Joachim Murat

He immediately understood that cannon would be decisive, but the government forces needed to get hold of them quickly.

A young cavalry officer named Joachim Murat was sent to secure guns from the Sablons before the royalists could reach them.

Murat succeeded.

And this is the first appearance in Napoleon's story of a man who will eventually become his brother-in-law, one of his most famous cavalry commanders, and, because life around Napoleon escalates very quickly, King of Naples.

Louis becomes King of Holland.

Jerome becomes King of Westphalia.

His brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, becomes King of Naples.

If you were related to Napoleon around 1808 and still did not have a kingdom, family gatherings must have become uncomfortable.

Um, some of them were, like Marshal Ney, who's the son of a, um, barrel cooper.

Um, Murat was the son of an innkeeper.

Augereau was the son of a domestic servant.

There were others who were sons of peasants.

He went to, uh, Egypt, Napoleon went to Egypt with 800,000 pints of wine.

Um, and, uh, so it was Berthier who had to ensure that the, that the muskets were in good working order, that the men had uniforms and boots and so on, and, uh, and obviously, um, uh, food and ammunition.

Now, when it comes to, um, characters, I think, uh, Joachim Murat is one of those who is just tremendously flamboyant.

He's brave, ultimately disloyal, one might argue.

Uh, he got a, a large number of cannon, 40-plus cannon, um, from outside Paris.

This was actually done by someone called Joachim Murat, who was to become tremendously important-

Hmm

... as one of his leading marshals.

Uh, he, he had integrity.

He might be, he is one of the straightest guys, 'cause I also think his defensive style of warfare is inherently straight.

Well-

There's something, he's, he feels like he's defending his arse.

Yeah.

No one's, like, sacking them.

You guys are nuts.

What the Allies decide is they decide to send him into exile because, uh, on a tiny island of, uh, Elba-