May 22, 2018 • 35 mins
Born in Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity during the French Revolution, crowning himself Emperor of France in 1804. This brilliant, ruthless tactician changed the course of French history. Despite his meteoric rise and bloodied fall, Bonaparte still needed to grab lunch once in a while. That's when the rabbits got him.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
H B jure, friends and neighbors, ridiculous historians, uh, long
time listeners and new listeners alike. Welcome to the show.
(00:31):
My name is Ben, my name is Noel. Oh and
and we want to, of course give a shout out
to our super producer, Casey pegram Only today he has
he has but here in spirit. That is true, Noel,
that is true. Today is our first episode while our
longtime friend is adventuring abroad. It didn't feel right. I
(00:57):
think we're in good hands because we're not alone in
this endeavor. We are joined by one of Casey's longtime friends,
our super producer, Paul Decant. I like to think, you know,
we're we're all friends here. We hang out with Paul. Yeah,
Paul is solid gold hit. Yes indeed, and uh, listeners,
(01:20):
you may recognize him from some other shows we have done,
including stuff they don't want you to know where he
earned the Moniker mission control only. This is the first
time we've personified him with a sound effect, So hopefully
we can we can bring that back. Yeah, hopefully so.
And you know, Paul, I'm really glad you're here for
(01:41):
this one. I think you are going to enjoy this show.
Let's let's lay it out very quickly. Maybe we go
in with a little bit of biography, because today our
episode has a couple of primary character. I'm gonna go
ahead and say, the protagonist for today's show is Napoleon Bonaparte.
(02:06):
Do you think so? Yeah, Yeah, I guess so. I
guess he's the protagonist. Yeah, he's. He's sort of a
he's he's a bit of an antagonist in the big
picture story. But in today's story, he is the one
what gets a thrashing. He's sort of an Elmer fund
character in this one, to be honest, really is. He's
quite quite cartoonish. Indeed, and we are talking of course
(02:28):
about uh that Napoleon. The Napoleon, not Dynamite, but Bonaparte,
who was born in August of seventeen sixty nine, the
fifteen and passed away in May of eighteen twenty one.
I did not know this. He was actually born in
corsica Um and you know which which was actually succeeded
(02:49):
to France. But he grew up in more of an
Italian culture and then moved to mainland France and learned
the French language and went to military academy. Me Rose
quickly in the ranks, and as we know, uh spoiler alert,
became one of the greatest conquerors in military history. And also,
(03:10):
you know, one of the shortest guys in military history
also always had his hand tucked into his his hoodie. Yeah,
We've got a pretty fascinating article from our parent website,
how Stuff Works dot com by Lori L. Dove, who
recognized from a couple of other shows should give her
a sound effect like a like a cooing dove or something.
M you know what, I'm gonna write to her, Yeah,
(03:32):
see what what kind of because hopefully she doesn't hate doves,
that's true. We want to see what kind of what
kind of bird she likes? Okay, fair enough? Uh? She
wrote this article called was Napoleon really short? And at
the time of his death he measured five ft two
inches in French units in modern measurement units as the
(03:54):
equivalent of five feet six and a half inches or
a hundred and you know, it's a below average It's not,
you know, it's it's roughly average for person that time.
It's definitely on the shorter end of the spectrum. But
this played into some propaganda for sure, and people would
(04:14):
say you know, that's where the Napoleon complex comes from.
It's also one of these things where when you think
of a military tough guy, you know, you kind of
want to think of like a hulking, big burly dude,
and the notion of him being a little more um
uh slight is a little bit counterintuitive, right, and it
makes people think perhaps he's a bit banned ham or
(04:35):
you know, cocky for lack of a better phrase. There's
there's a funny thing though, because he did not help
his situation in terms of his perceived height. He surrounded
himself with very tall soldiers. He exaggerated the effect because
when he's around all, like if you were to hang
(04:56):
around uh the Chicago Bulls or something, just hang out
during the day as you do, you would look short
because they're tall giants. So it's a compared to interest.
And he also, regardless of his height, he was notorious
for having a belligerent means spirited personality. He was that
(05:20):
militaristic person you are describing. I mean he he basically
was a dictator. Um. He overthrew the French government, which
was a revolutionary government that was installed after the end
of the French Revolution. That the primary concern was just
kind of big upping revolutionary figures and folks that that
(05:40):
helped overthrow the Bourbons the monarchy. Um, but they're not
such a great um efficient government, a lot of corruption,
a lot of problems. And Napoleon was already off winning
big military victories during this time and basically set up
a coup and knocked those boys right out of the frame. Yes, yeah,
(06:03):
he had at a time a a tenuous script on
power because, as you said, he was pursuing military goals
in Egypt. I believe in Italy he was already traveling abroad.
But today we can look back on Napoleon through any
number of lenses, and we chose to look at a
(06:26):
story that is I would say, well, first off, it's funny. Yeah,
it's ridiculous, apocryphal. Perhaps perhaps it it smacks of um
legend exaggeration, at least I think so too, um, but
it it's it's a lot of fun and it involves
Napoleon being swarmed, dare we say, overtaken by a cute
(06:51):
little money rabbits, a force of rabbits doing what many
armies could not. And as the Internet memes are so
fond of telling us. The thing about Napoleon is that
he attacked, but he also protect I don't know. I'm
gonna send it to you. It's it's don't worry about it.
(07:12):
Can we posted on Ridiculous Historians, Yes we can our
Facebook community. Yes. Check out our Facebook community page Ridiculous Historians.
You'll get to meet your fellow listeners. You can even
see kids pictures of the quister himself, which was a
bit of a coup for us. Indeed, so we we
first need to set the scene for this hilarious misadventure.
(07:38):
You see, Napoleon, being a brilliant military mind, understood the
importance of not just military conflicts, but of larger diplomatic actions,
and he was involved in the negotiations of treaties. One
incredibly important one was the series of Agreements to agreements
(07:59):
known collect of lee as the Trees of Tilsit. Yeah,
he had wiped the floor with Austria, Russia and Prussia,
and basically the Russian Czar Alexander the First just tapped
out and said, look, this is embarrassing. Um, you have
outnumbered us, outgunned us, outmanned us, and outclassed us. He
(08:21):
didn't I'm not quoting I paraphrasing here. Um, but he said,
let's talk Napoleon. Um. And so he, along with the
Prussian King Frederick William UM, got Napoleon to agree to uh, parley, right,
is that the right term? Parley? Yeah? Yeah, they held parley.
They they met in the town of Tilsit in eighteen
(08:46):
oh seven in July, after his victory at Friedland's. Yes,
and that would have been modern day Sovetsk, Russia. Um.
