Greetings, fellow
history lovers! Jack Caldwell here, author of THE THREE COLONELS – Jane
Austen’s Fighting Men, the epic, romantic sequel to Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, from
Sourcebooks Landmark.
I take the critical event of
the Regency period in English history—the
Hundred Days Crisis—and throw some of literature’s most beloved characters
into that maelstrom. In other words, I send some of Austen’s military figures
to Waterloo. From S&S are Marianne
and Colonel Brandon, Elinor and Edward Ferrars, and John Willoughby. From
P&P are Colonel Fitzwilliam, Anne de
Bourgh, Lady Catherine, Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, the Collinses,
Wickham, Denny, and Caroline Bingley. I have original characters, like Colonel Sir John Buford, and they
interact with historical figures, such as Wellington
and Napoleon.
Please allow me a brief
explanation as to why Waterloo was so critical a moment in history. Since 1792,
most of Europe had been at war against the armies of the French Revolution. The
homicidal fanatics of the Revolution wanted to spread the ideas of liberté, égalité, fraternité—and "Madame Guillotine"—across the
continent and England. The crowned heads of Europe and the Parliamentary
kingdom of Great Britain felt the threat and tried to extinguish Revolutionary
France. Enthused with zeal, the French armies fought well against the might of
various Coalitions and was able to expand France into the Low Countries while
holding off for a time the forces organized against it.
The Republic couldn’t
hold—bad generalship externally and political instability internally brought
the nation to the abyss. Then a heroic figure emerged—General Napoleon Bonaparte, a Corsican-turned-Frenchman, saved the
French Army. He, with others, then conducted a coup in 1799, establishing a
government run by three consuls, and Bonaparte became First Consul. The
brilliant and ruthless general ended the revolutionary wars and, within a few
years, maneuvered to rid himself of his fellow consuls. In 1804, he crowned
himself Emperor of France.
General Bonaparte had won
admiration for his reforms in France and respect for his abilities on the
battlefield, However, Emperor Napoleon I
was something else entirely. Bonaparte was not of any royal house; he was a
commoner. The crowned heads of Europe shook again. A commoner dared make
himself a king? Preposterous! Why, something like that might give ambitious men
all over the continent ideas!
The wars started again, and Napoleon decided
that if he could not live in peace with the rest of Europe, he would conquer
it. He was brilliant. He smashed Austria at Austerlitz. He forced
Prussia to sue for peace. He first allied himself with Spain, and then took it
over. He conquered Poland (or liberated it, depending on your point of view).
Russia seemed powerless to stop him.
The only nation Napoleon could
not defeat was Great Britain. The British continued to defy him, and for a very
good reason—trade.
The most valuable trade was overseas, and
Britain was master of the oceans. It had colonies across the globe and the
greatest navy in the world. For Napoleon to truly control Europe, the Royal
Navy had to be crushed, yet France failed time and time again. Every time the
French attacked the British fleet in force, it was beaten and humiliated. Napoleon was invincible on land, but not at
sea.
Therefore, he tied to
strangle Britain. Napoleon’s Continental System restricted trade. He hoped to
either force the “greedy English” to sue for peace, least they suffer ruin, or
starve the English populace into submission. However, he misjudged the nature
of Englishmen. True, Napoleon had his admirers in Britain, particularly in the
Whig camp of what passed for party politics of the day. But when it came to the
survival of the British Isles the governments of George III and that of his
son, the Regent, were resolute. They knew that for Britain to live, Napoleon
had to be destroyed.
Stymied at sea, Napoleon grew overconfident on
land. In 1812, he invaded Russia, and it was his greatest disaster—500,000 men
marched into Russia in June, but only 20,000 staggered back across the Niemen
in December. This was the turning point in Napoleon’s career. While he won
several desperate battles in 1813 and 1814, the luster of invincibility was
gone; his enemies knew he could be beaten. Unlike the past, his foes wouldn’t
treat with him—they stayed in the field to fight another day. French losses
mounted.
Meanwhile, the
British found their own heroic figure—General
Sir Arthur Wellesley. His brilliant campaigns in the Peninsula (Portugal
and Spain) earned him fame and reward, and he was made 1st Duke of Wellington.
In 1814, Napoleon was forced
to abdicate. The Allies forced him into exile on the Mediterranean island of
Elba, established Louis XVIII as King of France, and began to redraw the
shattered map of Europe at the Congress
of Vienna.
The peace did not last—on
March 1, 1815, Napoleon landed near Frejus in Southern France. In less than a
month, he had returned to Paris and, the Bourbon king having fled, declared
himself emperor again. The Allies formed the Seventh Coalition to stop him once
and for all. The British, Dutch, and Prussians would hold the north—in Belgium—while
the Austrians and Russians mobilized to strike from the east. This was the Hundred Days Crisis.
This could not have happed at
a worse time for Britain. They had lost a great number of men in the Peninsula,
and the rest of their best troops were still on the other side of the Atlantic,
for the War of 1812 with America had
just ended. Those men could not return in time, and Wellington, commander of
all British forces on the continent, had to build of army of reservists and
green troops—his “Infamous Army.”
Napoleon knew he had to
strike fast—the decades of war had nearly emptied France of men. He could not
fight the entire Coalition at once. Always he had divided and conquered, and he
planned to do it again. In his estimation, the troops to the north were the
most vulnerable. He had beaten the Prussians before and was confident he would
rout them again. As for Wellington, he dismissed the British field marshal as a
bad general with bad troops. He would crush them, expecting his victory would
then so frighten the other allies that they would sue for peace. This would
give him time to rebuild the French Army. Then, nothing would stop him.
What happened next? That’s in THE THREE COLONELS!
The impact of the Battle of
Waterloo cannot be overestimated. Great Britain emerged from the wars as the
premiere imperial power on the planet. Pax
Britannica would dominate the world for a hundred years. France was
relegated to second-class stasis (whether they liked it or not). 1815 was also
the last time Britain and France would fight each other. Beginning with the Crimean
War in 1853, the two nations have been allies.
Waterloo is one of those pivotal
moments in time. By happy coincidence, Jane Austen gave us interesting
characters to borrow, through whom we can glimpse history in the making. I hope
I did her justice.
THE THREE COLONELS – Jane Austen’s Fighting Men is available now
from your favorite bookseller.
About the
Author - Jack
Caldwell is an author, amateur historian, professional economic developer,
playwright, and like many Cajuns, a darn good cook. Born and raised in the
Bayou County of Louisiana, Jack and his wife, Barbara, are Hurricane Katrina
victims who now make the upper Midwest their home.
His nickname—The Cajun Cheesehead—came from his devotion to his
two favorite NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. (Every
now and then, Jack has to play the DVD again to make sure the Saints really won
in 2010.)
Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in
love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of
the human condition. Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history.
Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of
what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors' trials and
tribulations.
When not writing or traveling with Barbara, Jack attempts to play golf.
A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.
Jack's blog postings—The Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles—appear
regularly at Austen Authors.
Web site –
Ramblings of a Cajun in Exile – http://webpages.charter.net/jvcla25/
