Napoleon

Napoleon I
The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, by Jacques-Louis David, 1812
Emperor of the French
Reign	18 May 1804 – 11 April 1814 20 March 1815 – 22 June 1815
Coronation	2 December 1804
Predecessor	Himself as First Consul
Successor	Louis XVIII (de jure in 1814)
King of Italy
Reign	17 March 1805 – 11 April 1814
Coronation	26 May 1805
Predecessor	Himself as President of Italy
Successor	None (kingdom disbanded, next king of Italy was Victor Emmanuel II)
Spouse	Joséphine de Beauharnais Marie Louise of Austria
Issue
Napoleon II
Full name
Napoleon Bonaparte
House	House of Bonaparte
Father	Carlo Buonaparte
Mother	Letizia Ramolino
Born	(1769-08-15)15 August 1769 Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Died	5 May 1821(1821-05-05) (aged 51) Longwood, Saint Helena
Burial	Les Invalides, Paris, France
Signature
Religion	Roman Catholicism (excommunicated on June 10, 1809[13] - see Religions section)

Napoleon Bonaparte (French: Napoléon Bonaparte [napoleɔ̃ bɔnɑpaʁt], Italian: Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe.

As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814. He implemented a wide array of liberal reforms across Europe, including the abolition of feudalism and the spread of religious toleration.^[14] His legal code in France, the Napoleonic Code, influenced numerous civil law jurisdictions worldwide. Napoleon is remembered for his role in leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won the majority of his battles and seized control of most of continental Europe in a quest for personal power and to spread the ideals of the French Revolution. Widely regarded as one of the greatest commanders in history, his campaigns are studied at military academies worldwide. He remains one of the most studied political and military leaders in all of history.^[15]

Napoleon was born in Corsica in a family of noble Italian ancestry which had settled in Corsica in the 16th century. He spoke French with a heavy Corsican accent. Well-educated, he rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the enemies of the French revolution who set up the First and Second Coalitions, most notably his campaigns in Italy.

He took power in a coup d'état in 1799 and installed himself as First Consul. In 1804 he made himself emperor of the French people. He fought a series of wars —the Napoleonic Wars—that involved complex coalitions for and against him. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the elevation of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French vassal states.

The Peninsular War (1807–14) and the French invasion of Russia in 1812 marked major military failures. His Grande Armée was badly damaged and never fully recovered. In 1813, the Sixth Coalition defeated his forces at the Battle of Leipzig and his enemies invaded France. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and go in exile to the Italian island of Elba. In 1815 he escaped and returned to power, but he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. He spent the last 6 years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena. An autopsy concluded he died of stomach cancer, but there has been debate about the cause of his death, some scholars have speculated he was a victim of arsenic poisoning.

Origins and education

Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769 to Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino in his family's ancestral home, Casa Buonaparte, in the town of Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica. He was their 4th child and 3rd son. This was a year after the island was transferred to France by the Republic of Genoa.^[16] He was christened Napoleone di Buonaparte, probably named after an uncle (an older brother, who did not survive infancy, was the first of the sons to be called Napoleone). In his twenties, he adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte.^{[1][note 1]}

The Corsican Buonapartes were descended from minor Italian nobility of Tuscan origin, who had come to Corsica from Liguria in the 16th century.^[17][18]

His father, Nobile Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1777. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Letizia Ramolino, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child.^[19] Napoleon's maternal grandmother had married into the Swiss Fesch family in her second marriage, and Napoleon's uncle, the later cardinal Joseph Fesch, would fulfill the role as protector of the Bonaparte family for some years.

He had an elder brother, Joseph; and younger siblings, Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jérôme. A boy and girl were born before Joseph but died in infancy. Napoleon was baptised as a Catholic.^[20]

Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.^[21] In January 1779, Napoleon was enrolled at a religious school in Autun, in mainland France, to learn French. In May he was admitted to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château.^[22] He always spoke with a marked Corsican accent and never learned to spell French properly.^[23] Napoleon was teased by other students for his accent and applied himself to reading.^[24] An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography... This boy would make an excellent sailor."^{[25][note 2]}

On completion of his studies at Brienne in 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris. He trained to become an artillery officer and, when his father's death reduced his income, was forced to complete the two-year course in one year.^[26] He was the first Corsican to graduate from the École Militaire.^[26] He was examined by the famed scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace, whom Napoleon later appointed to the Senate.^[27]

Early career

Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a second lieutenant in La Fère artillery regiment.^{[22][note 3]} He served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, and took nearly two years' leave in Corsica and Paris during this period. A fervent Corsican nationalist, Bonaparte wrote to the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli in May 1789:

As the nation was perishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me.^[28]

He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. He supported the revolutionary Jacobin faction, gained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Corsican militia, and gained command over a battalion of volunteers. Despite exceeding his leave of absence and leading a riot against a French army in Corsica, he was promoted to captain in the regular army in July 1792.^[29]

He returned to Corsica and came into conflict with Paoli, who had decided to split with France and sabotage the French assault on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena in February 1793, where Bonaparte was one of the expedition leaders.^[30] Bonaparte and his family fled to the French mainland in June 1793 because of the split with Paoli.^[31]

Siege of Toulon

In July 1793, Bonaparte published a pro-republican pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire (Supper at Beaucaire), which gained him the admiration and support of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. With the help of his fellow Corsican Antoine Christophe Saliceti, Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces at the siege of Toulon. The city had risen against the republican government and was occupied by British troops.^[32]

He adopted a plan to capture a hill where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the British ships to evacuate. The assault on the position, during which Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh, led to the capture of the city. He was promoted to brigadier general at the age of 24. Catching the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, he was put in charge of the artillery of France's Army of Italy.^[33]

