The royalist conspiracies were made use of by Bonaparte to establish
an hereditary monarchy. At the instigation of his adherents, the
making over the hereditary dignity of emperor to Napoleon was proposed
to the Tribunat, sanctioned by the Senate, and confirmed by the whole
people by the subscription of their names. Whilst the minds of men
were still painfully excited by the late bloody executions, Napoleon
was proclaimed emperor of the French, and at the end of the year,
solemnly anointed by the pope in the church of Nôtre Dame. The crown,
however, he placed on his own head, as well as on that of his wife,
Josephine, who knelt before him. This magnificent coronation appeared
to be the conclusion of the Revolution, since the whole ancient
system, for the extinction of which thousands of human lives had been
sacrificed, gradually returned. The new emperor surrounded his throne
with a brilliant court, in which the former titles, orders, and
gradations of rank were revived under different names. He himself
certainly retained his old military simplicity, but the members of his
family were made princes and princesses; his generals became marshals;
the devoted servants and promoters of his plans were connected with
the throne as the great officers of the crown, or as senators with
large incomes. The establishment of a new feudal nobility, with the
old titles of princes, dukes, counts, barons, completed the splendid
edifice of a magnificent imperial court.
The great ends attained by the Revolution――equality before the law,
the peasants’ right of property in the soil and other possessions,
remained untouched. Industry made great progress, civil arts and
trades received a vast impulse; and an unaccustomed prosperity made
itself everywhere visible. Magnificent roads, like those over the
Alps, canals, bridges, and improvements of all kinds, are, to the
present day, eloquent memorials of the restless activity of this
remarkable man. Splendid palaces, majestic bridges, and noble streets,
arose in Paris, every thing great or magnificent that art had produced
was united in the Louvre; the capital of France glittered with a
splendor that had never before been witnessed. The university was
arranged upon a most magnificent footing, and appointed the supreme
court of supervision and control over the whole system of schools and
education.
Whilst the attention of all Europe was directed to the western coast
of France, where Napoleon was fitting out ships of every kind with the
greatest diligence, and assembling a vast camp at Boulogne, with the
purpose, as was believed, of effecting a landing on the English coast,
he was making preparations, in all silence, for the memorable campaign
of 1805. Never were Napoleon’s talents for command or his military
genius displayed in a more brilliant light than in the plan of this
campaign. Assured of the assistance of most of the princes of southern
Germany, Bonaparte crossed the Rhine in the autumn with seven
divisions, commanded by his most experienced marshals, Ney, Lannes,
Marmont, Soult, Murat, etc, and marched into Swabia; whilst
Bernadotte, disregarding Prussia’s neutrality, pressed forward through
the Brandenburg Margravate of Anspach-Bayreuth upon the Isar. This
violation of his neutral position irritated the king, Frederick
William III, to such a degree, that he entered into closer
relationship with the allies, and assumed a threatening aspect,
without, however, actually declaring war.
After Ney’s successful engagement at Elchingen, the Austrian general,
Mack, was shut up in Ulm, and cut off from the main army. Helpless,
and despairing of deliverance, the incompetent commander commenced
negotiations with the French, which terminated in the disgraceful
capitulation of Ulm. By this arrangement, 33,000 Austrians, including
thirteen generals, became prisoners of war. Covered with shame, the
once-brave warriors marched before Napoleon, laid down their arms
before the victor, placed forty banners at his feet, and delivered up
sixty cannon with their horses. When too late, it was seen in Vienna
that Mack was not equal to his lofty position, and he was deprived of
his honor, his dignities, and the advantages of his office, by a
court-martial. Napoleon’s joy at this unexampled good fortune was,
however, diminished by the cotemporaneous maritime victory of the
English at Trafalgar, which annihilated the whole French fleet, but
which also cost the life of the great naval hero, Nelson.
The war-party had gained the upper hand in Prussia since the violation
of the neutral territory of Bernadotte. The king renewed the bond of
perpetual friendship with the sensitive emperor Alexander, in the
church of the garrison at Potsdam, over the coffin of Frederick the
Great, at night, and then sent Haugwitz with threatening demands to
Napoleon. The French emperor, in the meantime, proceeded along the
Danube towards the Austrian states, not without many bloody
engagements, of which the battles of Dirnstein and Stein against the
Russians under Kutusoff and Bagration were of especial importance. If
the French found brave and circumspect opponents in the Russians in
these encounters, they had the easier game in Austria. Murat took
possession of Vienna without the slightest trouble; and the prince of
Auersburg, who had orders either to defend the bridge over the Danube,
which was fortified and filled with gunpowder, or to blow it into the
air, allowed himself to be so completely deceived by the bold cunning
of the French general, and by pretended negotiations of peace, that he
surrendered it to the enemy uninjured and undefended. The irresolution
of the emperor Francis, and the divisions between the Austrians and
Russians, facilitated the victory of the French, who, laden with
enormous booty, pursued the Austro-Russian army, in the midst of
perpetual engagements, into Moravia. In Moravia, the battle of
Austerlitz, in which the three emperors were present, was fought on
the day of the year in which the emperor was crowned, December 2d,
1805, and in which the winter sun shone upon the most splendid of
Napoleon’s victories. The emperor Francis, wishing for the termination
of the war, suffered himself to be persuaded to pay a humble visit to
Napoleon in the French camp, and then consented to a truce which
stipulated for the retreat of the Russians from the Austrian states.
Upon this, negotiations were commenced which terminated in the peace
of Presburg.
After the battle of Austerlitz, the Prussian ambassador, Haugwitz, did
not venture to convey the charge of his court to the victorious
emperor; without asking permission in Berlin, he allowed himself to be
induced, partly by threats, and partly by the engaging affability of
Napoleon, to subscribe an unfavorable contract, by which Prussia
exchanged the Franconian principality of Anspach, some lands on the
Lower Rhine, and the principality of Nuremburg in Switzerland, for
Hanover. It was in vain that the king resisted the exchange, which
threatened to involve him in hostilities with England; separated from
Austria by the hasty conclusion of the peace of Presburg, nothing was
left to the king but to submit to the dictation of the victor.
