"Really, to think of a Gd Daughter of George IIIrd, dancing with the nephew of our great enemy, the Empr Napoleon now my most firm Ally, in the Waterloo Gallery, — is incredible!" Queen Victoria records her thoughts during Napoléon III's 1855 state visit.

I wonder if President Macron will get his own supplement for his state visit. Napoléon III got one in April 1855 when he came so it only seems fair. Very much a game's gone moment for British veterans of the Napoleonic wars.

On 20 April 1855, Napoleon III was on a state visit to Britain (it was also his birthday). Queen Victoria and the French emperor visited Crystal Palace, where this picture was taken. Victoria was amused, recording that crowds cried "Vive le Hempereur", in cockney English!”

Interesting to see just how dominant the gene for waxed stiletto moustache and hirsute goatee is - don't think we need DNA testing to see whose illegitimate son Eugène Bure was...

We used to be a proper country. "The state of the House towards midnight was disgraceful: eight to ten members were visibly too drunk to know what they were doing, and others not sober." Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby, records the golden age of Britain's parliament in 1851.

Huh, must have missed the memo

Thomas Carlyle recorded full rant after dinner in 1864: "Railroads were a great mischief in that they encouraged people to run up and down without motivation: we had far too many of them."

"A very sensual and sanguine heavy fellow, quite without principles and almost without brains", Alexis de Tocqueville on one of the leaders of the 1848 Revolution, Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin.

“Let the emperor’s nephew draw near the sun of our Republic. I am sure he will disappear in its rays ... the time of emperors and kings has forever passed”. One of the leaders of the 1848 Revolution in France, Louis Blanc, confident Louis-Napoléon is nothing to worry about...

Louis Bonaparte did not approve of his son's ambitions. "How can you lower yourself to the role of adventurer, intriguer, usurper, dare I even say conspirator?" Adding, "I have served our country for 15 years, better than you could ever do". But his son became Napoleon III...

Anyone who has travelled on an old British train will be familiar with this problem experienced by Napoléon III's cousin travelling with his wife. The adjoining carriage door swung open and I saw, “my dear cousin straddling” another woman, “kissing her on the mouth”.

"A real scoundrel’s face; ... vain as a lackey, hateful as a verger, believing in the quickest and most crooked means to achieve a goal … In a short, a bad melodrama actor", Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny, a close friend of Napoleon III, was not everyone's cup of tea.

In 1812, Jerome Bonaparte abandoned Napoléon's invasion of Russia. In 1854, his son, Plon-Plon, was much vilified for fleeing Crimea. "Voilà, the French,” Jerome said defending his son, “already throwing stones at this poor child who has not seen his mistress in months”.

An unlikely combination of books

“I felt – I do not know how to express it – safe with him.” Queen Victoria enjoys an unlikely holiday romance with none other than Napoleon III at the Paris Exposition universelle in 1855.

From Borges to Julio Iglesias, via the British in South America - a wonderful Hispanic double-page spread in this week's TLS, which is unrivalled in its coverage of new books in other languages.

"Tomorrow is the emperor’s birthday, and I will spend it with strangers." 14 August 1836, Louis-Napoléon tries to rope Napoleonic veteran General Théophile Voirol into committing treason with the no one one wants to be alone at Christmas argument.

Happy Napoleon day! Invented under the First Empire and revived under the Second with much pomp and ceremony, celebrated as a sort of Bonapartist Bastille Day. On 15 August 1852 David's Crossing of the Alps was recreated with a fireworks display in Paris.

Plon-Plon asked if he could see his dying father. No, "it would be pointless anyway, he won’t recognise you.” Ignoring this, Plon-Plon approached. At the sound of footsteps, Jerome stirred. “Is it you, my good boy?” “You see,” said the doctor, “your father doesn’t recognise you"

Apparently fashion historian Brian May had a side hustle as a guitarist in a band called Queen (and yes, it is the same Brian May).