Marengo - Softcover

Hamilton, Jill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841153524 ISBN 13: 9781841153520

Publisher: Fourth Estate in America, 2003

Synopsis

With a bullet lodged in his tail and the imperial cipher of a crowned letter "N" burnt on his left flank, a diminutive Arab stallion drew crowds to Pall Mall, London, in 1823. Sightseers came to gaze at the horse advertised as "Bonaparte's personal charger", whose career had spanned the whole of the Napoleonic Wars, who, to the sound of marching songs had trotted, cantered and galloped from the Mediterranean to Paris, Italy, Germany and Austria, and at the age of 19, had walked 3000 miles to Moscow and back. Since then, both dead and alive, this horse with the same sonorous name as Napoleon's great victory, Marengo, has been a star exhibit in Britain. At London's earliest military museum his articulated skeleton was seen by Queen Victoria and displayed as the horse that had carried his master at Austerlitz in 1805, at Jena in 1806, at Wagram in 1809, in the Russian Campaign of 1812, and at Waterloo in 1815. In telling the story of Marengo, Jill Hamilton shows an unexpected side to the Emperor. She explores Napoleon's enormous regard for horses as well as why it was Marengo, and Marengo alone, who became part of the Napoleonic legend - not Jaffa, Ali, Desiree or any of Napoleon's many mounts.

About this title

About the Author

Jill Duchess of Hamilton, former newspaper journalist in both Australia and Fleet Street, she was born and educated in Sydney. She is the co-author of The Flower Chain, The Gardens of William Morris and Scottish Plants for Scottish Gardens. She has just completed a book called Napoleon, the Empress & the Artist. Now divorced she lives in London and spends part of the year on Magnetic Island in the Great Barrier Reef.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate in America
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1841153524
• ISBN 13: 9781841153520
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256