Marshals of Napoleon. Murat Joachim: biography, family, military service, battles Who is Murat in war and peace

Often not too numerous peoples are looking for their outstanding fellow tribesmen around the world. We, Armenians, also suffer from this disease. However, the phenomenon is quite understandable and does not need comment. Historical fate scattered Armenians across all continents, and very many of them actually became very famous personalities. The mistake is that sometimes, carried away, our researchers do not get to the bottom of the truth. This happened to the Napoleonic Marshal Joachim Murat, who is stubbornly considered an Armenian. It would be nice, but ...

In the recently published in Yerevan book by V. Poghosyan “Armenians - Companions of Napoleon: History and Myths” two essays are devoted to the closest Mamelukes of Napoleon - Armenians: the bodyguard of the Emperor Rustam and the brave warrior Oneis Petro. They never hid their Armenian identity - documents testify to this. As for Murat, then, perhaps, many will be disappointed, but ... However, read it yourself. So, an excerpt from Poghosyan's book.
... Napoleon Bonaparte at the initial stage of his activity put into his service the principles proclaimed by the French Revolution concerning the selection and promotion of statesmen and military leaders. Even under the Directory, the visionary young commander grouped gifted commanders around him, regardless of their social origin. Many of them were later awarded the high rank of Marshal of the Empire. These included Murat, who occupied a special place in the brilliant constellation of the French supreme military leaders of the era of the Napoleonic wars.
Many of Murat's inherent traits - boundless courage, swiftness in action, dedication to the cause in the performance of combat missions - largely contributed to the determination of his place in the circle of the French emperor. According to Balzac, "Murat did not know the feeling of fear."
It is no coincidence that Napoleon, in the spirit of his vicious habit of entering into marriage alliances between his courtiers at his own discretion, decided to marry his beloved sister Caroline to Murat. The marriage, however, this time turned out to be a happy one.
Napoleon's son-in-law had an ineradicable addiction to luxury, absorbed with his mother's milk. As Balzac noted, "Murat, a true oriental man in his tastes (author's italics), set an example of luxury." This was manifested not only in his unbridled desire to acquire luxurious mansions furnished with expensive furniture, decorated with the most valuable works of art, etc. Murat also amazed both his entourage and opponents with the extravagance of his clothes, carefully selected headdresses decorated with feathers, jewelry, which he did not part with even in a hot battle. His contemporaries, and later many writers and historians, starting with D. Davydov and ending with J. Tulard, repeatedly drew attention to this. L. Tolstoy, for example, described him this way, this “with a solemn theatrical face of a horseman in bracelets, feathers, necklaces and gold”: “This man galloped towards Balashov, shining and fluttering in the bright June sun with his feathers, stones and gold braids ".
In a word, for a variety of reasons, Murat became not only a prominent and very popular commander of that time, but also took an honorable place in the closest circle of Napoleon. His personality rightfully aroused particular interest over the next two centuries.
Having every reason, J. Tulard characterized Murat as “an undesirable character (mouton noir) of the Napoleonic legend”. In other words, the marshal fell victim to the subjective assessments of Napoleon himself, who, by the way, in every possible way limited his opportunities in the field of political activity when Murat was king of Naples. An objective assessment of Murat's activities was given relatively recently by J. Tulard.
The version about his allegedly Armenian, Karabakh origin, which J. Tulard himself learned about, and not without amazement, from the author of these lines in December 1991 in Moscow state university.

The question of Murat's nationality did not cause any doubts among specialists until M. Neumann mistakenly presented him as a Karabakh Armenian, devoting a section of her already mentioned book to Murat and two Mamelukes of Napoleon - Rustam and Pierre (Huanis Petro); all three, in her opinion, were of Karabakh origin. With reference to M. Neiman's information, an assertion appeared in Soviet historiography about the alleged existence of “grounds to assume” that Murat was an Armenian, but none of the authors indicated, and could not have indicated, any of these “grounds”.
M. Neiman's version about the Armenian origin of Murat is devoid of the slightest scientific basis. Here we are talking not only about factual errors, but also about the author's unfounded conclusions, about an obvious distortion of many facts. The essence of the version is as follows. Murat was born in Karabakh in the family of the merchant Muradyan. Soon after the birth of his son, the father decided to leave for Western Europe to establish commercial relations between European traders and compatriots in Karabakh. Together with his son Hovakim Muradyan, having visited Russia on the way, he arrived in Germany. The Muradyans reached Leipzig when the flame of revolution was raging in France (the author does not mention the date). Their arrival in Leipzig coincided with another event - the beginning of the war between Turkey and Persia (it is not clear what kind of war we are talking about), as a result of which trade routes to the East were closed. Unforeseen circumstances forced Muradyan to abandon his previous plans and go to Vienna. Then, at the request of his son, he moved to France and settled in the city of Bastide, where he soon became an innkeeper, and gave his son to the service of the Jesuits. With a great penchant for military affairs, Ovakim left Bastide for Paris, entered military service in one of the cavalry regiments. He was able to quickly get the rank of general, after which he was appointed commander of the cavalry of the French army, preparing for an expedition to Egypt under the leadership of General Bonaparte. This is where M. Neumann completes the presentation of Murat's biography.
Judging by the presentation of the material, M. Neumann had no real idea of ​​the achievements of historical science of that time in the study of the activities of the marshal and the history of the French Revolution as a whole. At the same time, she limited herself to the transmission of oral stories of a certain Nikogosov, who, in turn, heard them from General I.D. Lazarev in 1873.
In any case, the author of the book repeatedly emphasizes that in Karabakh this information was spread by Napoleon's bodyguard Rustam, and that “General ID Lazarev remembered well. As a young man, he listened and remembered many of Rustam's stories, with which he entertained the Karabakh elders who enthusiastically listened to him. Some details of these stories were later passed on by General Lazarev to the city of Nikogosov ”.
Speaking about Rustam, M. Neumann mistakenly asserts, as already noted, that in 1814, after Napoleon's first abdication, the Mameluk allegedly left France and set off to the East through Marseille by sea. He managed to get to Tehran, and from there move to the Caucasus. He participated in the Russian-Persian war of 1826-1828, and after its end he settled in Shusha, where he died in 1845.
It is easy to see that M. Neiman, distorting the facts, mistakenly attributed to Rustam the main milestones in the life of the Mameluke Oneis Petro. The real Rustam, who lived in 1814-1845. in France, could not, of course, be simultaneously in Karabakh and disseminate among the local residents any information about Marshal Murat.
A huge historical literature is devoted to Murat. The first works about the life of the commander began to appear immediately after the collapse of the Napoleonic empire. Some little-studied aspects of his activity still remain in the focus of attention of historians. Literature about Murat can be classified into three main groups: biographical research, covering the entire life of the marshal; monographs devoted to individual periods of his life; collections of documents of greatest interest to us.
Historians know three previous generations of the Murat family: Pierre I Murat (1634-?), Guillaume Murat (1692-1754) and Pierre II Murat (1721-1799) - the father of the marshal. The Murat family lived in the south-west of France in the administrative center of the Lot department, in the town of Bastide-Fortuner (now Bastide-Murat). Here, in the local archives, a certificate of his birth has been preserved: “On March 25, 1767, Joachim Murat-Jordi, the legitimate son of the inhabitants of this parish Pierre Murat-Jordi and Jeanne Labougere, was born in this parish, and was baptized in the church of this parish on March 26” ... To prove the complete groundlessness of the version about the Karabakh origin of Murat, it is enough to limit ourselves to a reference to this document.
In the book by M. Neumann, the events of the early stage of Murat's life are completely distorted. In fact, Murat showed great interest in military affairs from an early age. His parents, however, assigned him to study at the College of St. Michael in Cahors to receive a theological education, after which he was transferred to Toulouse to continue his studies. Then Murat entered the service in one of the cavalry regiments. One of the most significant events in the more than modest life of the future marshal was his election in the local canton as a delegate to take part in the grandiose festival of the Federation, organized in Paris on July 14, 1790 in connection with the celebration of the anniversary of the capture of the Bastille. In 1792, he already served in the Louis XVI Guards, and after its abolition - in the 21st Horse Ranger Regiment. In 1794-1795. Murat was in the army in the Western Pyrenees.
In the military career of Murat great importance had his participation in the defeat of the revolt against the Thermidorian Convention of the 13th Vendemier IV year (October 4, 1795). According to AZ Manfred, before that Murat “had almost no biography; it really began only on that windy, stormy night of October 4, when, by the speed and assertiveness of his actions, he largely predetermined the outcome of the events of the 13th Vendemier. " General Bonaparte, who was entrusted with the suppression of the rebellion, appointed him as his adjutant. For his courage during the Italian campaign of 1796-1797. Murat was awarded the rank of brigadier general. In 1798, together with Bonaparte, he went to Egypt, in 1799 he took part in the Syrian campaign. During the Egyptian expedition, he was promoted to divisional general. Together with Bonaparte, Murat left Egypt, and soon took part in the coup d'état of the 18th Brumaire. During the years of the Consulate, a new period opened in his life, to which M. Neumann did not address at all.
Stopping at the initial stage of Murat's activity, M. Neumann passed over in silence the most important events of his life - the participation of the commander in the defeat of the Vandemieri rebellion and in the Italian campaign. Although in the author's account there are occasionally reports that correspond to reality (Murat's childhood was spent in Bastide, his father was an innkeeper), it is obvious that M. Neumann had unclear information about him. As for the issue of the Armenian origin of the commander, its author connected it exclusively with the Karabakh origin of the marshal, which completely negates the likelihood of this version.
One more question needs clarification. According to M. Neiman, sentenced to death Murat refused to take the sacrament, rudely pushed the Catholic priest away from himself with the words: "Go away, I am not of your faith." Is this possible? The military tribunal accused Murat of treason to the Kingdom of Naples and sentenced him to death. The decision of the court caused indignation and anger of the marshal. A few hours before Murat's execution, one of his old acquaintances, Abbot Anthony Mesdea, visited him and invited him to receive communion. Murat really categorically refused the sacrament, but this was a vivid manifestation of protest against the unjust verdict of the court. This refusal was based on political rather than religious considerations. The priest still managed to persuade Murat to sign a short note: "I am dying as a decent Christian."

A natural question arises: what is the reason for all this misunderstanding - attribution of Armenian origin to the French commander? A message published in 1887 in the Armenian magazine “Araks”, where the name of the leader of the Egyptian Mamelukes at the end of the 18th century, “the Karabakh Murad Bey”, is mentioned helps in explaining this riddle to some extent.
Who was Murad Bey? At the end of the 18th century, as already noted, Egypt, despite its formal dependence on the Ottoman Empire, was ruled by 24 Mameluk beys, headed by Murad and Ibrahim. Murad (1750-1801) in his youth was captured in the Caucasus by the Turks, and then sold to the Egyptian Mamelukes. Soon he managed not only to free himself from slavery, but also received the title of bey. Since 1773, he shared power in the country with Ibrahim, Upper Egypt was subordinate to him.
In 1798-1799. Murad Bey organized the struggle of the Mamelukes against the French army invading Egypt. In 1800-1801. he tried to cooperate with Bonaparte's successors, Generals Kleber and Mainoux, but in April 1801 he died of the plague.
Murad was an experienced military leader. His military abilities were highly valued by Napoleon: “Nature endowed him with greatness, brilliant courage and insight. He captured in his mind's eye the entire battlefield (we are talking about the battle at the Pyramids - VP) with such art that would do honor to the most complete commander ”.
The question of Murad Bey's nationality remains vague. Sources convey contradictory information on this matter. It is generally accepted that Murad was a Circassian. In this regard, we recall that in the XVIII century. the ranks of the Egyptian Mamelukes were replenished in the overwhelming majority by the Circassians living in the Caucasus, as a result of which European contemporaries perceived all Mamelukes as Circassians. Some Georgian historians considered Murad to be a Georgian.
It is, of course, difficult to express an exhaustive judgment in this regard. The possibility of Murad's Armenian, Karabakh origin is not excluded, since the Mamelukes of Napoleonic time, with rare exceptions, were natives of the Caucasus. If Murad was really from Karabakh, then the reason for the misunderstanding was the similarity of his name with the surname of the French marshal (Murad / Murat). It is curious that, according to one of the French biographers of Murat, during the stay of Bonaparte's army in Egypt, Murad Bey was proud of the similarity of his name with the surname of the “fearless French general”.
The version of Murat's “Armenian origin” was not called to life for a specific purpose, like the forgery of the famous Czech Kraledvorsk and Zelenogorsk manuscripts, which in fact contributed in many respects to the development of Czech fiction in the 19th century. It is only the result of an unscrupulous study of the issue, which led to an annoying confusion.

A.Zh. Gro. Joachim Murat, King of Naples. 1812.

Pogosyan V.A. Armenians - Companions of Napoleon: History and Myths. Yerevan, Edith Print Publishing House, 2009.

In the history of Franco-Armenian relations, along with the real facts of the activities of historical figures and specific events, there are also riddles and unfounded versions. Among the latter is the version about the Armenian origin of the Marshal of the Napoleonic army Joachim Murat, which, of course, cannot be compared with the mysteries of the famous Atlantis or the "iron mask", but nevertheless it deserves some attention.

In the course of the French Revolution, persons belonging to the former powerless third estate received ample opportunities for the manifestation of their abilities and often achieved high ranks and positions. During the war years against the forces of the first anti-French coalition in the French army, talented generals of simple origin - L. Gauche, F. Marceau, J.-B. Jourdan and others.

Napoleon Bonaparte, at the initial stage of his activity, put into his service the principles proclaimed by the French Revolution concerning the selection and promotion of statesmen and military leaders. Even under the Directory, the visionary, young commander grouped gifted commanders around him, regardless of their social origin. Many of them were later awarded the high rank of Marshal of the Empire. These included Murat, who occupied a special place in the brilliant constellation of the French supreme military leaders of the era of the Napoleonic wars.

Many of Murat's inherent traits - boundless courage, swiftness in action, dedication to the cause in the performance of combat missions - largely contributed to the determination of his place in the circle of the French emperor. According to Balzac, "Murat did not know the feeling of fear."

It is no coincidence that Napoleon, in the spirit of his vicious habit of entering into marriage alliances between his courtiers at his own discretion, decided to marry his beloved sister Caroline to Murat. The marriage, however, this time turned out to be a happy one.

Napoleon's son-in-law had an ineradicable addiction to luxury, absorbed with his mother's milk. As Balzac noted, “Murat, a real oriental man according to your tastes(our italics - V. P.), set an example of luxury. " This was manifested not only in his unbridled desire to acquire luxurious mansions furnished with expensive furniture, decorated with the most valuable works of art, etc. Murat also amazed both his confidants and opponents with the extravagance of his clothes, carefully selected headdresses, decorated with feathers, jewelry , with whom he did not part and in a hot battle. His contemporaries, and later many writers and historians, starting with D. Davydov and ending with J. Tulard, repeatedly drew attention to this. L. Tolstoy, for example, described him this way, this “with a solemn theatrical face of a horseman in bracelets, feathers, necklaces and gold”: “This man galloped towards Balashov, shining and fluttering in the bright June sun with his feathers, braids ".

In a word, for a variety of reasons, Murat became not only a prominent and very popular commander of that time, but also took an honorable place in the closest circle of Napoleon. His personality rightfully aroused particular interest over the next two centuries.

At the same time, it can be stated without exaggeration that, unlike other marshals of Napoleon, Murat was awarded, and not without the participation of the former emperor exiled to St. Helena, the most ruthless posthumous fate. Napoleon himself, and later in his footsteps, many of his apologists, tendentiously denigrated, in particular, the political gifts of the King of Naples. Such a harsh attitude towards him on the part of Napoleon can most likely be explained by the betrayal of the marshal after the Russian campaign.

With good reason, J. Tulard characterized Murat as "an undesirable character (mouton noir) of the Napoleonic legend." In other words, the marshal fell victim to the subjective assessments of Napoleon himself, who, by the way, in every possible way limited his opportunities in the field of political activity when Murat was king of Naples. An objective assessment of Murat's activities was given relatively recently by J. Tulard, who pursued in his biographical research the goal of freeing the image of the marshal from "legendary layers, both exalting and denigrating him" and refuting the obviously hostile attacks on him from both Napoleon and many others ...

The version of his allegedly Armenian, Karabakh origin, which J. Tulard himself learned, and not without amazement, from the author of these lines in December 1991 in Moscow state university.

The question of Murat's nationality did not cause any doubts among specialists until M. Neumann mistakenly presented him as a Karabakh Armenian, devoting a section of her, already mentioned, book to Murat and two Mamelukes of Napoleon - Rustam and Pierre (Huanis Petro); all three, in her opinion, were of Karabakh origin. With reference to the information of M. Neumann and in Soviet historiography, an assertion appeared that there were "grounds to assume" that Murat was an Armenian, however, none of these authors indicated, and could not have indicated, any of these "grounds" ... A number of foreign journalists of Armenian origin adhere to the same opinion. This erroneous point of view is reflected in Armenian reference publications, as well as in Armenian fiction.

M. Neiman's version about the Armenian origin of Murat is devoid of the slightest scientific basis. Here we are talking not only about factual errors, but also about unfounded conclusions of the author, about an obvious distortion of many facts. The essence of the version is as follows. Murat was born in Karabakh in the family of the merchant Muradyan. Soon after the birth of his son, his father decided to leave for Western Europe to establish commercial relations between European traders and compatriots in Karabakh. Together with his son Hovakim Muradyan, having visited Russia on the way, he arrived in Germany. The Muradyans reached Leipzig when the flame of revolution was raging in France (the author does not mention the date). Their arrival in Leipzig coincided with another event - the beginning of the war between Turkey and Persia (it is not clear what kind of war we are talking about), as a result of which trade routes to the East were closed. Unforeseen circumstances forced Muradyan to abandon his previous plans and go to Vienna. Then, at the request of his son, he moved to France and settled in the city of Bastide, where he soon became an innkeeper, and gave his son to the service of the Jesuits. With a great penchant for military affairs, Ovakim left Bastide for Paris, entered military service in one of the cavalry regiments. He was able to quickly obtain the rank of general, after which he was appointed commander of the cavalry of the French army, preparing for an expedition to Egypt under the leadership of General Bonaparte. This is where M. Neumann completes the presentation of Murat's biography.

Judging by the presentation of the material, M. Neumann had no real idea of ​​the achievements of historical science of that time in the study of the activities of the Marshal and the history of the French Revolution as a whole. At the same time, she limited herself to transmitting the oral stories of a certain Nikogosov, who, in turn, heard them from General I.D. Lazarev in 1873.

In any case, the author of the book repeatedly emphasizes that in Karabakh this information was disseminated by Napoleon's bodyguard Rustam, and that “General I.D. Lazarev. As a young man, he listened and remembered many of Rustam's stories, with which he occupied the Karabakh elders who were enthusiastically listening to him. Some of the details of these stories were later transmitted to the gene. Lazarev to Nikogosov. "

Speaking about Rustam, M. Neumann mistakenly asserts, as already noted, that in 1814, after Napoleon's first abdication, the Mameluk allegedly left France and set off to the East through Marseille by sea. He managed to get to Tehran, and from there move to the Caucasus. He participated in the Russian-Persian war of 1826-1828, and after its end he settled in Shusha, where he died in 1845.

It is easy to see that M. Neiman, distorting the facts, mistakenly attributed to Rustam the main milestones in the life of the Mameluke Oneis Petro. The real Rustam, who lived in 1814-1845. in France, could not, of course, be simultaneously in Karabakh and disseminate among the local residents any information about Marshal Murat.

A huge historical literature is devoted to Murat. The first works about the life of the commander began to appear immediately after the collapse of the Napoleonic empire. Some little-studied aspects of his activity still remain in the focus of attention of historians. Literature about Murat can be classified into three main groups: biographical research, covering the entire life of the marshal; monographs devoted to certain periods of his life; collections of documents of greatest interest to us.

Historians know three previous generations of the Murat family: Pierre I Murat (1634-?), Guillaume Murat (1692-1754) and Pierre II Murat (1721-1799) - the father of the marshal. The Murat family lived in the south-west of France in the administrative center of the Lot department, in the town of Bastide-Fortuner (now Bastide-Murat). Here, in the local archives, a certificate of his birth has been preserved: "On March 25, 1767, Joachim Murat-Jordi, the legitimate son of the inhabitants of this parish Pierre Murat-Jordi and Jeanne Labougere, was born in this parish, and was baptized in the church of this parish on March 26" ... To prove the complete groundlessness of the version about the Karabakh origin of Murat, it is enough to limit ourselves to a reference to this document.

In addition to the birth certificate, these collections contain other documents (letters, various papers) relating to the life of Murat from 1767 to 1794, which are irrefutable proof of his stay in France on the eve and in the early years of the French Revolution.

According to the index of the Murat archive, published in 1967 in Paris, the marshal's archive also contains documents of a family and personal nature, testifying to the activities of the Murat family in France in 1746-1839. ...

In the book of M. Neumann, the events of the early stage of Murat's life are completely distorted. In fact, Murat showed great interest in military affairs from an early age. His parents, however, assigned him to study at the College of St. Michael in Cahors to receive a theological education, after which he was transferred to Toulouse to continue his studies. Then Murat entered the service in one of the cavalry regiments. One of the most significant events in the more than modest life of the future marshal was his election in the local canton as a delegate to take part in the grandiose festival of the Federation, organized in Paris on July 14, 1790, in connection with the celebration of the anniversary of the capture of the Bastille. In 1792, he already served in the Louis XVI Guards, and after its abolition - in the 21st Horse Ranger Regiment. In 1794-1795. Murat was in the army in the Western Pyrenees.

Murat's military career was of great importance for his participation in the defeat of the revolt against the Thermidorian Convention of the 13th Vendemier IV year (October 4, 1795). According to A.Z. Manfred, before that Murat “had almost no biography; it really began only on that windy, stormy night of October 4, when, by the speed and assertiveness of his actions, he largely predetermined the outcome of the events of the 13th Vendemier. " General Bonaparte, who was entrusted with the suppression of the rebellion, appointed him as his adjutant. For his courage during the Italian campaign of 1796-1797. Murat was awarded the rank of brigadier general. In 1798, together with Bonaparte, he went to Egypt, in 1799 he took part in the Syrian campaign. During the Egyptian expedition, he was promoted to divisional general. Together with Bonaparte, Murat left Egypt, and soon took part in the coup d'état of the 18th Brumaire. During the years of the Consulate, a new streak opened in his life, to which M. Neumann did not address at all.

Stopping at the initial stage of Murat's activities, M. Neumann passed over in silence the most important events of his life - the participation of the commander in the defeat of the Vandemieri rebellion and in the Italian campaign. Although in the author's account there are occasionally reports that correspond to reality (Murat's childhood was spent in Bastide, his father was an innkeeper), it is obvious that M. Neumann had unclear information about him. As for the issue of the Armenian origin of the commander, its author connected it exclusively with the Karabakh origin of the marshal, which completely negates the likelihood of this version.

One more question needs clarification. According to M. Neumann, sentenced to death, Murat refused the sacrament, rudely pushed the Catholic priest away from himself with the words: "Go away, but I am not of your faith." Is this possible? The military tribunal accused Murat of treason to the Kingdom of Naples and sentenced him to death. The decision of the court caused indignation and anger of the marshal. A few hours before Murat's execution, one of his old acquaintances, Abbot Anthony Mesdea, visited him and invited him to receive communion. Murat really categorically refused the sacrament, but this was a vivid manifestation of protest against the unjust verdict of the court. This refusal was based on political rather than religious considerations. The priest still managed to persuade Murat to sign a short note: "I am dying as a decent Christian."

A natural question arises: what is the reason for all this misunderstanding - attribution of Armenian origin to the French commander? A message published in 1887 in the Armenian magazine "Araks", where the name of the leader of the Egyptian Mamelukes at the end of the 18th century, "the Karabakh Murad Bey", is mentioned helps to explain this riddle to some extent.

Who was Murad Bey? At the end of the 18th century, as already noted, Egypt, despite its formal dependence on the Ottoman Empire, was ruled by 24 Mameluk beys, headed by Murad and Ibrahim. Murad (1750-1801) in his youth was captured in the Caucasus by the Turks, and then sold to the Egyptian Mamelukes. Soon he managed not only to free himself from slavery, but also received the title of bey. Since 1773, he shared power in the country with Ibrahim, Upper Egypt was subordinate to him.

In 1798-1799. Murad Bey organized the struggle of the Mamelukes against the French army invading Egypt. In 1800-1801. he tried to cooperate with Bonaparte's successors, Generals Kleber and Mainoux, but in April 1801 he died of the plague.

In Murad's contemporary Abd ar-Rahman al-Jabarti we find a detailed description of his appearance: “Murad bey was fair-haired, of medium height and solid build, wore a thick beard and had a rough nose. There was a scar on his face from a blow from a saber. " According to another contemporary, Murad and Ibrahim, like almost all the other Mamelukes, were illiterate, “they could not even write their names. Copts served as translators from Arabic, and Turks from Turkish. They had seals on which their names were engraved and with which they sealed papers before being sent to other places. "

But Murad was an experienced military leader. His military abilities were highly valued by Napoleon: “Nature endowed him with greatness, brilliant courage and insight. He captured the entire battlefield in his mind's eye (we are talking about the battle at the Pyramids - V. P.) with such art, which would do honor to the most complete commander. "

Burien left an interesting testimony about Napoleon's attitude to Murad: "Bonaparte attached great importance to the destruction of Murad, whom he regarded as the bravest, most active and most dangerous of all enemies in Egypt."

Note also that Murad's saber, captured in Egypt as a trophy, Napoleon kept for a long time. Only on April 13, 1814, shortly before sailing to the Elbe, he presented it to Marshal MacDonald.

The question of Murad Bey's nationality remains vague. Sources convey contradictory information on this matter. It is generally accepted that Murad was a Circassian. In this regard, we recall that in the XVIII century. the ranks of the Egyptian Mamelukes were replenished in the overwhelming majority by the Circassians living in the Caucasus, as a result of which European contemporaries perceived all Mamelukes as Circassians. Some Georgian historians considered Murad to be a Georgian.

