Christine Haynes on the Secret War Against Napoleon: Britain's

Tim Clayton. The Secret War against Napoleon: Britain's Assassination Plot on the French Emperor. New York: Pegasus Books, 2019. Illustrations. 448 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-64313-057-6. Reviewed by Christine Haynes Published on H-War (September, 2019) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University) The role of spying and propaganda in war has him: the machine infernale exploded by Pierre received significant attention among academic Robinault de Saint-Régent in the rue Saint-Nicaise and popular historians of the twentieth century. on Christmas Eve in 1800 and the “Grand Conspir‐ Until recently, however, the significance of such acy” involving French generals Jean-Charles “dark business” (the original title of this book in Pichegru and Jean-Victor Moreau as well as nu‐ Great Britain) has been overlooked in histories of merous royalist and Chouan agents operating the frst “total” wars during the revolutionary and around Boulogne to restore the Bourbon monar‐ Napoleonic era. Building on work by Elizabeth chy in early 1804. During these three years, in Sparrow, Simon Burrows, and Stuart Semmel, spite of the Peace of Amiens, the British govern‐ among others, this new book by the author of ment fnanced an extensive propaganda cam‐ more traditional histories of Trafalgar and Water‐ paign against Napoleon, thereby creating the loo reconstructs the “secret war” orchestrated by “Black Legend” about him. Fueled by fear of inva‐ the British government against Napoleon Bona‐ sion and revolution at home, the ministries of parte.[1] Developing out of research he conducted William Pitt and Henry Addington enlisted an for an exhibit on Napoleon and the British at the army of French and British journalists, publish‐ British Museum in 2015, Tim Clayton asserts that ers, spies, and counterrevolutionaries under the the new kind of “total” warfare practiced by the direction of spymaster William Windham to un‐ French necessitated “an unprecedented ruthless‐ dermine the government of the frst consul. Re‐ ness whose full extent remains relatively unex‐ counting “a very modern story of secret commit‐ plored and remarkably little known” (p. 9). In tees, slush funds, assassination and black propa‐ contrast to recent work on Britain in the revolu‐ ganda” in addition to safe houses and even invisi‐ tionary and Napoleonic Wars, which details its ad‐ ble ink, Clayton asserts that it was British intransi‐ ministrative, fnancial, and industrial mobiliza‐ gence, not French aggression, that was responsi‐ tion, this book emphasizes the political intrigue ble for the renewal of war after 1803 (p. 14). The behind the scenes of the British war effort.[2] British-sponsored virulent press campaign and Although it traces the pre- and post-history of foiled royalist plot of that year provoked the British “secret war” against Napoleon, the Napoleon to order the assassination of the royal book focuses on the period between two govern‐ prince Duc d’Enghien as well as the execution of a ment-sponsored assassination attempts against number of the arrested plotters. This “dark busi‐ H-Net Reviews ness” also encouraged Napoleon to take the title of ca AD 96-98] that skewered French revolutionary emperor, which in turn exacerbated tensions be‐ heroes, including Napoleon) but also in songs, tween France and Great Britain—and the rest of plays, prints, and even material objects, such as Europe. Ultimately, Clayton argues, the British pottery (p. 11). Particularly interesting is his dis‐ campaign against the French “tyrant” prolonged cussion of how this anti-revolutionary propagan‐ the wars for another decade, “with the ironic con‐ da recycled tropes regarding the English Civil sequence that Britain itself stepped back many, War, including the generals Oliver Cromwell and many paces and was a much less liberal and at‐ George Monck (used to symbolize Napoleon) and tractive country in 1815 than it had been in 1789” a pamphlet titled Killing No Murder (originally (p. 347). published in 1657 to justify the execution of Clayton’s narrative of this story begins well, Charles I and reprinted numerous times in the with a gripping account of the failed machine in‐ 1790s and early 1800s). In his discussion of this fernale plot to assassinate Napoleon on his way to propaganda, which he deems more effective than the opera on Christmas Eve in 1800. In this frst previous scholars, such as Burrows or Semmel, mass terrorist act, as Clayton terms it, the explo‐ Clayton is careful to trace the evolution of repre‐ sion could be heard across Paris. At least seven sentations of Napoleon, from anti-Catholic hero people were killed and twenty were seriously in‐ and modern Alexander during his rise as a revo‐ jured; the neighborhood was so badly damaged lutionary general, through “savior of the world” that within two years it was demolished. The book during the Peace of Amiens, to brutal warrior (for also illuminates the networks of agents and dou‐ example, at Jaffa) and Corsican “usurper.” In‐ ble agents—including