And what happened was, in order to meet on sort
of relatively neutral territory, UM, Napoleon and his crew built
a crudely fashioned rafts that they floated up on the
(09:09):
banks of the River Niemen, where they met the Prussian
and Russian envoys. UM. Well it was actually you know,
the king and this are along with their what do
you call it a coatry? Yeah, and they decided to
negotiate peace. Um. Alexander the First said that this piece
would be just good for the world. Is this what
(09:32):
everyone wants? So what everyone needs? Although it seemed pretty
self serving, right, and there were winners and losers in
these negotiations. And sorry, Alexander the First UM was quoted
in saying that this piece would quote ensure the happiness
and tranquility of the world. It's a bold way of
looking at it, although it seemed a little more self
(09:54):
serving since they more or less had no choice because
Napoleon had taken them to the mattress. Is right, He
Alexander at least needed a way to spin it as
a win for his government and his people. That happens
today with treaties in every situation. Additionally, Napoleon was on
the cusp of establishing hegemony, to absolute control of a region,
(10:19):
total dominance, and that was his primary concern, was spreading
French control across the world. And you know eventually, I
mean he would say French, but he was really thinking
Napoleonic control exactly. He was a dictator, right. So here's
what happened in the treaty. Alexander one accepted the reduction
of Prussia from eighty nine thousand, one twenty square miles
(10:44):
to forty six thousand and thirty two square miles or
one nineteen thousand, two hundred three square kilometers for everybody
outside of Namibia, the United States and mem Mark. Well,
what did King Frederick William have to say about this?
And everything I've read. He sure seemed like he was
second banana to to Alexander the first. Was he even there?
(11:04):
I think he was there, he was just in the room. Yeah.
Here's the thing too, that that barge or raft that
we mentioned that Napoleon and his crew floated up to
the banks with um had these giant white tents built
on top of them where he could kind of have
his UM camp. I guess that was sort of a
mobile floating camp. And on each side of the tent,
(11:24):
where an initial on one side was in for Napoleon,
on the other side was a for Alexander. But the
Prussians were a little bit salty about the fact that
their king didn't get an initial and sort of set
the tone. Didn't then, Yeah, but Alexander one was I
think the operative force on the other side of the negotiations,
so I named the reduction of Prussian land. But that
(11:46):
wasn't all, uh. They also had to create a Duchy
of Warsaw from Napoleon's ally the King of Saxony, past
the Duchy past the Duchy right, and the establishment of
the Kingdom of Westphalia in northern Germany. This solidified his
(12:06):
hegemony because Westphalia was also harshly composed of former Prussian lands,
and Prussia itself was going to be occupied by French
troops until the French government had received one hundred and
twenty million francs and Um, speaking of keeping it in
(12:27):
the family or making it all about Napoleon rather than France.
Westphalia was established largely Um to give his brother Jerome
something to rule over. Jerome was the Jerome, the first
of Westphalia. You might not hear as much about as
you would know Jerome Old Jerome also in the story.
In addition to these publicly acknowledged aspects of the treaties,
(12:52):
there were secret provisions. Oh I don't know about this
many Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were secret provisions. Napoleon agreed
to help Russia liberal right eastern Turkey. Yeah, if Turkey
rejected French mediation in its conflict with Russia. Then secretly
the two the two powers agreed that France would say, Okay,
(13:14):
you don't want me to make peace with you, guys,
I'm going to help Russia eat you eastern half. That
sounds intense. And then Alexander in return promised to join
the Continental system against British trade. If Britain rejected Russian
mediation and its conflict with France. Then I'm glad. I'm
(13:37):
glad you mentioned that because they because these two guys
got along famously, and you and I found a strange
turn that their relationship took, because you see, the public
was aware of these negotiations between Alexander the First and Napoleon,
(13:58):
and the public really took this in ran with it.
They shipped them. Do you guys know about shipping? It's
like like uh fan fick right, where somewhere a fan
or a community of fans wants two characters to be
involved in a specific type of relationship. Yeah, specifically a
(14:18):
bit of a steamy relationship. And here's what we do
know about the relationship between Alexander and Napoleon. Like you said, Ben,
they got along famously. Apparently. Um, they spent a lot
of time together dining during these negotiations that lasted for
several days. Um, they would be hanging out alone together,
uh late into the evening. Um, they were seeing hugging
(14:39):
each other and holding hands. They exchanged handkerchiefs, h and
even a cravats. What is that like a like a
little tie. Yeah, Yeah, it's it's like a kind of
decorative neck like an ascot. Yes, similar, the thing that
Freddie would wear and Scooby doo ah, Yes similar. Similar.
It goes around your debt. So he's the thing. Alexander
UM and Napoleon really dug each other. In fact, there's
(15:01):
a quote from Napoleon from a letter that he wrote
home to his wife Josephine, where he said, if Alexander
had been a woman, I would have made him my mistress. Um.
So this fan fick thing really started to take off,
where you've got all these images of of these two
dudes embracing each other. There's even a few of them
(15:22):
um kissing, and it really took the public's imagination by storm,
right they it did, and this was the letter was
written in eighteen o seven, same year of the negotiations,
and as far as we can tell, the letters seems sincere. Additionally,
Napoleon described Alexander in a quote as especially handsome, like
(15:47):
a hero with all the graces of an amiable Parisian.
This is awesome, it seems, it seems awesome. And one
thing we do know is that Napoleon, at least in
this will they won't they relationship Napoleon was in it
to win it. He genuinely believed this, but other other
(16:09):
experts and historians I think that perhaps this was a
misstep on his part. In a PBS examination of this,
historians note that this was quote Napoleon's biggest mistake. He
thought he actually did charm Alexander. What Napoleon didn't understand
was that Alexander would never stick to their agreement. But
(16:30):
for Napoleon, the Tilson Peace seemed to be his finest
moment for him and his empire. He came back to
Paris in eighteen o seven to a huge celebration, and
as you mentioned earlier, knowll some very strange and specific art.
In a way, this thread or this this thought about
(16:51):
Napoleon's relationship to Alexander continues in the modern day, with
some historians, such as Frank M. Richardson even syculating that
he was what we would consider bisexual. Yeah. I think
that's kind of not given a whole lot of sand
by the Napoleon historian community at large. But there is
(17:11):
a book written by that gentleman called Napoleon the Bisexual Emperor. Yeah,
and uh, we we see this because we love this
idea of these great state powers becoming buddy buddy, and
you know, I hope they at least got along. Even
though it sounds like many historians think Alexander the First
(17:35):
was playing Napoleon, I hope there was a spark that,
oh my god, I'm shipping them right, I'm doing it.
I want I want some actual Napoleon Alexander fan fick
to surface, ween to look into that and see if
any of that exists. But here's the thing. Alexander did
(17:56):
give Napoleon something pretty sweet, aside from you know, giving
up a whole crap ton of his land. Um. He
he had the church, the Russian Orthodox Church withdraw uh
this notion of Napoleon as being the Antichrist. In eighteen
o six there had been a public um proclamation uh
(18:16):
an anathemization of Napoleon as being the Antichrist, And that
largely had to do with I didn't know this, ben Um.
