Grand Prix of the Fondation Napoléon 2024

Florence DE BAUDUS, Servir l’Empereur ou trahir la France ?[To serve the Emperor or betray France?], Éditions Passés/Composés

Before the French Revolution, loyalty to the king had always seemed to be ingrained in people’s hearts. But on 21 September 1792, the monarchy was overthrown. Whom and in what could we trust? The chaos, which saw men and assemblies come and go at lightning speed, confused many French people. It was not until Napoléon Bonaparte came along that some order would emerge that would inspire commitment and enthusiasm. Starting from this premise, Florence de Baudus paints the portraits of the men and women who decided to give their loyalty to France to the France they wanted to give to General Bonaparte: Gaspard Monge, Mme de Staël, Louis de Fontanes, Pius VII, Letizia Bonaparte, Armand de Caulaincourt, Pierre Fontaine and Élie de Baudus. Their loyalty was put to the test throughout the Empire. How did they react? They were all tied to Napoleon Bonaparte in different ways. His extraordinary power of seduction, his ambition for France and his talent for governing it were such that it was painful to admit that he could be wrong, that he could even, perhaps, be a disservice to the interests of the nation… Should they betray him or trust him, even if it meant being swept away in his fall?

The essayist, writer, novelist and historian, Florence de Baudus is the author of several books, including Caroline Bonaparte: Sœur d’empereur, reine de Naples (Perrin, 2014), Pauline Bonaparte, princesse Borghèse (Perrin, 2018), Napoléon face aux souveraines de son temps (Perrin, 2021) et son récent ouvrage Servir l’empereur ou trahir la France (Passés/Composés, 2024).

Fondation Napoléon Jury Prize 2024

Éric LEDRU, For his life’s work

Historian, publisher and journalist Éric Ledru has been a key figure in research into the history of the Napoleonic period for several decades. He has contributed to the Dictionnaire Napoléon and the Dictionnaire du Second Empire (both published by Fayard) and published numerous works on Napoleon, including Napoléon, le conquérant prophétique (1995), Le grand livre de Napoléon (2001) and Napoléon: La révolution impériale (2007). He was editorial director (1991-2000, then 2005) of the Chronique d’Histoire Maritime, founded in 1979 (CFHM-UNESCO). He is publisher (1992) and editor-in-chief (1996) of the Revue de l’Institut Napoléon, of which he is a director (founded in 1938 and awarded a prize by the Académie française); member of the editorial committee of the journal Jubilate; founder and editor-in-chief of La Phalère, revue européenne d’histoire des ordres et décorations [a European review of the history of orders and decorations] (2000); editorial delegate of the Bulletin de l’Académie du Second Empire (2009-2014); director of the Amis de Napoléon III – Société historique du Second Empire (2014); co-editor of the Revue française d’histoire économique. Founder of the Kronos collection at L’harmattan (1990), he is co-founder and co-director of the Institut Napoléon collection (2001) and director of Éditions SPM (2006).

Éric Ledru is the author of a thesis on maritime history for the diploma of the École Pratique des Hautes Études under the supervision of Professor Jean Tulard and holds a DEA in history (Paris IV-Sorbonne/EPHE). He is Director of the Centre de recherches d’histoire des ordres et décorations (1996) (head office: EPHE IVe section), a member of the Scientific Council of the Centre des Hautes Études franco-allemandes pour l’Europe (2016) and a permanent delegate of the Centre de coopération franco-germano-chinois (2021).