Fun fact about Macdonald: When swedish politicans were in Paris, choosing a marshal to be crown prince candidate. They wanted to have Macdonald first but he was away from Paris at the time, so they picked Bernadotte second. So Sweden was close to a have royal dynasty Macdonald.
I think it’s interesting that given the moral values of Macdonald, he more than likely in my opinion would have joined the Coalition against Napoleon the same as Bernadotte
@@silasruddick7631 Those same principals would likely have meant he'd have turned down to offer in the first place. Macdonald was always loyal to France above all else.
Fun fact, Eugenes daughter married Bernadottes son and became Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway. I belive this was because Josephines mother was related to old Swedish dynasties which was of interest to the Bernadottes to tie themselves closer to the countrys history. Which means that the Swedish royal family are also descendants of Josephine de Beauharnais. This ofcourse means that Désirée Clarys son married the granddaughter of the woman Napoleon left her for. It also means that alot of jewelry and tiaras once belonging to Josephine de Beauharnais is now in Sweden. Crown Princess Victoria wore one of Josephines diadems for her wedding. A diadem Napoleon gave to Josephine in 1809. Another fun fact Eugenes other daughter became Empress Amelie of Brazil and when she died she left the Braganza tiara to her sister Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway. Queen Silvia who is part Brazillian likes to wear the Braganza tiara on state occasions.
Lmao. Jokes aside, the witness descriptions of Bessières' death are quite graphic. His ADCs reported being showered in blood and bits of their Marshal.
Fun Fact: in the 1820s a rumor spread about Scotland that Marshall Macdonald and a Scottish radical politician named George Kinloch were gathering an army of French soldiers to reignite the "radical war". MacDonald did visit Scotland, but brought no army, and just enjoyed a few weeks as a tourist.
One thing thats fascinating is that many of the descendants (grandkids or great grandkids) of these marshal actually end up marrying other descendants of marshals which is insane (Davout, Lannes, Murat, suchet, Ney)
I remember watching this and I knew you would love reacting to the parts about Marshall McDonald. he was the only one willing to be honest with Napoleon
fun fact, Massena and Wellington did meet one another in Paris in 1814, which went fairly well. Allegedly Massena exclaimed how Wellington had turned every hair on his head white, to which Wellington replied how they "had been pretty even."
"Bessières lived like Bayard and died like Turenne" said Napoleon. Bayard is a knight, known as "the knight without fear and without reproach". Turenne was a famous marshall of France during Louis XIV's reign and died receiving a cannonball.
30:13 Massena being underwhelmed makes sense because in the Ancien Regime there were more or less only two or three marshals at any given point of time. Compare that to 14 all at once, valid reason for the disappointment
@@maisamsadigi1658 At the time it was part of an Italian Kingdom, it only went to France permanently some decades later during the Wars of Italian Unification. Garibaldi, the main hero of modern Italy, was also born in Niece
Eh, if I've gotten to know Chris from his videos, and from what I've seen throughout these series, he can admire a military commander outside of his military accomplishments, taking account of other things like the character of a man. It's like when he reviewed the U.S. presidents, I can recall a few times where he distinguished a good man from a good president. I've grown to admire Macdonald in his own way from this other than his lack of military achievements.
Of all the Marshals, McDonald was the one who is the most useless of the generals to get a marshals baton in my opinion. He was fairly useless in Spain left, used only as rear-guard in Russia by Bonaparte because he could see his lack of talent and was particularly uninspired in 1813/4 in Germany. in a direst response to you, Massena was twice the man as a commander with far less education in military matters than McDonald. He was when you needed him to do a job for you , so I think the Swedes were luck to get Bernadotte over this waste of space
21:55 That's extremely high praise. "The man doesn't like me, but he's a man of principle and honor and I can trust him to do what's best." Credit to Napoleon for understanding that distinction.
Napoleon was indeed right about MacDonald. He realized his loyalty and brilliance far too late. If only MacDonald’s personality rubbed off onto the likes of Murat, Bernadotte, and Marmont much sooner. Additionally, like Moncey, he was a honest fellow that every ruler/leader needs by their side. He’s definitely one of my favorites so far. Masséna’s prime was cut too short during his marshal tenure. He needed to borrow some of Oudinot’s durability, then again, he might have lost Oudinot too soon. I wonder if Masséna in his prime could at least stalemated Duke of Wellington. Even with his skills being on the decline, Duke of Wellington still thought highly of Masséna. It’s hard to say, since he lost his keenness for the battlefield due to Napoleon’s poor skills with a gun. Also, I wonder if his constant looting and poor treatment of the locals he invaded and sometimes his troops weighed heavy on his conscious, further affecting his mental health.
