As we drove home from Virginia to Texas, the kids groaned that our next history study entailed the dastardly Napoleon.
Personally, I’ve always suspected Napoleon less henious than oft reputed.
Hoping to encourage a little cheerful expectation in my kids, I suggested that the Colonial Williamsburg Lafayette could make a great Napoleon.
In fact he even looks a little like him. Why not?
My kids turned that idea down.
While studying Napoleon’s numerous battles as his empire increasingly spread across Europe, perhaps I could at least beguile the kids with actual pictures of his campaign.
Of course there was no photography then, but there are reenactors today.
And reenacting has been in the forefront of my mind since visiting Colonial Williamsburg last August.
After all, one of Colonial Williamsburg’s goals is to make history come alive through experience.
I decided to research Napoleonic reenactments.
Napoleonic Reenactments in Europe with a Colonial Williamsburg Connection
Wow! I found some interesting stuff to show the kids!
While in the middle of the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s various campaigns, men from all over Europe arrive in costume with artillery to reenact the campaigns.
And who should they invite from America to portray Napoleon? Mark Schneider, the actor who portrays the Marquis de Lafayette for Colonial Williamsburg!
Apparently, Schneider enjoys portraying Napoleon in his free time!
The Looks on my Kids’ Faces
After I told all this to my kids the next day, they were flabbergasted! And excited!
Though still not a Napoleon fan, they especially enjoyed one piece of trivia we had read about these reenactments.
According to the European news sources, Schneider does an excellent job portraying Napoleon (we can believe that) and is an excellent horseman (we can believe that from seeing him gallop his horse through CW), unlike Napoleon, who was known to fall off horses during his campaigns.
My kids enjoyed watching reenacted battles of Austerlitz, Borodino, and Waterloo.
In true Colonial Williamsburg style, which my kids have grown to love, the pages of their history books have come to life!
Experience a Napoleon Reenactment
Photos from the Battle of Austerlitz-Napoleon’s greatest victory
Photos from the Battle of Waterloo
Epilogue
Unfortunately most of the old links no longer exist, but Mark Schneider continues to gallop across Europe as Napoleon.
Here are some new links.
Battle of Austerlitz Reenactment Dec 1, 2023
In other news, stay tuned for the journey of how we learned who Napoleon really is, instead of how history most often records him.
