1804–1808
Napoleon, Emperor of the French—His Coronation as Emperor and
as King of Italy—The Imperial Court—The Grand Dignitaries,
Marshals, and Imperial Household—Institutions of the
Empire—Ministers and Government—The Camp at Boulogne—Pitt’s
last coalition—Campaign of 1805—Capitulation of Ulm—Battles
of Austerlitz and Caldiero—Battle of Trafalgar—Treaty of
Pressburg—Death of Pitt—Prussia declares War—Campaign of
Jena—Campaign of Eylau—Campaign of Friedland—Interview
and Peace of Tilsit—The Continental Blockade—Capture
of the Danish Fleet by England—French Invasion and
Conquest of Portugal—State of Sweden—The Rearrangement
of Europe—Louis Bonaparte King of Holland—Italy—Joseph
Bonaparte King of Naples—Battle of Maida—Rearrangement of
Germany—Bavaria—Würtemburg—Baden—Jerome Bonaparte King of
Westphalia—Murat Grand Duke of Berg—Saxony—Smaller States of
Germany—Mediatisation of Petty Princes—Confederation of the
Rhine—Poland—The Grand Duchy of Warsaw—Conference of Erfurt.
[Sidenote: The Empire.]
Napoleon’s elevation to the rank of Emperor of the French only
legalised in a more striking fashion the possession of power which he
had long held. It did not make his authority any greater, for he had
been practically the absolute monarch of France ever since 1799, but
it gave promise of permanency, and that was what the French people
most needed after the series of successive governments which had run
their course since 1789. It is a mistake to regard Napoleon as having
been made supreme ruler of France by the army alone; the legalisation
of his power was even more enthusiastically received by the peaceful
part of the population. The few ardent republicans who were left
had been terrified out of resistance by the wholesale deportation
of the principal Jacobins after the affair of the Infernal Machine.
The adherents of the Bourbons were equally discouraged by the severe
punishment dealt out to Pichegru and Georges Cadoudal. Every section
of both the military and civil communities was ready to hail Napoleon
as Emperor. But in the institution of the Empire he appealed to more
than men’s interests, he appealed to their imaginations. This he did
in two ways. He created a Court, with all the magnificent apparatus of
the great officers of the household, stately ceremonies and ancient
customs, which gave to the people of Paris the spectacle of royal pomp
which they had long regretted. On the other hand, he called to his
assistance the most powerful engine for influencing the imagination of
men, namely, religion. He determined to be consecrated with a ceremony
which should exceed in splendour all the coronation ceremonies of the
Bourbons. He summoned the Pope to France, and instead of being crowned
at Rheims by the Archbishop and Primate, he received his crown at
Paris from the hands of the Holy Father himself. At the very moment
of his coronation he showed a pride of bearing at least equal to that
of any of his predecessors upon the throne of France. After the Pope
had anointed him, girded the sword of empire about him, and given him
the sceptre, he prepared to place the crown upon the head of the new
Caesar. But Napoleon gently took the crown from the hands of Pius VII.,
and after replacing it on the altar, raised it and crowned himself. The
presence of the Pope in Paris for this great ceremony following upon
the Concordat, caused Napoleon to be looked upon as the restorer of the
Catholic religion, and greatly strengthened his position. Not satisfied
with the crown of France, he accepted that of Italy also on the 20th
of May 1805, and proceeded to Milan, where he placed upon his head the
Iron Crown of the old Lombard Kings. He at once declared his intention
of not personally administering his Italian kingdom, and appointed his
step-son, Eugène de Beauharnais, to be Viceroy of Italy.
[Sidenote: The Imperial Court.]
It has been said that Napoleon created a new Court, which was intended
to efface the recollection of the magnificence of the old Court of
Versailles. At the head of this Court he created a hierarchy of
Grand Dignitaries of the Empire, who were designed to form a Council
of Regency in case of necessity. The chief of them was the Grand
Elector, whose duty was to convoke the Senate, the Legislative Body,
and the Electoral Colleges,—this post was conferred on the Emperor’s
elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Next ranked the Arch-Chancellor of
the Empire, who was the chief of the judicial body,—this post was
conferred on Cambacérès, the former Second Consul. Third came the
Arch-Chancellor of State, whose business it was to receive foreign
ambassadors and ratify treaties—this post was conferred upon Eugène de
Beauharnais. Next came the Arch-Treasurer of the Empire, which post was
first filled by Le Brun, the former Third Consul, and the remaining
Grand Dignitaries were the Constable of the Empire, Louis Bonaparte,
the Grand Admiral, Marshal Murat, and the Grand Judge, Regnier. In
the same way as the Grand Dignitaries were at the head of the civil
administration of the Empire, Napoleon created Marshals of France to be
the representatives of the army. The first marshals were eighteen in
number, and included all the most famous generals of the revolutionary
period except Pichegru and Moreau, whose fate has been related. It was
indispensable for the rank of Marshal of France to have commanded an
army in the field, or at least a detached corps, and the office was
surrounded with so many privileges as to make it the object of ambition
to every colonel of a French regiment. The third hierarchy consisted of
the great officers of the Emperor’s household, who comprised a Grand
Marshal, Duroc; a Grand Almoner, his uncle, Joseph Fesch, whom he had
induced the Pope to make a cardinal; a Grand Chamberlain, Talleyrand;
a Grand Huntsman, Marshal Berthier; and a Grand Equerry, Caulaincourt;
and most of the first occupants of these offices were personal friends
and former comrades in arms of the Emperor.
[Sidenote: Institutions of the Empire.]
[Sidenote: Administrative System of the Empire.]
[Sidenote: Napoleon’s Ministers.]