The constitution of the German empire was already dissolved by the
elevation of the Elector of Bavaria and of the Duke of Wirtemberg into
independent monarchs. Napoleon, in consequence, entertained the
project of entirely removing the south and west of Germany from the
influence of Austria, and of uniting them to himself by the formation
of the Confederation of the Rhine. A prospect of enlarging their
territories and increasing their power, and fear of the mighty ruler
from whose side victory appeared inseparable, induced a great number
of princes and estates of the empire to separate themselves from the
German empire and join France. Self-interest was more powerful than
patriotism. On the 12th of July, the treaty was signed in Paris, by
virtue of which Napoleon, as protector of the Confederation of the
Rhine, recognized the full sovereignty of the individual members, upon
condition of their maintaining a certain contingent of troops ready at
the emperor’s disposal. Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt,
Nassau, and several others, formed the kernel around which the lesser
principalities, as Hohenzollern, Liechtenstein, Solms, etc., collected
themselves, till at length almost all the German confederate states of
the second and third rank gave in their adhesion. The Elector
arch-chancellor Dalberg, who had been made prince-primate, and who had
received Frankfort, together with Hanau and Fulda, as a principality,
was chosen Napoleon’s representative in the Confederation of the
Rhine.
The wavering conduct of Prussia had filled Napoleon with the deepest
anger, and convinced him that the king would be untrustworthy as a
friend, and cowardly and innocuous as an enemy. He accordingly flung
aside all respect and forbearance, and purposely inflicted many
mortifications on the Prussian government. The irritation produced by
this was soon aggravated into a complete rupture.
The French troops under Napoleon and his experienced marshals were in
the heart of Thuringia and Saxony, the Elector of which had united
himself, after some hesitation, to Prussia. The first engagement at
Saalfeld, where the gallant prince Louis found his death, went against
the Prussians; but the defeat suffered by the army under the command
of the old duke of Brunswick, in the great double battle of Jena and
Auerstadt, was terrible and fatal. It decided the fate of the
countries between the Rhine and the Elbe. The former presumption of
the officers and young nobles was suddenly turned into despondency,
and the greatest confusion and helplessness took possession of the
leaders. Hohenlohe, with 17,000 men, laid down his arms at Prenzlow;
the fortresses of Erfurt, Magdeburg, Spondau, Stettin, etc.,
surrendered within a few days, with such wonderful celerity, that the
commandants of many of them were suspected of treachery, so utterly
unaccountable did such cowardice and such entire want of self-reliance
appear. Blücher alone saved the honor of Prussia by the bloody combat
in and around Lubeck, though he could not prevent the horrible
storming of this slightly-fortified town; in Colberg, also, Gneisenau
and Schill, supported by the brave citizen, Nettlebeck, courageously
resisted the superior force of the enemy. Thirteen days after the
battle of Jena, Napoleon marched into Berlin, and issued his mandates
from thence. The Elector of Hesse, who wished to remain neutral, and
who had withdrawn his forces from the contest, was obliged to
surrender both land and army to the enemy, and to seek for protection
as a fugitive in a foreign land. He took up his residence in Prague.
The duke of Brunswick, who had been severely wounded, and who was
carried into his capital on a litter after the battle of Jena, was
compelled to seek for refuge in Denmark to die in peace. Jena and East
Friesland were united to Holland; the Hanse towns as well as Leipsic,
were oppressed by the deprivation of all English wares, and by severe
military taxes; and treasures of art and science, and the trophies of
former victories, were carried away from all quarters. It was only to
the Elector of Saxony, whose troops had fought at Jena, that Napoleon
showed any favor. He set the Saxon prisoners at liberty, and granted
the Elector a favorable peace; upon which the latter, dignified with
the title of king, joined the Confederation of the Rhine, like the
other Saxon dukes. From this time, Frederick Augustus, to the
misfortune of himself and his people, felt himself bound by the ties
of gratitude to the French emperor.
The king of Prussia had fled to Königsberg, where he vainly attempted
to obtain peace. Napoleon’s demands rose with his fortunes. In his
necessity, Frederick William turned to his friend Alexander, who
immediately despatched a Russian army under Benningsen and others into
East Prussia, to prevent the French passing the Vistula. Upon this,
Napoleon issued a proclamation to the Poles, pretendedly in the name
of Kosciusko, by which these misused people were summoned to fight for
liberty and independence. The Poles willingly made the greatest
sacrifices, and strengthened the ranks of the French by their brave
soldiers under the command of Dombrowski. Napoleon marched into Warsaw
amidst the rejoicings of the people; but the Poles discovered, only
too soon, that the foreign potentate was more intent upon the
gratification of his own ambition and love of power, than upon the
restoration of their empire. Murderous battles were now fought upon
the banks of the Vistula, and torrents of blood shed at Pultusk and
Morungen. But the great blow was struck in the battle of Preuss-Eylau,
February 8, 1807, when the marshal spirit of the French and Russians
gave rise to a contest which in loss of men equals any event of the
sort in the world’s history. Both parties claimed the victory, and
their efforts and exhaustion were so great, that the war suffered an
interruption of four months. During this interval, negotiations were
again renewed; but much as the king, who was waiting with his family
in Memel, might desire the termination of the war, that he might free
his subjects from the dreadful exactions of the French, he was too
honest to dissever his own cause from that of his ally. But when the
Silesian fortresses on the Oder, Glogau, Brieg, Schweidnitz, and
Breslau, fell into the hands of the French by the cowardice of their
commandants, and even Dantzic was surrendered to the marshal Lefebvre
by the gallant governor Kalkreuth, the king lost all confidence in the
successful issue. When, after the recommencement of hostilities, the
French gained a brilliant victory over the Russians in the battle of
Friedland, on the anniversary of the battle of Marengo, and took
possession of the field of Königsberg, the allied monarchs, after a
personal interview with Bonaparte on the Niemen, thought it prudent to
consent to the peace of Tilsit, oppressive as were the conditions.
