Welcome
to the first newsletter of 2016.
It’s been a bit of a soggy season so far, as well as ice and
hail and flooding, with the exception of the glorious weekend at Hole park.
Never let it be said the regiment are fair weather reenactors, the siege of
Whittington castle will live long in many people’s memories but such ordeals
are something to look back on and laugh at. If pneumonia doesn’t get you.
First off a special mention must go to our esteemed Officer, Capitaine
Miles, whom was awarded with a sword of honour at Hole park for services to the
regiment, given to him by the Emperor himself. Congratulations!
As I write the country is still reeling from the Brexit
news, no politics here except to say we will all have to see how this effects
international events in future both in terms of prices and border hopping, and
of course those lovely EU firearms passports most of us have.
Which brings me on to our last event of the year, Jena,
still some months away but time flies and so be sure to let Laura Short know
if you want in on the coach trip before it is too late and see the 45eme
facebook page for some suggestions on getting a bicorne for the occasion if you
don’t already have one.
Vive L’Empereur!
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Baron Lejeune, a man of many talents!
Many men won themselves a reputation and status in the
service of Napoleon and one of them was Louis-Francois Lejeune, not only for
his feats on the battlefield but also behind the easel for Lejeune became a
celebrated artist as well as a General.
His artistic career began as a student in the studio
of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (an artist mainly known for his landscape works
which may have been an influence on Lejeune’s work) but he quit the studio to
join a revolutionary battalion comprised largely of painters, writers and other
artists and first saw action at the battle of Valmy.
After a transfer to the artillery he was enrolled to
become an officer of engineers and then as an aide-de-camp to Berthier in 1800
which thus also placed him in a position to be noticed by Bonaparte himself and
his promotions were steady from then on.
Taken prisoner in Spain and almost executed he was
transported to England but later escaped in time to be in the Russian campaign
where he developed frostbite and was charged with desertion, however he appears
to have soon been reconciled and was in command of a brigade in 1813 until
seriously wounded by a shell which ended his active military career.
His artwork was often panoramic battle scenes some of
his most celebrated being ‘‘The battle of the pyramids’ (above) ‘Borodino’ and
‘The assault on the monastery of Saint Engracia’ the latter occurred during the
siege of Zaragoza and shows Lejeune himself sprawled on some rubble with a
bandaged head during the fighting!
There is little propaganda in any of the his paintings
beyond the French perspective, the natural result of many of his works being
based on sketches he took whilst on the battlefield where he always had his
materials close to hand, even portraying the Spanish fighting in the streets
and ruins as at least as courageous fighters as their French opponents, indeed
to the modern viewer it is often thought to celebrate the Spanish
resistance.
He was also instrumental in introducing Lithography to
France from Germany after he presented Napoleon with a hundred copies of a
sketch of a Cossack he had drawn only that morning, when it came to
illustrations this was like a regency era photocopier.
There is a great deal of detail in Lejeune’s work ‘Not
depending as so many did on my artwork for my daily bread, I was never afraid
of giving too much time to detail.’ This is heavily born out in his piece on
the capitulation of Ulm where the unfortunate General Mack is seen meeting a
triumphant Napoleon and his encourage with a vast panorama of the respective
armies in the background, including hundreds of Austrian prisoners in a winding
column.
In later life he became the director of an art school
and mayor of Toulouse before passing away at the age of 73.
For those wishing to know more Lejeune’s own accounts ‘Memoires
of Baron Lejeune: Aide-de-camp to Marshals Berthier, Davout and Oudinot’ also
paint a colourful picture of his service during the wars.
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Ligny!
Nearly a year had passed since most of the 45eme had marched
in a foreign field, the tumultuous days of Waterloo 200, how would that effect
Ligny this year after last years giant commemoration?
The first of us to arrive found a largely empty field
opposite the General Gerard centre, which houses the Ligny museum, it had been
raining a lot and no vehicles could go up the slope into the field but a party
of local volunteers were on hand to Sherpa tents and baggage about, this set
the tone for the weekend, very well organised and very welcoming.