I mean, Masséna in Portugal IRL, despite some setbacks, managed to outmanouver Wellington and forced him to retreat back to Torres Vedras. Though he was a good commander without doubt, Wellesley wasn't really superb, and he was still learning at the time. After all, the maneuvers he used in the lead-up to Vitoria he learned from Masséna. It isn't hard to imagine that Masséna, on his prime, would more than able to beat the would-be Duke of Wellington. I could see him, if not outright beating him in battle, then outmanouvering his forces more pronouncedly than in our timeline and even beating him to the line of Torres Vedras, forcing Wellesley to either evacuate and redeploy by sea or forcing his surrender, thus taking out the majority of the british army actively on the field.
@@twoface9959 MacDonald was fairly lackluster, and didn't preform particularly well as a Marshal. His most notable achievement, where he won his Marshals Baton at the battle of Wagram, wasn't even that impressive and resulted in huge French casualties without breaking the Austrian line. Even Napoleon attributed the victory to Massena and Oudinot. I don't think he was particularly awful, and did ok in the defense of France, but other than that he wasn't really that good.
@@animatorofanimation128 Yeah... As much as I like MacDonald as a person, I must agree, he wasn't really all that good a general. Brave without a doubt, but lacking any major tactical skills.
Just one correction, the bavarian claim goes to a junior male line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, not to the Liechtenstein dynasty via a female line (like the jacobite claim).
I would like to suggest a subject for a future video: Merian C. Copper Cooper is best known for his time as a director and producer of films in Hollywood as well for pushing for technological advancements in that industry. Besides that he is usually ignored for his exploits that made him as one of the models for Indiana Jones, here is some of his military experience: Villa Campaign as an enlisted soldier from a Florida militia unit Annapolis- kicked out in his final semester, supposedly for being a strong proponent of air power while the commandant was a Battleship man WWI - Flew DH4’s shot down and captured (20th Aero Squadron) Searched for graves of fallen comrades instead of going home, volunteered for refugee work Cofounder of Kosciusko Squadron in Polish-Soviet War, captured and escaped Independent film documentaries as well as stock shots for films. His two films Grass and Chang were highly praised. Met Prince Rastafaria (future Haile Selassie) Then Hollywood (there is a lot more of including King Kong).
You should do a video on King's and General's siege of Tyre. It covers Alexander the Great's siege of Carthage's mother city and shows facinating engineering and tactical feats. Its also a period you have not covered much.
When the king of France calls you "His Outspokenness" you can't become more of a gigachad than that 😂 love your reactions to these videos, Chris, well worth the wait and I hope you haven't been too burnt out on the Napoleonic Wars which is my favourite subject, but maybe slightly European bias here 😂 Would love to see you do a reaction on The Danish-Schleswig Wars, also called Dano-Prussian War, not many but a few good videos of it out there to react to, especially from the channel "Real Time History", have a great day man and if you read all this, you are the best ❤
24:10 I also think it had something to do with his loyalty to France. By 1815, most capable officers can tell that there’s no way Napoleon can win this war. It’s futile, it will destroy France, and waste even more lives. I imagine MacDonald didn’t want that to happen to his country and countrymen, and thus did not aid Napoleon
Hi Chris. Didn't know you'd visited Culloden. It's possibly the best kept battlefield in Britain. I also found it an eerie place when I visited. I went on a blazing hot day but the atmosphere felt cold. I'm not a believer in anything supernatural but it definitely was a place that had a haunted feel to it
Love it when Chris does a Napoleon reaction! It makes want to watch Waterloo again! I hope he gets to react to Alternate History Hub's video on "What if Napoleon Invaded Britain"
I hope you react to The Unstoppable 77th Infantry Division by the Fat Electrician. Lots of crazy stories about the soldiers who served in that division.
Admittedly Napoleon's remark on how Bessières' death was a deeper blow to him rings a bit crass through the modern lens, but lets remember that they were comrades and legit friends for about 20 years. Bessières is certainly regarded of being a loving husband to his wife of 12 years, but add in the long periods of campaigns and the brotherhood forged with their comrades, and Napoleon's comment is not that out of place.
Totally off topic, but I'm watching your videos with great interest and I noticed, that you have a considerable interest in themes of German history an especially, the past world war one period. I don't know if you have a chance to do this in the US, but if you could, you should watch the sky series "Babylon Berlin". I'm watching it right now and it's pretty damm good! It's a fictional series, but in the realistic environment of the late 1920's in Berlin, between past wwi and the rise of the national socialist. I highly recommend it to you because it's very entertaining and deals with a lot of political and social themes of that era in Germany.
Re: Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Stuarts (originally the FitzAlans from Normandy via England, so not really Scottish at all) were the most disastrous family in British History. Among other failings, various members were assassinated by their own countrymen, killed in battle or while playing with their toy cannon, kicked out by their countrymen, started civil wars, and finally resulted in the subjection of the Monarch to Parliament in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. We were, and are, well rid of them !
Been enjoying your content. You have a way of adding a nice balance of new comments to the video. May I recommend the Napoleonic Wars Podcast (mostly on Spotify) if you want to learn more about these wars. It is a historian's podcast mostly with other experts...very good stuff.
