The fall of Napoleon : the final betrayal /

Hamilton-Williams begins his account of an oft-related sequence of events with Napoleon's 1813 campaign but emphasizes the 1814 campaign, first abdication, and exile to Elba, then the Bourbon restoration. He continues with a summary of the return that ended at Waterloo and concludes with Bonaparte's death (arguably an assassination by poison) on St. Helena. He is always sympathetic, indeed almost Bonapartist, toward Napoleon and, considering the documented plots and conspiracies against Napoleon by the British and their allies as well as the Bourbons, does arouse the feeling that the French emperor was sinned against as well as sinning himself. The sections dealing with covert operations make particularly gripping reading, so much so that this book definitely pleases, and the news that Hamilton-Williams' next book will be a history of espionage and terrorism in the Napoleonic era pleases, too. --Roland Green

In this extraordinary revisionist history, a sequel to Waterloo, British historian Hamilton-Williams offers a startling new perspective on Napoleon Bonaparte's rise and fall. Drawing on untapped archival material, he presents evidence that the British government, determined to eliminate Napoleon, established a secret organization, Chevaliers de la Foi (Knights of the Faith), headed by pliable Charles-Philippe, Count of Artois, heir to the Bourbon throne (and later Charles X of France). Aided by his network of fanatical royalists, Charles orchestrated armed insurrection and several abortive attempts to assassinate Napoleon, all with British approval and financing. Hamilton-Williams also unearths details of how Austrian Prince Metternich and British Foreign Secretary Robert Castlereagh, in concert with French Arch-Chancellor Talleyrand, in 1814 clandestinely plotted Napoleon's downfall, using subversion, paid agitators and financial panic to promote the reactionary Bourbon cause in Paris. The aim was to make France a dependent ally. Among those who betrayed Napoleon was his long-time comrade and friend General Charles Tristan, Count of Montholon, who was Charles X's agent and who, by this account, murdered Napoleon by arsenic poisoning on St. Helena in 1821. Illustrated. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This second volume in a trilogy following Waterloo: New Perspectives (LJ 10/1/94) explores the political and diplomatic intrigues carried out by France's enemies-Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia-while at the same time describing the military campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 1815 and the deceit and treachery of those surrounding Napoleon himself. A dedicated Bonapartist, British historian Hamilton-Williams spares no one in exposing the double and triple crosses perpetrated by such leading figures as Castlereagh, Talleyrand, Davout, and Fouché to bring about the restoration of the Bourbon Louis XVIII and the murder of Napoleon. An in-depth account is given of the "White Terror" that swept France in the aftermath of Waterloo, resulting in the execution of many of the emperor's ex-marshals and generals. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A well-researched and original, if somewhat overwrought, history of Napoleon's fall from power, from his return from Moscow to his death in 1821 on the island of St. Helena. Hamilton-Williams (Waterloo: New Perspectives, not reviewed) has delved deeply into the military and diplomatic history of the last three years of Napoleon's reign and into the machinations of Talleyrand, his longtime foreign minister, and Fouch‚, his chief of police, both of whom played critical roles in his fall. The author's thesis is that the fall was brought about not by military failure, even at Waterloo, but by a series of carefully orchestrated betrayals. He argues that but for these Napoleon would have been able to defeat the divided allies in 1814, before his exile to Elba; and indeed the former emperor's popularity in France was such that, landing 11 months later with 1,100 men, it took only 20 days for him to retake France without casualties. Hamilton-Williams undercuts his argument that the allies should have accepted Napoleon's protestations of peace by noting that ""if he, Napoleon, could beat Wellington and Blucher...all that had been lost since 1812 might be regained."" He also neglects the possibility that the Allies, after more than a decade of war, might have viewed Napoleon's overtures with some skepticism. The author's villains are the Bourbons, in particular the heir to the French throne, the comte d'Artois, whose intelligence organization committed a number of assassinations, including poisoning Napoleon himself (for which the evidence is indeed persuasive); and the British government, a ""contemptible clique,"" and its foreign minister, Castlereagh. Hamilton-Williams tells a stirring story, revealing much new material, but his partisanship is such that even Julius Caesar receives a whiff of grapeshot for setting his ""defiling foot"" on French soil. The illustrations, however, are outstanding. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.