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In early 1806, Napoleon, having temporarily squashed the Austrians and Russians at
Austerlitz, dealt with the degenerate Bourbon rulers of Naples, who had signed a treaty of
neutrality with him in September 1805 - and welcomed and assisted an Anglo-Russian
invading force (which hastily re-embarked on learning of Austerlitz) in November. Napoleon
replaced them with his elder brother Joseph. In 1808 he promoted Joseph to King of Spain,
and gave Naples to his brother-in-law and cavalry commander, Marshal Joachim Murat. In
1813, Murat turned against Napoleon and so kept his kingdom; in 1815, however, in hopes of
making himself King of United Italy, he sided with Napoleon, but attached prematurely
(against Napoleon's advice), was defeated, and subsequently captured and shot by the restored
Bourbons.
Neapolitan troops had long had the reputation for fine appearance, coupled oddly with
outstanding poltroonery. Joseph, who lacked any military interests, did little to build a new
army, except for a strong guard (mostly French) and introducing a weak form of conscription.
Murat and his officials worked energetically, achieving an army of 70,000 men, of which
50,000 were trained and organized. It was, however, still a Neapolitan Army, needing a
backbone of foreign officers and units.
Little is known concerning this army's uniforms during 1806-1809, except that French
styles were followed. Thereafter, it became a colorist's delight. Murat was full of projects for
new uniforms, especially for his big Royal Guard, but many of these never got beyond
experimental models for jack of sufficient funds. Unfortunately, many of these proposed
uniforms were accepted as actual issue, even by reliable authorities such as Richard Kntel in
his Uniformk,de. Also the situation was further complicated by Q. Cenni (Italian artist, late
19th - early 20th centuries) who produced large numbers of uniform plates, most of them
imaginative and some outright fakes, and by the looting of private collections by at least one
of Mussolini's officials.
Only during the 1960s did the researches of Herbert Kntel and Roger Forthoffer uncover
the surviving, basic documentation necessary for an accurate reconstruction of the Neapolitan
Army's uniforms.
It was a beautiful army - consequently I covered it in more detail than its military value
deserved. As Napoleon told Joseph, "Your soldiers, or no soldiers at all - it's the same thing!
Index
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Plate 37.