I would like you to react to karsten runquist’s video where he ranks every president’s movie, a really great video and you possibly could add a lot to it
Hey VTH, I recently made a video on Theodore Roosevelt’s kids in the World Wars and another one on his grandsons in WW2 and the Cold War. I’d really appreciate it if you could check either one out, but if you don’t have time (or just don’t want to) I completely understand. Keep up the epic history!
Usual American phrase: "Napoleon was barely French!!!" Except that Napoleon was born French on French territory. But not Masséna! He was born in Italian territory (Nice was not French) of Piedmont with the name Andrea Massena, which he would Frenchify as André Masséna...
It had been French territory for a year. He was born Napoleon Buonaparte (an Italian name) and, he didn't even speak French the first several years of his life, and when he did learn French, he spoke it with an accent. His family was Italian. This has nothing to do with me being American and everything to do with knowing history.
@@VloggingThroughHistory yes Chris...but he was more french than Masséna. Ney learnt french at school too. Is Macdonald french??? You are a (very good) historian, that is why i love your channel...but sometimes you have a modern american vieuw. There was no Italy before ...1865?...Napoléon could be as best from genovese family origine.
@@VloggingThroughHistory It's true, however, the logic also applies to the rest of France. Before that, it was mainly the nobility who had developed French, and what would become France as a modern nation later, the end of the "accelarated" process would be mainly after the Revolution, during the 19th century. As a result, even people born in the Kingdom of France, and then the Republic and the Empire, did not necessarily speak French as a first language, especially those from the population. At least not the French language of the Nobility, and then Parisian Bourgeoisie (which the current standard "international" French accent is similar to), but more a patois from the originals "Langues d'Oïl' in Northern France (Norman, Burgundian, Picard, Poitevin, Angevin, Lorrain, Gallo, etc...), and whose roots can be also found among the Canadian French, or Cajun in Louisiana. As Southern French first spoke their Occitan or Provençal's dialects (In exemple, I'm sure Bernadotte did, he certainly spoke French with an Occitan accent from the Pyrenees), just like Bretons, Corsicans, Arpitans (Franco-Provençal), Basques or Alsacians spoke theirs, etc... And even until the dawn of the 20th century in the trenches of WW1, the majority of soldiers spoke their regional languages before French yet (at home), and probably spoke French with their regional accents too. In short, at the time, you became French through sweat and blood, as an idea, a concept, or an allegience, but it was not only a question of origin, or regional us and customs. And this applies to Bonaparte, other Marshals and Soldiers, hence the creation of French Foreign Legion later, as a continuity of the concept.
@@tibsky1396 yes...good summary... ask a Frenchman his ethnicity... he doesn't understand the question and answers... "you mean nationality?" An error on the Foreign Legion nevertheless: the Kings of France used to have foreign regiments (often for their protection): Scottish then Swiss. In 1830, the republican opposition was against this kind of practice. King Charles X found a compromise: we can have foreign regiments, of all nationalities, and on condition that they are based in the colonies...
@@antoinedoyen7452 Even today, even if they feel French, because they have lived similar events in the history of the country (War, Politics, Sport, etc...), many still feel proud of their regional origins. And this, even if the phenomenon is perhaps less strong than before in terms of ratio, in particular due to the emergence of Globalization, or Internet. Yeah, that's right, I was referring more to the fact that they could become French after years of service, where the foreign Royal Guards served more the King and his household, rather than a concept of nationality as we understand it today.
You mentioned the deaths caused by the catholic church via the Spanish Inquisition. The great majority of those executions were done when the Inquisition was controlled by the monarchy after the conquest of Granada, where they were hell-bent on rooting out muslims and jews due to the (not wholly unfounded) fear that they would be a fifth column in case there was a muslim invasion from North Africa. In other words, it had more to do with state politics than religion. The church got really concerned about the massive abuse committed in its name and finally wrenched control back from the monarchy, and thereafter the abuses diminished drastically. In fact, nowhere in Europe were the rights of defendants respected more than in the courts of the inquisition. The inquisition also didn’t join in with the witch craze, there were no executions for witchcraft done by the Spanish Inquisition, they considered this belief superstitious nonsense by the barbarians of Northern Europe. - which indeed it was.
It is the irony of ironies that had Napoleon not gone to military school and enlisted as a Private, he may never have made it to Corporal, due to him being a lousy shot. It's always hard to understand what motivates people like Napoleon. For instance, Spain. Why? Why do they want to occupy a country of foreigners where people speak a foreign language? Maybe some of the people in Catalonia would understand a bit of French, but you must have to give instructions to the populace in Latin or find an interpreter. And what does Spain have that France doesn't have? Make friends with them instead, like the British, and then go visit their beaches on holiday. That'll show 'em.
