Written by John Tarttelin
 
“My motto has always been: A career open to all talents, without distinction of birth…Be successful!”

(Napoleon)

Jean-Roch Coignet was born at Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines in Yonne in 1776. He very nearly shared the same day of birth as the seven year old future Emperor, for Coignet’s birthday was August 16th, a day later than his more famous counterpart.  He lived a very full life at an epoch making period in history and was destined to play a part at the epicentre of the Empire in the very presence of Napoleon. But all this was far-off in the future. Coignet’s beginnings could not have been humbler, while his early life was dire in the extreme.

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The start of the Viking Age

The Vikings, Norse sailors from Scandinavia, traveled all over Europe, west Asia and the region above North America to plunder and to trade. Their earliest recorded raid and date most historians regard as the beginning of the Viking era was in 789 AD, in Portland Dorset.  On their arrival there, a local official, taking them for merchants, insisted on conducting them to the King’s manor where they would be made to pay trading taxes for their goods. The Vikings refused and killed the official.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a series of chronicles written a hundred years after the raids, recorded:

“In the year King Brihtric married Offa’s daughter Eadburh.  And in his days there came for the first time ships of Northmen.  The reeve rode out to meet them and tried to force them to go to the king’s residence, for he did not know what they were; and they slew him.  Those were the first ships of Danish men which came to land of the English.” 

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The Ideology of Mohammed

During his lifetime, the prophet Mohammed accomplished the unification of the many nomadic and polytheistic Arab tribes comprising the population of that region. Mohammed was a warrior and religious leader who established his reputation as much by his teachings as by his feats in battle. As a warrior, he inspired the admiration of his people and as a high priest, he brought them to "submission to the will of god", i.e. Islam (Bush). After his death in 623, his followers carried on his mission as far as persuasion and/or holy warfare would allow them. The Roman Catholic Church, founded by the Emperor Constantine on Christ’s teachings, to which Europe professed allegiance, was perceived by the Mohammedans as the strongest rival to their religion, and hence Europe became the primary target for their aggression for nearly ten centuries.

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