Portugal, in consequence of her refusal to close her ports against the
English, was occupied by a French army under Junot, who assumed the
title of Duke of Abrantes, and proclaimed himself regent in the name
of the French Emperor, after the departure of the Portugese royal
family for Brazil. In pursuance of his favorite object, the
destruction of English commerce, Napoleon not only extended his
continental system to Portugal and Italy (as far as the latter country
was dependent on France), but even formed a plan for the subjugation
of Spain; and under pretense of protecting that country against an
English invasion, crossed the Pyrenees at the head of 100,000 men.
Charles IV, who a short time before in consequence of an insurrection
against his contemptible favorite, Godoy, Prince of the Peace, had
resigned his crown in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII, no sooner
witnessed the entry of the French into Madrid, than he desired to
recall his abdication. Under pretense of settling the dispute,
Napoleon invited the whole party to meet him at Bayonne, and having
made himself master of their persons, compelled the Bourbon family to
resign the Spanish crown, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne.
The vacant kingdom of Naples was then conferred on Murat, and the
grand-duchy of Berg destined for the Crown Prince of Holland. Against
the sovereign thus treacherously imposed on them, the whole Spanish
nation rose as one man; and Joseph, after an unsuccessful attempt to
conciliate his new subjects by granting them a liberal constitution,
was compelled to quit Madrid and retire to Burgos.
An English army, commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, landed in
Portugal, and drove the French out of that country; the means of
returning to France being secured to Junot and his army by the
Convention of Cintra. At the same time, another French army, under
Dupont, was surrounded and captured in the south of Spain. The French
had already fallen back on the Ebro, when Napoleon (to whom the
Emperor Alexander, in a personal interview at Erfurt, had promised
assistance in the event of a war with Austria) appeared in Spain at
the head of 335,000 men.
After a victorious progress from the Ebro, the French Emperor entered
Madrid, and immediately abolished the inquisition, the feudal system,
and the Council of Castile (which had recalled its consent to the
abdication of Charles IV), and reduced the number of convents to
one-third. Having, in conjugation with Soult, compelled the English to
evacuate Portugal, Napoleon returned to France to make preparations
for a fresh war with Austria. On the 21st February, 1809, the fortress
of Saragossa which had been twice heroically defended by the Spanish
General Palafox, with the loss of 53,000 men, surrendered to the
French; and the cause of Spanish independence seemed utterly ruined;
for the brilliant victory of Talavera 27th and 28th of July, obtained
by Sir Arthur Wellesley over King Joseph, was neutralized by the
defeat of an army recently raised by the Junta of Seville, which was
almost annihilated by Soult, at Ocano.
The monks, to whose influence King Joseph attributed the general
insurrection of the Spanish nation against the French, were punished
by the suppression of all the monastic orders. Whilst the French,
although perpetually harrassed by swarms of irregular troops, called
Guerillas, were still advancing steadily towards the south, the Junta
had retired to Seville, and assembled the Cortes (1810), which drew up
and proclaimed in (1812), a new constitution, by which the monarchical
power was greatly restricted. The repeated attempts of the French,
especially under Massena, to regain a footing in Portugal, were as
unsuccessful as their attacks on Cadiz, which was strongly fortified
and protected by a combined Spanish and English fleet. In the year
1812, the French force in Spain having been reduced to 168,000 men, by
the withdrawal of a large number of the best soldiers and generals for
the Russian campaign, the whole population of several provinces were
encouraged to take the field, and the Guerillas under Mina, the Curate
Merino, Mendizabal, etc., became daily more numerous and daring. The
fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz were stormed by Lord
Wellington, who spared the armies of Marmont and Soult, defeated the
former near Salamanca, compelled Joseph to quit Madrid, and then, on
the approach of the French, retreated to the Portuguese frontier.
Soult having been recalled from Spain by Napoleon, after his
disastrous campaign in Russia, the English general compelled King
Joseph a second time to abandon his capital, and retire to the Ebro,
and in the year 1813 decided the fate of Spain, by a brilliant victory
over Jourdan at Vittoria. Joseph escaped being taken prisoner, by a
precipitate flight into France. Soult, who had reëntered Spain by
command of Napoleon, was compelled to recross the Pyrenees by Lord
Wellington, and the war was terminated by the battle of Toulouse, in
April, 1814, the Emperor Napoleon having previously abdicated, and
Ferdinand VII being released from his imprisonment at Valencay.
Soon after his coronation, Napoleon had conceived the idea of
depriving the Pope of his temporal power, and transporting him to
Paris, where the influence of the Sovereign Pontiff might be
advantageously employed for the promotion of his own ambitious
designs. After a succession of annoyances and threats, Napoleon
demanded that the Pope should accede to the continental system, close
his ports against the English, and conclude an alliance, offensive and
defensive, with France, at least against the Infidels, by which title
he designated the Turks and all the Protestant powers. On the refusal
of the Pope to entertain this proposal, the Emperor took possession of
Rome, and annexed to the kingdom of Italy four provinces belonging to
the States of the Church. These measures were speedily followed by the
publication of a decree dated from Schönbrunn, in which _the temporal
authority of the Pope was declared to be at an end_; and in the
following year 1810 the rest of the States of the Church were
incorporated into the French empire. Pius VII, who had excommunicated
the originators and perpetrators of these acts of violence, was
carried off by force to Grenoble, and thence removed to Savona, where
he remained three years a prisoner, refusing with exemplary firmness
to resign his temporal authority, and establish his residence at
Paris. In the summer of 1812, he was removed to Fontainebleau, for the
purpose of negotiating a fresh concordat, and returned to Rome after
the abdication of Napoleon, in 1814.