The British were not necessarily well regarded either, but they were allies of circumstance at the time. Bonaparte certainly had an obsession with control, something that must have made him paranoid by dint of confronting several enemies at once. Iberia could potentially have been a soft underbelly of his continental blockade, while Portugal had opened negotiations with the British. He certainly made the wrong choice, because it was not so much the fact of having a foreign leader that bothered the Spanish. Basically, the Habsburgs were indeed Austrians, just as the Bourbons were also French in origin, but they were both Catholics... It was especially not having a Catholic at the head of the Kingdom that bothered them, and Napoleon was seen more as a champion of the Revolution, an anti-clerical event in their eyes. Given the way he ousted the Bourbons from the throne, they didn't like it.
@@tibsky1396 I think if Napoleon had been more concerned with the welfare of France vs. his own hubris, he could have encouraged ideas like Spanish and Italian independence and guaranteed the defense of the Confederation of the Rhine to diminish Austrian and Prussian influence and make France clearly the preeminent power in Europe, and force the UK to argue that independence is a bad thing for people and France has to be stopped. But he couldn't stop himself from deciding that all of his problems had military solutions. He was probably the best military commander in history, so it's understandable, but if only he could have confined himself to defending France and the smaller neighboring states, nobody ever touches him.
@@EddieReischl It would have been better for him. Knowing that his tactics were mainly about encirclement and the speed of execution that goes with it. With Guerrillas, it is probably the worst thing that can happen, no matter how strong an Empire is, it inevitably becomes an impossible quagmire to untangle. And especially when other fronts are open, and troops are requested elsewhere.
As someone who has actually researched Bessières, I’m not sure why EH felt the need to call him out on his affair, especially when you compare him to his contemporaries. L
“Aw man I shot Mesenna in the face”
Napoleon Bonaparte
@@Awells89 Bertier: “WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!”
@@itz_ex0_279Napoleon - "Well I didn't mean to!"
I see this is where Dick Cheney learned the move…
Masséna literally surviving Napoleon pulling a Dick Cheney and still being one of the top Marshalls despite being old: absolute unit
I won't say even for the time, Masséna was only in his 50s. Masséna was tired, unmotivated, and very ill. Masséna really wanted to retire.
Tbh prime massena was like davout
you have that in reverse: Cheney pulled a Napoleon.
Fun fact about Macdonald: When swedish politicans were in Paris, choosing a marshal to be crown prince candidate. They wanted to have Macdonald first but he was away from Paris at the time, so they picked Bernadotte second. So Sweden was close to a have royal dynasty Macdonald.
I think it’s interesting that given the moral values of Macdonald, he more than likely in my opinion would have joined the Coalition against Napoleon the same as Bernadotte
Aint no way....
@@silasruddick7631Well, I doubt he would have accepted the crown anyway, given his loyalty to France
@@silasruddick7631 Those same principals would likely have meant he'd have turned down to offer in the first place. Macdonald was always loyal to France above all else.
Fun fact, Eugenes daughter married Bernadottes son and became Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway. I belive this was because Josephines mother was related to old Swedish dynasties which was of interest to the Bernadottes to tie themselves closer to the countrys history. Which means that the Swedish royal family are also descendants of Josephine de Beauharnais.
This ofcourse means that Désirée Clarys son married the granddaughter of the woman Napoleon left her for. It also means that alot of jewelry and tiaras once belonging to Josephine de Beauharnais is now in Sweden. Crown Princess Victoria wore one of Josephines diadems for her wedding. A diadem Napoleon gave to Josephine in 1809.
Another fun fact Eugenes other daughter became Empress Amelie of Brazil and when she died she left the Braganza tiara to her sister Queen Josephine of Sweden and Norway. Queen Silvia who is part Brazillian likes to wear the Braganza tiara on state occasions.
“If you get hit with a six pound cannonball to the chest, you’re not surviving that.”
Oudinot probably could
Lmao. Jokes aside, the witness descriptions of Bessières' death are quite graphic. His ADCs reported being showered in blood and bits of their Marshal.
When I first heard that I thought “You don’t usually bounce right up after that.”
Fun Fact: in the 1820s a rumor spread about Scotland that Marshall Macdonald and a Scottish radical politician named George Kinloch were gathering an army of French soldiers to reignite the "radical war". MacDonald did visit Scotland, but brought no army, and just enjoyed a few weeks as a tourist.
😊
@@JHarris533 wise man
One thing thats fascinating is that many of the descendants (grandkids or great grandkids) of these marshal actually end up marrying other descendants of marshals which is insane (Davout, Lannes, Murat, suchet, Ney)
Worst thing a marshal could hear: You’re going to S(pain).
Not unless you're Suchet
I remember watching this and I knew you would love reacting to the parts about Marshall McDonald. he was the only one willing to be honest with Napoleon
fun fact, Massena and Wellington did meet one another in Paris in 1814, which went fairly well. Allegedly Massena exclaimed how Wellington had turned every hair on his head white, to which Wellington replied how they "had been pretty even."
"Bessières lived like Bayard and died like Turenne" said Napoleon. Bayard is a knight, known as "the knight without fear and without reproach". Turenne was a famous marshall of France during Louis XIV's reign and died receiving a cannonball.
