Work timeline - the 'Eroica' in context

1803 Christian Horneman paints Beethoven’s portrait

5 April Premieres of Beethoven’s Symphony no.2, Piano Concerto no.3 and oratorio Christus am Ölberge at concert at Theater an der Wien

30 April Napoleon, as First Consul, authorises France’s sale of its Louisiana Territories to the USA

Summer Beethoven works on ‘Eroica’ Symphony at lodgings in Baden and the Viennese suburb of Unterdöbling

9 December Berlioz born

26 December Haydn makes his final public appearance as a performer, conducting his Seven Last Words; he also composes his last string quartet, op.103, in 1803 but fails to complete it

1804 William Wordsworth writes poem ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud'

Haydn is made an honorary citizen of Vienna

12 February Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, dies

21 February Richard Trevithick’s ‘Penydarren’ becomes the first steam locomotive to run on rails

17 March Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell premiered in Weimar

April ‘Eroica’ completed

18 May Napoleon proclaimed French Emperor

Holy Roman Emperor Francis II soon founds Austrian Empire in response

9 June First, private performance of ‘Eroica’ at Prince Lobkowitz’s palace in Vienna

28 July Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher, born

3 October Ferdinando Paer’s Leonora, precursor to Beethoven’s Fidelio, premiered in Dresden

2 December Napolean’s coronation in Paris

1805

17 March Napoleon is proclaimed King of Italy; Austria joins the so-called ‘Third Coalition’ with the United Kingdom and Russia against France

7 April Premiere of ‘Eroica’ at Theater an der Wien, Vienna

21 October The Battle of Trafalgar sees Napoleon’s naval forces defeated for the last time

November Napoleon’s forces occupy Vienna

2 December Napoleon achieves arguably his greatest victory, defeating Austro-Russian forces at the battle of Austerlitz near Brno in Austrian Moravia

26 December Austria signs peace treaty with France; the Holy Roman Empire is dissolved in the process

1806

October ‘Eroica’ Symphony published