After the peace of Tilsit, an attempt was made by the Austrian
government to reëstablish its political influence in Europe. With this
view the army was reörganized; and when Napoleon, in consequence of
this movement, called on the members of the Rhenish Confederacy to
hold themselves in readiness, the Austrians resolved to anticipate his
attack. A proclamation was accordingly issued by the Emperor’s
brothers, the Archdukes Charles and John, as commanders-in-chief of
the army destined to act in Bavaria and Italy, calling on the German
nation to coöperate with Austria in her struggles for the liberty of
their common fatherland; but scarcely any effect was produced by this
appeal. The army commanded by the Archduke Charles, which had entered
Bavaria, was defeated in a series of engagements, which lasted from
the 19th to the 23d of April at Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmühl, and
Ratisbon, by a force composed almost entirely of Germans, and
compelled, after sustaining immense loss, to cross the Danube, and
retreat towards Bohemia.
On the 13th of May, Vienna was a second time taken by the French;
Napoleon, who had advanced by forced marches for the purpose of
preventing the relief of Vienna by the archduke Charles, was defeated
on the 21st and 22d of May, near the villages of Aspern and Esling. He
then formed a junction with the Italian army under Eugene Beauharnais,
a second time crossed the Danube, and defeated the archduke Charles in
the sanguinary battle of Wagram, on the 5th and 6th of July. The two
armies met again at Znaim, in Moravia, and victory had already begun
to incline to the side of the French, when hostilities were suspended
by the arrival of Prince Lichtenstein, who was empowered by the
Emperor to arrange the terms of an armistice. After this battle, and
an unsuccessful attempt of the English to effect a diversion by
landing on the island of Walcheren, in Holland, the Austrian war was
terminated on the 14th of October by the peace of Vienna. By this
treaty Austria lost 2000 square miles of territory, with three and a
half millions of inhabitants.
In the hope of obtaining an heir to his throne, and of imparting in
some sort, a legitimate character to his dynasty, Napoleon divorced
himself from Josephine, and married Maria Louisa, daughter of the
Emperor Francis of Austria. On the 20th of March, 1811, the new
Empress was delivered of a son, who was immediately created king of
Rome. His brother Louis having declared his readiness to abdicate in
favor of his son, rather than ruin Holland by enforcing a rigid
observance to the continental system, Napoleon annexed the whole of
that country to France. Under the same pretext, and in the face of his
own repeated declaration that he wished the Rhine to be the boundary
of his dominions, the Emperor incorporated into the French empire the
maritime provinces of northern Germany, a great part of the kingdom of
Westphalia, the Hanse Towns, the grand duchy of Berg, Oldenburg, and
East Friesland: as he had already annexed Tuscany, the States of the
Church, and the Canton of Vallais in Switzerland. The empire at this
time numbered 130 departments, and extended along the coast of western
and southern Europe, from the mouth of the Elbe to the Trieste and
Corfu. The imperial government now became every day more absolute: the
sittings of the legislative body, which had long since been a mere
farce, were suspended: the duties of the senate were confined to the
appearance of its members on great occasions in the suite of the
Emperor, and the passing of acts confirmatory of his decrees for the
annexation of fresh territory.
The conviction that the continental system would be ruinous to her
commerce, and that Napoleon would never rest until he had destroyed
her influence as a first-rate European power, was soon forced on
Russia, which had wrested Finland from Sweden in 1808, and extended
her dominions to the Pruth, by the peace of Bucharest, concluded in
1812, after a six years’ war with the Turks. The first coolness
between Alexander and Napoleon was occasioned by the annexation of
Galicia to the duchy of Warsaw, a measure which was regarded with
suspicion by the Russian Emperor, as tending towards the
reëstablishment of Poland as a kingdom. Other causes of offense
followed in rapid succession; on the one side, Napoleon, who had
already annoyed the Emperor by depriving the duke of Oldenburgh,
husband of Alexander’s aunt by the mother’s side, of his dominions,
now demanded the rigid enforcement of the continental system by
Russia; whilst, on the other, the union of Warsaw, as a province, with
Saxony, and the evacuation of the Prussian dominions, were strongly
urged on France by the Russian government. The refusal of each party
to accede to the demands of the other, at length produced a war, which
was commenced in 1812 by Napoleon, who collected an army of 400,000,
or, according to some writers, 600,000 men, from almost every country
in south-western Europe. To oppose this formidable armament, the
Russians assembled 372,000 men. With his accustomed rapidity of
movement, Napoleon crossed the Nieman into Lithuania, and advanced by
forced marches to Smolensk, with scarcely any opposition on the part
of the Russians, who were unwilling to hazard a general engagement
until they had formed a junction with the troops from the interior.
After defeating the Russians at Smolensk, and Borodino, on the Moskwa,
Napoleon, on the 14th of September, entered Moscow, which was entirely
abandoned by the inhabitants; and soon after his arrival a fire broke
out, occasioned probably by the Russian governor Rostopchin, which
raged six days, and destroyed nine-tenths of the city. Notwithstanding
this calamity, Napoleon lingered five weeks among the ruins of Moscow,
endeavoring to negotiate a peace; but discovering his error when it
was too late, he broke up his quarters on the 18th of October, and
commenced his retreat with an army now reduced to 104,000 men. The
winter had already set in with a severity almost unprecedented at that
early season, and the whole of the country between Moscow and
Beresina, an extent of 150 German miles, presented the appearance of a
desert, the inhabitants of the villages having removed or destroyed
all their agricultural produce. At length the army, reduced by famine
and the unceasing attacks of the Russians and Cossacks to 30,000 men
capable of bearing arms, reached the Beresina, where the passage of
the river was forced by Ney and Oudinot, with 8,500 men, in the face
of 25,000 Russians. The retreat now became a flight, in consequence of
the intensity of the cold, and the abandonment of the army by
Napoleon, who had placed himself in a sledge, when all was lost, and
proceeded to Paris (arrived 18th December,) where his presence was
rendered necessary by the unsettled state of public affairs. General
Ney, who had distinguished himself in the battle of the Moskwa, and
done good service by the masterly manner in which he had conducted the
retreat, was created Prince of the Moskwa. The first step towards the
emancipation of Prussia, was the conclusion of a convention of
neutrality between the Prussian general Diebitsch and general York,
who was sent to cover the retreat of the left wing of the French army
under Macdonald. This proceeding on the part of the Prussian general
was stigmatized by Napoleon as an act of the grossest treachery, and
the chief cause of his subsequent misfortunes.
