François Houdecek, Chantal de Loth, Emmanuel de Waresquiel (préf.): De l’Empereur au Roi. Correspondance d’Eugène de Roussy 1806-1830 (From the Emperor to the King, the correspondance of Eugène de Roussy)

This publication gathers together 159 previously-unseen personal letters covering the period 1806 to 1830 to trace the career of Eugène de Roussy. A young nobleman from the mountainous Cévennes area in France, de Roussy took part in many of the major campaigns of the First Empire, including Friedland, Wagram and Borodino. Through accounts that put a greater emphasis on military exercises, daily life in the army, and the training of conscripts than on heroic charges, these letters place the reader at the very heart of the Grande Armée. During the Cent-Jours, de Roussy turned his back on Napoleon and rallied to Louis XVIII’s call. Stationed with the royalists forces in the Midi, he was involved in the unrest that broke out in the Gard département during the summer of 1815. Post-Napoleon until 1830, he served at his sovereign’s side as a member of the Royal Guard. During the July Revolution, he accompanied Charles X as the latter fled to Cherbourg: his account of this journey remains poignantly honest.

These letters offer a veritable snapshot of imperial society, one in which the nobility of the Ancien Régime found itself caught between rallying to the cause and playing the waiting game.

The publication features an introductory preface from Emmanuel de Waresquiel, author of numerous books on Napoleonic history, including Les Cent-Jours ou la tentation de l’impossible.

An expert in the military and social history of the First Empire, François Houdecek works at the Fondation Napoléon as project manager for the publication of the General Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Chantal de Loth, a descendent of Eugène de Roussy, is fascinated by the study of private and family archives.

Paris: Editions of the Fondation Napoléon – Nouveau Monde Éditions, June 2012, Series Biographies

To order please visit the website of Nouveau Monde Éditions.