The Senate remained under the Constitution of the Empire, as under
that of the Consulate, the most important and dignified political
body. It was extended by the addition of the Grand Dignitaries, of
the members of the Emperor’s family, and of those whom he specially
wished to reward; its seats were conferred for life; but it did little
but congratulate the Emperor on all his proceedings. The Tribunate
was reduced to fifty members, and the Legislative Body was allowed
to discuss laws, but only in closed committees. These institutions,
carefully devised though they were to maintain a semblance of free
discussion, were really reduced to impotence by the autocratic power
of the Emperor. The Council of State became more and more the real
key-stone of the administration of France. It was the one institution
of the Consulate which developed under the Empire. But it did not
develop collectively, but rather as a convenient administrative centre
and a court of appeal for administrators in every branch of the
government. Though the ministries were maintained, they were, as the
government became more bureaucratic in its form, and more concentrated
into the hand of Napoleon, infinitely subdivided, and the head of each
subdivision had a seat in the Council of State. By this arrangement
the Emperor was able to keep a check on his ministers, and to prevent
the administration from being thrown out of gear by the death or
retirement of a single man. Nevertheless, the ministries, as in all
highly organised states, were of vast importance, and Napoleon was
fortunate in the men he placed at their head. It is worthy of note that
three of the ministers who had served him during the Consulate remained
in office throughout the Empire, namely, Gaudin, afterwards created
Duke of Gaeta, Minister of Finance, who had several assistants in the
Council of State, of whom the most notable were Defermon, a former
deputy in the Constituent Assembly and the Convention, and Louis;
Decrès, also created a duke, Minister of the Marine; and Regnier, Duke
of Massa and Grand Judge, Minister of Justice. At the War Office,
the Emperor retained his chief of the staff, Marshal Berthier, until
1807, when he was succeeded by General Clarke, Duke of Feltre; and the
various sections were presided over by able administrators, of whom the
best were perhaps Lacuée de Cessac and Daru. At the Foreign Office,
Talleyrand remained supreme until after the Treaty of Tilsit, in 1807,
when he was replaced by Champagny, Duke of Cadore, who in his turn
gave way to Maret, Duke of Bassano. At the Ministry of the Interior a
change was made at the beginning of the Empire by the retirement of
Chaptal, who had held that post with singular distinction throughout
the Consulate, and the appointment of Champagny. But this department
was overshadowed by the existence of the Ministry of General Police.
Napoleon abolished this office in 1803, in the hope, doubtless, of
dispensing with the services of Fouché; but that astute minister was a
necessity, and in 1804 he was again appointed to his old office, which
he held until 1810.
[Sidenote: The Camp at Boulogne.]
In the midst of the _fêtes_ which accompanied his acceptance of the
Empire, Napoleon did not forget that he was engaged in war with
England. He declared that as he had crossed the Alps, so, too, he
could cross the Channel. For this purpose he collected a flotilla of
flat-bottomed boats at Boulogne, and encamped picked soldiers from
the Armies of the Rhine and of Italy upon the coast. But he felt that
it would be impossible for his flotilla to cross the Channel while
the English fleets were masters of the sea. He therefore determined
to unite the two French fleets, which were concentrated at Toulon and
Brest, and summoned his allies, the Dutch and the Spaniards, to prepare
fleets also. He kept 120,000 veterans continually at work practising
embarkation and disembarkation, and it was commonly believed, not
only in Europe, but in England itself, that the invasion would be
carried into effect. The army was equipped in a very thorough fashion,
and carefully organised as the Grand Army under the most experienced
generals in France, and it became one of the most efficient fighting
machines ever known in the history of the world, its discipline being
perfect and its enthusiasm unbounded.
[Sidenote: Villeneuve’s Failure.]
While making these preparations for the invasion of England, Napoleon
struck at other more accessible branches of the British power. In
1803 he occupied Hanover, the hereditary dominion of George III., in
spite of its being covered by the Prussian line of demarcation. In
1804 he sent a division into the kingdom of Naples, in order to close
the Neapolitan ports to English trade; and once more he threatened
Portugal. He also endeavoured to stir up a maritime foe to the English,
and sold to the United States the province of Louisiana, which he had
annexed from Spain, in the hope of obtaining their alliance. It was
only necessary for Napoleon to be master of the Channel for a few
hours, and to have a fine day, for his project of invading England to
succeed. According to his instructions, Admiral Villeneuve left Toulon
in March 1805, eluded Nelson, joined the Spanish fleet, and made his
way to the West Indies, where he expected to meet the fleet from Brest.
But the Brest fleet could not break through the blockade; Villeneuve
had to return, and, after an action with an English squadron under Sir
Robert Calder on 22nd July, he put into Ferrol. At Napoleon’s command,
the admiral set out for Brest on 11th August, but meeting with bad
weather, he lost heart and sailed away to Cadiz. Thus foiled in his
great scheme for bringing up an overpowering French fleet to cover his
invading army, Napoleon dared not leave the harbour of Boulogne.
[Sidenote: Pitt’s New Coalition. 1805.]
While threatened by the Boulogne flotilla, the English Government did
all in its power to raise enemies on the Continent against Napoleon.
Prussia, as usual, insisted on her neutrality; but Russia and Austria
were not unwilling to try their strength once more with France. The
Emperor Alexander of Russia was personally inclined to admire Napoleon,
but he was induced by his Court, his family, and his ministry, who
pointed out to him the importance of remaining on good terms with
England, to sign an alliance with Pitt; he was further profoundly
irritated by the violent scene which Napoleon, as First Consul, had had
with his ambassador, Count Morkov, and was horrified at the execution
of the Duc d’Enghien. The Emperor Francis of Austria was even more
willing to fight Napoleon. He had spent the period of peace since the
Treaty of Lunéville in reorganising his army, and believed that he
would be more successful now that he was freed from the incubus of his
position as Holy Roman Emperor. The State Chancellor, Cobenzl, was also
keenly in favour of war, for he was a sincere believer in the might of
Russia, and had imbibed a desire to please the Court of St. Petersburg,
at which he had long held the post of Austrian ambassador. To induce
these powerful allies to attack in force, Pitt, who was once more
Prime Minister, did not grudge the wealth of England. Large subsidies
were offered both to Russia and Austria, which supplied the means for
commencing the campaign; and strenuous efforts were made to win the
assistance of Prussia.
