napoléon bonaparte

Napoleon

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the

Tuileries, by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

Emperor of the French

Reign 18 May 1804 11 April 1814

20 March 1815 22 June 1815

Coronation 2 December 1804

PredecessorHimself as First Consul

Successor Louis XVIII (de jure in 1814)

King of Italy

Reign 17 March 1805 11 April 1814

Coronation 26 May 1805

PredecessorHimself as President of the Italian

Republic

Successor None (kingdom disbanded, next king of Italy

was Victor Emmanuel II)

Spouse Josphine de Beauharnais

Marie Louise of Austria

Issue Napoleon II

Full name

Napoleon Bonaparte

NapoleonFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Napolon Bonaparte (/npolin, -poljn/;[2] French: [naple bnapat], born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 5 May 1821) was a French military and politicalleader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and its associated wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815.Napoleon dominated European affairs for nearly two decades while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He won thelarge majority of his battles and seized control of most of continental Europe before his ultimate defeat in 1815. One of the greatest commanders in history, his campaigns arestudied at military schools worldwide and he remains one of the most celebrated and controversial political figures in Western history.[3][4] In civil affairs, Napoleon implementedseveral liberal reforms across Europe, including the abolition of feudalism, the establishment of legal equality and religious toleration, and the legalization of divorce. His lastinglegal achievement, the Napoleonic Code, has been adopted by dozens of nations around the world.[5][6]

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica to a relatively modest family of noble Italian ancestry. From 1789, Napoleon supported the Revolution and tried to spread its ideals toCorsica, but he was banished from the island in 1793. In 1795, he saved the French government from collapse by firing on the Parisian mobs with cannons, an event known as the13 Vendmiaire. The Directory appointed him as General of the Army of Italy at age 26. After marrying Josphine de Beauharnais in March 1796, he started the Italian militarycampaign that transformed him into a well-known figure in Europe. In 1798 he launched a military expedition to Egypt, conquering the Ottoman province with a decisive victoryat the Battle of the Pyramids and facilitating the rise of modern Egyptology.

The Directory collapsed when Napoleon and his supporters engineered the Coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799. He was installed as First Consul of the Consulate andprogressively extended his personal control over France. An important victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in 1800 cemented his political power. The Consulatewitnessed a number of achievements for Napoleon, such as the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church and the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. In 1804, the Senate declared himthe Emperor of the French, setting the stage for the French Empire. Intractable differences with the British meant by 1805 the French were facing a Third Coalition. Napoleonshattered this coalition with decisive victories in the Ulm Campaign and a historic triumph at the Battle of Austerlitz. The Peace of Pressburg culminated in the elimination of themillennial Holy Roman Empire. In October 1805, however, a combined Franco-Spanish fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar, allowing Britain to impose a naval blockadeof the French coasts. In retaliation, Napoleon established the Continental System in 1806 to cut off European trade with Britain and the Fourth Coalition took up arms againsthim. The French crushed the Prussians at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806, while in June 1807 Napoleon annihilated another Russian army at the Battle ofFriedland. This forced the Russians to the peace table, with the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, often regarded as the high watermark of the French Empire.

Napoleon tried to compel Portugal to follow the Continental System by sending an army into Iberia. In 1808, he declared his brother Joseph Bonaparte the King of Spain, whichprecipitated the outbreak of the Peninsular War, widely noted for its brutal guerrilla warfare. In 1809 the Austrians launched another attack against the French. Napoleon defeatedthem at the Battle of Wagram, dissolving the Fifth Coalition formed against France. After the Treaty of Schnbrunn in the fall of 1809, he divorced Josephine and marriedAustrian princess Marie Louise in 1810. By 1811, Napoleon ruled over 70 million people across an empire that had near-total domination in Europe, which had not witnessed thislevel of political consolidation since the days of the Roman Empire.[7] He maintained his strategic status through a series of alliances and family appointments to royal households.Napoleon launched a new aristocracy in France while allowing for the return of nobles who had been forced into exile by the Revolution.

Escalating tensions over the existence of a Polish State and the Continental System led to renewed enmity with Russia. To enforce his blockade, Napoleon launched an invasion ofRussia in 1812 that ended in catastrophic failure for the French. In 1813, Prussia and Russia joined forces to fight France, and the Austrians also joined the Sixth Coalition. InOctober 1813, a large Allied army defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig. The next year, the Allies launched an invasion of France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon toabdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the island of Elba. The Bourbons were restored to power and the French lost most territories they had conquered since the Revolution.However, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and returned to lead the French government, only to find himself at war against another coalition. This new coalitiondecisively defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June. He attempted to flee to the United States, but the British blocked his escape route. He surrendered to British custodyand spent the last six years of his life in confinement on the remote island of Saint Helena. His death in 1821, at the age of 51, was received by shock and grief throughout Europeand the New World.

Contents

1 Origins and education

2 Early career

2.1 Siege of Toulon

Napoleon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Napoleon&printable=yes

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House House of Bonaparte

Father Carlo Buonaparte

Mother Letizia Ramolino

Born 15 August 1769

Ajaccio, Corsica, France

Died 5 May 1821 (aged 51)

Longwood, Saint Helena

Burial Les Invalides, Paris, France

Religion Roman Catholicism (excommunicated

on June 10, 1809[1] - see Religions

section)

Signature

Imperial Standard of Napoleon I

Imperial coat of arms

2.2 13 Vendmiaire

2.3 First Italian campaign

2.4 Egyptian expedition

3 Ruler of France

3.1 French Consulate

3.1.1 Temporary peace in Europe

3.2 French Empire

3.2.1 War of the Third Coalition

3.2.2 Middle-Eastern alliances

3.2.3 War of the Fourth Coalition and Tilsit

3.2.4 Peninsular War and Erfurt

3.2.5 War of the Fifth Coalition and Marie Louise

3.2.6 Invasion of Russia

3.2.7 War of the Sixth Coalition

3.2.8 Exile to Elba

3.2.9 Hundred Days

4 Exile on Saint Helena

4.1 Death

4.1.1 Cause of death

5 Religions

5.1 Concordat

5.2 Religious emancipation

6 Personality

7 Image

8 Legacy

8.1 Napoleonic Code

8.2 Warfare

8.3 Metric system

8.4 Criticism

8.5 Propaganda and memory

8.6 Legacy outside France

9 Marriages and children

10 Titles, styles, honours and arms

10.1 Titles and styles

10.2 Full titles

10.2.1 18041805

10.2.2 18051806

10.2.3 18061809


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Napoleon's father, Carlo

Buonaparte, was Corsica's

representative to the court of

Louis XVI of France.

The nationalist Corsican

leader Pasquale Paoli;

portrait by Richard Cosway,

1798

10.2.4 18091814

10.2.5 1815

11 Ancestry

12 Notes

13 Citations

14 References

14.1 Biographical studies

14.2 Specialty studies

14.3 Historiography and memory

14.4 Primary sources

15 External links

Origins and education

Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769 to Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino in his family's ancestral home, Casa Buonaparte, in the town of Ajaccio, the capital of the island ofCorsica. He was their 4th child and 3rd son. This was a year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa.[8] He was christened Napoleone di Buonaparte, probably namedafter an uncle (an older brother, who did not survive infancy, was the first of the sons to be called Napoleone). In his twenties, he adopted the more French-sounding Napolon Bonaparte.[9][note 1]

The Corsican Buonapartes were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin, who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th century.[10][11]

His father, Nobile Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1777. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, LetiziaRamolino, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child.[12] Napoleon's maternal grandmother had married into the Swiss Fesch family in her second marriage, and Napoleon's uncle, thelater cardinal Joseph Fesch, would fulfill the role as protector of the Bonaparte family for some years.

