Memoirs to Serve for the History of Napoleon I, From 1802 to 1815;

by Claude-François de Méneval, Robert Sherard

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452 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2015

About the author

Baron Claude-François de Méneval was a French soldier, librarian, journalist, diplomat and government official. In 1800, after his brief military service with the 5e Régiment de Dragons, he was employed by the Bibliothèque du Directoire for the purpose of sorting roughly 30,000 volumes from the Tuileries Palace library. Shortly thereafter, he was recruited to write for the 'Journal de Paris' newspaper by Pierre-Louis Roederer, the paper's director. Méneval was then hired by Joseph Bonaparte (elder brother of then-First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte) to be his secretary. He was also sent on several diplomatic missions, primarily involving negotiation of treaties. In April 1802, Méneval was invited to dinner with the First Consul, who was trying to find a suitable replacement for his private secretary, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne. The following day, First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte ordered that Claude-François de Méneval be listed in the "table de service" as his aide-de-camp. Within a few months Bourrienne was sacked, at which point Méneval became Napoleon's "secretary of the portfolio (secrétaire du portefeuille)". He held that position throughout the remainder of the Consulate and for the duration of the First Empire, until Napoleon's abdication as Emperor in 1813. After enduring the disastrous Russian campaign at the emperor's side, however, Méneval's health was shattered. After two months' convalescence, he was named "secretary of commands (secrétaire des commandements)" to the Empress Marie-Louise. Later in 1813 he was appointed "master of requests to the Council of State (maître des requêtes au Conseil d'État)". In March 1814 he accompanied the Empress on her journey from France to Schönbrunn Palace in her native Austria. Loyal until the end to his Emperor, he spent his remaining years in semi-retirement, mostly writing his memoirs. From 1816 to 1825 he lived in the château de Vaucresson (Hauts-de-Seine); in 1819 he became an officer of the Légion d'Honneur. After selling the château de Vaucresson in 1825, Méneval purchased an estate in 1827 in Gif-sur-Yvette (Île-de-France). He had a new home built, which he called "château de l'Ermitage". He served as a municipal councillor of Gif-sur-Yvette from 1831 to 1848, and his château is now the town hall. Claude François, 1er Baron de Méneval died in Paris in June 1850.