[Sidenote: Outbreak of War.]
In the second line, Pitt counted on the assistance of Sweden and
Naples. Napoleon’s promptitude in invading the latter country destroyed
any chance of its effecting a diversion in Italy, and Gustavus IV.
of Sweden, though, like his father, a violent enemy of France, was
unable to bring any active assistance, while Prussia remained neutral.
A pretext for war was found in the annexation of Lucca and Genoa
to the French Empire, and the Austrians and Russians resolved to
strike at once. General Mack, with a powerful Austrian force, invaded
Bavaria before the declaration of war, and, by the occupation of Ulm,
he believed he had secured the valley of the Danube. Meanwhile the
principal Austrian army of 120,000 men, under the Archduke Charles,
invaded Italy, and a powerful force of Russians kept close to the
Prussian frontier, in the hope of inducing Prussia to declare war
against France.
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1805.]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Ulm. 20th Oct. 1805.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Austerlitz. 2d Dec. 1805.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Trafalgar. 21st Oct. 1805.]
Napoleon, despairing of success in his projected invasion of England,
resolved to turn promptly upon England’s principal ally, and directed
the Grand Army to break up from Boulogne and enter Germany. Mack
regarded it as certain that the French, as in the campaigns of Moreau,
would advance through the Black Forest. Napoleon encouraged his
illusion by showing him a few French troops in that quarter. Meanwhile,
the Grand Army advanced in two portions through Würtemburg and
Franconia, and, on reaching the Danube, after violating the Prussian
neutrality by marching through Anspach, cut off Mack’s retreat on
Vienna. The Austrian general made an effort to break through the French
army, but he was defeated by Ney at Elchingen, and surrendered on the
20th of October 1805 with 33,000 men. The capitulation of Ulm did more
than deprive Austria of a serviceable army,—it left open the road to
Vienna. Napoleon rapidly followed up his success. He marched past a
united Russian and Austrian army, which was quartered in Moravia, to
influence Prussia, occupied Vienna, crossed the Danube, and eventually
faced the army of the two emperors at Austerlitz. On the 2d of December
1805, the anniversary of his coronation, the Grand Army utterly
defeated the Austrians and Russians. The allies lost 15,000 men killed
and wounded, 20,000 prisoners, and 189 guns; and the Emperor Francis
found himself defenceless, for his only other army, that in Italy,
had been defeated at Caldiero by Eugène de Beauharnais and Masséna on
the 30th of October. While the rapid campaign of Austerlitz,—perhaps
the most glorious of Napoleon’s military career,—was taking place, he
lost the navy which he had prepared with so much care, and which had
been intended to cover his invasion of England. The French admiral,
Villeneuve, left Cadiz at the head of the united French and Spanish
fleet, consisting of thirty-three ships of the line and five frigates.
He had not gone far when he was met by Nelson at the head of the
English squadron of twenty-seven ships off Cape Trafalgar. The victory
of Trafalgar, which was won on the 21st of October, was as complete
as that of Austerlitz. The French and Spanish fleet was as entirely
destroyed as the Austrian and Russian army. The allies at Trafalgar
lost 7000 men in killed and wounded, and the English only 3000, among
whom, however, was Nelson himself.
[Sidenote: Treaty of Pressburg. 26th Dec. 1805.]
The result of the battle of Austerlitz was the Treaty of Pressburg,
which was signed by Austria and France on the 26th of December 1805.
The Russians had only lost one army, and their territory had not been
invaded, so that they were still enabled to remain in arms. But Austria
was completely crushed. By the Treaty of Pressburg, Venice, Istria, and
Dalmatia were ceded to the Kingdom of Italy; but Napoleon kept the two
latter provinces under his direct rule, and gave the command of them to
General Marmont. The Tyrol and part of Swabia were ceded to Bavaria,
and the Elector of that State took the title of King. The same title
was conferred on the Duke of Würtemburg; the Duke of Baden became a
Grand Duke; many small German principalities were suppressed, and, on
12th of July 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was formed under the
protectorate of the French Emperor. England could not blame Austria
for making a separate treaty with France, for she herself had been
saved from invasion by the departure of the Grand Army from Boulogne,
not less than by the victory of Trafalgar. The news of Austerlitz was
followed on the 23d of January 1806 by the death of Pitt, and the new
English ministry of Fox and Grenville, now that the fear of invasion
was over, desired to enter into negotiations with Napoleon.
[Sidenote: Overthrow of Prussia.]
The overthrow of Austria was followed by the overthrow of Prussia.
Frederick William III. had prided himself on the manner in which, in
spite of many temptations, he had maintained his attitude of strict
neutrality. Neither the offers of the Directory or of Napoleon, nor the
subsidies lavishly promised by England, had been able to disturb his
determination. The Prussian ministry proudly pointed to the fact that,
while the rest of Europe had been torn by disastrous wars, Prussia
had remained at peace ever since the Treaty of Basle in 1795. She had
profited by her peace policy as much as France and Austria by their war
policy. The rearrangement of Germany in 1803 had converted Prussia from
a collection of scattered states into a united kingdom. She had even,
up to the year 1803, maintained the freedom of the whole of the north
of Germany from the terrible French invaders by the observation of the
line of demarcation settled in 1795. The northern states of Germany
looked to Prussia as their leader, and since the destruction of the
Holy Roman Empire the Prussian policy had been completely victorious
over the Austrian. The maintenance of the line of demarcation was the
favourite scheme of the Prussian King, and as long as it was observed,
nothing short of invasion would have disturbed his neutrality. But the
occupation of Hanover in 1803, as one of the measures taken by Napoleon
against England, had infringed the line of demarcation, and from that
moment Frederick William III. inclined towards war.