He had an elder brother, Joseph; and younger siblings, Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jrme. A boy and girl were born before Joseph but died in infancy.Napoleon was baptised as a Catholic.[13]

Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of thetime.[14] In January 1779, Napoleon was enrolled at a religious school in Autun, in mainland France, to learn French. In May he was admitted to a military academy atBrienne-le-Chteau.[15] He always spoke with a marked Corsican accent and never learned to spell French properly.[16] Napoleon was teased by other students for hisaccent and applied himself to reading.[17] An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly wellacquainted with history and geography... This boy would make an excellent sailor."[18][note 2]

On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the elite cole Militaire in Paris. He trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's death reduced hisincome, was forced to complete the two-year course in one year.[20] He was the first Corsican to graduate from the cole Militaire.[20] He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-SimonLaplace, whom Napoleon later appointed to the Senate.[21]

Early career

Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fre artillery regiment.[15][note 3] He served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after theoutbreak of the Revolution in 1789, and took nearly two years' leave in Corsica and Paris during this period. A fervent Corsican nationalist, Bonaparte wrote to the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli in May 1789, "As the nation wasperishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me."[23]

He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. He supported the revolutionary Jacobin faction, gained the rank oflieutenant colonel in the Corsican militia, and gained command over a battalion of volunteers. Despite exceeding his leave of absence and leading a riot against a French army in Corsica, he was promoted to captain in the regular


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Napoleon Bonaparte, aged

23, Lieutenant-Colonel of a

battalion of Corsican

Republican volunteers

Bonaparte at the Siege of

Toulon

Journe du 13 Vendmiaire. Artillery

fire in front of the Church of

Saint-Roch, Paris, Rue Saint-Honor

army in July 1792.[24]

He returned to Corsica and came into conflict with Paoli, who had decided to split with France and sabotage the French assault on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena in February 1793, whereBonaparte was one of the expedition leaders.[25] Bonaparte and his family fled to the French mainland in June 1793 because of the split with Paoli.[26]

Siege of Toulon

In July 1793, Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire), which gained him the admiration and support of Augustin Robespierre, youngerbrother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. With the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forcesat the siege of Toulon. The city had risen against the republican government and was occupied by British troops.[27]

He adopted a plan to capture a hill where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British ships to evacuate. The assault on the position, during which Bonaparte waswounded in the thigh, led to the capture of the city. He was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24. Catching the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, he was put in charge of theartillery of France's Army of Italy.[28]

Whilst waiting for confirmation of this post, Napoleon spent time as inspector of coastal fortifications on the Mediterranean coast near Marseille. He devised plans for attacking the Kingdom ofSardinia as part of France's campaign against the First Coalition.[29] The commander of the Army of Italy, Pierre Jadart Dumerbion, had seen many generals executed for failing or for having thewrong political views. Therefore, he deferred to the powerful reprsentants en mission, Augustin Robespierre and Saliceti, who in turn were ready to listen to the freshly promoted artillerygeneral.[30]

Carrying out Bonaparte's plan in the Battle of Saorgio in April 1794, the French army advanced north-east along the Italian Riviera then turned north to seize Ormea in the mountains. From Ormea,they thrust west to outflank the Austro-Sardinian positions around Saorge. Later, Augustin Robespierre sent Bonaparte on a mission to the Republic of Genoa to determine that country's intentionstowards France.[29]

13 Vendmiaire

Following the fall of the Robespierres in the Thermidorian Reaction in July 1794, one account alleges that Bonaparte was put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the brothers.Napoleon's secretary, Bourrienne, disputed this allegation in his memoirs. According to Bourrienne, jealousy between the Army of the Alps and the Army of Italy (with whom Napoleon wasseconded at the time) was responsible.[31] After an impassioned defense in a letter Bonaparte dispatched to representants Salicetti and Albitte, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing.[32]

He was released within two weeks and, due to his technical skills, was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions in the context of France's war with Austria. He also took part in anexpedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the French were repulsed by the Royal Navy.[33]

Bonaparte became engaged to Dsire Clary, whose sister, Julie Clary, had married Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph; the Clarys were a wealthy merchant family from Marseilles.[34] In April1795, he was assigned to the Army of the West, which was engaged in the War in the Vendea civil war and royalist counter-revolution in Vende, a region in west central France, on theAtlantic Ocean. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery generalfor which the army already had a full quotaand he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting.[35]

He was moved to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety and sought, unsuccessfully, to be transferred to Constantinople in order to offer his services to the Sultan.[36]

During this period, he wrote a romantic novella, Clisson et Eugnie, about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Dsire.[37] On 15 September,Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in regular service for his refusal to serve in the Vende campaign. He faced a difficult financial situation and reduced career prospects.[38]

On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against the National Convention.[39] Paul Barras, a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction, knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulonand gave him command of the improvised forces in defence of the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. Having seen the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard there three years earlier, herealised artillery would be the key to its defence.[15]

He ordered a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, to seize large cannons and used them to repel the attackers on 5 October 179513 Vendmiaire An IV in the French RepublicanCalendar. After 1,400 royalists died, the rest fled.[39] He had cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot", according to the 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution: A History.[40][41]

The defeat of the royalist insurrection extinguished the threat to the Convention and earned Bonaparte sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new government, the Directory. Murat married one of his sisters and becamehis brother-in-law; he also served under Napoleon as one of his generals. Bonaparte was promoted to Commander of the Interior and given command of the Army of Italy.[26]


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Bonaparte at the Pont

d'Arcole, by Baron

Antoine-Jean Gros, (ca.

1801), Muse du Louvre,

Paris

Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, by

Philippoteaux

Napoleon enters Alexandria

on 3 July 1798 by

Guillaume-Franois Colson,

1800

Within weeks he was romantically attached to the former mistress of Barras, Josphine de Beauharnais. The couple married on 9 March 1796 in a civil ceremony.[42]

First Italian campaign

Two days after the marriage, Bonaparte left Paris to take command of the Army of Italy. He immediately went on the offensive, hoping to defeat the forces of Piedmont before their Austrian alliescould intervene. In a series of rapid victories during the Montenotte Campaign, he knocked Piedmont out of the war in two weeks. The French then focused on the Austrians for the remainder of thewar, the highlight of which became the protracted struggle for Mantua. The Austrians launched a series of offensives against the French to break the siege, but Napoleon defeated every relief effort,scoring notable victories at the battles of Castiglione, Bassano, Arcole, and Rivoli. The decisive French triumph at Rivoli in January 1797 led to the collapse of the Austrian position in Italy.

The next phase of the campaign featured the French invasion of the Habsburg heartlands. French forces in Southern Germany had been defeated by the Archduke Charles in 1796, but the latterwithdrew his forces to protect Vienna after learning about Napoleon's assault. In the first notable encounter between the two commanders, Napoleon pushed back his opponent and advanced deepinto Austrian territory after winning at the Battle of Tarvis in March 1797. Alarmed by the French thrust that reached all the way to Leoben, about 100 km from Vienna, the Austrians finally decidedto sue for peace.[43] The Treaty of Leoben, followed by the more comprehensive Treaty of Campo Formio, gave France control of most of northern Italy and the Low Countries, and a secret clausepromised the Republic of Venice to Austria. Bonaparte marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending 1,100 years of independence. He also authorized the French to loot treasures such as theHorses of Saint Mark.[44]

His application of conventional military ideas to real-world situations enabled his military triumphs, such as creative use of artillery as a mobile force to support his infantry. He remarked later in lifethat: "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning. Look at Caesar; he fought the first like the last."[45]

Bonaparte could win battles by concealment of troop deployments and concentration of his forces on the 'hinge' of an enemy's weakened front. If he couldnot use his favourite envelopment strategy, he would take up the central position and attack two co-operating forces at their hinge, swing round to fight oneuntil it fled, then turn to face the other.[46] In this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners, 540 cannons and 170 standards.[47] TheFrench army fought 67 actions and won 18 pitched battles through superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics.[48]

During the campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics; he founded two newspapers: one for the troops in his army and another for circulation in France.[49] Theroyalists attacked Bonaparte for looting Italy and warned he might become a dictator.[50] Bonaparte sent General Pierre Augereau to Paris to lead a coup d'tat and purge the royalists on 4SeptemberCoup of 18 Fructidor. This left Barras and his Republican allies in control again but dependent on Bonaparte, who proceeded to peace negotiations with Austria. Thesenegotiations resulted in the Treaty of Campo Formio, and Bonaparte returned to Paris in December as a hero.[51] He met Talleyrand, France's new Foreign Ministerwho would later servein the same capacity for Emperor Napoleonand they began to prepare for an invasion of Britain.[26]

