• Princess Caraboo of Javasu

    If you are worried that your knowledge of geography is lacking because you don’t know where Javasu is, don’t be concerned.  It’s completely made up.  It is the product of an elaborate fiction of a young woman in 19th century England.  This is the amazing story of a girl who faked her way to royalty and how she almost got away with it. On the evening of April 3, 1817, a strange young woman appeared at the cottage of the local cobbler in the small village of Almondsbury near Bristol.  She indicated to the cobbler’s wife she wanted to sleep there and wandered in uninvited and laid down on the…

  • Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte- From Pauper to King

    This is a story of rags to riches and of an unlikely king.  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was born in France to a lawyer, but through an extraordinary turn of events became king of a country far from his own. Born in Pau, France on February 5, 1818, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was the son of a prosecutor and his wife.  His family wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a lawyer as well, but Jean-Baptiste enlisted in the French Marines in 1780 instead.  When the French Revolution and its aftermath of the Terror happened (for more on the Terror, please see this post http://www.historynaked.com/the-terror/ ), he rose rapidly through the ranks.…

  • Napoleon’s Strangest Battle

    Napoleon was arguably one of the greatest military minds of the his age.  However, he was outwitted by a strange opponent.  No, not Wellington at Waterloo (learn more about that here:  http://www.historynaked.com/battle-waterloo-2nd-abdication-napoleon-bonaparte/ ) nor a beautiful and dedicated queen (read more about Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz here:  http://www.historynaked.com/louise-mecklenburg-strelitz-queen-prussia/ ).  He was attacked and almost vanquished by common rabbits. It was 1807 and Napoleon had just signed the Treaty of Tilsit between France and Russia.  To celebrate this achievement, he wanted to relax and have some fun.  Like most upper class gentlemen of that time, hunting was a popular past time.  According to the memoirs of Paul Thiébault, a general in Napoleon’s…

  • Karl Schulmeister- Napoleon’s Dog

    Karl Schulmeister is shrouded in mystery like most spies. He claimed he was descended from Hungarian nobility, but he was born a clergyman’s son in Alsace. He doesn’t really arrive in the historical record until he began as an agent in the service of Austria. He was a smuggler, and apparently a good one and had all kinds of contacts on the French side of the lines. It was 1804 and war was brewing between France and Austria. One of his contacts, General Anne-Jean-Marie-Rene Savary, was aide-de-camp to Napoleon and recruited him to work for Napoleon. A spy was born. Schulmeister excelled as a spy and in 1805 was presented…

  • Battle of Waterloo and 2nd Abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte

    Two men faced each other across a field in Belgium. One with the desire to rule the world, the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The other, the man who would stop him once and for all, Arthur Wellesley, the newly created Duke of Wellington. The place was Waterloo, and the day would mark the final end to the ambitious but crumbling plans of the once-exiled Emperor of France. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica in August 1769 a year after the island was transferred to French rule. His parents were descended from Italian nobles, and as a result of his family’s wealth, Bonaparte was to briefly attend school in Autun, in…