It is, of course, difficult to express an exhaustive judgment in this regard. The likelihood of Murad's Armenian, Karabakh origin is not excluded, since the Mamelukes of Napoleonic time, with rare exceptions, were natives of the Caucasus. If Murad was really from Karabakh, then the reason for the misunderstanding was the similarity of his name with the surname of the French marshal (Murad / Murat). It is curious that, according to one of the French biographers of Murat, during the stay of Bonaparte's army in Egypt, Murad Bey was proud of the similarity of his name with the surname of the “fearless French general”.

The version of Murat's "Armenian origin" was not called to life for a specific purpose, like the forgery of the famous Czech Kraledvorsk and Zelenogorsk manuscripts, which in fact contributed in many ways to the development of Czech fiction in the 19th century. It is only the result of an unscrupulous study of the issue, which led to an annoying confusion.

In the figurative comparison of A. Maurois, those were "epic times when the army made generals faster than women of children." Cm.: A. Maurois... Three Dumas. M. 1965.S. 15.

Some of the subjective assessments expressed by Napoleon see in the appendix of the book by A.A. Egorova: A.A. Egorov... Marshals of Napoleon. Rostov-on-Don. 1998.S. 375-378. See also: Biographie des contemporaines, par Napoléon. Paris. 1824. P. 259-264.

T.S. Drambyan... French Communist Armenians during the Resistance, 1941-1944 Yerevan. 1967.S. 22 (in Armenian); Sh.R. Harutyunyan... The development of historiography in Soviet Armenia, 1964-1988 Essays. Yerevan. 1990, p. 459 (in Armenian).

Hagop-Krikor... Les Arméniens connus et inconnus de Noé a nos jours. Paris. 1975. P. 42; N. Ter-Mikaelyan... Famous people of Armenian origin. Beirut. 1988.S. 198 (in Armenian).

Joachim Murat

Marshal of France. Commander of the cavalry of the Napoleonic army. King of Naples.

The words "fearless" and "our hero" became consonant with the name of Joachim Murat in his first year in the ranks of the French revolutionary army. This consonance became more vivid when he, dressed in a marshal's uniform, began to command the cavalry of the army of the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Fearlessness and heroism Murat also showed when he made the last attempt to regain the crown of the Kingdom of Naples, which cost him his life.

... The son of a simple groom (or an innkeeper from the city of Cahors - there are quite a few versions) began military service at the age of twenty as an ordinary soldier in the royal cavalry: he dropped out of his studies at the theological seminary (according to other sources, he was expelled from it) and enrolled as a private in the the city of the 12th Ardennes equestrian-jaeger regiment. Joachim, against his father's will, decided to wear the beautiful uniform of the royal equestrian rangers, and besides, he had a passion for horses since childhood.

Physically strong, energetic and personable, the recruit was distinguished by a decisive character and sometimes reckless courage. However, even with such qualities, he could hardly count on an officer's career in the royal army without being a nobleman. The Gascon, although he was arrested for his rebellious disposition, although he participated in six duels, nevertheless rather quickly (in just five years) rose to the rank of sergeant.

The Great French Revolution turned everything in the country, including the former royal army, upside down. The dashing cavalryman found himself in the ranks of the revolutionary Northern Army, and the complete absence of military education was more than compensated for by decisiveness and energy. It also helped that the army, due to the massive emigration of noble officers, experienced a huge shortage of command personnel. In 1792, Murat was promoted to the first officer rank of sub-lieutenant, and after half a month he became a lieutenant. Since that time, he began his rapid ascent up the career ladder.

Its rise began on October 4, 1795, when Captain Joachim Murat, being the commander of a squadron of horse rangers, managed to deliver cannons from the Sablon military camp to the commander of the troops of the Convention, General Bonaparte. A detachment of 200 cavalry had to fight its way through crowds of royalist rebels. Having received artillery at his disposal, Bonaparte cold-bloodedly shot the rebels with buckshot and suppressed the resistance of the enemies of the Republic in Paris.

The actions of the captain of the equestrian rangers in those Parisian events were so decisive, and the thoughts so destructive for the enemies, that Murat immediately turned out to be his man among the Bonapartists. As a reward for what he had done, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Napoleon, and soon became a close person to him. This alone has already guaranteed a successful military career. In addition, insane courage and dedication, a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the sake of saving comrades quickly brought the born cavalryman a well-deserved military glory and made him the idol of his subordinates.

During Napoleon's Italian campaign, Joachim Murat was always close to his general. At the head of the French cavalry, he boldly attacked the Austrians, persistently pursued them, taking many prisoners and rich trophies. This was the case with Rovereto, San Giorgio, Rivoli, Tagliamento and Gradisca. Soon the name of Colonel Murat alone, as yet, began to intimidate the enemy. In one of the battles, at the head of three cavalry regiments, he shot down the troops of Piedmont from their position and pursued them on their heels for several hours.

After this victory, the first adjutant of the commander-in-chief of the Italian army of France was sent to Paris with captured Austrian and Sardinian banners. The award was not long in coming: in 1796 Murat was promoted to brigadier general, which became a worthy recognition of his military merits in the war on Italian soil. The commander-in-chief now saw in his loyal adjutant a vanguard commander, impetuous and ebullient, an extremely fearless man whom fate itself had written into heroes.

In a cavalry battle with the Austrians at Borghetto, General Murat captured 9 guns, 2 banners and 2 thousand prisoners from the enemy. Then, at the head of the vanguard of the French army, he occupied the port of Livorno, but he failed to capture the 100 British merchant ships stationed in the harbor - they managed to go further into the sea. The name of the dashing cavalry commander shone in the fields of war in Northern Italy. Now he had to deal with more than just one war: he became a member of the Senate of Genoa.

At the very beginning of the Napoleonic Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801, Murat received the next military rank, becoming a divisional general (for Abukir). During the advance of the French Eastern Army on Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk state, he commanded an army reserve and two brigades of dismounted cavalry. The French cavalry under his command repeatedly demonstrated their superiority over the mounted Egyptian Mamluks, primarily due to their discipline and combat training.

During the conquest of Palestine, when Napoleon formed the so-called Syrian army, General Joachim Murat was in its ranks. During the capture of the city of Gaza, three of its lead squadrons were overturned by the Mamluks, but after a strong blow to the flank, Ibrahim Bey's cavalry retreated. Then General Murat, having only one thousand people, defeated the marching camp of the troops of the Pasha of Damascus and captured the city of Tiberias. There were found huge supplies of food, equal to the six months' needs of the French army.

Soon Murat distinguished himself during the assault on the fortress of Saint-Jean-d "Acre and near Abukir, where the Turkish landing was defeated. In that battle he was wounded in the face (a bullet passed under the lower jaw) by a pistol shot during a hand-to-hand fight with Mustafa Pasha and Then the French general personally captured the Sultan Pasha, who commanded the landing.

When Napoleon Bonaparte left Egypt, leaving his Eastern army in this country, divisional General Joachim Murat was among his small retinue of personally loyal people. He returned to France with the future emperor on the Carrere ship, happily avoiding a meeting with the British squadron of Admiral Horatio Nelson ...

In Paris, the cavalry general became one of the main characters in the coup d'état that brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power. When he lost heart at critical moments of parliamentary events, it was Murat who pushed him to decisive action. Although the troops loyal to him did not then have to use weapons against Bonaparte's opponents, the divisional general was disposed to take the most decisive measures. And the French parliamentarians understood this at once, not daring to fight the military with a legislative word: General Murat, under the resounding rumble of drums, at the head of a small detachment of grenadiers with rifles at the ready entered the meeting room of the Council of Five Hundred (the lower house of the French parliament) and commanded there: "Throw me out all this pack out! "

These historical events brought the first consul of Napoleon closer to Joachim Murat, who became the commander of the consular guard. Soon they became related - Murat married Napoleon's younger sister Caroline. After that, the general was appointed governor of Paris and almost simultaneously became a member of the legislative body.

Preparing to become emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte began to conquer Europe. Naturally, this was not without Joachim Murat, who in April 1800 was appointed commander of the cavalry of the Reserve Army. He takes an active part in the Napoleonic Italian campaign: he took Milan and took possession of Piacenza, distinguished himself in the battle of Marengo and expelled the Neapolitans from the Papal States.

May 19, 1804 Murat receives the title of Marshal of France. In the list of 14 generals who were then awarded this highest military rank, Murat's name came second (after L. Berthier). He was also awarded the Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honor and appointed Senator. As a residence, the emperor allocated the Elysee Palace in Paris to his sister's husband. The Murat family was included in the list of princes of the imperial house.

Marshal Joachim Murat becomes in fact the commander-in-chief of the numerous Napoleonic cavalry, which was not only French. The French cavalry at the beginning of the 19th century underwent significant changes. Now it was organizationally and tactically subdivided into heavy and light. The heavy cavalry consisted of cuirassiers and carabinieri, the light cavalry - dragoons, horse rangers (horse archers) and hussars. Not only cavalry divisions were created, but also entire corps. Such a large and powerful cavalry, in addition to France in Europe, had only Russian empire, but most of its cavalry was light, mostly Cossack.

Marshal Murat's cavalry took part in all major battles of the military campaigns of 1805, 1806 and 1807, acting in the vanguard of the main forces of the Napoleonic army against the troops of Austria, Prussia and Russia. The cavalry commander more than once managed to break open the enemy's battle formations with the frontal blows of his cavalry, make flanking rounds and successfully pursue the retreating ones. He especially distinguished himself in the battle at Ulm, in which the Austrian army was utterly defeated.

Then Murat forced the 16-thousandth corps of the Austrian General Werneck to surrender. Having launched a swift attack on Vienna, he became famous together with Marshal J. Lann with the capture of the Tabor bridge over the Danube. It was a feat unparalleled in military history. After that, crossing the Danube, the French cavalry occupied the capital of Austria without a fight.

But the commander-in-chief of the Napoleonic cavalry troops also had setbacks. Such a failure, for example, was the battle of Hollabrunn. There, his vanguard 40-thousandth corps could not break the resistance of the Russian 7-thousandth rearguard under the command of General P.I. Bagration, covering the withdrawal of the Kutuzov army.

During the hostilities against Prussia, Marshal Murat distinguished himself in the capture of a number of enemy fortresses. The garrison of the Stettin fortress capitulated at the sight of a single regiment of French cavalry that appeared in front of the city. Having received such a report from the Marshal, Napoleon wrote, not without irony, to Joachim Murat:

"Since you are taking the fortresses by cavalry, I will have to dismiss my engineers and send siege artillery to be melted down."

In the battle of Heilsberg (May 29, 1807), Murat was surrounded by Russian horsemen and fought with them on a par with ordinary cavalrymen. He was then rescued by General Lassalle, who made his way to the marshal, to whom the famous words belonged: "A hussar who is not killed at thirty is not a hussar, but rubbish!" A few minutes later, Murat saved Lassalle from death in an equestrian battle by snatching him from the hands of Russian dragoons.

In 1808, Joachim Murat became the commander-in-chief of the French army in Spain. Napoleon did not succeed in conquering this country beyond the Pyrenees: here he first encountered the flame of the people's war. The French fought here not only with the Spaniards, but also with the British expeditionary forces that landed in Portugal, neighboring Spain. In the Iberian Peninsula, the commander-in-chief of the Napoleonic army distinguished himself by brutally suppressing the anti-French uprising in Madrid.

In July 1808, Emperor Napoleon made his sister's husband King of Naples. He ascended the throne under the name of Joachim-Napoleon. But since the crown bearer was constantly absent during the war, his wife Carolina ruled the Kingdom of Naples: she in all seriousness considered herself the true mistress of the state, which her brother "gave" to her husband ...

During the campaign to Russia in 1812, Marshal Murat commanded the 28,000th cavalry reserve of the Great Army (4 corps). He had to act as part of the vanguard forces. Already in the first clashes with the Russian troops retreating from the state border, the Napoleonic cavalry began to pursue failures. So, near the village of Ostrovno, a 2-day battle took place between the corps of General A.I. Osterman-Tolstoy and two French - the army Eugene Beauharnais and the cavalry of Joachim Murat. In that battle, the Russian infantry successfully repelled all the cavalry attacks of the enemy.

Marshal Murat near Ostrovno personally participated in horse-cutting with the Cossacks, among whom he (according to the recollections of the participants Patriotic War 1812) was highly respected for his knightly nobility and courage. The king of Naples in those two days more than once personally led his cavalry to attack.

During the Battle of Smolensk, the French reserve cavalry was never able to deliver flank attacks against the defending Russian 27th Infantry Division, commanded by General D.P. Neverovsky, although the Napoleonites had a three-fold numerical superiority. Murat's corps, which took part in the battle for Smolensk, did not achieve military glory then.

After that, the French cavalry took part in the pursuit of the 1st and 2nd Russian Western armies, which were retreating along the Moscow road. However, until Tsarev-Zaymishch, Murat, the king of Naples, did not manage to cut off the enemy's rearguard from the main forces and inflict defeat on him.

On the Borodino field, Marshal Murat, together with his reserve cavalry, found himself in the very heat of a general battle. His divisions took part in almost all attacks on the center of the Kutuzov position - the Semenovsky (Bagrationov) flushes. Fortifications passed from hand to hand. Although the French attacked tirelessly, the Russian infantry and cavalry counterattacked more than once. It was in this place that the opponents suffered the most significant losses.

In one of these battles, the marshal had to save his life twice. During a cavalry battle, a horse was killed under him, but he was lucky enough to hide from the Russian horsemen in the square of the 33rd light (infantry) regiment. So he in that episode of the Battle of Borodino escaped captivity or death.

Murat's cavalry also took part in the assault on Kurgan Heights. During the massive attacks, the French cuirassiers suffered especially serious losses. In the battle for the Great Redoubt (or Raevsky's battery), the commander of one of the cavalry corps, General Colencourt, died, whom the marshal in his report to the emperor called one of the heroes of the battle on the Moscow River (as the French call the Borodino battle).

Borodin's Day, so glorious for Russian weapons, turned into a real tragedy for the French cavalry, which lost more than half of its personnel and horse personnel on August 26, 1812. It seems that both the commander Napoleon Bonaparte and Marshal Joachim Murat did not realize then the truth that the time of cavalry attacks on field earthworks protected by artillery batteries had already passed. Otherwise, Murat would not have thrown his cavalry corps, divisions and regiments over and over again into the storming of the Semyonov flushes and Kurgan Heights, trying in the full sense of the word to crush the Russians with a mass of heavy cavalry.

The almost deserted Moscow became a real trap for the French. Napoleon began to look for ways out of Russia, while still keeping his Great Army fully combat-ready. However, before that, he was defeated on the Chernishnya River, which went down in military history as the Battle of Tarutino. Here, on the banks of the river, the marching camp of the vanguard of the Napoleonic army, the corps of Marshal Murat, was located. And only 8 kilometers from it was the Russian Tarutino camp.

Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy corps was located far from the main forces of the French army, the Russian commander-in-chief, Field Marshal M.I. Golenishchev-Kutuzov decided to attack and defeat him. The Battle of Tarutino predetermined the abandonment of the ancient Russian capital by Napoleon. Russian troops attacked the enemy in three columns. The attack began at dawn, and soon the column under the command of General V.V. Orlova-Denisova (10 Cossack and 4 cavalry regiments with horse artillery) defeated the opposing French and went into the rear of Murat's corps. Murat himself, who barely had time to mount his horse during a sudden raid by the Cossacks on his headquarters, was wounded in the thigh with a lance. In order not to get into the encirclement, the Napoleonites fled from the banks of Chernishnya to Moscow.

The Battle of Tarutino in the history of the Patriotic War of 1812 is also notable for the fact that the Marshal of France Murat did not manage to pave the way here for the Great Army, ready to retreat, along the New Smolensk road. The Emperor's army had to leave Russia along the Old Smolensk road, the surroundings of which were ravaged at the beginning of the French invasion.

Soon a counter-offensive by the Russian army began, resulting in a parallel pursuit of the main forces of the Great Army, which in winter conditions began to melt every day. The cavalry corps of the Neapolitan king, or rather, what was left of it, turned into a foot corps. Horses were recruited only for the imperial retinue and the personal escort of Napoleon Bonaparte.

On November 23, the emperor secretly left the remnants of his army and went to Paris to gather new forces there to continue the war. Instead of himself, he left Marshal Murat, giving him all the rights of commander-in-chief. The only thing he managed to do was try to organize the defense of the city of Vilna (Vilnius). But the advancing Russian troops began to bypass it, and the French again in great disarray rushed to Kovno, which stood on the state border, on the banks of the Neman River.

The almost complete destruction of the Great Army in the fields and forests of Russia broke Joachim Murat's faith in the happy fate of Napoleon. In January 1813, he transferred command over the remnants of the French troops to Eugene Beauharnais and, without asking permission from the emperor, left for Naples, the capital of his kingdom. There he tried to conduct secret separate negotiations with Austria, but unsuccessfully: European monarchs did not want to recognize kings like him.

In the military campaign of 1813, Marshal Murat fought on the side of Napoleon Bonaparte, again commanding the French cavalry, which, after Borodin, was no longer the same numerically and in terms of training. He took part in the battles of Leipzig and Dresden. In the latter, Murat contributed a lot to the success of the Napoleonic army, which the allies - Prussian, Austrian and Russian - were almost doubled.

At Dresden, Napoleon sent the main blow to the left flank of the Allies, where Austrian troops were stationed under the command of the imperial commander Schwarzenberg, who was just recently a corps commander in the Napoleonic army. The position of the Austrians was inconvenient because the deep Planensky ravine separated them from the center of the location of the allied armies.

The emperor of the French ordered Marshal Murat to attack the left flank of the enemy. His attacking actions were crowned with complete success: the Austrians, under the onslaught of the enemy, especially the cavalry, were thrown into the ravine, where their regiments and battalions were mixed, suffering, moreover, heavy losses from the rifle and cannon fire of the French. Although the Russians and Prussians withstood the enemy's onslaught, the complete defeat of the Austrian forces forced them to eventually retreat.

The battle of Dresden on August 26-27, 1813 was the last victorious line in the military leader's biography of Marshal Joachim Murat of France. The results of the battle were impressive: the Allies lost 16 thousand people killed and wounded, 15 thousand prisoners and 40 guns (the main losses were Austrian). The winners lost only about 10 thousand people. Murat was honored as the main hero of the battle, but he already understood that in the near future the Napoleonic empire would come to an end.

Murat leaves Napoleon and again leaves for Naples. There he concludes a treaty with Austria and England against Napoleonic France. For this treason, the allied powers promised to keep the Neapolitan crown for Murat. The 30,000-strong Murat army occupied the central part of Italy, striking in the rear of the French troops of Eugene Beauharnais. Napoleon Bonaparte, having received such news, simply refused to believe in it.

In 1814, the allied armies entered the defeated Paris. Napoleon, under pressure from his marshals, abdicated power and, by the mercy of the victors, became the head of a small state on the island of Elba. Murat returned to Naples. However, he failed to keep the royal crown. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815, the claims of the rootless Napoleonic marshal to Naples did not receive support from the monarchs of Europe. They simply did not want to see an upstart from the common people in their circle.

The decisions of the Vienna Congress predetermined the further fate of the Neapolitan king. He realized that it was only possible to keep the crown and throne with arms in hand. During the "Hundred Days" Marshal Joachim Murat again fought on the side of Napoleon Bonaparte against the Austrians. To win over the Italians, the King of Naples proclaims himself the liberator of the Italian people and promises him a constitution. Murat launched an offensive against the Austrians and took possession of Modena. After that, the Neapolitans took the city of Ferrara, but the assault on its citadel ended in failure.

Austria increased the number of its troops in Italy to 100 thousand and went on the offensive. A British fleet appeared off the coast of Italy. The Neapolitan army retreated, suffering only defeats. Not receiving the expected support from the Italians, Murat fled first to France and then to the island of Corsica. However, the desire to regain the kingdom given to him (and his wife Caroline) by Napoleon did not leave him. And he decided to act with all his usual energy.

In September 1815, Joachim Murat, at the head of a small detachment of his adherents (he managed to recruit about 200 Corsican soldiers), landed in southern Italy, in the region of Calabria. However, the planned victorious campaign against Naples did not work out. The former Napoleonic marshal was captured by the inhabitants of the town of Pizzo, arrested by the Austrians and tried by a military court. He sentenced Murat to be shot, and 15 minutes after the verdict was pronounced, he was executed by himself giving the command "Pli!"

Napoleon Bonaparte, being in exile on the island of Saint Helena, lost in the South Atlantic, in his memoirs left such a description for posterity to his military associate. The characteristic, according to historians, was distinguished by its brightness and was exhaustive for the image of Joachim Murat:

"He owed me everything that he was afterwards. He loved, I can even say, adored me. In my presence he was in awe and was always ready to fall at my feet. I should not have removed him from myself: without me he meant nothing , and being with me, he was my right hand. As soon as I ordered, and Murat instantly overturned 4 or 5 thousand people ...

But presented to himself, he lost all energy and judgment. I don’t understand how such a brave man could sometimes be cowardly. Murat was brave only in the sight of the enemy, and then he could surpass everyone in the world in bravery ...

In the field, he was a real knight, and in the office - a braggart with madness and decisiveness ...

I have never seen a person braver, more resolute and more brilliant than him during a cavalry attack. "

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Murat was neither a politician nor a strategist. As a politician, he lacked the proper scope. He easily succumbed to other people's influences. Napoleon told Dr. O'Meara about him: “Murat had a peculiar character ... He loved, I can even say that he adored me. In my presence, he was seized with awe and he was ready to fall at my feet. I did the wrong thing by pushing him away from me, because without me he became nothing. With me he was my right hand ... He was a knight, a real Don Quixote on the battlefield. But put him in a chair in the office, and he became a notorious coward, devoid of any common sense, unable to make any decision " 1 ... And further: "Murat had neither prudence, nor plans, nor character for the political circumstances in which he was" 2 .

But as the leader of the cavalry, in the opinion of Napoleon, he was "the best in the world." "I have never seen a man braver, more resolute and brilliant than him during cavalry attacks," Napoleon said later 3 ... And then he continued: “He (Murat) participated a lot in all military operations of his time. Murat constantly showed brilliant courage and special courage in cavalry affairs ... I had only to order, and Murat instantly overturned 4 or 5 thousand people in this direction ... Murat was brave only in the sight of the enemy, and then he, perhaps, surpassed everyone in the world in bravery ... He was carried away by ardor right into danger, while he was all in gold and with feathers on his hat, towering like a tower. Only a miracle saved him every time: it was so easy to recognize him by his clothes; he always served as a target to the enemy and surprised the Cossacks themselves with his brilliant courage ... I did not know more courageous than Murat and Ney. But the first one was nobler in character, generous and frank " 4 .
It is difficult to disagree with the opinion of Ronald Delderfield, who gave a fairly accurate image of the future Marshal and the King of Naples: “There was something in the appearance of this handsome man that impressed everyone. His way of expressing himself was so original that in his youth, as well as much later, he was even considered a buffoon. (Many strict republican generals, and then marshals - Lannes, Davout, Lefebvre - evilly ridiculed his passion for titles and especially for outfits. Marshal Lann called Murat under Napoleon a "rooster" and "jester", and once cursed him squarely: "Looks like the dog that dances ") However, when it came to taming an obstinate horse or attacking a square of infantry lined up for battle, nothing ridiculous was found in his appearance. One could laugh at him and call him a cross between a peacock and a clown, but it was simply impossible not to admire him in battle. Sitting in the saddle the way few men are, with flowing jet-black curly hair, he looked and acted as if he had just galloped here from the pages of some 14th-century knightly novel. For a very long time, his theatricality - despite his good looks and courage - kept him on the sidelines, but when his hour finally came, he exploded like fireworks. D "Artagnan was able to enter the word" Gasconade "into the French dictionary, but Murat fixed it there forever" 5 .

Joachim Murat was born on March 25, 1767 in La Bastide-Fortuneière (now Labastide-Murat) from the union of Pierre Muir Jordi and Jeanne Loubiere, and was baptized the next day after his birth, as evidenced by the entry in the parish register.

The origin of the future marshal and king of Naples is shrouded in darkness. It is believed that the father of the future marshal was an innkeeper. True, during the time of the Empire, there were well-wishers who tried to pass off the son-in-law of the emperor, the marshal and the king of Naples for a representative of the ancient noble family... The hereditary nobleman Murat-Systriere wrote to Joachim that he most likely descended from the Viscounts de Muir. At least the Murat-Systrier family claimed such kinship, although they could not prove it with any documents. Murat, however, had the discernment not to insist on this version, since there was no convincing evidence in its favor. In addition, the future Neapolitan king was not at all complex about his origin and could, like Marshal Lefebvre, say: “My ancestors? Their countdown begins with me. "

In addition, neither the notarial deeds nor the parish books from La Bastide-Fortuniere give any reason to say that the Murat family came from a noble family. However, they do not shed light on the origin of the parents of the future marshal. The only trace is information about a certain Pierre Muir, a worker from La Bastide-Fortune. He was the father of two children: the daughter of Mary, born in 1686, and the son of Guillaume, who was born six years later. The latter married the maiden Margarita Erbeil. From this union, four children were born, among whom was Pierre - the future father of the Marshal of France and the King of Naples. In 1746 he married Jeanne Loubiere. They had eleven (!) Children, including Joachim.

What Pierre Murat was doing is difficult to say with sufficient certainty, since in the marriage contract he is called an "employee", although later he calls himself a "merchant" and "hoste", which should be understood as "innkeeper" 6 ... According to Jean Tulard, Pierre Murat “had every reason to call himself a merchant to the extent that he was the manager of public property and church benefits. Thus, in 1763, he takes on a six-year farm the proceeds from the collection of the prior tithe in the parish of La Bastide-Fortuneer; then in 1770, in community with Jean-Baptiste Bousquet - the proceeds from the collection of tithes for the priory d "Anglars in Quercy; finally, in 1786, he takes over the communal oven at La Bastide" 7 .

As can be seen from the documents, the future Neapolitan king was unlikely to have come from the "lower classes"; his father was higher in his position than a simple innkeeper in the countryside.

