The Duellists

The Duellists The Duellists is a film about two soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars who get tied up in a personal conflict. They are French in a period of great political crisis in France, the era of the French Revolution and Napoleon’s conquest of Europe.

The Duellists In 1789 the French monarchy, the Bourbon family, was overthrown and the King and Queen, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed. They were replaced by a radical government led by French Revolutionaries that thought the excesses of the monarchy were criminal.

The French Revolution The French already had a very large army, but the revolutionary government increased the size of the military so they could fight other European nations who wanted to stop the revolution. They also tried to conquer new lands and spread the revolution.

The French Revolution One young soldier who rises to the top of the Revolutionary Army is Napoleon Bonaparte. He was initially a valuable servant to the new Republic, but when the Republic weakened he led a coup d'état and took control.

Napoleon Napoleon was very popular with the soldiers and the lower classes. He had been a soldier and a commander and had fought with them valiantly. It was a new era in military history. The armies were getting larger, the soldiers were professionals, and they had codes of behavior and etiquette.

Napoleon’s Army Napoleon and the French Grand Army conquered all of central Europe, Italy and Spain and were half way into Russia before they had to turn back. They were defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz by the Quadruple Alliance-England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

Napoleon At the end of the Battle, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. Louis XVIII (the last king’s brother) was made king of France, and the monarchy restored.

Napoleon Elba wasn’t far enough away and he was able to come back and take power again for 100 days. He was defeated for the last time at the Battle of Waterloo.

Napoleon Napoleon was then sent to the island of St. Helena, where he lived for the next six years until his death. France restored the Bourbons once again with Louis XVIII.

Dueling Duels are generally fought between two men over a point of honor. There are very strict codes of action in a duel. You can only fight someone of your same social standing, you both would have a ‘second’ and you would fight at a predetermined place with the same weapons. They were very popular throughout the 18th century.

Dueling You have to fight with honor, and you either fight to first blood, until one or both of you are wounded so badly that it isn’t a fair fight, or to the death. When you kill or injure someone in a legitimate duel, the law will not punish you.