AUTHOR’S NOTE
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AUTHOR’S NOTEThe background for this story, the internment of British tourists in France and the details of Napoleon and his sister Princess Pauline Borghese’s private life are well documented.
On May 1, 1803, Britain declared war on France. Within days British ships were off Brest and capturing French vessels in the Channel. Napoleon was furious and immediately ordered the arrest of all British travellers on French soil. It is estimated that 10,000 people were interned, some for as long as eleven years.
At the start of the Napoleonic wars, Denmark, Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden tried to maintain neutrality, but soon became involved in the fighting, joining opposite camps. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden entered an alliance with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Russian Empire against Napoleon Bonaparte on December 3rd in 1804, the day after Napoleon’s Coronation. This gave them the use of the Baltic Island of Rügen and the fortress of Stralsund for an Anglo-Russian landing on the Pomeranian mainland. Sweden declared war on Napoleonic France in 1805.
Nelson’s presence in the Mediterranean and his frantic efforts to follow the French Fleet to the West Indies is historically correct, as is the year of his victory at Trafalgar.
Today, the Hôtel de Charost, bought in 1814 by the Duke of Wellington for 500,000 francs, is the British Embassy. It still contains much of the Princess’s lavish furniture, including the State bed.
- Writer
