1807-1808.
Disturbed state of Spain--Godoy, Prince of the Peace--Reciprocal
accusations between the King of Spain and his son--False promise of
Napoleon--Dissatisfaction occasioned by the presence of the French
troops--Abdication of Charles IV.--The Prince of the Peace made
prisoner--Murat at Madrid--Important news transmitted by a
commercial letter--Murat's ambition--His protection of Godoy--
Charles IV, denies his voluntary abdication--The crown of Spain
destined for Joseph--General disapprobation of Napoleon's conduct--
The Bourbon cause apparently lost--Louis XVIII. after his departure
from France--As Comte de Provence at Coblentz--He seeks refuge in
Turin and Verona--Death of Louis XVII--Louis XVIII. refused an
asylum in Austria, Saxony, and Prussia--His residence at Mittan and
Warsaw--Alexander and Louis XVIII--The King's departure from Milan
and arrival at Yarmouth--Determination of the King of England--M.
Lemercier's prophecy to Bonaparte--Fouche's inquiries respecting
Comte de Rechteren--Note from Josephine--New demands on the Hanse
Towns--Order to raise 3000 sailors in Hamburg.
The disorders of Spain, which commenced about the close of the year 1807,
in a short time assumed a most complicated aspect. Though far from the
theatre of events I obtained an intimate knowledge of all the important
facts connected with the extraordinary transactions in the Peninsula.
However, as this point of history is one of the most generally, though I
cannot say the best, known, I shall omit in my notes and memoranda many
things which would be but repetitions to the reading portion of the
public. It is a remarkable fact that Bonaparte, who by turns cast his
eyes on all the States of Europe, never directed his attention to Spain
as long as his greatness was confined to mere projects. Whenever he
spoke of his future destiny he alluded to Italy, Germany, the East, and
the destruction of the English power; but never to Spain. Consequently,
when he heard of the first symptoms of disorder in the Peninsula he paid
but little attention to the business, and some time elapsed before he
took any part in events which subsequently had so great an influence on
his fate.
Godoy reigned in Spain under the name of the imbecile Charles IV. He was
an object of execration to all who were not his creatures; and even those
whose fate depended upon him viewed him with the most profound contempt.
The hatred of a people is almost always the just reward of favourites.
What sentiments, therefore, must have been inspired by a man who, to the
knowledge of all Spain, owed the favour of the king only to the favours
of the queen!
--[Manuel Godoy, originally a private in the guards, became the
paramour of Charles IV.'s Queen; then a grandee; and then the
supreme ruler of the State.--Editor of 1836 edition.]--
Godoy's ascendancy over the royal family was boundless; his power was
absolute: the treasures, of America were at his command, and he made the
most infamous use of them. In short, he had made the Court of Madrid one
of those places to which the indignant muse of Juvenal conducts the
mother of Britanicus. There is no doubt that Godoy was one of the
principal causes of all the misfortunes which have overwhelmed Spain
under so many various forms.
The hatred of the Spaniards against the Prince of the Peace was general.
This hatred was shared by the Prince the Asturias,--[Afterwards Ferdinand
VII.]-- who openly declared himself the enemy of Godoy. The latter
allied himself with France, from which he hoped to obtain powerful
protection against his enemies. This alliance gave rise to great
dissatisfaction in Spain, and caused France to be regarded with an
unfavourable eye. The Prince of the Asturias was encouraged and
supported by the complaints of the Spaniards, who wished to see the
overthrow of Godoy's power. Charles IV., on his part, regarded all
opposition to the Prince of the Peace as directed against himself, and in
November 1807 he accused his son of wishing to dethrone him.
The King of Spain did not confine himself to verbal complaints. He, or
rather the Prince of the Peace, acting in his name, arrested the warmest
partisans of the Prince of the Asturias. The latter, understanding the
sentiments of his father, wrote to Napoleon, soliciting his support.
Thus the father and son, at open war, were appealing one against another
for the support of him who wished only to get rid of them both, and to
put one of his brothers in their place, that he might have one junior
more in the college of European kings: but, as I have already mentioned,
this new ambition was not premeditated; and if he gave the throne of
Spain to his brother Joseph it was only on the refusal of his brother
Louis (King of Holland) to accept it.
