Rare Autographs, Books and Manuscripts
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/7/2017
Two days after the 1808 abdication of King Charles IV of Spain Napoleon reassigns three French battalions.
Unusual and historically significant manuscript DS, in French, signed “Ap, Np,” one page, 18 x 9.5, March 21, 1808. The chart is titled: "Division of the Pyrenees Orientales Chart of the Organization of the 7th Regiment of Line Infantry of which the 2 First Battalions are Part of this Division." The first column, headed "Perpignan" [a town in southern France], lists three battalions. The second column, with another three battalions, was originally headed "Perpignan" but Napoleon has crossed it out and replaced it with "Barcelone," Boldly signed at the conclusion by Napoleon, and countersigned by Henri Clarke, “Clarke,” who was Napoleon’s Minister of War.
Nicely cloth matted and framed to an overall size of 23.25 x 14.25. In fine condition, with central horizontal and vertical fold, and some ink spattering around signature from Napoleon’s emphatic endorsement.
Barcelona was the first Spanish city to be occupied by French troops, and while attempting to close the ports in Portugal, the last of the European ports still open to the British, Napoleon got permission from Spain to march French troops across Spain to Portugal. With 100,000 French troops in Spain, Napoleon seized frontier forts in the Pyrenees and, by February 1808, had taken Barcelona. King Charles IV of Spain abdicated on March 19, 1808, just two days before Napoleon approved this organizational chart. A remarkable
document of the Napoleonic Wars revealing Napoleon's personal involvement in the assigning of his troops preparing for battle.
Important Napoleon Signed Document
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