1808
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1 January 1808 Herman Willem Daendels, appointed as governor by the French-controlled Dutch government, arrives in the Dutch East Indies.
The Code Napoléon goes into effect in Spain and Holland.
Princess Elisa of Lucca reduces her court orchestra to a string quartet, which includes Nicolò Paganini (25) and his brother.
Sierra Leone becomes a British Crown Colony.
Beginning today, the importation of slaves into the United States is prohibited.
6 January 1808 Emperor Franz of Austria marries his third wife, Ludovica d’Este, in Vienna. On the same day a large, ostentatious ballroom opens in the city, the Apollosaal.
8 January 1808 The US Congress passes a second Embargo Act, requiring ship owners to post bond twice the value of the ship, to prevent them breaking the first embargo.
9 January 1808 Publication of the Razumovsky String Quartets and the Coriolan Overture by Ludwig van Beethoven (37) is announced.
22 January 1808 Dom João and Queen Maria of Portugal arrive in Salvador, Bahia.
23 January 1808 Samuel Wesley (41) is admitted to Somerset House Masonic Lodge.
26 January 1808 British army officers in New South Wales capture Governor William Bligh and force his removal from duty.
1 February 1808 Andoche Junot, the French commander in Portugal, announces that the Bragança dynasty ceases to rule and that power has passed to Napoléon Bonaparte, whom he represents.
2 February 1808 French troops occupy Rome after Pope Pius VII refuses to recognize the King of Naples or join in an alliance against Britain.
3 February 1808 Publication of the Twelve Dances for piano op.27 and the Twelve Dances for piano op.28 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (29) is announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
4 February 1808 Napoléon demands 40,000,000 francs from Portugal to defray the cost of invading the country.
9 February 1808 French troops cross into Navarre and Catalonia in force.
16 February 1808 French troops take possession of several border towns in Spain.
20 February 1808 Russian forces occupy Finland.
Ein französischer Prolog von Madame Aurore Bursay: Venez plaisirs charmants by Johann Friedrich Reichardt (55) is performed for the first time, in the Kassel Hoftheater.
22 February 1808 Walter Scott’s Marmion is published in Edinburgh.
23 February 1808 Count Remusat writes to the director of the Opéra requesting that the name of Jan Ladislav Dussek (48) be inscribed on the “liste des Entrées.” This means that Dussek will not have to pay to be admitted.
28 February 1808 Austria adheres to the Continental System.
29 February 1808 French troops capture Barcelona.
1 March 1808 Emperor Napoléon creates a new Imperial Nobility.
3 March 1808 Gonzalo O’Farrill y Herrera replaces Pedro Cevallos Guerra as First Secretary of State of Spain (ad interim).
Three Piano Sonatas with violin and cello accompaniment by Leopold Kozeluch (60) are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
6 March 1808 French troops occupy the fortress of San Sebastián.
7 March 1808 Dom João and the Queen Maria of Portugal arrive off Rio de Janeiro.
8 March 1808 The royal Portuguese entourage disembarks and makes a triumphal entry into Rio de Janeiro.
10 March 1808 Fernando José de Portugal e Castro becomes Secretary of State (prime minister) of Portugal in Brazil.
12 March 1808 Faced with economic depression and protests caused by the first two embargo acts, the US Congress passes the Third Embargo Act. It prohibits any exports to any country by any means.
13 March 1808 King Christian VII of Denmark dies in Rendsburg, Schleswig and is succeeded by his son Frederik VI.
16 March 1808 Tsar Alyeksandr of Russia declares Finland to be a conquered province.
17 March 1808 An angry crowd in Madrid forces King Carlos to dismiss his favorite, Manuel de Godoy, who is seen as encouraging French designs on Iberia.
19 March 1808 The second angry mob in three days forces King Carlos IV of Spain to abdicate in favor of his son, Fernando VII. Pedro Cevallos Guerra replaces Gonzalo L’Farrill y Herrera as First Secretary of State of Spain.
I pittagorici, a dramma by Giovanni Paisiello (67) to words of Monti, is performed for the first time, at Teatro San Carlo, Naples.
