This webpage opened in 98-sep. This timeline of Napoleon's career was written by Patricia Teter. It places links to fiction [F] and non-fiction [N] about the Napoleonic era in the chronological order in which they would have occurred.

To read a greater bibliography of Napoleonic literature,
see Patricia Teter's Gaslight Era Napoleonic Literature

See also the Napoleonic poetry page.

  

Napoleonic Era Literature: Napoleon (1769-1821) b. Ajaccio, Corsica; d. Saint Helena
Revolutionary Period:
DATE	EVENT	STORIES AND PICTURES
1792-1797	War of the First Coalition
1792 April 20	France declares war on Austria, Prussia & Piedmont: Beginning of the War of the First Coalition
1792 Sept. 20	Battle of Valmy (France vs Prussia/Austria) French Victory
1793 Jan. 21	Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette guillotined
1793 Feb. 1	France declares war on England & Holland
1793 Feb. 7	France declares war on Spain
1793 Mar. 22	Roman Empire declares war on France
1793 July 13	Death of Marat
1793	Royalist forces call on Britain's forces at Toulon
1793 Aug.-Dec.	Siege of Toulon (French vs England/Spain) French Victory
1793 Dec. 22	Bonaparte, age 24, promoted to Brigadier General
1795-1799	Rise of Napoleon
1795 Oct. 26	Napoleon named General en chef de l'armée de l'Intérieur; age 26
1796-1797	First Italian Campaign	1796 - 1800 Edwards' "A service of danger" [F]
1796	Napoleon appointed Commander in Chief of the Army in Italy
1796 March 9	Marries Josephine
1796 May 10	Battle of Lodi (French vs Austria) French victory
1796	Takes Control of Lombardia; War at sea with Britain continues
1797 Summer	Napoleon's conquest of Venice
1797 Oct. 17	Peace of Campo Formio (England remains in opposition to France): End of the 1st Coalition and the 1st Italian Campaign
1798-1801	Egyptian and Syrian Campaign: (Davoust; Desaix; Death of Kleber; Lannes; Murat) Malta occupied, Alexandria and the Nile delta occupied	1798-1801 Balzac's "Passion in the desert" [F]
1798 July 21	Battle of the Pyramids (Embabeh) (France vs Mamelukes) French victory
1798 Aug. 1	Naval Battle of Abukir Bay (Battle of the Nile) (French vs. England) English victory; Nelson's fleet destroys the French squadron; Turkey declares war on France
1799-1802	War of the Second Coalition
1799	French soldiers discover the Rosetta Stone
1799 Spring	Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Naples and Sweden form an alliance against France; French armies defeated in Italy; French victories in Switzerland and Holland;
1799 Dec. 12	Napoleon imposes military dictatorship in France
Consular Republic: (1799-1802)
1799-1800	Napoleon reorganizes and prepares for attack on Austria; Allies drop out of anti-French coalition; Napoleon takes troops across Alps at the Great St. Bernard Pass in snow
1800-1802	Second Italian Campaign
1800 June 14	Battle of Marengo (France vs Austria) French victory; gives Po Valley to France
1800 Dec. 24	Attempt to assassinate Napoleon in rue Saint-Nicaise
1801 Feb. 9	Treaty of Lunéville gives France rights to the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees	1801-1817 Conrad's "The duel" [F]
1801	Peace on Continent, however Great Britain still remains at war with France	1800-1801 Hardy's "The melancholy hussar of the German legion [F]
1801 Oct.	Preliminaries of Amiens signed	1801 Oct. Doyle's "Foreign Office romance" [F]
1802 March 27	Peace of Amiens signed between Great Britain and France: End of the 2nd Coalition and of the 2nd Italian Campaign	1802 Thackeray's Major Gahagan Ch. 1 "Truth is strange, stranger than fiction" [F]