In this warlike attitude he was encouraged by Russia and England,
and still more by his own army. The Prussian army, the creation of
Frederick the Great, represented in more than an ordinary fashion the
Prussian nation. Relying on the recollections of the Seven Years’
War, and confident in the proverbial discipline of their soldiers,
the Prussian generals believed that they would be able to defeat the
conquerors of the rest of Europe. With the utmost ardour the young
Prussian noblemen shouted for war; they resented the long peace, and
applauded the new attitude of the king. He was stimulated likewise by
the hatred for France, which was openly encouraged by his beautiful
Queen Louisa, and he met with opposition only from a few of his more
experienced ministers, and from the old Duke of Brunswick, who well
knew the excellence of the French troops. Undecided and hesitating,
Frederick William refused to join the coalition of Austria and
Russia in 1805, when his assistance would have been of the greatest
service. He signed, indeed, the Treaty of Potsdam on 3d November 1805,
undertaking to mediate, and to join the coalition with 180,000 men if
Napoleon refused the terms he offered. But the proposed intervention
came to nothing. Haugwitz, the Prussian minister, awaited at Napoleon’s
headquarters the result of the battle of Austerlitz, and on December
15 he signed the Treaty of Schönbrunn, by which Prussia ceded Cleves
to France and Anspach to Bavaria, and received provisional possession
of Hanover. Two months later, on February 15, Prussia was compelled by
a supplementary treaty to definitely accept Hanover from Napoleon, an
arrangement which was tantamount to declaring war with England.
[Sidenote: Campaign of Jena. Oct. 1806.]
The long neutrality of Frederick William III. was thus broken, and, as
it soon appeared, in vain. For Napoleon almost immediately offered to
restore Hanover to England, with which country he was induced to enter
into negotiations for peace by the accession of Fox to office. At this
news Frederick William mobilised his troops and prepared for war with
France. In October 1806 he ordered the victor of Austerlitz to at once
retire behind the Rhine, and slowly concentrated his army in Thuringia
without waiting for the succour promised by the Russians. The Prussian
officers applauded their king’s conduct, for they desired to have the
glory of defeating the French entirely to themselves. On the 14th of
October 1806 the two corps of the Prussian army, which were advancing
along the river Saale, were defeated by Napoleon himself at Jena, and
by Marshal Davout at Auerstädt. The triumph was as complete as that of
Austerlitz; and on the 25th the French army entered Berlin.
[Sidenote: Campaign of Eylau.]
It was now necessary for the Grand Army to attack the Russians.
Napoleon, after occupying nearly the whole of Prussia and laying siege
to Dantzic, entered Poland. He was received with an enthusiastic
welcome by the Poles, whose independence he hinted at restoring. Polish
troops had long served in his armies, and the sympathy of the French
people for the oppressed Poles was known throughout Poland. On the 15th
of December 1806 Napoleon occupied Warsaw and sent his army into winter
quarters upon the Russian frontier. The Russian general, Benningsen,
one of the murderers of the Emperor Paul, conceived the idea of
surprising part of the French army in its winter quarters. He drove
back the division of Bernadotte; but when he reached the neighbourhood
of Königsberg he found that Napoleon had received information of his
movement and had collected the bulk of his army. It was now Napoleon’s
turn to pursue the Russians. At the head of 60,000 men he found 80,000
Russians entrenched in the village of Eylau, and attacked them during
a snowstorm on the 8th of February 1807. The battle was long disputed.
The Russians had to retire, but it was estimated that the loss of both
armies was about the same, namely, 35,000 men. This loss was far more
severe to the French than to the Russians, for the French soldiers
slain at Eylau were veterans of the Grand Army, and their place could
only be taken by raw conscripts.
[Sidenote: Battle of Friedland. 14th June 1807.]
The result of the battle of Eylau was to allow the French army to
remain undisturbed in its winter quarters. In the Russian camp,
meanwhile, important diplomatic negotiations had been going on.
Frederick William cemented his friendship with the Emperor Alexander,
and appointed the most able of his servants, Hardenberg, to be State
Chancellor in the place of Haugwitz. Prussia could indeed give but
little real help, for her army was destroyed, and her country almost
entirely in the hands of the French; but Alexander, nevertheless,
consented in April 1807 to sign the Treaty of Bartenstein with
Frederick William, by which they formed an offensive and defensive
alliance. But the hopes of the diplomatists, founded on the drawn
battle of Eylau, were soon to be frustrated by the military successes
of Napoleon. On the 24th of May 1807 Dantzic, which had withstood a
desperate siege, surrendered to General Lefebvre, and the besieging
troops were able to join the main army. The summer campaign of 1807
was very short. Benningsen, accompanied by the Emperor Alexander in
person, advanced to attack the French army on the 14th of June. The
Russians foolishly crossed the Alle at Friedland, and with the river
at their back were completely defeated with a loss of 25,000 men. The
victory of Friedland was decisive; it did not destroy the Russian
Empire, as the victories of Austerlitz and Jena had destroyed the
Austrian Empire and the Prussian Kingdom; it did not extinguish the
fighting power of Russia; it did not diminish the _morale_ of the
Russian army, which proudly boasted that it had made a better stand
against the French than either the Austrians or the Prussians. It was
not positively necessary for the very existence of his monarchy that
the Emperor Alexander should treat with Napoleon, but his successive
defeats justified him before his Court and his ministers in demanding
peace. He could reply to their arguments in favour of an English
alliance for Russia that he had loyally tried to carry out the terms of
that alliance, but that under the circumstances he could maintain it no
longer. He had always wished for peace with France and the friendship
of Napoleon; he now considered himself free to follow his personal
inclinations.
[Sidenote: Interview at Tilsit, 25th June 1807.]
[Sidenote: Peace of Tilsit, 7th July 1807.]
On the 25th of June 1807 the Emperor of the French and the Czar of
Russia had their famous interview at Tilsit on a raft moored in the
middle of the river Niemen. The personal magnetism of Napoleon and his
glory as a great conqueror powerfully impressed the vivid imagination
of Alexander, who had always felt the warmest admiration for him.