Egyptian expedition

After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided France's naval power was not yet strong enough to confront the Royal Navy in the English Channel and proposed a military expedition to seizeEgypt and thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in India.[26] Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with a Muslimenemy of the British in India, Tipu Sultan.[52]

Napoleon assured the Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions."[53]

According to a report written in February 1798 by Talleyrand: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib anddrive away the English."[53] The Directory agreed in order to secure a trade route to India.[54]

In May 1798, Bonaparte was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists: mathematicians, naturalists, chemists and geodesistsamong them; their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone, and their work was published in the Description de l'gypte in 1809.[55]

En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the Knights Hospitaller.[56] The two-hundred Knights of French origin did not support the Grand Master, Ferdinandvon Hompesch zu Bolheim, who had succeeded a Frenchman, and made it clear they would not fight against their compatriots. Hompesch surrendered after token resistance, and Bonapartecaptured an important naval base with the loss of only three men.[57]

General Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal Navy and on 1 July landed at Alexandria.[26] He fought the Battle of Shubra Khit against the Mamluks, Egypt's ruling militarycaste. This helped the French practice their defensive tactic for the Battle of the Pyramids, fought on 21 July, about 24 km (15 mi) from the pyramids. General Bonaparte's forces of 25,000 roughlyequalled those of the Mamluks' Egyptian cavalry, but he formed hollow squares with supplies kept safely inside. Twenty-nine French[58] and approximately 2,000 Egyptians were killed. The victoryboosted the morale of the French army.[59]


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Napoleon Bonaparte Before the

Sphinx, (ca. 1868) by Jean-Lon

Grme, Hearst Castle

Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July

1798 by Louis-Franois, Baron

Lejeune, 1808

General Bonaparte surrounded by

members of the Council of Five

Hundred during the Coup of 18

Brumaire, by Franois Bouchot

On 1 August, the British fleet under Horatio Nelson captured or destroyed all but two French vessels in the Battle of the Nile, and Bonaparte's goal of a strengthened French position in theMediterranean was frustrated.[60] His army had succeeded in a temporary increase of French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings.[61] In early 1799, he moved an army into theOttoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa.[62] The attack on Jaffawas particularly brutal: Bonaparte, on discovering many of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, ordered the garrison and 1,400 prisoners to be executed bybayonet or drowning to save bullets.[60] Men, women and children were robbed and murdered for three days.[63]

With his army weakened by diseasemostly bubonic plagueand poor supplies, Bonaparte was unable to reduce the fortress of Acre and returned to Egypt in May.[60] To speed up theretreat, he ordered plague-stricken men to be poisoned.[64] (However, British eyewitness accounts later showed that most of the men were still alive and had not been poisoned.) Hissupporters have argued this was necessary given the continued harassment of stragglers by Ottoman forces, and indeed those left behind alive were tortured and beheaded by the Ottomans.Back in Egypt, on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir.[65]

Ruler of France

While in Egypt, Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs through irregular delivery of newspapers and dispatches. He learned that France had suffered a series of defeats in the War ofthe Second Coalition.[66] On 24 August 1799, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, despite the fact he had receivedno explicit orders from Paris.[60] The army was left in the charge of Jean Baptiste Klber.[67]

Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return to ward off possible invasions of French soil, but poor lines of communication prevented the delivery of thesemessages.[66] By the time he reached Paris in October, France's situation had been improved by a series of victories. The Republic was, however, bankrupt and the ineffective Directory wasunpopular with the French population.[68] The Directory discussed Bonaparte's "desertion" but was too weak to punish him.[66]

Despite the failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned to a hero's welcome. In alliance with the director Emmanuel Joseph Sieys, his brother Lucien; the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred,Roger Ducos; another Director, Joseph Fouch; and Talleyrand, he overthrew the Directory by a coup d'tat on November 9, 1799 ("the 18th Brumaire" according to the revolutionarycalendar), and closed down the council of five hundred. Napoleon became "first consul" for ten years, with two consuls appointed by him who had consultative voices only. His power wasconfirmed by the new "Constitution of the Year VIII, originally devised by Sieys to give Napoleon a minor role, but rewritten by Napoleon, and accepted by direct popular vote (3,000,000in favor, 1,567 opposed). The constitution preserved the appearance of a republic but in reality established a military dictatorship. The days of Brumaire sounded the end of the short-livedrepublic: no more representative government, assemblies, or collegial executive.[69][70]

French Consulate

Though Sieys expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmanoeuvred by Bonaparte. Having seized power, Lefebvre notes, "Napoleon immediately set about organizing hisdictatorship."[71] He drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, and he took up residence at the Tuileries.[72] The constitution was approved in aplebiscite held the following January, with 99.94 percent officially listed as voting "yes"an implausibly high result.

In 1800, Bonaparte and his troops crossed the Alps into Italy, where French forces had been almost completely driven out by the Austrians whilst he was in Egypt.[note 4] The campaign beganbadly for the French after Bonaparte made strategic errors; one force was left besieged at Genoa but managed to hold out and thereby occupy Austrian resources.[74] This effort, and Frenchgeneral Louis Desaix's timely reinforcements, allowed Bonaparte narrowly to avoid defeat and to triumph over the Austrians in June at the significant Battle of Marengo.[75]

Bonaparte's brother Joseph led the peace negotiations in Lunville and reported that Austria, emboldened by British support, would not recognise France's newly gained territory. Asnegotiations became increasingly fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As a result, the Treaty of Lunville was signed in February 1801;the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased.[75] In 1801, Napoleon became President of the French Academy of Sciences and appointed Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre its PermanentSecretary.[76]

Temporary peace in Europe

Both France and Britain had become tired of war and signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802. This called for the withdrawal of British troops from most colonial territories it had recently occupied.[74] Bolstered by this treaty,Napoleon was made First Consul for life in a 10 May plebiscite, with an implausible 99.8% voting in favour. His powers were increased by the Constitution of the Year X including: Article 1. The French people name, and theSenate proclaims Napoleon-Bonaparte First Consul for Life.[77] After this he was generally referred to as Napoleon rather than Bonaparte.[22]

The peace with Britain proved to be uneasy and short-lived.[78] Britain did not evacuate Malta as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his Act of Mediation, which established a new Swiss


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Bust of Bonaparte as First

Consul

Bonaparte, First Consul, by

Jean Auguste Dominique

Ingres

The Coronation of Napoleon by

Jacques-Louis David in 1804

Confederation, though neither of these territories were covered by the treaty.[79] The dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803, and he reassembled the invasion camp atBoulogne.[60]

In 1794, the National Convention had abolished slavery in the French West Indies. French slave-owners reacted by joining the counter-revolution and threatened to switch allegiances to the Britishunder the Whitehall Accord. Saint-Domingue had managed to acquire a high level of political autonomy during the Revolutionary Wars, with Toussaint Louverture installing himself as de factodictator by 1801. Napoleon saw his chance to recuperate the formerly wealthy colony when he signed the Treaty of Amiens. Under the terms of the treaty, Napoleon agreed to appease Britishdemands by not abolishing slavery in any colonies where the 1794 decree had never been implemented. The resulting Law of 20 May never applied to colonies like Guadeloupe or Guyane, eventhough rogue generals and other officials used the pretext of peace as an opportunity to reinstate slavery in some of these places. The Law of 20 May officially restored the slave trade to theCaribbean colonies, not slavery itself.[80] Napoleon sent an expedition under General Leclerc designed to reassert control over Sainte-Domingue. Although the French managed to capture ToussaintLouverture, the expedition failed when high rates of disease crippled the French army. In May 1803, the last 8,000 French troops left the island and the slaves proclaimed an independent republicthat they called Hati in 1804.[81] This culmination of the Haitian Revolution is widely regarded as the first successful slave revolt in history. Seeing the failure of his colonial efforts, Napoleondecided in 1803 to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States, instantly doubling the size of the latter. The selling price in the Louisiana Purchase was less than three cents per acre, a total of$15 million.[3] [82]

French Empire

Napoleon faced royalist and Jacobin plots as France's ruler, including the Conspiration des poignards (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise (also known as theinfernal machine) two months later.[83] In January 1804, his police uncovered an assassination plot against him which involved Moreau and which was ostensibly sponsored by the Bourbon formerrulers of France. On the advice of Talleyrand, Napoleon ordered the kidnapping of Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien, in violation of neighbouring Baden's sovereignty. After a secret trial the Dukewas executed, even though he had not been involved in the plot.[84]

Napoleon used the plot to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France with himself as emperor. He believed a Bourbon restoration would be more difficult if the Bonapartist successionwas entrenched in the constitution.[85] Napoleon was elected as "Emperor of the French" in a plebiscite held in November. Since there would be an heir, it would also make it all but impossible tochange the regime by assassinating Napoleon. As before, this vote was implausibly lopsided, with 99.93 percent officially voting yes.

