On September 14, 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte (the French emperor who had conquered most of Europe) rode through the gates of the Moscow Kremlin at the head of the largest army the continent had ever seen. Six hundred thousand soldiers had crossed into Russia that summer. City after city had fallen. Now the prize was his. Napoleon settled into Tsar Alexander's own chambers and waited for the surrender he was certain would come.
0%
Crowns & Conquests·3/3·1′
The place
Moscow Kremlin
Napoleon and the Burning of Moscow
The emperor who conquered the Kremlin but lost an empire
September-October 1812Moscow Kremlin
Moral of the Story
“Even the mightiest conqueror cannot hold what a people are willing to destroy rather than surrender.”
Characters
N
Napoleon Bonaparte (the French emperor who conquered most of Europe)T
Tsar Alexander I (the quiet monarch who refused to negotiate)G
Governor Rostopchin (Moscow's ruthless military governor)M
Marshal Mortier (left to guard the Kremlin)Source
Caulaincourt's memoirs, Ségur's "History of the Expedition to Russia", Russian military archives