Napoleon in his earlier years, those of those battles we
were talking about in Egypt and Italy, he saw the
plight of the Jewish people and was quite a friend
to them, and UM it took a lot of steps
(18:37):
to essentially um free them from some of the restrictions
placed on them in that society, and that did not
go over well, uh in in certain parts of Europe,
because there was a lot of anti Semitism, Yeah, widespread discrimination,
active pogroms in the ghettos. Yeah yeah, yeah, discrimination terms
(18:57):
of housing, which jobs you could have, where you would live.
And so he got this ranking or he got this
opprobrium heaped on him because he was doing a decent things,
which again I think of him as being kind of
this megalomaniacal dictator dude. Um. And you know, it turns
out he did do some pretty forward thinking stuff. Yeah.
(19:21):
And he wasn't all uh doom and gloom and blood
and treasure. He liked to celebrate, he liked to unwind,
He like to have a good time, especially after he
felt he had earned some time off. He's a work hard,
play hard type of dude. And we finally made it
to the subject today's episode. We have finally made it
to the summer of eighteen o seven. After signing the
(19:43):
Treaties of Tilsa and perhaps having some uh more than
friendly feelings towards his buddy Alexander this are, he decided
to celebrate the signing by going off and having some
rabbit hunting. He said, that's sort of want to do.
I want to relax. I want to shoot some rabbits,
and he pointed at his chief of staff. I'm speculating
(20:07):
a little bit here, but I like to imagine him
pointing to his chief of staff. Oh, you know what,
let's let's have a Casey on the case here. Hey, Casey,
how do you pronounce Alexander Berthier? Oh? Wow, Hey guys,
(20:28):
I don't know how you found me. I've got like
a different simcard, phone number and stuff over here. Um,
not exactly looking to be contacted, but anyway, since you
did manage to get a hold of me, uh, you
pronounced it as such Alexander Deltier. Now, if you'll excuse me,
(20:48):
I'm I'm writing the metro right now, I'm gonna miss
my stop. So, um do your favorite loses number? All right?
I thought you want to get back? Ah man, I'm sorry.
We should have just let let you chill. Sorry, dude,
that's been Casey on the case. We're going to be
(21:11):
in the doghouse for that one. We should probably let
him do his thing. But hopefully he'll still send this
one of those sweet audio postcards we keep teasing, so
as we were speculating, as as I'm daydreaming this moment.
He points at Alexander Birthdier and says, rabbits, get it done.
I'm hunting them. Be very very quiet. Perhaps, Yeah, there
(21:31):
we go, kind of going back to Elmer Fudd idea.
And also for people who want to grasp of Napoleon's
personality at this moment, think about those interviews you've read
about the way Prince the musician would interact with people.
It's like, get me three girafts in a mountain lion
stat Yeah, and and it's not malevolent, it's just I
(21:55):
asked for it, because therefore it will happen. Have you
seen have you seen that bit in the new John
Mulaney stand up where he's talking about Mick Jagger and
he's like, no, ye, give me a coke, and then
the coke just appears in his hand like that funny,
not funny, No, that's that. Yeah, that's probably how Napoleon talked.
He also said, he's also we're pointing vehemently, so yeah,
(22:20):
he gets this guy, his chief of staff, his his
major domo, his number one dude to fetch him some
rabbits and not being one to half ask anything. I
guess this guy reportedly um got quite a lot of
these little creatures, didn't he Ben, Yes, Louis Alexander at
both Ya. That's not like a dozen rabbits, but somewhere
(22:43):
between hundreds and more than a thousand. It's tough to
find a specific number, but we do know the ballpark,
and the ballpark is at least several hundreds of rabbits.
And the reason he did this, this is this is
my thinking. Tell me when you think about this. The
reason he did this is because he was, as he said,
(23:03):
a real go get her. He's chief of staff. The
worst thing that could happen is for him to get,
you know, a dozen rabbits and for Napoleon not to
be able to find any, because they're just gonna let
them loose in the woods. They're not going to hold
them by the neck and have Napoleon, you know, bop
them on the head. There's a pretty fantastic account of
what happened next from the Liverpool Harold from April six
(23:25):
of nineteen o one, and it references one of Napoleon's
general's t ball. Yeah yeah, I'm like in that yeah um.
And he did not apparently think too highly of Berthier.
He harbored a quote hearty contempt um for Berthier, who
he regarded as a toady. I love toady, sort of
a kiss ass yeah kiss, and a carpet knight. I
(23:48):
don't know that one, but I can picture it. I
wonder if it's like paper paper tiger maybe, or maybe
it means someone who is a knight entitle but has
very little knowledge of actual fighting. I'm like in that one,
bad um. So the Marshal, I'm gonna quote from this article.
The Marshal, in the early days of the Empire invited
his master to a rabbit shoot on his estate and
bought a thousand of these animals to furnish sport. But
(24:12):
how can I tell it or be believed? Says Baron
Thibout in his memoir which have just been published. All
those rabbits, which should have tried in vain, even by
scattering themselves to escape the shots which the August Hand
destined for them, suddenly collected first in knots, then in
a body. Instead of having recourse to a useless fight,
they all faced about, and in an instant, the whole
(24:34):
phalanx flung itself upon Napoleon. Can you translate that nineteen
hundreds newspaper speak, ben Sure. The idea was that the
rabbits would scatter from a threat in all directions, that's
what they were expecting, and that they would be pursued
by Napoleon and company and then ultimately either eradicate all
(24:54):
the rabbits were enough to satiate Napoleon's recreational blood lust. However,
what happened instead was that the rabbits, being tame and
farm raised, did not associate humans with predation. They associated
humans with food. So how was the fatal flaw? So
(25:14):
there's a huge mass of rabbits and they are in
a new environment, they see a human being, they assume
that human being can only be there to feed them.
And I found I found a really interesting look at
rabbit aggression. What makes for an aggressive rabbit? And they're
(25:35):
there are two tick marks that speak to this situation.
One is that a change in rabbit's environment or routine
can cause them to display aggression, and they're very routine oriented. Uh.
The second is, of course, if they're hungry or if
(25:55):
they are unaltered, meaning not spade or neutered. And of
course at this time these were unaltered rabbits. Unaltered rabbits
unaltered that is the uh, that is the polite term.
Here's how, you know how I pictured this whole thing
going down like this amazing clip from Monty Python and
the Holy Grail. Rabbit's got a Fisher street a mile wide?
(26:19):
Is a killer? Do you want to cheat? Mate? Manky
Scott's gate. I'm wanting you what's he doing? Ni, he's
got heat shop, he can leap about. Look at the bone.