He was crowned by Pope Pius VII as Napoleon I, on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris and then crowned Josphine Empress. According to legend, Napoleon seized the crown out of thehands of the pope at the last minute and crowned himself to avoid being subject to papal authority. However, this story is apocryphal; the coronation procedure had been agreed in advance.[note 5][86]

Ludwig van Beethoven, a long-time admirer, was disappointed at this turn towards imperialism and scratched his dedication to Napoleon from his 3rd Symphony.[85]

At Milan Cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He created eighteen Marshals of the Empire from amongst his top generals, to securethe allegiance of the army.

War of the Third Coalition

Great Britain broke the Peace of Amiens and declared war on France in May 1803.[87] In December 1804, an Anglo-Swedish agreement became the first step towards the creation of theThird Coalition. By April 1805, Britain had also signed an alliance with Russia.[88] Having been defeated twice in recent memory by France, and wanting revenge, Austria joined the coalitiona few months later.[89]

Before the formation of the Third Coalition, Napoleon had assembled an invasion force, the Arme d'Angleterre, around six camps at Boulogne in Northern France. He intended to use thisinvasion force to strike at England. Although they never invaded, Napoleon's troops received careful and invaluable training for future military operations.[90] The men at Boulogne formedthe core for what Napoleon would later call La Grande Arme. At the start, this French army had about 200,000 men organized into seven corps, which were large field units that contained36 to 40 cannons each and were capable of independent action until other corps could come to the rescue.[91] A single corps, properly situated in a strong defensive position, could survive atleast a day without support, giving the Grande Arme countless strategic and tactical options on every campaign. On top of these forces, Napoleon created a cavalry reserve of 22,000organized into two cuirassier divisions, four mounted dragoon divisions, one division of dismounted dragoons and one of light cavalry, all supported by 24 artillery pieces.[92] By 1805, theGrande Arme had grown to a force of 350,000 men,[92] who were well equipped, well trained, and led by competent officers.

Napoleon knew the French fleet could not defeat the Royal Navy in a head-to-head battle, so he planned to lure it away from the English Channel through diversionary tactics.[93] The main strategic idea involved the French Navyescaping from the British blockades of Toulon and Brest and threatening to attack the West Indies. In the face of this attack, it was hoped, the British would weaken their defense of the Western Approaches by sending ships to theCaribbean, allowing a combined Franco-Spanish fleet to take control of the channel long enough for French armies to cross and invade.[93] However, the plan unraveled after the British victory at the Battle of Cape Finisterre inJuly 1805. French Admiral Villeneuve then retreated to Cdiz instead of linking up with French naval forces at Brest for an attack on the English Channel.[94]


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Napoleon and the Grande Arme

receive the surrender of Austrian

General Mack after the Battle of Ulm

in October 1805. The decisive finale

of the Ulm Campaign raised the tally

of captured Austrian soldiers to

60,000. With the Austrian army

destroyed, Vienna would fall to the

French in November.

Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, by Franois

Grard 1805. The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as

the Battle of the Three Emperors, was Napoleon's

greatest victory, where the French Empire effectively

crushed the Third Coalition.

Persian Envoy Reza-Qazvini meets

with Napoleon at Finckenstein Palace

in 1807.

By August 1805, Napoleon had realized that the strategic situation had changed fundamentally. Facing a potential invasion from his continental enemies, he decided to strike first and turnedhis army's sights from the English Channel to the Rhine. His basic objective was to destroy the isolated Austrian armies in Southern Germany before their Russian allies could arrive. OnSeptember 25, after great secrecy and feverish marching, 200,000 French troops began to cross the Rhine on a front of 260 km (160 mi).[95][96] Karl Mack, the Austrian commander, hadgathered the greater part of the Austrian army at the fortress of Ulm in Swabia. Napoleon swung his forces to the southeast and the Grande Arme performed an elaborate wheelingmovement that outflanked the Austrians positions. The Ulm Maneuver completely surprised General Mack, who belatedly understood that his army had been cut off. After some minorengagements that culminated in the Battle of Ulm, Mack finally surrendered after realizing there was no way to break out of the French encirclement. For just 2,000 French casualties,Napoleon had managed to capture a total of 60,000 Austrian soldiers through his army's rapid marching.[97] The Ulm Campaign is generally regarded as a strategic masterpiece and wasinfluential in the development of the Schlieffen Plan in the late 19th century.[98] For the French, this spectacular victory on land was soured by the decisive victory the Royal Navy attainedat the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21. After Trafalgar, Britain had total domination of the seas for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars.

Following the Ulm Campaign, French forces managed to capture Vienna in November. The fall of Vienna provided the French a huge bounty as they captured 100,000 muskets, 500 cannons,and the intact bridges across the Danube.[99] At this critical juncture, both Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II decided to engage Napoleon in battle, despite reservationsfrom some of their subordinates. Napoleon sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies, but then ordered his forces to retreat so he could feign a grave weakness. Desperate to lure the Alliesinto battle, Napoleon gave every indication in the days preceding the engagement that the French army was in a pitiful state, even abandoning the dominant Pratzen Heights near the villageof Austerlitz. At the Battle of Austerlitz, on December 2, he deployed the French army below the Pratzen Heights and deliberately weakened his right flank, enticing the Allies to launch amajor assault there in the hopes of rolling up the whole French line. A forced march from Vienna by Marshal Davout and his III Corps plugged the gap left by Napoleon just in time.Meanwhile, the heavy Allied deployment against the French right weakened their center on the Pratzen Heights, which was viciously attacked by the IV Corps of Marshal Soult. With theAllied center demolished, the French swept through both enemy flanks and sent the Allies fleeing chaotically, capturing thousands of prisoners in the process. Because of the near-perfectexecution of a calibrated but dangerous plan, the battle is often seen as a tactical masterpiece of the same stature as Cannae, the celebrated triumph by Hannibal some 2,000years before.[100]

The Allied disaster at Austerlitz significantly shook the faith of Emperor Francis in the British-led war effort. France and Austria agreed to an armistice immediately and theTreaty of Pressburg followed shortly after, on December 26. Pressburg took Austria out of both the war and the Coalition while reinforcing the earlier treaties of Campo Formioand of Lunville between the two powers. The treaty confirmed the Austrian loss of lands in Italy and Bavaria to France, and in Germany to Napoleon's German allies. It alsoimposed an indemnity of 40 million francs on the defeated Habsburgs and allowed the fleeing Russian troops free passage through hostile territories and back to their home soil.Napoleon would go on to say, "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought."[101] Frank McLynn suggests Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz he lost touch withreality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one".[102] Vincent Cronin disagrees, stating Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself,that "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".[103]

Middle-Eastern alliances

Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East after the Egyptian campaign.[52] An alliance with Middle Eastern powerswould have the strategic advantage of pressuring Russia on its southern border. From 1803, Napoleon went to considerable lengths to try to convince the Ottoman Empire tofight against Russia in the Balkans and to join his anti-Russian coalition.[104] Napoleon sent General Horace Sebastiani as an envoy to Istanbul, promising to help the Ottoman Empire recoverlost territories.[104] In February 1806, following Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz and the ensuing dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Emperor Selim III finally recognizedNapoleon as Emperor. He also opted for an alliance with France, calling the latter "our sincere and natural ally."[105] The decision to ally with France brought the Ottoman Empire into thewar against Russia and Britain. A Franco-Persian alliance was also formed between Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. The alliance ended after the Treaties of Tilsitin 1807, when France and Russia themselves formed an unexpected alliance.[52] This new arrangement rendered void the previous diplomatic agreements that France had reached with thepowers of the Middle East.