Masséna was one of the only marshalls who can command an army without Napoleon
Are you sure Bayard here doesn't mean the horse?
30:13 Massena being underwhelmed makes sense because in the Ancien Regime there were more or less only two or three marshals at any given point of time. Compare that to 14 all at once, valid reason for the disappointment
27:43 I mean massena family was also Italian lmao
Niece belonges to France
@@maisamsadigi1658 At the time it was part of an Italian Kingdom, it only went to France permanently some decades later during the Wars of Italian Unification. Garibaldi, the main hero of modern Italy, was also born in Niece
Last time I was this early Napoleon was still in Egypt.
prediction: Chris is gonna absolutely adore Macdonald and be unimpressed by Massena
Both McDonald and Chris have Scottish blood therefore SCOTLAND FOREVER!!!
Imagine adoring probably the worst marshall and being unimpressed by the most capable one just because he is named after a Burger
Eh, if I've gotten to know Chris from his videos, and from what I've seen throughout these series, he can admire a military commander outside of his military accomplishments, taking account of other things like the character of a man. It's like when he reviewed the U.S. presidents, I can recall a few times where he distinguished a good man from a good president. I've grown to admire Macdonald in his own way from this other than his lack of military achievements.
@@miracleyang3048 L opinion
Of all the Marshals, McDonald was the one who is the most useless of the generals to get a marshals baton in my opinion.
He was fairly useless in Spain left, used only as rear-guard in Russia by Bonaparte because he could see his lack of talent and was particularly uninspired in 1813/4 in Germany.
in a direst response to you, Massena was twice the man as a commander with far less education in military matters than McDonald. He was when you needed him to do a job for you , so I think the Swedes were luck to get Bernadotte over this waste of space
21:55 That's extremely high praise. "The man doesn't like me, but he's a man of principle and honor and I can trust him to do what's best." Credit to Napoleon for understanding that distinction.
What perfect timing, just finished part 3 when this popped up😂
Macdonald is for sure one of my top 5 favorite Napoleonic Marshals. We’ll be getting to the rest later.
i really like these Marshalls videos and you do a great job of adding information with your commentary @ Vlogging Through History
Fantastic! Great timing, just finished a walk so I am ready to sit down and enjoy this.
Another great day with another great reaction, thank you Chris. Love your channel.
how i crave a TV show covering napoleon and his marshalls
I just read Marshal Macdonald's memoirs earlier this year. Great read. He really was unlucky!
Napoleon was indeed right about MacDonald. He realized his loyalty and brilliance far too late. If only MacDonald’s personality rubbed off onto the likes of Murat, Bernadotte, and Marmont much sooner. Additionally, like Moncey, he was a honest fellow that every ruler/leader needs by their side. He’s definitely one of my favorites so far.
Masséna’s prime was cut too short during his marshal tenure. He needed to borrow some of Oudinot’s durability, then again, he might have lost Oudinot too soon. I wonder if Masséna in his prime could at least stalemated Duke of Wellington. Even with his skills being on the decline, Duke of Wellington still thought highly of Masséna. It’s hard to say, since he lost his keenness for the battlefield due to Napoleon’s poor skills with a gun. Also, I wonder if his constant looting and poor treatment of the locals he invaded and sometimes his troops weighed heavy on his conscious, further affecting his mental health.
I agree McDonald was probably the one least deserving of the Marshals Baton
@@steveclarke6257 Least? You mean most?
I mean, Masséna in Portugal IRL, despite some setbacks, managed to outmanouver Wellington and forced him to retreat back to Torres Vedras. Though he was a good commander without doubt, Wellesley wasn't really superb, and he was still learning at the time. After all, the maneuvers he used in the lead-up to Vitoria he learned from Masséna. It isn't hard to imagine that Masséna, on his prime, would more than able to beat the would-be Duke of Wellington. I could see him, if not outright beating him in battle, then outmanouvering his forces more pronouncedly than in our timeline and even beating him to the line of Torres Vedras, forcing Wellesley to either evacuate and redeploy by sea or forcing his surrender, thus taking out the majority of the british army actively on the field.
@@twoface9959 MacDonald was fairly lackluster, and didn't preform particularly well as a Marshal. His most notable achievement, where he won his Marshals Baton at the battle of Wagram, wasn't even that impressive and resulted in huge French casualties without breaking the Austrian line. Even Napoleon attributed the victory to Massena and Oudinot. I don't think he was particularly awful, and did ok in the defense of France, but other than that he wasn't really that good.
@@animatorofanimation128 Yeah... As much as I like MacDonald as a person, I must agree, he wasn't really all that good a general. Brave without a doubt, but lacking any major tactical skills.
Finished up part three on the way to work this morning! Now I got something to look forward too when I take lunch😂😂
To*^ come on now I knew better😂😂
10:39, Yeah, I get what Napoleon was going for but I feel like he could have phrased it better lol
Just one correction, the bavarian claim goes to a junior male line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, not to the Liechtenstein dynasty via a female line (like the jacobite claim).
