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Lies Agreed Upon: A Historical Murder Mystery in the Age of Napoleon
"History is a set of lies agreed upon." -- Napoleon BonaparteEveryone knows about the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Horatio Nelson . but what happened to the man on the other side?April 1806. Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve lies dead in a provincial inn, his body marked by wounds too deliberate for accident - and too careful for rage. Now, Napoleon Bonaparte and his inner circle must confront not only the facts of the death, but the deeper corrosion it reveals beneath the imperial gilt.
At the heart of the Empire, the silence is strategic, and survival is measured in the corpses of betrayed men. Where does the lie end, and where does the truth begin?Peace across Europe hangs in the balance. The beat of war drums is rising. And history is always written by those who outlive it.----In early 1806, a fragile peace was settling over Europe in the aftermath of Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.
Then, in spring, Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve returned from England. He'd been held in custody for six months by the British following the disastrous Battle of Trafalgar, where France's fleet was annihilated in an engagement against Britain's Royal Navy. Not long after, he turned up dead in a rural inn in a landlocked town in the middle of Brittany. What happened to Admiral Villeneuve? Did he kill himself, as Napoleon Bonaparte and the broadsheets of the day allege? Or was it something darker? Who would want to kill a man who was no longer useful or of consequence to the Empire of France? Or was he still useful, to someone, and suddenly useful no longer?Lies Agreed Upon dramatizes Villeneuve's final hours and the political fallout that follows.
What happened, what could have happened, and who knew about it? Here, in this extensively-researched book, key members of Napoleon's court are brought forth, ones who have been largely overlooked or forgotten in the modern age: Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Géraud Duroc, René Savary, Joseph Fouché and, of course, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.
At the heart of the Empire, the silence is strategic, and survival is measured in the corpses of betrayed men. Where does the lie end, and where does the truth begin?Peace across Europe hangs in the balance. The beat of war drums is rising. And history is always written by those who outlive it.----In early 1806, a fragile peace was settling over Europe in the aftermath of Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.
Then, in spring, Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve returned from England. He'd been held in custody for six months by the British following the disastrous Battle of Trafalgar, where France's fleet was annihilated in an engagement against Britain's Royal Navy. Not long after, he turned up dead in a rural inn in a landlocked town in the middle of Brittany. What happened to Admiral Villeneuve? Did he kill himself, as Napoleon Bonaparte and the broadsheets of the day allege? Or was it something darker? Who would want to kill a man who was no longer useful or of consequence to the Empire of France? Or was he still useful, to someone, and suddenly useful no longer?Lies Agreed Upon dramatizes Villeneuve's final hours and the political fallout that follows.
What happened, what could have happened, and who knew about it? Here, in this extensively-researched book, key members of Napoleon's court are brought forth, ones who have been largely overlooked or forgotten in the modern age: Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Géraud Duroc, René Savary, Joseph Fouché and, of course, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.