Whilst waiting for confirmation of this post, Napoleon spent time as inspector of coastal fortifications on the Mediterranean coast near Marseille. He devised plans for attacking the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of France's campaign against the First Coalition.^[34] The commander of the Army of Italy, Pierre Jadart Dumerbion, had seen many generals executed for failing or for having the wrong political views. Therefore, he deferred to the powerful représentants en mission, Augustin Robespierre and Saliceti, who in turn were ready to listen to the freshly promoted artillery general.^[35]

Carrying out Bonaparte's plan in the Battle of Saorgio in April 1794, the French army advanced north-east along the Italian Riviera then turned north to seize Ormea in the mountains. From Ormea, they thrust west to outflank the Austro-Sardinian positions around Saorge. Later, Augustin Robespierre sent Bonaparte on a mission to the Republic of Genoa to determine that country's intentions towards France.^[34]

13 Vendémiaire

Following the fall of the Robespierres in the Thermidorian Reaction in July 1794, one account alleges that Bonaparte was put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the brothers. Napoleon's secretary, Bourrienne, disputed this allegation in his memoirs. According to Bourrienne, jealousy between the Army of the Alps and the Army of Italy (with whom Napoleon was seconded at the time) was responsible.^[36] After an impassioned defense in a letter Bonaparte dispatched to representants Salicetti and Albitte, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing.^[37]

He was released within two weeks and, due to his technical skills, was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions in the context of France's war with Austria. He also took part in an expedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the French were repulsed by the Royal Navy.^[38]

Bonaparte became engaged to Désirée Clary, whose sister, Julie Clary, married Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph; the Clarys were a wealthy merchant family from Marseilles.^[39] In April 1795, he was assigned to the Army of the West, which was engaged in the War in the Vendée—a civil war and royalist counter-revolution in Vendée, a region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery general—for which the army already had a full quota—and he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting.^[40]

He was moved to the Bureau of Topography of the Committee of Public Safety and sought, unsuccessfully, to be transferred to Constantinople in order to offer his services to the Sultan.^[41] During this period, he wrote a romantic novella, Clisson et Eugénie, about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Désirée.^[42] On 15 September, Bonaparte was removed from the list of generals in regular service for his refusal to serve in the Vendée campaign. He faced a difficult financial situation and reduced career prospects.^[43]

On 3 October, royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against the National Convention.^[44] Paul Barras, a leader of the Thermidorian Reaction, knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and gave him command of the improvised forces in defence of the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. Having seen the massacre of the King's Swiss Guard there three years earlier, he realised artillery would be the key to its defence.^[22]

He ordered a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, to seize large cannons and used them to repel the attackers on 5 October 1795—13 Vendémiaire An IV in the French Republican Calendar. After 1,400 royalists died, the rest fled.^[44] He had cleared the streets with "a whiff of grapeshot", according to the 19th-century historian Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution: A History.^[45]

The defeat of the royalist insurrection extinguished the threat to the Convention and earned Bonaparte sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new government, the Directory. Murat married one of his sisters and became his brother-in-law; he also served under Napoleon as one of his generals. Bonaparte was promoted to Commander of the Interior and given command of the Army of Italy.^[31]

Within weeks he was romantically attached to Barras's former mistress, Joséphine de Beauharnais. They married on 9 March 1796 after he had broken off his engagement to Désirée Clary.^[46]

First Italian campaign

Two days after the marriage, Bonaparte left Paris to take command of the Army of Italy and led it on a successful invasion of Italy. At the Battle of Lodi he defeated Austrian forces and drove them out of Lombardy.^[31] He was defeated at Caldiero by Austrian reinforcements, led by József Alvinczi, though Bonaparte regained the initiative at the crucial Battle of the Bridge of Arcole and proceeded to subdue the Papal States.^[47]

Bonaparte argued against the wishes of Directory atheists to march on Rome and dethrone the Pope as he reasoned this would create a power vacuum which would be exploited by the Kingdom of Naples. Instead, in March 1797, Bonaparte led his army into Austria and forced it to negotiate peace.^[48] The Treaty of Leoben gave France control of most of northern Italy and the Low Countries, and a secret clause promised the Republic of Venice to Austria. Bonaparte marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending 1,100 years of independence; he also authorised the French to loot treasures such as the Horses of Saint Mark.^[49]

His application of conventional military ideas to real-world situations effected his military triumphs, such as creative use of artillery as a mobile force to support his infantry. He referred to his tactics thus: "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning. Look at Caesar; he fought the first like the last."^[50]

He was adept at espionage and deception and could win battles by concealment of troop deployments and concentration of his forces on the 'hinge' of an enemy's weakened front. If he could not use his favourite envelopment strategy, he would take up the central position and attack two co-operating forces at their hinge, swing round to fight one until it fled, then turn to face the other.^[51] In this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners, 540 cannons and 170 standards.^[52] The French army fought 67 actions and won 18 pitched battles through superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics.^[53]

During the campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics; he founded two newspapers: one for the troops in his army and another for circulation in France.^[54] The royalists attacked Bonaparte for looting Italy and warned he might become a dictator.^[55] Bonaparte sent General Pierre Augereau to Paris to lead a coup d'état and purge the royalists on 4 September — Coup of 18 Fructidor. This left Barras and his Republican allies in control again but dependent on Bonaparte, who proceeded to peace negotiations with Austria. These negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Campo Formio, and Bonaparte returned to Paris in December as a hero.^[56] He met Talleyrand, France's new Foreign Minister—who would later serve in the same capacity for Emperor Napoleon—and they began to prepare for an invasion of Britain.^[31]