I enjoyed this more than I'd anticipated.
I read someone once that Napoleon once joked that if McDonald was in the field and heard bagpipes that he might have turned to the enemy
8:58 Things like that fumes me everytime I hear it.
In all its forms.
But being shot in the face by the Emperor is braging rights.
I love this series!!!! Keep it going!!!!❤
You are a beast for knocking this out in four days. I know other youtubers that wouldve taken four weeks to do this👍🏽
I would like to suggest a subject for a future video:
Merian C. Copper
Cooper is best known for his time as a director and producer of films in Hollywood as well for pushing for technological advancements in that industry. Besides that he is usually ignored for his exploits that made him as one of the models for Indiana Jones, here is some of his military experience:
Villa Campaign as an enlisted soldier from a Florida militia unit
Annapolis- kicked out in his final semester, supposedly for being a strong proponent of air power while the commandant was a Battleship man
WWI - Flew DH4’s shot down and captured (20th Aero Squadron)
Searched for graves of fallen comrades instead of going home, volunteered for refugee work
Cofounder of Kosciusko Squadron in Polish-Soviet War, captured and escaped
Independent film documentaries as well as stock shots for films. His two films Grass and Chang were highly praised. Met Prince Rastafaria (future Haile Selassie)
Then Hollywood (there is a lot more of including King Kong).
You should do a video on King's and General's siege of Tyre. It covers Alexander the Great's siege of Carthage's mother city and shows facinating engineering and tactical feats. Its also a period you have not covered much.
When the king of France calls you "His Outspokenness" you can't become more of a gigachad than that 😂 love your reactions to these videos, Chris, well worth the wait and I hope you haven't been too burnt out on the Napoleonic Wars which is my favourite subject, but maybe slightly European bias here 😂
Would love to see you do a reaction on The Danish-Schleswig Wars, also called Dano-Prussian War, not many but a few good videos of it out there to react to, especially from the channel "Real Time History", have a great day man and if you read all this, you are the best ❤
PT 4 let’s GOOO!!!!!!!
At least top 5 greatest general staff ever assembled.
In terms of military, it was without a doubt France's golden generation.
Love your channel btw :)
I like McDonald for how he managed the ceremony of San Gennaro in Naples.
Yes I’m at work and you’re making my days with these napoleon videos . Can you just put them all in one playlist .
I suppose Napoleon was still less embarrassed about shooting Messena than the debacle of the rabbits.
Tbh everyone would've chose the embarrassment of shooting your friend than total and utter humiliation by rabbits
24:10 I also think it had something to do with his loyalty to France. By 1815, most capable officers can tell that there’s no way Napoleon can win this war. It’s futile, it will destroy France, and waste even more lives. I imagine MacDonald didn’t want that to happen to his country and countrymen, and thus did not aid Napoleon
Hi Chris.
Didn't know you'd visited Culloden. It's possibly the best kept battlefield in Britain.
I also found it an eerie place when I visited. I went on a blazing hot day but the atmosphere felt cold.
I'm not a believer in anything supernatural but it definitely was a place that had a haunted feel to it
I felt the same thing at Verdun, I had the impression of being observed in some corners of the old trenches, despite nature came back.
Damn I just finished the previous episode 2 minutes ago, perfect timing!
Great job in the new Drawn of History video 🎉
I couldn't even pause to go drink I was thirsty but your video is so captivating that I held back until the end it was great thank you
Love it when Chris does a Napoleon reaction! It makes want to watch Waterloo again! I hope he gets to react to Alternate History Hub's video on "What if Napoleon Invaded Britain"
I hope you react to The Unstoppable 77th Infantry Division by the Fat Electrician. Lots of crazy stories about the soldiers who served in that division.
Admittedly Napoleon's remark on how Bessières' death was a deeper blow to him rings a bit crass through the modern lens, but lets remember that they were comrades and legit friends for about 20 years. Bessières is certainly regarded of being a loving husband to his wife of 12 years, but add in the long periods of campaigns and the brotherhood forged with their comrades, and Napoleon's comment is not that out of place.
these are my favourite reactions to watch while eating
16:00 what you mean Eugene wasn't to the level of these guys? He was better than most marshalls he could've easily ranked with the top 5
He was good but not top 5.
@@masterplokoon8803
Top 7 at least then
@@miracleyang3048 if he had gotten more military experience and a longer career, maybe.
What luck for me I only started watching the marshals series yesterday so the final part is available already.
10:28 'Me, me mEEEE!!!' -Napoleon
the final six on this list are such incredible human beings i cannot wait to see what you think
Everything is funny in your carreer as a marshal until the emperor decides to send you to spain or russia hehe
Curious. Most military historians rank Massena as third behind Lannes and Davout.
Général de division is basically the highest rank before Maréchal was reinstituted . It's not division commander as you could be in charge of an Army.