Frederick William III of Prussia, after issuing from Breslau a
manifesto, in which he called on his people to rise and defend their
liberties against the encroachments of the French, now concluded an
alliance with Russia for the reëstablishment of the Prussian monarchy,
and having been subsequently joined by Sweden and England, commenced
his preparations for the formation of a national militia in Prussia.
In the month of March, the Prussian grand army under Blucher, marched
through Silesia to Dresden, where it awaited the arrival of a Russian
force commanded by Kalish. A second Russo-Prussian army was also sent
from Berlin to join the two other corps. The allied army, under
Wittgenstein, now numbered 85,000 men, and that of the French 120,000,
most of whom were raw conscripts.
Towards the end of April, Napoleon reäppeared in Germany, and advanced
to Leipzic, where he was compelled to engage the enemy at
Grossgörschen, or, as he himself named the battle, at Lützen, on the
2d of May: but notwithstanding the disadvantage under which they
labored, in being unprepared for the attack, and the heavy loss which
they sustained in the battle, the French were victorious; and the
allies retreated by way of Dresden into Lusatia. Sharnhorst died at
Prague of the wounds which he had received in the battle. Soon
afterwards Napoleon appeared at Dresden, and compelled the wavering
king of Saxony to place the resources of his kingdom at the disposal
of the French. On the 20th of May Napoleon attacked the allies at
Bautzen, forced the passage of the Spree, and completed his victory on
the following day, at Wurschen, where he sustained a considerable loss
in killed and wounded. As the allies directed their retreat towards
Silesia instead of Berlin, in order to effect a junction with the
Austrians, the conqueror, who wished to prevent a meeting of the three
powers, as well as to gain time for fresh levies, consented to an
armistice from 4th of June to 10th of August, in the hope that Austria
would eventually join the French. A short time previously to these
events, the city of Hamburg, which had been abandoned by the French
officials on the approach of a Russian army, under Tetterborn, was
retaken by Davoust, and mercilessly pillaged, because the inhabitants
were unable to pay a forced contribution of 48,000,000 francs.
The congress of Prague having terminated unsatisfactorily, in
consequence of the unreasonable demands of Austria, and the
unwillingness of England to become a party to a treaty of peace, war
was declared by the Austrian government against Napoleon, whose
subsequent overtures were treated with contempt. The allies had made
the best use of the breathing time allowed them by the armistice. A
subsidy of eleven millions, granted by England, enabled them to equip
at least 600,000 men, who formed three divisions, viz, 1. The grand
army of Bohemia, under Schwarzenberg, in whose camp were the three
allied monarchs and General Moreau. 2. The army of Silesia, under
Blücher. 3. The army of the North, under the Crown Prince of Sweden,
Charles John Bernadotte. Against this enormous force Napoleon brought
into the field about 350,000 men; and notwithstanding his inferiority
in point of numbers, commenced hostilities with an attack on the army
of Silesia, which retreated beyond the Katzbach. Meanwhile,
Schwarzenberg had marched upon Dresden, and Napoleon was compelled to
proceed by forced marches to that city, leaving General Macdonald in
Silesia. On the 26th and 27th of August, Napoleon gained his last
victory at Dresden, on German ground, amidst torrents of rain. Moreau
was mortally wounded in this battle, and died soon afterwards. This
advantage gained by Napoleon, was however almost neutralized by the
failure of the other divisions of the French army.
The Silesian and northern armies having crossed the Elbe where
Bertrand was defeated by York, near Wartemberg, in order to effect, if
possible, a junction with the army of Bohemia in Napoleon’s rear, the
French Emperor quitted Dresden, and drew together all his forces at
Leipzic, where the great ‘_battle of the nations_’ was fought on the
16th, 17th, and 18th October. Towards the end of this battle, the
Saxons and Würtembergers went over to the allies. On the first day
Napoleon engaged the main body of the allies, under Schwarzenberg, on
the plain southwards of Leipzic, near Wachau, but without any decisive
result; whilst at the same time Blücher defeated Marmont, on the
northern part of the city, near Möckern. On the 17th there was no
general engagement, Napoleon having communicated to the Emperor of
Austria his willingness to purchase peace, by the relinquishment of
his sovereignty over Warsaw, Illyria, and the Rhineland, and to
withdraw his troops to the other side of the Rhine, as soon as an
armistice was concluded. Meanwhile, however, a reinforcement of more
than 100,000 men had joined the allied army, which now numbered
300,000, whilst the French had scarcely 130,000. Under these
circumstances the battle was renewed on the 18th of October. After
losing more than 30,000 men (including Prince Poniatowsky, a nephew of
the last King of Poland, who was drowned in the Elster), the defeated
army, which still numbered 100,000 men, commenced its retreat, and
fought its way to the Rhine, where 70,000 men crossed the river at
Mainz. During this retreat, the French were attacked on the Unstrut by
York, and at Hanau by the Bavarians, under Wrede, and were incessantly
harassed by bands of Cossacks. The immediate consequences of this
victory were――1. The breaking up of the Rhenish confederacy. 2. The
dissolution of the kingdom of Westphalia and the grand duchies of
Frankfort and Berg. 3. The surrender of all the French garrisons as
prisoners of war, with the exception of the garrison of Hamburg, which
held out, under Davoust, until the 26th of May, 1814. 4. The
re-conquest, by Bülow, of Holland, where the people, who had been more
forward than any other nation in their resistance to the continental
system, proclaimed the Prince of Orange sovereign of the Netherlands.