Egyptian expedition

After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided France's naval power was not yet strong enough to confront the Royal Navy in the English Channel and proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt and thereby undermine Britain's access to its trade interests in India.^[31] Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East, with the ultimate dream of linking with a Muslim enemy of the British in India, Tipu Sultan.^[57]

Napoleon assured the Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions."^[58] According to a report written in February 1798 by Talleyrand: "Having occupied and fortified Egypt, we shall send a force of 15,000 men from Suez to India, to join the forces of Tipu-Sahib and drive away the English."^[58] The Directory agreed in order to secure a trade route to India.^[59]

In May 1798, Bonaparte was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists: mathematicians, naturalists, chemists and geodesists among them; their discoveries included the Rosetta Stone, and their work was published in the Description de l'Égypte in 1809.^[60]

En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached Malta on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the Knights Hospitaller. The two-hundred Knights of French origin did not support the Grand Master, Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, who had succeeded a Frenchman, and made it clear they would not fight against their compatriots. Hompesch surrendered after token resistance, and Bonaparte captured an important naval base with the loss of only three men.^[61]

General Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal Navy and on 1 July landed at Alexandria.^[31] He fought the Battle of Shubra Khit against the Mamluks, Egypt's ruling military caste. This helped the French practice their defensive tactic for the Battle of the Pyramids, fought on 21 July, about 24 km (15 mi) from the pyramids. General Bonaparte's forces of 25,000 roughly equalled those of the Mamluks' Egyptian cavalry, but he formed hollow squares with supplies kept safely inside. Twenty-nine French^[62] and approximately 2,000 Egyptians were killed. The victory boosted the morale of the French army.^[63]

On 1 August, the British fleet under Horatio Nelson captured or destroyed all but two French vessels in the Battle of the Nile, and Bonaparte's goal of a strengthened French position in the Mediterranean was frustrated.^[64] His army had succeeded in a temporary increase of French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings.^[65] In early 1799, he moved an army into the Ottoman province of Damascus (Syria and Galilee). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of Arish, Gaza, Jaffa, and Haifa.^[66] The attack on Jaffa was particularly brutal: Bonaparte, on discovering many of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, ordered the garrison and 1,400 prisoners to be executed by bayonet or drowning to save bullets.^[64] Men, women and children were robbed and murdered for three days.^[67]

With his army weakened by disease—mostly bubonic plague—and poor supplies, Bonaparte was unable to reduce the fortress of Acre and returned to Egypt in May.^[64] To speed up the retreat, he ordered plague-stricken men to be poisoned.^[68] (However, British eyewitness accounts later showed that most of the men were still alive and had not been poisoned.) His supporters have argued this was necessary given the continued harassment of stragglers by Ottoman forces, and indeed those left behind alive were tortured and beheaded by the Ottomans. Back in Egypt, on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir.^[69]

Ruler of France

While in Egypt, Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs through irregular delivery of newspapers and dispatches. He learned that France had suffered a series of defeats in the War of the Second Coalition.^[70] On 24 August 1799, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, despite the fact he had received no explicit orders from Paris.^[64] The army was left in the charge of Jean Baptiste Kléber.^[71]

Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return to ward off possible invasions of French soil, but poor lines of communication prevented the delivery of these messages.^[70] By the time he reached Paris in October, France's situation had been improved by a series of victories. The Republic was, however, bankrupt and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the French population.^[72] The Directory discussed Bonaparte's "desertion" but was too weak to punish him.^[70]

Despite the failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned to a hero's welcome. In alliance with the director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, his brother Lucien; the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos; another Director, Joseph Fouché; and Talleyrand, he overthrew the Directory by a coup d'état on November 9, 1799 ("the 18th Brumaire" according to the revolutionary calendar), and closed down the council of five hundred. Napoleon became "first consul" for ten years, with two consuls appointed by him who had consultative voices only. His power was confirmed by the new constitution ("Constitution of the year VIII"), originally devised by Sieyès to give Napoleon a minor role, but rewritten by Napoleon, and accepted by direct popular vote (3,000,000 in favor, 1,567 opposed). The constitution preserved the appearance of a republic but in reality established a military dictatorship. The days of Brumaire sounded the end of the short-lived republic: no more representative government, assemblies, a collegial executive, or liberty.^[73][74]

French Consulate

Though Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmanoeuvred by Bonaparte. Having seized power, Lefebvre notes, "Napoleon immediately set about organizing his dictatorship."^[75] He drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, and he took up residence at the Tuileries.^[76] The constitution was approved in a plebiscite held the following January, with 99.94 percent officially listed as voting "yes"—an implausibly high result that could have only been obtained through fraud.

In 1800, Bonaparte and his troops crossed the Alps into Italy, where French forces had been almost completely driven out by the Austrians whilst he was in Egypt.^{[note 4]} The campaign began badly for the French after Bonaparte made strategic errors; one force was left besieged at Genoa but managed to hold out and thereby occupy Austrian resources.^[77] This effort, and French general Louis Desaix's timely reinforcements, allowed Bonaparte narrowly to avoid defeat and to triumph over the Austrians in June at the significant Battle of Marengo.^[78]

Bonaparte's brother Joseph led the peace negotiations in Lunéville and reported that Austria, emboldened by British support, would not recognise France's newly gained territory. As negotiations became increasingly fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As a result, the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801; the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased.^[78]

Temporary peace in Europe

Both France and Britain had become tired of war and signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802. This called for the withdrawal of British troops from most colonial territories it had recently occupied.^[77] Bolstered by this treaty, Napoleon was made First Consul for life in a 10 May plebiscite, with an implausible 99.8% voting in favour.