Suchet, lannes and oudino are my favorite Marshall’s
Totally off topic, but I'm watching your videos with great interest and I noticed, that you have a considerable interest in themes of German history an especially, the past world war one period. I don't know if you have a chance to do this in the US, but if you could, you should watch the sky series "Babylon Berlin". I'm watching it right now and it's pretty damm good! It's a fictional series, but in the realistic environment of the late 1920's in Berlin, between past wwi and the rise of the national socialist. I highly recommend it to you because it's very entertaining and deals with a lot of political and social themes of that era in Germany.
Re: Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Stuarts (originally the FitzAlans from Normandy via England, so not really Scottish at all) were the most disastrous family in British History. Among other failings, various members were assassinated by their own countrymen, killed in battle or while playing with their toy cannon, kicked out by their countrymen, started civil wars, and finally resulted in the subjection of the Monarch to Parliament in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. We were, and are, well rid of them !
Napoleon went all Chaney on him
lucky for Masséna to have taken a pistol bullet..Napoleon was normally an artilleryman..
Is McDonald thinking the Spanish war was immoral like Grant thinking the Mexican American war immoral?
Whats that got to do with anything? Hating on America are we?
@@keto0303 no I’m American and love America I’m just saying it’s similar
@@keto0303 Plenty of contemporary Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, opposed the Mexican War.
Been enjoying your content. You have a way of adding a nice balance of new comments to the video.
May I recommend the Napoleonic Wars Podcast (mostly on Spotify) if you want to learn more about these wars. It is a historian's podcast mostly with other experts...very good stuff.
VTH just saw drawn of history video the most doomed conquest of the New World Stop playing with this hearing your voice caught me off guard
Mcdonald is fascinating to me.
Good video
Man I want to see you playing cod ww2, now that will be interesting
Day 8 of asking VTH to debate Mr Beat about the Electoral College
A lot of descriptions mentioning luck-I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Napoleon was a strong believer in “Fortuna”.
Having studied a fair bit of military history, I have concluded that it is more important to be lucky than good.
Napoleon was very hard to Massena I think he’s quoted as saying he may aswell have been dead after 1810.
Massesna only survived because Napoleon wasn't used to shooting anything smaller than a field cannon
Napoleon tryied to invade Portugal 3 times, and failed all 3
I would like you to react to karsten runquist’s video where he ranks every president’s movie, a really great video and you possibly could add a lot to it
Aw I couldve sworn multi part series were done in a row :(
upload the next one pleaseeeeee
May the red shield guide us-Æg
Let’s go Chris!
I understand why you want to mix it up and wait a few days untill you do the last 2 parts but i just can't wait.
Hey VTH, I recently made a video on Theodore Roosevelt’s kids in the World Wars and another one on his grandsons in WW2 and the Cold War. I’d really appreciate it if you could check either one out, but if you don’t have time (or just don’t want to) I completely understand. Keep up the epic history!
Day one of asking Chris to react to montamayors Midway series.
Never clicked on a video harder
good stuf!
The next one, the 6th, may surprise you a lot considering something you previously said.
epic history hms victory series must be next.
Davout incoming!!!
Chris have you watch any of mark feltons history clips on RUclips ? If not I highly recommend some
Usual American phrase: "Napoleon was barely French!!!" Except that Napoleon was born French on French territory. But not Masséna! He was born in Italian territory (Nice was not French) of Piedmont with the name Andrea Massena, which he would Frenchify as André Masséna...
It had been French territory for a year. He was born Napoleon Buonaparte (an Italian name) and, he didn't even speak French the first several years of his life, and when he did learn French, he spoke it with an accent. His family was Italian. This has nothing to do with me being American and everything to do with knowing history.
@@VloggingThroughHistory yes Chris...but he was more french than Masséna. Ney learnt french at school too. Is Macdonald french??? You are a (very good) historian, that is why i love your channel...but sometimes you have a modern american vieuw. There was no Italy before ...1865?...Napoléon could be as best from genovese family origine.
@@VloggingThroughHistory It's true, however, the logic also applies to the rest of France. Before that, it was mainly the nobility who had developed French, and what would become France as a modern nation later, the end of the "accelarated" process would be mainly after the Revolution, during the 19th century.
As a result, even people born in the Kingdom of France, and then the Republic and the Empire, did not necessarily speak French as a first language, especially those from the population. At least not the French language of the Nobility, and then Parisian Bourgeoisie (which the current standard "international" French accent is similar to), but more a patois from the originals "Langues d'Oïl' in Northern France (Norman, Burgundian, Picard, Poitevin, Angevin, Lorrain, Gallo, etc...), and whose roots can be also found among the Canadian French, or Cajun in Louisiana.
As Southern French first spoke their Occitan or Provençal's dialects (In exemple, I'm sure Bernadotte did, he certainly spoke French with an Occitan accent from the Pyrenees), just like Bretons, Corsicans, Arpitans (Franco-Provençal), Basques or Alsacians spoke theirs, etc... And even until the dawn of the 20th century in the trenches of WW1, the majority of soldiers spoke their regional languages before French yet (at home), and probably spoke French with their regional accents too.
