The best of enemies (Napoleon and Wellington)

The field of Napoleonic studies may be a crowded one, but Andrew Roberts, one of our brightest young historians, is by no means overshadowed in his new book. Well written and well organised, his study of the relationship between the emperor and the Duke of Wellington is as entertaining as it is instructive, and is original and judicious both as military and personal history.

The book begins on the morning of June 18, 1815, the day upon which Napoleon encountered the Duke of Wellington on the battlefield for the first and last time. Determined to dispel the anxious mood of his generals who came to the farmhouse near Waterloo where he had spent the night, Napoleon told them that there were 90 chances in their favour and not 10 against them. "Because you have been beaten by Wellington," he said to Marshal Soult, "you think him a great general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general; the English are bad troops, and this affair is a mere picnic." There was no need for complex manoeuvring, he insisted; and when one of the generals referred to the tenacity and steady aim of the English infantry, he turned his back on him and marched off.

It was absurd to have so high a regard for this Wellington, a sepoy general who had made an easy name for himself in India. A frontal assault would settle the matter. "If my orders are carried out," Napoleon said, "nous coucherons ce soir à Bruxelles." He then walked off to order a shoulder of mutton for his dinner.

As Roberts shows, Napoleon had, in fact, a far higher opinion of Wellington than his dismissive words implied. He also had far more in common with him than he chose to admit: they were born in the same year, neither of them in the country for which they were to fight - Wellington in Ireland, Napoleon in Corsica. Their fathers both died young, and both boys were brought up in straitened circumstances by formidable mothers. Both had four brothers and three sisters; and both attended French military academies. They agreed in believing Hannibal to be the greatest of military heroes, and they took Caesar's Commentaries with them on their respective campaigns.

Yet, for all their shared experiences, the two men's characters were utterly different. The leading historian of the British army, Sir John Fortescue, described Wellington as being more proud of being an "English gentleman" than of anything else. He could be harsh and cutting with subordinates, driving two officers who had been subjected to his bitter scorn to suicide. But whenever he chose to appear so, "the Beau", as he was known, was politeness and grace personified in a drawing room, whereas - in the opinion of the Austrian foreign minister, Metternich - it was "impossible to imagine anything more awkward than Napoleon's manner in society . . . He had no idea how to conduct a polite conversation. He was always trying to impress and, aware of his undignified inches, walked on tiptoe."

Occasionally, he would think it amusing to tell a lady that he knew of her husband's infidelities or whisper that he had heard of her own. He once asked the duchess d'Abrantès if she had been told of the harem her husband had kept in Egypt; and, on another occasion, burst out in affected astonishment upon a young lady's appearance at court for the first time: "My God! I heard you were pretty!"

To his wife's ladies he could be equally rude, and shocked Mme de Rémusat by telling her that she had the reputation of being "quick and good in bed". He himself maintained that the time spent in making love should never be more than a matter of minutes.

He gave his mistress, the young actress, Mlle George, a special kind of elastic garter that he found easier and faster to undo than the usual sort of garter with a buckle. She later became the mistress of Wellington who, so she said, was, of the two men, "de beaucoup le plus fort".

Fond as Napoleon was of Mlle George, and of Josephina Grassini, the great diva, who was subsequently also Wellington's mistress, the emperor did not much enjoy the company of women. They were, he said, mere machines for making children. "I don't like women very much," he confessed. "Women! Bah! When you don't think of them you don't need them."

Wellington, on the other hand, delighted in their company and, in particular, that of Harriet Arbuthnot, the news of whose death so upset him that, in the words of another of his women friends, Lady Salisbury, he threw the letters informing him of it to the floor, then threw himself down "in the greatest agitation" upon a sofa "almost sobbing".

By this time Napoleon was also dead, and Wellington, who had once said that Napoleon's presence upon a battlefield was worth 40,000 men, had come to regard the "shabby fellow" both as incompetent as a general and despicable as a man. Who else after all, he asked, could sink so low as Bonaparte had done in bequeathing a large sum to a lieutenant of Hussars who had attempted to assassinate the Duke of Wellington.

Yet, even so, the duke, who had saved Napoleon from execution after Waterloo, could not but regret that he had never once met his rival since, despite all his faults, he was, indeed, "a most extraordinary man"; a man whose dream of European union, a concept beyond the duke's imagining, is slowly coming true.

A fabulous read. Fascinating to read of the many things Napoleon and Wellington had in common and to contrast them with the vast differences in their character.

He was always trying to impress and, aware of his undignified inches, walked on tiptoe.

"Undignified inches" - sad, little, Napleon.

I enjoyed this article immensely, too. Napoleon was a master at risk-taking and the understanding of detail. Didn't realize he won his first military post from corruption in Corsica. I buy the part about him being an opportunist - he was. It is fascinating that the EU is seen as the logical outgrowth of the Napoleonic vision. I rather agree with that. And it is England's mission to keep it all in check.

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