1802-1803	Napoleon intends to reestablish French colonies (San Domingo, Louisiana and possibly Egypt); France begins advancing into the Swiss Confederation and Germany	1802 Summer(?) Doyle's "The marriage of Brigadier Gérard" [F]
1803 May	Britain declares war
Grand Empire (1804-1815)
1803-1805	Napoleon prepares for invasion of Great Britain, but French fleet still inferior; Pulls Spain into war against Great Britain	1803-1817 Thackeray's Major Gahagan, Ch. 2 India tour [F]
1804 April 7	Death of Pichegru	1804 April Camp and Court on Pichegru [N] post-1804 Brontë's "Napoleon and the spectre" [F]
1804 May 28	Empire Proclaimed	1804 Hardy's "The tradition of eighteen hundred and four" [F]
1804 Dec. 2	Napoleon crowned Emperor by Pope Pius VII
1804 Dec.	Spain declares war on Great Britain, joining forces with France	Superior officer of the Cuirassiers, 9th Regiment
1805	War of the Third Coalition (Alliance between England, Russia and Austria)	1805 Q's "Captain Dick and Captain Jacka" [F] Conrad's The Rover [F]
1805 Oct. 21	Battle of Trafalgar (France/Spain vs England) English victory; Villeneuve attacks Nelson off Cape Trafalgar, Nelson dies Entire Franco-Spanish fleet destroyed
1805 Nov. 13	Napoleon enters Vienna	Cuirassier of the 2nd Regiment
1805 Dec. 2	Battle of Austerlitz (Battle of the Three Emperors) France vs Austria/Russia; Napoleon's greatest victory
1805 Dec. 26	Treaty of Pressburg: Austria renounces all control in Italy, cedes Veneto and Dalmatia: End of 3rd Coalition; Bourbons dethroned in Kingdom of Naples
1805	Napoleon proclaimed King of Italy; Retakes Venice
1806-1807	War of the Fourth Coalition	Drum major of the Imperial Guard, c. 1806-12
1806	Prussia enters war against France
1806 Oct. 14	Battle of Auerstädt (France vs Prussia) French victory
1806 Oct. 14	Battle of Jena (France vs. Prussia) French victory
1807 Feb. 7-8	Battle of Preussisch-Eylau (France vs Russia) French victory	1807 Feb. Doyle's "How the Brigadier came to the Castle of Gloom" [F]
1807 June 13-14	Battle of Friedland (France vs Russia) French victory
1807 July 7-9	Alexander I tires of war, signs treaty at Tilsit giving Napoleon western Europe: End of 4th Coalition Napoleon forbids all trade with Great Britain: Blockades in place	1807 Sept./Oct. Doyle's "How the Brigadier slew the Brothers of Ajaccio" [F]
1807-1814	Spanish (Peninsular) Campaign: Insurrections in Spain after Napoleon places Joseph Bonaparte on Spanish throne	1807-1814 Q's "Three men of Badajoz" [F] Maxwell's "Storm of Badajoz" [F] Lever's "Patrick's Day in the peninsula" & "Fuentes d'Onoro" [F] Thackeray's "Phil Fogarty" [F]
1809	Iberian peninsula becomes a bridgehead for British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington)	Balzac's "El Verdugo" [F]
1809	War against Austria of 1809
1809 Feb. 19	Zaragoza surrenders
1809 July 5-6	Battle at Wagram (France vs Austria) French victory
1809 July 28	Battle of Talavera (France vs England/Spain) English/Spanish victory (Wellington)
1809 Oct. 14	Treaty of Schönbrunn: End of War against Austria of 1809
1809 Dec. 15	Napoleon announces his intention to divorce Empress Josephine
1809-1810	Napoleon at the zenith of power: Emperor of French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation. His brothers reigned throughout the Empire -- Joseph in Madrid, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia, and his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat in Naples. Alexander I is allied with Napoleon; soon the Hapsburgs give Archduchess Marie-Louis as his wife.	1810-1811 Orczy's The man in grey [F] Hyne's The escape agents [F] Between 1810 July and 1811 March Doyle's "The crime of the Brigadier" [F]
