After the International Napoleonic Society conference that’s being held in Corsica in July, I intend on spending a few days in Paris (July 12 - 15). If anyone out there has recommendations on affordable accommodation, please let me know. 
Okay, I’ve worked out why the video is coming down in the audio feed. If that happened to you, and you didn’t want the video, my apologies. Here’s how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The reason it happened (I think) is that the iTunes feed on the main Napoleon page points to our meta-feed. It will suck down EVERYTHING.
If you want only the audio versions of the show, unsubscribe from the show in iTunes and use THIS AUDIO ONLY FEED.
If you want only the video, get THIS VIDEO ONLY FEED.
If you want it all, GET THE BIG DADDY FEED.
Welcome to a very special edition of the Napoleon podcast - now with added video! (NOTE: I will be putting up an embedded version of the video shortly as well.)
When David and I were recording the latest episode of the show yesterday I sprung on him the idea of capturing the video of our skype chat and putting that up as an added version of the show. My smiling mug is missing from this video (I forgot to check “capture picture-in-picture”) but that just means David takes up more of the screen.
We’ll take your feedback about whether or not seeing our faces has any value to you. If you would like to see more video, I’ll create a separate RSS feed for the video versions so you can just subscribe to them and have iTunes suck them down for you and throw them on your iPod.
IPOD VIDEO:
This version of the video is for downloading and placing on your iPod Touch or iPhone. It’s around 500Mb.
Download the iPod version of the podcast.
In this episode David explains the Machiavellian machinations of Joseph Fouche in the days after Waterloo; how Napoleon was trying to manage the destiny of the Empire from his bath; and the events leading up to Napoleon’s final abdication from the throne and then declaring a regency in the name of his son, Napoleon II.
AUDIO ONLY:
This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!
WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST
Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!
Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.
We have partnered with a London-based company called Pods in Print to provide written transcriptions of the Napoleon 101 podcast starting at this stage from episode #21. Access to the transcripts requires a subscription. It’s US$12.95 for one month or $120 a year. Check them out here.
You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.
Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:
The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes! The music at the end of today’s show is Marche de la Garde à Waterloo. You can find it, along with many other Napoleonic tunes, on this site. Thanks to Ben for the link!
First of all, let me wish you all a happy 2008 from David and myself.
Second, please allow me to apologize - both for the delay in this episode of our little show as well as the audio problems with it. As I explain in the introduction to the show, there was a major technical snafu with the recording (apparently a result of a Skype upgrade not playing nice with my recording software) which left David’s voice sounding like Darth Vader after a couple of Ambien. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to clean it up as best as I can. It’s still not perfect but hopefully won’t hurt your ears too much. I think for future shows I’ll record on the Macbook - we might even do a VIDEO episode (if, of course, any of you would be interested in watching our handsome mugs while we talk).
Now… on with the show notes.
After the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon had to make a series of strategic decisions. Can he save Paris? Can he still raise an army? Is all, finally, lost? In this episode, David takes us through some of Napoleon’s thinking and actions in the days immediately following his last appearance on the battlefields of Europe.
(Photo by shandara. Check out more Napoleonic photos at the Vive l’Empereur! Flickr group)
This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!
WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST
Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!
Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.
We have partnered with a London-based company called Pods in Print to provide written transcriptions of the Napoleon 101 podcast starting at this stage from episode #21. Access to the transcripts requires a subscription. It’s US$12.95 for one month or $120 a year. Check them out here.
You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.
Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:
The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes! The music at the end of today’s show is Marche de la Garde à Waterloo. You can find it, along with many other Napoleonic tunes, on this site. Thanks to Ben for the link!
A few weeks ago I took my kids for a drive out to Benalla in country Victoria to visit a few Ned Kelly memorial sites (Ned is a very famous Australian folk hero).
To my surprise, at the Benalla and District Historical Society, I discovered this display. It is, apparently, one of the drums used by the Dutch forces at Waterloo and was handed down to a local family.
One of my sisters gave me this gift for Christmas: “Campfires of Napoleon”, by Henry Clay Watson and published 1854 by Porter Coates in Philadelphia. Watson, a journalist and editor by profession, wrote the book when he was only 23.