(27:03):
Oh man, So I really like to picture, uh, this
being at least somewhere in the vein of how things
went down, because these rabbits were just swarming Napoleon and
his men. They were climbing up Napoleon's legs on his coat,
and he had um groups of men who were called beaters,
and they were hitting at the rabbits with like writing crops,
right right, yeah, as you said. No, the rabbits were
(27:26):
all over them, expecting their daily cabbage, which they had
not received at the time, and they followed Napoleon and co.
And eventually Napoleon ran away to his carriage just like
can runaway than the python clip its. It's exactly like that,
because you know, they thought they would be safe in
the carriage, right, it's got doors, but no, Apparently the
(27:47):
rabbits were just like coming at them, trying to like
get into the carriage, come hell or high water. They
were leaping, flinging themselves into the carriage. So they literally
had to drive way escaped this torrent of bunnies. Right,
the bullwhips that were cracking didn't stop the rabbits. Getting
(28:08):
hit with a crop or riding crop didn't stop them,
or sticks from these beaters. And according to his storian
David Chandler, with a finer understanding of Napoleonic strategy the
most of his generals, the rabbit horde divided into two
wings and poured around the flanks of the party heading
for the imperial coach. Then some of the reportedly leaped
(28:31):
into the carriage, and the attack only stopped as the
coach was rolling away. Can you imagine what it was
like to be Birthier at this moment. I bet he
was feeling pretty silly. The luncheon was ruined, that's for sure,
(28:52):
because you know the fatal flaw he talked about he
should have gotten wild rabbits. They would have given Chase properly.
They would have made or a delightful, uh if bloodthirsty
afternoon of you know, organized violence. But instead it was
an absolute ship show. Yeah it was. He had, as
(29:13):
reports at the time we're describing it, he had purchased
rabbits from the hutch rather than the warren, so from
from a farm rather than from wild And for all
his military acumen, for all his international reputation, to these rabbits,
Napoleon was a little more than a reticent purveyor of lettuce.
(29:36):
We just wasn't given up the goods. Yeah, not because
he had none to give up. They weren't there to
feed the bunnies. It wasn't a petting zoo. This was,
you know, a murder party. I should correct the slaying
there that I fell into. It was actually cabbage that
they probably thought he was pervying. Oh yeah, I guess
that was the food of choice for domesticated bunnies. For
(29:57):
the discerning rabbit. Oh man, you could be a cab
but spokesperson. It's the gray papon of It's the equivalent
of great papon for rabbits. You know why right, because
when you cook it, some people just hate the smell.
But the secret is caraway seats. Is that right? Yeah,
to give that a shot has nothing to do with Napoleon.
(30:17):
I think it's fine. But this, this is so fascinating
to us, because you know, the images that we have
of Napoleon is not that of someone who would turn
tail and run. But maybe maybe it's just so surprising
(30:37):
and so unexpected. And there's again so many rabbits that
he ran because of the surrealism of it, you know,
rather than fearing for his life. I'm surely he didn't
fear for his life. It's just really unusual and freakish,
and that is pretty cool. The whole Um Treatise of
Tilsit thing um allied France with Russia. Uh, But like
(31:00):
you mentioned earlier, Um, it was kind of considered to
be a bit of a blunder on Napoleon's part because
it was not particularly likely that Czar Nicholas the First
was going to maintain that peace accord, and and as
we know, everything kind of fell apart, and then Napoleon
had to try to take back Russia in eighteen twelve
(31:21):
in a calamitous invasion where he got his backside handed
to him, and writer Nicholas Karamzine wrote of Napoleon that
he arrived like a tiger, but bolted like a rabbit. Audh.
So now now we can connect the dots, right, ridiculous historians,
(31:43):
We can see what they were alluding to. The Napoleonic
Empire pretty shortly after that collapsed. In time span from
eighteen fourteen to eighteen fifteen, we saw the empire fall
and saw Alexander acquired most of the duchy that we mentioned,
and it went on to survive for years and years
(32:05):
and years under Russian rule as the so called Congress
Kingdom of Poland. That's the nature of the duchy man.
You could you pass it and then you got to
get it passed back eventually. Um. But yeah, like for
all of Napoleon's conquests and military um strategies, he kind
of ended up right back where he started in terms
of dominion, right, And then he actually was ultimately exiled
(32:28):
to the island of Elba. And then if he came
back briefly and ruled for like this thing called the
Hundred Days Campaign and then got kicked out again or
he he died in exile on another island and at
the age of I mean, yeah, not that old, not
that old the guy. The United Kingdom kept him on
the island of Saint Helena, That's the one which was
(32:50):
a little less than two thousand kilometers from the west
coast of Africa. And while he was in exile, he
wrote a book about one of his biggest heroes, Julius Caesar.
And then he eventually passed away, but he did reconcile
with the Catholic Church. Today, people still debate what the
(33:11):
cause of his death was a lot of people think
it would have been stomach cancer because his father passed
away from the same ailment. That's ending it on a
little bit of a downer note. But I like to
think on the positive side that a lot of those
buddies got away and maybe lived happy in full lives. Yeah,
but wouldn't they be like an invasive species. Wouldn't they
(33:32):
have just totally jacked up the ecosystem. Well, rabbits are
naturally occurring part of that ecosystem, but you're right, in
that massive number, with the way their reproduction works, then
if they were not hunted, they would eventually cause population
collapsed by the sure amount of food they consume. Yeah,
because like three thousand rabbits. Okay, let's le's be let's
be conservative, let's call it one thousand rabbits multiplying. You know,
(33:57):
like rabbits could pretty quickly overtake the scene, right, And
you know, it didn't sound to me like they had
much time to get any shots off at these little
guys before they you know, turntail and ducked into their carriage. Yeah. Yeah,
but the paraphrase the old, the old saying, every rabbit
has their day, and that afternoon, maybe as many as
(34:21):
three thousand rabbits had their day in the sun in
a very strange way. Perhaps they were speaking truth to power.
Probably not, but you know, it's nice to think about.
If we write it as a screenplay, clearly we're gonna
go a little watership down and the rabbits can talk,
you know. Yeah, we better get right to work on that.
Ben Um. So we will leave you there, Ridiculous Historians,
(34:42):
thank you so much for joining us for today's episode.
We would like to thank uh guest super producer Paul
Mission Controlled Decands. We'd also like to thank, of course,
uh Casey Pegram and Alexander Williams, who can post our track.