5. Denmark, on account of its alliance with Napoleon, was invaded by
the crown prince of Sweden, and compelled, after a short winter
campaign, to cede Norway to Sweden in exchange for Swedish Pomerania
and Rügen. 6. Illyria and the Tyrol were restored to Austria after a
long and bloody struggle. In the south, Murat, King of Naples, the
Emperor’s brother-in-law, formed an alliance with the Austrians for
the expulsion of the French from Italy, the Emperor of Austria
undertaking to guarantee to him the undisturbed possession of his
dominions. On the other hand, Switzerland, too feeble as yet to throw
off the French yoke, concluded a treaty of neutrality with Napoleon,
who deemed this the best mode of protecting his weakest frontier.
Wellington, being now prepared to enter France from Spain, and the
allied army from the Rhine, Napoleon, who had rejected the offers of
peace made to him by the allies, demanded a fresh conscription of
300,000 men, and prorogued the legislative assembly, which had
ventured to present him an address describing, in strong language, the
misery and exhaustion of France. At the commencement of the year 1814
the allies entered France, the grand army of Schwarzenberg traversing
a portion of neutral Switzerland, and crossing the frontier at Basle,
whilst the force under the command of Blücher crossed the Rhine, on
new year’s eve, at Mannheim, Caub, and Coblenz. In the hope of
preventing a junction, Napoleon attacked Blücher near Brienne, and
forced him to retreat; but, in spite of this check, the united armies
attacked the French at la Rothière, and drove them across the Aube.
The two corps then separated, the grand army under Schwarzenberg
proceeding along the banks of the Seine, and the army of Silisia along
the Main, in the direction of Paris. No sooner was Napoleon aware of
this separation, than he several times attacked the army of Silesia,
and compelled it to retire northwards, and then defeated the grand
army at Montereau. A congress was now held at Chatillon, but without
any result except the temporary suspension of hostilities. In order to
prevent Napoleon from following the grand army, Blücher continued his
march on Paris, and defeated the French near Laon. Then Napoleon
attacked the grand army at Arcis-sur-Aube, and being compelled to
retire before a superior force, conceived the desperate design of
leaving the road to Paris open, attacking the enemy in the rear from
Lorraine, and drawing together all the garrisons of the eastern
fortresses for a final struggle. With equal courage the allies
continued their march towards the capital, and after defeating
Marshals Marmont and Mortier, at la Fère Champenoise, and storming the
heights of Montmartre, entered Paris, in consequence of a
capitulation, on the 31st of March, with the Emperor Alexander, King
Frederick William, and Prince Schwarzenberg, at their head. No sooner
had the capital fallen, than the senate was persuaded by Talleyrand to
declare _the throne forfeited by Napoleon and his family_, and the
nation absolved from its oath of allegiance.
Napoleon, who had reached Paris a few hours too late, signed his
abdication on the 11th of April, at Fontainebleau, renouncing for
himself and heirs all claims to the throne of France, Italy, or any
other country; the allies, on their side, engaging to confer on him
the sovereignty of the island of Elba, with a pension of two millions
of francs, to grant to his wife the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and
Guastalla, with succession to her son and his desendants, and to
provide for his relations.
On the very day of Napoleon’s landing at Elba (14th of May), Louis
XVIII entered Paris, replaced the constitution hastily drawn up by the
provisional government by another formed on the English model, with
two chambers, one of peers and one of deputies, and concluded with the
allies the peace of Paris, by which it was settled that the boundaries
of France should be the same as they were before the Revolution, with
the exception of some unimportant extensions towards the east and
north-east.
For the definitive settlement of European affairs, especially as
regarded Germany, a Congress was held at Vienna (1st of November,
1814-9th of June, 1815), which was attended by the Emperors of Russia
and Austria, the Kings of Prussia, Denmark, and Würtemberg, and
several other princes, statesmen, and generals.
A spirit of disaffection had already begun to manifest itself in
France, in consequence of the mal-administration of the government,
and the insolence of those classes which had enjoyed peculiar
privileges before the Revolution. Encouraged by the reports which he
received of the prevalence of discontent, especially among the
soldiers, and the difficulties in which the Congress of Vienna was
involved by the Polish and Saxon questions, Napoleon escaped from
Elba, landed with 2000 men at Cannes on the 1st of March 1815, and
being joined by all the troops sent to oppose his progress, and by
Marshal Ney, entered Paris on the 20th, amidst the acclamations of the
people, and immediately established his head quarters at the
Tuileries. Meanwhile Louis XVIII had fled to Ghent.
Napoleon, by a proclamation dated from Lyons, had already summoned the
electoral colleges of the empire to hold an extraordinary meeting
(Champ de Mai) in Paris, for the improvement of the constitution; but
the popularity obtained by this apparent concession to the wishes of
the people, was in a great measure lost in consequence of these
ameliorations being eventually decreed by the emperor himself, without
the intervention of a representative body. Notwithstanding repeated
attempts on the part of Napoleon to reöpen negotiations with the
emperors of Austria and Russia, the Congress of Vienna proclaimed him
an outlawed traitor on the 13th of March, renewed their alliance for
the restoration of Louis XVIII, and engaged to raise a force, which
eventually amounted to 900,000 men. On the other hand, Napoleon was
unable to complete the number which he had intended to bring into the
field (560,000 men).
Napoleon now determined to commence hostilities by attacking
simultaneously the allied troops (English, Dutch, Belgians,
Hanoverians, Brunswickers, Nassauers, etc.), which were dispersed
through Belgium under the command of Wellington, and the Prussians
under Blücher; and thus preventing a junction of the two armies. The
Prussian army, which had not yet had time to concentrate itself, was
defeated at Ligny; whilst Ney meanwhile marched northwards as far as
Quatrebras, for the purpose of preventing the advance of Wellington to
relieve the Prussians. Here an indecisive battle was fought, in which
Duke William of Brunswick lost his life. Instead of falling back on
Namur, as Napoleon had expected, the Prussians now endeavored to
effect a junction with Wellington by Wavre. Having dispatched Marshal
Grouchy to intercept Blücher, Napoleon attacked Wellington on the 18th
of June, at Waterloo, where the English, after bravely fighting
throughout the day, were beginning to waver towards evening, when
Blücher who had left Thielemann to oppose Grouchy at Wavre, appeared
on the field, and, in conjunction with Wellington, completely routed
the French army, which fled in disorder, pursued by the Prussians.