A few of us took a stroll into town and found a bar with a
painting of Napoleon that we toasted, several times, one with a round on the
house.
Some of our generous rations.
The wet weather was holding off but sadly a number of units
and individuals had not been able to make it due to flooding in many parts,
there seemed a particular shortage of Prussian line infantry, indeed I think
Brunswick jagers made up the majority of the allied forces. My hope to see some
blocks of blue coats faded somewhat, in would have been a pleasant change to
always facing the British.
Instead we mingled with lots of genuine French, the Imperial
guard was with us! And Marshal Massena was our neighbour, although Bob had
previously mistaken him for a local farmer on arrival, for a big hat he was a
friendly and funny guy.
It was a relaxed weekend, we visited the museum and were
free until a drill session in the early afternoon, we drilled well but there
was the usual big battalion delays and confusion that always seem to arise at
these times, especially as we were the first unit into the field, along with
the gallant sappeurs at our side, and ready to leave when the rest of our battalion
turned up! Soldat Tobin did a fine job of translating orders.
The battle was enjoyable and the Prussian forces (were any
of them Prussian?) played the role of an advance guard skirmishing with our
superior forces, there were a lot of pyros going off to good effect, some
pretty close to their targets.
Lots of unit vollies were fired and a collective unit
‘Ewwww’ as we all stopped in a puddle at the same time.
Come the end we drove the enemy off and nearly charged the
audience as we marched right up to the fence with bayonets twirling.
‘There’s
one, Fire!’
Everyone was proud of the unit’s appearance and performance
alongside the ‘French French’ who have a bit of a reputation for taking things
more seriously than us ‘English French’ and even the guard didn’t outdo us in
presentation or drill in the actual field. Well done to everyone, and for
retaining a sense of humour, when just before the Sunday parade a French
lieutenant chose to point out muddy shoes or an undone button. It takes all
sorts in this hobby.
I’d like to go back to Ligny, especially the cake shop, but
maybe next year we will do Wavre or Bourtange (where the 85eme were
that weekend). We will march in the low countries once more.
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The 45eme and friends filming
for the Comedy Channel.
On a damp November day (2015) on the outskirts of St Albans a dozen
reenactors, a few proper actors, a couple of students, one comedian, a film
crew and a seemingly out of proportion amount of large white ‘Movie makers’
trucks and trailors all gathered together to film what was probably about five
minutes of ‘Drunk history’.
Drunk history itself is a show where they basically get
someone ‘off the telly’ to drink a large amount, usually of spirits, and then
recount some of their favourite scenes from history, and for this episode
Waterloo was in the frame.
Having availed myself of the hospitality area and nipped
over to the mighty toilet rig I came out to see someone who was clearly our
Napoleon ‘Ah mon Emperor!” I exclaimed and said hello and the chap asked about
my coat ‘You can get rugs made out of that you know.’ He seemed familiar, and also surprisingly
tall for a Napoleon.. (yes, I know he wasn’t short but this guy was taller than
most of us), yes, it was Hugh Dennis, our comedian and known actor. The budget
had to go somewhere.
When we were called over even some of us lowly extras were
treated to gophers holding umbrellas over us. Us! We said our muskets were more
important. The Director, who had something of an artistic temprement, didn’t know
anything about muskets needing to be kept dry. Or History. But this is something
you quickly learn not to mention.
A bit of a jeering and gun waving scene was done with a big
comedy Scotsman involved and then us in a firing line, though firing
individually, if at all, It was indeed a soggy day. My one shot of the day went
off at the second attempt.
The Emperor returned from Elba to the south of France, which
looked like a damp day in St Albans, but we cheered anyway and soon the filming
was in the can and we were heading for home.
Episode Eight, series two of Drunk History was aired at 10pm
on The comedy channel, 30 March, but should be available elsewhere online. At time of going to press I have only seen a couple of clips myself.
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For those
who asked here are the words to the song aired at the AGM, which can be sung
along to the tune of “The black velvet band’. (There is always room for another verse/chorus in their if anyone has a good one!)