In short, at the time, you became French through sweat and blood, as an idea, a concept, or an allegience, but it was not only a question of origin, or regional us and customs. And this applies to Bonaparte, other Marshals and Soldiers, hence the creation of French Foreign Legion later, as a continuity of the concept.
@@tibsky1396 yes...good summary... ask a Frenchman his ethnicity... he doesn't understand the question and answers... "you mean nationality?" An error on the Foreign Legion nevertheless: the Kings of France used to have foreign regiments (often for their protection): Scottish then Swiss. In 1830, the republican opposition was against this kind of practice. King Charles X found a compromise: we can have foreign regiments, of all nationalities, and on condition that they are based in the colonies...
@@antoinedoyen7452 Even today, even if they feel French, because they have lived similar events in the history of the country (War, Politics, Sport, etc...), many still feel proud of their regional origins. And this, even if the phenomenon is perhaps less strong than before in terms of ratio, in particular due to the emergence of Globalization, or Internet.
Yeah, that's right, I was referring more to the fact that they could become French after years of service, where the foreign Royal Guards served more the King and his household, rather than a concept of nationality as we understand it today.
dang i was never this early before lets see if he likes anyone more than oudinot this episode
You mentioned the deaths caused by the catholic church via the Spanish Inquisition. The great majority of those executions were done when the Inquisition was controlled by the monarchy after the conquest of Granada, where they were hell-bent on rooting out muslims and jews due to the (not wholly unfounded) fear that they would be a fifth column in case there was a muslim invasion from North Africa. In other words, it had more to do with state politics than religion. The church got really concerned about the massive abuse committed in its name and finally wrenched control back from the monarchy, and thereafter the abuses diminished drastically. In fact, nowhere in Europe were the rights of defendants respected more than in the courts of the inquisition. The inquisition also didn’t join in with the witch craze, there were no executions for witchcraft done by the Spanish Inquisition, they considered this belief superstitious nonsense by the barbarians of Northern Europe. - which indeed it was.
Dick Cheney also shot a guy in the face and I think the guy took the blame.
I almost mentioned Cheney during that part!
It is the irony of ironies that had Napoleon not gone to military school and enlisted as a Private, he may never have made it to Corporal, due to him being a lousy shot.
It's always hard to understand what motivates people like Napoleon. For instance, Spain. Why? Why do they want to occupy a country of foreigners where people speak a foreign language? Maybe some of the people in Catalonia would understand a bit of French, but you must have to give instructions to the populace in Latin or find an interpreter. And what does Spain have that France doesn't have? Make friends with them instead, like the British, and then go visit their beaches on holiday. That'll show 'em.
The British were not necessarily well regarded either, but they were allies of circumstance at the time.
Bonaparte certainly had an obsession with control, something that must have made him paranoid by dint of confronting several enemies at once. Iberia could potentially have been a soft underbelly of his continental blockade, while Portugal had opened negotiations with the British.
He certainly made the wrong choice, because it was not so much the fact of having a foreign leader that bothered the Spanish. Basically, the Habsburgs were indeed Austrians, just as the Bourbons were also French in origin, but they were both Catholics...
It was especially not having a Catholic at the head of the Kingdom that bothered them, and Napoleon was seen more as a champion of the Revolution, an anti-clerical event in their eyes. Given the way he ousted the Bourbons from the throne, they didn't like it.
@@tibsky1396 I think if Napoleon had been more concerned with the welfare of France vs. his own hubris, he could have encouraged ideas like Spanish and Italian independence and guaranteed the defense of the Confederation of the Rhine to diminish Austrian and Prussian influence and make France clearly the preeminent power in Europe, and force the UK to argue that independence is a bad thing for people and France has to be stopped.
But he couldn't stop himself from deciding that all of his problems had military solutions. He was probably the best military commander in history, so it's understandable, but if only he could have confined himself to defending France and the smaller neighboring states, nobody ever touches him.
@@EddieReischl It would have been better for him. Knowing that his tactics were mainly about encirclement and the speed of execution that goes with it. With Guerrillas, it is probably the worst thing that can happen, no matter how strong an Empire is, it inevitably becomes an impossible quagmire to untangle. And especially when other fronts are open, and troops are requested elsewhere.
As someone who has actually researched Bessières, I’m not sure why EH felt the need to call him out on his affair, especially when you compare him to his contemporaries. L
Have you considered react to Drawn of history? He has some very good and funny videos on events and people in history.
I have...and I'm in two of his videos.
There decent video by knowledgia and why Confederate lose war on two battles I think you'd have fun with and add good and missing context
Nice
Please check out "Top 5 viking deaths" by Epic History, its an amazing video!
Drawn of History dropped another video! You should React to it!
Especially the part with Charles V in it!
Alright... I guess I will go play Napolean Total War, once again. How horrible.
Are you taking a jab at Catholics when you say that Bessieres wouldnt feel conflicted by the executions in Spain since he was a Catholic?
I was getting a whiff of the Black Legend there...