It’s a very pro-Napoleon book written, I suspect, for high school kids a mere 33 years after Napoleon’s death. Each chapter covers one of his battles and is called “Campfires” because it imagines the stories being told around the bivouacs after the battle. As it is out of copyright, I’m tempted to read each chapter on a podcast designed for kids.
You can read the entire text online thanks to Google Books.
Dec 26 is Mr Markham’s birthday so please send him your birthday wishes. Rather than buy him a present, why not buy someone else a copy of one of his books as a gift? I’m sure he’d appreciate that.
When I originally had the idea to start a podcast about Napoleon, I thought about doing it myself but knew that my knowledge was sorely inadequate. When I started looking for a co-host, I had no idea I would ever be so lucky as to find someone like David willing to do the show. I thought I should share with you how that came about.
On my other podcast, G’Day World, I had earlier interviewed New York-based author Staton Rabin about her book “Betsy and the Emperor” (listen to the interview). When I finally was toying with the idea of the Napoleon show, I thought I’d try to get an author involved in each episode. I sent Staton an email asking if she would be interested in doing an episode on St Helena. She said she didn’t really consider herself an expert on the subject either, but knew a few historians and would be happy to introduce me. Her introductions didn’t need to go further than David. She introduced us via email and he said yes and I was very excited.
In all honesty, when we started the show, I never thought it would find much of an audience, I mean, who wants to listen to a show about a guy who has been dead for 200 years?? I just thought it would be awesome to have an excuse to talk to David once a month about one of my favourite subjects. And here we are, almost two years and 34 episodes later, getting close to wrapping up this series but planning lots of other projects together.
I am very fortunate to consider him a colleague and a friend and so, on behalf of myself, my family (David has had light saber duels with my kids via webcam), and you, his 30,000 closest friends, I’d like to say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIRE!
The Battle of Waterloo, along with the Battle of Wavre, was fought on 18 June 1815, and was Napoleon Bonaparte’s last battle. His defeat put a final end to his rule as Emperor of the French. It is probably one of the most famous battles in history. It has been the subject of much debate for nearly 200 years and we’ll probably still be debating it 200 years hence. We could have spaced this episode out over several more episodes but this show is about providing an introduction to Napoleon, we’re not trying to deliver the definitive commentary on his life, so we’ve covered the battle, as best we can, in a little over 90 minutes. What were the reasons for Napoleon’s defeat? Was it superior strategy on behalf of the Allies? Inferior strategy on behalf of Napoleon? Treachery? Incompetence? Illness? Bad luck? A combination of all of these?
This show is based on David’s book “Napoleon For Dummies”. Click on the image below to purchase a copy!
WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PODCAST
Buy something from our selection of official Napoleon 101 podcast shirts and coffee mugs!
Go into iTunes and vote for the show and leave a comment about how much you enjoy it. CLICK HERE to open up our page in the iTunes store.
We have partnered with a London-based company called Pods in Print to provide written transcriptions of the Napoleon 101 podcast starting at this stage from episode #21. Access to the transcripts requires a subscription. It’s US$12.95 for one month or $120 a year. Check them out here.
You can join our Facebook discussion group by clicking this link –> Napoleon 101 Facebook Group.
Thanks to everyone for your continued support and for all of the terrific comments we get every week!
If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you don’t miss future episodes by subscribing to our feed:
The theme music is La Marseillaise. Yes, we know it isn’t necessarily relevant to Napoleon but it’s hard to beat when it comes to French themes! The music at the end of today’s show is Marche de la Garde à Waterloo. You can find it, along with many other Napoleonic tunes, on this site. Thanks to Ben for the link!
A single manuscript page from a love story written by Napoleon Bonaparte sold for €23,000 (£17,000) at Osenat auction house in France yesterday.
It was the first page of the final draft of Napoleon’s 1795 short novel Clisson and Eugenie, only 22 pages in its original handwritten form. The story, loosely based on the author’s brief romance with the sister of his brother’s wife, Desiree Clary, was not published in Napoleon’s lifetime. (link)
