h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, from Empire to Waterloo - A2849295
Author: Orcus - U94957

This is the second half of my entry on Napoleon Bonaparte.

See here F48874?thread=451195 for the first half.

Enjoy.

Excellent entries! Intresting, well written informative, and generally fantastic.

Hi Orcus,

What a read! You have covered all the main points here really well.

"Noone in Europe" - should that read "No-one"?

"Again the Grand Army was unleashed against a hapless enemy and they rolled over the allies and crushed Prussia, conquering its territory swiftly and easily / As soon as Prussia became hostile, Napoleon invaded " The first sentence in the second paragraph is a repetition of the preceding paragraph.

"Danube camapaign" -- campaign

Did Napoleon's child die quite young?

You might also mention where St Helena is - bang in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean if I am not mistaken. Apparently Napoleon amused himself by making life absolutely unbearable for St Helena's governor, whom he detested.

You have some superb paragraphs in this one. Top class stuff!

Woodpigeon

Napoleon II (his son) died in 1832 at the age of 21 from TB
Apparently he was effectively a prisoner in Austria after Waterloo. Napoleon abdicated in favour of him - like that was going to happen

I never knew that just looked it up, I wondered who Napoleon II was!

Thanks for the comments, nice to know it's appreciated.

Orcus

Fantastic entry on one of history's pivotal figures. I wonder if you should mention about veterans of the Napoleonic wars (French and otherwise) lining the streets to see the funeral procession when his body was recovered from St Helena and returned to France to be laid in Les Invalides, where it still is.

And I think that St Helena was actually owned by The East India Company, so it wasn't technically British soil even though it was owned by a British company.

Psyc.

Interesting idea, I thought about elaborating on his body's return to les Invalides but thought the entry was long enough. You can (and people have, obviously) write volumes on such subjects.

From what I just read about his son, that also lies in Les Invalides and was given to the French as a 'present' by Hitler

I think I will add a sentence or two about his body in fact

I think your second point is not something I'd really like to go into as what is and isn't British in the old empire is complex stuff and might open a can of worms.

Orcus

Ok, no worries. I just wanted to display my knowledge of useless information .

Excellent entry again.

Thankyou, I've added a couple of sentences with regard to his funeral. I think it adds a nice touch to the end of the story right enough.

Looks good. Oh, and one thing...

"Seen as a saviour by the masses, a conqueror by his enemies and as a military leader to compare with Caeser and Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte was the sort of character history throws at us only once in several generations. Our world would probably have been the poorer for his absence."

Excellent, excellent ending.

Although I'm not sure on the spelling of Caeser, and I'm not sure Ceaser looks right either...

I think the best thing for military historians at least, is that not only did fate give us the greatest ever French soldier Napoleon, but an excellent counterpart in the greatest ever English soldier, Sir Arthur Wellsley.

Don't mention Caeser (I'm pretty sure of the spelling)! If you noticed my comment on what a hole I thought I'd found in the guide in this being missing then notice that there's no link to an edited entry on either JC or Alex the Great!
Can of worms indeed...

aha, that would be Caesar then...

Thanks again for the comment on the ending

Ahem.. Sir Arthur Wellsley was Irish...

Was he? What a lot you learn writing such articles and then discussing them.

I don't think I called him English myself did I? More by luck than anything else mind you.

He was born in Ireland, but he was English. He despised people referring to him as Irish.

And us Irish have never forgotten it either

He He, he must be one of the few to claim descent in that direction.

I tell a lie, there is indeed an article on Caesar an it is now linked Phew, one less article for me to write.

I've done some tinkering with sentence structures - I seem to have a once more habit of once more using the same phrase over and over once more again
I've also added one or two lines regarding Boney's son. A small but sad tale.

This deserves to be picked, so forgive me for sending it straight back into the firing line at the top of PR!

*whispers*

F48874?thread=451195 also