The Emperor had promised to support Charles IV against his son; and, not
wishing to take part in these family quarrels, he had not answered the
first letters of the Prince of the Asturias. But finding that the
intrigues of Madrid were taking a serious turn, he commenced
provisionally by sending troops to Spain. This gave offence to the
people, who were averse to the interference of France. In the provinces
through which the French troops passed it was asked what was the object:
of the invasion. Some attributed it to the Prince of the Peace, others
to the Prince of the Asturias; but it excited general indignation, and
troubles broke out at Madrid accompanied by all the violence peculiar to
the Spanish character.
In these fearful circumstances Godoy proposed that Charles IV. should
remove to Seville, where he would be the better enabled to visit the
factious with punishment. A proposition from Godoy to his master was, in
fact, a command, and Charles IV. accordingly resolved to depart. The
people now looked upon Godoy as a traitor. An insurrection broke out,
the palace was, surrounded, and the, Prince of the Peace was on the point
of being massacred in an upper apartment, where he had taken refuge.
--[French troops had appeared in again some months before, on their
way to Portugal, the conquest of which country by Junot was to be
aided by Godoy and a Spanish force of 27,000 men, according to a
treaty (more disgraceful to the Court of Spain than to Bonaparte)
which had been ratified at Fontainebleau on the 27th of October
1807. Charles IV. was little better than an idiot, and Godoy and
the French made him believe that Bonaparte world give part, or the
whole of Portugal, to Spain. At the time of Junot's march on Lisbon
a reserve of 40,000 French troops were assembled at Bayonne--
a pretty clear indication, though the factious infatuated Court of
Madrid would not see it, that Bonaparte intended to seize the whole
of the Peninsula.--Editor of 1838 edition.]--
One of the mob had the presence of mind to invoke in his favour the name
of the Prince of the Asturias: this saved his life.
Charles IV. did not preserve his crown; he was easily intimidated, and
advantage was taken of a moment of alarm to demand that abdication which
he had not spirit to refuse. He surrendered up his rights to his son,
and thus was overthrown the insolent power of the Prince of the Peace;
the favourite was made prisoner, and the Spaniards, who, like all
ignorant people, are easily excited, manifested their joy on the occasion
with barbarous enthusiasm. Meanwhile the unfortunate King, who had
escaped from imaginary rather than real dangers, and who was at first
content with having exchanged the right of reigning for the right of
living, no sooner found himself in safety than he changed, his mind.
He wrote to the Emperor protesting against his abdication, and appealed.
to him as the arbiter of his future fate.
During these internal dissensions the French army was continuing its
march towards the Pyrenees. Those barriers were speedily crossed, and
Murat entered Madrid in the beginning of April 1808. Before I received
any despatch from our Government I learned that Murat's presence in
Madrid, far from producing a good effect, had only increased the
disorder. I obtained this information from a merchant of Lubeck who came
to Hamburg on purpose to show me a letter he had received from his
correspondent in Madrid. In this letter Spain was said to be a prey
which Murat wished to appropriate to himself; and all that afterwards
came to my knowledge served only to prove the accuracy of the writer's
information. It was perfectly true that Murat wished to conquer Spain
for himself, and it is not astonishing that the inhabitants of Madrid
should have understood his designs, for he carried his indiscretion so
far as openly to express his wish to become King of Spain. The Emperor
was informed of this, and gave him to understand, in very significant
terms, that the throne of Spain was not destined for him, but that he
should not be forgotten in the disposal of other crowns.
However, Napoleon's remonstrances were not sufficient to restrain the
imprudence of Murat; and if he did not gain the crown of Spain for
himself he powerfully contributed to make Charles IV. lose it. That
monarch, whom old habits attached to the Prince of the Peace, solicited
the Emperor to liberate his favourite, alleging that he and his family
would be content to live in any place of security provided Godoy were
with them. The unfortunate Charles seemed to be thoroughly disgusted
with greatness.
Both the King and Queen so earnestly implored Godoy's liberation that
Murat, whose vanity was flattered by these royal solicitations, took the
Prince of the Peace under his protection; but he at the same time
declared that, in spite of the abdication of Charles IV., he would
acknowledge none but that Prince as King of Spain until he should receive
contrary orders from the Emperor. This declaration placed Murat in
formal opposition to the Spanish people, who, through their hatred of
Godoy, embraced the cause of the heir of the throne; in whose favour
Charles IV. had abdicated.