1810 July 1-2	Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (Marshal Ney); French capture Ciudad Rodrigo from Britain	1810 July 1-2 Doyle's "How the Brigadier held the King" [F] 1810 Aug. 10 Doyle's "How the King held the Brigadier" [F]
1811 March 5	Messena's retreat from Santarem
1811 March 20	Napoleon's heir is born
1811 Dec. 25--	Siege of Valencia (France vs. Spain) French victory
Collapse of Empire (1812-1815)
1812	Russian Campaign: Alexander I breaks ties with Napoleon
1812	U.S. declares war on Britain (War of 1812)
1812 July 22	Battle of Salamanca (France vs England/Portugal) English/Portuguese victory
1812 Aug. 16-17	Battle of Smolensk (France vs Russia) French victory
1812 Sept. 7	Battle at Borodino (Battle at the Moskova) (France vs Russia) French victory
1812 Sept. 14	Napoleon enters Moscow
1812 Oct. 19	Napoleon orders retreat; Russian campaign ends in disaster; By December the Grand Army no longer exists
1813	German Campaign	1813 March Doyle's "How the Brigadier played for a kingdom" [F]
1813 May 20-21	Battle of Bautzen (France vs Allies (Russia/Prussia) )** French victory
1813 June 21	Battle of Vitoria (France vs England/Portugal) English/Portugese victory
1813 July-Sept.	Siege of San Sebastian
1813 Oct. 16-19	Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations) (France vs Allies) French army torn to shreds; French armies retreat across the Rhine; French armies retreat in Spain and Italy	1813 Nov. - 1859 E. About's The man with the broken ear [F]
1814 Jan.	French Campaign -- France attacked on all frontiers
1814 March 31	Allies enter Paris	1814 March Doyle's "The medal of Brigadier Gérard" [F]
1814 Apr. 6	Treaty of Fontainebleau: Napoleon abdicates, departs for Elba; Louis XVI's brother, Louis XVIII installed
1814 May 30	1st Peace of Paris
1814 Oct.30-1815 June 9	Congress of Vienna
1815 Jan. 8	British army attacks New Orleans (U.S. victory; End of the War of 1812
1815 Mar. 20	Napoleon returns to Paris and resumes control: The Hundred Days
1815	Belgian Campaign
1815 June 15	Duchess of Richmond's Ball in Brussels on the eve of Waterloo
1815 June 16	Battle of Ligny (France vs Prussia) French victory
1815 June 18	Battle of Waterloo (la Belle Alliance/Mont St. Jean); Napoleon in sight of victory when Prussians, under Gebhard Lebercht von Blücher arrives to reinforce Wellington	1815 June 18 Parry's "Waterloo" [N] Thackeray's "Waterloo" [N] Doyle's The great shadow [F] G. Macaulay Trevelyan's "If Napoleon had won the battle of Waterloo" [N]
1815 June 22	Napoleon abdicates and exiled to Sainte Helena in South Atlantic
1815 Sept. 26	Holy Alliance (Russia, Austria and Prussia)	Hussar Officer of the 2nd Regiment, 1819
1815 Nov. 20	2nd Peace of Paris	After Waterloo Le Fanu's "The room at the Dragon Volant" [F]
1815 Dec. 7	Michel Ney, Duke of Elchingen, Marshal Prince of the Moskowa, executed in Luxembourg
1821 May 5	Death of Napoleon	1820's - 1848 Tolstoy's "Two hussars" [F]
1840	Napoleon's remains entombed at La Museé de l'Armée in Paris	1840 Dec Thackeray's "Second funeral" [N]
		Undated: Marryat's Midshipman easy (c. 1805) [F] Court and Camp texts [N] Doyle's "Duello in France" [F] excerpts from Doyle's Through the magic door [F] Doyle's Uncle Bernac [F] Pushkin's "The shot" (c. 1805 - 1816) [F]

This timeline places links to fiction [F] and non-fiction [N] about the Napoleonic era in the chronological order in which they would have occurred.

	This Napoleonic Wars Ring site is owned by Patricia Teter Want to join the  Napoleonic Wars Ring?
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This page was last updated: 00-feb-11 by Stephen Davies