Welcome back! It’s been a long time between shows, I’m so sorry! But you’ll LOVE this episode, trust me, it was worth waiting for! Our guest today is Dr Philip Dwyer, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, School of Humanities and Social Science, History Dept, University of Newscastle, Australia. Philip has a long list [...]

Listen Now:

We’re very lucky to have Alexander Mikaberidze back to discuss a few more important Russian generals and the crossing of the Berezina. Would you like to share Napoleon with someone? Would you like to have a handy backup of the series in case of hard drive failure? Are you new to the series and don’t [...]

Listen Now:

Alexander Mikaberidze joins us again on this episode to share deep biographical details about the major Russian Generals around the war of 1812 – Kutusov, Bagration, Barclay de Tolly, Tolstoy – the men who defeated Napoleon with a highly unusual strategy. Would you like to share Napoleon with someone? Would you like to have a [...]

Listen Now:

Our guest today is again the wonderful Alexander Mikaberidze. We continue the discussion from where we left off in Episode 50, talking about Napoleon’s entry into Moscow, the burning of Moscow, and the “strategic withdrawal”. Was the burning of Moscow deliberate strategy on behalf of the Russians? If they hadn’t burned it, would the outcome [...]

Listen Now:

We made it to 50! w00t! Thanks to everyone for supporting our little show over the last few years. It’s been an honour to create these shows for you. Can I ask a favour? Would you mind going to our iTunes page and rating the podcast? The more ratings we get, the more people find [...]

Listen Now:

As some of you know, the main source of my income at the moment is producing podcasts for companies and government departments. Check this site for the basic pitch. I can produce podcasts for anyone anywhere in the world. Obviously video podcasts are limited to where I can get with my camera, but I’ve been [...]

Listen Now:

Breaking away from talking to historians about Napoleon, today we have as our guest Australian businessman and political powerbroker, Michael Kroger. Michael joins us to discuss his fascination with Napoleon, which extends to having 5 floors of his Melbourne mansion decorated in the Empire Style and owning (among other things) one of only seven original [...]

Listen Now:

Continuing our series of chats with eminent Napoleonic scholars, today our guest is Rafe Blaufarb, Ben Weider Eminent Scholar and Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution at Florida State University. Dr. Blaufarb is a specialist in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. He is the author of several books on the social and political [...]

Listen Now:

Welcome back! On episode #47, David and I have our first special guest! Jerry Gallaher is Past President of the Napoleonic Alliance and author of the 1976 classic account of one of Napoleon’s greatest Marshals, Louis Davout – “Iron Marshal – A Biography of Louis N. Davout.” He’s also a true gentleman, scholar and totally [...]

Listen Now:

Dear TPN listeners, viewers and friends, You know that we spend a LOT of time producing our shows for you. And as we arenâ??t making money out of advertising, weâ??d like to ask for your support to help us keep TPN running. We have real costs in IT support, hardware, bandwidth, etc., as well as our time [...]

Listen Now:

Hi folks. As you’ll have seen in my last post, Ben Weider, President and Founder of the International Napoleonic Society, passed away on October 17, 2008. As Ben was a major influence in Napoleonic circles, a tireless promoter of the Emperor’s achievements, and, not least, a very close friend and colleague of David’s, we wanted [...]

Listen Now:

Well…. here we are folks. The end of the chronological part of our story. It’s been two-and-a-half years in the making. Sometimes I never thought we’d get here. In many ways, I wish we hadn’t. But it had to happen – and so – on today’s episode, the Emperor – dies. We discuss his last [...]

Listen Now:

On today’s episode, David and I talk about Napoleon’s struggles with Hudson Lowe, the theory that he was slowly being murdered while on St Helena, poisoned by someone in his own retinue, his sexual escapades with Albine de Montholon, and whether or not he had a “foxhole” religious conversion. Have you bought a copy of [...]

Listen Now:

The story of Napoleon’s years on St Helena is dominated by one man, whose name is infamous in Napoleonic history – Sir Hudson Lowe, Napoleon’s “jailer”. The Duke of Wellington later said that he was “a very bad choice; he was a man wanting in education and judgement. He was a stupid man, he knew [...]

Listen Now:

Have you bought a copy of David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, yet? Let’s make it the #1 History book on Amazon! Would you like to spend some time with David and I in Paris? Keep an eye on this blog over the next couple of weeks for details but it will be [...]

