, I heard you have a recipe for a delicious cake?” Soult: Cake? What cake? Davout: The chocolate vanilla one… the one you baked for your daughter Hortense’s birthday. The delicious one. Soult: Ah, yeah. That one. What of it? Mortier: We would like to bake this cake, which is why we want to ask if you mind us borrowing the recipe? Soult stares at his co-maréchals for a second, he shuts the door, opens it again with a piece of paper in his hand which he gives to Lefebvre. “Here. Is there anything else you need?” Macdonald who decided to join the baking group walks up to them and asks Soult: “Would you mind to lend us your baking equipment?” - “No. Have a nice day.” Soult shuts his door while Lefebvre shouts: “Thank you for your help, Monsieur Soult.” Macdonald asks: “What are we going to do now?” “We are going to bake the cake now, my good friend”, Davout answers. Mac: “Where? Where do you want us to bake the cake? Do we have the right ingredients?” D: In the kitchen and I don’t see why we shouldn’t have the ingredients. Macdonald looks at Davout with suspicious eyes about the matter if they are going to manage to bake this cake… The group of maréchals appear in the imperial kitchen where they start to gather the right ingredients. While the group is busy with the preparations, les maréchals Pérignon and Sérurier appear, wondering what is going on. As Lefebvre is explaining these two their baking journey up until now, Pérignon and Sérurier decide to join them: “A cake made by maréchals for maréchals.”

What could possibly go wrong with two additional heads in the kitchen? As it turns out: Everything. Pérignon and Sérurier manage to overdo the cake by confusing salt with sugar. The cake tastes salty, the icing itself is fine because it was made by Davout who religiously followed Soult’s directions. In addition to that, monsieur Lefebvre manages to mix up usual paper with baking sheets.

Bernadotte walks into the kitchen as he sees his fellow maréchals working on their baking project. He comments on the scenery: “This is just pure chaos without any discipline, a chaos which can’t possibly create something edible.” Davout replies “Well, have you ever baked anything in your miserable existence which you so call your life?”; to which Bernadotte says: “wELL, no, BUT-“ Davout continues: “Then get out of this room and give me my peace back or shut up.” Bernadotte decides to leave.

As Bernadotte is leaving, Jourdan walks right into the scene with an apple in his hand. A fire starts to break out in the oven and Jourdan, like the team player he is, turns and leaves this mess to his co-maréchals without saying one word.

Nothing is going as Davout had it planned. He sits in a corner, mourning this beautiful chocolate vanilla cake he had in mind. Macdonald sits right next to him with a spoon, telling him: “Well, at least the frosting you made yourself is delicious.” Davout, completely shattered by the fact that he wasn’t able to make his desired chocolate vanilla cake, puts his face into his palms until a surprise visits the kitchen: It’s maréchal Soult. With a cake. A chocolate vanilla cake. A chocolate vanilla cake which is neither burnt nor oversalted. A chocolate vanilla cake according to the recipe. Next to Soult is Oudinot who cuts two pieces of the cake: one for himself and one for his good old friend, Louis Nicolas Davout.

After Soult, Ney and Lannes enter the kitchen. Ney silently takes a piece of Soult’s cake, saying nothing except a simple “thank you”. So do Macdonald and Mortier. Soult tolerates Ney’s presence. Lannes on the other hand goes straight to the oversalted and burnt cake which the older maréchals made and are also eating. Kellermann and Grouchy, as late to the party as ever, also go for Lefebvre’s bad cake while Soult’s good cake is still sitting there. Soult can’t hide his look of disgust.

At some point, Bessières and Murat join or rejoin retrospectively the scene, walking up to Soult’s cake. Bessières, as well mannered as he is, takes one piece of a cake to which Murat comments: “I know how much you like this lovely type of cake, Bessières, take a second piece.” - “No”, Soult replies: “That’s not your cake. Take your piece and leave.” Murat adds: “For whom are the other pieces then? I don’t see anybody who would possibly want to eat this gorgeous baked good. We want to eat your delicious creation of a fabulous cake.” - “One piece each. You can give him your piece if you like to.” Bessières interrupts the two: “I am content with my piece.” Murat doesn’t listen to what Bessières says and continues his conversation with Soult: “My fellow maréchal, I don’t understand, why do you struggle so much with allowing somebody to have one additional piece of cake than the other ones?”

While Murat and Soult continue their dispute which leads to nowhere, one adc enters slowly the kitchen. He looks at Soult who recognises this man as one of Berthier’s adcs. He came to get a piece of cake for his marshal. Soult lets him take one of the few pieces left. All of a sudden, Kellermann seems to be chocking on his salty cake piece. All the maréchals are gathering around him and in the chaos, the last few pieces of Soult’s cake fall to the ground. Soult looks at his cake or what’s left of it. One could argue that everyone who wanted to eat it was able to eat it. One could argue that these fallen pieces can be ignored and Soult could go on with his day never ever thinking about the pieces again. However, we are talking about maréchal Soult here who sees the art in baking. The love, the accuracy of it. Today he didn’t just bring cake to his fellow maréchals. Today he witnessed how some of them have no sense of dignity for what it means to be able to eat good food. Good cake. Soult is leaving the room, not bothered about Kellermann as he wouldn’t be able to help anyway. He is going to his wife, his Louise Berg, who asks him about his day. He tells her the whole of it. How he was surprised by his fellow maréchals who wanted to bake a cake. How he knew that they are going to mess up his recipe. How he baked that cake properly and how a part of it went to waste. “Some of them ate oversalted and burnt cake. Who eats bad cake? Who likes bad cake???”

Davout on the other hand was thankful for Soult. With a smile on his face, Davout enjoyed his so desired chocolate vanilla cake, unbothered by the event surrounding him. The end. :)

[northernmariette]

Marshals' Save-the-Date calendar: The Lone February boy

Yes, it's February already. And There is but one Marshal whose birthday falls on this month, the very tall Marshal Mortier. His birthday is on the 13th.

March, April and May are Marshal Madness months. But I hope that by the 13th, I will finally, finally have a new computer so I no longer have to type one-fingered on my tiny phone screen.

In the meantime, if there are other napoleonic era figures whose birthdays you would like to celebrate, maybe a new Save-the-Date list can be started.