Abstract
In 1814, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed on the French coast at Fréjus. In early March, as he made his way north towards Paris, thousands of local inhabitants demonstrated their support. As he approached the city of Grenoble, 2000 peasants carrying torches lit up his route, and prepared a soft carpet of pine needles to line the road on which he entered the town.1 In spite of Napoleonic taxation, and the burden of conscription throughout twenty years of almost continuous warfare, a section of the rural masses could still welcome back the Emperor in scenes of messianic adulation. The strength of peasant Bonapartism was a historical phenomenon which requires some comment and explanation.
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Notes
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© 1994 Martyn Lyons
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Lyons, M. (1994). The Empire in the Village. In: Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution. European Studies. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23436-3_11
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