If the Battle of Waterloo is remembered as the most ruinous of the great Napoleon Bonapartethe most bizarre one is without a doubt the Battle of the rabbits of July 1807, which occurred on the estate of the trusted general Alexandre Berthier in Yvelines (region west of Paris). It was organized that day a hunting trip that ended in complete chaoswith the animals that surrounded and overwhelmed Napoleon and his men until they gave up and retreated.
As absurd as it seems, the event actually happened, and was documented by some Napoleonic generals and chroniclers of the time years after the death of the former emperor of France. The most detailed testimony is undoubtedly that of the Napoleonic baron and general Paul-Charles-François Thiébault who carefully described that day in his book of Memoirs, published many years after his death.
Why the hunting trip was organized and what happened
The ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte was a skilled military strategist, and thanks to this ability he won dozens and dozens of battles which, together with his political, social and economic reforms, geopolitically shaped nineteenth-century Europe. Even after its fall in 1815 – following the final defeat against the British and Prussians in the disastrous Battle of Waterloo – his legacy continued to influence the politics and institutions of the ancient continent for many decades to come.
But in addition to the victorious side of this unforgettable historical figure, it is also worth taking a look at his defeats, and one in particular – the most bizarre of all – which also put into crisis the fearless emperor of France who had sailed through blood of thousands of men: the battle against the rabbits.
To tell this incredible story we must take a dive into history, at the beginning of July 1807, when Bonaparte had just signed the Treaties of Tilsit which had put an end to the ongoing conflict between France and Russia. The document in question was a very significant result for him, because that had been one of the most difficult conflicts he had ever faced, and for this very reason he proposed to his men to celebrate the victory. And as if not with a beautiful one hunting trip – his great “hobby” – in his free time?
This was what the Emperor of France ordered the Chief of Staff Alexandre Berthier to organize a festive lunch at his beautiful country estate in Yvelines, followed by a large rabbit hunting.
Berthier invited not only his fellow soldiers, but also some very capable local beaters, and gave orders to all the servants to ensure that the day went smoothly. Then, however, he made an unconscious and huge mistake: he instructed one of his servants to gather a few hundred rabbits (according to some estimates almost 3,000, others speak of around a thousand rabbits), without specifying which type was suitable for the occasion.
The servant didn’t ask himself many questions: he went around the farms in the area and bought a bunch of rabbits, and the day before the hunt he had them crammed into cages at the edge of the field chosen for the hunt, leaving them waiting.
On the fateful day of the hunt, Napoleon’s men stood in the center of the camp waiting for the starting signal, and the rabbits were finally freed from their cages. The animals, however, instead of running from one side to the other and hiding among the trees, immediately went to meet the group “loading them“, as the baron would have reported in his book.
The scene was really comical, because the rabbits climbed with their front paws onto the men’s bootswho initially laughed in amusement. It only took him a few moments, however, to realize that those notoriously seraphic animals were increasingly aggressive and ravenous, pushing, crowding and biting their ankles.
Baron Thiébault wrote:
All those rabbits, who should have tried in vain, even by dispersing, to escape the blows that the most august hand had intended for them, gathered first in groups, then in a single body. Instead of resorting to futile flight, they turned and in an instant the entire phalanx fell upon Napoleon.
Why the rabbits reacted the way they did and how it ended
The behavior of the rabbits was determined by two facts: the wrong type of rabbits chosen and the time in which they were unleashed.
In fact, the servant, once he received the order, thought it best to purchase gods domesticated rabbitsand not to obtain wild ones (which would have been much more complex and time-consuming), which would have fled in panic into the field once the cages were opened.
The time, then, was very wrong, because It was long past meal time and the animals were very hungryso much so that they become aggressive. Once freed they then went towards humans because they thought they would receive lunch from them.
But returning to the incredible episode, how did it end? After the first general laughter, the generals and Napoleon found themselves becoming increasingly unstable, with rabbits coming from everywhere. The situation had become unpleasant, and they tried to chase them away with the whip and rifle buttsalmost useless against that turbulent cloud of fur.
A few minutes passed like this, fighting as best they could, stunning as many rabbits as possible while others attacked them and made them lose their balance, making them stagger.
But then it was clear that there was no way out of that situation, and – exhausted – the handful of men he struggled back to the carriages (some stumbling) still chased by the belligerent animals, then locking himself inside and returning to the estate.
Rabbits: 1 – Napoleon: 0
There soft defeat it really hurt the emperor, who made everyone present promise not to speak about the matter again until many years after his death (the baron’s memoirs were published in 1896, more than seventy years after Napoleon’s death), in the hope that those present would forget about it.
The very embarrassed General Berthier, guilty of not having told the servant to buy only wild rabbits, was not forgiven by the very touchy Napoleon: in fact, when a few years later the first consul of France accidentally shot one of his marshals during another hunting trip, he forced poor Berthier to take the blame, mindful of the searing defeat of 1807.
