Hunting – the Royal activity par excellence – was more than a simple pastime. For generations of French Kings, the hunt was an accessory of power, a means of representation and for controlling ones courtiers. The Royal hunt fell out of practice during French Revolution, but was brought back into fashion by Napoleon. Indeed the Emperor’s hunting team was kept on after the Restoration, until 1830: But the July Revolution banished the figure of the King-hunter who personified the unpopularity of Charles X and his son. This continuity – human, financial, but also political and symbolic – is found in various aspects of hunt organisation analysed in this new book, focusing on the role of the “Grand Veneur”, the officer in charge of the Imperial and Royal hunts. Drawing on various sources, of which many are previously unexplored – archives, memoirs, diaries, or even paintings and art objects – this study addresses from an original angle the evolution of politics and society during the First Empire and the Restoration.

This book was published with the support of the Research Center of Versailles, the François Sommer Foundation and the Fondation Napoléon. It is the result of a doctoral thesis for which the author received a Fondation Napoléon Research Grant. Charles-Éloi Vial is currently curator at the Department of Manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

May 2016