24 March 1808 French troops enter Madrid, supposedly to restore order.
27 March 1808 Franz Joseph Haydn (75) makes his last public appearance at a performance of The Creation conducted by Antonio Salieri (57), in an auditorium of the University of Vienna. The performance is attended by several notables, including Prince Lobkowitz, Princess Esterházy and Ludwig van Beethoven (37). In fact, the crowd is so large that police are brought in. Haydn is carried into the hall on a litter. At the words “and there was light”, the assembled multitude bursts into applause. As the emotion of the day becomes too much for him, doctors order that the composer be carried out just as the second part is about to begin.
10 April 1808 Franz Joseph Haydn (76) is awarded the medal of the Philharmonic Society of St. Petersburg.
16 April 1808 Le séducteur en voyage, an opéra comique by Adrien Boieldieu (32) to words of Dupaty, is performed for the first time, in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. It will later be called Les voitures versées.
17 April 1808 Napoléon issues the Bayonne Decree, ordering the seizure of all United States ships in French, Italian and Hanseatic ports.
2 May 1808 When Napoléon’s order for the arrest of the royal family becomes known in Madrid, the populace rises in revolt. 500 people die, mostly Spaniards. Martial law is declared and days of execution ensue.
3 May 1808 Mahmud Shah replaces Shoja al-Molk Shah as King of Afghanistan.
Francisco Goya witnesses the execution of Spanish civilians by French troops at the Montaña del Príncipe Pío near Madrid. After sketching the bodies by moonlight he creates “The Shooting of the Third of May 1808.”
5 May 1808 Both former King Carlos IV and King Fernando VII resign the Spanish crown to Napoléon at Bayonne, just north of the Spanish border on the Bay of Biscay.
6 May 1808 King Fernando VII of Spain is taken by the French and will be imprisoned in Valancay, France. Joaquin Murat, gran duque de Berg y de Cleves is named Lieutenant-General and Governor of the Realm.
7 May 1808 Former Spanish King Carlos IV and his queen leave Bayonne for exile at Compiègne.
10 May 1808 Napoléon names his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, as King of Spain.
15 May 1808 Talleyrand leaves Paris for his chateau at Valençay. Napoléon has given him the task of imprisoning/entertaining the three Spanish princes captured at Bayonne (the Prince of the Asturias, the Infante Don Carlos and the Infante Don Antonio). Jan Ladislav Dussek (48) is part of the entertainment. Here, during the upcoming summer, Dussek will invent the Aeolian Harp.
20 May 1808 The announcement is officially made that King Fernando VII of Spain has abdicated. This is the final straw which launches Spain into revolution against the French.
23 May 1808 King Joseph Bonaparte departs Naples to become King of Spain. Cartagena and Valencia rise against the French.
24 May 1808 Zaragoza and Murcia rise against the French.
Five days after the Weavers’ Minimum Wage Bill is rejected by the House of Commons, 6,000 industrial weavers gather on St. George’s Fields, Manchester to protest and demand a 33% wage increase. Soldiers on horses disperse the crowd.
25 May 1808 The General Assembly of the Asturias declares war on France. Oviedo rises against the French.
15,000 workers gather on St. George’s Fields, Manchester to iterate the demands of yesterday. Soldiers open fire on the crowd, killing one man. The strike begins to spread throughout the area.
26 May 1808 Seville rises against the French.
27 May 1808 Léon rises against the French.
28 May 1808 An announcement appears in the Wiener Zeitung for two vacancies for boy choristers in the Imperial and Royal Court Chapel. It is read by an interested Viennese couple named Karl and Elisabeth Schubert who have a son named Franz (11).
30 May 1808 France annexes Tuscany.
2 June 1808 The “Bologna” Mass of Gioachino Rossini (16) is performed for the first time, in the Chiesa della Madonna di San Luca. He contributes three sections of a composite mass by the students of the Liceo Musicale.
5 June 1808 Spanish insurgents fire on and kill French troops at the pass of Despeñaperros in the Sierra Morena. It is the beginning of the war in Spain.