From childhood, Joachim had an obstinate, hot-tempered and pugnacious character. According to Tulard, he literally terrorized all the teenagers in La Bastide-Fortuneer. 8 ... Young Joachim gave all his free time from "terrorist activities" to horses, which he not only loved, he adored them.
Parents wanted to see their son priests, and therefore sent him to study at the religious college of Cahors. After completing the initial course, Murat was sent to continue his studies in Toulouse to the Lazarists. However, it is unlikely that a good priest would have emerged from Joachim, since his "behavior and all kinds of pranks that he started in his youth clearly testified that he did not have the inclinations for the modest activity of a" servant of the Lord " 9 .
However, the year 1787 finally determined the further life of Joachim, since this year he leaves his studies and enters a private in a cavalry regiment, passing at that time through Toulouse. According to one version, he really liked the green military uniform of the cavalrymen, according to another version, he was expelled from the seminary for actions unseemly for a future clergyman. According to Sukhomlinov, "the young abbot ended up falling in love with a young, beautiful girl, fought over her in a duel and disappeared along with the object of his passion." 10 .
One way or another, but on February 23, 1787, Joachim entered the service in the Ardennes Horse Rangers Regiment. Physically strong and hardy, tall, Murat is happy to master the military craft.
However, the parents were not happy with the son's decision. Father used all his connections to get Joachim back home. This proves once again the fact that Pierre Murat did not belong to the lower classes of society. True, all the efforts of the father were in vain. With such a recruit as Joachim Murat, the military would hardly agree to part with their own free will.
Soon the regiment in which Murat served was transferred to Carcanson, after which it was sent to Celeste, where it was renamed the 12th Champagne Jaeger Regiment. Joachim proved himself well in the regiment, which is especially attractive to the command - the ability to perfectly handle horses. Soon he is already a quartermaster.
However, further service for Murat was stopped due to the riots in which our hero was implicated. The circumstances of this revolt are not entirely clear, although to some extent it was a consequence of pre-revolutionary sentiments that were increasingly flaring up in France. After all, the year is 1788. As a result, Murat, like many participants in the riots, was dismissed from the army.
Joachim understands what kind of reception awaits him at home. In addition, his father stopped giving him money and, in order to somehow feed himself, gets a job in a "grocery" in Saint-Cyr. While there, in addition to work, he begins to make acquaintances by visiting the clubs there. Soon Joachim already became a famous person not only in Saint-Cyr, but also in Cahors. His popularity contributes to the fact that the canton of Montfaucon elects Murat as its representative at the festival of the Federation on July 14, 1790.
On February 8, 1792, Murat, together with Bessières, entered the constitutional guard, which was intended to play the role of the king's guard. However, Murat soon sees that most of this unit are young royalists, who, instead of emigration, chose a place in the ranks of this unit. This caused strong indignation in the soul of the young Republican, and on March 4 he leaves its ranks. On March 6, he writes a letter to the municipality of the Lo department, explaining his action: “When, showing unconditional condescension to me, you appointed me to the royal guard, I did not expect that the new appointment should put a stamp on any manifestation of patriotic feelings. I did not think that the title of His Majesty's Guardsman would oblige me to curb my own way of thinking and force me to express myself in a language other than that of a true Frenchman, ready to shed his blood without fear and reproach for the salvation and defense of the fatherland. They tried to impose on me, but in vain, behavior unbearable for me. Forced to pretend for several days, I felt that as a law-abiding patriot and one of your fellow citizens, I was obliged to announce my resignation, hoping that by doing so I would justify your choice and confirm the integrity of my own intentions, which you know. I am convinced that it is shameful for me to remain among the youths, for the most part sold to the aristocracy, who consider it their duty and even valor to flaunt antipatriotic feelings, who have turned the school of military science into a forge, where clever apprentices prepare weapons at their own whim, suitable for their purposes. " 11 .
He re-enters his regiment and on May 15, 1792 receives the title of quartermaster for the second time. Four months later, he becomes a lieutenant. April 14, 1793 Murat - captain and adjutant of General d "Yurre, and on May 1 of the same year - squadron commander. In a letter to one of his childhood friends, Murat writes:" My family will see that I hardly had a great inclination for the role of a priest, and I hope to prove to them soon more convincingly that I was not mistaken in becoming a soldier. I will follow my path, if the Lord and the bullets allow it. " 11 .
Strange as it may seem, but the future Neapolitan king during the revolution belongs to the extreme revolutionaries, one might even say that he is a furious Jacobin. To the place and out of place, he shows revolutionary zeal in order to earn the gratitude of the leaders of the Jacobin party - Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Saint-Just. It comes to the point that after the murder of Marat, Murat is going to change his name to a more sonorous one at that time - Marat.
Soon our hero got stuck in one rather unsightly story: while teaching a detachment of hussars-"poachers", he would get involved in a dangerous litigation with a certain Landrieu, a former clerk, then a doctor and a national guard, who during the war was engaged in recruiting declassed elements and scum of society into the army. Each tried to prove that it was he who had the right to command this strange compound. In the course of this case, both accuse each other of aristocratic origins, and then terrible time Is a direct path to the guillotine. Murat is more fortunate and he prevails over his opponent.
True, extricating himself from one trouble, Murat soon finds himself in another. Being an adherent of the Jacobin party during the Terror, Joachim, after the overthrow of Robespierre, finds himself in a difficult situation. Everyone immediately remembers his extreme revolutionary views, his attempts to gain the approval of the Jacobin leaders and, of course, his desire to take the name Marat for himself. All this led to the fact that Murat was removed from his post in the 21st Horse Jaeger Regiment. Luckily for him, that was the only punishment.
However, Murat did not have to grieve for so long: the revolt of the 13th Vendemier in 1795 brought him back to service.
In search of a man capable of eliminating the royalist threat, the Thermidorians, led by Barras, turned to Bonaparte, who, after a short thought, agreed to disperse the rebels. One of the main characters in the victory won by Napoleon was played by Joachim Murat. By order of Bonaparte, he had to deliver the guns located in Sablon, which were so necessary for the success of the entrusted business. “This was the first deed of Murat to be recorded in history,” writes Ronald Delderfield. - It was accomplished with such speed and with such an impulse that subsequently more than once struck the armies from Madrid to the plains near Moscow. When dawn broke over Paris, the young Gascon's squadron galloped into the artillery park almost a few minutes before the arrival of the forces sent by the rebel commander for the same cannons ... the guns were in the hands of Murat. In a few minutes they were already rolling towards the Tuileries, where the artilleryman Bonaparte would place them in strategically important points.
The counter-revolutionary insurrection was suppressed in two hours. The directory was saved. On this day, Napoleon became the commander of the rear forces. Murat, who so quickly delivered the guns, a former private and still a captain, won the crown for himself. " 13 .
After the 13th Vendemier, the fate of Murat is inextricably linked with the fate of Bonaparte. In gratitude for the suppression of the royalist rebellion, Bonaparte made him his adjutant, and on February 2, 1796, Joachim became the brigade commander. However, all these promotions do not introduce Murat into the cohort of Napoleon's closest friends. In the words of Jean Tulard: “Throughout their lives, they do not feel sympathy for each other. The irresistible contempt of Napoleon, an officer who received a military education, for Murat, who had broken out of the ranks of the soldiers, the consciousness of the superiority of an artilleryman over a cavalryman, a strategist over a grunt. Different temperaments with integrity of characters and mutual pride of vulnerability do not contribute to the improvement of their relationship. Each time Murat will be forced to give in until the day when he finally decides to act on his own and destroy himself. But this will be much later, and so far nothing portends betrayal on his part and death as a result of rash and hasty actions " 14 .
The first serious hostilities in which Murat takes part is the war in Northern Italy, where an army is operating under the command of Bonaparte. In the battle at Dego, Joachim fights with such determination and fearlessness that Bonaparte cannot fail to mention him in his report to the Directory: "Staff Adjutant Vignol, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Brigade Captain Murat, my Adjutant, have greatly contributed to today's success." 15 .
In the battle at Mondovi Murat again distinguished himself; during the battle, he had to show not only courage, but also organizational skills in order to collect and return to the battlefield the French cavalry that had scattered in panic.
Paying tribute to Murat, Bonaparte sent him along with Junot to Paris with captured enemy banners. True, unlike Junot, Murat was also entrusted with a personal assignment: he had to deliver Napoleon's letter to his wife Josephine and convince her to make a trip to Italy. Having reached the capital, Murat visits the wife of the famous general, who, according to Seward, “... quickly found a common language with a prominent cavalryman, as evil tongues claimed, too quickly. They were seen together at breakfast, lunch and dinner on the Champs Elysees, all in one day. " 16 ... Josephine answered all requests of Murat evasively, without giving any promises. As Gertrude Kircheisen writes: “Josephine at that time loved life and its pleasures more than her husband. She had so much fun in this beautiful, gay Paris - in this Paris, which perfectly suited her windy Creole character and with which it was so inexpressibly difficult for her to part. And she, she is ordered to go with her husband in the heat of battle, in black clouds of powder smoke! .. Her name is to share with Bonaparte his glory, won by his genius? But this is done much better in Paris, in dear Paris, where festivities are held in honor of the wife of the famous hero, where she now plays the first role! .. " 17
Not wanting to go to Italy, Josephine asks Murat to tell Bonaparte that she is pregnant and her health condition does not allow her to make such a long journey. Did Murat believe in Josephine's invention? Most likely, since neither Bonaparte, much less he knew that Josephine could no longer have children.
Unsuccessful in his mission, Joachim leaves for Italy.
In the battle of Borghetto, Murat is again different. Speaking about the actions of the future marshal, Napoleon writes in his essay on the Italian campaign: “General Murat attacked the enemy cavalry and achieved great success in this battle. Here the French cavalry, which until then had been in poor condition, for the first time successfully measured its strength with the Austrian. She captured nine cannons, two banners and 2,000 prisoners; between them Prince Couteau, commander of the Neapolitan cavalry. " And he concludes: "From this time on, the French cavalry competed in exploits with the infantry." 18 ... In the report of the Directory from June 1, Napoleon, speaking about Murat, wrote: "This general personally freed several horsemen, whom the enemy almost took prisoner." 19 .
Seeing Murat in action and believing in his decisiveness and fearlessness, Bonaparte without any hesitation takes him on the next campaign - the Egyptian expedition.
On March 11, 1798, General Berthier informs Murat the following: “In accordance with the orders of the Executive Directory, please deign, Citizen General, to leave at once for the post office for Milan; if you don’t find me there in person, new orders will await you at headquarters. This is a very important subject, and you must not hesitate to leave. " 20 .
On May 19, 1798, on an early sunny morning, an armada of French ships left the roadstead of the port of Toulon and moved east to Egypt. True, no one, except for Bonaparte himself and a limited circle of people, knew where the army was headed.
Murat, assuming that after the Italian campaign he entered the circle of Bonaparte's closest friends, was surprised that he was not privy to the true goals of the campaign. In addition, some coldness of Bonaparte after Malta causes our hero to suspect that he has fallen out of favor. This hurt him a lot. It got to the point that he writes a letter to Barras, asking him for another appointment: “I think that Berthier will never forgive me for a few overly direct words addressed to him. It seems to me that he is quite a bit rebuilding General Bonaparte against me. My dear Barras, you are my only support, show mercy and get me another appointment. " 21 .
However, due to his completely non-spiteful and quick-tempered nature, Murat is not depressed for long. However, this state again visits him due to the fact that his active nature does not find a way out. Neither during the capture of Alexandria, nor during the Battle of the Pyramids, Murat remains out of work.
And only after the battle at the Pyramids, Bonaparte instructs him to pursue Ibrahim Bey. At Salahia, he manages to overtake Ibrahim and attack him. However, despite the success, Ibrahim himself could not be captured.
After that, Murat returns to Qalyubia to complete the reorganization of local government and, most importantly, to replenish the horse stock. In addition, he, together with General Lanuss, undertakes an operation against the robbers operating in the area. True, the fruits of this action were not as significant as Bonaparte had hoped for. In his letter to Murat, he writes: "It seems that you caused quite a lot of damage to the Arabs of Derna, but these scoundrels deserve more ..." 22
Feeling in these lines the discontent of the commander-in-chief and wishing to return his favor, Murat again rushes in pursuit of the robbers. In his report of October 5, he describes his actions as follows: “I set off ... with General Lanuss and arrived at El Mandarah, where I learned that their camp was two and a half leagues apart from the river, in the middle of the marshes. Then without hesitation, obeying only the voice of vengeance, we rushed to where these robbers took refuge. On our way we faced the same obstacles (as in the previous case - S.Z.), we overcame them with the same courage and after two and a half hours of marching chest-deep in water and swampy mud, we took possession of their camp, large herds, tents , harness, donkeys, several camels and one young horse. The Arabs, who could not hide from the pursuit of our furious riflemen, were killed. I have not a single one killed or wounded, for these vile murderers flee from the name of the French alone. I assure you that from now on horror has settled in the ranks of the robbers ... " 23
Murat takes part in the Syrian campaign, but, to his great chagrin, not as an active participant, but mostly as a witness. But, according to Luc-Dubreton, he surrounded himself with all sorts of oriental “luxury, as in Cairo: thick carpets, fragrant tobacco, wine from Smyrna; he again enters into the taste of oriental sweets and bliss, goes to bed undressed, and when he is warned that this is very imprudent, he replies with careless frankness: “Then I will mount a horse in my nightgown. At least my people will be able to better see me in the dark. " 24 .
And only in the Abukir battle does he again find himself in his element. According to Mio, on the eve of the battle, Napoleon and Murat had a conversation about the upcoming battle. During the conversation, Bonaparte said that the fate of the world depends on this battle. Surprised by such an unusual statement for him, Murat simplified, at least for himself, the state of affairs: “Well, at least - the fate of the army. But rest assured, my general, there is not a single soldier here who does not feel the need to win, and we will win. The enemy has no cavalry, our cavalrymen are brave, and I can vouch: if the infantry has to flee from the cavalry, then the Turks cannot resist the onslaught
my fellows " 25 .

Murat in the Battle of Abukir

During the battle, Murat met face to face with the Turkish commander in chief, who shot him at close range; a Turkish bullet passed under Murat's lower jaw. In retaliation, the future marshal cut off Mustafa's two fingers right hand and captured.
In his report, the chief of staff of the French army Berthier wrote: “General Murat did not miss a single movement of the enemy; he commanded the vanguard, constantly appeared at the shooters and showed on this day as much composure as talent ... " 26 .
Wanting to show his satisfaction with the actions of his subordinate, Bonaparte issues an order according to which Murat becomes a divisional general: “The Commander-in-Chief wishes to give Brigadier General Murat evidence of the government's satisfaction both for his previous service and for what he did in Egypt; commanding the vanguard of the army, he contributed to the glory that the army gained thanks to the victory in the battle of Abukir on 7 Thermidor of the 7th year of the Republic, as a result of which the Turkish army was completely destroyed, Brigadier General Murat received the rank of divisional general. Starting from this day, General Murat will enjoy the salary and benefits corresponding to the rank of divisional general. The Minister of War is familiar with this appointment ... " 27 .
In his letter to his father, Murat, who always paid special attention to his appearance, asks his father not to worry and convey to all "our ladies" that he is still just as attractive: to the Directory about our brilliant successes over the Ottoman army. You will also learn about how I was wounded in the bloody battle of Abukir. Let this second second news not spoil your joy, since I am out of danger ... Do not worry and do not spread false judgments, I will save all my limbs ... I was assured that I would not be disfigured at all. Tell our damsels - if there are any - that Murat, having somewhat lost his beauty, is still courageous in love. " 28 .
When Bonaparte decides to leave Egypt and return to France, leaving the army to Kleber, Murat falls into that limited circle of persons whom Napoleon takes with him.
During the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in 1799, Murat not only supported Napoleon, but was also one of the main figures in this matter. When all attempts by Bonaparte to achieve the transfer of power into his hands in the Legislative Assembly failed, Murat appears on the stage, who at the head of his soldiers, to the beat of drums, enters the meeting hall and, ascending to the podium, loudly announced: "Citizens, you are disbanded!" After the deputies ignored this statement, the future Neapolitan king, throwing all diplomatic and parliamentary subtleties aside, expressed himself more bluntly. Giving the order to the soldiers, he said: "Well, throw this ragtag out of here!" (True, Murat expressed himself even more rudely). Bayonets quickly nullify the timid resistance of the people's representatives.
In gratitude for such active assistance, Bonaparte appoints Murat commander-in-chief and inspector of the Consular Guard. However, an even greater reward awaited him - the hand of Caroline Bonaparte, sister of the First Consul, which introduced him to the Bonaparte clan.

However, Napoleon's attitude to this marriage was not so unambiguous. He appreciated the courage and indefatigability of a dashing cavalryman, but Bonaparte wanted to see among his relatives people capable of more than fearlessly crashing into the dense masses of the enemy and desperately swinging a saber. “Murat,” he said, “is only the son of an innkeeper. In that high position where fate has taken me, I simply cannot allow my family to intermarry with such mediocrity. " 29 .

In 1799 Murat was 32 years old. The Duchess d "Abrantes left us a portrait of this dashing cavalryman." As for the beauty of Murat and the nobility of his figure, this subject is very dubious. I do not think that a man is beautiful if he is tall and dresses like a joke. Murat had facial features not good, and even when they saw him without curly hair, without feathers and gold embroidery, he was bad.His face was distinguished by many features of a Negro, although his nose was not flattened; but thick lips and an aquiline, only without any nobility, nose gave him a lot of physiognomy, at least Metis " 30 ... Of course, this portrait is her subjective opinion, since many contemporaries considered the future king of Naples, if not a handsome man, then at least a person with a pleasant appearance. To this portrait, it is worth adding the lack of exquisite manners in Murat, although over time he tried to eliminate this deficiency when he became king, and he also spoke with a strong Gascon accent, which did not always give his speech a high-society character.

For the first time, Murat attracted the attention of Caroline in 1797. Napoleon does not overly approve of the choice of his sister, but Murat receives unexpected support from the wife of the First Consul, Josephine.

She even arranged dates between Joachim and Caroline at her mansion on rue Victoire. The wife of the First Consul sincerely hoped in this way to gain allies for herself in her husband's family, which was hostile to her. However, as the future will show, she acquired the main enemy in the person of Carolina.

On January 18, 1800 Murat and his mother, and on the part of the underage Caroline - her mother and brothers, including Napoleon, sign a marriage contract. The ceremony is attended by Bernadotte with his Desiree and Bessières as ... the newlywed's cousin. A magnificent wedding took place two days later.
In a letter to his brother Joachim, overjoyed, wrote: “Tomorrow I will become the happiest of mortals; tomorrow I will own the most coveted of women " 31 .
Murat is so in love with “precious little Caroline” that he often loses his mind and falls more and more under her influence. She takes advantage of this and involves him in the fight against the Beauharnais clan. In addition, in this young person, excessive ambition, ambition, and stubbornness are already manifested in full swing. Even Napoleon had to admit: "To explain something to my own sister, I had to spend more words than in the Council of State."
According to one of her contemporaries, who knew the future Neapolitan queen well, "this woman used all the strength of her soul, passion and insight for intrigue." The memories of people who knew Caroline are almost unanimous: a dry intriguer, completely devoid of conscience, greedy for honors and money and delighted with her own person.
After the wedding, Murat immediately uses his high position, spending money left and right: he moves out of his apartment on Rue Citizens and settles in the Tuileries; after this, he will begin to acquire mansions and estates: the first acquisition of the future Neapolitan king - the estate of Villiers, not far from Neuly-sur-Seine; a year later, he replenishes his estate piggy bank with the estate of Mot-Saint-Héré in De-Sevres, having paid 470 thousand francs for it; in addition, he acquires a luxurious mansion - the "Telusson Hotel", built before the revolution by a banker. It was one of the finest houses in Paris. There is no doubt that for all these acquisitions, Murat had to get into not only his own wallet ...

Carolina's envy had no boundaries, and she envied everyone, even her own sisters. When she found out that the sisters received the titles of princesses, since they were the wives of Joseph and Louis Bonaparte, Caroline will make a scandal to her brother during a gala dinner in honor of the declaration of France as Empire and Napoleon as emperor. Indignant and surprised by his sister's trick, Napoleon said: "You might think that I stole from you the inheritance of our father the king."
A year later, when she learns that sister Eliza has become the princess of Lucca and Piombio, she will hate her too. Even the marriage of Prince Eugene of Beauharnais to the daughter of the Bavarian king will arouse the envy of Caroline and Joachim. Napoleon literally had to give a direct order for the "humiliated and insulted" couple of Murat to deign to appear at the wedding ceremony.
Caroline, as well as Murat, recklessly walk away from each other, and each arranges incredible scenes of jealousy for each other.
Having finally received the title of Queen of Naples, Carolina is in seventh heaven. She immediately tries to take all the reins of government into her own hands, believing that Murat, with his abilities, or rather, lack of any abilities in state activities, should perform only representative functions. And seriously, she had much more energy to control than her husband. No wonder Napoleon proudly used to say that "there is more energy in one little finger of the queen than in the whole personality of her husband the king." True, in the future the emperor will be very sorry for such an energetic and active sister. It is she who will be the most active supporter of Murat's transition to the side of the enemies of France. Unfortunately for Joachim, he does not have the heart to "besiege" his obstinate and overly ambitious wife.

In the battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, Murat, although he did not play a decisive role, fought as always decisively and fearlessly. Marengo was one of the few battles when Murat did not attribute the main merits exclusively to himself in his report. In this case, he rightfully paid tribute to General Kellerman, who rightfully became the hero of this battle.

On January 15, 1804, Murat was appointed to the post of military governor of Paris with a salary of 400 thousand francs a year and the opportunity to play a very prominent role.
During the disclosure of the conspiracy of Cadudal, Murat is entirely on the side of Bonaparte and in the most decisive tones exposes the conspirators. In his proclamation, he writes: “Soldiers, fifty robbers left over from a dirty civil war, whom the British government kept in reserve during peace, having conceived a new crime that failed 3 nivoz (This refers to the explosion of the "infernal machine" when Bonaparte went to the Opera with Josephine, Hortense and Caroline) , landed in small groups at night on the coastal cliffs of Beuville: they penetrated the capital: Georges (Kadudal) and General Pishegru led them. Their arrival was provoked by a man who is still in our ranks, namely, General Moreau, who yesterday was brought into the hands of national justice. Their plan was to kill the First Consul and put France in the face of the horrors of civil war and counter-revolution. The camps in Boulogne, Montreuil, Bruges, Saint, Toulon and Brest, the armies of Italy, Hanover and Holland would cease to maintain peace: our glory would perish with freedom! But all these conspiracies have failed; ten robbers were arrested; former General Lajollet, the leader of this diabolical plan, in shackles; the police are following in the footsteps of Georges and Pishegru. A new landing of twenty more of these robbers is planned, but ambushes have been set up everywhere and they will be captured. In these circumstances, so unfortunate for the heart of the First Consul, we, the soldiers of the Fatherland, will be the first to shield him with our bodies like a shield, and, rallying around him, we will defeat both his personal enemies and the enemies of France. " 32 ... True, immediately after the establishment of the Empire, the newly-made marshal will write a rather curious letter to Napoleon, where he asks to pardon Kadudal and is even ready to make him his adjutant, vouching for him with his head.

On May 19, 1804, the day after Napoleon was proclaimed emperor of the French, Murat, among 18 French generals, became Marshals of France, and at the beginning of 1805 Napoleon bestowed upon him the title of Grand Admiral and Prince of the Empire.

In the 1805 campaign, Murat commanded the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army. During the pursuit of Kutuzov's Russian army, he leads the vanguard. True, in this position he shows not only energy, but also recklessness, which often displeases Napoleon. After the battle at Amsteten, Murat, instead of continuing to follow the Russian army, suddenly decided to turn towards Vienna in order to be the first French commander to enter the enemy capital. By this action, he placed the Mortier corps at Krems in the most critical position. Napoleon, learning about Murat's reckless behavior, wrote him a letter in which he expressed all his anger in this way. “My dear cousin,” the emperor wrote, “I cannot approve of your way of attacking: you rush like some helicopter, without delving into the orders I have given… you received an order… to pursue the Russians, holding a knife at their throats. A strange way of pursuit - to move away from them in an accelerated march ... you were guided only by petty vanity, concern about how to get into Vienna first. There is no glory where there is no danger; but nothing is easier than entering the unprotected capital, especially after the victory of Marshal Davout, who defeated and captured the remnants of General Kienmeier's corps, commanded by General Merfeld ... " 33 .
This reprimand revived Murat, who rushed after Kutuzov and the Russian army at Gollabrun. However, even here he did not show discernment, having made a gross mistake, which the Russian commander-in-chief took full advantage of. Trying to detain the Russians in order to wait for the reinforcements coming to him, Murat made an attempt to deceive Kutuzov by sending him a parliamentarian to begin negotiations on an armistice. Until the ratification of this document by both sides, both sides must remain in their positions; in the event that the ceasefire is not ratified, hostilities were to begin four hours after prior notification. Kutuzov pretended to agree with such a proposal, while he continued to retreat, hiding behind Bagration's rearguard.
When Napoleon was informed of this, he was once again enraged by the unauthorized actions of Murat, writing to him: “It is impossible to find words to express my displeasure to you. You command only my vanguard and have no right to enter into a truce without my order. Because of you, I have lost the fruits of the entire campaign. Break the ceasefire immediately and attack the enemy. " And in the end he concludes: "I cannot even imagine how you allowed yourself to be treated like this." 34 .
Stung by this new reprimand, Murat threw himself at the Russians, but it was too late: the bulk of the Russian army managed to retreat and get out of the French attack.
In the famous battle of Austerlitz, Murat acts as always - fearlessly and energetically, but the main heroes of the battle were Soult, who struck the center of the allied army - the Prazen Heights, and Marshal Davout, who, with a handful of soldiers, managed to pin down the entire left-flank Russian-Austrian grouping.
Despite this, Murat shows in this campaign the excellent qualities of an organizer, capable of leading large masses of soldiers. He is not a strategist, he is, first of all, a swashbuckler, everyone expects him to break through several enemy lines and tirelessly pursue a defeated enemy. Murat shows more courage and energy than intelligence. He is not able to pore over the map for hours, he acts without conforming to the plans outlined in advance. Therefore, among the highest officers of the Great Army, he does not have the same influence that he has among the soldiers who saw him in all the slightest battles in the most dangerous places.
In March 1806, Napoleon makes Murat Duke of Berg and Cleves. On the 30th, the emperor signs a decree, which reads: “Since Their Majesties the Kings of Prussia and Bavaria respectively ceded to us the Duchies of Berg and Cleve in full power with all the rights, titles and prerogatives that we had ourselves, so that we could grant them into the possession of our chosen prince, we, by our royal permission, transfer the indicated duchies and rights to them, titles and prerogatives in the form in which they were given to us - to Prince Joachim [Murat], our beloved son-in-law, in order for him to use them in all their completeness and volume, having received them as Duke of Cleves and Berg, and could, by inheritance, pass them on to his legitimate and natural offspring through the male line by birthright, with the steady exclusion of female heirs and their offspring " 35 .

