A blonde, her eyes were blue, her complexion unusually white. She was not very tall, but shapely and with a delightful figure.’ Such was the description of Marie Walewska’s appearance by Napoleon’s butler. The Polish woman was to captivate the ‘god of war’ from their very first meeting. According to many researchers, Marie Walewska was…
He died on 19 October 1813 in the Battle of Leipzig – the decisive Battle of the Nations. The battle decided the fall of the First French Empire, and destroyed many hopes and dreams of reestablishing a sovereign Polish state in Europe. Józef Poniatowski, until the final days of his life, refused even the thought…
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s victorious campaign against Prussia and Russia in 1806-1807 ended with the Treaties of Tilsit, which laid the foundations for the revival of the Polish state as a rump Duchy of Warsaw, ruled by Saxon king Fryderyk August (Frederick August I), grandson of the Polish king August III and a descendant of Jan…
The black legend of the ‘god of war’, who died aged just 51, had even fewer supporters in partitioned Poland than in France. Only in the Polish anthem does his name appear: ‘Bonaparte has given us the example of how we should prevail’. by Wiesław Chełminiak Was it stomach cancer or poison that killed…
