« Facts speak by themselves, they shine like the sun. What could I be attacked for that an historian couldn't defend me? Shall I be accused of having loved war too much? He will demonstrate that I have always been attacked! »

Napoleon I.

Forged with as much ruse as malice and diffused at ease by the plutocratic oligarchs of the London Cabinet and their henchmen after the crumbling of the Empire, this cumulus of lies, generally known as « the Black Legend » of the Emperor, has been complacently diffused until the nausea by historians and writers of bad faith, by all kinds of opportunist authors, or in many cases simply negligent, until getting definitively established and anchoring in a peremptory manner in the collective imaginary of a complacent and trustful public.

Systematically exploited, periodically reappearing with strenght and, in recent times, with a wickednessand and a premeditation at the very least strange, this aggravating tendency expresses itself essentially through the perseverant repetition of fallacious and vicious stereotypes constantly summoned up to the non expert public in the subject, thus straying its opinion and slowly transforming the blunt lie into a supposed « truth », allegedly incontestable, and which, although absolutely illusory, does not get less official… In this disconcerting context, and without looking forward to go any further, we can per example cite the alas typical image of the megalomaniac slayer, the obsessive conqueror avidly devouring the world in order to satisfy his inexhaustible personal ambition.

Far away from these vulgar vaudeville’s caricatures, it is a demonstrable fact that Emperor Napoleon, universal incarnated symbol of resistance before the invader forces of oppression, never declared a single war to anyone, and that he participated in the incessant and deadly battles that were imposed to him by the innumerable European Coalitions only in spite of himself and in a state of legitimate defence of France and of his own. This is an irrefurable reality that permits us to certify with composure and a formal certitude that the erroneously called « Napoleonic Wars » – a dishonest expression that plays with a skilful dialectic artifice, conscientiously premeditated in order to disguise what it would be most appropriate to call « the Coalitions Wars » – the said «Napoleonic Wars», were we saying, did never exist!

In the very contrary, during his whole fabulous reign and until his ignominious immolation upon a dark and distant rock in the name of France, of its integrity, of the emancipative values and of nascent civil rights – angular stone of the contemporary free world’s morale and civic foundations – Napoleon never ceased in its quest of a lasting peace, he never stepped back before any sacrifice in his efforts to establish bridges of dialog and to appease the aggressor enemies of France, conjured powers on a salary of the inflexible thalasocracy of the Pitts and the Castelreaghs, that «perfidious Albion» and its mercantilist oligarchy that could not tolerate that its commercial hegemony, as well as its projects of colonial expansion, were menaced by an antagonist glorious, prosperous and flourishing France of the Consulate, then of the Great Empire. To wash the memory and to to keep watch over the honour of Emperor Napoleon, as well as to introduce to the Spanish world his true visage, that of the great creative genius, of the unequalled legislator, of the tireless builder, magnificent patron and guardian of arts and sciences, constant promoter of peace and extraordinary craftsman of the modern world; such are both the essential objective and central function developped on a daily basis and in a permanent effort by the Mexico-France Napoleonic Institute.

Modello of a portrait of Emperor Napoleon, by David. Realized in 1807, the definitive painting, today lost, was exposed in the Cassel Palace, where King Hieronymus of Westphalia reigned. In this magnificent representation, we can see the Emperor in an attitude of placid majesty, with his calm look lowered observing his peoples. Standing near the imperial throne, he has put down Charlemagne’s crown and the Hand of Justice, « staff of virtue and Truth », in order to hold the globe, symbol of the world, ended by the cross of the King Saint Louis. « It’s fine, it is very fine, David. You have guessed my whole thought. You’ve made me a French knight », will the Emperor say to his official painter.

August 2004.