After a succession of victorious skirmishes, Blücher arrived, on the
22d of June, at Paris, where Napoleon had a second time abdicated, in
favor of his son. Napoleon then fled to Rochefort, with the intention
of embarking for America; but finding the harbor beset by English
cruisers, he surrendered himself to Capt. Maitland, of the
Bellerophon, and was conveyed a prisoner to St. Helena, where he died,
after nearly six years’ suffering, on the 5th of May, 1821.
Before his return to Paris, Louis XVIII had issued a proclamation from
Cambray, granting a free pardon to all who had taken part in the
Revolution, with the exception of its chief authors, and constituted a
liberal administration under Talleyrand; which, however, was speedily
overthrown by the court party, headed by the king’s brother, the
Compte d’ Artois. An act was then passed by the ultra-royalist
majority in the chambers, excluding from the amnesty, and condemning
to perpetual banishment, all who had taken part in the murder of Louis
XVI.
Ney was arraigned before the chamber of peers, found guilty of high
treason and shot. Louis XVIII having been persuaded to dissolve the
chambers, some projects of law, of a more liberal character,
respecting elections, liberty of the press and person, etc., were
carried through the new chambers by the Duc de Richelieu, who also
obtained at the congress of Aix la Chapelle, 1818, the withdrawal of
the army of occupation, and a remission of some portion of the debt
still due from France to the allies. In return for these concessions
Louis XVIII joined the holy alliance.
The ultra-royalists now exerted themselves to obliterate every trace
of the Revolution, and reëstablish the privileged classes in all their
former splendor; a plan which they pursued with great zeal and success
under Charles X. But the indignation of the people was at length
excited by the pertinacity with which they endeavored to increase the
influence of the priesthood, and by their granting an indemnification
to the extent of 1,000,000,000 of francs to the emigrants, whose
estates had been confiscated by the revolutionary government.
The ministry persuaded the king to sign the fatal Ordonnances of 25th
of July, by which the liberty of the press was suspended, the recently
elected chamber dissolved, the number of deputies diminished, and the
mode of election altered. This open violation of the constitution
produced the Revolution of July, 1830.
Some of the royal troops having joined the revolutionists, and the
remainder been driven out of the city after three days’ hard fighting
(27th――29th of July), Charles X abdicated at Rambouillet on the 2d of
August, in favor of his grandson, the Duc de Bordeaux. Several
unsuccessful attempts had already been made to proclaim a republic:
and on the 30th of July the peers and deputies who happened to be
resident at Paris, had met and nominated as regent the Duke of Orleans
(descendant of a brother of Louis XIV), by whose representations
Charles was induced to quit the kingdom, and seek an asylum in
Scotland. On the 7th of August, the Duke of Orleans was proclaimed
hereditary “_King of the French_,” by the chambers, and on the 9th
swore fidelity to the charter of 1830, in which the sovereignty of the
people was fully recognized. The national guard was reëstablished and
placed under the command of Lafayette.
The first care of Louis Philippe was to obtain the recognition of his
title by foreign powers; an object which was effected without much
difficulty, as he founded his claim on his _legitimate_ right to the
throne (the elder branch of the Bourbons having abdicated) rather than
the choice of the people. But this disavowal of the principle on which
he had been chosen king of the French, however satisfactory to foreign
cabinets, was exceedingly distasteful to the people, and the cause of
serious disturbances. His ministers, who were repeatedly changed, were
engaged in a perpetual contest with the Republicans on the one side,
and the adherents of the ancient dynasty (Legitimists or Carlists) on
the other.
The _Carlists_ or Legitimists, who considered Henry V the Duke of
Bordeaux the rightful sovereign of France, had many adherents,
especially in la Vendée, where the Duchesse de Berri, who personally
exerted herself on behalf of her son, was arrested and banished the
country. On the other hand, the _Republicans_, endeavored to effect
the overthrow of the ministry, if not of the throne itself, by means
of societies, trades-unions, conspiracies, and émeutes in Paris,
Lyons, and other cities. Several attempts were also made to
assassinate the king (Fieschi’s infernal machine, Alibaud, Meunier,
Hubert, Darmès, Henry). The appearance of Louis Napoleon, a son of the
ex-king of Holland, at Strasburg, in 1837, and at Boulogne in 1840,
produced no important results. In order to preserve _peace with
foreign powers_, Louis Philippe adopted a system of non-intervention,
which he was compelled to violate on several occasions by the clamors
of the opposition party.
The manner in which the mediation of France was employed in a dispute
between the Pacha of Egypt and the Porte afforded Thiers an
opportunity of attacking the foreign policy of the government so
fiercely, that the king was obliged to dismiss his advisers, and form
a liberal administration (1840), which well nigh involved France in a
war with the four great powers, on account of the Eastern question.
Louis Philippe then formed a new administration (Soult-Guizot), which
directed all its efforts towards the maintenance of peace, and
persuaded the chambers to sanction the fortification of Paris.
The attempts of Louis Philippe to render himself independent of the
nation, his selfishness with regard to the Spanish marriage, and the
closeness of his political connection with the absolute European
powers, had rendered it impossible for him to obtain a majority in the
chambers, except by bribery; and as this could only be effected as
long as the number of electors was limited, he resisted with his usual
obstinacy every proposal for the extension of the franchise. This
policy disgusted all who looked to a reformed system of election as
the only means of improving the administration, and greatly increased
the number of the moderate Republican party.