6 June 1808 The citizens of Chaves, Portugal set up a junta which proclaims loyalty to the house of Bragança. Other Portuguese cities soon act in a similar manner.
Joseph Bonaparte is publicly proclaimed José I, King of Spain and of the Indies.
The National Museum of Brazil is founded in Rio de Janeiro by Prince Dom João.
7 June 1808 French troops capture Segovia. They also capture and ransack Córdoba.
9 June 1808 By imperial decree, Emperor Franz creates the Austrian Landwehr. All men, 19-25 years of age, not yet in the army are conscripted.
10 June 1808 By today, every province of Spain is in armed revolt against French rule.
In Brazil, the Portuguese regent Dom João declares war on France.
15 June 1808 Spanish insurgents beat off French attacks at Zaragoza.
16 June 1808 Local citizens in the Algarve, Portugal, take control of the government.
18 June 1808 Citizens of Oporto take control of the city from the French.
20 June 1808 French forces attack Gerona but are repulsed twice and forced to retreat to Barcelona.
21 June 1808 Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thénard announce their isolation of the element Boron to the French Academy of Sciences.
26 June 1808 The publishing firm of Giovanni Ricordi is founded in Milan.
27 June 1808 French attempts to take Valencia fail with heavy losses. They are forced to retreat.
30 June 1808 The nationalist, reforming Tugendbund is founded in Königsberg.
Humphry Davy reads his paper announcing the discovery of the elements Barium, Calcium, Magnesium and Strontium to the Royal Society in London. Strontium has been known already, but Davy is the first to isolate it from strontianite.
2 July 1808 French troops make a second desperate attempt to take Zaragoza but are beaten back again with heavy losses.
7 July 1808 Mariao Luis de Urquijo y Muga replaces Pedro Cevallos Guerra as First Secretary of State of Spain.
France promulgates the Statute of Bayonne, laying out a form of government for Spain. Although it never is enforced, it provides the basis for a Spanish constitution.
8 July 1808 A three-man council of regency takes over for Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples lately named King of Spain.
14 July 1808 A force of Spanish guerrillas is routed by the French at Medina del Río Seco. The French put thousands of them to death and sack the town, including a mass rape of nuns in the largest church.
19 July 1808 Spanish soundly defeat the French at Bailén, 92 km northeast of Córdoba.
20 July 1808 Joseph Bonaparte enters Madrid to become King of Spain. Only the French in the city turn out. All Spanish citizens remain in their homes.
Emperor Napoléon decrees that all Jews of the Empire, who have not already done so, must adopt a surname within three months. This will cause the Parisian scholar and poet Elias Levy to adopt the name Halévy, after the 13th century Jewish poet, for himself and his family, including his son, Fromental (9).
23 July 1808 After days of negotiation, 17,635 French troops surrender to the Spanish at Bailén.
25 July 1808 Joseph Bonaparte is crowned King José I Napoléon of Spain in Madrid.
28 July 1808 Ottoman Sultan Mustafa IV is deposed and replaced by his brother, Mahmud II.
29 July 1808 Alemdar Mustafa Pasha replaces Çelebi Mustafa Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
Combined Spanish and Portuguese rebels are defeated by the French near Evora.
31 July 1808 Emperor Napoléon grants Giovanni Paisiello (68) an annual pension of 1,000 francs, retroactive to 23 September 1804.
1 August 1808 British troops land near the mouth of the Mondego to support the Iberian rebellions.
Surprised by the Spanish victory at Bailén, King José I withdraws from Madrid to Old Castile.
Grand Duke Joachim Murat of Berg and Cleves is named King of Naples by Emperor Napoléon.
4 August 1808 After four days of bombardment, the French launch a third attempt to take Zaragoza. This time they fight their way into the city but are finally stopped by Spanish counterattacks. When night falls they still hold a small part of the town.
11 August 1808 As part of the “prize day” ceremonies at the Liceo Musicale, Bologna, Gioachino Rossini’s (16) cantata Il pianto d’Armonia sulla morte d’Orfeo to words of Ruggia is performed for the first time. Rossini is medalist in counterpoint.