But in the campaign of 1806-1807. his qualities of an organizer and a person of action were fully manifested. During the pursuit of the defeated Prussian army, he acts with such determination and energy that he deserves the epithet "Restless". As Tyular writes: “When it is necessary to drive a retreating enemy without rest, this tireless and incomparable horseman no longer remembers himself. Fatigue doesn't take him. He literally jumps across a large part of Prussia. " 36 .
If until now Napoleon was sometimes too stingy with praise addressed to his son-in-law, however, the capture of Murat Stettin by the cavalry causes incredible delight of the emperor. “My dear brother,” writes Napoleon, “I congratulate you on the capture of Stettin. If our light cavalry takes fortified cities like that, I will have to disband the engineering troops and send our cannons to be melted down. " 37 .

However, it was in this campaign that the unseemly side of Joachim Murat manifested itself: to ascribe the laurels of the winner exclusively to himself, taking them away from others. This is especially evident during the pursuit of Hohenlohe, who was eventually driven to Prenzlau. Despite the fact that Marshal Lann accepted the surrender of Hohenlohe together with Murat, Murat did not say a single word in his report about Lann and his soldiers, as if they did not exist at all. In this report, Murat not only appropriated all the laurels of victory, but also made it clear to Napoleon that Lann's infantrymen were moving so slowly behind him that he had to rely only on his own strength. This behavior of Murat greatly offended and offended Lann, who on October 31, bitterly wrote to Napoleon that his soldiers were discouraged by such selfishness of Murat. And there is why to be discouraged: despite all the hardships and obstacles, Lann's soldiers covered 105 km in 48 hours, and the first 78 km were covered in 33 hours. In a letter to Murat, Marshal Lann wrote with bitterness: “... no doubt, Your Highness’s great concerns were the reason that you forgot that I was also there at the head of my vanguard, and that I personally accepted the surrender of the chief of staff of Prince Hohenlohe ... I I would very much like His Majesty the Emperor to know about the participation of my troops in this matter and to know that I will be happy when this matter is resolved; I fight only for the glory and not the sacrifice that I would not give for you " 38 .
Murat does not miss an opportunity to take credit for the surrender of Blucher in Lübeck to himself, although, in all fairness, the troops of Bernadotte played the main role in this matter. In a report to Napoleon, he enthusiastically writes the words that have become famous: "The hostilities ended in the absence of the enemy!" 39
It is sad to admit, but Murat was not a sincere and good friend, he was selfish and often appropriated laurels taken from others. He loved to be praised, when he was admired.

Murat at the Battle of Jena

After the unprecedented defeat of the Prussian army, the Great Army moved to Poland, where the Russian troops were located. On November 28, 1806, Murat, in all the splendor of his unusual and colorful attire, entered Warsaw.
Countess Pototskaya in her memoirs left us an expressive portrait of Joachim Murat of that time: “The next day, Prince Murat, then the Grand Duke of Berg, entered Warsaw with his retinue, with extraordinary splendor - shining with gilded uniforms, various sultans, gold and silver stripes ... It was great person, or, rather, a tall man, with a face, although beautiful, but unpleasant, devoid of nobility and expressiveness. With his majestic appearance, he resembled an actor playing the role of kings. The artificiality of his manners was striking and it was clear that in everyday life he behaves differently ... ". Describing Murat's dress uniform, the Countess calls her "somewhat theatrical costume." “In all his costume,” she writes, “the most remarkable was the sultan - the tricolor sultan always fluttered in the most dangerous places of the battle” 40 .
Another contemporary of Murat, Duchess d'Abrantes, speaking of the Marshal's passion for all kinds of extravagant outfits, writes: “Who has not heard of Murat's coats in the Polish manner, about his hats, caps, and all the strange headdresses, especially funny for a military man? the expensive price of the feathers that adorned all these beautiful hats is known. Princess Caroline herself told me that she ... inquired whether many of them were sent to him, and learned that in four months he received them for twenty-seven thousand francs. "And further notes with irony: You can lead the French to victory and not with so many plumes, as this white feather of Henry IV proved " 41 .
The Poles greeted the French with enthusiasm, hoping that the great conqueror would restore Poland's independence. In his message to the Emperor Murat wrote about the mood of the Poles: “Sir, I must tell Your Majesty about the enthusiasm that swept the whole of Warsaw when Your Majesty's troops approached; it is impossible to describe it. Never before have I seen the national spirit express itself so clearly. I entered this city amid repeated exclamations a thousand times over: "Long live the Emperor Napoleon, our liberator!" 42 .
However, the war continues and Murat is forced to leave Warsaw and, in the ranks of the Great Army, move against the Russians. In the bloody battle of Eylau, it was he and his cavalrymen who saved the French army from inevitable defeat. Eighty squadrons of Murat, like a knife cutting butter, wedged into the center of the Russian army, causing confusion in its ranks. The marshal himself, during this unparalleled attack, directs the actions of his cavalrymen, holding only a whip in his hand. “It was,” Chandler writes, “one of the greatest cavalry attacks in history. The attack was led by Dal'man at the head of 6 jaeger squadrons, followed by Murat and a cavalry reserve, in due time supported by Besier with the guards cavalry. The cavalrymen Grusha, d "Opole, Klein and Millau attacked alternately in waves. First, Murat's soldiers swept through the remnants of the Russian units retreating from Eylau; then they split into two wings, one of which burst into the flank of the Russian cavalry, which attacked the line of battle. division of Saint-Hilaire, and the second wing with a saber attack literally cut its way through the enemy troops that surrounded the square of killed soldiers at the site of the death of the 14th Regiment. cavalrymen slammed into the closed ranks of the center of Saken, pierced them, reorganized into one column in the Russian rear and again rushed back to the attack through the scattered parts of the Russian troops to destroy the artillerymen who had killed so many of Augereau's soldiers. sent Guards cavalry ahead to increase the confusion and thus cover the safe return tired but triumphant squadrons of Murat " 43 .
Having lost 1,500 men, Murat did everything to give Napoleon the necessary respite in the center and allow Marshal Davout to prepare his forces for an offensive against the left wing of the Russian army.

Evaluating the actions of Murat's cavalry in this bloody massacre, Chandler wrote: "Napoleon had every reason to be in debt to his cavalry, which now, perhaps for the first time in the history of the Great Army, undoubtedly played the main role as a perfectly tempered and practically irresistible military formation." 44 .
58 Grand Army Bulletin Pays Tribute to Murat
and his cavalry: “The Grand Duke of Berg, at the head of the cavalry, supported by Marshal Bessières, the commander of the guard, bypassed the division of Saint-Hilaire and attacked the enemy army. It was a daring maneuver, which you rarely see, it covered the cavalry with glory and turned out to be very timely, given the position in which our columns found themselves ... This unprecedented, brilliant attack, overturning more than twenty thousand infantry, forcing the enemy to abandon their guns, would immediately decide the outcome battles, if not for the forest and some natural barriers ... " 45 .
One of his contemporaries, participants in the Napoleonic campaigns, recalling Murat, wrote: "The king of Naples was never so beautiful as in the midst of enemy fire."
True, during the battle at Heilsberg, Murat, although acting bravely as always, receives a scolding from Napoleon for his sluggishness. During the battle, Savary rendered Murat great help, but instead of gratitude Murat attacks him with abuse, accusing him neither more nor less of cowardice. After the battle, Savary openly expresses his opinion about the abusive behavior of the Duke of Berg to the emperor. "It would be better," he notes in his memoirs, "if he (Murat) had less courage, but more common sense." 46 .
During the peace negotiations in Tilsit, Murat was in the retinue of the emperor and even received from the hands of the Russian Tsar Alexander I the highest Russian Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
At the beginning of Napoleon's Spanish adventure, Murat played an important role in luring the Spanish royal family to Bayonne, where Napoleon forced King Charles IV and heir Ferdinand to abdicate from power. As V. Sloon writes, Murat “saw for himself a vacant royal throne in Madrid. All other relatives of Napoleon - Louis, Jerome and Joseph were already wearing crowns. The Grand Duchy of Berg was not a bad thing in itself, but the kingdom would have been much better, and Murat was extremely eager to sit on the Spanish throne. " 47 .
As Tyular notes, “the entire Bayonne plan is anticipated by Murat. Passionate desire and ambition prompted him to a real enlightenment: he was able to feel the subtleties of intrigue, although by nature he was not so much dexterous as
like a soldier dodgy. " And, looking into the future, he states: "Now, if in the future he acted in this way, anticipating the plans of his master! .. Perhaps his fate would have been somewhat different." 48 .
However, such unceremonious actions in relation to the royal family in earnest angered the Spaniards, who raised an uprising in Madrid on May 2. Murat, hoping to lay the Spanish crown on his head, tried to act with the Spaniards in the most benevolent way, so this rebellion greatly upset him. However, despite the fact that public opinion may not be in his favor, he nevertheless dealt harshly with the rebels. Thanks to his decisiveness and speed, he suppressed popular demonstrations by evening, but by doing so he made his name in Spain the most hated.
And even so, the Duke of Berg continues to believe that the Spanish crown will be his. Moreover, he believed in himself so much that, ahead of the events, he occupied the apartments of the Prince of Asturias in the royal palace. He is trying to create a favorable impression of himself among the Spaniards and to smooth out the impressions that he left in the soul of every resident of Spain with his actions on May 2. However, the Spaniards were not so naive as to forget the bloody massacre in Madrid in early May. As Delderfield observes: “Did the innkeeper's son really lose the Spanish crown on that very day, or did Napoleon already decide to hand it over to his brother Joseph, King of Naples? No one can answer this question today. The only thing one can be sure of is that Murat, that vain, pompous peacock, which, in fact, he was, would have become a much more effective king of Spain than the sluggish, overweight Joseph. The army thought the same and was very sorry that Napoleon was putting his brother on the throne. In the fierce battles that still lie ahead of Murat, this ... master of organizing cavalry attacks would cost in Spain as much as a thousand Joseph Bonapartes. " 49 .

The Spanish crown was not on the head of the Duke of Berg, but the emperor satisfied his vanity by granting him the crown of Naples.
Most of all, Caroline, Murat's wife, rejoiced at this. For more than a year she had to wait for her turn, jealous of all her brothers and sisters, who became queens and kings, while she herself remained only a duchess. Carolina firmly decided that she would prove herself the kind of queen that the Neapolitans would never forget.
True, having obtained the Neapolitan crown, Murat, surprisingly, does not show a desire to quickly find himself in his new possessions. As Chavanon and Saint-Yves write, "he would undoubtedly wish to rule Naples in the same way as the Duchy of Berg, that is, by staying in Paris." 50 .
The Duke of Berg, instead of going to Naples, goes to the waters in Bareges, then to the Contra, from there he goes to the Château de Bouy, where he is staying with Marshal Lannes; in early August, he arrives in Paris, where he awaits instructions from Napoleon, not really seeking them.
All these delays annoy Napoleon and he asks the newly-made King of Naples to quickly go to his kingdom. But Murat hesitates again, which causes another portion of the emperor's discontent. In one of the letters he says to his son-in-law: "I would love to know that you are leaving as soon as possible." And in order to speed up the movement of Murat to Naples, Napoleon orders to stop paying Joachim the marshal's salary.
Only after this does Murat finally go to his new subjects. On September 6, 1808, he entered Naples.
True, all hopes of the marshal for independent control of his territories run up against Napoleon's adamant instructions. No matter of any significance can be done by a Neapolitan king without the consent of Bonaparte. The emperor even forbade the use of the ranks of brigadier and divisional generals in the Neapolitan army, so as not to diminish the dignity of the French senior officers; Murat is forbidden to send ambassadors to European courts, since the Kingdom of Naples is the territory of the French Empire, and not an independent state. Napoleon, in order to prevent competition from French industrialists, restrains the development of the production of cloth in the south of Italy. When Bonaparte introduces a double customs tariff on the import of Neapolitan silk, and Murat responds by completely stopping the export of silk grain, Napoleon
When Murat, in response to the double tariff imposed by Napoleon on the import of Neapolitan silk, stops exporting silk grenae from the kingdom, the emperor says in anger: “Send for the ambassador of the Neapolitan king and tell him that the king must immediately revoke his decree. That the king is mistaken if he thinks that he can rule in Naples differently than according to my will, or for the common good of the empire. Definitely let him know that as long as he does not change his actions, I will take the kingdom away from him and put a viceroy there like in Italy. "
Murat tries to win the sympathy of the clergy by honoring Saint Januarius, the patron saint of Naples. In response to this, Napoleon writes: “I learned that you have embarked on a monkey imitation of the worshipers of St. Januarius. Too carried away with such things is harmful and does not inspire respect for anyone ... " 51 .
Following his success at Capri, Murat granted amnesty to all political exiles and removed the sequestration from their property. Immediately followed by a formidable shout from Paris: “I was shown your last decrees, completely devoid of meaning. You only react, not take matters into your own hands. Why invite the exiles back if they are plotting against me with weapons in their hands? I declare to you that it is necessary to take measures to revoke this decree, for I cannot stand for those who plot against my troops to find refuge and protection in your domain ... " 52 .
When Murat issues a decree (June 14, 1811), according to which all foreigners holding public office in his kingdom must accept Neapolitan citizenship, Napoleon issues his decree, which says that "the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is an integral part of our empire!" And further: “considering that the sovereign governing this kingdom is a Frenchman and the highest dignitary of the Empire, as well as that he was enthroned and retains power only thanks to the efforts of our peoples, we ... decree: Article 1. All French citizens are citizens of both Sicilies; article 2. The decree of June 14, issued by the king of this country, does not apply to them " 53 .
True, it cannot be said that Murat did not manage to pursue an independent policy in his kingdom. Contrary to the Bayonne Constitution, which Napoleon bestowed on Naples, Murat never once convened a parliament. This step was supported by the Italian patriots, who found the constitution insufficiently liberal.
Gradually Murat put Italians in ministerial posts, leaving only three Frenchmen. So basically the kingdom was ruled by Italians: Zurlo, Ricciardi, Magella, Pignatelli Strongoli ... Such a step contributed to Murat's popularity among Italians, especially among patriots.
The king of Naples pays a lot of attention to construction, and he does not stop only at cities, but also does a lot in the villages. He organizes a military college, polytechnic, artillery, engineering and naval schools, organizes the management of roads and bridges.
Much attention is paid to public education. According to the law of November 30, 1811, free primary schools; a school for the deaf and dumb was built. Great help was given to universities; the salary of professors was increased. A pedagogical institute is being set up, and an agricultural society is organized in each province.
Under Murat, the construction of the observatory began, the territory of the botanical garden is being increased ...
According to Italian historians, the reign of Murat, in the end, had a beneficial effect on the development of the Neapolitan provinces.
However, due to constant clashes with Napoleon, Murat fails to put all his ideas into practice. Constant reproaches and even threats from the emperor throw the Neapolitan king out of balance, he often falls first into fury, and then into prostration. It comes to the point that, as a sign of disagreement with the policies and actions of his august brother-in-law, Murat for some time refuses to wear the insignia of the Order of the Legion of Honor. True, Napoleon is neither hot nor cold from this.
According to Frederic Mason, Murat is the main blame for the Franco-Neapolitan crisis. Tulard blames the emperor for this crisis, saying that "Napoleon behaves like a foolish and petty tyrant, irritable and full of prejudice." 54 ... However, it would be more correct to say that both Napoleon and Murat were to blame for this political crisis. Bonaparte believes, and in this he is partly right, that Murat is only a viceroy, seated on the throne, and therefore must fulfill the will of his sovereign; Naples is not an independent kingdom, but just one of the territorial units of a huge empire, the head of which is the Emperor Napoleon. Murat, however, cannot fully realize that he is only a vassal and not an autocrat; he wants to be an independent ruler, forgetting at the same time that he was not born on the throne, but placed on it solely due to his entry into the Bonaparte clan by marrying Napoleon's sister; living in the role of the king, and he does it with pleasure, Murat is gradually playing into the hands of the Italian patriots, allowing himself to be drawn into intrigues, which he sometimes did not understand at all, thereby causing discontent, reproaches and irritation of Napoleon, who tried to make it clear to King Joachim to stay away from too radical-minded patriots who strive for the independence of the entire Apennine Peninsula.

When Napoleon calls on the King of Naples to take part in the upcoming war with Russia, Murat once again falls into depression. He enjoys being king and managing his subjects so much that he does not want to leave Naples under any circumstances. In this he finds the support of his ministers. However, for him military glory, honors are no less, and possibly more, than the throne. Therefore, he agrees to Napoleon's proposal. Moreover, it is so necessary for him to re-win the favor of Napoleon, which, as he felt, had been greatly shaken since his accession to the Neapolitan throne.
On April 26, 1812, he announced his decision to the French ambassador: “I am going to Paris, I will be there in a week, and I hope to meet the Emperor there. I carry my heart and head to him on a platter. I completely surrender myself into his hands; I am going to tell him that if he goes to fight, I will not leave him; I wish at all costs to regain his favor, his trust and return to Naples only full of strength and having achieved universal respect, which depends only on the feelings of the Emperor towards me. " 55 .
Leaving Caroline as regent, Murat went to the army, and departed there as befits a monarch. He was followed by a gigantic baggage, in which there was a place even for spirits. There was also a full staff of chamberlains, grooms, pages, lackeys, and the best Parisian chefs. For the next campaign, Murat even invented a new form for himself: boots yellow color, scarlet pantaloons with gold laces, sky-blue uniform, decorated with gold braid, and his dolman of crimson velvet was lined with sable; the cocked hat, adorned with a gold braid, was enormous, even from the point of view of the fashion of those days, and was topped with white ostrich feathers, which were fastened with a large diamond brooch; a gilded saber and a gold belt were framed with diamonds, pistols protruding from a gem-studded holster were trimmed with gold, rubies, emeralds and sapphires and diamonds. On the campaign, the Neapolitan king took 60 excellent horses with a tiger skin blanket, a golden bridle and golden stirrups. Following the memoirs of all contemporaries read, we can say that Murat was in his repertoire.
During the pursuit of the army of Barclay de Tolly, Murat commands the vanguard, persistently and without rest moving after the leaving Russian troops. Unfortunately, these tactics did more damage than success. In his report of July 2, General Sebastiani writes with bitterness: “Our horses fall from exhaustion, and people eat nothing but horse meat; they were tormented by the bad weather. " However, Murat tries not to notice either the fatigue of his cavalrymen, or the huge deaths among the horses, or the lack of food and especially forage. He saw in front of him only the elusive Russians, with whom he passionately wanted to fight and in battles with whom he dreamed of winning glory. This aspiration was so great that he, the Marshal, the King of Naples, participates in every slightest battle.
Finally, the first serious battle took place near Ostrovno. According to the testimony of the participant in the battle, Tyrion de Metz, Murat, getting into a rage, shouted to his soldiers: "Beat these canals!" - and his whip was walking on the backs of the Cossacks.
Near Smolensk, as Segur testifies, a rather serious conversation took place between Napoleon and Murat, which unbalanced the Neapolitan king. Murat, according to Segur, urged Napoleon not to go further and stop. The emperor objected, he did not want to hear anything and saw only Moscow in front of him. Murat left Napoleon in deep distress; his movements were harsh, and it was evident that he could hardly contain his intense excitement. He repeated several times: "Moscow" 56 .
Despite this, Murat continues with the same zeal, turning into a frenzy, to persecute the Russians, which causes the disapproval of many. Marshal Davout refers to the King of Naples as "insane." According to Caulaincourt, “the warlike ardor of the king often forced him, even against his own will, to warm up the main passion of the emperor, that is, passion for war. He, however, saw the difficulties of the Russian campaign and in conversations with some people he grieved in advance about their consequences ... But the king's best intentions were scattered as soon as he saw the enemy or heard cannon shots. He could no longer control his ardor. He dreamed of all the successes that his courage could achieve " 57 .

In the Battle of Borodino, Murat, as always, finds himself in the most dangerous places: he was seen at the Semyonov flushes, and at the Kurgan Heights, and at the Semyonov heights. And everywhere he leads his cavalry. During the assault on the Semyonov flashes, the Neapolitan king several times even had to flee in the square of the French infantry.
The battle ended at nightfall. "Never before has any battlefield looked so awful!" - Segur wrote in his memoirs.
Murat did not leave the battlefield all night. According to one guard officer, the Neapolitan king oversees the amputation of the legs of two Russian artillerymen, which was performed by the marshal's personal surgeon. At the end of the operation, Murat brought each of them a glass of wine. The sight of the Borodino field, covered with mountains of corpses, made an indelible impression on Murat. Almost all contemporaries - participants in the battle, who saw the marshal at these moments, recalled his detached, depressed look.
Murat spent the night in one of the imperial tents. When Ney appeared, he greeted her in a friendly way, and then said: “Yesterday was a hot day, I have never seen a battle like this with such artillery fire; at Eylau, no less cannons were fired, but they were cannonballs. Yesterday, however, the two armies were so close to each other that they fired with canister almost all the time. “We didn’t break the eggs,” replied Ney, “the enemy's losses are enormous, morally he should have been terribly shaken; he must be pursued in order to take advantage of the victory. " To this Murat replied: "However, he retreated in good order." - I can't believe, - said Ney, - how could it be after such a blow?
The next day, Murat again led the vanguard and moved after the Russian army, which at night left the battlefield and continued its retreat to Moscow.
Not far from the village of Krymskoye, a fierce battle took place with the rearguard of the Russian army under the command of Miloradovich. Murat drove his soldiers into battle, although he was, in essence, useless for the French. According to General Dedem, Murat got involved in this fight only in order to capture "a very pleasant chateau, which was very suitable for the king of Naples," and who wanted to spend the night there 58 .
Without stopping in the Russian capital, the Neapolitan king followed Kutuzov and by the end of September stopped near Tarutino, where the Russian troops had retreated.
From that moment until the counter-offensive of Kutuzov, an "unspoken truce" was concluded between the French avant-garde and the Russians, during which the vain Murat was gladly shown in full view of the Russian outposts. He was delighted to be paid attention to. The Cossacks went so far that, pretending to admire him (it is quite possible that the Cossacks actually admired this magnificent cavalryman), they called him their king. The naive Murat even wrote about this to Napoleon, which caused the emperor not only surprise, but plunged him into bewilderment. “Murat, King of the Cossacks? What nonsense! " Marbeau writes about the behavior of the Neapolitan king at this time: “Murat, proud of his tall stature, his courage, always wearing very strange, shiny costumes, attracted the attention of the enemy. He liked to negotiate with the Russians, so he exchanged gifts with the Cossack commanders. Kutuzov took advantage of these meetings to support false hopes for peace in the French " 59 ... Therefore, Murat was simply dumbfounded when these "friendly-minded" Russians struck a blow at his waxes at Vinkov's.
When Napoleon found out about this, he realized that it makes no sense to expect peace from the Russian tsar. The emperor raised an army and moved towards Kaluga. However, at Maloyaroslavets, the path of the Great Army was blocked by Kutuzov. After a fierce battle, Napoleon realized that it would not be possible to break through to the southern provinces and began a retreat to Smolensk, where large warehouses were to be collected.
During the retreat, Murat not only did not show himself in anything, but he was neither seen nor heard. Before the Berezina, he gave the impression of a man completely wilted, but at the Berezina, when the army was in a catastrophic situation, the Neapolitan king finally fell in spirit. According to Segur, instead of offering an option to save the remnants of the army, “Murat believed that now was the time to think only about how to save Napoleon ... he announced to his brother-in-law that he considered the crossing impossible; he insisted that he save himself while there was still time " 60 ... Napoleon rejected this cowardly proposal.
In Smorgon, Napoleon decided to leave the remnants of the army and return to Paris. Gathering the marshals, he announced his decision to them: “I am leaving the command of the army to the king of Naples. I hope that you will obey him as I do, and that there will be complete harmony among you! " 61
Manfred, in his work on Napoleon, writes about the appointment of Murat the following: “The choice of the commander-in-chief affected ... the monarchical degeneration of Bonaparte. In 1799, he left the Egyptian army to the most capable of his generals, Kleber. In 1812 he entrusted it not to Davout, the largest commander, not even to Eugene Beauharnais, but to the eldest in the monarchical hierarchy - Murat " 62 .
Many were surprised by this appointment. Coigne writes in his Notes: “Everyone was dumbfounded that now they would be commanded by the King of Naples, of course, an unsurpassed swashbuckler, ready to face danger in a hot battle with his chest, but at the same time he was reputed to be the executioner of his own cavalry ... He was the best and most beautiful cavalryman in Europe , but did not care at all about the fate of the people entrusted to him ... Of course, it is not worthy to blaspheme his commanders, but the Emperor could have made a better choice " 63 ... According to Marbeau, Murat "in these circumstances was unable to fulfill the task assigned to him." 64 .
The hope that the Neapolitan king would do something disappeared on the very first day of his leadership. In the words of Count Segur, “Amid this terrible disorder, a colossus was needed to become the center of everything, and this colossus had just disappeared. In the enormous void left by him, Murat was barely noticeable " 65 .
Having reached Gumbinen, Murat summoned everyone to a council of war, where, instead of discussing further actions, Murat attempted treason. When all the marshals gathered, he began to say that one cannot serve a madman, that he regrets very much that he did not accept the offer of the British, "if I had been prudent, I would have sat quietly on the throne to this day, like the Austrian emperor and king of Prussia" ... Murat understood that after the defeat of the Great Army in Russia, his own position would become more unstable and thus wanted to distance himself from the emperor's policy. True, this attempt was thwarted by a sharp reproach from Marshal Davout: “The King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria are kings by the grace of God, they were created by time and the habits of the peoples! And you are a king only by the grace of Napoleon and were created by the shed French blood! You can remain king only thanks to Napoleon and by remaining loyal to France! You are blinded by black ingratitude " 66 .
After such words, the Neapolitan king became despondent and confused. He could not answer anything articulately to the harsh reproach of the "iron marshal".
Even with some extenuating circumstances, Marshal Murat proved in disgrace his inability to command a defeated army. For this purpose, he was completely unprepared.
In general, after the departure of Napoleon, all of Murat's thoughts were aimed at finding himself as soon as possible in Naples and doing everything so that the Neapolitan crown remained on his head if the situation developed against Napoleon.

