Napoleon Bonaparte

“God is too late, you have begun, now I will finish it.” Swash-buckling hero or sacrilegious tyrant? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook explore Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, his dream of becoming the n…

Tom and Dominic welcome film critic Muriel Zagha to discuss the home of cinema, France, and its history through ten films, spanning from Vercingétorix to Vichy. Featuring Jean Renoir, Isabelle Adjani…

In the second episode of Tom and Dominic's Trafalgar trilogy, the stakes could not be higher. They discuss: Napoleon's plan to invade Britain (and the possible repercussions if he did); what developme…

Few years in European History saw as much change and turmoil as 1848: across the continent, from Vienna to Paris to Palermo, mass protests took place, catching the old elites by surprise. The politica…

“I would plunge the avenging dagger, up to the hilt, in the breast of the tyrant!” Born in Corsica a year after the island was given to France by the Genoese, Napoleon Bonaparte grew up in a world of…

Within the turmoil of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte stands out to his military superiors, first by defeating the British at Toulon, then by putting down a royalist mob in Paris when outnum…

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble, and I believe truer, to consider him created from animals. A military grave from the 5th century BC…

Few lives from history can have contained as many strange and exciting strands as that of Lord Byron's, whose story reflects the great dramas of the Napoleonic era. A vampiric hero of devilish charism…

By 1809, Lord Byron found himself untethered and debt-ridden. Disenchanted with politics, frustrated by his literary career and haunted by his illicit homosexuality, he abandoned an oppressive England…

It is 1793 and France has declared war on Britain, meaning that the British navy must serve as both sword and shield to Europe. Horatio Nelson is at this time a slim and sickly 34 year old captain who…

In the wake of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, Horatio Nelson, though a much acclaimed public hero for his bravery during the battle, is in the doldrums. Having led a harebrained attack on Ten…

The 1st of August 1798 saw the British fleet sailing towards Alexandria into a land of classical history and mythology, the sun setting like blood over the River Nile and French flags flying over the…

Ludwig Van Beethoven, like his precursor and possible acquaintance Mozart, is one of the most famous figures in Western musical history. With his wild hair and furrowed brow, his was a genius marked n…

With fears that the powerful Danish fleet would join with the French against the British, what great gamble did Horatio Nelson take? After taking the drastic decision to attack the Danish fleet in the…

With Britain at war for more than eight long years, and her people depleted and hungry, how did her government react to the news that Napoleon Bonaparte was planning a full-scale invasion in 1801? Wha…

After two years at sea chasing the combined fleet of France and Spain, what was Nelson’s next step? Upon returning to his beloved Emma, how was the heroic Nelson received? What was the terrifying Napo…