History

Mano a mano

Item: To Kidnap a Pope
Author: Miles Pattenden

Napoleon and the papacy

by Miles Pattenden •

May 2021, no. 431

To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII by Ambrogio A. Caiani

Yale University Press, US$32.50 hb, 369 pp

History

Mano a mano

Napoleon and the papacy

by Miles Pattenden •

May 2021, no. 431

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.

Miles Pattenden

Miles Pattenden is Director of Core Events at The Europaeum, Oxford. He was previously a Research Fellow in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at ACU. He specialises in the history of the Catholic Church and his books include Pius IV and the Fall of the Carafa (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Electing the Pope in Early Modern Italy, 1450-1700 (Oxford University Press, 2017).