Napoleon's Penis

Dem Bones

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By Christopher ShayTuesday, May 10, 2011

Stock Montage / Getty Images

People have been fixated on Napoleon's penis since Napoleon's doctor allegedly cut it off during his autopsy in 1821 and gave it to a priest in Corsica. The penis, which was not properly preserved, has been compared over the years to a piece of leather, a shriveled eel and to beef jerky. In 1927 when it went on display in Manhattan, TIME weighed in, comparing it to a "maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace." It's enough to give anyone a complex! In 1977, a urologist living in New Jersey purchased the modern-day relic for $3,000 and stored it under his bed until he died 30 years later. His daughter inherited Napoleon's penis and has fielded at least one $100,000 offer.

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Read more: Napoleon's Penis - Top 10 Famous Stolen Body Parts - TIME http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1988719_1988728_1988695,00.html #ixzz2opO0z7eb

King Arthur, General of the Britons

image:  http://badrebel.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/dating-and-white-knight-syndrome/

http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kageneral.html

A discussion by David Nash Ford

Though Arthur is quite firmly established as an historical figure, there appears to be little evidence that he was the King of tradition. To quote Nennius,

Arthur fought...together with the Kings of the British; but he was Dux Bellorum.

This would seem to confirm the popular view today that Arthur was a professional soldier: a brilliant military leader employed in an official capacity by an alliance of British Kings to carry out their warfare against all coming enemies.

"Dux Bellorum" translates literally as Duke of Battles. This might be comparable to the Roman "Dux Britannorum" in charge of the Northern British defences. Though many think the Roman "Comes British History Clubrum" a better fit, for he led mobile cavalry forces across the country, as perhaps indicated by Arthur's supposed widespread battles.

None of this, however, precludes Arthur from also being a King. Nennius may have intended his phrase to imply that Arthur was one of the Kings alongside whom he fought, yet he was the greatest warrior among them. If the more formal title of Dux or Comes was meant, then perhaps a High-Kingship is implied as tradition would suggest. Early sources, no doubt, assumed that everyone already knew Arthur was a King, as with most Royal entries in the Annales Cambriae. There was no need to announce it.

What happened to Napoleon's penis?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2487/what-happened-to-napoleons-penis

January 2, 2004

Dear Cecil:

Is it true what happened to Napoleon's penis? That after he died it was cut off and sold, and now someone has it in their collection?

— MudGirl, via the Internet

Maybe yes, maybe no. Why does someone who calls herself MudGirl want to know?

Unlike John Dillinger's penis, whose postmortem pilgrimage appears to be pure legend, Napoleon's penis (or an object reputed to be Napoleon's penis) has in fact circulated among collectors for some decades and is currently in . . . well, I was about to say in the hands of an American urologist, but perhaps "in the possession of" would be a better way to put it. The owner claims it's authentic, and I guess a urologist ought to know. However, given the frequency with which the death of a famous male is followed by claims that (a) he didn't really die or (b) someone has his penis, we're entitled to some doubt.

Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the southern Atlantic island of Saint Helena on May 5, 1821. The following day an autopsy was conducted by the emperor's doctor, Francesco Antommarchi, in the company of 17 witnesses, including seven English doctors and two of Napoleon's aides, a priest named Vignali and a manservant, Ali. Antommarchi removed Napoleon's heart (the deceased had requested that it be given to his estranged wife, the empress Marie-Louise, though it was never delivered) and stomach (the medical authorities present agreed that cancer thereof was the cause of death, although this verdict has long been disputed). But the good doctor did not, if one may trust contemporary accounts, remove the penis. Some speculate that it might've been lopped off accidentally during the proceedings--the penis was described at the time as small, and hey, shit happens. However, in a 1913 lecture, Sir Arthur Keith, conservator of the Hunterian Collection at the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (certain Napoleonic organs were supposedly in the museum's possession), ventured what seems to me the indisputable opinion that, given the number of witnesses, the brevity of the autopsy (less than two hours), and the fact that the guy was, come on,Napoleon, the loss of the penis would not easily have escaped notice.

A detailed account by an eyewitness, Thomas Reade, states that the body was closed up, dressed, and remained attended while lying in state--although Napoleon biographer Robert Asprey concedes that both Antommarchi and Vignali might've been alone with the imperial corpse at some point. Vignali, who had administered the last rites and conducted the funeral, was bequeathed 100,000 francs and for his trouble was also given (or at any rate came into the possession of) some of Napoleon's knives and forks, a silver cup, and other personal effects--some of them really personal, it seems. In a memoir published in 1852 in the Revue des mondes, Ali the manservant claimed that he and Vignali had removed bits of Napoleon's body during the autopsy. It's unclear whether Ali specified the penis as one of the abstracted organs, but everyone now assumes that's what he meant.

In 1916 Vignali's descendants sold his collection of Napoleonic artifacts to a British rare book firm, which in 1924 sold the lot for about $2,000 to a Philadelphia bibliophile, A.S.W. Rosenbach. Among the relics was "the mummified tendon taken from Napoleon's body during the post-mortem." A few years later Rosenbach displayed the putative penis, tastefully couched in blue morocco and velvet, at the Museum of French Art in New York. According to a contemporary news report, "In a glass case [spectators] saw something looking like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel." The organ has also been described as a shriveled sea horse, a small shriveled finger, and "one inch long and resembling a grape."

The Vignali collection changed hands a few more times--I get all this from Charles Hamilton's Auction Madness (1981)--and eventually was put on the block at Christie's in London. It didn't sell, leading a scandalmongering British tabloid to trumpet, "NOT TONIGHT, JOSEPHINE!" Eight years later, in 1977, the penis was put up for sale again at a Paris auction house, this time offered separately from the rest of the collection. John K. Lattimer, professor emeritus and former chairman of urology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, bought it for $3,000, acknowledged having it in 1987, and, as far as I can discover, still does.

Is the penis Napoleon's? Is it even a penis? Who knows? Given the march of science one presumes it'd be easy to establish the item's provenance conclusively, but understandably no one seems to be in any hurry to do so. After you've paid three grand for a dead man's penis, who wants to be told it's a grape?

— Cecil Adams

Earl of Warwick

also known as	Civilization:	British: England
Richard Neville, Warwick the Kingmaker	Era:	Plantagenet
1428–1471	Field of Renown:	military: Earl

Burying the Earl of Warwick

Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, is probably the central character involved in the War of the Roses. He was the mastermind of the elevation of the York clan to the throne of England, and the de facto ruler for the early years of Edward IV's reign. Already the richest man in England before instigating the ruinous war, Warwick was seemingly never satisfied. Even after he had place the Yorks in power over the Lancasters, at a tremendous cost to all of England, he could not tolerate anything less than full submission to his will. Edward IV was a passive king, but he took direction from wife's family, sometimes in opposition ot the counsel of Warwick. For this reason, Warwick plotted with Edward's brother the Duke of Clarence to overthrow Edward, only eight years after he had placed him on the throne.

At the Battle of Edgecote, fought in 1469, the king's army was defeated and Edward IV himself, was captured. Warwick's victory was short lived however—the tide soon turned again in favor of Edward when his faithful brother Richard came to the rescue, and most of the nobles stayed loyal to the king. Warwick and Clarence were declared traitors and driven out of England. At this point Warwick sought to make amends with his old enemy Margaret Anjou, who was living in exile in France with her disinherited Lancaster son, Prince Edward. Warwick proposed a marriage between his daughter and Prince Edward in return for a promise that he would raise an army to depose Edward VI, and place her son on the throne. This she agreed to after some reluctance, but lived to regret it. Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnet and her son, Prince Edward was captured and executed soon afterward, leaving Edward IV to rule in peace.

Margaret in Shakespeare

http://www.notmyshoes.net/monologues/queenmargaret.html Henry VI (Part III)
By William Shakespeare

King Henry VI has negotiated a compromise with the Duke of York over the British crown. This causes Queen Margaret to join the revolting armies of the nobles. She brings an army to fight against York, and they capture him at the Battle of Wakefield. She is about to kill him, and makes a speech to rouse her troops and to humiliate York before she kills him.

QUEEN MARGARET

Brave warriors, Clifford and Northumberland,
Come, make him stand upon this molehill here
That raught at mountains with outstretched arms,
Yet parted but the shadow with his hand.

(To York.) What, was it you that would be England's king?
Was't you that revell'd in our Parliament
And made a preachment of your high descent?
Where are your mess of sons to back you now?
The wanton Edward and the lusty George?
And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy,
Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?
Or, with the rest, where is your darling Rutland?
Look, York: I stain'd this napkin with the blood
That valiant Clifford with his rapier's point
Made issue from the bosom of the boy;
And if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.
Alas, poor York! but that I hate thee deadly,
I should lament thy miserable state.
I prithee, grieve, to make me merry, York.

What, hath thy fiery heart so parch'd thine entrails
That not a tear can fall for Rutland's death?
Why art thou patient, man? thou shouldst be mad;
And I, to make thee mad, do mock thee thus.
Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance.
Thou wouldst be fee'd, I see, to make me sport:
York cannot speak, unless he wear a crown.
A crown for York! and, lords, bow low to him:
Hold you his hands, whilst I do set it on.

(Putting a paper crown on his head.)

Ay, marry, sir, now looks he like a king!
Ay, this is he that took King Henry's chair,
And this is he was his adopted heir.
But how is it that great Plantagenet
Is crown'd so soon, and broke his solemn oath?
As I bethink me, you should not be king
Till our King Henry had shook hands with death.
And will you pale your head in Henry's glory,
And rob his temples of the diadem,
Now in his life, against your holy oath?
O, 'tis a fault too too unpardonable!
Off with the crown, and with the crown his head;
And, whilst we breathe, take time to do him dead.

Uther Pendragon

Uther Pendragon vows to deliver the child to Merlin.

King Uther Pendragon was the father of Arthur. He was the brother of Ambrosius whom he succeeded as King of Britain. Falling in love with Igraine, he went to war 
with her husband, Gorlois. During the war, Merlin magically made Uther assume the likeness of Gorlois and in this guise he visited Igraine and became the father of Arthur. When Gorlois died, Uther married Igraine. He died in battle and was supposedly buried at Stonehenge.

The Prose Tristan says Uther was once in love with the wife of Argan who defeated him and made him build a castle. ThePetit Brut tells how he fought a dragon-serpent in Westmorland (now part of Cumbria). Henry of Huntingdon calls him Arthur's brother while a Cumbrian legend makes him a giant. In Cumbria, he is said to have founded his kingdom in Mallerstang and to have tried to divert the River Eden to make a moat around his castle. 

It has been suggested that Uther is a chimerical character created by a misunderstanding of the Welsh phrase: Arthur mab Uther, which was taken to mean 'Arthur son of Uther' but actually means 'Arthur, terrible son'. However, there is evidence for independent tradition regarding Uther. 

BONAPARTE ON A DROMEDARY

http://www.napoleon.org/en/collectors_corner/object/index.asp

Date:  Second half of the 19th century Technique:  Fine-cut, partly gilt bronze patina Dimensions:  H. 37 cm; W. 27 cm; D. 12 cm Where held:  Paris, Fondation Napoléon, donation Martial Lapeyre Credits :  © Fondation Napoléon - P. Maurin-Berthier