Peace of Amiens

The Peace of Amiens

Mary Jo

Most Regency readers and writers are generally aware of the Peace of Amiens, a 15 month period of peace from March 1802 until May 1803.  It's the marker between the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars and was the only period of general peace in Europe until 1814, when Napoleon abdicated his throne.  (1815 was when he returned from exile, reigned for the Hundred Days, and was responsible for the slaughter of masses of men at Waterloo.)

 

The Treaty of Amiens had a lot of provisions about returning conquered territories and economic issues.  In practice, both Britain and France broke most of the terms of the treaty and got busy re-arming for what everyone rightly assumed would be a renewal of hostilities.  Napoleon was busily rearranging the face of Europe and saying that Britain had no voice in European affairs and their opinions didn't count. 

Britain has always had a certain ambivalence about whether or not the nation is part of Europe, but they did not appreciate being told they had no seat at the table.  So as one does, Britain refused to remove troops from Egypt, Malta, and the Cape Colony. (The picture above left is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, one of grandest sights of the city.)

Britain declared war first in May 1803.  Napoleon was annoyed because he'd apparently intended to declare war in September when he'd be better prepared and the British were not following his timeline.  Just before the peace ended, Napoleon offered the surprised American ambassador in Paris the Louisiana Territory, doubling the size of the United States, for the bargain price of $15 million dollars. France could use the money, and Napoleon wanted to keep the vast territory out of British hands. 

The political events are relevant to the story I'm researching, but the social ones are far more interesting.  Paris had always been the cultural and fashion center of Europe, and Britons had always been inveterate travelers.  Young gentlemen were sent on Grand Tours of the Continent to acquire polish and maybe buy European art and artifacts to ship home.  Grand Tours could visit any of the great cities of the Continent: Rome, Athens, Berlin, Florence, and more, but Paris was always on the itinerary.

There was nowhere near as much traffic in the other direction because once travelers reached London, there wasn't much beyond except Ireland, sea gulls and a long voyage to Boston.  So when the Peace of Amiens began, masses of Britons headed over the Channel. The astronomer William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus, came to Paris to confer with his French colleagues.  Artists like Turner came to study art and fill notebooks with sketches.  And it wasn't only the British who came.  Russians, Germans, and more came to shop till they dropped.  Paris was the place to be! (Picture on left is Westminster Abbey, a grand London sight.)

Martin Lewis, author of the very interesting Napoleon and His British Captives, says that close to a third of the British House of Lords came to Paris during this period: five dukes, three marquesses, thirty-seven earls and countesses, eight viscounts, seventeen barons, and forty-one elder sons and other heirs.

Any visitors who was paying attention realized it was just a matter of time before hostilities resumed, and the smart ones returned home before that happened.  But others didn't recognize the potential dangers and lingered too long.

I got a whole book out of this scenario. In No Longer a Gentleman, the hero, Wyndham, was one of those heirs to an earl. He was a golden haired charmer who never met a problem he couldn't talk his way out of until he was caught in bed with a high official's wife and ended in a private dungeon for the next ten years, which improved his character if not his temper.

But while his situation was my invention, on May 23 Napoleon issued an order detaining every British male between the age of 18 and 60 on the grounds that they could potentially join the militia if they returned to Britain.  The men were first called hostages and later detainees, and in an era when birth certificates were virtually unknown so travelers had no written proof of age, French soldiers felt free to arrest well grown young teenagers and healthy men over 60.   

As one might expect, the detaining order created a great deal of chaos and confusion. A number of Britons were arrested in Calais before they could cross the Channel.  Some men were captured but managed to slip away. A few of the very rich and influential managed to buy their way back home.

I believe that at one point Napoleon claimed that 10,000 Britons were detained, though the real number was probably around a thousand.  But detained they were and would stay.  A man turning 60 was not sent home. Also, in previous military engagements, clergy and medical people were usually exempt from captivity.  This time Napoleon's soldiers seized them all.  The gentlemanly rules of honor that had governed earlier wars were forever dead. (The portrait of Napoleon on the left is by Jacques-Louis David.)

The French city of Verdun was the designated place for them to live, and a British community developed there with all the services a gentleman needed to live comfortably with his family.  Some less wealthy Britons were content to stay in France because the cost of living was lower and they were quite comfortable in Verdun.  Which is fortunate since the detainees were not released to return home until 1814, when Napoleon abdicated the throne of France and the wars were over, except for Waterloo a year in the future. 

The detention of civilians was a footnote to vast changes and damages wrought by the Napoleonic wars, but as I said, their situation was interesting, and one of the events that changed warfare forever.

And writer that I am, I intend to make use of this interlude and the collapse into war!

Mary Jo

Comments

[Anne Gracie]

Mary Jo, I too used the short-lived Peace of Amiens in my second book, Tallie's Knight. My hero and his convenient bride were on their grand tour honeymoon and had just arrived in Italy when Napoleon invaded the Piedmont. My two had to flee via Schleswig-Holstein, now part of Denmark, in order to escape. So many English people did. I was able to use the actual escape route that several historic figures used.
As you say, the time offers some wonderfully intriguing possibilities for a novelist.

[Alice Mathewson]

Very interesting. I have seen the Peace of Amiens referred to in several books but never known the background to it. Generally British schools appear to focus on the Tudors, Reformation and 20th Century when it comes to teaching history. So 19th Century is relatively unknown. I am currently reading a series Russian Eagles by Dinah Dean about officers in the Russian Army 1812-1815 - very educational as well as a pleasure

[Teresa Broderick]

Very interesting post! I love history but Napoleon never really interested me. Learned a lot here. Never knew he detained all those British people. You learn something new everyday!!