15 August 1808 A Mass in D by Giovanni Paisiello (68) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
16 August 1808 Spanish defenders of Gerona attack out of the city and rout the besieging French.
17 August 1808 At the Battle of Roliça, British troops compel the French to retreat from the heights between Caldas and Obidos, 70 km north of Lisbon.
21 August 1808 French forces attack the British at Vimeiro, 60 km north of Lisbon but are repulsed with heavy casualties.
France annexes the city of Wesel.
British ships manage to take 9,000 of the 14,000 Spanish troops sent to Denmark to help Napoléon off the island of Langeland for transport to Santander to aid in the Peninsular War.
30 August 1808 By the Convention of Cintra the British repatriate 26,000 French troops in return for their evacuation of Portugal. For their unusual leniency, the British commanders on the scene will be recalled to make an accounting of their actions.
15 September 1808 By the terms of 30 August, the French army in Portugal is allowed to depart by sea from Lisbon. A new five-man council of regency takes power in the name of Dom João.
16 September 1808 Armed royalists in Mexico City overthrow Viceroy José de Iturrigaray y Aréstegui thinking that he will soon declare independence from Spain.
20 September 1808 The Covent Garden Theatre, London burns down.
21 September 1808 British forces occupy Macao.
25 September 1808 The Supreme Central Governing Junta is created at the royal palace of Aranjuez as a central organizational point in the Spanish struggle against the French. José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca is named president.
26 September 1808 Cipriano Ribeiro Freire replaces Miguel Pereira Forjaz, conde de Feira as acting head of government of Portugal in Lisbon.
27 September 1808 The Emperors Napoléon and Alyeksandr meet at Erfurt.
30 September 1808 Franz Schubert (11) passes an examination to become a chorister in the Imperial Chapel-Royal. Among the judges is Court Music Director Antonio Salieri (58).
3 October 1808 Seven men involved in royalist organizations to overthrow Napoléon are executed.
11 October 1808 François-Noël Prigent, leader of royalist organizations working to overthrow Napoléon, is executed by firing squad.
The 9,000 Spanish troops from Denmark reach Santander aboard British ships.
12 October 1808 The Convention of Erfurt is signed by Emperor Napoléon of France and Tsar Alyeksandr of Russia. Russia is allowed to occupy Moldavia, Wallachia and Finland. France will remain neutral in any war between Russia and Turkey. Alyeksandr allows Napoléon a free hand in Spain and allies Russia with France in any war against Austria.
15 October 1808 Pedro Cevallos Guerra becomes First Secretary of State (prime minister) of the resistance government of Spain.
27 October 1808 Russian troops attack Swedes on the Koljonvirta River north of Iisalmi, Finland but are pushed back by a Swedish counterattack.
29 October 1808 Emperor Napoléon departs Paris, heading for Spain.
French forces attack the Spanish at Amorebieta, just southeast of Bilbao. Although a French victory, the Spanish acquit themselves well.
30 October 1808 Te Deum and Jubilate for chorus and organ by Samuel Wesley (42) is performed for the first time, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London.
31 October 1808 French forces attack the Spanish at Bilbao near the Bay of Biscay, pushing them back but achieving no conclusive result.
1 November 1808 The Electorate of Hesse-Cassel is annexed to Westphalia.
7 November 1808 The French in Spain, personally directed by Emperor Napoléon, begin a campaign to find and destroy all Spanish and British armies on the peninsula.
Spanish insurgents on Hispaniola destroy a French force at Saban de Palo Hincado. They proceed to Santo Domingo and lay siege to the French in the city.
10 November 1808 French forces rout the Spanish at Gamonal, northeast of Burgos, and proceed to ransack the city. Meanwhile, furious French attacks against the Spanish at Espinosa de los Monteros, 50 km to the southwest of Bilbao, are destroyed with heavy losses.
The Royal Navy captures the French privateering base at Samaná Bay on the north coast of Hispaniola.
11 November 1808 The French return to the attack at Espinosa de los Monteros, breaking and scattering the Spanish resistance.