War of the Fourth Coalition and Tilsit

After Austerlitz, Napoleon established the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. A collection of German states intended to serve as a buffer zone between France and Central Europe, thecreation of the Confederation spelled the end of the Holy Roman Empire and significantly alarmed the Prussians. The brazen reorganization of German territory by the French riskedthreatening Prussian influence in the region, if not eliminating it outright. War fever in Berlin rose steadily throughout the summer of 1806. At the insistence of his court, especially his wifeQueen Louise, Frederick III decided to challenge the French domination of Central Europe by going to war.

The initial military maneuvers began in September 1806. In a notable letter to Marshal Soult detailing the plan for the campaign, Napoleon described the essential features of Napoleonic warfare and introduced the phrase lebataillon-carr ('square battalion').[106] In the bataillon-carr system, the various corps of the Grande Arme would march uniformly together in close supporting distance.[106] If any single corps was attacked, the others couldquickly spring into action and arrive to help. Napoleon invaded Prussia with 180,000 troops, rapidly marching on the right bank of the River Saale. As in previous campaigns, his fundamental objective was to destroy one opponent


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Napoleon reviews the Imperial Guard

before the Battle of Jena.

The Treaties of Tilsit: Napoleon

meeting with Alexander I of Russia on

a raft in the middle of the Neman River

before reinforcements from another could tip the balance of the war. Upon learning the whereabouts of the Prussian army, the French swung westwards and crossed the Saale withoverwhelming force. At the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, fought on October 14, the French convincingly defeated the Prussians and inflicted heavy casualties. With several majorcommanders dead or incapacitated, the Prussian king proved incapable of effectively commanding the army, which began to quickly disintegrate. In a vaunted pursuit that epitomized the"peak of Napoleonic warfare," according to historian Richard Brooks,[107] the French managed to capture 140,000 soldiers, over 2,000 cannons and hundreds of ammunition wagons, all in asingle month. Historian David Chandler wrote of the Prussian forces: "Never has the morale of any army been more completely shattered."[108] Despite their overwhelming defeat, thePrussians refused to negotiate with the French until the Russians had an opportunity to enter the fight.

Following his triumph, Napoleon imposed the first elements of the Continental System through the Berlin Decree issued in November 1806. TheContinental System, which prohibited European nations from trading with Britain, was widely violated throughout his reign.[109][110] In the next fewmonths, Napoleon marched against the advancing Russian armies through Poland and was involved in the bloody stalemate at the Battle of Eylau inFebruary 1807.[111] After a period of rest and consolidation on both sides, the war restarted in June with an initial struggle at Heilsberg that provedindecisive. On June 14, however, Napoleon finally obtained an overwhelming victory over the Russians at the Battle of Friedland, wiping out themajority of the Russian army in a very bloody struggle. The scale of their defeat convinced the Russians to make peace with the French. On June 19,Czar Alexander sent an envoy to seek an armistice with Napoleon. The latter assured the envoy that the Vistula River represented the natural bordersbetween French and Russian influence in Europe. On that basis, the two emperors began peace negotiations at the town of Tilsit after meeting on an iconic raft on the River Niemen. Thevery first thing Alexander said to Napoleon was probably well-calibrated: "I hate the English as much as you do."[7]

Alexander faced pressure from his brother, Duke Constantine, to make peace with Napoleon. Given the victory he had just achieved, the French emperor offered the Russians relativelylenient termsdemanding that Russia join the Continental System, withdraw its forces from Wallachia and Moldavia, and hand over the Ionian Islands to France.[7] By contrast, Napoleondictated very harsh peace terms for Prussia, despite the ceaseless exhortations of Queen Louise. Wiping out half of Prussian territories from the map, Napoleon created a new kingdom of1,100 square miles called Westphalia. He then appointed his young brother Jrme as the new monarch of this kingdom. Prussia's humiliating treatment at Tilsit caused a deep and bitter

antagonism which festered as the Napoleonic Era progressed. Moreover, Alexander's pretensions at friendship with Napoleon led the latter to seriously misjudge the true intentions of his Russian counterpart, who would violatenumerous provisions of the treaty in the next few years. Despite these problems, the Treaties of Tilsit at last gave Napoleon a respite from war and allowed him to return to France, which he had not seen in over 300 days.[7]

Peninsular War and Erfurt

The settlements at Tilsit gave Napoleon time to organize his empire. One of his major objectives became enforcing the Continental System against the British. He decided to focus his attention on the Kingdom of Portugal, whichconsistently violated his trade prohibitions. After defeat in the War of the Oranges in 1801, Portugal adopted a double-sided policy. At first, John VI signed the Treaty of Badajoz with France and Spain by which he agreed to closehis ports to British trade. However, John also refused to breach the Treaty of Windsor with Portugal's oldest ally, so he allowed for trade to continue and maintained secret diplomatic relations with the British. The situationchanged dramatically after the Franco-Spanish defeat at Trafalgar; John grew bolder and officially resumed diplomatic and trade relations with Britain.

Unhappy with this change of policy by the Portuguese government, Napoleon sent an army to invade Portugal. On 17 October 1807, 24,000 French troops under General Junot crossed the Pyrenees with Spanish cooperation andheaded towards Portugal to enforce Napoleon's orders.[112] This attack was the first step in what would eventually become the Peninsular War, a six-year struggle that significantly sapped French strength. Throughout the winter of1808, French agents became increasingly involved in Spanish internal affairs, attempting to incite discord between members of the Spanish royal family. On 16 February 1808, secret French machinations finally materialized whenNapoleon announced that he would intervene to mediate between the rival political factions in the country.[113] Marshal Murat led 120,000 troops into Spain and the French arrived in Madrid on 24 March,[114] where wild riotsagainst the occupation erupted just a few weeks later. Napoleon appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new King of Spain in the summer of 1808. The appointment enraged a heavily religious and conservative Spanishpopulation. Resistance to French aggression soon spread throughout the country. The shocking French defeat at the Battle of Bailn in July gave hope to Napoleon's enemies and partly persuaded the French emperor to intervenein person.

Before going to Iberia, Napoleon decided to address several lingering issues with the Russians. At the Congress of Erfurt in October 1808, Napoleon hoped to keep Russia on his side during the upcoming struggle in Spain andduring any potential conflict against Austria. The two sides reached an agreement, the Erfurt Convention, that called upon Britain to cease its war against France, that recognized the Russian conquest of Finland from Sweden, andthat affirmed Russian support for France in a possible war against Austria "to the best of its ability."[115] Napoleon then returned to France and prepared for war. The Grande Arme, under the Emperor's personal command,rapidly crossed the Ebro River in November 1808 and inflicted a series of crushing defeats against the Spanish forces. After clearing the last Spanish force guarding the capital at Somosierra, Napoleon entered Madrid onDecember 4 with 80,000 troops.[116] He then unleashed his soldiers against Moore and the British forces. The British were swiftly driven to the coast, and they withdrew from Spain entirely after a last stand at the Battle ofCorunna in January 1809.

Napoleon would end up leaving Iberia in order to deal with the Austrians in Central Europe, but the Peninsular War continued on long after his absence. He never returned to Spain after the 1808 campaign. Several months afterCorunna, the British sent another army to the peninsula under the future Duke of Wellington. The war then settled into a complex and asymmetric strategic deadlock where all sides struggled to gain the upper hand. The highlightof the conflict became the brutal guerrilla warfare that engulfed much of the Spanish countryside. Both sides committed the worst atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars during this phase of the conflict. The vicious guerrilla fightingin Spain, largely absent from the French campaigns in Central Europe, severely disrupted the French lines of supply and communication. Although France maintained roughly 300,000 troops in Iberia during the Peninsular War, thevast majority were tied down to garrison duty and to intelligence operations.[117] The French were never able to concentrate all of their forces effectively, prolonging the war until events elsewhere in Europe finally turned the tide


9 of 27 2/26/2015 10:00 AM

Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother,

as King of Spain

Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram,

painted by Horace Vernet.

in favor of the Allies. After the invasion of Russia in 1812, the number of French troops in Spain vastly declined as Napoleon needed reinforcements to conserve his strategic position inEurope. By 1814, after scores of battles and sieges throughout Iberia, the Allies had managed to push the French out of the peninsula.