But that is not all. While on the battlefield near Reggio, which was littered with the corpses of French soldiers who fell from Neapolitan bullets, Murat, this "Pantolone", as Napoleon once called his son-in-law in a moment of frankness, writes to the emperor: "Sire, say only a word and I will sacrifice my family, subjects; I will die, but in your service. Tears welling up in my eyes prevent me from continuing ... ".
Guessing about his son-in-law's negotiations with the Austrians, Napoleon, nevertheless, was sincerely amazed at the news of the Neapolitan king's transition to the side of the coalition: “Murat! No, It is Immpossible! No. The reason for this betrayal is in his wife. Yes, it's Caroline! She completely subdued him! He loves her so much! " 76
But already in February, in a letter to Fouche, Napoleon gives vent to all his feelings against the Murat family: “The behavior of the Neapolitan king is shameful,” the emperor raged, “and the queen is completely shameless. I hope to live to avenge myself and France for this insult and such terrible ingratitude. " 77 .
The Neapolitan king's bouts of remorse, however, pass quickly. He wants to stay afloat at all costs, at the head of the Kingdom of Naples, and Carolina calls on him to be firm on this path of betrayal.
After the fall of the Empire and the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, Murat and Caroline were the only ones from the Bonaparte clan who managed to stay in their places. Despite the fact that they retained the Neapolitan crown, they could not help but see that the role of renegades also has a negative side. Nobody believes them, not even the Austrians, whom the crowned family has registered as their friends. The Bonapartists simply hated and despised them. In addition, her mother turned her back on Carolina, who did not forgive her daughter for such a vile deed. When the Neapolitan queen presented her mother with eight beautiful horses as a gift, Letizia returned them with the words: "I am horrified by traitors and betrayals." As Ronald Delderfield writes, Caroline "was an exceptionally thick-skinned woman and resumed attempts to reconcile with her mother, declaring that what happened was not her fault, that she had nothing to do with Murat's desertion, and that" she was unable to command her husband. " Madame Mother rarely laughed, but she must have smiled at such an apology, and, according to Napoleon's correspondence on this matter, she replied: "Only through your corpse could your husband break with your brother, your benefactor and your master." 78 .

However, the position of the Murat family could not be called stable; rather, it was more than uncertain. Pope Pius VII insists on the return of their kingdom to the Neapolitan Bourbons; Louis XVIII, who sat on the ancestral throne in France, also began to challenge Murat's right to the Neapolitan crown, taken from the legitimate dynasty. Murat's betrayal of Napoleon and his transition to the side of the coalition is no longer worth anything. The principle of legitimacy is the main argument for the feudal monarchs of Europe. Did Murat really believe that feudal monarchs would allow him, a man who did not have a rich pedigree, a fiery revolutionary during the revolution, Napoleon's comrade-in-arms, to sit quietly on the throne taken from the "legitimate" rulers? If he really counted on this, then his naivety, gullibility and utter shortsightedness cannot but surprise.
At the Congress of Vienna, convened after the fall of Napoleon, Talleyrand, this hardened intriguer and hypocrite, forgetting that he once intrigued with Murat against the emperor, insists on the return of the Neapolitan throne to the "legitimate monarch." "It is necessary to expel Murat," he declares, "for it is time to erase disrespect for the legitimate succession to the throne from all corners of Europe, if we do not want the Revolution to continue to smolder." 79 ... The representative of the Spanish court, Count de Labrador, speaks in the same spirit. They are supported by the Russian envoy Kapodistrias. “He (Murat),” he declares, “is the head of the Freemasons and a supporter of Italian independence; you just have to carefully read what comes out of his shop, and you will always find the words "unity", "independence", "national forces", with the help of which he is trying to attract the sympathies of Italians to increase the number of his supporters on the peninsula " 80 .
Only the Austrian side is still trying to protect Murat, since in this situation he is more useful to them and, most importantly, more pliable and accommodating.
Trying to appease Talleyrand, Murat not only crumbles in assurances of his good and peaceful intentions, but is even ready to conclude a defensive alliance with Paris against ... Austria. These are the metamorphoses that occur with Murat, who is ready to do everything, even betray his current ally, just to sit in Naples. On May 21, 1814, he even wrote a letter to the French king: “I ask Your Majesty to accept my congratulations. Providence has called you to the throne of Saint Louis and Henry IV. Born French, I keep in my heart feelings of respect and love for the noble blood of Henry IV and Saint Louis " 81 ... And then he lavishes good assurances to the Italian patriots who stand up for the independence of Italy.

When Napoleon, having escaped from the island of Elba, landed in France in March 1815, Murat forgets about his current allies and enthusiastically writes to the emperor: "With inexpressible joy I learned about Your Majesty's sailing to the shores of the Empire." And he adds: “I would like to receive some information about the mutual movements of our troops in Italy and in France ... Right now,” he concludes, “I can prove to you how I have always been devoted to you, and justify myself in the eyes of Europe and your own, earning a fair opinion of me " 82 .
However, Napoleon is not as gullible as the Neapolitan king might have thought. He is in no hurry to take his son-in-law into his open arms. In addition, he is already far from the idea of ​​unleashing any kind of war and, first of all, invites the European powers to conclude peace on the conditions of the status quo. However, the European courts did not react in any way to this proposal of Napoleon and the 7th anti-French coalition had already begun to form, and the emperor himself was outlawed as an enemy of humanity.
Meanwhile, Murat, wishing to contribute to the cause of the emperor, acts both from a political and military point of view, completely thoughtless. Without waiting for the reaction of the European monarchs to Napoleon's peace proposals, the Neapolitan king, completely losing his mind, declares war on Austria, moreover, when the emperor is just approaching Paris - on March 18. In many ways, it was this that prompted the European courts to disbelieve in Napoleon's peace assurances and declare war on France.
This rash decision caused a sharp protest from Minister Gallo and especially Carolina. She was so angry with her husband's decision that she publicly accused him of insanity. And in this case, she was absolutely right. “Isn't it enough for a peasant from Quercy,” she shouted, “to occupy the most beautiful of the thrones of Italy? But no, he would like to own the entire peninsula! " 83 However, neither the calls of Caroline nor Minister Gallo influenced Murat in any way. Not realizing what he was doing, Murat was steadily moving towards his death.
Having started hostilities against Austria, Murat, trying this time to whitewash himself before the Austrian emperor, writes him a letter, in which he mostly accused his recent patron of daring to join a coalition directed against Napoleon, which called Napoleon "a criminal a criminal ”,“ worthy of public prosecution ”. In conclusion, Murat declared that he was forced to launch an offensive in order to get ahead of the conspiracy of the European powers against him. 84 .
However, the hostilities, unfortunately for the Neapolitan king, did not last long. On May 2-3, 1815, in the battle on the Tolentino River, Murat was utterly defeated, and his army turned into a disorderly crowd of fugitives.
The defeated and subdued king returned to Naples on May 18, accompanied by an escort of four Polish lancers. Caroline greeted him with the most cruel reproaches. On her sharp attacks, completely devastated Murat said: "Do not be surprised that you see me alive, I did everything I could to die."
Surprisingly, after all that has happened recently, Murat is again trying to start negotiations with Austria. However, through the Duke de Gallo, it was announced to him that King Joachim no longer existed.
After spending the night in his palace, Murat the next day, at nightfall, fled with money and diamonds sewn into the lining.
Soon one of the winners of her husband, Napierg, arrived at Carolina and told the former queen that it had been decided to intern her in Trieste. Madame Murat, now called that way, left Naples on May 25. Reporting to Vienna, Napierg wrote that in his hands is the queen, "who for her country is more a king than her idiot husband." 85 .
While already on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon, reflecting on the swift actions of Murat, noted: "First he crushed us, leaving us, and then he supported our cause too warmly!" 86

Deprived of the throne, Murat sails to France, hoping to once again offer his services to Napoleon. In vain.
For two weeks Murat lived as a recluse in Cannes, continuing to hope for Napoleon's favor.
In one of the letters to Madame Recamier, the former Neapolitan king pours out all his bitterness on the emperor: “I lost everything for the sake of France, the Emperor, and now he calls what I did a crime, and on his orders. He denies me permission to fight and avenge myself ... I am not free even in choosing the place of my own exile. " 87 .
True, Murat forgot that in the eyes of Napoleon he is a traitor and he does not want to rely on a person who can let him down again.
When he learns about Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and his second abdication, Murat realizes that he should count only on himself. And then an extravagant thought comes to him: to repeat what Napoleon did in March 1815. On this occasion, Ronald Delderfield writes: “Murat was greatly impressed by the theatricality that accompanied the landing of Napoleon, who had fled from Elba, and this magnificent gesture, this his fearless approach to the troops sent to arrest him, this demonstration of the Legion of Honor on his open chest. It was this gesture that was especially attractive to Murat ... Now he decided that the moment had come to apply the same technique and fly to the Neapolitan throne on the crest of popular admiration. However, he could choose the right moment to attack only by leading the cavalry charge.
Unfortunately, he not only chose this moment incorrectly, but also misjudged two factors: the character of the Neapolitans and his own popularity among them. " 88 .

On August 25, 1815, a small detachment of Murat landed in Bastia, in Corsica, where he stayed for a month. On September 28, informed by the news that the Neapolitans are ready to stand under his banner, Murat leaves Corsica and goes to sea, without even bothering to check the reliability of this information.
On October 6, a storm broke out, which scattered Murat's ships, and when the marshal landed on the coast of Calabria, the number of his detachment was reduced from 200 to 25 people. This, however, did not embarrass Murat. Before going ashore, he put on a blue uniform with epaulettes, a triangular hat with black silk cords and a cockade trimmed with twenty-two large diamonds 89 .
Soon the detachment led by Murat moved to Pizzo. It was Sunday, a market was spread out on the city square. When Murat and his companions appeared there, most of the inhabitants clearly greeted the former Neapolitan king with hostility. While Murat was trying to win over to his side several soldiers who were nearby, the square was empty.
At the urgent request of several loyal people, Murat headed down the road to Monteleone. Everyone understood that the enterprise had collapsed and that it was necessary to urgently save themselves. However, they were soon pursued by a crowd led by a certain Giorgio Pellegrino. With several volleys from the pursuers, most of Murat's detachment fled, with only a handful of his most loyal companions left next to the marshal.
Captain Trentacapilli, who soon approached, arrested Murat and his companions.
The hastily created military court immediately passed the death sentence to the accused, in full accordance with the Penal Code introduced by King Joachim himself.

Murat was imprisoned in the castle, once erected by Ferdinand of Aragon to protect the coast. The cell in which the defeated king was placed was a pig barn. “The floor was covered with sticky dung and disgusting creeps were crawling along the walls; light and air was let through by a single vent, half littered with debris " 90 .
Murat denied any court the right to pass judgment on him, the monarch. And this was said by a former Jacobin, an implacable follower of revolutionary ideas, a man who once wanted to change his name Murat to Marat; Now confident in the sacred right of kings, Murat declared to his judges: “It is not given to private people to judge the king, for only the Lord and the people are above him. If I am considered only a marshal of the Empire, then only a council of marshals can judge me, as well as a general - a council of generals. " 91 .
He writes several letters: one to the Queen, the other to King Ferdinand, the next two to the ambassadors of England and Austria, in which he asks them that the states of the anti-Napoleonic coalition take him under their protection.
A seven-member military commission was established to try the former king of Naples. Its chairman was appointed staff adjutant Fazulo, who had once served with Murat. However, King Joachim refused to appear before this judicial commission. Murat said to his defender: “I order you, Senor Starace, not to speak a word in my defense! They do not defend themselves against the executioners! "

The verdict handed down to Murat read: “Article 1. General Murat must appear before the military commission, whose members will be appointed by the Ministry of War. Article 2. The convicted person will be given only half an hour to have the opportunity to talk with the clergyman and confess " 92 .
In fact, this decree corresponded to Articles 87 and 91 of the Criminal Code, introduced by decree of Murat himself and punishing anyone who attempted to change the mode of government by death.

Having listened to the verdict with a proud, calm and contemptuous air, Murat called it dishonorable.
The captive was given only a quarter of an hour to prepare to appear before the Almighty.

On the last day of his life, Murat wrote the last letter to his wife Caroline. His text varied widely at the whim of the copyists, since the copies were circulated after his death, despite the censorship ban. Apparently, the most reliable version of the document, according to Tyular, is the one quoted by Franceschetti in 1826: “My dear Carolina, my last hour has come, in a few moments my life will end, and you will not have a spouse. Never forget: there is not the slightest stain of injustice on my life. Goodbye, my children, Achilles, Letizia, Lucien, Louise. Present yourself to the world worthy of me. I leave you without a kingdom and without a state, among my many enemies; so stick together all the time, show your superiority over the fate that has befallen you, think about who you are and who you were, and the Lord will bless you. Don't curse the memory of me. I testify that the greatest misfortune of the last minutes of my life was to die far from my children. " 93 .
When Murat had finished writing his suicide letter and handed it over to Captain Stratti, the priest of Masdea appeared to confess him. Murat received the confessor respectfully, but said: “No, no! I do not want to confess because I have not committed a sin. "

On October 13, 1815, the sentence was carried out. The only more or less detailed story about the last minutes of the Neapolitan king, Marshal of France Joachim Murat belongs to the canon Masdea, who professed condemnation. “Arriving at the place of execution,” recalls Masdea, “and addressing those present, he (Murat) said:“ Do not think that I accept death from someone else's hands, except for God; the only way it is done is disgusting to me. Where should I get up? Indicate, mister officer. " And, standing on a somewhat elevated place, he unbuttoned his clothes and, tearing them apart, bared his chest. "Shoot," he said, "and don't be afraid, let the will of the Lord be done!" The officer ordered: "Turn your back." Then Murat approached him and with a smile full of compassion, raising his hands and eyes to him, said: “Do you really think that I would oppose these unfortunate soldiers, who are obliged to do what they would not want? That I will prevent anyone from submitting to the hand of the Almighty. " He returns to his seat. Bares her chest and says again: "Shoot!" (According to another version, Murat, standing in front of the line of soldiers, shouted: "Soldiers, do your duty! Shoot in the heart! Spare my face!") These are his last words. The priest proclaims: "I believe in the Lord Almighty!" - and the sentence was carried out. The body of Joachim Murat was placed in a coffin lined with black taffeta and buried in the main church, the construction of which he contributed to and which was finally rebuilt after his death with the money of the king. A solemn Mass was celebrated in the church the next day and a requiem was performed. This is how the great general Joachim Murat died. " 94 .
Over time, both the adventure and the execution of Murat began to turn into legends: a badly boarded up coffin, which crumbled when he was lowered into the grave, about the abduction of the king's body, whose head was then cut off ...

There is nothing surprising in this. It is still not known with sufficient accuracy where the remains of the Marshal of France, Duke of Cleves and Berg, the King of Naples, found their last resting place. According to Tyular, the remains of Joachim Murat, "were dismembered and mixed with the remains of a thousand people in the dungeons of the Church of St. George the Martyr in Pizzo, so that it was impossible to identify them." 95 .

And what about Caroline - Murat's wife and former Neapolitan queen? As was often the case, she was very soon consoled. In 1817, she secretly married one of her many lovers, General Francesco MacDonald (not to be confused with Marshal MacDonald). She was banned from appearing in Italy and France. The French and Neapolitan Bourbons confiscated all of her possessions, leaving the former Neapolitan queen without any permanent income. After the July Revolution in France finally overthrew the Bourbon dynasty from the throne of France in 1830, Caroline took advantage of this circumstance to find support from the bourgeois king Louis Philippe, who showed great leniency towards the Bonapartists. To the surprise of many, she received a state pension from the king and was able to plunge into high life again.
After the death in 1838 of her second husband, Francesco MacDonald, Carolina for a while got along with a certain Clavel. However, this relationship did not last long. The very next year, the health of the former Neapolitan queen seriously deteriorated and on March 18, 1839, she died in Florence at the age of fifty-seven. Despite the reconciliation with Jerome, the Bonapartists still "continued to regard her as a traitor, whose guilt was much greater than the guilt of the man who died in Pizzo with her portrait around his neck." 96 .

Unlike Caroline, who quickly forgot about her brave husband, France did not forget Joachim Murat. “Stupid, unreliable and vain like a peacock, he was still the most courageous and outstanding cavalryman that this warlike nation could give. When we think of him in our time, we first of all face the image of a by no means arrogant, discharged egoist, swaggering in Naples in front of court sycophants, but the appearance of a military leader, rushing through the snow with 80 squadrons behind his back and swinging not a saber, but a golden rod " 97 .

Applications

1. STAGES OF THE SERVICE

1787 - Private of the Ardennes Horse Jaeger Regiment.
1792 - foreman.
1792 - sergeant.
1792 - junior lieutenant.
1792 - lieutenant.
1793 - captain.
1793 - squadron commander.
1796 - brigade commander.
1796 - brigadier general.
1798 - Commander of the Eastern Army Cavalry Brigade.
1799 - divisional general.
1800 - Commander of the Cavalry of the Reserve Army.
1801 - Commander of the Observation Corps.
1804 - Governor of Paris.
1804 - Marshal of France.
1805 - Grand Admiral and Prince of the Empire.
1805 - Chief of the 12th Cohort of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - Commander of the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army.
1806 - Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg.
1808 - Commander of the army in Spain (as Napoleon's governor).
1808 - King of Naples.
1812 - Commander of the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army.
1813 - after Leipzig left the army and went to Naples.
1814 - concluded an agreement with Austria on joint actions against France.
1815 - after the flight of Napoleon from Elba, he betrayed the Austrians and began military operations against them.
1815 - after the defeat, he fled from Naples.
1815 - captured after an unsuccessful attempt to regain the lost Neapolitan throne and shot.

2. AWARDS

1800 - honorary saber for Marengo.
1804 - Senior Officer of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - badge of the Grand Eagle of the Order of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - Commander of the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia).
1806 - the highest dignitary of the Order of the Iron Crown (Italy).
1807 - Commander of the Order of the Root Crown (Saxony).
1807 - Chevalier of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (Russia).
1808 - Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joseph (Würzburg).

3. FAMILY STATUS

Wife - Caroline (Maria Annunziata) Bonaparte (1782-1839).
Children - Achilles (1801-1847)
Letizia (1802-1859)
Lucien (1803-1878)
Louise (1805-1889).

NOTES

1 About "Mira B. Voice from the island of St. Helena. M., 2004. S. 380-381.
2 Zotov R.M. Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena / R.M. Zotov. Sobr. op. M., 1996.T. 5.P. 205.
3 In the same place.
4 Rules, thoughts and opinions of Napoleon on the art of war, military history and military affairs. From his writings and correspondence, collected by F. Kauzler. SPb., 1844. Part 2.S. 49-51.
5 Delderfield R.F. The Marshals of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 37-38.
6 Tulard J. Murat or the awakening of the nation. M., 1993.S. 19-20.
7 In the same place. P. 20.
8 In the same place. P. 21.
9 Sukhomlinov V. Murat Joachim-Murat - King of the Two Sicilies. SPb., 1896.S. 2.
10 In the same place. P. 3.
11 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 28.
12 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Joachim Murat. P., 1905. P. 9.
13 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 62-63.
14 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 34-35.
15 In the same place. P. 36.
16 Seward D. The Napoleon Family. Smolensk. 1995.S. 70.
17 Kirheisen G. Women around Napoleon. M., 1912.S. 113.
18 Napoleon. Selected works. M., 1956.S. 85.
19 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 38.
20 In the same place. P. 48.
21 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 33.
22 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 56.
23 In the same place.
24 Lukas-Dubreton J. Murat. P., 1944. P. 33.
25 Miot J. Mémoires pour servis à l "histoire des exspéditions en Égypte et en Syrie. P. 1858. P. 258.
26 Tulard J. Decree. Op. 63.
27 Prince Murat et Le Brethon. Lettres et documents pour servir à l'histoire de Joachim Murat. T. 1. P. 25-26.
28 Ibid. P. 26-27.
29 Seward D. Decree. Op. P. 96.
30 Abrantes L. d. Notes of the Duchess Abrantes, or historical memories of Napoleon, revolution, directory, consulate, empire and the restoration of the Bourbons. M., 1835. T. 3. P. 131.
31 Prince Murat et Le Brethon. Lettres et documents ... T. 1. P. 35-36.
32 Lumbroso A. Muratiana. 1899. P. 100.
33 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 128.
34 In the same place. P. 135.
35 In the same place. P. 145.
36 In the same place. P. 158.
37 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 159.
38 Damamme J.-C. Lannes maréchal d'Empire. P., 1987. P. 224.
39 Lumbroso A. Op. cit. P. 150.
40 Pototskaya A. Memoirs of Countess Pototskaya (1794-1820). Pg., 1915.S. 67-68.
41 Abrantes L. d. "Decree. Works. T. 9. S. 308-309.
42 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 163-164.
43 Chandler D. Napoleon's military campaigns. M., 1999.S. 338.
44 In the same place.
45 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 170.
46 Savary. Mémoire sur l'Empire. P., 1828. T. 3. P. 83.
47 Sloon V. New life of Napoleon. M., 1995.T. 2.P. 267.
48 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 188.
49 Delderfield R.F. Decree. Op. S. 213-214.
50 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 184.
51 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 244.
52 In the same place. P. 245.
53 In the same place. S. 267-268.
54 In the same place. P. 265.
55 In the same place. P. 272.
56 Segur F. Hike to Moscow. Memoirs of the Adjutant. M., 2002.S. 61.
57 Colencourt A. Memoirs. Napoleon's campaign to Russia. Smolensk. 1991.S. 346.
58 Dedem de Gelder. Mémoires du général Dedem de Gelder. P., 1900. P. 243.
59 Marbeau M. Memoirs of General Baron Marbeau. M., 2005.T. 3.S. 570.
60 Segur F. Decree. Op. P. 253.
61 In the same place. P. 269.
62 Manfred A.Z. Napoleon Bonaparte. M., 1998.S. 532.
63 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 285.
64 Marbo M. Decree. Op. T. 3.P. 611.
65 Segur F. Decree. Op. P. 271.
66 In the same place. S. 282-283.
67 Seward D. The Napoleon Family. Smolensk. 1995.S. 269.
68 Shikanov V.N. Constellation of Napoleon: Marshals of the First Empire. M., 1999.
69 Seward D. Decree. Op. S. 281-282.
70 Garnier J.-P. Murat roi de Naples. P., 1959. P. 231.
71 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 306.
72 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 273.
73 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 312-313.
74 In the same place. S. 313-314.
75 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon ... S. 341, 342.
76 Breton G. Women and Kings. M., 1996.T. 8, p. 74.
77 Chandler D. Decree. Op. P. 577.
78 Delderfield R. F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 326.
79 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 320.
80 Garnier J.-P. Op. cit. P. 264.
81 Tulard J. UKaz. Op. P. 322.
82 In the same place. P. 324.
83 In the same place.
84 In the same place.
85 Seward D. Decree. Op. P. 338.
86 Delderfield R. F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon ... p. 360.
87 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 331.
88 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. S. 415-416.
89 Sukhomlinov V. Decree. Op. P. 33.
90 In the same place. P. 40.
91 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 341.
92 In the same place.
93 In the same place. P. 342.
94 In the same place. S. 342-343.
95 In the same place. P. 344.
96 Delderfield R.F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon ... p. 377.
97 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. S. 416-417.

Murat was neither a politician nor a strategist. As a politician, he lacked the proper scope. He easily succumbed to other people's influences. Napoleon told Dr. O'Meara about him: “Murat had a peculiar character ... He loved, I can even say that he adored me. In my presence, he was seized with awe and he was ready to fall at my feet. I did the wrong thing by pushing him away from me, because without me he became nothing. With me he was my right hand ... He was a knight, a real Don Quixote on the battlefield. But put him in a chair in the office, and he became a notorious coward, devoid of any common sense, unable to make any decision " 1 ... And further: "Murat had neither prudence, nor plans, nor character for the political circumstances in which he was" 2 .

But as the leader of the cavalry, in the opinion of Napoleon, he was "the best in the world." "I have never seen a man braver, more resolute and brilliant than him during cavalry attacks," Napoleon said later 3 ... And then he continued: “He (Murat) participated a lot in all military operations of his time. Murat constantly showed brilliant courage and special courage in cavalry affairs ... I had only to order, and Murat instantly overturned 4 or 5 thousand people in this direction ... Murat was brave only in the sight of the enemy, and then he, perhaps, surpassed everyone in the world in bravery ... He was carried away by ardor right into danger, while he was all in gold and with feathers on his hat, towering like a tower. Only a miracle saved him every time: it was so easy to recognize him by his clothes; he always served as a target to the enemy and surprised the Cossacks themselves with his brilliant courage ... I did not know more courageous than Murat and Ney. But the first one was nobler in character, generous and frank " 4 .
It is difficult to disagree with the opinion of Ronald Delderfield, who gave a fairly accurate image of the future Marshal and the King of Naples: “There was something in the appearance of this handsome man that impressed everyone. His way of expressing himself was so original that in his youth, as well as much later, he was even considered a buffoon. (Many strict republican generals, and then marshals - Lannes, Davout, Lefebvre - evilly ridiculed his passion for titles and especially for outfits. Marshal Lann called Murat under Napoleon a "rooster" and "jester", and once cursed him squarely: "Looks like the dog that dances ") However, when it came to taming an obstinate horse or attacking a square of infantry lined up for battle, nothing ridiculous was found in his appearance. One could laugh at him and call him a cross between a peacock and a clown, but it was simply impossible not to admire him in battle. Sitting in the saddle the way few men are, with flowing jet-black curly hair, he looked and acted as if he had just galloped here from the pages of some 14th-century knightly novel. For a very long time, his theatricality - despite his good looks and courage - kept him on the sidelines, but when his hour finally came, he exploded like fireworks. D "Artagnan was able to enter the word" Gasconade "into the French dictionary, but Murat fixed it there forever" 5 .

Joachim Murat was born on March 25, 1767 in La Bastide-Fortuneière (now Labastide-Murat) from the union of Pierre Muir Jordi and Jeanne Loubiere, and was baptized the next day after his birth, as evidenced by the entry in the parish register.