The peace was uneasy and short-lived.^[79] Britain did not evacuate Malta as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his Act of Mediation, which established a new Swiss Confederation, though neither of these territories were covered by the treaty.^[80] The dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803, and he reassembled the invasion camp at Boulogne.^[64]

Bonaparte faced a major setback and eventual defeat in the Haitian Revolution. By the Law of 20 May 1802 Bonaparte re-established slavery in France's colonial possessions, where it had been banned following the Revolution.^[81] Following a slave revolt a decade earlier, he sent an an expeditionary army to reconquer Saint-Domingue (Haiti) on the western side of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea and re-establish a base for an expanded colonial empire in the West Indies and North America. The French Imperial army was, soon however, infected and destroyed by the disease of yellow fever, amid fierce resistance led by Haitian revolutionary generals Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Faced by imminent war against Britain, within a year of dispatching the army to Haiti and possible bankruptcy, Napoleon now recognised any French possessions on the mainland of North America would be indefensible considering Britain's control of the sea. So, unexpectedly he sold them to the US in 1803 —the Louisiana Purchase— for less than three cents per acre, $15 million.^[82]

French Empire

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

Napoleon used the plot to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as emperor, as a Bourbon restoration would be more difficult if the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the constitution.^[85] Napoleon was elected as "Emperor of the French" in a plebiscite held in November. As before, this vote was implausibly lopsided, with 99.93 percent officially voting yes.

He was crowned by Pope Pius VII as Napoleon I, on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris and then crowned Joséphine Empress. The story that Napoleon seized the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII during the ceremony to avoid his subjugation to the authority of the pontiff is apocryphal; the coronation procedure had been agreed in advance.^{[note 5][86]} Ludwig van Beethoven, a long-time admirer, was disappointed at this turn towards imperialism and scratched his dedication to Napoleon from his 3rd Symphony.^[85]

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

War of the Third Coalition

Great Britain broke the Peace of Amiens and declared war on France in May 1803.^[87] Napoleon set up a camp at Boulogne-sur-Mer to prepare for an invasion of Britain. By 1805, Britain had convinced Austria and Russia to join a Third Coalition against France. Napoleon knew the French fleet could not defeat the Royal Navy in a head-to-head battle and planned to lure it away from the English Channel.^[88]

The French Navy would escape from the British blockades of Toulon and Brest and threaten to attack the West Indies, thus drawing off the British defence of the Western Approaches, in the hope a Franco-Spanish fleet could take control of the channel long enough for French armies to cross from Boulogne and invade England.^[88] However, after defeat at the naval Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805 and Admiral Villeneuve's retreat to Cádiz, invasion was never again a realistic option for Napoleon.^[89]

As the Austrian army marched on Bavaria, he called the invasion of Britain off and ordered the army stationed at Boulogne, his Grande Armée, to march to Germany secretly in a turning movement—the Ulm Campaign. This encircled the Austrian forces about to attack France and severed their lines of communication. On 20 October 1805, the French captured 30,000 prisoners at Ulm, though the next day Britain's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar meant the Royal Navy gained control of the seas.^[90]

Six weeks later, on the first anniversary of his coronation, Napoleon defeated Austria and Russia at Austerlitz. This ended the Third Coalition, and he commissioned the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the victory. Austria had to concede territory; the Peace of Pressburg led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and creation of the Confederation of the Rhine with Napoleon named as its Protector.^[90]

Napoleon would go on to say, "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought."^[91] Frank McLynn suggests Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one".^[92] Vincent Cronin disagrees, stating Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself, that "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".^[93]

Middle-Eastern alliances

Even after the failed campaign in Egypt, Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East.^[57] An alliance with Middle-Eastern powers would have the strategic advantage of pressuring Russia on its southern border. From 1803, Napoleon went to considerable lengths to try to convince the Ottoman Empire to fight against Russia in the Balkans and join his anti-Russian coalition.^[94]

Napoleon sent General Horace Sebastiani as envoy extraordinary, promising to help the Ottoman Empire recover lost territories.^[94] In February 1806, following Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz and the ensuing dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire, the Ottoman Emperor Selim III finally recognised Napoleon as Emperor, formally opting for an alliance with France "our sincere and natural ally", and war with Russia and England.^[95]

A Franco-Persian alliance was also formed, from 1807 to 1809, between Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar, against Russia and Great Britain. The alliance ended when France allied with Russia and turned its focus to European campaigns.^[57]

War of the Fourth Coalition

The Fourth Coalition was assembled in 1806, and Napoleon defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in October.^[96] He marched against advancing Russian armies through Poland and was involved in the bloody stalemate of the Battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807.^[97]

After a decisive victory at Friedland, he signed the Treaties of Tilsit; one with Tsar Alexander I of Russia which divided the continent between the two powers; the other with Prussia which stripped that country of half its territory. Napoleon placed puppet rulers on the thrones of German states, including his brother Jérôme as king of the new Kingdom of Westphalia. In the French-controlled part of Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony as ruler.^[98]

With his Milan and Berlin Decrees, Napoleon attempted to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain called the Continental System. This act of economic warfare did not succeed, as it encouraged British merchants to smuggle into continental Europe, and Napoleon's exclusively land-based customs enforcers could not stop them.^[99][100]

Peninsular War

The former Spanish king was dethroned by Napoleon who put his own brother on the throne. Spaniards revolted. Thompson says the Spanish revolt was, "a reaction against new institutions and ideas, a movement for loyalty to the old order: to the hereditary crown of the Most Catholic kings, which Napoleon, an excommunicated enemy of the Pope, had put on the head of a Frenchman; to the Catholic Church persecuted by republicans who had desecrated churches, murdered priests, and enforced a "loi des cultes"; and to local and provincial rights and privileges threatened by an efficiently centralized government.^[101] The peninsular campaign in Spain proved a major disaster for France. Napoleon did well in when he was in direct charge, but that followed severe losses, and was followed by worse losses. Spain proved to be a major, long-term drain on money, manpower and prestige. Historian David Gates called it the "Spanish ulcer." ^[102]