women—operating on both creasingly denigrated as “Little Boney,” Napoleon sides of the English Channel during the revolu‐ —like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before him tionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the help of a —was also attacked via sexual libel, which sug‐ number of portraits and a good map of their land‐ gested alternately that he was infertile, homosex‐ ing points and safe houses in northern France. In ual, or insatiable. Together, these various strands particular, it provides a detailed account of the or‐ of propaganda against Napoleon fueled the ganization of the assassination plot of early 1804, British war effort against France. As Clayton con‐ including the risky landing of royalist agents at cludes, “Tory journalists had depicted Napoleon the base of the highest cliffs in Europe, on the “Al‐ as the heir of atheist Jacobinism; Whigs saw him abaster Coast” between Dieppe and Le Tréport as the dictator who had betrayed the liberal aspi‐ (pp. 224-25). rations of the revolution. The two strands fused in propaganda that was directed against Napoleon Clayton also does an impressive job of expos‐ personally, inconsistent and all-embracing in its ing the role of the government in orchestrating accusations, but effective in uniting Britons” (pp. the propaganda campaign against Napoleon by 168-69). French émigré writers along with British journal‐ ists and publishers. Reminding us that “propagan‐ Ultimately, though, this book falls short of its da” derives from the Counter-Reformation con‐ promise to uncover a “secret war” against gregatio de propaganda fde (congregation for Napoleon. While the narrative begins strong, it propagating the faith), he shows how in the con‐ gets bogged down in its reconstruction of the text of the frst “total” wars it took material form events of 1801-4, especially the political intrigue not just in pamphlets, newspapers, and books (the surrounding the Peace of Amiens and the second most important of which was The Revolutionary plot to land royalist agents near Boulogne. Al‐ Plutarch [1804], a parody of Plutarch’s Lives [cir‐ though it seems to be intended for a popular non- British audience, the book assumes significant 2 H-Net Reviews knowledge of British political factions and leaders ism and European Politics, 1792-1814 (Wood‐ in this period. In general, despite a helpful “Cast bridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2000); Simon Burrows, of Characters” at the beginning, there are far too “Britain and the Black Legend,” in Resisting many names for the reader to keep track of. More Napoleon: The British Response to the Threat of significantly for the overall argument, a lack of Invasion, 1797-1815, ed. Mark Philp (Aldershot: evidence in government records forces too much Ashgate, 2006), 141-57; and Stuart Semmel, speculation on the part of the author, for instance, Napoleon and the British (New Haven, CT: Yale about the fnancing of royalist agents. For exam‐ University Press, 2004). ple, Clayton is unable to say whether one of the [2]. See, for example, Roger Knight, Britain most important caricaturists of Napoleon, James against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, Gillray, received money from the British govern‐ 1793-1815 (New York: Penguin Books, 2013); and ment. And, regarding rumors that a key British- Jenny Uglow, In These Times: Living in Britain sponsored conspirator, a former French revolu‐ through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815 (New York: tionary named Méhée de la Touche, was a double Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). agent, he is forced to conclude, “It is as difficult now as it was then to get to the truth” (p. 242). Moreover, to demonstrate the significance of the propaganda campaign against Napoleon in fuel‐ ing the war, more evidence is needed of its effect on public opinion in Great Britain. To what extent did the British public endorse the “Black Legend” of Napoleon, and what role did this legend really play in mobilization for war against France after 1803? More research is needed to substantiate the author’s claim that the British “secret war” against Napoleon was critical to the renewal and extension of the official war. Nonetheless, Clayton’s work does point to two relatively unexplored avenues of research on the role of Great Britain in the Napoleonic Wars: spy‐ ing and propaganda. Going beyond previous work that has analyzed these techniques in terms of in‐ ternational intrigue or British politics, his synthe‐ sis of the two topics shows that they were instru‐ mental to modern warfare as it developed in the age of Napoleon. In our current context of war on terror, it is a timely reminder that the use of espi‐ onage, conspiracy, and “fake news” in the interest of regime change is nothing new. Notes [1]. Elizabeth Sparrow, Secret Service: British Agents in France, 1792-1815 (Woodbridge: Boy‐ dell, 1999); Simon Burrows, French Exile Journal‐ 3 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-war Citation: Christine Haynes.

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