During this interview Napoleon spread before the eyes of the Emperor
of Russia his favourite conception of the re-establishment of the
old Empires of the East and of the West. They were to be faithful
allies. France was to be the supreme power over the Latin races and
in the centre of Europe; Russia was to represent the Greek Empire
and to expand into Asia. These grandiose views charmed the Emperor
Alexander, who believed that in adopting them he was following out
the policy of Peter the Great and of the Empress Catherine. The
one enemy to be feared and to be crushed according to Napoleon was
England. And Alexander, in spite of the loss which his subjects would
suffer, promised to enter into Napoleon’s policy for the exclusion of
England’s commerce from the Continent, and to accept the doctrine of
the Continental Blockade. But, at the same time, Alexander did not
dare to go so far as to promise to declare war against England, in
spite of the pressure put upon him by Napoleon. The first interview at
Tilsit was followed by others, and eventually by the Peace of Tilsit.
By this treaty Russia ceded the Ionian Islands and the mouths of the
river Cattaro in the south of Dalmatia, which had been occupied by the
Russians since 1799, to France. Napoleon, on his part, promised that he
would not restore the independence of Poland, and advised Alexander to
obtain compensation for the growth of the power of France from Sweden
and from Turkey. In pursuance of this policy a division of the French
army invaded Swedish Pomerania and took Stralsund, while the Russians
occupied Finland. Alexander was pressed by Napoleon to invade Turkey,
and was promised the assistance of France in obtaining the cession of
the Danubian principalities. The Emperor of Russia made loyal efforts
to obtain a favourable peace for his ally, the King of Prussia. But
Napoleon, though willing to humour Alexander, and desirous of making
Russia his firm ally, did not hesitate to show his contempt for
Frederick William III. He thought for a time of entirely extinguishing
Prussia, but on the representations of Alexander he contented himself
by taking possession of the Rhenish and Westphalian provinces of
Prussia, and forming them with the principality of Hesse-Cassel into
the kingdom of Westphalia. He also included Prussian Poland in his new
Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
[Sidenote: The Continental Blockade.]
The Peace of Tilsit left Napoleon face to face with only one enemy, and
that was England. The destruction of the French fleet at Trafalgar
and the diminution of the strength of the Grand Army from the losses
suffered at Austerlitz, Jena, and Eylau, proved to the Emperor of the
French that he had better abandon his project of invading England.
But if he could not cross the Channel in force or meet the English
fleets at sea, he believed he could ruin England by excluding her
from the markets of the Continent. The English ministry, in pursuance
of its reading of international law, had closed all neutral seaborne
commerce from the mouth of the Elbe to the extremity of the French
coast. Napoleon answered this measure by his Berlin Decree, which was
issued in that city on the 21st of November 1806, and declared the
British Islands to be in a state of blockade. All English merchandise
was to be confiscated, as well as all ships which had touched either
at a British port or at a port in the British Colonies. He followed
up this measure by the Milan Decree of the 17th of December 1807, by
which he declared that any ship of any country which had touched at a
British port was liable to be seized and treated as prize. The entry
of Russia into the scheme of the Continental Blockade would, Napoleon
hoped, entirely ruin the English trade. But, in reality, it did nothing
of the sort. English commerce was as active and enterprising as ever,
and the risks it encountered in running the Continental Blockade only
increased the profits of the English merchants. The real sufferers were
the inhabitants of the Continent, who had to pay enhanced prices for
such articles of prime necessity as sugar. Napoleon’s expectation that
the carrying trade of the world would desert England and fall into the
hands of France and her allies was not fulfilled, because the English
war fleets remained complete masters of the sea, and effectually
prevented the rise of any other commercial power. The result of the
Continental Blockade was therefore the impoverishment of the allies
of France and their consequent hatred of Napoleon, while it increased
rather than diminished the commercial prosperity of England.
[Sidenote: Bombardment of Copenhagen. Sept. 1807.]
The English ministers were not afraid of Napoleon’s Continental
Blockade. But his occupation of Northern Germany made them fear that
his next step would be to seize the Danish fleet as the Directory had
in former days appropriated the Dutch fleet. Secret stipulations were
indeed made at Tilsit, by virtue of which the Danish fleet was to be
seized by France. Information of this scheme was given to the English
ministers, and a secret expedition was planned to prevent its being
carried into effect. Denmark was a neutral nation, and had given no
pretext for war to either France or England. But Denmark was a weak
nation and unable to defend itself. Under these circumstances the
English struck first. A powerful expedition anchored before Copenhagen
in September 1807; the city was bombarded; the small Danish army
was defeated at Kioge by a division under the command of Sir Arthur
Wellesley; and the whole Danish fleet was appropriated or destroyed by
England. By this rapid blow one of Napoleon’s most cherished schemes
came to nought, and his hope of getting another serviceable navy
effectually extinguished.
[Sidenote: French Invasion of Portugal. 1807.]