Portugal defied the Continental System, so in 1807 Napoleon invaded with the support of Spain. Under the pretext of a reinforcement of the Franco-Spanish army occupying Portugal, Napoleon invaded Spain as well, replaced Charles IV with his brother Joseph and placed his brother-in-law Joachim Murat in Joseph's stead at Naples. This led to resistance from the Spanish army and civilians in the Dos de Mayo Uprising.^[103]

In Spain, Napoleon faced a new type of war, termed a guerrilla war, in which the local population, inspired by religion and patriotism, took up arms. The French had to contend not only with regular armies, but also attacks by guerrillas using ambushes, sabotage and armed uprisings. Vicious reprisals by the French only escalated the hatreds and attacks.^[104]

Following a French retreat from much of the country, and the surrender of Dupont's French army of 18,000 men, Napoleon took personal command and defeated the Spanish Army. He retook Madrid, then outmanoeuvred a British army sent to support the Spanish and drove it to the coast. Before the Spanish population had been fully subdued, Austria again threatened war, and Napoleon returned to France.^[101][105]

The costly and often brutal Peninsular War continued in Napoleon's absence. Although Napoleon left 300,000 of his finest troops to battle Spanish guerrillas as well as British and Portuguese forces commanded by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, French control over the peninsula again deteriorated.^[106]

France lost the Peninsular War; Napoleon realized it had been a disaster for his cause, writing later, "That unfortunate war destroyed me....All the circumstances of my disasters are bound up in that fatal knot."^[107]

War of the Fifth Coalition and remarriage

In April 1809, Austria abruptly broke its alliance with France, and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. After early successes, the French faced difficulties in crossing the Danube and suffered a defeat in May at the Battle of Aspern-Essling near Vienna. The Austrians failed to capitalise on the situation and allowed Napoleon's forces to regroup. He defeated the Austrians again at Wagram, and the Treaty of Schönbrunn was signed between Austria and France.^[108]

Britain was the other member of the coalition. In addition to the Iberian Peninsula, the British planned to open another front in mainland Europe. However, Napoleon was able to rush reinforcements to Antwerp, owing to Britain's inadequately organised Walcheren Campaign.^[109]

He concurrently annexed the Papal States because of the Church's refusal to support the Continental System; Pope Pius VII responded by excommunicating the emperor. The pope was then abducted by Napoleon's officers, and though Napoleon had not ordered his abduction, he did not order Pius' release. The pope was moved throughout Napoleon's territories, sometimes while ill, and Napoleon sent delegations to pressure him on issues including agreement to a new concordat with France, which Pius refused. In 1810 Napoleon married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, following his divorce of Joséphine; this further strained his relations with the Church, and thirteen cardinals were imprisoned for non-attendance at the marriage ceremony.^[110] The pope remained confined for 5 years and did not return to Rome until May 1814.^[111]

In November 1810, Napoleon consented to the ascent to the Swedish throne of Bernadotte, one of his marshals, with whom Napoleon had always had strained relations. Napoleon had indulged Bernadotte's indiscretions because he was married to Désirée Clary, his former fiancée and sister of the wife of his brother Joseph. Napoleon came to regret accepting this appointment when Bernadotte later allied Sweden with France's enemies.^[112]

Invasion of Russia

The Congress of Erfurt sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, and the leaders had a friendly personal relationship after their first meeting at Tilsit in 1807.^[113] By 1811, however, tensions had increased and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the alliance. An early sign the relationship had deteriorated was the Russian's virtual abandonment of the Continental System, which led Napoleon to threaten Alexander with serious consequences if he formed an alliance with Britain.^[114]

By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. On receipt of intelligence reports on Russia's war preparations, Napoleon expanded his Grande Armée to more than 450,000 men.^[115] He ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 23 June 1812 the invasion commenced.^[116]

In an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, Napoleon termed the war the Second Polish War—the First Polish War had been the Bar Confederation uprising by Polish nobles against Russia in 1768. Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of Poland to be joined with the Duchy of Warsaw and an independent Poland created. This was rejected by Napoleon, who stated he had promised his ally Austria this would not happen. Napoleon refused to manumit the Russian serfs because of concerns this might provoke a reaction in his army's rear. The serfs later committed atrocities against French soldiers during France's retreat.^[117]

The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia. A brief attempt at resistance was made at Smolensk in August; the Russians were defeated in a series of battles, and Napoleon resumed his advance. The Russians again avoided battle, although in a few cases this was only achieved because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity arose. Owing to the Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their horses.^[118]

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time.^[119] Although the French had won, the Russian army had accepted, and withstood, the major battle Napoleon had hoped would be decisive. Napoleon's own account was: "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves to be worthy of victory, but the Russians showed themselves worthy of being invincible."^[120]

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. However, on orders of the city's governor Feodor Rostopchin, rather than capitulation, Moscow was burned. After a month, concerned about loss of control back in France, Napoleon and his army left.^[121]

The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat, including from the harshness of the Russian Winter. The Armée had begun as over 400,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River in November 1812.^[122] The Russians had lost 150,000 in battle and hundreds of thousands of civilians.^[123]

War of the Sixth Coalition

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was then able to field 350,000 troops.^[124] Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.^[125]

Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total.^[126]

Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as many Allied troops.^[127] The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days' Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide; Paris was captured by the Coalition in March 1814.^[128]

On 2 April, the Sénat conservateur passed the Acte de déchéance de l'Empereur ("Emperor's Demise Act"), which declared Napoleon deposed. Napoleon had advanced as far as Fontainebleau when he learned that Paris had surrendered. When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his marshals decided to mutiny.^[129] On 4 April, led by Ney, they confronted Napoleon. Napoleon asserted the army would follow him, and Ney replied the army would follow its generals. Bowing to the inevitable, on 4 April he abdicated in favour of his son, with Marie-Louise as regent. However, the Allies refused to accept this under prodding from Alexander, who suggested that Napoleon might find an excuse to retake the throne. Bowing to the inevitable, Napoleon was forced to announce his unconditional abdication only two days later.

