In 25 June 1807, a raft with a specially constructed single-storey structure on it was floated out into the middle of the Neman River near Tilsit in what is today Lithuania. It consisted of a roofed, lavishly furnished salon that was decorated with flowers and boasted two finely carved weathervanes, one in the shape of the French eagle and the other in the shape of the Russian bear. It was anchored in the middle of the river where it looked, to all intents and purposes, like a floating stage set. Fitting really, because it was here that Napoleon Bonaparte, whose carpenters had built it, was to meet with one of the great actors of the age – Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
By the time their two-hour summit was over, a peace treaty had been agreed that would bring an end to years of hostilities between Russia and France that had seen the Russian army crushed by the French and Europe transformed. Napoleon, one of the shrewdest political operators of his age, wrote of Alexander soon after this fabled encounter: “The emperor is intelligent, pleasant and well-educated. But he cannot be trusted. He is insincere, a subtle deceiver and a devious fellow.” In the event, Napoleon’s assessment was to prove correct. Within five years Alexander had broken the terms of the agreement and an even more costly war would break out between France and Russia – one that could only have one winner. Little did Alexander know that when he signed the treaty on that floating stage in 1807, he was setting himself up for a starring role in what would turn out to be one of history’s most epic dramas.
この記事は History of War の Issue 108 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は History of War の Issue 108 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war