[Karin]

That Dinah Dean series is wonderful! I see they are now on Kindle. When I read them I had so much trouble finding the out of print paperbacks. It's so interesting to read about the Napoleonic Wars from a Russian perspective.

[Karin]

Very interesting, I had no idea there was such a large group of Englishmen detained in France. And since they were only keeping the men, what happened to their wives and families? I wonder if they stayed in France or went home without them, having no idea the separation would be for more than a decade!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anne, I really liked that book, and I think it's the only one I've read that used the Schleswig-Holsting route. Great fun!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Alice, admittedly Britain has a LOT of history to cover, but the 19th century is so interesting!!!

Now I'll go look up the Russian Eagles, thank you.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Teresa, Napoleon did a few good things like revising the legal system, but he was SO not a nice guy! But I find the Napoleonic wars and WWII both interesting as the good guys fight evil.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Karin, From what I've read, in most cases the families stayed with them and they lived relatively normal lives. There were many worse fates in wartime.

[Nancy Mayer]

Lord Elgin and his wife were interned because they stopped in France on their way to England from Greece.They sent their servants and children on to England. Lady Elgin gave birth to a child which died so she was allowed to return to England where she and a fellow internee worked for Elgin's return.Lewis's account of the prisoners doesn't mention wives though there were at least 40 of them.
I was surprised at how many military and naval men were interned.

[Annette N]

Thanks so much for this post. I am not a fan of Napoleon. I think he was rather a nasty man. Unless you were in his family and then he found a country for you to rule. It is hard to imagine simply taking people and putting them in prison for such a long time. And for families to be put in limbo too is very sad.
I have learned from this post. And since my ancestors are French, I am so ashamed.
Thanks again.

[Jeanne Behnke]

So interesting. The Sebastian St. Cyr books by C.S. Harris have a lot to do with Napoleon. They start in 1811 I think but the storylines always go back in time - cause & effect. Is there a reason Napoleon is always pictured with his hand in his shirt? If I ever knew, I’ve forgotten!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Nancy, as you say Lewis doesn't mention the families though I've read about them elsewhere. I didn't realize that as substantial number of army and navy officers were interned. (Still researching!) But possibly they were in France doing some private scouting before war resumed, and they had bad timing.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Annette, we all have ancestors we wouldn't have wanted to have a cup of coffee with so it's best not to dwell on them. But Napoleon was definitely one of the power crazed dictators. I've read that some many of the healthiest French men died in his wars that average height of the French declined because the taller guys were killed off. (Can't verify that, but it seems possible.) Napoleon once said, "What are the lives of a million men to me?" He lost whole armies to his ambitions.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Okay, Jeanne, I had to google this. *G*

>>The pose appeared by the 1750s to indicate leadership in a calm and firm manner. The pose is most often associated with Napoleon Bonaparte due to its use in several portraits made by his artist, Jacques-Louis David, amongst them the 1812 painting Napoleon in His Study.<<

That's the painting here. For a longer discussion, go to Wikipedia and search "hand in waistcoat."

The Napoleonic wars offer great material for historical novels. I've followed that time line for two different series up to Waterloo and beyond.

[Lil Marek]

I first learned about the detainees in your book. Among other things, I loved the way he kept fit in prison!

Now I'm thinking Verdun would make a great setting for a book.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Lil, yes, Verdun would make a good setting! Besides the detainees, there was also a particular impregnable castles that was used to imprison captured officers. Lots to work with. Have fun if you choose to tackle it!

As for Grey in No Longer a Gentleman, it was fun to work with a hero who was widely and justly perceived to be a charming lightweight, and watch him find layers of steal that no one, including him, expected.

[Janice J.]

Meriol Trevor wrote a four book series for Fawcett back in the day. I've only run across the second book, The Civil Prisoners, in which characters are detained in Verdun. There's quite a bit about the daily life of the detainees in the city. One of the characters is found to have broken his parole and is sent to the prison at Bitche.

[Karen S. Clift]

Annette, that's something we need to learn more in the US--acknowledge that what our ancestors did wasn't nice, but we are not responsible for it. We're responsible for what happens now. And yeah, I have slave holders in my ancestry--so not nice!

[Karen S. Clift]

I remember my great-grandmother commenting that he was probably scratching his lice! Yeah, cleanliness was a challenge way back then!

[Karen S. Clift]

Mary Jo, like Lil Marek, I didn't know anything about the Peace until I read your book. But I never really studied European history that much.

Someone else commented that British schools only covered certain areas in history; I've complained that every year in school we started all over again with the discovery of America (Columbus' discovery) and ended with the start of WWII. I graduated from high school not knowing if we'd won, but figured we had since I wasn't speaking German! Also, what I know of Korea is more from MASH episodes & resulting curiosity. Thank heavens for what was considered "current events"--I took that class a couple times in HS & college--and watched the news! Otherwise, who knows what I'd think!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Karen, I agree with you--we can't change the past, but we can behave better now.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Karen, I was luckier in my school since the state history and social sciences studied different eras in different grades but I agree that we all need solid educations in history!

[Mary M.]

I'm sorry I'm so late to this post because I do have something to contribute. I once narrated a Project Gutenberg book that's still available:

A RESIDENCE IN FRANCE,
DURING THE YEARS 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795
DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS
FROM AN ENGLISH LADY;
With General And Incidental Remarks
On The French Character And Manners.

Obviously before the Peace of Amiens, but equally fascinating!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Fascinating indeed, Mary! Do you have a link for this?