It has been remarked that Napoleon stood in a perplexing situation in
this conflict between the King and his son. This is not correct. King
Charles, though he afterwards said that his abdication had been forced
from him by violence and threats, had nevertheless tendered it. By this
act Ferdinand was King, but Charles declared it was done against his
will, and he retracted. The Emperor's recognition was wanting, and he,
could give or withhold it as he pleased.
In this state of things Napoleon arrived at Bayonne. Thither Ferdinand
was also invited to go, under pretence of arranging with the Emperor the
differences between his father and himself. It was some time before he
could form his determination, but at length his ill-advised friends
prevailed on him to set off, and he was caught in the snare. What
happened to him, as well as to his father, who repaired to Bayonne with
his inseparable friend the Prince of the Peace is well known. Napoleon,
who had undertaken to be arbiter between the father and son, thought the
best way of settling the difference was to give the disputed throne to
his brother Joseph, thus verifying the fable of the "Two Lawyers and the
Oyster." The insurrection in Madrid on the 2d of May accelerated the
fate of Ferdinand, who was accused of being the author of it; at least
this suspicion fell on his friends and adherents.
Charles IV., it was said, would not return to Spain, and solicited an
asylum in France. He signed a renunciation of his rights to the crown of
Spain, which renunciation was also signed by the Infantas.
Napoleon now issued a decree, appointing "his dearly beloved brother
Joseph Napoleon, King of Naples and Sicily, to the crowns of Spain and
the Indies." By a subsequent decree, 15th of July, he appointed "his
dearly-beloved cousin, Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, to the throne
of Naples and Sicily, which remained vacant by the accession of Joseph
Napoleon to the kingdoms of Spain and the Indies." Both these documents
are signed Napoleon, and countersigned by the Minister Secretary of
State, Maret.
The Prince Royal of Sweden, who was at Hamburg at this time, and the
Ministers of all the European power, loudly condemned the conduct of
Napoleon with respect to Spain. I cannot say whether or not M. de
Talleyrand advised the Emperor not to attempt the overthrow of a branch
of the house of Bourbon; his good sense and elevated views might
certainly have suggested that advice. But the general opinion was that,
had he retained the portfolio of foreign affairs, the Spanish revolution
would have terminated with more decorum and good faith than was exhibited
in the tragi-comedy acted at Madrid and Bayonne.
After the Treaty of Tilsit and the bonds of friendship which seemed
likely to produce a permanent union between the Emperors of France and
Russia, the cause of the Bourbons must have been considered irretrievably
lost. Indeed, their only hope consisted in the imprudence and folly of
him who had usurped their throne, and that hope they cherished. I will
here relate what I had the opportunity of learning respecting the conduct
of Louis XVIII. after his departure from France; this will naturally
bring me to the end of November 1807, at which time I read in the Abeille
du Nord published on the 9th of the same month, that the Comte de Lille
and the Due d'Angouleme had set off for England.
The Comte de Provence, as Louis' title then went, left Paris on the 21st
of June 1791. He constantly expressed his wish of keeping as near as
possible to the frontiers of France. He at first took up his abode at
Coblentz, and I knew from good authority that all the emigrants did not
regard him with a favourable eye. They could not pardon the wise.
principles he had professed at a period when there was yet time to
prevent, by reasonable concession, the misfortunes which imprudent
irritation brought upon France. When the emigrants, after the campaign
of 1792, passed the Rhine, the Comte de Provence resided in the little
town of Ham on the Lippe, where he remained until he was persuaded that
the people of Toulon had called him to Provence. As he could not, of
course, pass through France, Monsieur repaired to the Court of his
father-in-law, the King of Sardinia, hoping to embark at Genoa, and from
thence to reach the coast of Provence. But the evacuation of Toulon,
where the name of Bonaparte was for the first time sounded by the breath
of fame, having taken place before he was able to leave Turin, Monsieur
remained there four months, at the expiration of which time his father-
in-law intimated to him the impossibility of his remaining longer in the
Sardinian States. He was afterwards permitted to reside at Verona, where
he heard of Louis XVI.'s death. After remaining two years in that city
the Senate of Venice forbade his presence in the Venetian States. Thus
forced to quit Italy the Comte repaired to the army of Conde.