The origin of the future marshal and king of Naples is shrouded in darkness. It is believed that the father of the future marshal was an innkeeper. True, during the time of the Empire there were well-wishers who tried to pass off the son-in-law of the emperor, the marshal and the king of Naples for a representative of an ancient noble family. The hereditary nobleman Murat-Systriere wrote to Joachim that he most likely descended from the Viscounts de Muir. At least the Murat-Systrier family claimed such kinship, although they could not prove it with any documents. Murat, however, had the discernment not to insist on this version, since there was no convincing evidence in its favor. In addition, the future Neapolitan king was not at all complex about his origin and could, like Marshal Lefebvre, say: “My ancestors? Their countdown begins with me. "

In addition, neither the notarial deeds nor the parish books from La Bastide-Fortuniere give any reason to say that the Murat family came from a noble family. However, they do not shed light on the origin of the parents of the future marshal. The only trace is information about a certain Pierre Muir, a worker from La Bastide-Fortune. He was the father of two children: the daughter of Mary, born in 1686, and the son of Guillaume, who was born six years later. The latter married the maiden Margarita Erbeil. From this union, four children were born, among whom was Pierre - the future father of the Marshal of France and the King of Naples. In 1746 he married Jeanne Loubiere. They had eleven (!) Children, including Joachim.

What Pierre Murat was doing is difficult to say with sufficient certainty, since in the marriage contract he is called an "employee", although later he calls himself a "merchant" and "hoste", which should be understood as "innkeeper" 6 ... According to Jean Tulard, Pierre Murat “had every reason to call himself a merchant to the extent that he was the manager of public property and church benefits. Thus, in 1763, he takes on a six-year farm the proceeds from the collection of the prior tithe in the parish of La Bastide-Fortuneer; then in 1770, in community with Jean-Baptiste Bousquet - the proceeds from the collection of tithes for the priory d "Anglars in Quercy; finally, in 1786, he takes over the communal oven at La Bastide" 7 .

As can be seen from the documents, the future Neapolitan king was unlikely to have come from the "lower classes"; his father was higher in his position than a simple innkeeper in the countryside.

From childhood, Joachim had an obstinate, hot-tempered and pugnacious character. According to Tulard, he literally terrorized all the teenagers in La Bastide-Fortuneer. 8 ... Young Joachim gave all his free time from "terrorist activities" to horses, which he not only loved, he adored them.
Parents wanted to see their son priests, and therefore sent him to study at the religious college of Cahors. After completing the initial course, Murat was sent to continue his studies in Toulouse to the Lazarists. However, it is unlikely that a good priest would have emerged from Joachim, since his "behavior and all kinds of pranks that he started in his youth clearly testified that he did not have the inclinations for the modest activity of a" servant of the Lord " 9 .
However, the year 1787 finally determined the further life of Joachim, since this year he leaves his studies and enters a private in a cavalry regiment, passing at that time through Toulouse. According to one version, he really liked the green military uniform of the cavalrymen, according to another version, he was expelled from the seminary for actions unseemly for a future clergyman. According to Sukhomlinov, "the young abbot ended up falling in love with a young, beautiful girl, fought over her in a duel and disappeared along with the object of his passion." 10 .
One way or another, but on February 23, 1787, Joachim entered the service in the Ardennes Horse Rangers Regiment. Physically strong and hardy, tall, Murat is happy to master the military craft.
However, the parents were not happy with the son's decision. Father used all his connections to get Joachim back home. This proves once again the fact that Pierre Murat did not belong to the lower classes of society. True, all the efforts of the father were in vain. With such a recruit as Joachim Murat, the military would hardly agree to part with their own free will.
Soon the regiment in which Murat served was transferred to Carcanson, after which it was sent to Celeste, where it was renamed the 12th Champagne Jaeger Regiment. Joachim proved himself well in the regiment, which is especially attractive to the command - the ability to perfectly handle horses. Soon he is already a quartermaster.
However, further service for Murat was stopped due to the riots in which our hero was implicated. The circumstances of this revolt are not entirely clear, although to some extent it was a consequence of pre-revolutionary sentiments that were increasingly flaring up in France. After all, the year is 1788. As a result, Murat, like many participants in the riots, was dismissed from the army.
Joachim understands what kind of reception awaits him at home. In addition, his father stopped giving him money and, in order to somehow feed himself, gets a job in a "grocery" in Saint-Cyr. While there, in addition to work, he begins to make acquaintances by visiting the clubs there. Soon Joachim already became a famous person not only in Saint-Cyr, but also in Cahors. His popularity contributes to the fact that the canton of Montfaucon elects Murat as its representative at the festival of the Federation on July 14, 1790.
On February 8, 1792, Murat, together with Bessières, entered the constitutional guard, which was intended to play the role of the king's guard. However, Murat soon sees that most of this unit are young royalists, who, instead of emigration, chose a place in the ranks of this unit. This caused strong indignation in the soul of the young Republican, and on March 4 he leaves its ranks. On March 6, he writes a letter to the municipality of the Lo department, explaining his action: “When, showing unconditional condescension to me, you appointed me to the royal guard, I did not expect that the new appointment should put a stamp on any manifestation of patriotic feelings. I did not think that the title of His Majesty's Guardsman would oblige me to curb my own way of thinking and force me to express myself in a language other than that of a true Frenchman, ready to shed his blood without fear and reproach for the salvation and defense of the fatherland. They tried to impose on me, but in vain, behavior unbearable for me. Forced to pretend for several days, I felt that as a law-abiding patriot and one of your fellow citizens, I was obliged to announce my resignation, hoping that by doing so I would justify your choice and confirm the integrity of my own intentions, which you know. I am convinced that it is shameful for me to remain among the youths, for the most part sold to the aristocracy, who consider it their duty and even valor to flaunt antipatriotic feelings, who have turned the school of military science into a forge, where clever apprentices prepare weapons at their own whim, suitable for their purposes. " 11 .
He re-enters his regiment and on May 15, 1792 receives the title of quartermaster for the second time. Four months later, he becomes a lieutenant. April 14, 1793 Murat - captain and adjutant of General d "Yurre, and on May 1 of the same year - squadron commander. In a letter to one of his childhood friends, Murat writes:" My family will see that I hardly had a great inclination for the role of a priest, and I hope to prove to them soon more convincingly that I was not mistaken in becoming a soldier. I will follow my path, if the Lord and the bullets allow it. " 11 .
Strange as it may seem, but the future Neapolitan king during the revolution belongs to the extreme revolutionaries, one might even say that he is a furious Jacobin. To the place and out of place, he shows revolutionary zeal in order to earn the gratitude of the leaders of the Jacobin party - Robespierre, Danton, Marat, Saint-Just. It comes to the point that after the murder of Marat, Murat is going to change his name to a more sonorous one at that time - Marat.
Soon our hero got stuck in one rather unsightly story: while teaching a detachment of hussars-"poachers", he would get involved in a dangerous litigation with a certain Landrieu, a former clerk, then a doctor and a national guard, who during the war was engaged in recruiting declassed elements and scum of society into the army. Each tried to prove that it was he who had the right to command this strange compound. In the course of this case, both accuse each other of aristocratic origins, and at that terrible time, this is a direct path to the guillotine. Murat is more fortunate and he prevails over his opponent.
True, extricating himself from one trouble, Murat soon finds himself in another. Being an adherent of the Jacobin party during the Terror, Joachim, after the overthrow of Robespierre, finds himself in a difficult situation. Everyone immediately remembers his extreme revolutionary views, his attempts to gain the approval of the Jacobin leaders and, of course, his desire to take the name Marat for himself. All this led to the fact that Murat was removed from his post in the 21st Horse Jaeger Regiment. Luckily for him, that was the only punishment.
However, Murat did not have to grieve for so long: the revolt of the 13th Vendemier in 1795 brought him back to service.
In search of a man capable of eliminating the royalist threat, the Thermidorians, led by Barras, turned to Bonaparte, who, after a short thought, agreed to disperse the rebels. One of the main characters in the victory won by Napoleon was played by Joachim Murat. By order of Bonaparte, he had to deliver the guns located in Sablon, which were so necessary for the success of the entrusted business. “This was the first deed of Murat to be recorded in history,” writes Ronald Delderfield. - It was accomplished with such speed and with such an impulse that subsequently more than once struck the armies from Madrid to the plains near Moscow. When dawn broke over Paris, the young Gascon's squadron galloped into the artillery park almost a few minutes before the arrival of the forces sent by the rebel commander for the same cannons ... the guns were in the hands of Murat. In a few minutes they were already rolling towards the Tuileries, where the artilleryman Bonaparte would place them in strategically important points.
The counter-revolutionary insurrection was suppressed in two hours. The directory was saved. On this day, Napoleon became the commander of the rear forces. Murat, who so quickly delivered the guns, a former private and still a captain, won the crown for himself. " 13 .
After the 13th Vendemier, the fate of Murat is inextricably linked with the fate of Bonaparte. In gratitude for the suppression of the royalist rebellion, Bonaparte made him his adjutant, and on February 2, 1796, Joachim became the brigade commander. However, all these promotions do not introduce Murat into the cohort of Napoleon's closest friends. In the words of Jean Tulard: “Throughout their lives, they do not feel sympathy for each other. The irresistible contempt of Napoleon, an officer who received a military education, for Murat, who had broken out of the ranks of the soldiers, the consciousness of the superiority of an artilleryman over a cavalryman, a strategist over a grunt. Different temperaments with integrity of characters and mutual pride of vulnerability do not contribute to the improvement of their relationship. Each time Murat will be forced to give in until the day when he finally decides to act on his own and destroy himself. But this will be much later, and so far nothing portends betrayal on his part and death as a result of rash and hasty actions " 14 .
The first serious hostilities in which Murat takes part is the war in Northern Italy, where an army is operating under the command of Bonaparte. In the battle at Dego, Joachim fights with such determination and fearlessness that Bonaparte cannot fail to mention him in his report to the Directory: "Staff Adjutant Vignol, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Brigade Captain Murat, my Adjutant, have greatly contributed to today's success." 15 .
In the battle at Mondovi Murat again distinguished himself; during the battle, he had to show not only courage, but also organizational skills in order to collect and return to the battlefield the French cavalry that had scattered in panic.
Paying tribute to Murat, Bonaparte sent him along with Junot to Paris with captured enemy banners. True, unlike Junot, Murat was also entrusted with a personal assignment: he had to deliver Napoleon's letter to his wife Josephine and convince her to make a trip to Italy. Having reached the capital, Murat visits the wife of the famous general, who, according to Seward, “... quickly found a common language with a prominent cavalryman, as evil tongues claimed, too quickly. They were seen together at breakfast, lunch and dinner on the Champs Elysees, all in one day. " 16 ... Josephine answered all requests of Murat evasively, without giving any promises. As Gertrude Kircheisen writes: “Josephine at that time loved life and its pleasures more than her husband. She had so much fun in this beautiful, gay Paris - in this Paris, which perfectly suited her windy Creole character and with which it was so inexpressibly difficult for her to part. And she, she is ordered to go with her husband in the heat of battle, in black clouds of powder smoke! .. Her name is to share with Bonaparte his glory, won by his genius? But this is done much better in Paris, in dear Paris, where festivities are held in honor of the wife of the famous hero, where she now plays the first role! .. " 17
Not wanting to go to Italy, Josephine asks Murat to tell Bonaparte that she is pregnant and her health condition does not allow her to make such a long journey. Did Murat believe in Josephine's invention? Most likely, since neither Bonaparte, much less he knew that Josephine could no longer have children.
Unsuccessful in his mission, Joachim leaves for Italy.
In the battle of Borghetto, Murat is again different. Speaking about the actions of the future marshal, Napoleon writes in his essay on the Italian campaign: “General Murat attacked the enemy cavalry and achieved great success in this battle. Here the French cavalry, which until then had been in poor condition, for the first time successfully measured its strength with the Austrian. She captured nine cannons, two banners and 2,000 prisoners; between them Prince Couteau, commander of the Neapolitan cavalry. " And he concludes: "From this time on, the French cavalry competed in exploits with the infantry." 18 ... In the report of the Directory from June 1, Napoleon, speaking about Murat, wrote: "This general personally freed several horsemen, whom the enemy almost took prisoner." 19 .
Seeing Murat in action and believing in his decisiveness and fearlessness, Bonaparte without any hesitation takes him on the next campaign - the Egyptian expedition.
On March 11, 1798, General Berthier informs Murat the following: “In accordance with the orders of the Executive Directory, please deign, Citizen General, to leave at once for the post office for Milan; if you don’t find me there in person, new orders will await you at headquarters. This is a very important subject, and you must not hesitate to leave. " 20 .
On May 19, 1798, on an early sunny morning, an armada of French ships left the roadstead of the port of Toulon and moved east to Egypt. True, no one, except for Bonaparte himself and a limited circle of people, knew where the army was headed.
Murat, assuming that after the Italian campaign he entered the circle of Bonaparte's closest friends, was surprised that he was not privy to the true goals of the campaign. In addition, some coldness of Bonaparte after Malta causes our hero to suspect that he has fallen out of favor. This hurt him a lot. It got to the point that he writes a letter to Barras, asking him for another appointment: “I think that Berthier will never forgive me for a few overly direct words addressed to him. It seems to me that he is quite a bit rebuilding General Bonaparte against me. My dear Barras, you are my only support, show mercy and get me another appointment. " 21 .
However, due to his completely non-spiteful and quick-tempered nature, Murat is not depressed for long. However, this state again visits him due to the fact that his active nature does not find a way out. Neither during the capture of Alexandria, nor during the Battle of the Pyramids, Murat remains out of work.
And only after the battle at the Pyramids, Bonaparte instructs him to pursue Ibrahim Bey. At Salahia, he manages to overtake Ibrahim and attack him. However, despite the success, Ibrahim himself could not be captured.
After that, Murat returns to Qalyubia to complete the reorganization of local government and, most importantly, to replenish the horse stock. In addition, he, together with General Lanuss, undertakes an operation against the robbers operating in the area. True, the fruits of this action were not as significant as Bonaparte had hoped for. In his letter to Murat, he writes: "It seems that you caused quite a lot of damage to the Arabs of Derna, but these scoundrels deserve more ..." 22
Feeling in these lines the discontent of the commander-in-chief and wishing to return his favor, Murat again rushes in pursuit of the robbers. In his report of October 5, he describes his actions as follows: “I set off ... with General Lanuss and arrived at El Mandarah, where I learned that their camp was two and a half leagues apart from the river, in the middle of the marshes. Then without hesitation, obeying only the voice of vengeance, we rushed to where these robbers took refuge. On our way we faced the same obstacles (as in the previous case - S.Z.), we overcame them with the same courage and after two and a half hours of marching chest-deep in water and swampy mud, we took possession of their camp, large herds, tents , harness, donkeys, several camels and one young horse. The Arabs, who could not hide from the pursuit of our furious riflemen, were killed. I have not a single one killed or wounded, for these vile murderers flee from the name of the French alone. I assure you that from now on horror has settled in the ranks of the robbers ... " 23
Murat takes part in the Syrian campaign, but, to his great chagrin, not as an active participant, but mostly as a witness. But, according to Luc-Dubreton, he surrounded himself with all sorts of oriental “luxury, as in Cairo: thick carpets, fragrant tobacco, wine from Smyrna; he again enters into the taste of oriental sweets and bliss, goes to bed undressed, and when he is warned that this is very imprudent, he replies with careless frankness: “Then I will mount a horse in my nightgown. At least my people will be able to better see me in the dark. " 24 .
And only in the Abukir battle does he again find himself in his element. According to Mio, on the eve of the battle, Napoleon and Murat had a conversation about the upcoming battle. During the conversation, Bonaparte said that the fate of the world depends on this battle. Surprised by such an unusual statement for him, Murat simplified, at least for himself, the state of affairs: “Well, at least - the fate of the army. But rest assured, my general, there is not a single soldier here who does not feel the need to win, and we will win. The enemy has no cavalry, our cavalrymen are brave, and I can vouch: if the infantry has to flee from the cavalry, then the Turks cannot resist the onslaught
my fellows " 25 .

Murat in the Battle of Abukir

During the battle, Murat met face to face with the Turkish commander in chief, who shot him at close range; a Turkish bullet passed under Murat's lower jaw. In retaliation, the future marshal cut off two fingers of his right hand and captured Mustafa.
In his report, the chief of staff of the French army Berthier wrote: “General Murat did not miss a single movement of the enemy; he commanded the vanguard, constantly appeared at the shooters and showed on this day as much composure as talent ... " 26 .
Wanting to show his satisfaction with the actions of his subordinate, Bonaparte issues an order according to which Murat becomes a divisional general: “The Commander-in-Chief wishes to give Brigadier General Murat evidence of the government's satisfaction both for his previous service and for what he did in Egypt; commanding the vanguard of the army, he contributed to the glory that the army gained thanks to the victory in the battle of Abukir on 7 Thermidor of the 7th year of the Republic, as a result of which the Turkish army was completely destroyed, Brigadier General Murat received the rank of divisional general. Starting from this day, General Murat will enjoy the salary and benefits corresponding to the rank of divisional general. The Minister of War is familiar with this appointment ... " 27 .
In his letter to his father, Murat, who always paid special attention to his appearance, asks his father not to worry and convey to all "our ladies" that he is still just as attractive: to the Directory about our brilliant successes over the Ottoman army. You will also learn about how I was wounded in the bloody battle of Abukir. Let this second second news not spoil your joy, since I am out of danger ... Do not worry and do not spread false judgments, I will save all my limbs ... I was assured that I would not be disfigured at all. Tell our damsels - if there are any - that Murat, having somewhat lost his beauty, is still courageous in love. " 28 .
When Bonaparte decides to leave Egypt and return to France, leaving the army to Kleber, Murat falls into that limited circle of persons whom Napoleon takes with him.
During the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in 1799, Murat not only supported Napoleon, but was also one of the main figures in this matter. When all attempts by Bonaparte to achieve the transfer of power into his hands in the Legislative Assembly failed, Murat appears on the stage, who at the head of his soldiers, to the beat of drums, enters the meeting hall and, ascending to the podium, loudly announced: "Citizens, you are disbanded!" After the deputies ignored this statement, the future Neapolitan king, throwing all diplomatic and parliamentary subtleties aside, expressed himself more bluntly. Giving the order to the soldiers, he said: "Well, throw this ragtag out of here!" (True, Murat expressed himself even more rudely). Bayonets quickly nullify the timid resistance of the people's representatives.
In gratitude for such active assistance, Bonaparte appoints Murat commander-in-chief and inspector of the Consular Guard. However, an even greater reward awaited him - the hand of Caroline Bonaparte, sister of the First Consul, which introduced him to the Bonaparte clan.

However, Napoleon's attitude to this marriage was not so unambiguous. He appreciated the courage and indefatigability of a dashing cavalryman, but Bonaparte wanted to see among his relatives people capable of more than fearlessly crashing into the dense masses of the enemy and desperately swinging a saber. “Murat,” he said, “is only the son of an innkeeper. In that high position where fate has taken me, I simply cannot allow my family to intermarry with such mediocrity. " 29 .

In 1799 Murat was 32 years old. The Duchess d "Abrantes left us a portrait of this dashing cavalryman." As for the beauty of Murat and the nobility of his figure, this subject is very dubious. I do not think that a man is beautiful if he is tall and dresses like a joke. Murat had facial features not good, and even when they saw him without curly hair, without feathers and gold embroidery, he was bad.His face was distinguished by many features of a Negro, although his nose was not flattened; but thick lips and an aquiline, only without any nobility, nose gave him a lot of physiognomy, at least Metis " 30 ... Of course, this portrait is her subjective opinion, since many contemporaries considered the future king of Naples, if not a handsome man, then at least a person with a pleasant appearance. To this portrait, it is worth adding the lack of exquisite manners in Murat, although over time he tried to eliminate this deficiency when he became king, and he also spoke with a strong Gascon accent, which did not always give his speech a high-society character.

For the first time, Murat attracted the attention of Caroline in 1797. Napoleon does not overly approve of the choice of his sister, but Murat receives unexpected support from the wife of the First Consul, Josephine.

She even arranged dates between Joachim and Caroline at her mansion on rue Victoire. The wife of the First Consul sincerely hoped in this way to gain allies for herself in her husband's family, which was hostile to her. However, as the future will show, she acquired the main enemy in the person of Carolina.

On January 18, 1800 Murat and his mother, and on the part of the underage Caroline - her mother and brothers, including Napoleon, sign a marriage contract. The ceremony is attended by Bernadotte with his Desiree and Bessières as ... the newlywed's cousin. A magnificent wedding took place two days later.
In a letter to his brother Joachim, overjoyed, wrote: “Tomorrow I will become the happiest of mortals; tomorrow I will own the most coveted of women " 31 .
Murat is so in love with “precious little Caroline” that he often loses his mind and falls more and more under her influence. She takes advantage of this and involves him in the fight against the Beauharnais clan. In addition, in this young person, excessive ambition, ambition, and stubbornness are already manifested in full swing. Even Napoleon had to admit: "To explain something to my own sister, I had to spend more words than in the Council of State."
According to one of her contemporaries, who knew the future Neapolitan queen well, "this woman used all the strength of her soul, passion and insight for intrigue." The memories of people who knew Caroline are almost unanimous: a dry intriguer, completely devoid of conscience, greedy for honors and money and delighted with her own person.
After the wedding, Murat immediately uses his high position, spending money left and right: he moves out of his apartment on Rue Citizens and settles in the Tuileries; after this, he will begin to acquire mansions and estates: the first acquisition of the future Neapolitan king - the estate of Villiers, not far from Neuly-sur-Seine; a year later, he replenishes his estate piggy bank with the estate of Mot-Saint-Héré in De-Sevres, having paid 470 thousand francs for it; in addition, he acquires a luxurious mansion - the "Telusson Hotel", built before the revolution by a banker. It was one of the finest houses in Paris. There is no doubt that for all these acquisitions, Murat had to get into not only his own wallet ...

Carolina's envy had no boundaries, and she envied everyone, even her own sisters. When she found out that the sisters received the titles of princesses, since they were the wives of Joseph and Louis Bonaparte, Caroline will make a scandal to her brother during a gala dinner in honor of the declaration of France as Empire and Napoleon as emperor. Indignant and surprised by his sister's trick, Napoleon said: "You might think that I stole from you the inheritance of our father the king."
A year later, when she learns that sister Eliza has become the princess of Lucca and Piombio, she will hate her too. Even the marriage of Prince Eugene of Beauharnais to the daughter of the Bavarian king will arouse the envy of Caroline and Joachim. Napoleon literally had to give a direct order for the "humiliated and insulted" couple of Murat to deign to appear at the wedding ceremony.
Caroline, as well as Murat, recklessly walk away from each other, and each arranges incredible scenes of jealousy for each other.
Having finally received the title of Queen of Naples, Carolina is in seventh heaven. She immediately tries to take all the reins of government into her own hands, believing that Murat, with his abilities, or rather, lack of any abilities in state activities, should perform only representative functions. And seriously, she had much more energy to control than her husband. No wonder Napoleon proudly used to say that "there is more energy in one little finger of the queen than in the whole personality of her husband the king." True, in the future the emperor will be very sorry for such an energetic and active sister. It is she who will be the most active supporter of Murat's transition to the side of the enemies of France. Unfortunately for Joachim, he does not have the heart to "besiege" his obstinate and overly ambitious wife.

In the battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, Murat, although he did not play a decisive role, fought as always decisively and fearlessly. Marengo was one of the few battles when Murat did not attribute the main merits exclusively to himself in his report. In this case, he rightfully paid tribute to General Kellerman, who rightfully became the hero of this battle.

On January 15, 1804, Murat was appointed to the post of military governor of Paris with a salary of 400 thousand francs a year and the opportunity to play a very prominent role.
During the disclosure of the conspiracy of Cadudal, Murat is entirely on the side of Bonaparte and in the most decisive tones exposes the conspirators. In his proclamation, he writes: “Soldiers, fifty robbers left over from a dirty civil war, whom the British government kept in reserve during peace, having conceived a new crime that failed 3 nivoz (This refers to the explosion of the "infernal machine" when Bonaparte went to the Opera with Josephine, Hortense and Caroline) , landed in small groups at night on the coastal cliffs of Beuville: they penetrated the capital: Georges (Kadudal) and General Pishegru led them. Their arrival was provoked by a man who is still in our ranks, namely, General Moreau, who yesterday was brought into the hands of national justice. Their plan was to kill the First Consul and put France in the face of the horrors of civil war and counter-revolution. The camps in Boulogne, Montreuil, Bruges, Saint, Toulon and Brest, the armies of Italy, Hanover and Holland would cease to maintain peace: our glory would perish with freedom! But all these conspiracies have failed; ten robbers were arrested; former General Lajollet, the leader of this diabolical plan, in shackles; the police are following in the footsteps of Georges and Pishegru. A new landing of twenty more of these robbers is planned, but ambushes have been set up everywhere and they will be captured. In these circumstances, so unfortunate for the heart of the First Consul, we, the soldiers of the Fatherland, will be the first to shield him with our bodies like a shield, and, rallying around him, we will defeat both his personal enemies and the enemies of France. " 32 ... True, immediately after the establishment of the Empire, the newly-made marshal will write a rather curious letter to Napoleon, where he asks to pardon Kadudal and is even ready to make him his adjutant, vouching for him with his head.

On May 19, 1804, the day after Napoleon was proclaimed emperor of the French, Murat, among 18 French generals, became Marshals of France, and at the beginning of 1805 Napoleon bestowed upon him the title of Grand Admiral and Prince of the Empire.