Listen Now:

Hey folks – do you think we can make David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, the #1 History book on Amazon? Buy five copies today, give them to your friends, and make Napoleon NUMBER ONE! In this episode of The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast we examine how the British government came to the conclusion that [...]

Listen Now:

Hey folks – do you think we can make David’s new book, THE ROAD TO ST HELENA, the #1 History book on Amazon? Buy five copies today, give them to your friends, and make Napoleon NUMBER ONE! On today’s show, David examines the political machinations the British went through to make sure Napoleon never set foot [...]

Listen Now:

I know it’s been a while between drinks, my friends, but there are good reasons. Listen to today’s show to learn more! Today we finally… FINALLY… get Napoleon on “the boat”! David walks us through Napoleon’s last days in France and his reasons for choosing to surrender himself to the British instead of making [...]

Listen Now:

Let me start off by apologizing for my audio – it seems I had the wrong microphone on. Luckily I’m just the button pusher so the impact is small. In today’s episode, David explains the range of options Napoleon considered after his abdication of 22 June, 1815. Should he go to England, Russia, Austria [...]

Listen Now:

Somehow we managed to get another entire episode just out of Joseph Fouche, Minister of Police, Duke of Otranto, and his machinations after Napoleon’s abdication to try to ensure his own position of power in post-Napoleonic France. We also talk about what’s happening during this period of instability with Marshals Ney, Davout and Murat. Napoleon, [...]

Listen Now:

Welcome to a very special edition of the Napoleon podcast – now with added video! (NOTE: I will be putting up an embedded version of the video shortly as well.) When David and I were recording the latest episode of the show yesterday I sprung on him the idea of capturing the video of our skype [...]

Watch Now: Play in Popup.

In this episode David explains the Machiavellian machinations of Joseph Fouche in the days after Waterloo; how Napoleon was trying to manage the destiny of the Empire from his bath; and the events leading up to Napoleon’s final abdication from the throne and then declaring a regency in the name of his son, Napoleon II. [...]

Listen Now:

First of all, let me wish you all a happy 2008 from David and myself. Second, please allow me to apologize – both for the delay in this episode of our little show as well as the audio problems with it. As I explain in the introduction to the show, there was a major technical snafu [...]

Listen Now:

The Battle of Waterloo, along with the Battle of Wavre, was fought on 18 June 1815, and was Napoleon Bonaparte’s last battle. His defeat put a final end to his rule as Emperor of the French. It is probably one of the most famous battles in history. It has been the subject of much debate [...]

Listen Now:

On this episode we discuss the first two major battles of the 1815 Waterloo campaign – Quatre Bras (16 June) and Ligny (16 June). The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras, Belgium, on 16 June 1815 between Wellington’s Anglo-Dutch army and the left wing of the Armée du [...]

Listen Now:

Re-established on the throne of Paris in April 1815, Napoleon introduces a new Constitution and begs the Monarchs of Europe and Great Britian for peace. His envoys are rebuffed and his letters returned unopened. The Allies, still ensconced at the Congress of Vienna where they have been since November 1814, declare Napoleon an international outlaw [...]

Listen Now:

Napoleon, separated from his wife and son (who had come under Austrian control), cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic, escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned to the [...]

Listen Now:

Today we look at the period immediately after Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814 – his suicide attempt, the Allies’ discussions about where to send him (the Treaty of Fontainebleau), and his incredible work ethic once he arrived in Elba. Then we examine his reasons for deciding to leave Elba after a mere ten months and [...]

Listen Now:

As 1814 begins, Napoleon is surrounded by problems following the Battle of Leipzig, but he still has some fight left in him. In this nearly two hour long episode, David takes us through the failed peace talks, The Six Day War, the betrayal of Murat, Ney and the surrender of Paris, Napoleon being a mere [...]

Listen Now:

As Napoleon’s ‘friends’ continued to betray him, by late 1813 the total Allied armies east of the Rhine probably exceeded a million men. By contrast Napoleon’s forces had dwindled to just a few hundred thousand. Short on horses, soldiers, food and ammunition, Napoleon soldiered on, fighting off his enemies in battles at Dresden and Leipzig [...]