We would like to think our researcher Chris for a haciotis,
as well as Laurie L. Dove for busting the myth
(35:06):
about Napoleon's heights. But most importantly, we would like to
thank you for tuning in and stay tuned for next time,
because we've got something cool coming up, sure do. It's
what they call a tent pole episode. So that's all
for today, folks, bonjeou au revoir boni, whatever you got,
(35:27):
Thank you, easy guys,
H B jure, friends and neighbors, ridiculous historians, uh, long
time listeners and new listeners alike. Welcome to the show.
(00:31):
My name is Ben, my name is Noel. Oh and
and we want to, of course give a shout out
to our super producer, Casey pegram Only today he has
he has but here in spirit. That is true, Noel,
that is true. Today is our first episode while our
longtime friend is adventuring abroad. It didn't feel right. I
(00:57):
think we're in good hands because we're not alone in
this endeavor. We are joined by one of Casey's longtime friends,
our super producer, Paul Decant. I like to think, you know,
we're we're all friends here. We hang out with Paul. Yeah,
Paul is solid gold hit. Yes indeed, and uh, listeners,
(01:20):
you may recognize him from some other shows we have done,
including stuff they don't want you to know where he
earned the Moniker mission control only. This is the first
time we've personified him with a sound effect, So hopefully
we can we can bring that back. Yeah, hopefully so.
And you know, Paul, I'm really glad you're here for
(01:41):
this one. I think you are going to enjoy this show.
Let's let's lay it out very quickly. Maybe we go
in with a little bit of biography, because today our
episode has a couple of primary character. I'm gonna go
ahead and say, the protagonist for today's show is Napoleon Bonaparte.
(02:06):
Do you think so? Yeah, Yeah, I guess so. I
guess he's the protagonist. Yeah, he's. He's sort of a
he's he's a bit of an antagonist in the big
picture story. But in today's story, he is the one
what gets a thrashing. He's sort of an Elmer fund
character in this one, to be honest, really is. He's
quite quite cartoonish. Indeed, and we are talking of course
(02:28):
about uh that Napoleon. The Napoleon, not Dynamite, but Bonaparte,
who was born in August of seventeen sixty nine, the
fifteen and passed away in May of eighteen twenty one.
I did not know this. He was actually born in
corsica Um and you know which which was actually succeeded
(02:49):
to France. But he grew up in more of an
Italian culture and then moved to mainland France and learned
the French language and went to military academy. Me Rose
quickly in the ranks, and as we know, uh spoiler alert,
became one of the greatest conquerors in military history. And also,
(03:10):
you know, one of the shortest guys in military history
also always had his hand tucked into his his hoodie. Yeah,
We've got a pretty fascinating article from our parent website,
how Stuff Works dot com by Lori L. Dove, who
recognized from a couple of other shows should give her
a sound effect like a like a cooing dove or something.
M you know what, I'm gonna write to her, Yeah,
(03:32):
see what what kind of because hopefully she doesn't hate doves,
that's true. We want to see what kind of what
kind of bird she likes? Okay, fair enough? Uh? She
wrote this article called was Napoleon really short? And at
the time of his death he measured five ft two
inches in French units in modern measurement units as the
(03:54):
equivalent of five feet six and a half inches or
a hundred and you know, it's a below average It's not,
you know, it's it's roughly average for person that time.
It's definitely on the shorter end of the spectrum. But
this played into some propaganda for sure, and people would
(04:14):
say you know, that's where the Napoleon complex comes from.
It's also one of these things where when you think
of a military tough guy, you know, you kind of
want to think of like a hulking, big burly dude,
and the notion of him being a little more um
uh slight is a little bit counterintuitive, right, and it
makes people think perhaps he's a bit banned ham or
(04:35):
you know, cocky for lack of a better phrase. There's
there's a funny thing though, because he did not help
his situation in terms of his perceived height. He surrounded
himself with very tall soldiers. He exaggerated the effect because
when he's around all, like if you were to hang
(04:56):
around uh the Chicago Bulls or something, just hang out
during the day as you do, you would look short
because they're tall giants. So it's a compared to interest.
And he also, regardless of his height, he was notorious
for having a belligerent means spirited personality. He was that
(05:20):
militaristic person you are describing. I mean he he basically
was a dictator. Um. He overthrew the French government, which
was a revolutionary government that was installed after the end
of the French Revolution. That the primary concern was just
kind of big upping revolutionary figures and folks that that
(05:40):
helped overthrow the Bourbons the monarchy. Um, but they're not
such a great um efficient government, a lot of corruption,
a lot of problems. And Napoleon was already off winning
big military victories during this time and basically set up
a coup and knocked those boys right out of the frame. Yes, yeah,
(06:03):
he had at a time a a tenuous script on
power because, as you said, he was pursuing military goals
in Egypt. I believe in Italy he was already traveling abroad.
But today we can look back on Napoleon through any
number of lenses, and we chose to look at a
(06:26):
story that is I would say, well, first off, it's funny. Yeah,
it's ridiculous, apocryphal. Perhaps perhaps it it smacks of um
legend exaggeration, at least I think so too, um, but
it it's it's a lot of fun and it involves
Napoleon being swarmed, dare we say, overtaken by a cute
(06:51):
little money rabbits, a force of rabbits doing what many
armies could not. And as the Internet memes are so
fond of telling us. The thing about Napoleon is that
he attacked, but he also protect I don't know. I'm
gonna send it to you. It's it's don't worry about it.
(07:12):
Can we posted on Ridiculous Historians, Yes we can our
Facebook community. Yes. Check out our Facebook community page Ridiculous Historians.
You'll get to meet your fellow listeners. You can even
see kids pictures of the quister himself, which was a
bit of a coup for us. Indeed, so we we
first need to set the scene for this hilarious misadventure.
(07:38):
You see, Napoleon, being a brilliant military mind, understood the
importance of not just military conflicts, but of larger diplomatic actions,
and he was involved in the negotiations of treaties. One
incredibly important one was the series of Agreements to agreements
(07:59):
known collect of lee as the Trees of Tilsit. Yeah,
he had wiped the floor with Austria, Russia and Prussia,
and basically the Russian Czar Alexander the First just tapped
out and said, look, this is embarrassing. Um, you have
outnumbered us, outgunned us, outmanned us, and outclassed us. He
(08:21):
didn't I'm not quoting I paraphrasing here. Um, but he said,
let's talk Napoleon. Um. And so he, along with the
Prussian King Frederick William UM, got Napoleon to agree to uh, parley, right,
is that the right term? Parley? Yeah? Yeah, they held parley.
They they met in the town of Tilsit in eighteen
(08:46):
oh seven in July, after his victory at Friedland's. Yes,
and that would have been modern day Sovetsk, Russia. Um.