Exile to Elba

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

—Act of abdication of Napoleon^[130]

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km (12 mi) off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain his title of emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried since a near-capture by Russians on the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, and he survived to be exiled while his wife and son took refuge in Austria.^[131] In the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army, developed the iron mines, and issued decrees on modern agricultural methods.^[132]

Hundred Days

Separated from his wife and son, who had come under Austrian control, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815. He landed at Golfe-Juan on the French mainland, two days later.^[133]

The 5th Regiment was sent to intercept him and made contact just south of Grenoble on 7 March 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within gunshot range, shouted, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish."^[134]

The soldiers responded with, "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris; Louis XVIII fled. On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw, and 4 days later Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia bound themselves to each put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.^[135]

Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days. By the start of June the armed forces available to him had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies. The French Army of the North crossed the frontier into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, in modern-day Belgium.^[136]

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

Napoleon returned to Paris and found that both the legislature and the people had turned violently on him. Realizing his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son. He left Paris 3 days later and settled at Josephine's former home in Malmaison. Coalition forces swept into France soon afterward, intent on restoring Louis XVIII to the French throne.

When Napoleon got word that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to Rochefort, intending to escape to the US. However, with British ships blocking every port to prevent his escape, Napoleon formally demanded political asylum from the British Captain Frederick Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.^[137]

Exile on Saint Helena

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, 1,870 km (1,162 mi) from the west coast of Africa. In his first two months there, he lived in a pavilion on the Briars estate, which belonged to a William Balcombe. Napoleon became friendly with his family, especially his younger daughter Lucia Elizabeth, who later wrote Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon.^[138] This friendship ended in 1818 when British authorities became suspicious that Balcombe had acted as an intermediary between Napoleon and Paris and dismissed him from the island.^[139]

Napoleon moved to Longwood House in December 1815; it had fallen into disrepair, and the location was damp, windswept and unhealthy. The Times published articles insinuating the British government was trying to hasten his death, and he often complained of the living conditions in letters to the governor and his custodian, Hudson Lowe.^[140]

With a small cadre of followers, Napoleon dictated his memoirs and criticised his captors—particularly Lowe. Lowe's treatment of Napoleon is regarded as poor by historians such as Frank McLynn.^[141] Lowe exacerbated a difficult situation through measures including a reduction in Napoleon's expenditure, a rule that no gifts could be delivered to him if they mentioned his imperial status, and a document his supporters had to sign that guaranteed they would stay with the prisoner indefinitely.^[141]

In 1818, The Times reported a false rumour of Napoleon's escape and said the news had been greeted by spontaneous illuminations in London.^{[note 6]} There was sympathy for him in the British Parliament: Lord Holland gave a speech that demanded the prisoner be treated with no unnecessary harshness.^[142] Napoleon kept himself informed of the events through The Times and hoped for release in the event that Holland became prime minister. He also enjoyed the support of Lord Cochrane, who was involved in Chile's and Brazil's struggle for independence, and wanted to rescue Napoleon and help him set up a new empire in South America, a scheme frustrated by Napoleon's death in 1821.^[143]

There were other plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity, including one from Texas, where exiled soldiers from the Grande Armée wanted a resurrection of the Napoleonic Empire in America. There was even a plan to rescue him with a primitive submarine.^[144] For Lord Byron, Napoleon was the epitome of the Romantic hero, the persecuted, lonely and flawed genius. The news that Napoleon had taken up gardening at Longwood also appealed to more domestic British sensibilities.^[145]

Death

His personal physician, Barry O'Meara, warned the authorities of his declining state of health mainly caused, according to him, by the harsh treatment of the captive in the hands of his "gaoler", Lowe, which led Napoleon to confine himself for months in his damp and wretched habitation of Longwood. O'Meara kept a clandestine correspondence with a clerk at the Admiralty in London, knowing his letters were read by higher authorities: he hoped, in such way, to raise alarm in the government, but to no avail.^[146]

In February 1821, Napoleon's health began to deteriorate rapidly, and on 3 May two British physicians, who had recently arrived, attended on him but could only recommend palliatives.^[147] He died two days later, after confession, Extreme Unction and Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali.^[147] His last words were, "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine." ("France, army, head of the army, Joséphine.")^[147]

Napoleon's original death mask was created around 6 May, although it is not clear which doctor created it.^{[148][note 7]} In his will, he had asked to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but the British governor said he should be buried on Saint Helena, in the Valley of the Willows. Hudson Lowe insisted the inscription should read "Napoleon Bonaparte"; Montholon and Bertrand wanted the Imperial title "Napoleon" as royalty were signed by their first names only. As a result the tomb was left nameless.^[147]

In 1840, Louis Philippe I obtained permission from the British to return Napoleon's remains to France. The remains were transported aboard the frigate Belle-Poule, which had been painted black for the occasion, and on 29 November she arrived in Cherbourg. The remains were transferred to the steamship Normandie, which transported them to Le Havre, up the Seine to Rouen and on to Paris.^[149]

On 15 December, a state funeral was held. The hearse proceeded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then to the cupola in St Jérôme's Chapel, where it remained until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti was completed. In 1861, Napoleon's remains were entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.^[149]