The two most faithful allies of England were the small kingdoms of
Portugal and Sweden. The Russians were left to deal with the latter;
Napoleon resolved to attack the former himself. The French Emperor,
like the Directory before him, insisted on regarding Portugal as an
outlying province of England, and, indeed, there was some ground for
this view, as owing to the Methuen Treaty the relations between the two
countries were very close. Yet the Prince Regent of Portugal in 1806
had declined to declare himself the open ally of England, and insisted
on the maintenance of his position of neutrality. Nevertheless,
Napoleon resolved to ruin Portugal because the Prince Regent declined
to become a party to the Continental Blockade. He at first resolved to
act with Spain as he had done in 1801, and on the 29th of October 1807
the Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed, by which it was agreed that
the combined armies of France and Spain should conquer Portugal. The
little kingdom was then to be divided into three parts; the northern
provinces were to be given to the King of Etruria in exchange for
his dominions in Italy which Napoleon desired to annex; the southern
districts were to be formed into an independent kingdom for Godoy,
the Prince of the Peace, the lover of the Queen of Spain, and the
most powerful man in that kingdom; and the central portion was to be
temporarily held by France. In pursuance of this secret treaty a French
army under General Junot marched rapidly across the Peninsula, and
on the news that it was close to Lisbon, the Prince Regent, with his
mother, the mad queen, Maria I., and his two sons sailed for Brazil
with an English squadron. Hardly had the Regent left the Tagus when
Junot entered Lisbon on the 20th of November 1807. The French were
favourably received in Portugal. The Portuguese resented the departure
of the Prince Regent; democratic principles had made considerable
progress; and no idea was entertained that there was a secret design to
dismember the kingdom. Junot had little difficulty in occupying almost
the whole of Portugal; he sent the picked troops of the Portuguese
army under the name of the Portuguese Legion to join the Grand Army
in Germany; and he promised a Constitution to the country. On the 1st
of February 1808 he issued a proclamation that the House of Braganza
had ceased to reign, and after the fortresses had been surrendered he
proceeded to administer Portugal as a conquered country.
[Sidenote: Sweden.]
Gustavus IV. of Sweden, who had taken the power into his own hands
from his uncle the Regent Duke of Sudermania and had married the
sister-in-law of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, in 1797, had
inherited the hatred for France, which had been, after 1789, one of
the guiding principles of his father, Gustavus III. He had been the
ready ally of England in all the coalitions against both the French
Directory and Napoleon, and after the rupture of the Peace of Amiens
in 1803, he became the key-stone of the Anglo-Russian alliance. In
1805 he promised to place himself at the head of an English, Russian,
and Swedish army which was to invade Hanover, and occupy Holland; but
he failed to set sail on the appointed day, and caused the expedition
to lead to no result. Nevertheless, he remained faithful to England,
and at the time of the Treaty of Tilsit refused to abandon the English
alliance. As has been already said, Swedish Pomerania was occupied by
a division of the Grand Army, under Marshal Brune, and Sweden never
recovered the ancient conquest of Gustavus Adolphus. In 1808, on the
obstinate refusal of the Swedish King to accede to the Continental
Blockade, the Emperor Alexander, as had been agreed at Tilsit, invaded
Finland. England was ready to assist Sweden, and a powerful army, under
Sir John Moore, was sent to Stockholm. At this crisis the King showed
signs of insanity. The English expedition retired, and at the beginning
of 1809 Gustavus IV. was dethroned.
[Sidenote: The Rearrangement of Europe.]
[Sidenote: Holland.]
After he had made himself Emperor, and still more after his victories
over Austria and Prussia and his alliance with Russia, Napoleon
began to assure his power on the Continent by establishing vassal
kings in the neighbourhood of France. Just as the French Directory
had surrounded the French Republic with smaller republics governed
after its own model, so Napoleon surrounded his frontiers with
subject kingdoms. The Batavian, the Cisalpine, and the Parthenopean
Republics were succeeded by the kingdoms of Holland and of Naples
and the vice-royalty of Italy. The form of the Batavian Republic
had altered with every change in the Constitution of France. From a
democratic Republic in the time of the Convention it had become a
Directory and a Consulate, and in 1805, after the French Empire had
been established, it received a new Constitution. By this arrangement
Count Schimmelpenninck, a distinguished Dutch statesman, was appointed
Grand Pensionary for life, but in June 1806 he was induced to resign,
and Louis Bonaparte, the favourite brother of the French Emperor,
was made King of Holland. The Dutch people had no objection to these
changes. The introduction of the French system of administration
consolidated the country from a group of federal states into a united
nation. Its trade prospered, though it lost its fleet at Camperdown
in 1797, and in the Texel in 1799, and it became more wealthy than
ever, in spite of the conquest of all its colonies by England, by the
close communication established with Paris and the abolition of the
vexatious transit-duties in Belgium. Louis Bonaparte, the first King of
Holland, showed himself a sagacious monarch. He caused the Civil Code
to be introduced into his dominions in the place of the old cumbrous
system of Dutch law. He encouraged literature and art, and he moved
the capital from the Hague to Amsterdam. But the introduction of the
Continental Blockade caused profound discontent. The Dutch merchants
were ruined by its rigorous application; riots took place in many
districts; and since Napoleon found the Continental Blockade was being
evaded he caused French troops to enter Holland and occupy the mouths
of the rivers. Louis Bonaparte protested against this conduct, and in
1810 he resigned the crown which his brother had given him.
[Sidenote: Italy.]
[Sidenote: Rome.]
[Sidenote: Naples.]
[Sidenote: Illyria.]
It has been said that when Napoleon made himself Emperor he likewise
assumed the title of King of Italy, and that he did not undertake the
government, but conferred it upon his step-son, Eugène de Beauharnais,
as Viceroy. The original Kingdom of Italy only comprehended the
dominions of the Cisalpine Republic,—that is to say, Lombardy, the
Duchies of Modena and Parma, and the former Papal Legations of Bologna
and Ferrara. By the Treaty of Pressburg in 1806 the Kingdom of Italy
was increased by the addition of Venice and of the former Venetian
territories on the mainland. Genoa, Lucca, Piedmont, and Tuscany,
were, however, directly administered by France, and the city of Rome
and the Campagna was added to the French Empire in the year 1810.
In the south of the Italian peninsula Naples was erected into an
independent kingdom, which was intended to include the island of
Sicily. This kingdom was conferred upon the elder brother of Napoleon,
Joseph Bonaparte, on the 30th of March 1806. Joseph, like King Louis
of Holland, tried to act as a good king. He formed an able ministry,
consisting almost entirely of Neapolitans, and containing but two
Frenchmen,—Miot de Melito, Minister of War, and Saliceti, Minister
of Police. He introduced good laws, and made efforts to put down the
brigandage which ravaged the southern districts of his kingdom. The
island of Sicily meanwhile resisted all the attempts of the French.