And what happened was, in order to meet on sort
of relatively neutral territory, UM, Napoleon and his crew built
a crudely fashioned rafts that they floated up on the
(09:09):
banks of the River Niemen, where they met the Prussian
and Russian envoys. UM. Well it was actually you know,
the king and this are along with their what do
you call it a coatry? Yeah, and they decided to
negotiate peace. Um. Alexander the First said that this piece
would be just good for the world. Is this what
(09:32):
everyone wants? So what everyone needs? Although it seemed pretty
self serving, right, and there were winners and losers in
these negotiations. And sorry, Alexander the First UM was quoted
in saying that this piece would quote ensure the happiness
and tranquility of the world. It's a bold way of
looking at it, although it seemed a little more self
(09:54):
serving since they more or less had no choice because
Napoleon had taken them to the mattress. Is right, He
Alexander at least needed a way to spin it as
a win for his government and his people. That happens
today with treaties in every situation. Additionally, Napoleon was on
the cusp of establishing hegemony, to absolute control of a region,
(10:19):
total dominance, and that was his primary concern, was spreading
French control across the world. And you know eventually, I
mean he would say French, but he was really thinking
Napoleonic control exactly. He was a dictator, right. So here's
what happened in the treaty. Alexander one accepted the reduction
of Prussia from eighty nine thousand, one twenty square miles
(10:44):
to forty six thousand and thirty two square miles or
one nineteen thousand, two hundred three square kilometers for everybody
outside of Namibia, the United States and mem Mark. Well,
what did King Frederick William have to say about this?
And everything I've read. He sure seemed like he was
second banana to to Alexander the first. Was he even there?
(11:04):
I think he was there, he was just in the room. Yeah.
Here's the thing too, that that barge or raft that
we mentioned that Napoleon and his crew floated up to
the banks with um had these giant white tents built
on top of them where he could kind of have
his UM camp. I guess that was sort of a
mobile floating camp. And on each side of the tent,
(11:24):
where an initial on one side was in for Napoleon,
on the other side was a for Alexander. But the
Prussians were a little bit salty about the fact that
their king didn't get an initial and sort of set
the tone. Didn't then, Yeah, but Alexander one was I
think the operative force on the other side of the negotiations,
so I named the reduction of Prussian land. But that
(11:46):
wasn't all, uh. They also had to create a Duchy
of Warsaw from Napoleon's ally the King of Saxony, past
the Duchy past the Duchy right, and the establishment of
the Kingdom of Westphalia in northern Germany. This solidified his
(12:06):
hegemony because Westphalia was also harshly composed of former Prussian lands,
and Prussia itself was going to be occupied by French
troops until the French government had received one hundred and
twenty million francs and Um, speaking of keeping it in
(12:27):
the family or making it all about Napoleon rather than France.
Westphalia was established largely Um to give his brother Jerome
something to rule over. Jerome was the Jerome, the first
of Westphalia. You might not hear as much about as
you would know Jerome Old Jerome also in the story.
In addition to these publicly acknowledged aspects of the treaties,
(12:52):
there were secret provisions. Oh I don't know about this
many Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were secret provisions. Napoleon agreed
to help Russia liberal right eastern Turkey. Yeah, if Turkey
rejected French mediation in its conflict with Russia. Then secretly
the two the two powers agreed that France would say, Okay,
(13:14):
you don't want me to make peace with you, guys,
I'm going to help Russia eat you eastern half. That
sounds intense. And then Alexander in return promised to join
the Continental system against British trade. If Britain rejected Russian
mediation and its conflict with France. Then I'm glad. I'm
(13:37):
glad you mentioned that because they because these two guys
got along famously, and you and I found a strange
turn that their relationship took, because you see, the public
was aware of these negotiations between Alexander the First and Napoleon,
(13:58):
and the public really took this in ran with it.
They shipped them. Do you guys know about shipping? It's
like like uh fan fick right, where somewhere a fan
or a community of fans wants two characters to be
involved in a specific type of relationship. Yeah, specifically a
(14:18):
bit of a steamy relationship. And here's what we do
know about the relationship between Alexander and Napoleon. Like you said, Ben,
they got along famously. Apparently. Um, they spent a lot
of time together dining during these negotiations that lasted for
several days. Um, they would be hanging out alone together,
uh late into the evening. Um, they were seeing hugging
(14:39):
each other and holding hands. They exchanged handkerchiefs, h and
even a cravats. What is that like a like a
little tie. Yeah, Yeah, it's it's like a kind of
decorative neck like an ascot. Yes, similar, the thing that
Freddie would wear and Scooby doo ah, Yes similar. Similar.
It goes around your debt. So he's the thing. Alexander
UM and Napoleon really dug each other. In fact, there's
(15:01):
a quote from Napoleon from a letter that he wrote
home to his wife Josephine, where he said, if Alexander
had been a woman, I would have made him my mistress. Um.
So this fan fick thing really started to take off,
where you've got all these images of of these two
dudes embracing each other. There's even a few of them
(15:22):
um kissing, and it really took the public's imagination by storm,
right they it did, and this was the letter was
written in eighteen o seven, same year of the negotiations,
and as far as we can tell, the letters seems sincere. Additionally,
Napoleon described Alexander in a quote as especially handsome, like
(15:47):
a hero with all the graces of an amiable Parisian.
This is awesome, it seems, it seems awesome. And one
thing we do know is that Napoleon, at least in
this will they won't they relationship Napoleon was in it
to win it. He genuinely believed this, but other other
(16:09):
experts and historians I think that perhaps this was a
misstep on his part. In a PBS examination of this,
historians note that this was quote Napoleon's biggest mistake. He
thought he actually did charm Alexander. What Napoleon didn't understand
was that Alexander would never stick to their agreement. But
(16:30):
for Napoleon, the Tilson Peace seemed to be his finest
moment for him and his empire. He came back to
Paris in eighteen o seven to a huge celebration, and
as you mentioned earlier, knowll some very strange and specific art.
In a way, this thread or this this thought about
(16:51):
Napoleon's relationship to Alexander continues in the modern day, with
some historians, such as Frank M. Richardson even syculating that
he was what we would consider bisexual. Yeah. I think
that's kind of not given a whole lot of sand
by the Napoleon historian community at large. But there is
(17:11):
a book written by that gentleman called Napoleon the Bisexual Emperor. Yeah,
and uh, we we see this because we love this
idea of these great state powers becoming buddy buddy, and
you know, I hope they at least got along. Even
though it sounds like many historians think Alexander the First
(17:35):
was playing Napoleon, I hope there was a spark that,
oh my god, I'm shipping them right, I'm doing it.
I want I want some actual Napoleon Alexander fan fick
to surface, ween to look into that and see if
any of that exists. But here's the thing. Alexander did
(17:56):
give Napoleon something pretty sweet, aside from you know, giving
up a whole crap ton of his land. Um. He
he had the church, the Russian Orthodox Church withdraw uh
this notion of Napoleon as being the Antichrist. In eighteen
o six there had been a public um proclamation uh
(18:16):
an anathemization of Napoleon as being the Antichrist, And that
largely had to do with I didn't know this, ben Um.
