Napoleon's Hundred Days

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2024

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrived with fewer than a thousand men, yet three weeks later he had displaced Louis XVIII and taken charge of an army as large as any that the Allied Powers could muster individually. He saw that his best chance was to pick the Allies off one by one, starting with the Prussian and then the British/Allied armies in what is now Belgium. He appeared to be on the point of victory at Waterloo yet somehow it eluded him, and his plans were soon in tatters. His escape to America thwarted, he surrendered on 15th July and was exiled again but this time to Saint Helena. There he wrote his memoirs to help shape his legacy, while back in Europe there were still fears of his return.

With

Michael Rowe Reader in European History at Kings College London

Katherine Astbury Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick

And

Zack White Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth

Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production.

Reading list:

Katherine Astbury and Mark Philp (ed.), Napoleon's Hundred Days and the Politics of Legitimacy (Palgrave, 2018)

Jeremy Black, The Battle of Waterloo: A New History (Icon Books, 2010)

Michael Broers, Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire: 1811-1821 (Pegasus Books, 2022)

Philip Dwyer, Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in power 1799-1815 (Bloomsbury, 2014)

Charles J. Esdaile, Napoleon, France and Waterloo: The Eagle Rejected (Pen & Sword Military, 2016)

Gareth Glover, Waterloo: Myth and Reality (Pen & Sword Military, 2014)

Sudhir Hazareesingh, The Legend of Napoleon (Granta, 2014)

John Hussey, Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815, Volume 1, From Elba to Ligny and Quatre Bras (Greenhill Books, 2017)

Andrew Roberts, Napoleon the Great (Penguin Books, 2015)

Brian Vick, The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon (Harvard University Press, 2014)

Zack White (ed.), The Sword and the Spirit: Proceedings of the first ‘War & Peace in the Age of Napoleon’ Conference (Helion and Company, 2021)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to introduce myself. My name's
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0:40.2	This is in our time from BBC Radio 4 and this is one of more than a thousand episodes you can find on BBC sounds and on our website.
0:49.0	If you scroll down the page for this edition, you can find a reading list to go with it. I hope you enjoy the program.
0:55.8	Hello on the 26th of February 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on Elba
1:02.1	arriving in France with fewer than a thousand men.
1:05.0	Three weeks later he was in Paris and a raised army of about 200,000 men as large as any
1:12.0	that the Allied powers could muster individually and his best
1:15.2	chance was to pick them off one by one. Somehow victory escaped him at Waterloo and
1:20.7	his escape to America was thwarted too. He surrendered on the 15th of July
1:25.4	and so was exiled again but on St Helina where he wrote his memoirs to help shape
1:30.8	his legacy. With media to discuss Napoleon's hundred days are Catherine Astrabury,
1:35.0	Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick,
	...

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