It acknowledged the rule of Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies, who
had retired to Palermo, and it was garrisoned by an English army. This
army kept Joseph in perpetual embarrassment. The English encouraged the
brigands of Calabria, and in the summer of 1806 they made a descent
upon the mainland, and on the 3d of July the English general, Sir John
Stuart, defeated the French general Reynier at Maida. This victory,
however, was followed by the capitulation of Gaeta on the 18th of
July, after which event the French army in Calabria was strengthened
to such an extent that the English were unable to do more than defend
Sicily. The internal administration of Joseph Bonaparte deserves every
praise; he abolished feudalism; he endeavoured to introduce honesty and
uprightness in the collection of the taxes; he declared the equality of
all citizens before the law; and by the suppression of many monasteries
he improved the finances of the country and largely increased the
number of peasant proprietors. Lastly, must be noticed the Illyrian
provinces of Dalmatia and Istria, which had been ceded by the Treaty
of Pressburg. They were directly administered by General Marmont, who
reported to Napoleon himself and not to the Viceroy of Italy. After
the Treaty of Tilsit they were augmented by the Ionian Islands, and
Napoleon kept a powerful army in this quarter to threaten the Turks.
It is probable, indeed, that he dreamt of restoring the independence of
Greece, and his Illyrian army was well placed for carrying out such a
project.
[Sidenote: Napoleon’s Reorganisation of Germany.]
In his rearrangement of the states of Germany and of the balance
of power in Central Europe, Napoleon, like the Directory, followed
out the traditional policy of Richelieu and Mazarin. He held it to
be an advantage for France that there should be a number of small
German states between the Rhine and the hereditary dominions of
the House of Austria, but he considered that the very small size
of the states maintained by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 made
them inadequate buffers. He, therefore, enlarged the Western German
states and endeavoured to unite their interests with those of France.
The reconstitution of Germany after the Peace of Lunéville in 1803
destroyed the old Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon worked on the same
lines, and his measures have had almost the same permanence as the
arrangements of 1803. The changes took place gradually in accordance
with the Treaties of Pressburg and of Tilsit, but their final results
may be considered as a whole.
[Sidenote: Bavaria.]
[Sidenote: Würtemberg.]
[Sidenote: Baden.]
[Sidenote: Westphalia.]
[Sidenote: Grand Duchy of Berg.]
[Sidenote: Saxony.]
[Sidenote: Smaller States.]
Maximilian Joseph, the Elector of Bavaria, had, by hereditary right,
united the Electorates of the Palatinate and of Bavaria with the Duchy
of Deux-Ponts. He had been educated at the Court of Versailles, but
nevertheless he approved of the doctrines of the French Revolution and
became one of the earliest allies of Napoleon. The arrangements after
the Treaty of Lunéville, which had deprived him of the Palatinate and
of the Duchy of Deux-Ponts, had given him a powerful and concentrated
state. By the Treaty of Pressburg he received in addition the Tyrol and
the cities of Nuremberg and Ratisbon with the title of King. In 1809 he
further received the Principality of Salzburg, which made his kingdom
one of the most powerful in Germany. Possessing the whole of the upper
valley of the Danube, and the valleys of its affluents, Bavaria formed
a strong frontier state against Austria, and to the north marched with
the kingdom of Saxony. King Maximilian Joseph felt that he owed his
power to the French Emperor, and to seal the friendship he gave his
daughter, the Princess Augusta, in marriage to Napoleon’s step-son, the
Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais. On the western frontier of Bavaria, in
order to check that state if it became too powerful, Napoleon erected
the smaller kingdom of Würtemberg. Frederick, Duke of Würtemberg, like
Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, had shown himself ready to recognise
the authority of the French Republic and of Napoleon. He had received
considerable additions to his territories with the title of Elector
in 1803, and after the Treaty of Pressburg he received the whole of
Austrian Suabia except the Breisgau and Ortenau with the title of
King. He, too, like the first King of Bavaria, entered into a personal
alliance with Napoleon, and gave his daughter, the Princess Catherine,
in marriage to Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. The third south
German state which deserves notice is Baden, whose Duke, Charles
Frederick, was made an Elector in 1803, and in 1805 received the
title of Grand Duke with the greater part of Ortenau and the Breisgau
from Austrian Suabia. He, too, formed a family alliance with Napoleon
by the marriage of his heir to Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s
step-daughter. The kingdom of Westphalia, which was formed by Napoleon
for his brother Jerome after the Treaty of Tilsit, was an entirely new
creation, not an enlargement of a former German state like Bavaria
and Würtemberg. It consisted of the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, the
Prussian territories on the left of the Elbe, including the bishoprics
of Paderborn and Hildesheim, the Old Mark of Brandenburg, etc.,
the Duchy of Brunswick, a portion of Hanover, and other scattered
districts. It thus contained the greater part of the valleys of the
Ems, the Weser, and the Oder, but it did not reach the sea, and its
only important fortress was Magdeburg. Jerome, who was appointed its
first king, was not such a capable monarch as his brothers Joseph and
Louis, but he formed an able ministry, of which the most conspicuous
members were Siméon, the famous French jurist, as Minister of Justice,
and the historian, Johann Müller as Minister of Public Instruction.