War of the Fifth Coalition and Marie Louise

After four years on the sidelines, Austria sought another war with France to avenge its recent defeats. Austria could not count on Russian support because the latter was at war with Britain,Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire in 1809. Frederick William of Prussia initially promised to help the Austrians, but reneged before conflict began.[118] A report from the Austrian financeminister suggested that the treasury would run out of money by the middle of 1809 if the large army that the Austrians had formed since the Third Coalition remained mobilized.[118]

Although Archduke Charles warned that the Austrians were not ready for another showdown with Napoleon, a stance that landed him in the so-called "peace party," he did not want to seethe army demobilized either.[118] On 8 February 1809, the advocates for war finally succeeded when the Imperial Government secretly decided on another confrontation against the French.

In the early morning of 10 April, leading elements of the Austrian army crossed the Inn River and invaded Bavaria. The early Austrian attack surprised the French; Napoleon himself was stillin Paris when he heard about the invasion. He arrived at Donauwrth on the 17th to find the Grande Arme in a dangerous position, with its two wings separated by 75 miles (121 km) andjoined together by a thin cordon of Bavarian troops. Charles pressed the left wing of the French army and hurled his men towards the III Corps of Marshal Davout. In response, Napoleoncame up with a plan to cut off the Austrians in the celebrated Landshut Maneuver.[119] He realigned the axis of his army and marched his soldiers towards the town of Eckmhl. The Frenchscored a convincing win in the resulting Battle of Eckmhl, forcing Charles to withdraw his forces over the Danube and into Bohemia. On 13 May, Vienna fell for the second time in fouryears, although the war continued since most of the Austrian army had survived the initial engagements in Southern Germany.

By 17 May, the main Austrian army under Charles had arrived on the Marchfeld. Charles kept the bulk of his troops several miles away from the river bank in hopes of concentrating them atthe point where Napoleon decided to cross. On 21 May, the French made their first major effort to cross the Danube, precipitating the Battle of Aspern-Essling. The Austrians enjoyed acomfortable numerical superiority over the French throughout the battle; on the first day, Charles disposed of 110,000 soldiers against only 31,000 commanded by Napoleon.[120] By thesecond day, reinforcements had boosted French numbers up to 70,000.[121] The battle was characterized by a vicious back-and-forth struggle for the two villages of Aspern and Essling, thefocal points of the French bridgehead. By the end of the fighting, the French had lost Aspern but still controlled Essling. A sustained Austrian artillery bombardment eventually convincedNapoleon to withdraw his forces back onto Lobau Island. Both sides inflicted about 23,000 casualties on each other.[122] It was the first defeat Napoleon suffered in a major set-piece battle,and it caused excitement throughout many parts of Europe because it proved that he could be beaten on the battlefield.[123]

After the setback at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon took more than six weeks in planning and preparing for contingencies before he made another attempt at crossing the Danube.[124] From 30June to the early days of July, the French recrossed the Danube in strength, with more than 180,000 troops marching across the Marchfeld towards the Austrians.[124] Charles received theFrench with 150,000 of his own men.[125] In the ensuing Battle of Wagram, which also lasted two days, Napoleon commanded his forces in what was the largest battle of his career up untilthen. Neither side made much progress on 5 July, but the 6th produced a definitive outcome. Both sides launched major assaults on their flanks. Austrian attacks against the French left winglooked dangerous initially, but they were all beaten back. Meanwhile, a steady French attack against the Austrian left wing eventually compromised the entire position for Charles. Napoleonfinished off the battle with a concentrated central thrust that punctured a hole in the Austrian army and forced Charles to retreat. Austrian losses were very heavy, reaching well over 40,000casualties.[126] The French were too exhausted to pursue the Austrians immediately, but Napoleon eventually caught up with Charles at Znaim and the latter signed an armistice on 12 July.

In the Kingdom of Holland, the British launched the Walcheren Campaign to open up a second front in the war and to relieve the pressure on the Austrians. The British army only landed at Walcheren on 30 July, by which pointthe Austrians had already been defeated. The Walcheren Campaign was characterized by little fighting but heavy casualties thanks to the popularly dubbed "Walcheren Fever." Over 4,000 British troops were lost in a bungledcampaign, and the rest withdrew in December 1809.[127] The main strategic result from the campaign became the delayed political settlement between the French and the Austrians. Emperor Francis wanted to wait and see howthe British performed in their theater before entering into negotiations with Napoleon. Once it became apparent that the British were going nowhere, the Austrians agreed to peace talks.

The resulting Treaty of Schnbrunn in October 1809 was the harshest that France had imposed on Austria in recent memory. Metternich and Archduke Charles had the preservation of the Habsburg Empire as their fundamentalgoal, and to this end they succeeded by making Napoleon seek more modest goals in return for promises of friendship between the two powers.[128] Nevertheless, while most of the hereditary lands remained a part of the Habsburgrealm, France received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports, while Galicia was given to the Poles and the Salzburg area of the Tyrol went to the Bavarians.[128] Austria lost over three million subjects, about one-fifth of hertotal population, as a result of these territorial changes.[129] Although fighting in Iberia continued, the War of the Fifth Coalition would be the last major conflict on the European continent for the next three years.

Napoleon turned his focus to domestic affairs after the war. Empress Josphine had still not given birth to a child from Napoleon, who became worried about the future of his empire following his death. Desperate for a legitimateheir, Napoleon divorced Josphine in January 1810 and started looking for a new wife. Hoping to cement the recent alliance with Austria through a family connection, Napoleon married the Archduchess Marie Louise, who was18 years old at the time. On 20 March 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to a baby boy, whom Napoleon made heir apparent and bestowed the title of King of Rome. His son never actually ruled the empire, but historians still refer tohim as Napoleon II.

Invasion of Russia


10 of 27 2/26/2015 10:00 AM

First French Empire at its greatest

extent in 1811

French Empire

French satellite states

Allied states

The Moscow fire depicted by an

unknown German artist

Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia,

a painting by Adolph Northen

The Congress of Erfurt sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, and the leaders had a friendly personal relationship after their first meeting atTilsit in 1807.[130] By 1811, however, tensions had increased and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the alliance. Anearly sign the relationship had deteriorated was the Russian's virtual abandonment of the Continental System, which led Napoleon to threatenAlexander with serious consequences if he formed an alliance with Britain.[131]

By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. On receipt of intelligencereports on Russia's war preparations, Napoleon expanded his Grande Arme to more than 450,000 men.[132] He ignored repeated advice against aninvasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 23 June 1812 the invasion commenced.[133]

In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon termed the war the Second Polish Warthe First Polish Warhad been the Bar Confederation uprising by Polish nobles against Russia in 1768. Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of Poland to be joined withthe Duchy of Warsaw and an independent Poland created. This was rejected by Napoleon, who stated he had promised his ally Austria this would nothappen. Napoleon refused to manumit the Russian serfs because of concerns this might provoke a reaction in his army's rear. The serfs latercommitted atrocities against French soldiers during France's retreat.[134]

The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia. A brief attempt at resistance was madeat Smolensk in August; the Russians were defeated in a series of battles, and Napoleon resumed his advance. The Russians again avoided battle,although in a few cases this was only achieved because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity arose. Owing to theRussian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their horses.[135]

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, andmay have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time.[136] Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted, and withstood, the major battle Napoleon hadhoped would be decisive. Napoleon's own account was: "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but theRussians showed themselves worthy of being invincible."[137]

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. However, on orders of thecity's governor Feodor Rostopchin, rather than capitulation, Moscow was burned. After five weeks, Napoleon and his army left. Early November Napoleon got concerned about loss of control back in France after the Malet coupof 1812. His army walked through the snow up till their knees and nearly 10,000 men and horses froze to death on the night of November 8/9 alone. After Battle of Berezina Napoleon succeeded to escape but had to abandonmuch of the remaining artillery and baggage train. On 5 December, shortly before arriving in Vilnius, Napoleon left the army in a sledge.[138]

