By Suzannah Hills, The Daily Mail, 6th June 2012
Rare letter written in English by the French emperor Napoleon reveals his struggle to master the language
A rare letter written by the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte while in exile after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo has revealed his struggle to master the English language.
It is one of only three letters written by the emperor in March 1816 while he was held by English captors on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
In broken English, he wrote: “Count Las Case. It is two o’clock after midnight, I have enow sleep, I go then finish the night into to cause with you.”
Keen student: Napoleon, depicted in a portrait painting (left), and the TV programme Clash of the Generals (right), attempted to learn English while in exile following the battle of Waterloo
The emperor is attempting to convey that he has had enough sleep and wishes to chat - but instead muddles the word with the French phrase ‘causer’, which has the same meaning.
The letter has gone on show in Paris and is expected to sell for 80,000 euros when it goes up for sale this weekend{2}.
Napoleon was determined to learn the language of his captors and underwent daily lessons with his aide, Emmanuel, the Comte de las Cases, so he could understand what was being said around him.
The emperor was an enthusiastic student and often wrote to his teacher in English when he couldn’t sleep to practice.
But this letter shows the emperor was a long way off mastering the language - and it is said his spoken English was even worse.
Broken English: In the rare letter, Napoleon reveals his difficulty in mastering the language
The emperor continues: “He shall land above seven day, a ship from Europe that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first January thousand eight hundred sixteen. You shall have for this ocurens a letter from Lady Las Case that shall you learn what himself could carry well if she had conceive the your occurens. But I tire myself and you shall have of the ado at conceive my.”
The auction will take place in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, on Sunday.
Collectable: The rare letter by Napoleon, played here by Vladislav Strzhelchik in the 1969 film War and Peace, is expected to fetch up to £65,000 at auction
JT Comment:
There was also a version of the story in the (UK) Indepdendent newspaper, but after ten minutes of waiting for the page to finish downloading, having said no to all twenty popups advertising things or asking me to respond to surveys, I gave up. If you have superfast broadband and about an hour to spare it’s here:www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/letter-written-by-napoleon-in-english-may-fetch-80000-7818026.html
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