Even the eyes of those who had been slow to credit the corruption of
the government, were at last opened by the trial of two ex-ministers,
Cubières and Teste, for bribery, and the desire for reform became
universal. An order of the government for the suppression of reform
dinners, founded, as they pretended, on a law passed at the beginning
of the first revolution (1790), and especially an attempt on the part
of the police to prevent by force the holding of a reform banquet at
Paris, provoked the opposition party, headed by Odillon Barrot, to
propose the impeachment of ministers, a motion which was carried in
the chamber of deputies after a stormy debate. The national guard and
some of the troops of the line having refused to act against the
people who had taken up arms on the 22d of February, Louis Philippe
dismissed the Guizot ministry on the 23d, and tranquillity seemed to
be completely restored; but on the evening of the same day fresh
disturbances broke out, in consequence of some troops stationed in
front of the foreign office having fired on the unarmed populace.
Throughout the whole of that night the inhabitants of Paris were
occupied in constructing barricades, and making preparations for
active resistance on the morrow. Meanwhile, however, the king, alarmed
at the increasing disaffection of his troops, and fearing an attack on
the Tuileries, had abdicated in favor of the Comte de Paris, and
quitted his palace, which was immediately plundered by the populace.
The Duchess of Orleans, accompanied by her two sons, having proceeded
to the chamber of deputies for the purpose of obtaining their
recognition of the Comte de Paris as king, and herself as regent, an
armed multitude burst into the hall, and compelled the deputies to
sanction the establishment of a provisional government, which
proclaimed a republic at the Hôtel de Ville, and again on the Place de
la Bastille, subject to the approbation of the great body of the
people.
The provisional government commenced its proceedings by calling
together the electoral colleges and constituent assembly. The elective
franchise was extended to all Frenchmen who had attained their
twenty-first year, and all above twenty-five years of age were
declared eligible as deputies, of whom about 900 were returned to the
chamber. The constituent assembly having met on the 4th of May, and
the republic having been again proclaimed, the provisional government
dissolved itself, and was succeeded by an executive commission
composed of five of its members, Arago, Garnier, Pagès, Marie,
Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin. The most formidable opponents of these
commissioners were the workmen and the leaders of the communists
Barbes, Blanqui, Louis Blanc. The revolutionists of February had
pronounced it to be the duty of the state to provide employment for
the citizens, and had followed up this declaration by the
establishment of national workshops, with a view to the ‘organization
of labor.’ The failure of this impracticable scheme produced great
discontent among the workmen; and after a fruitless attempt on their
part to overthrow the government and extort contributions from the
wealthier classes, the workshops were closed, and the men sent into
the provinces. A sanguinary struggle ensued, in the course of which
the Archbishop of Paris was shot, whilst addressing words of peace to
the insurgents from one of the barricades. After four days’ hard
fighting the malcontents were utterly defeated by General Cavaignac,
formerly governor of Algiers. The city of Paris was then declared in a
state of siege, and the powers of the executive commission transferred
to Cavaignac, who immediately formed an administration, of which he
declared himself president. More than 4000 of the insurgents were
banished to the French settlements beyond seas, the national workshops
suppressed, and the public clubs placed under the surveillance of the
police.
By the new Constitution, France was declared to be a democratic
republic, one and indivisible. The legislative authority was committed
to a single assembly of 750 members, elected by all Frenchmen who had
attained their twenty-first year. All citizens above twenty-five years
of age were eligible as representatives, with the exception of paid
government functionaries. The executive authority was vested in a
‘President of the Republic,’ who was required by the constitution to
be thirty years old, and a native of France. Louis Napoleon was chosen
for four years, by the direct suffrages of all the electors, on the
10th of December 1848.
Arrived at this hazardous position, he sought to strengthen his hold
on the French by reviving, whenever opportunity offered, the most
agreeable souvenirs of his uncle’s rule; while, at the same time he
incessantly disavowed all ambitious sentiments, and complained of the
suspicion of them as an injury. He made a pilgrimage to Ham, and in
the neighborhood of his former prison expressed his repentance of the
attempts of Strasbourg and Boulogne. Having thus combatted the
preparations which a few constitutionalists were inclined to make
against a possible _coup d’etat_, he played with the parliament until
December 2d, 1851, in the morning of which day, before sunrise, he
swept into prison every statesman of Paris known for public spirit and
ability, dissolved the assembly, seized the most distinguished
generals, and proclaimed himself dictator. A number of officers who
had served in Africa, were sent into the streets with picked
regiments, to shoot down remorselessly all who should raise an arm for
the constitution; and so, having by the aid of 100,000 soldiers
completely subdued the capital, and possessed himself of all power, he
offered himself to France for ten years’ election to the office of
president. As no other candidate was allowed to come forward he of
course was returned, and subsequently proclaimed a constitution, which
gave him more power than any European monarch, except the Czar of
Russia, pretends to exercise.
A decree was issued October 19th, summoning the Senate to meet on the
4th of November 1852, to consider the question of changing the form of
government and reëstablishing the empire.
Prince Jerome Bonaparte presided and opened the session by briefly
stating its object. A committee of ten was appointed which
subsequently made a report, closing with the draft of a _senatus
consultum_, declaring; ‘The Empire is reëstablished, and Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte is Emperor, under the title of Napoleon III.’ Two
decrees were immediately issued; the one convoking the French people,
in its primary assemblies, to accept or reject the empire; and the
second convoking the legislature for the purpose of verifying the
regularity of the votes, and of counting them out and declaring the
result. On the 1st of December, the vote was reported to be 7,864,189
for the empire, and 253,145 against it; 63,000 votes were canceled as
illegal. There was no hesitation on the part of foreign powers to
acknowledge the empire.
In March 1854, England and France announced to the world their
intention of aiding Turkey in her struggle with Russia. The Queen’s
declaration of war appeared in the Gazette on the 28th, and on the
preceding day, at Paris, the Minister of State read to the legislative
corps a Message from the Emperor, announcing ‘that the last resolution
of the cabinet of St Petersburg had placed Russia in a state of war
with respect to France――a war, the responsibility of which belonged
entirely to the Russian government.’ The military operations of the
commencement of this war have been described in the preceding pages.
[See History of England――Reign of Victoria.]