Napoleon in his earlier years, those of those battles we
were talking about in Egypt and Italy, he saw the
plight of the Jewish people and was quite a friend
to them, and UM it took a lot of steps
(18:37):
to essentially um free them from some of the restrictions
placed on them in that society, and that did not
go over well, uh in in certain parts of Europe,
because there was a lot of anti Semitism, Yeah, widespread discrimination,
active pogroms in the ghettos. Yeah yeah, yeah, discrimination terms
(18:57):
of housing, which jobs you could have, where you would live.
And so he got this ranking or he got this
opprobrium heaped on him because he was doing a decent things,
which again I think of him as being kind of
this megalomaniacal dictator dude. Um. And you know, it turns
out he did do some pretty forward thinking stuff. Yeah.
(19:21):
And he wasn't all uh doom and gloom and blood
and treasure. He liked to celebrate, he liked to unwind,
He like to have a good time, especially after he
felt he had earned some time off. He's a work hard,
play hard type of dude. And we finally made it
to the subject today's episode. We have finally made it
to the summer of eighteen o seven. After signing the
(19:43):
Treaties of Tilsa and perhaps having some uh more than
friendly feelings towards his buddy Alexander this are, he decided
to celebrate the signing by going off and having some
rabbit hunting. He said, that's sort of want to do.
I want to relax. I want to shoot some rabbits,
and he pointed at his chief of staff. I'm speculating
(20:07):
a little bit here, but I like to imagine him
pointing to his chief of staff. Oh, you know what,
let's let's have a Casey on the case here. Hey, Casey,
how do you pronounce Alexander Berthier? Oh? Wow, Hey guys,
(20:28):
I don't know how you found me. I've got like
a different simcard, phone number and stuff over here. Um,
not exactly looking to be contacted, but anyway, since you
did manage to get a hold of me, uh, you
pronounced it as such Alexander Deltier. Now, if you'll excuse me,
(20:48):
I'm I'm writing the metro right now, I'm gonna miss
my stop. So, um do your favorite loses number? All right?
I thought you want to get back? Ah man, I'm sorry.
We should have just let let you chill. Sorry, dude,
that's been Casey on the case. We're going to be
(21:11):
in the doghouse for that one. We should probably let
him do his thing. But hopefully he'll still send this
one of those sweet audio postcards we keep teasing, so
as we were speculating, as as I'm daydreaming this moment.
He points at Alexander Birthdier and says, rabbits, get it done.
I'm hunting them. Be very very quiet. Perhaps, Yeah, there
(21:31):
we go, kind of going back to Elmer Fudd idea.
And also for people who want to grasp of Napoleon's
personality at this moment, think about those interviews you've read
about the way Prince the musician would interact with people.
It's like, get me three girafts in a mountain lion
stat Yeah, and and it's not malevolent, it's just I
(21:55):
asked for it, because therefore it will happen. Have you
seen have you seen that bit in the new John
Mulaney stand up where he's talking about Mick Jagger and
he's like, no, ye, give me a coke, and then
the coke just appears in his hand like that funny,
not funny, No, that's that. Yeah, that's probably how Napoleon talked.
He also said, he's also we're pointing vehemently, so yeah,
(22:20):
he gets this guy, his chief of staff, his his
major domo, his number one dude to fetch him some
rabbits and not being one to half ask anything. I
guess this guy reportedly um got quite a lot of
these little creatures, didn't he Ben, Yes, Louis Alexander at
both Ya. That's not like a dozen rabbits, but somewhere
(22:43):
between hundreds and more than a thousand. It's tough to
find a specific number, but we do know the ballpark,
and the ballpark is at least several hundreds of rabbits.
And the reason he did this, this is this is
my thinking. Tell me when you think about this. The
reason he did this is because he was, as he said,
(23:03):
a real go get her. He's chief of staff. The
worst thing that could happen is for him to get,
you know, a dozen rabbits and for Napoleon not to
be able to find any, because they're just gonna let
them loose in the woods. They're not going to hold
them by the neck and have Napoleon, you know, bop
them on the head. There's a pretty fantastic account of
what happened next from the Liverpool Harold from April six
(23:25):
of nineteen o one, and it references one of Napoleon's
general's t ball. Yeah yeah, I'm like in that yeah um.
And he did not apparently think too highly of Berthier.
He harbored a quote hearty contempt um for Berthier, who
he regarded as a toady. I love toady, sort of
a kiss ass yeah kiss, and a carpet knight. I
(23:48):
don't know that one, but I can picture it. I
wonder if it's like paper paper tiger maybe, or maybe
it means someone who is a knight entitle but has
very little knowledge of actual fighting. I'm like in that one,
bad um. So the Marshal, I'm gonna quote from this article.
The Marshal, in the early days of the Empire invited
his master to a rabbit shoot on his estate and
bought a thousand of these animals to furnish sport. But
(24:12):
how can I tell it or be believed? Says Baron
Thibout in his memoir which have just been published. All
those rabbits, which should have tried in vain, even by
scattering themselves to escape the shots which the August Hand
destined for them, suddenly collected first in knots, then in
a body. Instead of having recourse to a useless fight,
they all faced about, and in an instant, the whole
(24:34):
phalanx flung itself upon Napoleon. Can you translate that nineteen
hundreds newspaper speak, ben Sure. The idea was that the
rabbits would scatter from a threat in all directions, that's
what they were expecting, and that they would be pursued
by Napoleon and company and then ultimately either eradicate all
(24:54):
the rabbits were enough to satiate Napoleon's recreational blood lust. However,
what happened instead was that the rabbits, being tame and
farm raised, did not associate humans with predation. They associated
humans with food. So how was the fatal flaw? So
(25:14):
there's a huge mass of rabbits and they are in
a new environment, they see a human being, they assume
that human being can only be there to feed them.
And I found I found a really interesting look at
rabbit aggression. What makes for an aggressive rabbit? And they're
(25:35):
there are two tick marks that speak to this situation.
One is that a change in rabbit's environment or routine
can cause them to display aggression, and they're very routine oriented. Uh.
The second is, of course, if they're hungry or if
(25:55):
they are unaltered, meaning not spade or neutered. And of
course at this time these were unaltered rabbits. Unaltered rabbits
unaltered that is the uh, that is the polite term.
Here's how, you know how I pictured this whole thing
going down like this amazing clip from Monty Python and
the Holy Grail. Rabbit's got a Fisher street a mile wide?
(26:19):
Is a killer? Do you want to cheat? Mate? Manky
Scott's gate. I'm wanting you what's he doing? Ni, he's
got heat shop, he can leap about. Look at the bone.
