Part 10 (1/2)

The Baron de Marbot was one of the soldiers enn.o.bled by Napoleon I. He left some memoirs which have points of resemblance to those written by the more celebrated Baron Munchausen.

THE FIRST EMPIRE.

The short and troubled reign of the Emperor Napoleon left little lasting impression upon the heraldry of France. It is true he introduced some system, and a few innovations, but at the Restoration his innovations were rescinded, and with the Bourbons in power it need hardly be said that no kind of useful system could long exist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE BARON DE MARBOT.]

For the heraldry of the First Empire a student cannot do better than consult the fine folios ent.i.tled ”Armorial General de l'Empire Francais.

Contenant les Armes de sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi, des Princes de sa famille, des Grands Dignitaires, Princes, Ducs, Comtes, Barons, Chevaliers, et celles des Villes de 1^{ere} 2^{me} et 3^{me} Cla.s.se, avec les planches des Ornemens exterieurs, des Signes interieurs et l'explication des Couleurs et des Figures du Blason, pour faciliter l'Etude de cette Science. Presente a sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi par Henry Simon, Graveur du Cabinet de sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi, et du Conseil du Sceau des t.i.tres. Chez l'Auteur, Palais Royal, No. 29 a Paris. MDCCCXII.” The t.i.tle-page is quoted in full; it is a curiosity in its way, the whole being beautifully engraved on a plate measuring 11 inches by 8 inches; all the other plates are of the same size and many hundreds of armorial bearings are accurately engraved and described. The work is a monument of patience and skill, and serves as a record of many princes, n.o.bles, marshals, and generals, whose names and deeds were, during the Napoleonic period, as familiar as household words, but the majority of whom are now almost forgotten.

Napoleon decreed that order should exist in heraldry, as in every other branch of the State. His favourite artist, David, was called in to a.s.sist in devising new decorations, head-dresses, etc. The curious head-dress, invented by David to replace coronets, is called in French heraldry ”une toque;” this somewhat resembles a flat Tam O'Shanter cap, slightly elevated in front, and, though no longer used, its varieties must be described, as it often occurs on book-plates of the period.

Princes carried a toque of black velvet, with a band around the brim of vair. In front a golden aigrette supported seven ostrich feathers.

Dukes wore the same, simply replacing the band vair by a band ermine.

Counts carried a toque of black velvet, with a band ermine. An aigrette, gold and silver, supported five feathers.

Barons wore the toque with a band counter vair. A silver aigrette supported three feathers.

These were further subdivided and distinguished, so as to show whether the rank was senatorial, military, ecclesiastical, or civil.

Chevaliers carried a black velvet toque with a green band. A silver aigrette with one upright feather.

Further, there were grants of arms for Prefets, Sous-Prefets, and Maires of towns, whilst the towns themselves were divided into cla.s.ses, each cla.s.s having on a chief, or a canton, a distinctive badge.

Thus, cities of the first order, such as Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Brussels, Ghent, Geneva, Hamburg, Lyons, Lille, Liege, Montauban, and Paris, bore three golden bees (the Napoleonic badge) on a chief gules, in addition to the arms of the cities here cited, whose names recall the extent of territory over which at one time Napoleon held sway.

Second cla.s.s towns bore a golden N on a dexter canton azure; and third cla.s.s towns had a sinister canton gules, on which was a silver N.

Quite recently the French Government conferred the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the town of Belfort, and on Rambervillers, a small place in the Vosges Mountains, as a recognition of the gallant resistance they offered to the Germans in 1870 and 1871. Belfort surrendered only under orders from the French Government, the peace armistice having been concluded. Its garrison left with the honours of war, and, although part of Alsace, it was left to France on account of the indomitable courage of Colonel Denfert-Rochereau (a Protestant of Roch.e.l.le), of the garrison, and also of the townspeople, who allowed their houses to be battered to pieces without once speaking of capitulation. The town of Chateaudun was ”decorated” with the Legion of Honour by Gambetta, having signalized itself by its resistance to the invader, followed by reprisals. Two or three other towns were decorated with the National Order of Knighthood by Napoleon I. in 1815 for heroic resistance to the Allies in 1814. Altogether nine towns in France have the Cross of the Legion of Honour on their coats-of-arms.

Another feature in Napoleonic heraldry was the revival of an ancient ordinary, ent.i.tled _champagne_, occupying a third of the s.h.i.+eld in base; it frequently occurs in arms granted under the Empire, but is now obsolete. In fact, on the restoration of Louis XVIII., an ordinance was issued abolis.h.i.+ng all the innovations introduced by Napoleon, some of which deserved a better fate.

One of the most delightful _traits_ in the character of the French people is their readiness to laugh at their own little national failings, their vanity, their volatility, and their political instability.

This power to see and appreciate the humorous side of events was never better shown than in a work ent.i.tled ”_Dictionnaire des Girouettes_ ou nos contemporains peints d'apres eux-memes,” published in Paris, anonymously, but ascribed to the Comte de Proisy d'Eppe.

This little book is at once one of the most comical and one of the saddest ever written, being a kind of biographical dictionary of the political turncoats of the period embraced between the years 1790 and 1815. It contains notices of all the leading Frenchmen of the day, with extracts from their political writings and speeches, more especially those containing allusions, complimentary or the reverse, to the heads of the Government. Now, when we consider that during that quarter of a century France experienced a number of sudden and violent changes in her political const.i.tution, going from the extreme of absolute Monarchy to the utmost licence of Republican liberty, it will easily be recognized that this book contains instances of the most astounding weakness of character and political vacillation ever chronicled.

Starting from 1790, when the Government was Royalist, indeed an absolute Monarchy, in 1792 it became Republican, under the Convention, and later, in 1795, under _le Directoire_.

1799. The Consulate. Napoleon First Consul.

1804. Imperial. Napoleon Emperor.

1814. Royalist again. Restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, Louis XVIII.