thank you
I was going to go with Marseillaise, particularly since Napoléon himself despised the tune and how it's been repurposed by Henri:
But Richard, O Mon Roi, l'universe t'abandonné (O Richard, O my king, the universe has abandoned you) is both suitably reverent and Frankie's tongue-in-cheek reminder of "better than you".
As to Marmont collecting the "ephemera", its not that different to how Frankie's dealt with his Bonaparte family. He hasn't built some grand cathedral/basilica/necropolis for them, or insisted on any sort of state funeral (except for his grandmother- and that was theatre). Rather, he's buried them quietly at Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, out of the way*. He hasn't had his grandfather exhumed from Corsica or his grandmother from Rome, and he remarks that he has no reason to see his father's remains repatriated from Saint Helena. But he's sort of "put them all in one place" and "forgotten" about them.
What he's done to them in death is what everyone tried to do to him: forget that there ever was a name such as Buonaparte**. Venice and the Venetians were a city that suffered the most under Napoléon, so there's no fears that they will build a shrine to them. And it's one the opposite side of Italy from France, so it's not like it will attract streams of ardent Bonapartist tourists. And I don't think Frankie chose a church that was erected to celebrate relief from the Plague with any small irony.
Same for the ephemera that Marmont collects. Out in the world, those items- like the sword of Austerlitz- would be "holy relics" to some credulous fool. This isn't a 1984-type "disappearing" of them. Frankie doesn't order them destroyed or anything, but in a private collection, these "holy relics" don't garner the attention of the public. People aren't queuing down six blocks to get in to see a Napoléon-exhibit at the museum***.
*given Frankie's spiteful nature, I could definitely see him insisting that his mother be buried there as well (OTL, she was buried with him in the Kaisersgruft in Vienna) as a sort of final "screw you" to both the family and his mom
**again, I could see Frankie going with the Italian spelling to add insult to injury
***see how Hitler collected "relics" for an extreme example
I'll admit, after hearing about that, how it ended up in Corsica until 1915 OTL- when it was sold to a London bookseller, then to a Philadelphia-based firm, passed through a few other hands (pardon the pun) before it wound up with the Latimers- I was like "the hilarity of someone presenting Frankie with his dead father's penis" is too good to not include
it was the first thing Francisca* asked for when arriving in France after a storm-tossed voyage OTL (she wasn't a very good sailor apparently- which is ironic when one considers her OTL husband was Grand Admiral of France)
*I recently found out that there's a strong chance she was named for her mother's favourite nephew/surrogate son (Frankie) as much as for her maternal grandfather. I'm not sure if Frankie was her godfather or anything, but I could genuinely see Pedro I having creamed his shorts at the idea of having Napoléon's son as his daughter's godfather.
I figure it puts the bookends of "science" and "religion" immediately after one another: Scientific Congress in September-November 1849, followed by the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season (30 November 1849-6 January 1850), and the Holy Year of 1850, Rome will be stuffed to the gills with visitors of religious, political and scientific creeds.
Frankie hasn't given an answer yet, but I imagine that this is why forwarded the letter to him rather than simply deciding the matter herself. However, it would certainly be interesting to see what effects this would have on the Ottomans.
Imagine Darwin attending the 10th Congress and winding up in conversation with Louise d'Artois, Queen of Sicily* or even Pio Nono
Or Ada Lovelace (she spoke fluent Italian and was responsible for translating a lot of work to or from Italian for Babbage IIRC) being allowed to give a lecture.*because do we really think Louise or her husband will not take advantage of this if Henri were to go to Rome with his wife?