The cold and timid policy of the Austrian Cabinet afforded no asylum to
the Comte de Provence, and he was obliged to pass through Germany; yet,
as Louis XVIII. repeated over and over again, ever since the Restoration,
"He never intended to shed French blood in Germany for the sake of
serving foreign interests." Monsieur had, indeed, too much penetration
not to see that his cause was a mere pretext for the powers at war with
France. They felt but little for the misfortunes of the Prince, and
merely wished to veil their ambition and their hatred of France under the
false pretence of zeal for the House of Bourbon.
When the Dauphin died, Louis XVIII. took the title of King of France, and
went to Prussia, where he obtained an asylum.
--[His brother, Charles X., the youngest of the three grandsons of
Louis XV. (Louis XVI., Louis XVIII. Charles X.), the Comte
d'Artois, afterwards Charles X. emigrated in 1789, and went to
Turin and Mantas for 1789 and 1790. In 1791 and 1792 he lived at
Coblenta, Worms, Brussels, Vienna, and at Turin. From 1792 to 1812
he lived at Ham on the Lippe at Westphalia at London, and for most
of the time at Holyrood, Edinburgh. During this time he visited
Russia and Germany, and showed himself on the coast of France. In
1818 he went to Germany, and in 1814 entered France in rear of the
allies. In risking his person in the daring schemes of the
followers who were giving their lives for the cause of his family he
displayed a circumspection which was characterised by them with
natural warmth.
"Sire, the cowardice of your brother has ruined all;" so Charette is
said to have written to Louis XVIII.]--
But the pretender to the crown of France had not yet drained his cup of
misfortune. After the 18th Fructidor the Directory required the King of
Prussia to send away Louis XVIII., and the Cabinet of Berlin, it must be
granted, was not in a situation to oppose the desire of the French
Government, whose wishes were commands. In vain Louis XVIII. sought an
asylum in the King of Saxony's States. There only remained Russia that
durst offer a last refuge to the descendant of Louis XIV. Paul I., who
was always in extremes, and who at that time entertained a violent
feeling of hatred towards France, earnestly offered Louis XVIII., a
residence at Mittau. He treated him with the honours of a sovereign,
and loaded him with marks of attention and respect. Three years had
scarcely passed when Paul was seized with mad enthusiasm for the man who
twelve years later, ravaged his ancient capital, and Louis XVIII. found
himself expelled from that Prince's territory with a harshness equal to
the kindness with which he had at first been received.
It was during, his three, years' residence at Mittau that Louis XVIII.,
who was then known by the title of Comte de Lille, wrote to the First
Consul those letters which have been referred to in these Memoirs.
Prussia, being again solicited, at length consented that Louis XVIII.
should reside at Warsaw; but on the accession of Napoleon to the Empire
the Prince quitted that residence in order to consult respecting his new
situation with the only sovereign who had not deserted him in his
misfortune, viz. the King of Sweden. They met at Colmar, and from that
city was dated the protest which I have already noticed. Louis XVIII.
did not stay long in the States of the King of Sweden. Russia was now on
the point of joining her eagles with those of Austria to oppose the new
eagles of imperial France. Alexander offered to the Comte de Lille the
asylum which Paul had granted to him and afterwards withdrawn. Louis
XVIII. accepted the offer, but after the peace of Tilsit, fearing lest
Alexander might imitate the second act of his father as well as the
first, he plainly saw that he must give up all intention of residing on
the Continent; and it was then that I read in the 'Abeille du Nord' the
article before alluded to. There is, however, one fact upon which I must
insist, because I know it to be true, viz. that it was of his own free
will that Louis XVIII. quitted Mittau; and if he was afraid that
Alexander would imitate his father's conduct that fear was without
foundation. The truth is, that Alexander was ignorant even of the King's
intention to go away until he heard from Baron von Driesen, Governor of
Mittau, that he had actually departed. Having now stated the truth on
this point I have to correct another error, if indeed it be only an
error, into which some writers have fallen. It has been falsely alleged
that the King left Mittau for the purpose of fomenting fresh troubles in
France. The friends of Louis XVIII., who advised him to leave Mittau,
had great hopes from the last war. They cherished still greater hopes
from the new wars which Bonaparte's ambition could not fail to excite,
but they were not so ill-informed respecting the internal condition of
France as to expect that disturbances would arise there, or even to
believe in the possibility of fomenting them. The pear was not yet ripe
for Louis XVIII.
