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Dinesh

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Posted: 22 Apr 2022

Taken: 22 Apr 2022

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Germany ~ A memories of a Nation •
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Queen Luise of Prussia pleads with Napoleon, July 1807
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
Just to the north-east of Konigsberg in the small town of Tilsit. Here in 1807, on a raft in the River Neman, Napoleon met the Tsar and signed a Franco-Russian alliance. And here, in stark contrast to that expansive treaty. Prussia was forced to accept Napoleon’s punitive terms for peace. Queen Luise met Napoleon in a final attempt to persuade him to offer a more generous settlement. Napoleon ignored her. Under the terms of the treaty, Napoleon removed around half of Prussia’s territory and population -- distributed among Russia, Saxony and Napoleon’s own family. A huge fine was imposed. The vindictive condition shocked Europe. They were never forgotten by Prussia. When in 1871 the fortunes of war were reversed, the French were outraged that the Prussians treated them in the same way. But the process Napoleon had created a formidable foe: Queen Luise spent her remaining years encouraging the Prussian people to hold out until they could recover their dignity and their lands. She was loved and revered by them as the “soul of national virtue.” Napoleon, when she died in 1810, remarked that Fredric William had “lost his best minister.” . . . Page255/256

Germany ~ Memories of a Nation
2 years ago. Edited 2 years ago.

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