In the 1805 campaign, Murat commanded the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army. During the pursuit of Kutuzov's Russian army, he leads the vanguard. True, in this position he shows not only energy, but also recklessness, which often displeases Napoleon. After the battle at Amsteten, Murat, instead of continuing to follow the Russian army, suddenly decided to turn towards Vienna in order to be the first French commander to enter the enemy capital. By this action, he placed the Mortier corps at Krems in the most critical position. Napoleon, learning about Murat's reckless behavior, wrote him a letter in which he expressed all his anger in this way. “My dear cousin,” the emperor wrote, “I cannot approve of your way of attacking: you rush like some helicopter, without delving into the orders I have given… you received an order… to pursue the Russians, holding a knife at their throats. A strange way of pursuit - to move away from them in an accelerated march ... you were guided only by petty vanity, concern about how to get into Vienna first. There is no glory where there is no danger; but nothing is easier than entering the unprotected capital, especially after the victory of Marshal Davout, who defeated and captured the remnants of General Kienmeier's corps, commanded by General Merfeld ... " 33 .
This reprimand revived Murat, who rushed after Kutuzov and the Russian army at Gollabrun. However, even here he did not show discernment, having made a gross mistake, which the Russian commander-in-chief took full advantage of. Trying to detain the Russians in order to wait for the reinforcements coming to him, Murat made an attempt to deceive Kutuzov by sending him a parliamentarian to begin negotiations on an armistice. Until the ratification of this document by both sides, both sides must remain in their positions; in the event that the ceasefire is not ratified, hostilities were to begin four hours after prior notification. Kutuzov pretended to agree with such a proposal, while he continued to retreat, hiding behind Bagration's rearguard.
When Napoleon was informed of this, he was once again enraged by the unauthorized actions of Murat, writing to him: “It is impossible to find words to express my displeasure to you. You command only my vanguard and have no right to enter into a truce without my order. Because of you, I have lost the fruits of the entire campaign. Break the ceasefire immediately and attack the enemy. " And in the end he concludes: "I cannot even imagine how you allowed yourself to be treated like this." 34 .
Stung by this new reprimand, Murat threw himself at the Russians, but it was too late: the bulk of the Russian army managed to retreat and get out of the French attack.
In the famous battle of Austerlitz, Murat acts as always - fearlessly and energetically, but the main heroes of the battle were Soult, who struck the center of the allied army - the Prazen Heights, and Marshal Davout, who, with a handful of soldiers, managed to pin down the entire left-flank Russian-Austrian grouping.
Despite this, Murat shows in this campaign the excellent qualities of an organizer, capable of leading large masses of soldiers. He is not a strategist, he is, first of all, a swashbuckler, everyone expects him to break through several enemy lines and tirelessly pursue a defeated enemy. Murat shows more courage and energy than intelligence. He is not able to pore over the map for hours, he acts without conforming to the plans outlined in advance. Therefore, among the highest officers of the Great Army, he does not have the same influence that he has among the soldiers who saw him in all the slightest battles in the most dangerous places.
In March 1806, Napoleon makes Murat Duke of Berg and Cleves. On the 30th, the emperor signs a decree, which reads: “Since Their Majesties the Kings of Prussia and Bavaria respectively ceded to us the Duchies of Berg and Cleve in full power with all the rights, titles and prerogatives that we had ourselves, so that we could grant them into the possession of our chosen prince, we, by our royal permission, transfer the indicated duchies and rights to them, titles and prerogatives in the form in which they were given to us - to Prince Joachim [Murat], our beloved son-in-law, in order for him to use them in all their completeness and volume, having received them as Duke of Cleves and Berg, and could, by inheritance, pass them on to his legitimate and natural offspring through the male line by birthright, with the steady exclusion of female heirs and their offspring " 35 .

But in the campaign of 1806-1807. his qualities of an organizer and a person of action were fully manifested. During the pursuit of the defeated Prussian army, he acts with such determination and energy that he deserves the epithet "Restless". As Tyular writes: “When it is necessary to drive a retreating enemy without rest, this tireless and incomparable horseman no longer remembers himself. Fatigue doesn't take him. He literally jumps across a large part of Prussia. " 36 .
If until now Napoleon was sometimes too stingy with praise addressed to his son-in-law, however, the capture of Murat Stettin by the cavalry causes incredible delight of the emperor. “My dear brother,” writes Napoleon, “I congratulate you on the capture of Stettin. If our light cavalry takes fortified cities like that, I will have to disband the engineering troops and send our cannons to be melted down. " 37 .

However, it was in this campaign that the unseemly side of Joachim Murat manifested itself: to ascribe the laurels of the winner exclusively to himself, taking them away from others. This is especially evident during the pursuit of Hohenlohe, who was eventually driven to Prenzlau. Despite the fact that Marshal Lann accepted the surrender of Hohenlohe together with Murat, Murat did not say a single word in his report about Lann and his soldiers, as if they did not exist at all. In this report, Murat not only appropriated all the laurels of victory, but also made it clear to Napoleon that Lann's infantrymen were moving so slowly behind him that he had to rely only on his own strength. This behavior of Murat greatly offended and offended Lann, who on October 31, bitterly wrote to Napoleon that his soldiers were discouraged by such selfishness of Murat. And there is why to be discouraged: despite all the hardships and obstacles, Lann's soldiers covered 105 km in 48 hours, and the first 78 km were covered in 33 hours. In a letter to Murat, Marshal Lann wrote with bitterness: “... no doubt, Your Highness’s great concerns were the reason that you forgot that I was also there at the head of my vanguard, and that I personally accepted the surrender of the chief of staff of Prince Hohenlohe ... I I would very much like His Majesty the Emperor to know about the participation of my troops in this matter and to know that I will be happy when this matter is resolved; I fight only for the glory and not the sacrifice that I would not give for you " 38 .
Murat does not miss an opportunity to take credit for the surrender of Blucher in Lübeck to himself, although, in all fairness, the troops of Bernadotte played the main role in this matter. In a report to Napoleon, he enthusiastically writes the words that have become famous: "The hostilities ended in the absence of the enemy!" 39
It is sad to admit, but Murat was not a sincere and good friend, he was selfish and often appropriated laurels taken from others. He loved to be praised, when he was admired.

Murat at the Battle of Jena

After the unprecedented defeat of the Prussian army, the Great Army moved to Poland, where the Russian troops were located. On November 28, 1806, Murat, in all the splendor of his unusual and colorful attire, entered Warsaw.
Countess Pototskaya in her memoirs left us an expressive portrait of Joachim Murat of that time: “The next day, Prince Murat, then the Grand Duke of Berg, entered Warsaw with his retinue, with extraordinary splendor - shining with gilded uniforms, various sultans, gold and silver stripes ... He was a great man, or rather, a tall man, with a face, although beautiful, but unpleasant, devoid of nobility and expressiveness. With his majestic appearance, he resembled an actor playing the role of kings. The artificiality of his manners was striking and it was clear that in everyday life he behaves differently ... ". Describing Murat's dress uniform, the Countess calls her "somewhat theatrical costume." “In all his costume,” she writes, “the most remarkable was the sultan - the tricolor sultan always fluttered in the most dangerous places of the battle” 40 .
Another contemporary of Murat, Duchess d'Abrantes, speaking of the Marshal's passion for all kinds of extravagant outfits, writes: “Who has not heard of Murat's coats in the Polish manner, about his hats, caps, and all the strange headdresses, especially funny for a military man? the expensive price of the feathers that adorned all these beautiful hats is known. Princess Caroline herself told me that she ... inquired whether many of them were sent to him, and learned that in four months he received them for twenty-seven thousand francs. "And further notes with irony: You can lead the French to victory and not with so many plumes, as this white feather of Henry IV proved " 41 .
The Poles greeted the French with enthusiasm, hoping that the great conqueror would restore Poland's independence. In his message to the Emperor Murat wrote about the mood of the Poles: “Sir, I must tell Your Majesty about the enthusiasm that swept the whole of Warsaw when Your Majesty's troops approached; it is impossible to describe it. Never before have I seen the national spirit express itself so clearly. I entered this city amid repeated exclamations a thousand times over: "Long live the Emperor Napoleon, our liberator!" 42 .
However, the war continues and Murat is forced to leave Warsaw and, in the ranks of the Great Army, move against the Russians. In the bloody battle of Eylau, it was he and his cavalrymen who saved the French army from inevitable defeat. Eighty squadrons of Murat, like a knife cutting butter, wedged into the center of the Russian army, causing confusion in its ranks. The marshal himself, during this unparalleled attack, directs the actions of his cavalrymen, holding only a whip in his hand. “It was,” Chandler writes, “one of the greatest cavalry attacks in history. The attack was led by Dal'man at the head of 6 jaeger squadrons, followed by Murat and a cavalry reserve, in due time supported by Besier with the guards cavalry. The cavalrymen Grusha, d "Opole, Klein and Millau attacked alternately in waves. First, Murat's soldiers swept through the remnants of the Russian units retreating from Eylau; then they split into two wings, one of which burst into the flank of the Russian cavalry, which attacked the line of battle. division of Saint-Hilaire, and the second wing with a saber attack literally cut its way through the enemy troops that surrounded the square of killed soldiers at the site of the death of the 14th Regiment. cavalrymen slammed into the closed ranks of the center of Saken, pierced them, reorganized into one column in the Russian rear and again rushed back to the attack through the scattered parts of the Russian troops to destroy the artillerymen who had killed so many of Augereau's soldiers. sent Guards cavalry ahead to increase the confusion and thus cover the safe return tired but triumphant squadrons of Murat " 43 .
Having lost 1,500 men, Murat did everything to give Napoleon the necessary respite in the center and allow Marshal Davout to prepare his forces for an offensive against the left wing of the Russian army.

Evaluating the actions of Murat's cavalry in this bloody massacre, Chandler wrote: "Napoleon had every reason to be in debt to his cavalry, which now, perhaps for the first time in the history of the Great Army, undoubtedly played the main role as a perfectly tempered and practically irresistible military formation." 44 .
58 Grand Army Bulletin Pays Tribute to Murat
and his cavalry: “The Grand Duke of Berg, at the head of the cavalry, supported by Marshal Bessières, the commander of the guard, bypassed the division of Saint-Hilaire and attacked the enemy army. It was a daring maneuver, which you rarely see, it covered the cavalry with glory and turned out to be very timely, given the position in which our columns found themselves ... This unprecedented, brilliant attack, overturning more than twenty thousand infantry, forcing the enemy to abandon their guns, would immediately decide the outcome battles, if not for the forest and some natural barriers ... " 45 .
One of his contemporaries, participants in the Napoleonic campaigns, recalling Murat, wrote: "The king of Naples was never so beautiful as in the midst of enemy fire."
True, during the battle at Heilsberg, Murat, although acting bravely as always, receives a scolding from Napoleon for his sluggishness. During the battle, Savary rendered Murat great help, but instead of gratitude Murat attacks him with abuse, accusing him neither more nor less of cowardice. After the battle, Savary openly expresses his opinion about the abusive behavior of the Duke of Berg to the emperor. "It would be better," he notes in his memoirs, "if he (Murat) had less courage, but more common sense." 46 .
During the peace negotiations in Tilsit, Murat was in the retinue of the emperor and even received from the hands of the Russian Tsar Alexander I the highest Russian Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.
At the beginning of Napoleon's Spanish adventure, Murat played an important role in luring the Spanish royal family to Bayonne, where Napoleon forced King Charles IV and heir Ferdinand to abdicate from power. As V. Sloon writes, Murat “saw for himself a vacant royal throne in Madrid. All other relatives of Napoleon - Louis, Jerome and Joseph were already wearing crowns. The Grand Duchy of Berg was not a bad thing in itself, but the kingdom would have been much better, and Murat was extremely eager to sit on the Spanish throne. " 47 .
As Tyular notes, “the entire Bayonne plan is anticipated by Murat. Passionate desire and ambition prompted him to a real enlightenment: he was able to feel the subtleties of intrigue, although by nature he was not so much dexterous as
like a soldier dodgy. " And, looking into the future, he states: "Now, if in the future he acted in this way, anticipating the plans of his master! .. Perhaps his fate would have been somewhat different." 48 .
However, such unceremonious actions in relation to the royal family in earnest angered the Spaniards, who raised an uprising in Madrid on May 2. Murat, hoping to lay the Spanish crown on his head, tried to act with the Spaniards in the most benevolent way, so this rebellion greatly upset him. However, despite the fact that public opinion may not be in his favor, he nevertheless dealt harshly with the rebels. Thanks to his decisiveness and speed, he suppressed popular demonstrations by evening, but by doing so he made his name in Spain the most hated.
And even so, the Duke of Berg continues to believe that the Spanish crown will be his. Moreover, he believed in himself so much that, ahead of the events, he occupied the apartments of the Prince of Asturias in the royal palace. He is trying to create a favorable impression of himself among the Spaniards and to smooth out the impressions that he left in the soul of every resident of Spain with his actions on May 2. However, the Spaniards were not so naive as to forget the bloody massacre in Madrid in early May. As Delderfield observes: “Did the innkeeper's son really lose the Spanish crown on that very day, or did Napoleon already decide to hand it over to his brother Joseph, King of Naples? No one can answer this question today. The only thing one can be sure of is that Murat, that vain, pompous peacock, which, in fact, he was, would have become a much more effective king of Spain than the sluggish, overweight Joseph. The army thought the same and was very sorry that Napoleon was putting his brother on the throne. In the fierce battles that still lie ahead of Murat, this ... master of organizing cavalry attacks would cost in Spain as much as a thousand Joseph Bonapartes. " 49 .

The Spanish crown was not on the head of the Duke of Berg, but the emperor satisfied his vanity by granting him the crown of Naples.
Most of all, Caroline, Murat's wife, rejoiced at this. For more than a year she had to wait for her turn, jealous of all her brothers and sisters, who became queens and kings, while she herself remained only a duchess. Carolina firmly decided that she would prove herself the kind of queen that the Neapolitans would never forget.
True, having obtained the Neapolitan crown, Murat, surprisingly, does not show a desire to quickly find himself in his new possessions. As Chavanon and Saint-Yves write, "he would undoubtedly wish to rule Naples in the same way as the Duchy of Berg, that is, by staying in Paris." 50 .
The Duke of Berg, instead of going to Naples, goes to the waters in Bareges, then to the Contra, from there he goes to the Château de Bouy, where he is staying with Marshal Lannes; in early August, he arrives in Paris, where he awaits instructions from Napoleon, not really seeking them.
All these delays annoy Napoleon and he asks the newly-made King of Naples to quickly go to his kingdom. But Murat hesitates again, which causes another portion of the emperor's discontent. In one of the letters he says to his son-in-law: "I would love to know that you are leaving as soon as possible." And in order to speed up the movement of Murat to Naples, Napoleon orders to stop paying Joachim the marshal's salary.
Only after this does Murat finally go to his new subjects. On September 6, 1808, he entered Naples.
True, all hopes of the marshal for independent control of his territories run up against Napoleon's adamant instructions. No matter of any significance can be done by a Neapolitan king without the consent of Bonaparte. The emperor even forbade the use of the ranks of brigadier and divisional generals in the Neapolitan army, so as not to diminish the dignity of the French senior officers; Murat is forbidden to send ambassadors to European courts, since the Kingdom of Naples is the territory of the French Empire, and not an independent state. Napoleon, in order to prevent competition from French industrialists, restrains the development of the production of cloth in the south of Italy. When Bonaparte introduces a double customs tariff on the import of Neapolitan silk, and Murat responds by completely stopping the export of silk grain, Napoleon
When Murat, in response to the double tariff imposed by Napoleon on the import of Neapolitan silk, stops exporting silk grenae from the kingdom, the emperor says in anger: “Send for the ambassador of the Neapolitan king and tell him that the king must immediately revoke his decree. That the king is mistaken if he thinks that he can rule in Naples differently than according to my will, or for the common good of the empire. Definitely let him know that as long as he does not change his actions, I will take the kingdom away from him and put a viceroy there like in Italy. "
Murat tries to win the sympathy of the clergy by honoring Saint Januarius, the patron saint of Naples. In response to this, Napoleon writes: “I learned that you have embarked on a monkey imitation of the worshipers of St. Januarius. Too carried away with such things is harmful and does not inspire respect for anyone ... " 51 .
Following his success at Capri, Murat granted amnesty to all political exiles and removed the sequestration from their property. Immediately followed by a formidable shout from Paris: “I was shown your last decrees, completely devoid of meaning. You only react, not take matters into your own hands. Why invite the exiles back if they are plotting against me with weapons in their hands? I declare to you that it is necessary to take measures to revoke this decree, for I cannot stand for those who plot against my troops to find refuge and protection in your domain ... " 52 .
When Murat issues a decree (June 14, 1811), according to which all foreigners holding public office in his kingdom must accept Neapolitan citizenship, Napoleon issues his decree, which says that "the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is an integral part of our empire!" And further: “considering that the sovereign governing this kingdom is a Frenchman and the highest dignitary of the Empire, as well as that he was enthroned and retains power only thanks to the efforts of our peoples, we ... decree: Article 1. All French citizens are citizens of both Sicilies; article 2. The decree of June 14, issued by the king of this country, does not apply to them " 53 .
True, it cannot be said that Murat did not manage to pursue an independent policy in his kingdom. Contrary to the Bayonne Constitution, which Napoleon bestowed on Naples, Murat never once convened a parliament. This step was supported by the Italian patriots, who found the constitution insufficiently liberal.
Gradually Murat put Italians in ministerial posts, leaving only three Frenchmen. So basically the kingdom was ruled by Italians: Zurlo, Ricciardi, Magella, Pignatelli Strongoli ... Such a step contributed to Murat's popularity among Italians, especially among patriots.
The king of Naples pays a lot of attention to construction, and he does not stop only at cities, but also does a lot in the villages. He organizes a military college, polytechnic, artillery, engineering and naval schools, organizes the management of roads and bridges.
Much attention is paid to public education. According to the law of November 30, 1811, free primary schools should be organized in every district; a school for the deaf and dumb was built. Great help was given to universities; the salary of professors was increased. A pedagogical institute is being set up, and an agricultural society is organized in each province.
Under Murat, the construction of the observatory began, the territory of the botanical garden is being increased ...
According to Italian historians, the reign of Murat, in the end, had a beneficial effect on the development of the Neapolitan provinces.
However, due to constant clashes with Napoleon, Murat fails to put all his ideas into practice. Constant reproaches and even threats from the emperor throw the Neapolitan king out of balance, he often falls first into fury, and then into prostration. It comes to the point that, as a sign of disagreement with the policies and actions of his august brother-in-law, Murat for some time refuses to wear the insignia of the Order of the Legion of Honor. True, Napoleon is neither hot nor cold from this.
According to Frederic Mason, Murat is the main blame for the Franco-Neapolitan crisis. Tulard blames the emperor for this crisis, saying that "Napoleon behaves like a foolish and petty tyrant, irritable and full of prejudice." 54 ... However, it would be more correct to say that both Napoleon and Murat were to blame for this political crisis. Bonaparte believes, and in this he is partly right, that Murat is only a viceroy, seated on the throne, and therefore must fulfill the will of his sovereign; Naples is not an independent kingdom, but just one of the territorial units of a huge empire, the head of which is the Emperor Napoleon. Murat, however, cannot fully realize that he is only a vassal and not an autocrat; he wants to be an independent ruler, forgetting at the same time that he was not born on the throne, but placed on it solely due to his entry into the Bonaparte clan by marrying Napoleon's sister; living in the role of the king, and he does it with pleasure, Murat is gradually playing into the hands of the Italian patriots, allowing himself to be drawn into intrigues, which he sometimes did not understand at all, thereby causing discontent, reproaches and irritation of Napoleon, who tried to make it clear to King Joachim to stay away from too radical-minded patriots who strive for the independence of the entire Apennine Peninsula.

When Napoleon calls on the King of Naples to take part in the upcoming war with Russia, Murat once again falls into depression. He enjoys being king and managing his subjects so much that he does not want to leave Naples under any circumstances. In this he finds the support of his ministers. However, for him military glory, honors are no less, and possibly more, than the throne. Therefore, he agrees to Napoleon's proposal. Moreover, it is so necessary for him to re-win the favor of Napoleon, which, as he felt, had been greatly shaken since his accession to the Neapolitan throne.
On April 26, 1812, he announced his decision to the French ambassador: “I am going to Paris, I will be there in a week, and I hope to meet the Emperor there. I carry my heart and head to him on a platter. I completely surrender myself into his hands; I am going to tell him that if he goes to fight, I will not leave him; I wish at all costs to regain his favor, his trust and return to Naples only full of strength and having achieved universal respect, which depends only on the feelings of the Emperor towards me. " 55 .
Leaving Caroline as regent, Murat went to the army, and departed there as befits a monarch. He was followed by a gigantic baggage, in which there was a place even for spirits. There was also a full staff of chamberlains, grooms, pages, lackeys, and the best Parisian chefs. For the next campaign, Murat even invented a new form for himself: yellow boots, scarlet pantaloons with gold braids, a sky-blue uniform decorated with gold braid, and his dolman of crimson velvet was lined with sable; the cocked hat, adorned with a gold braid, was enormous, even from the point of view of the fashion of those days, and was topped with white ostrich feathers, which were fastened with a large diamond brooch; a gilded saber and a gold belt were framed with diamonds, pistols protruding from a gem-studded holster were trimmed with gold, rubies, emeralds and sapphires and diamonds. On the campaign, the Neapolitan king took 60 excellent horses with a tiger skin blanket, a golden bridle and golden stirrups. Following the memoirs of all contemporaries read, we can say that Murat was in his repertoire.
During the pursuit of the army of Barclay de Tolly, Murat commands the vanguard, persistently and without rest moving after the leaving Russian troops. Unfortunately, these tactics did more damage than success. In his report of July 2, General Sebastiani writes with bitterness: “Our horses fall from exhaustion, and people eat nothing but horse meat; they were tormented by the bad weather. " However, Murat tries not to notice either the fatigue of his cavalrymen, or the huge deaths among the horses, or the lack of food and especially forage. He saw in front of him only the elusive Russians, with whom he passionately wanted to fight and in battles with whom he dreamed of winning glory. This aspiration was so great that he, the Marshal, the King of Naples, participates in every slightest battle.
Finally, the first serious battle took place near Ostrovno. According to the testimony of the participant in the battle, Tyrion de Metz, Murat, getting into a rage, shouted to his soldiers: "Beat these canals!" - and his whip was walking on the backs of the Cossacks.
Near Smolensk, as Segur testifies, a rather serious conversation took place between Napoleon and Murat, which unbalanced the Neapolitan king. Murat, according to Segur, urged Napoleon not to go further and stop. The emperor objected, he did not want to hear anything and saw only Moscow in front of him. Murat left Napoleon in deep distress; his movements were harsh, and it was evident that he could hardly contain his intense excitement. He repeated several times: "Moscow" 56 .
Despite this, Murat continues with the same zeal, turning into a frenzy, to persecute the Russians, which causes the disapproval of many. Marshal Davout refers to the King of Naples as "insane." According to Caulaincourt, “the warlike ardor of the king often forced him, even against his own will, to warm up the main passion of the emperor, that is, passion for war. He, however, saw the difficulties of the Russian campaign and in conversations with some people he grieved in advance about their consequences ... But the king's best intentions were scattered as soon as he saw the enemy or heard cannon shots. He could no longer control his ardor. He dreamed of all the successes that his courage could achieve " 57 .

In the Battle of Borodino, Murat, as always, finds himself in the most dangerous places: he was seen at the Semyonov flushes, and at the Kurgan Heights, and at the Semyonov heights. And everywhere he leads his cavalry. During the assault on the Semyonov flashes, the Neapolitan king several times even had to flee in the square of the French infantry.
The battle ended at nightfall. "Never before has any battlefield looked so awful!" - Segur wrote in his memoirs.
Murat did not leave the battlefield all night. According to one guard officer, the Neapolitan king oversees the amputation of the legs of two Russian artillerymen, which was performed by the marshal's personal surgeon. At the end of the operation, Murat brought each of them a glass of wine. The sight of the Borodino field, covered with mountains of corpses, made an indelible impression on Murat. Almost all contemporaries - participants in the battle, who saw the marshal at these moments, recalled his detached, depressed look.
Murat spent the night in one of the imperial tents. When Ney appeared, he greeted her in a friendly way, and then said: “Yesterday was a hot day, I have never seen a battle like this with such artillery fire; at Eylau, no less cannons were fired, but they were cannonballs. Yesterday, however, the two armies were so close to each other that they fired with canister almost all the time. “We didn’t break the eggs,” replied Ney, “the enemy's losses are enormous, morally he should have been terribly shaken; he must be pursued in order to take advantage of the victory. " To this Murat replied: "However, he retreated in good order." - I can't believe, - said Ney, - how could it be after such a blow?
The next day, Murat again led the vanguard and moved after the Russian army, which at night left the battlefield and continued its retreat to Moscow.
Not far from the village of Krymskoye, a fierce battle took place with the rearguard of the Russian army under the command of Miloradovich. Murat drove his soldiers into battle, although he was, in essence, useless for the French. According to General Dedem, Murat got involved in this fight only in order to capture "a very pleasant chateau, which was very suitable for the king of Naples," and who wanted to spend the night there 58 .
Without stopping in the Russian capital, the Neapolitan king followed Kutuzov and by the end of September stopped near Tarutino, where the Russian troops had retreated.
From that moment until the counter-offensive of Kutuzov, an "unspoken truce" was concluded between the French avant-garde and the Russians, during which the vain Murat was gladly shown in full view of the Russian outposts. He was delighted to be paid attention to. The Cossacks went so far that, pretending to admire him (it is quite possible that the Cossacks actually admired this magnificent cavalryman), they called him their king. The naive Murat even wrote about this to Napoleon, which caused the emperor not only surprise, but plunged him into bewilderment. “Murat, King of the Cossacks? What nonsense! " Marbeau writes about the behavior of the Neapolitan king at this time: “Murat, proud of his tall stature, his courage, always wearing very strange, shiny costumes, attracted the attention of the enemy. He liked to negotiate with the Russians, so he exchanged gifts with the Cossack commanders. Kutuzov took advantage of these meetings to support false hopes for peace in the French " 59 ... Therefore, Murat was simply dumbfounded when these "friendly-minded" Russians struck a blow at his waxes at Vinkov's.
When Napoleon found out about this, he realized that it makes no sense to expect peace from the Russian tsar. The emperor raised an army and moved towards Kaluga. However, at Maloyaroslavets, the path of the Great Army was blocked by Kutuzov. After a fierce battle, Napoleon realized that it would not be possible to break through to the southern provinces and began a retreat to Smolensk, where large warehouses were to be collected.
During the retreat, Murat not only did not show himself in anything, but he was neither seen nor heard. Before the Berezina, he gave the impression of a man completely wilted, but at the Berezina, when the army was in a catastrophic situation, the Neapolitan king finally fell in spirit. According to Segur, instead of offering an option to save the remnants of the army, “Murat believed that now was the time to think only about how to save Napoleon ... he announced to his brother-in-law that he considered the crossing impossible; he insisted that he save himself while there was still time " 60 ... Napoleon rejected this cowardly proposal.
In Smorgon, Napoleon decided to leave the remnants of the army and return to Paris. Gathering the marshals, he announced his decision to them: “I am leaving the command of the army to the king of Naples. I hope that you will obey him as I do, and that there will be complete harmony among you! " 61
Manfred, in his work on Napoleon, writes about the appointment of Murat the following: “The choice of the commander-in-chief affected ... the monarchical degeneration of Bonaparte. In 1799, he left the Egyptian army to the most capable of his generals, Kleber. In 1812 he entrusted it not to Davout, the largest commander, not even to Eugene Beauharnais, but to the eldest in the monarchical hierarchy - Murat " 62 .
Many were surprised by this appointment. Coigne writes in his Notes: “Everyone was dumbfounded that now they would be commanded by the King of Naples, of course, an unsurpassed swashbuckler, ready to face danger in a hot battle with his chest, but at the same time he was reputed to be the executioner of his own cavalry ... He was the best and most beautiful cavalryman in Europe , but did not care at all about the fate of the people entrusted to him ... Of course, it is not worthy to blaspheme his commanders, but the Emperor could have made a better choice " 63 ... According to Marbeau, Murat "in these circumstances was unable to fulfill the task assigned to him." 64 .
The hope that the Neapolitan king would do something disappeared on the very first day of his leadership. In the words of Count Segur, “Amid this terrible disorder, a colossus was needed to become the center of everything, and this colossus had just disappeared. In the enormous void left by him, Murat was barely noticeable " 65 .
Having reached Gumbinen, Murat summoned everyone to a council of war, where, instead of discussing further actions, Murat attempted treason. When all the marshals gathered, he began to say that one cannot serve a madman, that he regrets very much that he did not accept the offer of the British, "if I had been prudent, I would have sat quietly on the throne to this day, like the Austrian emperor and king of Prussia" ... Murat understood that after the defeat of the Great Army in Russia, his own position would become more unstable and thus wanted to distance himself from the emperor's policy. True, this attempt was thwarted by a sharp reproach from Marshal Davout: “The King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria are kings by the grace of God, they were created by time and the habits of the peoples! And you are a king only by the grace of Napoleon and were created by the shed French blood! You can remain king only thanks to Napoleon and by remaining loyal to France! You are blinded by black ingratitude " 66 .
After such words, the Neapolitan king became despondent and confused. He could not answer anything articulately to the harsh reproach of the "iron marshal".
Even with some extenuating circumstances, Marshal Murat proved in disgrace his inability to command a defeated army. For this purpose, he was completely unprepared.
In general, after the departure of Napoleon, all of Murat's thoughts were aimed at finding himself as soon as possible in Naples and doing everything so that the Neapolitan crown remained on his head if the situation developed against Napoleon.