On the 29th of November the contents of a letter which had arrived from
London by way of Sweden were communicated to me. This letter was dated
the 3d of November, and contained some particulars respecting the Comte
de Lille's arrival in England. That Prince had arrived at Yarmouth on
the 31st of October 1807, and it was stated that the King was obliged to
wait some time in the port until certain difficulties respecting his
landing and the continuance of his journey should be removed. It
moreover appeared from this letter that the King of England thought
proper to refuse the Comte de Lille permission to go to London or its
neighbourhood. The palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh was assigned as his
place of residence; and Mr. Ross, secretary to Mr. Canning, conveyed the
determination of the King of England to Louis XVIII., at Yarmouth.
The precaution of the English Ministry in not permitting the refugee King
to go near London appeared to me remarkable, considering the relative
position of the Governments of France and England, and I regarded it as a
corroboration of what the Prince Wittgenstein had told me respecting Mr.
Canning's inclination for an amicable arrangement. But the moment was
approaching when the affairs of Spain were to raise an invincible
obstacle to peace, to complicate more than ever the interests of the
powers of Europe, and open to Napoleon that vast career of ambition which
proved his ruin. He did not allow the hopes of the emigrants to remain
chimerical, and the year 1814 witnessed the realization of the prophetic
remark made by M. Lemereier, in a conversation with Bonaparte a few days
before the foundation of the Empire: "If you get into the bed of the
Bourbons, General, you will not lie in it ten year." Napoleon occupied
it for nine years and nine months.
Fouche, the grand investigator of the secrets of Europe, did not fail, on
the first report of the agitations in Spain, to address to me question on
question respecting the Comte de Rechteren, the Spanish Minister at
Hamburg, who, however, had left that city, with the permission of his
Court, four months after I had entered on my functions. This was going
back very far to seek information respecting the affairs of the day. At
the very moment when I transmitted a reply to Fouche which was not
calculated to please him, because it afforded no ground for suspicion as
to the personal conduct of M. de Rechteren, I received from the amiable
Josephine a new mark of her remembrance. She sent me the following note:
"M. Milon, who is now in Hamburg, wishes me, my dear Bourrienne, to
request that you will use your interest in his favour. I feel the more
pleasure in making this request as it affords me an opportunity of
renewing the assurance of my regard for you."
Josephine's letter was dated from Fontainebleau, whither the Emperor used
to make journeys in imitation of the old Court of France. During these
excursions he sometimes partook of the pleasures of the chase, but merely
for the sake of reviving an old custom, for in that exercise he found as
little amusement as Montaigne did in the game of chess,
At Fontainebleau, as everywhere else, his mind was engaged with the means
of augmenting his greatness, but, unfortunately, the exactions he imposed
on distant countries were calculated to alienate the affections of the
people. Thus, for example, I received an order emanating from him, and
transmitted to me by M. Daru, the Intendant-General of the army, that the
pay of all the French troops stationed in the Hanse Towns should be
defrayed by these towns. I lamented the necessity of making such a
communication to the Senates of Bremen, Lubeck, and Hamburg; but my duty
compelled me to do so, and I had long been accustomed to fulfil duties
even more painful than this. I tried every possible means with the three
States, not collectively but separately, to induce them to comply with
the measure, in the hope that the assent of one would help me to obtain
that of the two others. But, as if they, had been all agreed, I only
received evasive expressions of regret.
Knowing as I did, and I may say better than any one else, the hopes and
designs of Bonaparte respecting the north of Germany, it was not without
pain, nor even without alarm, that I saw him doing everything calculated
to convert into enemies the inhabitants of a country which would always
have remained quiet had it only been permitted to preserve its
neutrality. Among the orders I received were often many which could only
have been the result of the profoundest ignorance. For example, I was
one day directed to press 3000 seamen in the Hanse Towns. Three thousand
seamen out of a population of 200,000! It was as absurd as to think of
raising 500,000 sailors in France. This project being impossible, it was
of course not executed; but I had some difficulty in persuading the
Emperor that a sixth of the number demanded was the utmost the Hanse
Towns could supply. Five hundred seamen were accordingly furnished, but
to make up that number it was necessary to include many men who were
totally unfit for war service.