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Odd Historic Moments that Are Almost too Weird to Handle

Khalid Elhassan May 31, 2021 34 min

Filipinos protesting the Marcos regime. Canadian Inquirer

Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte. Pinterest

29. A Rabbit Hunt That Went Awry

Napoleon’s worst defeat came at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. However, his most humiliating defeat might have occurred years earlier, when the mighty Emperor of the French was trounced in a bizarre incident by a horde of cute bunny rabbits. It happened in 1807 when he was at the height of his power and bestrode Europe like a colossus. He had vanquished the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz, and humiliated the Prussians at the twin battles of Jena-Auerstedt. He capped off his string of victories with the Treaties of Tilsit, which ended the War of the Fourth Coalition against him.

Feeling good, Le Empereur decided to celebrate, and what better way to celebrate than by killing small animals? Accordingly, Napoleon ordered his chief of staff, Alexander Berthier, to arrange a rabbit hunt, and invite the top military brass. Berthier prepared an outdoor luncheon and collected about 3000 rabbits. They were arranged in cages along the fringes of a grassy field, to be released for the bigwigs to shoot as they fled. Something went wrong, however. When the bunnies were released they did not jump away in terror, but bounded in their thousands towards Napoleon.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.