Listen Now:

download the show As our regular listeners know, for some time now David and I have been thinking about doing a new podcast series in addition to the current Napoleon 101 series. One of the challenges we have with producing a new series, however, is time. Although David has recently retired from full-time teaching, we are [...]

Listen Now:

In our mighty 27th episode, almost another full 90 minutes, David and I look at the events leading to the War of the Sixth Coalition. After the terrible losses Napoleon suffered on his “strategic withdrawal” from Russia, his political position in Europe was significantly weakened. In 1813, Prussia, who had been an ally of France [...]

Listen Now:

Recorded on Napoleon’s 238th birthday, we celebrate by making this our LONGEST show yet! 93 minutes of Napoleonic fun! Well, actually, as the subject is the Russian campaign, perhaps not so much fun for Napoleon and his troops, but fun for us to discuss nonetheless. In this episode we find Napoleon marching into Moscow, [...]

Listen Now:

In this episode, David talks us through The Battle of Borodino, which took place on September 7, 1812, and was the largest and bloodiest single-day battle of the Napoleonic Wars, involving more than a quarter of a million soldiers and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties. Next stop – MOSCOW. For further reading, I recommend: [...]

Listen Now:

On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée of approximately 600,000 men, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history, crossed the river Neman and headed towards Moscow. In this episode, we focus on the first few months, and follow Napoleon as he captures Vilna, Vitebsk and Smolensk. We examine why Napoleon was so [...]

Listen Now:

In this episode we explore the political events that resulted in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, the tragedy that formed the central events of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and which saw Napoleon raise the largest army in history up until that time, 500,000 – 700,000 men (historians vary on exactly how many there were). [...]

Listen Now:

Welcome back! It’s been a long time between episodes. To celebrate our return, we have a very special guest co-host – Prof. Bob Packett from “History According To Bob”! Bob is the Godfather of History podcasting. It was his show that gave me the idea to start our little Napoleon podcast and we’re very [...]

Listen Now:

UPDATE: David pointed out that around the 40 minute mark there is a silence that lasts about 15 seconds. I must have muted the wrong bit when I was editing it. I’ll fix that asap and re-upload it. UPDATE #2: Okay new version of the mp3 is up, hopefully everything now working as it should. [...]

Listen Now:

Welcome to the dramatic conclusion to the Peninsular War! It’s a long episode, possibly our longest, but we were determined to conclude this affair today! In episode #19 we gave you some background on how Napoleon ended up in the Iberian peninsula. Today we pick it up from about the time Joseph was made the [...]

Listen Now:

After the Battle Of Trafalgar (1805), the relationship between Spain (which had previously declared war on France in 1793 and then an alliance in 1795) and France soured. In 1807, Spain was in turmoil, due to infighting between their disinterested Bourbon king Charles IV, his son Ferdinand and the Spanish Prime Minister (also the not-so-secret [...]

Listen Now:

Welcome to the tragic Episode 18 of the Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast here on The Podcast Network. Once again, David and I would like to thank everyone for the wonderful feedback and comments we have received since the last episode. We both really appreciate it and it’s added motivation to keep producing the show although, as [...]

Listen Now:

On this marvelous 17th episode, recorded almost 200 years after the actual events occurred, we examine the final months of the “Fourth Coalition” leading up to the “Treaty of Tilsit”. Russian forces, lead by Count von Bennigsen, were crushed by Napoleon’s army at Friedland on June 14, 1807. Three days later Russia asked for a truce. By [...]

Listen Now:

After Napoleon completely crushed the Prussians at Jena-Auerstedt, Europe was in shock. Back home in Paris, some were concerned that Napoleon’s continued success might blind him to opportunities for peace. Meanwhile, Russia’s Czar Alexander had his armies advance on Warsaw, forcing Napoleon to march to meet them. Early in 1807, he fought an extremely bloody [...]

Listen Now:

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt (older name: Auerstädt) were fought on October 14, 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today’s Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia. The decisive defeat suffered by the Prussian army resulted in Prussia’s elimination from the [...]

Listen Now:

PRESS PLAY or RIGHT CLICK TO DOWNLOAD The Battle of Austerlitz (also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors) was a major engagement in the Napoleonic Wars during the War of the Third Coalition. It was fought on December 2, 1805 about four miles (6.4 km) east of the modern Czech town of Brno, then part of [...]

Listen Now: