To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII
Yale University Press, US$32.50 hb, 369 pp
History
Mano a mano
Napoleon and the papacy
by Miles Pattenden •
To kidnap one pope might be regarded as unfortunate; to kidnap two looks like a pattern of abusive behaviour. Ambrogio A. Caiani tells the story of Napoleon’s second papal hostage-taking: an audacious 1809 plot to whisk Pius VII (1742–1823) from Rome in the dead of night and to break his stubborn resolve through physical isolation and intrusive surveillance.
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