Cause of death

Napoleon's physician, François Carlo Antommarchi, led the autopsy, which found the cause of death to be stomach cancer. Antommarchi did not, however, sign the official report.^[150] Napoleon's father had died of stomach cancer, although this was seemingly unknown at the time of the autopsy.^[151] Antommarchi found evidence of a stomach ulcer; this was the most convenient explanation for the British, who wanted to avoid criticism over their care of Napoleon.^[147]

In 1955, the diaries of Napoleon's valet, Louis Marchand, were published. His description of Napoleon in the months before his death led Sten Forshufvud in a 1961 paper in Nature to put forward other causes for his death, including deliberate arsenic poisoning.^[152] Arsenic was used as a poison during the era because it was undetectable when administered over a long period. Forshufvud, in a 1978 book with Ben Weider, noted that Napoleon's body was found to be remarkably well preserved when moved in 1840. Arsenic is a strong preservative, and therefore this supported the poisoning hypothesis. Forshufvud and Weider observed that Napoleon had attempted to quench abnormal thirst by drinking large amounts of orgeat syrup that contained cyanide compounds in the almonds used for flavouring.^[152]

They maintained that the potassium tartrate used in his treatment prevented his stomach from expelling these compounds and that his thirst was a symptom of the poison. Their hypothesis was that the calomel given to Napoleon became an overdose, which killed him and left extensive tissue damage behind.^[152] According to a 2007 article, the type of arsenic found in Napoleon's hair shafts was mineral, the most toxic, and according to toxicologist Patrick Kintz, this supported the conclusion that he was murdered.^[153]

The wallpaper used in Longwood contained a high level of arsenic compound used by British manufacturers as a dye. The adhesive, which in the cooler British environment was innocuous, may have grown mould in the more humid climate and emitted the poisonous gas arsine. This theory has been ruled out, as it does not explain the arsenic absorption patterns found in other analyses.^[152]

There have been modern studies that have supported the original autopsy finding.^[153] In a 2008 study, researchers analysed samples of Napoleon's hair from throughout his life, as well as samples from his family and other contemporaries. All samples had high levels of arsenic, approximately 100 times higher than the current average. According to these researchers, Napoleon's body was already heavily contaminated with arsenic as a boy, and the high arsenic concentration in his hair was not caused by intentional poisoning; people were constantly exposed to arsenic from glues and dyes throughout their lives.^{[note 8]} Studies published in 2007 and 2008 dismissed evidence of arsenic poisoning, and confirmed evidence of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer as the cause of death.^[154]

Reforms

Bonaparte instituted lasting reforms, including higher education, a tax code, road and sewer systems, and established the Banque de France (central bank). He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, which sought to reconcile the mostly Catholic population to his regime. It was presented alongside the Organic Articles, which regulated public worship in France. Later that year, Bonaparte became President of the French Academy of Sciences and appointed Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre its Permanent Secretary.^[155]

In May 1802, he instituted the Legion of Honour, a substitute for the old royalist decorations and orders of chivalry, to encourage civilian and military achievements; the order is still the highest decoration in France.^[156] His powers were increased by the Constitution of the Year X including: Article 1. The French people name, and the Senate proclaims Napoleon-Bonaparte First Consul for Life.^[157] After this he was generally referred to as Napoleon rather than Bonaparte.^[3]

Napoleon's set of civil laws, the Code Civil—now often known as the Napoleonic Code—was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, the Second Consul. Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. The development of the code was a fundamental change in the nature of the civil law legal system with its stress on clearly written and accessible law. Other codes ("Les cinq codes") were commissioned by Napoleon to codify criminal and commerce law; a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted rules of due process.^[158] See Legacy.

Napoleonic Code

The Napoleonic code was adopted throughout much of Europe, though only in the lands he conquered, and remained in force after Napoleon's defeat. Napoleon said: "My true glory is not to have won forty battles...Waterloo will erase the memory of so many victories. ... But...what will live forever, is my Civil Code."^[159] The Code still has importance today in a quarter of the world's jurisdictions including in Europe, the Americas and Africa.^[160]

Dieter Langewiesche described the code as a "revolutionary project" which spurred the development of bourgeois society in Germany by the extension of the right to own property and an acceleration towards the end of feudalism. Napoleon reorganised what had been the Holy Roman Empire, made up of more than a thousand entities, into a more streamlined forty-state Confederation of the Rhine; this provided the basis for the German Confederation and the unification of Germany in 1871.^[161]

The movement toward national unification in Italy was similarly precipitated by Napoleonic rule.^[162] These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the nation state.^[163]

Metric system

The official introduction of the metric system in September 1799 was unpopular in large sections of French society, and Napoleon's rule greatly aided adoption of the new standard across not only France but the French sphere of influence. Napoleon ultimately took a retrograde step in 1812 when he passed legislation to introduce the mesures usuelles (traditional units of measurement) for retail trade^[164]—a system of measure that resembled the pre-revolutionary units but were based on the kilogram and the metre; for example the livre metrique (metric pound) was 500 g^[165] instead of 489.5 g—the value of the livre du roi (the king's pound).^[166] Other units of measure were rounded in a similar manner. This however laid the foundations for the definitive introduction of the metric system across Europe in the middle of the 19th century.^[167]

Religions

Napoleon's baptism took place in Ajaccio on 21 July 1771; he was piously raised and received a Christian education; however, his teachers failed to give faith to the young boy.^[168] As an adult, Napoleon was described as a "deist with involuntary respect and fondness for Catholicism."^[169] He never believed in a living God; Napoleon's deity was an absent and distant God,^[168] but he pragmatically considered organised religions as key elements of social order,^[168] and especially Catholicism, whose, according to him, "splendorous ceremonies and sublime moral better act over the imagination of the people than other religions".^[168]

