Captain Camus and Napoleon's Mother
A widespread strand of stories links the origins of the Spoonmaker's Diamond with historic events at the town of Preveza, Epirus. In 1797 the town was ceded to France and garrisoned by 700 of Napoleon I's French grenadiers under General La Salchette, together with some 200 armed Prevezian Greek citizens and some 60 Albanian Souliotes. However, in the Battle of Nicopolis of 12–13 October 1798, this force was overwhelmed by 7000 Turkish-Albanian warriors under Ali Pasha and his son Muhtar. In the aftermath, French and Greeks were massacred in Preveza and at Port Salaora on the Ambracian Gulf. Many prisoners who survived the massacre died from the hardships on the road to Ali Pasha's capital at Ioannina, where they were paraded in the streets. Nine French officers were sent on to Sultan Selim III in Istanbul, among them Captain Louis-Auguste Camus de Richemont and another officer named Tissot. Camus remained in captivity until 1801, when he was ransomed and returned to a long and distinguished military career, eventually attaining the rank of general. Onto the above historically attested facts was added an unattested story, according to which Captain Camus was the lover of Napoleon Bonaparte's mother Letizia Ramolino. After receiving the news of his capture, the story goes, Letizia contacted Sultan Selim III, and immediately sent a "Big Diamond" by ship to Preveza as a present for the Sultan, with the expectation of her lover's liberation. The diamond went from Preveza to Ioannina (presumably in Ali Pasha's custody) and then to Istanbul.[citation needed] An additional detail appearing in some versions is that the diamond had previously belonged to the executed Queen Marie Antoinette.