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Berlin Decree

(Encyclopedia)Berlin Decree, 1806, decree issued in Berlin by Napoleon I on Nov. 21 in answer to the British blockade. Claiming that the British blockade of purely commercial ports was contrary to international law...

Roche-sur-Yon, La

(Encyclopedia)Roche-sur-Yon, La lä rôsh-sür-yôN [key], city (1990 pop. 48,518), capital of Vendée dept., W France, on the Yon River. A transportation and agricultural trade center, it also has industries produ...

Pressburg, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Pressburg, Treaty of, 1805, peace treaty between Napoleon I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (also emperor of Austria), signed at Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia). Defeated at Austerlit...

Borodino

(Encyclopedia)Borodino bərədyĭnôˈ [key], village, central European Russia, c.70 mi (110 km) W of Moscow. It was the site, on Sept. 7, 1812, of a battle between Napoleon's Grande Armée and Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov...

Concordat of 1801

(Encyclopedia)Concordat of 1801, agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII that reestablished the Roman Catholic Church in France. Napoleon took the initiative in negotiating this agreement; he recogni...

Fouché, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Fouché, Joseph zhôzĕfˈ fo͞oshāˈ [key], b. 1759 or 1763, d. 1820, French revolutionary and minister of police. A teacher in the schools of the Oratorian order, he joined the French Revolution an...

Beauharnais, Eugène de

(Encyclopedia)Beauharnais, Eugène de də bōärnāˈ [key], 1781–1824, French general; son of Alexandre and Josephine de Beauharnais (Empress Josephine). He served ably in the campaigns of his stepfather, Napol...

Kutuzov, Mikhail Ilarionovich

(Encyclopedia)Kutuzov, Mikhail Ilarionovich mēkhəyēlˈ ēləryônˈəvĭch ko͝oto͞oˈzəf [key], 1745–1813, Russian field marshal. He fought against the Polish Confederation of Bar (see Bar, Confederation of...

Gance, Abel

(Encyclopedia)Gance, Abel, 1889–1981, pioneering French filmmaker. He acted on the stage in the early 1900s and appeared on the silent screen. From 1911 he wrote and directed several films; his first important fi...

Constant, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Constant, Benjamin (Henri Benjamin Constant de Rebecque) äNrēˈ bäNzhämăNˈ kôNstäNˈ də rəbĕkˈ [key], 1767–1830, French-Swiss political writer and novelist, b. Lausanne. His affair (1794...