In 1813, Marshal Berthier rejoined Napoleon as chief of staff and served throughout the campaign in Germany. The next year as the fighting entered France, he was wounded by a lance blow to the head at Brienne. After Napoleon's abdication, the Bourbons rewarded him as a Peer of France and Commander of Saint Louis.
When Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815 for the Hundred Days, Berthier followed King Louis XVIII into exile, accompanying him to Ghent. Once there he found the king and his advisors distrustful of him, and Napoleon struck him from the list of marshals for leaving France in the company of the king. Unsure of what to do, Berthier traveled to his in-laws' home in Bamberg.
While in Bamberg, on June 1st he was looking out a third floor window, watching the Russian cavalry march through the town, when he fell out the window and to his death. His death was a mystery, with some saying it was an accident of him leaning too far out the window. Others suggested it was a suicide since he was rejected by both the king and Napoleon and now was forced to watch Russian troops march against France again. Still others considered it an assassination, with stories of masked men entering his room and pushing him, intent on not allowing Napoleon's indispensable marshal to rejoin the Emperor. If it was assassins, they may have altered the course of history, as after the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon said, "If Berthier had been there, I would not have met this misfortune."3
The cause of Berthier's death has never been solved. The historian Charles Mullié alleged that six masked men belonging to a secret society of Neuchâtel entered his room and pushed him to his death.4 Colonel Maceroni, a former aide-de-camp to Marshal Murat, recorded in his memoirs that the former Minister of Police Joseph Fouché implied to him that Berthier's death was ordered, but would not say more. Meanwhile, Fouché's successor as Minister of Police, Count Decazes, told Colonel Maceroni that Berthier's death was directly related to the death of an important man in November of 1814 in Paris under mysterious circumstances.5
Notes
- John R. Elting, Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armée, (USA: Da Capo Press, 1997), 129.
- Philip J. Haythornthwaite, Who Was Who in the Napoleonic Wars, (London: Arms & Armour, 1998), 33.
- Elting, Swords Around a Throne, 130.
- C. Mullié, Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer: de 1789 à 1850, (Paris: Poignavant, 1851), I:65.
- François Maceroni, Memoirs of the Life and Adventures of Colonel Maceroni, (London: John Macrone, 1838), II:409-410.
Bibliography
- Chandler, David G. Napoleon's Marshals. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987.
- Haythornthwaite, Philip J. Who Was Who in the Napoleonic Wars. London: Arms & Armour, 1998.
- Six, Georges. Dictionnaire Biographique des Généraux & Amiraux Français de la Révolution et de l'Empire (1792-1814). Paris: Gaston Saffroy, 2003.
External Links:
Louis Sheehan posted but did not write this.
No comments:
Post a Comment