The 45th kept Marching.
A true regiment of renown,
The 45th of the line, looking back to the time
When Maastericht gave them the crown.
From the Neimen to the Tagus
The regiment stood true,
They fought redcoats and Russians,
And Spaniards and Prussians,
‘Til Bonaparte bid them adieu!
(Oh) From the
cannonade of Valmy
To the Swansong of
Waterloo,
The 45th kept
marching,
Those invincible
soldiers in blue!
And at the foot of the Pratzen,
They fought the Tsars own guard,
In a storm of steel and fire
They won themselves Boney’s regard.
With men from across this fair nation
Raised up on an Eagles wings
True bothers in arms from the cities and farms
With the voice of brave Frenchmen it sings;
Chorus
From Dresden onto Danzig
Through the wind and the snow and the rain,
The sun set low on the empire
But the violet soon blooms again.
Then came that dark day in Belgium
When cruel fate dealt them a hand
The enemy at large, lead a terrible charge
Against which no soldiers could stand.
Chorus x 2
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Also coming up, a few of us are going to this in August, a campaign weekend in France, though still probably more comfy than Whittingdon castle.
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The BBCs latest adaptation of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ went
down with mixed reception, to many, especially in the re-enactment community a
certain dress worn in the opening scene may have struck a death knell that the
characterisation, plot and cinematography simply couldn’t cancel out.
The wardrobe choices, especially for the women, were indeed
more often 1920 than 1812, but I can personally forgive that if viewing the
show as a piece of theatre and not a documentary, still it would have been easy
to do the research and then use the results but I suspect the wardrobe
department was more driven by someone’s artistic vision other than authenticity.
At first I thought Paul Dano’s Pierre looked ridiculously
young and farcially inept but then he is meant to be just that when the book
opens, he is not Anthony Hopkins, and his early bumblings paved the way for his
path through the story, allowing us to see him rise and fall and develop.
Ade Edmundson was hugely likeable as count Rostov but.. you
can’t help but expect him to be hit in the face with a frying pan at any
moment, my association with him as a comedy character didn’t sit well with a
serious piece of television.
Napoleon. Well at least he wasn’t short and fat. I suspect
with such an iconic and often caricatured figure it would have been easy to do it by
numbers. I thought he was a sort of younger, slightly more Italian version of
Peter Capaldi.
The battle scenes were well executed and didn’t pull any
punches but could have captured more of a grand scale, a couple of massive
French columns advancing on our protagonists could easily have been conjoured
up with modern methods and cgi, instead we saw a lot of smoke and skirmish
order men running back and fourth and being blown up. From ancient Rome to Medieval
England to Napoleonic Russia TV writers seem to think battles are fought by two
hordes of men simply running at each other and having a huge free for all. I
also flinched at the stoic Russians who all dived on the floor when the shell
landed. That was worse than the dress thing for me! this is Borodino not D-Day!
The story is an emotional roller coaster, it is for the
characters and so should be for the viewer and the shout at the telly moments
are all part of the theme. It is quite a modern idea in TV series to make our
opinions of the characters wax and wane but War and Peace did it first.
It was a very modern and stripped down version, with the
required amount of nudity that is mandatory since Rome and Game of thrones came
to our screens, along with a bit of incest thrown in. I think they did quite a
good job given the number of episodes they had to complete the story. A good
effort but flawed by trying to be a bit too zeitgeist.
And in the end the whole saga came down to that scene with
Pierre and the potato.
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The Rogues gallery.
A jolly Sunday morning at Church (Ickworth)
A typical Saturday night for Dave Beards.
and a blast from the past, Epsom 2009.
This is the first newsletter in this format, If anyone has any news or articles they would like in the next edition then please send them to me at rhandolph@googlemail.com or contact me or Alex Hamblin on Facebook (she has been quite busy with Ratkins and Wedding arrangements with this one but is very much part of the team), Word documents can be transferred quite well to this e-format, or if you would like to see a hardcopy format, it is something we can look into.
Vive L’Empereur!