(27:03):
Oh man, So I really like to picture, uh, this
being at least somewhere in the vein of how things
went down, because these rabbits were just swarming Napoleon and
his men. They were climbing up Napoleon's legs on his coat,
and he had um groups of men who were called beaters,
and they were hitting at the rabbits with like writing crops,
right right, yeah, as you said. No, the rabbits were
(27:26):
all over them, expecting their daily cabbage, which they had
not received at the time, and they followed Napoleon and co.
And eventually Napoleon ran away to his carriage just like
can runaway than the python clip its. It's exactly like that,
because you know, they thought they would be safe in
the carriage, right, it's got doors, but no, Apparently the
(27:47):
rabbits were just like coming at them, trying to like
get into the carriage, come hell or high water. They
were leaping, flinging themselves into the carriage. So they literally
had to drive way escaped this torrent of bunnies. Right,
the bullwhips that were cracking didn't stop the rabbits. Getting
(28:08):
hit with a crop or riding crop didn't stop them,
or sticks from these beaters. And according to his storian
David Chandler, with a finer understanding of Napoleonic strategy the
most of his generals, the rabbit horde divided into two
wings and poured around the flanks of the party heading
for the imperial coach. Then some of the reportedly leaped
(28:31):
into the carriage, and the attack only stopped as the
coach was rolling away. Can you imagine what it was
like to be Birthier at this moment. I bet he
was feeling pretty silly. The luncheon was ruined, that's for sure,
(28:52):
because you know the fatal flaw he talked about he
should have gotten wild rabbits. They would have given Chase properly.
They would have made or a delightful, uh if bloodthirsty
afternoon of you know, organized violence. But instead it was
an absolute ship show. Yeah it was. He had, as
(29:13):
reports at the time we're describing it, he had purchased
rabbits from the hutch rather than the warren, so from
from a farm rather than from wild And for all
his military acumen, for all his international reputation, to these rabbits,
Napoleon was a little more than a reticent purveyor of lettuce.
(29:36):
We just wasn't given up the goods. Yeah, not because
he had none to give up. They weren't there to
feed the bunnies. It wasn't a petting zoo. This was,
you know, a murder party. I should correct the slaying
there that I fell into. It was actually cabbage that
they probably thought he was pervying. Oh yeah, I guess
that was the food of choice for domesticated bunnies. For
(29:57):
the discerning rabbit. Oh man, you could be a cab
but spokesperson. It's the gray papon of It's the equivalent
of great papon for rabbits. You know why right, because
when you cook it, some people just hate the smell.
But the secret is caraway seats. Is that right? Yeah,
to give that a shot has nothing to do with Napoleon.
(30:17):
I think it's fine. But this, this is so fascinating
to us, because you know, the images that we have
of Napoleon is not that of someone who would turn
tail and run. But maybe maybe it's just so surprising
(30:37):
and so unexpected. And there's again so many rabbits that
he ran because of the surrealism of it, you know,
rather than fearing for his life. I'm surely he didn't
fear for his life. It's just really unusual and freakish,
and that is pretty cool. The whole Um Treatise of
Tilsit thing um allied France with Russia. Uh, But like
(31:00):
you mentioned earlier, Um, it was kind of considered to
be a bit of a blunder on Napoleon's part because
it was not particularly likely that Czar Nicholas the First
was going to maintain that peace accord, and and as
we know, everything kind of fell apart, and then Napoleon
had to try to take back Russia in eighteen twelve
(31:21):
in a calamitous invasion where he got his backside handed
to him, and writer Nicholas Karamzine wrote of Napoleon that
he arrived like a tiger, but bolted like a rabbit. Audh.
So now now we can connect the dots, right, ridiculous historians,
(31:43):
We can see what they were alluding to. The Napoleonic
Empire pretty shortly after that collapsed. In time span from
eighteen fourteen to eighteen fifteen, we saw the empire fall
and saw Alexander acquired most of the duchy that we mentioned,
and it went on to survive for years and years
(32:05):
and years under Russian rule as the so called Congress
Kingdom of Poland. That's the nature of the duchy man.
You could you pass it and then you got to
get it passed back eventually. Um. But yeah, like for
all of Napoleon's conquests and military um strategies, he kind
of ended up right back where he started in terms
of dominion, right, And then he actually was ultimately exiled
(32:28):
to the island of Elba. And then if he came
back briefly and ruled for like this thing called the
Hundred Days Campaign and then got kicked out again or
he he died in exile on another island and at
the age of I mean, yeah, not that old, not
that old the guy. The United Kingdom kept him on
the island of Saint Helena, That's the one which was
(32:50):
a little less than two thousand kilometers from the west
coast of Africa. And while he was in exile, he
wrote a book about one of his biggest heroes, Julius Caesar.
And then he eventually passed away, but he did reconcile
with the Catholic Church. Today, people still debate what the
(33:11):
cause of his death was a lot of people think
it would have been stomach cancer because his father passed
away from the same ailment. That's ending it on a
little bit of a downer note. But I like to
think on the positive side that a lot of those
buddies got away and maybe lived happy in full lives. Yeah,
but wouldn't they be like an invasive species. Wouldn't they
(33:32):
have just totally jacked up the ecosystem. Well, rabbits are
naturally occurring part of that ecosystem, but you're right, in
that massive number, with the way their reproduction works, then
if they were not hunted, they would eventually cause population
collapsed by the sure amount of food they consume. Yeah,
because like three thousand rabbits. Okay, let's le's be let's
be conservative, let's call it one thousand rabbits multiplying. You know,
(33:57):
like rabbits could pretty quickly overtake the scene, right, And
you know, it didn't sound to me like they had
much time to get any shots off at these little
guys before they you know, turntail and ducked into their carriage. Yeah. Yeah,
but the paraphrase the old, the old saying, every rabbit
has their day, and that afternoon, maybe as many as
(34:21):
three thousand rabbits had their day in the sun in
a very strange way. Perhaps they were speaking truth to power.
Probably not, but you know, it's nice to think about.
If we write it as a screenplay, clearly we're gonna
go a little watership down and the rabbits can talk,
you know. Yeah, we better get right to work on that.
Ben Um. So we will leave you there, Ridiculous Historians,
(34:42):
thank you so much for joining us for today's episode.
We would like to thank uh guest super producer Paul
Mission Controlled Decands. We'd also like to thank, of course,
uh Casey Pegram and Alexander Williams, who can post our track.
We would like to think our researcher Chris for a haciotis,
as well as Laurie L. Dove for busting the myth
(35:06):
about Napoleon's heights. But most importantly, we would like to
thank you for tuning in and stay tuned for next time,
because we've got something cool coming up, sure do. It's
what they call a tent pole episode. So that's all
for today, folks, bonjeou au revoir boni, whatever you got,
(35:27):
Thank you, easy guys,
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.