by Victoria
As we have hopefully shown you previously, working within a
vast museum collection often brings to light objects which tell us stories we didn’t
know; upsetting, exciting, intriguing or just something different, learning new things
through the discovery of our objects is a wonderful perk of the job.
Every now and then, a particularly interesting object shows
up, and recently we found one that seemed genuinely bizarre. A small bronze
medal featuring the face of Napoleon Bonaparte seemed nothing out of the
ordinary to begin with, but on closer inspection, and I’ll admit it took me a
while to register the strangeness of the inscription; it presented something
which I just had to look into further.
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| One side of our medal, featuring Napoleon as Emperor |
As many of you reading this may know, the Redoubt Fortress
was built at the height of Napoleon’s power between 1804 and 1810, under what
seemed to be the imminent threat of his invasion of Britain. Because of this,
anything which we find in the collection relating to him, or that time, is of
particular interest to us and the context of this fascinating building which we
work in. In December 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor Napoleon I in
Paris by Pope Pius VII – he was the first Frenchman to hold the title in a
thousand years. Napoleon was a fierce military strategist, a confident and
commanding leader who worked his way to the top with real determination.
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| An image depicting Napoleon and his army at Boulogne in 1804 - an army which could have invaded England |
So by 1804 William Pitt the younger, the prime minister of Great Britain at the time, was concerned about the threat of the French, fearing England would be their next target. This led to the great defenses of the south coast; the construction of around 100 Martello towers, the creation of a large military canal and the building of 3 great redoubts, the grandest of which I find myself in now (I’m a little bias I know!). Napoleon is attributed as having said,
“Let us be masters of the Channel for six hours and we are masters of the world.”
Clearly he knew the importance of conquering the English by sea, consequently the British knew the importance of defending our country. |
| A depiction of how the Grand Military Canal which stretched across the South East of England would have looked |
Now, let’s go back to the suspicious medal… because here’s
where it gets weird. You and I know that the French invasion of England in the early
1800’s never happened. Napoleon never led his French troops to the South Coast
and the defensive structures put in place were never really needed. This has led to some speculation about the realness of the threat for England. However, it was definitely on the agenda as large numbers of troops, transport barges and other material needed for the invasion were gathered across the channel. To begin with Napoleon believed that victory over the English was a foregone conclusion. The medal helps us to know this because whilst one face of the medal shows Napoleon's depiction as Emperor, the reverse shows the image of Hercules (representing Napoleon or the French) wrestling and defeating a sea creature of some sort (the British). The writing surrounding it reads; ‘Descente en Angleterre’, ‘Frappe a Londres en 1804’. Roughly, these words translate somewhere along the lines of ‘Invasion of England’, ‘Struck at London 1804’.
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| The flip side of the medal, you can just about see the 'Descente en Angleterre' inscription surrounding the image of Hercules defeating a creature |
So as we can see, Napoleon pre-empted his victory in England
and in a somewhat vain and arrogant fashion prepared ahead of time for what would
be his coronation in London. Naturally, because the invasion never happened,
this medal is fairly rare and details about its existence are a bit blurred and
conflicted. Most information suggests that the dies (the stamps used to create
medals or coins) were struck for Napoleon in preparation and that no mass
production of the medals took place for distribution. The writing ‘Frappe a London en 1804’ could then
actually translate as ‘struck in
London in 1804’ ; referring to the creation of the medals in London after
invasion, as opposed to the idea of it being the French striking England in
battle in 1804. Complicated right?
What is also unknown then is how many of these medals may
have ever existed, and how many still exist. In the museum world there are
definitely still several around in other collections, and if you believe online
sites there are still some being sold out there! But if the stories are true
and minimal amounts were cast then how are there still survivors? Some accounts
suggest that after the dies were found by the English that more were made,
which seems slightly odd but may well be the case, and explain why there are
some existing medals here. One source even claims the dies were found on
Napoleon’s belongings at the Battle of Waterloo some 11 years later and were
taken and used to make some copies. Why you might ask? Were they just mocking
the failed confidence of Bonaparte or was it just out of interest? Sadly, we’ll probably never quite know the
truth of that.
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| This piece by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1806 shows Napoleon crowned Emperor of France |
As you can see, no story is ever straight forward, and I
won’t pretend I know all the answers but it has been an interesting tale to
explore! What we do know is after the failure of the invasion to take place,
the dies for this medal were likely destroyed soon after, and so survivors are uncommon, making us extremely privileged to have one in our collection,
especially when it is so intrinsic to the existence of the Redoubt. Subsequently,
whether the medal we have is a real, original piece or if perhaps it was made
later by the English as a copy the important part is the story it tells us.
These dies existed and Napoleon fully intended on having them created when he
invaded and was victorious in England.
Finally, from a historian’s point of view, another interesting branch
of a discovery like this is that an object which tells so much, found in years
to come or by someone without the knowledge of context surrounding it, could
create a whole other, false telling of history. Imagine a past version of history
where Napoleon did indeed invade England in 1804/1805 and the defenses of the
English navy, our Redoubt and its counterparts failed, leaving Napoleon to
be crowned in London – there would have been a lot more of these medals around!
This story is a fascinating one and another little insight into what
museum objects can do and the power they can have.
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| This image of Romney Marsh c.1815 shows what would have been waiting for Napoleon's army had they invaded. You can see the string of Martello towers along the South coast |
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