The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat, including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Arme had begun as over 400,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the BerezinaRiver in November 1812.[139] The Russians had lost 150,000 in battle and hundreds of thousands of civilians.[140]

War of the Sixth Coalition

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 181213 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was then able to field 350,000 troops.[141] Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined withAustria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.[142]

Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far the largest battle of the NapoleonicWars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total.[143]

The Allies offered peace terms in the Frankfurt proposals in November 1813. Napoleon would remain as Emperor of France, but it would be reduced to its "natural frontiers." That meant that France could retain control ofBelgium, Savoy and the Rhineland (the west bank of the Rhine River), while giving up control of all the rest, including all of Spain and the Netherlands, and most of Italy and Germany. Metternich told Napoleon these were thebest terms the Allies were likely to offer; after further victories, the terms would be harsher and harsher. Metternich's motivation was to maintain France as a balance against Russian threats, while ending the highly destabilizingseries of wars.[144]

Napoleon, expecting to win the war, delayed too long and lost this opportunity; by December the Allies had withdrawn the offer. When his back was to the wall in 1814 he tried to reopen peace negotiations on the basis ofaccepting the Frankfurt proposals. The Allies now had new, harsher terms that included the retreat of France to its 1791 boundaries, which meant the loss of Belgium. Napoleon would remain Emperor, however he rejected theterm. The British wanted Napoleon permanently removed; they prevailed. Napoleon adamantly refused.[144][145]

Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers, and little cavalry; he faced more than three times as many Allied troops.[146] The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and


11 of 27 2/26/2015 10:00 AM

Adieux de Napolon la Garde

impriale dans la cour du

Cheval-Blanc du chteau de

Fontainebleau [Napoleon's farewell

to the Imperial Guard in the White

Horse courtyard of the Palace of

Fontainebleau] on 20 April 1814; by

Antoine Alphonse Montfort, Palace of

Versailles national museum

British etching from 1814 in

celebration of Napoleon's first exile to

Elba at the close of the War of the

Sixth Coalition

Napoleon returned from Elba, by Karl

Stenben, 19th century

other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days' Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide.The leaders of Paris surrendered to the Coalition in March 1814.[147]

On 1 April, Alexander addressed Snat conservateur which had previously been docile to Napoleon but under Talleyrand's prodding had turned against him. Alexander told the Snat that theAllies were fighting against Napoleon, not France, and they were prepared to offer honorable peace terms if Napoleon were removed from power. The next day, the Snat passed the Acte dedchance de l'Empereur ("Emperor's Demise Act"), which declared Napoleon deposed. Napoleon had advanced as far as Fontainebleau when he learned that Paris was lost. WhenNapoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his marshals decided to mutiny.[148] On 4 April, led by Ney, they confronted Napoleon. Napoleon asserted the army would follow him, andNey replied the army would follow its generals. While the ordinary soldiers and regimental officers wanted to fight on, without any senior officers or marshals any prospective invasion ofParis would have been impossible. Bowing to the inevitable, on 4 April Napoleon abdicated in favour of his son, with Marie-Louise as regent. However, the Allies refused to accept thisunder prodding from Alexander, who feared that Napoleon might find an excuse to retake the throne.[149] Napoleon was then forced to announce his unconditional abdication only two dayslater.

Exile to Elba

The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that herenounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is not ready to do in the interests ofFrance.Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814.

Act of abdication of Napoleon[150]

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km (12 mi) off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over theisland and allowed him to retain his title of emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried since a near-capture by Russians on the retreat from Moscow. Its potency hadweakened with age, and he survived to be exiled while his wife and son took refuge in Austria.[151] In the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army, developed the ironmines, and issued decrees on modern agricultural methods.[152]

Hundred Days

Separated from his wife and son, who had returned to Austria, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to bebanished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean,[153] Napoleon escaped from Elba in the ship Swiftsure on 26 February 1815.[153][154] He landed at Golfe-Juan on the French mainland, twodays later.[153]

The 5th Regiment was sent to intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he waswithin gunshot range, shouted, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish."[155]

The soldiers responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris; Louis XVIII fled. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw,and four days later Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia bound themselves to each put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.[156]

Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days. By the start of June the armed forces available to him had reached 200,000, and he decidedto go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies. The French Army of the North crossed the frontier into the United Kingdom of theNetherlands, in modern-day Belgium.[157]

Napoleon's forces fought the allies, led by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blcher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. Wellington's army withstood repeatedattacks by the French and drove them from the field while the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank.

Napoleon returned to Paris and found that both the legislature and the people had turned violently on him. Realizing his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son.He left Paris three days later and settled at Josephine's former home in Malmaison. Coalition forces swept into France soon afterward, intent on restoring Louis XVIII to the French throne.

When Napoleon got word that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to Rochefort, considering an escape to the United States. However, British ships were blocking every port. Finally, Napoleondemanded asylum from the British Captain Frederick Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.[158]


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Napoleon on Saint Helena

Longwood House, Saint Helena: site

of Napoleon's captivity

Napoleon's funeral carriage passes

along the Champs-lyses, engraving

by Louis-Julien Jacottet after a

drawing by Louis Marchand

Exile on Saint Helena

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,870 km (1,162 mi) from the west coast of Africa. In his first two months there, he lived in apavilion on the Briars estate, which belonged to a William Balcombe. Napoleon became friendly with his family, especially his younger daughter Lucia Elizabeth, who later wroteRecollections of the Emperor Napoleon.[159] This friendship ended in 1818 when British authorities became suspicious that Balcombe had acted as an intermediary between Napoleon andParis and dismissed him from the island.[160]

Napoleon moved to Longwood House in December 1815; it had fallen into disrepair, and the location was damp, windswept and unhealthy. The Times published articles insinuating theBritish government was trying to hasten his death, and he often complained of the living conditions in letters to the governor and his custodian, Hudson Lowe.[161]

With a small cadre of followers, Napoleon dictated his memoirs and criticised his captorsparticularly Lowe. Lowe's treatment of Napoleon is regarded as poor by historians such as FrankMcLynn.[162] Lowe exacerbated a difficult situation through measures including a reduction in Napoleon's expenditure, a rule that no gifts could be delivered to him if they mentioned hisimperial status, and a document his supporters had to sign that guaranteed they would stay with the prisoner indefinitely.[162]

In 1818, The Times reported a false rumour of Napoleon's escape and said the news had been greeted by spontaneous illuminations in London.[note 6] There was sympathy for him in theBritish Parliament: Lord Holland gave a speech that demanded the prisoner be treated with no unnecessary harshness.[164] Napoleon kept himself informed of the events through The Timesand hoped for release in the event that Holland became prime minister. He also enjoyed the support of Lord Cochrane, who was involved in Chile's and Brazil's struggle for independence,and wanted to rescue Napoleon and help him set up a new empire in South America, a scheme frustrated by Napoleon's death in 1821.[165]

There were other plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity, including one from Texas, where exiled soldiers from the Grande Arme wanted a resurrection of the Napoleonic Empire inAmerica. There was even a plan to rescue him with a primitive submarine.[166] For Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely, and flawed genius.The news that Napoleon had taken up gardening at Longwood also appealed to more domestic British sensibilities.[167]

Death

His personal physician, Barry O'Meara, warned the authorities of his declining state of health mainly caused, according to him, by the harsh treatment of the captive in the hands of his"gaoler", Lowe, which led Napoleon to confine himself for months in his damp and wretched habitation of Longwood. O'Meara kept a clandestine correspondence with a clerk at theAdmiralty in London, knowing his letters were read by higher authorities: he hoped, in such way, to raise alarm in the government, but to no avail. [168]

In February 1821, Napoleon's health began to deteriorate rapidly, and on 3 May two British physicians, who had recently arrived, attended on him but could only recommend palliatives.[169]

He died two days later, after confession, Extreme Unction and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali.[169] His last words were, "France, l'arme, tte d'arme, Josphine." ("France,army, head of the army, Josphine.")[169]

