Bernadotte
Napoleon's Marshal, Sweden's King
by Alan Palmer
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 20 Nov 2015 | Archive Date 27 Nov 2015
Description
A soldier as dashing in appearance as Murat, as brave as Ney, as eagle-eyed as Masséna.
At the time this biography was written, over half of Europe’s reigning monarchs numbered among their ancestors the Gascon Sergeant Bernadotte.
Jean Bernadotte served as King Louis XVI’s Regiment of Marines. In the ranks of nobility, Bernadotte was the most complex personality of all Napoleon’s marshals.
A staunch Jacobin, Bernadotte convinced himself that he should be King of France; though an undoubted hero, he nonetheless narrowly missed some of the famous battles. He was a political intriguer, but he was willing to accept a walk-on part in the major drama of a restless decade. His personal life was equally full of anomalies, not least that strange mutual loyalty which preserved a marriage to Napoleon’s first love, Desirée Clary, through a dozen years of separation.
Bernadotte was in France while Napoleon fought in Italy. From there Palmer writes of his struggles with the Consul, Emperor and generalissimo, of the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, and of Leipzig where, as the elected Crown Prince of Sweden, he fought against his old chief. He then became the King of Sweden under the title Carl XIV Johan.
Alan Palmer’s detailed portrait was the first comprehensive English biography in over half a century, and draws from a great deal of contemporary research by French and Swedish biographers.
Praise for Alan Palmer
‘A fine piece of narrative history, a combination of suspense and scholarship which actually makes you wonder will he make it?’ ANTONIA FRASER’S BOOK OF THE YEAR, Sunday Times
‘Alan Palmer has done justice to [the] epic events with a lively, vivid narrative, written with the appropriate style and panache’ LAWRENCE JAMES, The Times
‘A superb account of the 1812 campaign and its aftermath’ Observer
Alan Palmer was Head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969, when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. He has written some thirty narrative histories, historical reference books or biographies. In 1980 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
At the time this biography was written, over half of Europe’s reigning monarchs numbered among their ancestors the Gascon Sergeant Bernadotte.
Jean Bernadotte served as King Louis XVI’s Regiment of Marines. In the ranks of nobility, Bernadotte was the most complex personality of all Napoleon’s marshals.
A staunch Jacobin, Bernadotte convinced himself that he should be King of France; though an undoubted hero, he nonetheless narrowly missed some of the famous battles. He was a political intriguer, but he was willing to accept a walk-on part in the major drama of a restless decade. His personal life was equally full of anomalies, not least that strange mutual loyalty which preserved a marriage to Napoleon’s first love, Desirée Clary, through a dozen years of separation.
Bernadotte was in France while Napoleon fought in Italy. From there Palmer writes of his struggles with the Consul, Emperor and generalissimo, of the battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, and of Leipzig where, as the elected Crown Prince of Sweden, he fought against his old chief. He then became the King of Sweden under the title Carl XIV Johan.
Alan Palmer’s detailed portrait was the first comprehensive English biography in over half a century, and draws from a great deal of contemporary research by French and Swedish biographers.
Praise for Alan Palmer
‘A fine piece of narrative history, a combination of suspense and scholarship which actually makes you wonder will he make it?’ ANTONIA FRASER’S BOOK OF THE YEAR, Sunday Times
‘Alan Palmer has done justice to [the] epic events with a lively, vivid narrative, written with the appropriate style and panache’ LAWRENCE JAMES, The Times
‘A superb account of the 1812 campaign and its aftermath’ Observer
Alan Palmer was Head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969, when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. He has written some thirty narrative histories, historical reference books or biographies. In 1980 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9780719547034 |
| PRICE | |