The Westphalian people did not amalgamate so thoroughly as Napoleon
had expected; but this was not the fault of Jerome’s ministry, which
abolished feudalism, introduced the Civil Code, and regularised the
administration. The Grand Duchy of Berg, which he granted to his
brother-in-law Murat in 1806, was another creation of Napoleon. It
was formed out of the Duchy of Berg ceded by Bavaria, the County of
the Mark and the Bishopric of Münster, detached from Prussia, and of
the Duchy of Nassau. It formed a compact little state of a million
inhabitants, commanding part of the course of the Rhine, with its
capital at Düsseldorf. The key-stone of Napoleon’s policy in Eastern
Germany was Saxony. The Elector of that state had taken part with the
Prussians in the campaign of Jena, but Napoleon nevertheless calculated
that the ruler of Saxony, placed as he was between Prussia and Austria,
must naturally be an ally of France. He, therefore, in spite of his
behaviour in 1806, gave the Elector of Saxony the title of King and
the Circle of Lower Lusatia. After the Treaty of Tilsit Napoleon did
yet more for the King of Saxony, whom he created likewise Grand Duke
of Warsaw. Of the smaller states of Germany maintained by Napoleon,
the most important was Hesse-Darmstadt which separated the kingdom
of Westphalia from the Grand Duchy of Berg. As a faithful ally of
Napoleon, the Landgrave Louis X. received some accessions of territory
with the title of Grand Duke. The fourth Grand Duchy after Baden,
Berg, and Hesse-Darmstadt, was the Grand Duchy of Frankfort. This was
conferred upon the Archbishop, Charles de Dalberg. This prelate had
been coadjutor to the Archbishop-Elector of Mayence in the time of the
Revolution. He had succeeded to the Archbishopric in 1802, and in
1803, on the reorganisation of Germany, was the only ecclesiastical
elector retained. He was then given the Bishopric of Ratisbon, and when
that was transferred to Bavaria, was granted instead the Principalities
of Fulda and Hanau and the territory of Aschaffenburg. The last Grand
Duchy was that of Würtzburg, which was conferred on the Archduke
Ferdinand, the former Grand Duke of Tuscany, in exchange for the
Principality of Salzburg given to Bavaria in 1809. These territorial
changes were supplemented by a wholesale destruction of the very small
states. The Knights of the Empire lost their sovereign rights; all the
petty dukes and princes whose territory was enclosed in the larger
states which have been mentioned, were also mediatised, that is to say,
while retaining their rights as lords and their titles, they lost their
immediate sovereignty and became a sort of privileged aristocracy.
This measure, which supplemented the arrangements of 1803, finally
destroyed the ancient system of Germany. The little courts with but few
exceptions disappeared, and Germany became a collection of powerful
states instead of a congeries of feudal principalities.
[Sidenote: Confederation of the Rhine.]
Napoleon endeavoured to concentrate the power of the German princes as
a whole by the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, of which he
was officially recognised as Protector. The original Confederation of
the Rhine established in July 1805, consisted of only fifteen princes,
but after Tilsit it comprised thirty-two. The Arch-Chancellor of the
new confederation was Charles de Dalberg, the Grand Duke of Frankfort,
the only ecclesiastic who was acknowledged as a member. It comprised in
all the four kingdoms of Bavaria, Würtemberg, Westphalia, and Saxony,
the five grand duchies and twenty-three principalities. Its policy was
conducted by a Diet sitting at Frankfort composed of two colleges,—the
College of Kings and the College of Princes. The Confederation of
the Rhine, which was mainly situated between the Rhine and the Elbe,
contained a population of twenty million Germans, and was bound by
treaty to contribute a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers to the
armies of Napoleon.
[Sidenote: Poland.]
[Sidenote: Grand Duchy of Warsaw.]
In no respect did Napoleon prove how thoroughly his idea of
re-establishing the ancient Empires of the East and the West had taken
possession of his imagination than in his treatment of Poland. In order
to please the Emperor Alexander he did not insist upon re-establishing
Polish independence. Not only did he neither dare nor wish to deprive
Russia of her Polish provinces, but at Tilsit he even ceded to
Alexander the two Polish circles of Salkief and Tloczow. But though he
dared not establish a powerful independent Poland for fear of offending
Russia, he nevertheless formed, in 1807, a small Polish state under the
name of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. By this half measure he failed to
satisfy the Poles, who had looked to him to be the restorer of Polish
independence, and at the same time offended the Emperor Alexander, who
disliked the creation of a Polish state of any size or under any form.
The Grand Duchy of Warsaw eventually contained the whole of Prussian
and the greater part of Austrian Poland, and was placed under the rule
of the King of Saxony as Grand Duke of Warsaw, just as in former days
the Electors of Saxony had been Kings of Poland. In this half-and-half
policy with regard to Poland was to be found the greatest peril to the
newly-formed alliance between Alexander and Napoleon.
[Sidenote: Conference at Erfurt. Sept. 1808.]
For more than a year the alliance between Russia and France, between
Alexander and Napoleon, remained the most important fact of European
polity; but causes of dissension soon arose. On the one hand,
Alexander resented the existence of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and
felt that his subjects had cause to grumble at the sufferings they
endured owing to the Continental Blockade; on the other, there were
not wanting signs that Napoleon’s power had reached its height, and
was now about to decline. The first symptoms of this decline were his
quarrel with the Pope and his intervention in the affairs of Spain.
The first blows struck at his military superiority were the defeat
of the French troops in Portugal by Sir Arthur Wellesley at Vimeiro
and the capitulation of General Dupont to the Spaniards. The Treaty
of Tilsit marked the true zenith of Napoleon’s power; but in spite of
the misfortunes he suffered in 1808, and his wanton intervention in
the affairs of Spain, he still seemed the greatest monarch in Europe.
Feeling his prestige somewhat affected, and fearing the effect upon the
mind of his imaginative ally, Napoleon, trusting in the magnetism of
his presence and his conversation, had recourse to a personal interview
with Alexander at Erfurt in September 1808. There the two masters of
Europe discussed the state of affairs; Napoleon soothed Alexander’s
discontent, and again promised him the Danubian provinces. But the
full confidence which had been established at Tilsit was not restored
at Erfurt. Alexander, in spite of his admiration for the person of
Napoleon, felt distrustful of his policy, and Napoleon deceived himself
when he thought he had regained his ascendency over the mind of the
Russian Emperor. The interviews between the two Emperors formed the
important political side of the Congress of Erfurt; but the features
which dazzled Europe were the grand _fêtes_, the pit full of kings
which listened to Talma, the great French actor, and the obsequiousness
of the high-born German princes to one who, a few years before but a
general of the French Republic, was now master of Europe.