Napoleon's original death mask was created around 6 May, although it is not clear which doctor created it.[170][note 7] In his will, he had asked to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but theBritish governor said he should be buried on Saint Helena, in the Valley of the Willows. Hudson Lowe insisted the inscription should read "Napoleon Bonaparte"; Montholon and Bertrandwanted the Imperial title "Napoleon" as royalty were signed by their first names only. As a result the tomb was left nameless.[169]

In 1840, Louis Philippe I obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon's remains to France. The remains were transported aboard the frigate Belle-Poule, which had been paintedblack for the occasion, and on 29 November she arrived in Cherbourg. The remains were transferred to the steamship Normandie, which transported them to Le Havre, up the Seine toRouen and on to Paris.[172]

On 15 December, a state funeral was held. The hearse proceeded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-lyses, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then to the cupola in St Jrme's Chapel,where it remained until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti was completed. In 1861, Napoleon's remains were entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.[172]

Cause of death

The cause of his death has been debated. Napoleon's physician, Franois Carlo Antommarchi, led the autopsy, which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer. Antommarchi did not, however, sign the official report.[173]

Napoleon's father had died of stomach cancer, although this was seemingly unknown at the time of the autopsy.[174] Antommarchi found evidence of a stomach ulcer; this was the most convenient explanation for the British, whowanted to avoid criticism over their care of Napoleon.[169]


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Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides

Napolon sur son lit de mort

(Napoleon on his death bed), by

Horace Vernet, 1826

Reorganisation of the religious

geography: France is divided into 59

dioceses and 10 ecclesiastical

provinces.

In 1955, the diaries of Napoleon's valet, Louis Marchand, were published. His description of Napoleon in the months before his death led StenForshufvud in a 1961 paper in Nature to put forward other causes for his death, including deliberate arsenic poisoning.[175] Arsenic was used as apoison during the era because it was undetectable when administered over a long period. Forshufvud, in a 1978 book with Ben Weider, noted thatNapoleon's body was found to be remarkably well preserved when moved in 1840. Arsenic is a strong preservative, and therefore this supported thepoisoning hypothesis. Forshufvud and Weider observed that Napoleon had attempted to quench abnormal thirst by drinking large amounts of orgeatsyrup that contained cyanide compounds in the almonds used for flavouring.[175]

They maintained that the potassium tartrate used in his treatment prevented his stomach from expelling these compounds and that his thirst was asymptom of the poison. Their hypothesis was that the calomel given to Napoleon became an overdose, which killed him and left extensive tissuedamage behind.[175] According to a 2007 article, the type of arsenic found in Napoleon's hair shafts was mineral, the most toxic, and according totoxicologist Patrick Kintz, this supported the conclusion that he was murdered.[176]

There have been modern studies that have supported the original autopsy finding.[176] In a 2008 study, researchers analysed samples of Napoleon's hair from throughout his life, as well assamples from his family and other contemporaries. All samples had high levels of arsenic, approximately 100 times higher than the current average. According to these researchers,Napoleon's body was already heavily contaminated with arsenic as a boy, and the high arsenic concentration in his hair was not caused by intentional poisoning; people were constantlyexposed to arsenic from glues and dyes throughout their lives.[note 8] Studies published in 2007 and 2008 dismissed evidence of arsenic poisoning, and confirmed evidence of peptic ulcer and

gastric cancer as the cause of death.[178]

Religions

Napoleon's baptism took place in Ajaccio on 21 July 1771; he was piously raised and received a Christian education; however, his teachers failed to give faith to the young boy.[179] As anadult, Napoleon was described as a "deist with involuntary respect and fondness for Catholicism."[180] He never believed in a living God; Napoleon's deity was an absent and distant God,[179]

but he pragmatically considered organised religions as key elements of social order,[179] and especially Catholicism, whose, according to him, "splendorous ceremonies and sublime moralbetter act over the imagination of the people than other religions".[179]

Napoleon had a civil marriage with Josphine de Beauharnais, without religious ceremony, on 9 March 1796. During the campaign in Egypt, Napoleon showed much tolerance towardsreligion for a revolutionary general, holding discussions with Muslim scholars and ordering religious celebrations, but General Dupuy, who accompanied Napoleon, revealed, shortly afterPope Pius VI's death, the political reasons for such behaviour: "We are fooling Egyptians with our pretended interest for their religion; neither Bonaparte nor we believe in this religion morethan we did in Pius the Defunct's one".[note 9] In his memoirs, Bonaparte's secretary Bourienne wrote about Napoleon's religious interests in the same vein.[182] His religious opportunism isepitomized in his famous quote: "It is by making myself Catholic that I brought peace to Brittany and Vende. It is by making myself Italian that I won minds in Italy. It is by making myself aMoslem that I established myself in Egypt. If I governed a nation of Jews, I should reestablish the Temple of Solomon."[183] However, according to Juan Cole, "Bonaparte's admiration for theProphet Muhammad, in contrast, was genuine"[184] and during his captivity on St Helena he defended him against Voltaire's critical play Mahomet.

Napoleon was crowned Emperor Napoleon I on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris by Pope Pius VII. On 1 April 1810, Napoleon religiously married the Austrian princess MarieLouise. During his brother's rule in Spain, he abolished the Spanish Inquisition in 1813. In a private discussion with general Gourgaud during his exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon expressedmaterialistic views on the origin of man,[note 10]and doubted the divinity of Jesus, stating that it is absurd to believe that Socrates, Plato, Muslims, and the Anglicans should be damned for notbeing Roman Catholics.[note 11] He also said to Gourgaud in 1817 "I like the Mohammedan religion best. It has fewer incredible things in it than ours."[187] and that "the Mohammedanreligion is the finest of all".[188] However, Napoleon was anointed by a priest before his death.[189]

Concordat

Seeking national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics, the Concordat of 1801 was signed on 15 July 1801 between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church ofFrance and brought back most of its civil status. The hostility of devout Catholics against the state had now largely been resolved. It did not restore the vast church lands and endowments that had been seized during the revolutionand sold off. As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles.[190][191]

While the Concordat restored much power to the papacy, the balance of church-state relations had tilted firmly in Napoleon's favour. He selected the bishops and supervised church finances. Napoleon and the pope both found theConcordat useful. Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by Napoleon, especially Italy and Germany.[192] Now, Napoleon could win favor with the Catholics while also controlling Rome in apolitical sense. Napoleon said in April 1801, "Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests. They can both contain them and use them." French children were issued a catechism that taught them to love and respectNapoleon.[193]


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Leaders of the Catholic Church taking

the civil oath required by the

Concordat

Napoleon visiting the Palais Royal for

the opening of the 8th session of the

Tribunat in 1807, by Merry-Joseph

Blondel

Religious emancipation

Napoleon emancipated Jews, as well as Protestants in Catholic countries and Catholics in Protestant countries, from laws which restricted them to ghettos, and he expanded their rights toproperty, worship, and careers. Despite the anti-semitic reaction to Napoleon's policies from foreign governments and within France, he believed emancipation would benefit France byattracting Jews to the country given the restrictions they faced elsewhere.[194]

He stated, "I will never accept any proposals that will obligate the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weaknessto chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to assimilate them."[195] He was seen as so favourable to the Jews that the Russian Orthodox Church formally condemned him as"Antichrist and the Enemy of God".[196]

Personality

Historians agree that Napoleon's remarkable personality was one key to his influence. They emphasize the strength of his ambition that took him from an obscure village to command of mostof Europe.[197] George F. E. Rud stresses his "rare combination of will, intellect and physical vigour."[198] At 5'6" (170 cm),[199] he was not physically imposing but in one-on-one situationshe typically had a hypnotic impact on people and seemingly bent the strongest leaders to his will.[200] He understood military technology, but was not an innovator in that regard.[201] He wasan innovator in using the financial, bureaucratic, and diplomatic resources of France. He could rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to his subordinates, keeping in mind wheremajor units were expected to be at each future point, and like a chess master, "seeing" the best plays moves ahead.[202]

Napoleon maintained strict, efficient work habits, prioritizing what needed to be done. He cheated at cards, but repaid the losses; he had to win at everything he attempte

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