13 November 1808 British forces reach Salamanca.
16 November 1808 Memis Pasha replaces Alemdar Mustafa Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
19 November 1808 King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia issues a Städteordnung, establishing a system of municipal self-government, providing for popular participation. It is largely the work of Heinrich Friedrich Karl, Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein.
22 November 1808 A committee of the US Congress reports that the Embargo of 1807 has had the opposite effect of the one intended. No European nation has changed its policy and the US economy has been badly damaged.
Two movements of the Messe de Chimay by Luigi Cherubini (48) for three solo voices, solo flute, five winds and strings are performed for the first time, in the village church of Chimay.
23 November 1808 French troops decimate Spanish positions near Tudela on the River Ebro, 75 km northwest of Zaragoza.
24 November 1808 Karl Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander, Count von Dohna-Schlobitten replaces Heinrich Friedrich Karl, Baron vom und zum Stein as Minister of State of Prussia.
Johann Friedrich Reichardt, on the eve of his 56th birthday, arrives in Vienna. He is Directeur général des théâtres et de son orchestre to Hieronymus Bonaparte, King of Westphalia since 1807. When he arrives in the city, he is surprised to learn that Ludwig van Beethoven (37) has been offered his job.
30 November 1808 Spanish forces trying to stop the French advance on Madrid are defeated at the Somosierra Pass.
1 December 1808 French forces reach the outskirts of Madrid.
4 December 1808 After successive infantry attacks and artillery bombardments, Madrid surrenders to the French. King José (Joseph Bonaparte) abolishes the inquisition.
5 December 1808 Besieged for a month, the Spanish defenders of Rosas in Catalonia surrender to the French.
13 December 1808 Santo Domingo returns from French to Spanish rule.
Thousands of Spanish dignitaries, as well as ordinary citizens of Madrid, are forced to swear allegiance to King José I (Joseph Bonaparte) in churches throughout the capital.
17 December 1808 Publication of the Piano Sonata op.38 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (30) is announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
19 December 1808 After an occupation of two months, British forces evacuate Macao.
20 December 1808 French forces take the high ground south of Zaragoza and, after calls for surrender are refused, they lay siege to the city.
21 December 1808 In a small engagement at Sahagún, 50 km southeast of León, British cavalry routs a French force.
22 December 1808 Ludwig van Beethoven (38) conducts a night of his works at the unheated Theater-an-der-Wien, Vienna. The program includes premiere performances of the Symphony no.5, Symphony no.6 and the Choral Fantasy op.80, and the Fourth Piano concerto. Also performed are the scene and aria Ah! Perfido and portions of the Mass in C. The musicians are not up to their best. Beethoven has to stop the Choral Fantasia in the middle because of confusion in the orchestra. In all, the music takes four hours to perform. Prince Lobkowitz is in the audience with his guest, Johann Friedrich Reichardt (56). This is the last time Beethoven performs a piano concerto in public.
Jan Ladislav Dussek’s (48) Notturno Concertante op.68 C.233 is performed in Paris by the composer, possibly for the first time.
23 December 1808 Sinfonia in D by Gioachino Rossini (16) is performed for the first time, in the Bologna Accademia Polimniaca.
24 December 1808 Learning that Napoléon is bearing down on them, the British in Sahagún begin a hasty retreat towards Astorga, 80 km to the west.
25 December 1808 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (30) is dismissed from the service of Prince Nikolas Esterházy. The reason is that he did not give enough attention to his duties, in favor of composing for the theatre in Vienna. Hummel asks to be reinstated, and he is.
26 December 1808 British forces take possession of Madeira from the French.
29 December 1808 French advance troops cross the River Esla near Benavente, 65 km south of León, and engage the British. They are at first successful but a British counterattack cuts them to pieces.
30 December 1808 Vicente Joaquín Osorio de Moscoso y Guzmán, marqués de Astorga, conde de Altamira replaces José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca as President of the Supreme Central Governing Junta of the Spanish resistance.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
6 July 2012
Last Updated (Friday, 06 July 2012 05:45)