But that is not all. While on the battlefield near Reggio, which was littered with the corpses of French soldiers who fell from Neapolitan bullets, Murat, this "Pantolone", as Napoleon once called his son-in-law in a moment of frankness, writes to the emperor: "Sire, say only a word and I will sacrifice my family, subjects; I will die, but in your service. Tears welling up in my eyes prevent me from continuing ... ".
Guessing about his son-in-law's negotiations with the Austrians, Napoleon, nevertheless, was sincerely amazed at the news of the Neapolitan king's transition to the side of the coalition: “Murat! No, It is Immpossible! No. The reason for this betrayal is in his wife. Yes, it's Caroline! She completely subdued him! He loves her so much! " 76
But already in February, in a letter to Fouche, Napoleon gives vent to all his feelings against the Murat family: “The behavior of the Neapolitan king is shameful,” the emperor raged, “and the queen is completely shameless. I hope to live to avenge myself and France for this insult and such terrible ingratitude. " 77 .
The Neapolitan king's bouts of remorse, however, pass quickly. He wants to stay afloat at all costs, at the head of the Kingdom of Naples, and Carolina calls on him to be firm on this path of betrayal.
After the fall of the Empire and the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, Murat and Caroline were the only ones from the Bonaparte clan who managed to stay in their places. Despite the fact that they retained the Neapolitan crown, they could not help but see that the role of renegades also has a negative side. Nobody believes them, not even the Austrians, whom the crowned family has registered as their friends. The Bonapartists simply hated and despised them. In addition, her mother turned her back on Carolina, who did not forgive her daughter for such a vile deed. When the Neapolitan queen presented her mother with eight beautiful horses as a gift, Letizia returned them with the words: "I am horrified by traitors and betrayals." As Ronald Delderfield writes, Caroline "was an exceptionally thick-skinned woman and resumed attempts to reconcile with her mother, declaring that what happened was not her fault, that she had nothing to do with Murat's desertion, and that" she was unable to command her husband. " Madame Mother rarely laughed, but she must have smiled at such an apology, and, according to Napoleon's correspondence on this matter, she replied: "Only through your corpse could your husband break with your brother, your benefactor and your master." 78 .

However, the position of the Murat family could not be called stable; rather, it was more than uncertain. Pope Pius VII insists on the return of their kingdom to the Neapolitan Bourbons; Louis XVIII, who sat on the ancestral throne in France, also began to challenge Murat's right to the Neapolitan crown, taken from the legitimate dynasty. Murat's betrayal of Napoleon and his transition to the side of the coalition is no longer worth anything. The principle of legitimacy is the main argument for the feudal monarchs of Europe. Did Murat really believe that feudal monarchs would allow him, a man who did not have a rich pedigree, a fiery revolutionary during the revolution, Napoleon's comrade-in-arms, to sit quietly on the throne taken from the "legitimate" rulers? If he really counted on this, then his naivety, gullibility and utter shortsightedness cannot but surprise.
At the Congress of Vienna, convened after the fall of Napoleon, Talleyrand, this hardened intriguer and hypocrite, forgetting that he once intrigued with Murat against the emperor, insists on the return of the Neapolitan throne to the "legitimate monarch." "It is necessary to expel Murat," he declares, "for it is time to erase disrespect for the legitimate succession to the throne from all corners of Europe, if we do not want the Revolution to continue to smolder." 79 ... The representative of the Spanish court, Count de Labrador, speaks in the same spirit. They are supported by the Russian envoy Kapodistrias. “He (Murat),” he declares, “is the head of the Freemasons and a supporter of Italian independence; you just have to carefully read what comes out of his shop, and you will always find the words "unity", "independence", "national forces", with the help of which he is trying to attract the sympathies of Italians to increase the number of his supporters on the peninsula " 80 .
Only the Austrian side is still trying to protect Murat, since in this situation he is more useful to them and, most importantly, more pliable and accommodating.
Trying to appease Talleyrand, Murat not only crumbles in assurances of his good and peaceful intentions, but is even ready to conclude a defensive alliance with Paris against ... Austria. These are the metamorphoses that occur with Murat, who is ready to do everything, even betray his current ally, just to sit in Naples. On May 21, 1814, he even wrote a letter to the French king: “I ask Your Majesty to accept my congratulations. Providence has called you to the throne of Saint Louis and Henry IV. Born French, I keep in my heart feelings of respect and love for the noble blood of Henry IV and Saint Louis " 81 ... And then he lavishes good assurances to the Italian patriots who stand up for the independence of Italy.

When Napoleon, having escaped from the island of Elba, landed in France in March 1815, Murat forgets about his current allies and enthusiastically writes to the emperor: "With inexpressible joy I learned about Your Majesty's sailing to the shores of the Empire." And he adds: “I would like to receive some information about the mutual movements of our troops in Italy and in France ... Right now,” he concludes, “I can prove to you how I have always been devoted to you, and justify myself in the eyes of Europe and your own, earning a fair opinion of me " 82 .
However, Napoleon is not as gullible as the Neapolitan king might have thought. He is in no hurry to take his son-in-law into his open arms. In addition, he is already far from the idea of ​​unleashing any kind of war and, first of all, invites the European powers to conclude peace on the conditions of the status quo. However, the European courts did not react in any way to this proposal of Napoleon and the 7th anti-French coalition had already begun to form, and the emperor himself was outlawed as an enemy of humanity.
Meanwhile, Murat, wishing to contribute to the cause of the emperor, acts both from a political and military point of view, completely thoughtless. Without waiting for the reaction of the European monarchs to Napoleon's peace proposals, the Neapolitan king, completely losing his mind, declares war on Austria, moreover, when the emperor is just approaching Paris - on March 18. In many ways, it was this that prompted the European courts to disbelieve in Napoleon's peace assurances and declare war on France.
This rash decision caused a sharp protest from Minister Gallo and especially Carolina. She was so angry with her husband's decision that she publicly accused him of insanity. And in this case, she was absolutely right. “Isn't it enough for a peasant from Quercy,” she shouted, “to occupy the most beautiful of the thrones of Italy? But no, he would like to own the entire peninsula! " 83 However, neither the calls of Caroline nor Minister Gallo influenced Murat in any way. Not realizing what he was doing, Murat was steadily moving towards his death.
Having started hostilities against Austria, Murat, trying this time to whitewash himself before the Austrian emperor, writes him a letter, in which he mostly accused his recent patron of daring to join a coalition directed against Napoleon, which called Napoleon "a criminal a criminal ”,“ worthy of public prosecution ”. In conclusion, Murat declared that he was forced to launch an offensive in order to get ahead of the conspiracy of the European powers against him. 84 .
However, the hostilities, unfortunately for the Neapolitan king, did not last long. On May 2-3, 1815, in the battle on the Tolentino River, Murat was utterly defeated, and his army turned into a disorderly crowd of fugitives.
The defeated and subdued king returned to Naples on May 18, accompanied by an escort of four Polish lancers. Caroline greeted him with the most cruel reproaches. On her sharp attacks, completely devastated Murat said: "Do not be surprised that you see me alive, I did everything I could to die."
Surprisingly, after all that has happened recently, Murat is again trying to start negotiations with Austria. However, through the Duke de Gallo, it was announced to him that King Joachim no longer existed.
After spending the night in his palace, Murat the next day, at nightfall, fled with money and diamonds sewn into the lining.
Soon one of the winners of her husband, Napierg, arrived at Carolina and told the former queen that it had been decided to intern her in Trieste. Madame Murat, now called that way, left Naples on May 25. Reporting to Vienna, Napierg wrote that in his hands is the queen, "who for her country is more a king than her idiot husband." 85 .
While already on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon, reflecting on the swift actions of Murat, noted: "First he crushed us, leaving us, and then he supported our cause too warmly!" 86

Deprived of the throne, Murat sails to France, hoping to once again offer his services to Napoleon. In vain.
For two weeks Murat lived as a recluse in Cannes, continuing to hope for Napoleon's favor.
In one of the letters to Madame Recamier, the former Neapolitan king pours out all his bitterness on the emperor: “I lost everything for the sake of France, the Emperor, and now he calls what I did a crime, and on his orders. He denies me permission to fight and avenge myself ... I am not free even in choosing the place of my own exile. " 87 .
True, Murat forgot that in the eyes of Napoleon he is a traitor and he does not want to rely on a person who can let him down again.
When he learns about Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and his second abdication, Murat realizes that he should count only on himself. And then an extravagant thought comes to him: to repeat what Napoleon did in March 1815. On this occasion, Ronald Delderfield writes: “Murat was greatly impressed by the theatricality that accompanied the landing of Napoleon, who had fled from Elba, and this magnificent gesture, this his fearless approach to the troops sent to arrest him, this demonstration of the Legion of Honor on his open chest. It was this gesture that was especially attractive to Murat ... Now he decided that the moment had come to apply the same technique and fly to the Neapolitan throne on the crest of popular admiration. However, he could choose the right moment to attack only by leading the cavalry charge.
Unfortunately, he not only chose this moment incorrectly, but also misjudged two factors: the character of the Neapolitans and his own popularity among them. " 88 .

On August 25, 1815, a small detachment of Murat landed in Bastia, in Corsica, where he stayed for a month. On September 28, informed by the news that the Neapolitans are ready to stand under his banner, Murat leaves Corsica and goes to sea, without even bothering to check the reliability of this information.
On October 6, a storm broke out, which scattered Murat's ships, and when the marshal landed on the coast of Calabria, the number of his detachment was reduced from 200 to 25 people. This, however, did not embarrass Murat. Before going ashore, he put on a blue uniform with epaulettes, a triangular hat with black silk cords and a cockade trimmed with twenty-two large diamonds 89 .
Soon the detachment led by Murat moved to Pizzo. It was Sunday, a market was spread out on the city square. When Murat and his companions appeared there, most of the inhabitants clearly greeted the former Neapolitan king with hostility. While Murat was trying to win over to his side several soldiers who were nearby, the square was empty.
At the urgent request of several loyal people, Murat headed down the road to Monteleone. Everyone understood that the enterprise had collapsed and that it was necessary to urgently save themselves. However, they were soon pursued by a crowd led by a certain Giorgio Pellegrino. With several volleys from the pursuers, most of Murat's detachment fled, with only a handful of his most loyal companions left next to the marshal.
Captain Trentacapilli, who soon approached, arrested Murat and his companions.
The hastily created military court immediately passed the death sentence to the accused, in full accordance with the Penal Code introduced by King Joachim himself.

Murat was imprisoned in the castle, once erected by Ferdinand of Aragon to protect the coast. The cell in which the defeated king was placed was a pig barn. “The floor was covered with sticky dung and disgusting creeps were crawling along the walls; light and air was let through by a single vent, half littered with debris " 90 .
Murat denied any court the right to pass judgment on him, the monarch. And this was said by a former Jacobin, an implacable follower of revolutionary ideas, a man who once wanted to change his name Murat to Marat; Now confident in the sacred right of kings, Murat declared to his judges: “It is not given to private people to judge the king, for only the Lord and the people are above him. If I am considered only a marshal of the Empire, then only a council of marshals can judge me, as well as a general - a council of generals. " 91 .
He writes several letters: one to the Queen, the other to King Ferdinand, the next two to the ambassadors of England and Austria, in which he asks them that the states of the anti-Napoleonic coalition take him under their protection.
A seven-member military commission was established to try the former king of Naples. Its chairman was appointed staff adjutant Fazulo, who had once served with Murat. However, King Joachim refused to appear before this judicial commission. Murat said to his defender: “I order you, Senor Starace, not to speak a word in my defense! They do not defend themselves against the executioners! "

The verdict handed down to Murat read: “Article 1. General Murat must appear before the military commission, whose members will be appointed by the Ministry of War. Article 2. The convicted person will be given only half an hour to have the opportunity to talk with the clergyman and confess " 92 .
In fact, this decree corresponded to Articles 87 and 91 of the Criminal Code, introduced by decree of Murat himself and punishing anyone who attempted to change the mode of government by death.

Having listened to the verdict with a proud, calm and contemptuous air, Murat called it dishonorable.
The captive was given only a quarter of an hour to prepare to appear before the Almighty.

On the last day of his life, Murat wrote the last letter to his wife Caroline. His text varied widely at the whim of the copyists, since the copies were circulated after his death, despite the censorship ban. Apparently, the most reliable version of the document, according to Tyular, is the one quoted by Franceschetti in 1826: “My dear Carolina, my last hour has come, in a few moments my life will end, and you will not have a spouse. Never forget: there is not the slightest stain of injustice on my life. Goodbye, my children, Achilles, Letizia, Lucien, Louise. Present yourself to the world worthy of me. I leave you without a kingdom and without a state, among my many enemies; so stick together all the time, show your superiority over the fate that has befallen you, think about who you are and who you were, and the Lord will bless you. Don't curse the memory of me. I testify that the greatest misfortune of the last minutes of my life was to die far from my children. " 93 .
When Murat had finished writing his suicide letter and handed it over to Captain Stratti, the priest of Masdea appeared to confess him. Murat received the confessor respectfully, but said: “No, no! I do not want to confess because I have not committed a sin. "

On October 13, 1815, the sentence was carried out. The only more or less detailed story about the last minutes of the Neapolitan king, Marshal of France Joachim Murat belongs to the canon Masdea, who professed condemnation. “Arriving at the place of execution,” recalls Masdea, “and addressing those present, he (Murat) said:“ Do not think that I accept death from someone else's hands, except for God; the only way it is done is disgusting to me. Where should I get up? Indicate, mister officer. " And, standing on a somewhat elevated place, he unbuttoned his clothes and, tearing them apart, bared his chest. "Shoot," he said, "and don't be afraid, let the will of the Lord be done!" The officer ordered: "Turn your back." Then Murat approached him and with a smile full of compassion, raising his hands and eyes to him, said: “Do you really think that I would oppose these unfortunate soldiers, who are obliged to do what they would not want? That I will prevent anyone from submitting to the hand of the Almighty. " He returns to his seat. Bares her chest and says again: "Shoot!" (According to another version, Murat, standing in front of the line of soldiers, shouted: "Soldiers, do your duty! Shoot in the heart! Spare my face!") These are his last words. The priest proclaims: "I believe in the Lord Almighty!" - and the sentence was carried out. The body of Joachim Murat was placed in a coffin lined with black taffeta and buried in the main church, the construction of which he contributed to and which was finally rebuilt after his death with the money of the king. A solemn Mass was celebrated in the church the next day and a requiem was performed. This is how the great general Joachim Murat died. " 94 .
Over time, both the adventure and the execution of Murat began to turn into legends: a badly boarded up coffin, which crumbled when he was lowered into the grave, about the abduction of the king's body, whose head was then cut off ...

There is nothing surprising in this. It is still not known with sufficient accuracy where the remains of the Marshal of France, Duke of Cleves and Berg, the King of Naples, found their last resting place. According to Tyular, the remains of Joachim Murat, "were dismembered and mixed with the remains of a thousand people in the dungeons of the Church of St. George the Martyr in Pizzo, so that it was impossible to identify them." 95 .

And what about Caroline - Murat's wife and former Neapolitan queen? As was often the case, she was very soon consoled. In 1817, she secretly married one of her many lovers, General Francesco MacDonald (not to be confused with Marshal MacDonald). She was banned from appearing in Italy and France. The French and Neapolitan Bourbons confiscated all of her possessions, leaving the former Neapolitan queen without any permanent income. After the July Revolution in France finally overthrew the Bourbon dynasty from the throne of France in 1830, Caroline took advantage of this circumstance to find support from the bourgeois king Louis Philippe, who showed great leniency towards the Bonapartists. To the surprise of many, she received a state pension from the king and was able to plunge into high life again.
After the death in 1838 of her second husband, Francesco MacDonald, Carolina for a while got along with a certain Clavel. However, this relationship did not last long. The very next year, the health of the former Neapolitan queen seriously deteriorated and on March 18, 1839, she died in Florence at the age of fifty-seven. Despite the reconciliation with Jerome, the Bonapartists still "continued to regard her as a traitor, whose guilt was much greater than the guilt of the man who died in Pizzo with her portrait around his neck." 96 .

Unlike Caroline, who quickly forgot about her brave husband, France did not forget Joachim Murat. “Stupid, unreliable and vain like a peacock, he was still the most courageous and outstanding cavalryman that this warlike nation could give. When we think of him in our time, we first of all face the image of a by no means arrogant, discharged egoist, swaggering in Naples in front of court sycophants, but the appearance of a military leader, rushing through the snow with 80 squadrons behind his back and swinging not a saber, but a golden rod " 97 .

Applications

1. STAGES OF THE SERVICE

1787 - Private of the Ardennes Horse Jaeger Regiment.
1792 - foreman.
1792 - sergeant.
1792 - junior lieutenant.
1792 - lieutenant.
1793 - captain.
1793 - squadron commander.
1796 - brigade commander.
1796 - brigadier general.
1798 - Commander of the Eastern Army Cavalry Brigade.
1799 - divisional general.
1800 - Commander of the Cavalry of the Reserve Army.
1801 - Commander of the Observation Corps.
1804 - Governor of Paris.
1804 - Marshal of France.
1805 - Grand Admiral and Prince of the Empire.
1805 - Chief of the 12th Cohort of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - Commander of the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army.
1806 - Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg.
1808 - Commander of the army in Spain (as Napoleon's governor).
1808 - King of Naples.
1812 - Commander of the reserve cavalry of the Grand Army.
1813 - after Leipzig left the army and went to Naples.
1814 - concluded an agreement with Austria on joint actions against France.
1815 - after the flight of Napoleon from Elba, he betrayed the Austrians and began military operations against them.
1815 - after the defeat, he fled from Naples.
1815 - captured after an unsuccessful attempt to regain the lost Neapolitan throne and shot.

2. AWARDS

1800 - honorary saber for Marengo.
1804 - Senior Officer of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - badge of the Grand Eagle of the Order of the Legion of Honor.
1805 - Commander of the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia).
1806 - the highest dignitary of the Order of the Iron Crown (Italy).
1807 - Commander of the Order of the Root Crown (Saxony).
1807 - Chevalier of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (Russia).
1808 - Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joseph (Würzburg).

3. FAMILY STATUS

Wife - Caroline (Maria Annunziata) Bonaparte (1782-1839).
Children - Achilles (1801-1847)
Letizia (1802-1859)
Lucien (1803-1878)
Louise (1805-1889).

NOTES

1 About "Mira B. Voice from the island of St. Helena. M., 2004. S. 380-381.
2 Zotov R.M. Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena / R.M. Zotov. Sobr. op. M., 1996.T. 5.P. 205.
3 In the same place.
4 Rules, thoughts and opinions of Napoleon on the art of war, military history and military affairs. From his writings and correspondence, collected by F. Kauzler. SPb., 1844. Part 2.S. 49-51.
5 Delderfield R.F. The Marshals of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 37-38.
6 Tulard J. Murat or the awakening of the nation. M., 1993.S. 19-20.
7 In the same place. P. 20.
8 In the same place. P. 21.
9 Sukhomlinov V. Murat Joachim-Murat - King of the Two Sicilies. SPb., 1896.S. 2.
10 In the same place. P. 3.
11 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 28.
12 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Joachim Murat. P., 1905. P. 9.
13 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 62-63.
14 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 34-35.
15 In the same place. P. 36.
16 Seward D. The Napoleon Family. Smolensk. 1995.S. 70.
17 Kirheisen G. Women around Napoleon. M., 1912.S. 113.
18 Napoleon. Selected works. M., 1956.S. 85.
19 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 38.
20 In the same place. P. 48.
21 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 33.
22 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 56.
23 In the same place.
24 Lukas-Dubreton J. Murat. P., 1944. P. 33.
25 Miot J. Mémoires pour servis à l "histoire des exspéditions en Égypte et en Syrie. P. 1858. P. 258.
26 Tulard J. Decree. Op. 63.
27 Prince Murat et Le Brethon. Lettres et documents pour servir à l'histoire de Joachim Murat. T. 1. P. 25-26.
28 Ibid. P. 26-27.
29 Seward D. Decree. Op. P. 96.
30 Abrantes L. d. Notes of the Duchess Abrantes, or historical memories of Napoleon, revolution, directory, consulate, empire and the restoration of the Bourbons. M., 1835. T. 3. P. 131.
31 Prince Murat et Le Brethon. Lettres et documents ... T. 1. P. 35-36.
32 Lumbroso A. Muratiana. 1899. P. 100.
33 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 128.
34 In the same place. P. 135.
35 In the same place. P. 145.
36 In the same place. P. 158.
37 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 159.
38 Damamme J.-C. Lannes maréchal d'Empire. P., 1987. P. 224.
39 Lumbroso A. Op. cit. P. 150.
40 Pototskaya A. Memoirs of Countess Pototskaya (1794-1820). Pg., 1915.S. 67-68.
41 Abrantes L. d. "Decree. Works. T. 9. S. 308-309.
42 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 163-164.
43 Chandler D. Napoleon's military campaigns. M., 1999.S. 338.
44 In the same place.
45 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 170.
46 Savary. Mémoire sur l'Empire. P., 1828. T. 3. P. 83.
47 Sloon V. New life of Napoleon. M., 1995.T. 2.P. 267.
48 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 188.
49 Delderfield R.F. Decree. Op. S. 213-214.
50 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 184.
51 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 244.
52 In the same place. P. 245.
53 In the same place. S. 267-268.
54 In the same place. P. 265.
55 In the same place. P. 272.
56 Segur F. Hike to Moscow. Memoirs of the Adjutant. M., 2002.S. 61.
57 Colencourt A. Memoirs. Napoleon's campaign to Russia. Smolensk. 1991.S. 346.
58 Dedem de Gelder. Mémoires du général Dedem de Gelder. P., 1900. P. 243.
59 Marbeau M. Memoirs of General Baron Marbeau. M., 2005.T. 3.S. 570.
60 Segur F. Decree. Op. P. 253.
61 In the same place. P. 269.
62 Manfred A.Z. Napoleon Bonaparte. M., 1998.S. 532.
63 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 285.
64 Marbo M. Decree. Op. T. 3.P. 611.
65 Segur F. Decree. Op. P. 271.
66 In the same place. S. 282-283.
67 Seward D. The Napoleon Family. Smolensk. 1995.S. 269.
68 Shikanov V.N. Constellation of Napoleon: Marshals of the First Empire. M., 1999.
69 Seward D. Decree. Op. S. 281-282.
70 Garnier J.-P. Murat roi de Naples. P., 1959. P. 231.
71 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 306.
72 Chavanon J. et Saint-Yves G. Op. cit. P. 273.
73 Tulard J. Decree. Op. S. 312-313.
74 In the same place. S. 313-314.
75 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon ... S. 341, 342.
76 Breton G. Women and Kings. M., 1996.T. 8, p. 74.
77 Chandler D. Decree. Op. P. 577.
78 Delderfield R. F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon. M., 2001.S. 326.
79 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 320.
80 Garnier J.-P. Op. cit. P. 264.
81 Tulard J. UKaz. Op. P. 322.
82 In the same place. P. 324.
83 In the same place.
84 In the same place.
85 Seward D. Decree. Op. P. 338.
86 Delderfield R. F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon ... p. 360.
87 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 331.
88 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. S. 415-416.
89 Sukhomlinov V. Decree. Op. P. 33.
90 In the same place. P. 40.
91 Tulard J. Decree. Op. P. 341.
92 In the same place.
93 In the same place. P. 342.
94 In the same place. S. 342-343.
95 In the same place. P. 344.
96 Delderfield R.F. Brothers and sisters of Napoleon ... p. 377.
97 Delderfield R.F. Marshals of Napoleon. S. 416-417.