Napoleon had a civil marriage with Joséphine de Beauharnais, without religious ceremony, on 9 March 1796. During the campaign in Egypt, Napoleon showed much tolerance towards religion for a revolutionary general, holding discussions with Muslim scholars and ordering religious celebrations, but General Dupuy, who accompanied Napoleon, revealed, shortly after Pope Pius VI's death, the political reasons for such behaviour: "We are fooling Egyptians with our pretended interest for their religion; neither Bonaparte nor we believe in this religion more than we did in Pius the Defunct's one".^{[note 9]} In his memoirs, Bonaparte's secretary Bourienne wrote about Napoleon's religious interests in the same vein.^[170] His religious opportunism is epitomized in his famous quote: "It is by making myself Catholic that I brought peace to Brittany and Vendée. It is by making myself Italian that I won minds in Italy. It is by making myself a Moslem that I established myself in Egypt. If I governed a nation of Jews, I should reestablish the Temple of Solomon."^[171] However, according to Juan Cole, "Bonaparte's admiration for the Prophet Muhammad, in contrast, was genuine"^[172] and during his captivity on St Helena he defended him against Voltaire's critical play Mahomet.

Napoleon was crowned Emperor Napoleon I on 2 December 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris by Pope Pius VII. On 1 April 1810, Napoleon religiously married the Austrian princess Marie Louise. During his brother's rule in Spain, he abolished the Spanish Inquisition in 1813. In a private discussion with general Gourgaud during his exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon expressed materialistic views on the origin of man,^{[note 10]}and doubted the divinity of Jesus, stating that it is absurd to believe that Socrates, Plato, Muslims, and the Anglicans should be damned for not being Roman Catholics.^{[note 11]} He also said to Gourgaud in 1817 "I like the Mohammedan religion best. It has fewer incredible things in it than ours."^[173] and that "the Mohammedan religion is the finest of all".^[174] However, Napoleon was anointed by a priest before his death.^[175]

Concordat

Seeking national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics, the Concordat of 1801 was signed on 15 July 1801 between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status.

During the French Revolution, the National Assembly had taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which made the Church a department of the State, removing it from the authority of the Pope. This caused hostility among the Vendeans towards the change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French government. Subsequent laws abolished the traditional Gregorian calendar and Christian holidays.

While the Concordat restored some ties to the papacy, it was largely in favor of the state; the balance of church-state relations had tilted firmly in Napoleon's favour. Now, Napoleon could win favor with the Catholics within France while also controlling Rome in a political sense. Napoleon once told his brother Lucien in April 1801, "Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests. They can both contain them and use them."^[176] As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles.

Religious emancipation

Napoleon emancipated Jews, as well as Protestants in Catholic countries and Catholics in Protestant countries, from laws which restricted them to ghettos, and he expanded their rights to property, worship, and careers. Despite the anti-semitic reaction to Napoleon's policies from foreign governments and within France, he believed emancipation would benefit France by attracting Jews to the country given the restrictions they faced elsewhere.^[177]

He stated, "I will never accept any proposals that will obligate the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weakness to chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to assimilate them."^[178] He was seen as so favourable to the Jews that the Russian Orthodox Church formally condemned him as "Antichrist and the Enemy of God".^[179]

Personality

Historians agree that Napoleon's remarkable personality was one key to his influence. Although not physically imposing, in one-on-one situations he typically had a hypnotic impact on people and seemingly bent the strongest leaders to his will.^[180] Second, his intellectual powers were unrivaled.^[181] He had a "photographic memory" for facts, people, events, numbers, military units, and maps. He devoured statistical information and reports, memorized maps, and had a perfect recall of a fantastic stock of information. He understood military technology, but was not an innovator in that regard.^[182] He was an innovator in using the financial, bureaucratic, and diplomatic resources of France. He could quickly organize and integrate all that information, generating brilliant insights on complex situations. He could organize his own thoughts and rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to all his subordinates, keeping in mind where each major unit was expected to be at every future point, and like a chess master, "seeing" the best plays many moves ahead. Combined with his inexhaustible energy, he kept relays of staff and secretaries at work. Unlike many generals, Napoleon did not examine history to ask what Hannibal or Alexander or anyone else did in a similar situation. Critics said he won many battles simply because of luck; Napoleon responded, "Give me lucky generals," aware that "luck" comes to leaders who recognize opportunity, and seize it.^[183] By 1812, however, Napoleon seems to have lost his old verve. On the great Russian campaign of 1812, with crisis after crisis at hand, he rarely rose to the occasion. After that débâcle, compatriots noticed a loss of the old flair. Some historians have suggested a physical deterioration, but others note that an impaired Napoleon was still a brilliant general.^[181]

In terms of impact on events, it was more than Napoleon's personality that took effect. He chose outstanding generals, and stood by them. He reorganized France itself to supply the men and money needed for great wars.^[184] Above all he inspired his men—Wellington said his presence on the battlefield was worth 40,000 soldiers,^[185] for he inspired confidence from privates to field marshals. The force of his personalities neutralized material difficulties as his soldiers fought with the confidence that with Napoleon in charge they would surely win.^[186]

Image

Napoleon has become a worldwide cultural icon who symbolises military genius and political power. Martin van Creveld described him as "the most competent human being who ever lived".^[187] Since his death, many towns, streets, ships, and even cartoon characters have been named after him. He has been portrayed in hundreds of films and discussed in hundreds of thousands of books and articles.^[188]

During the Napoleonic Wars he was taken seriously by the British press as a dangerous tyrant, poised to invade. He was often referred to by the British as Boney. A nursery rhyme warned children that Bonaparte ravenously ate naughty people; the "bogeyman".^[189] The British Tory press sometimes depicted Napoleon as much smaller than average height, and this image persists. Confusion about his height also results from the difference between the French pouce and British inch—2.71 and 2.54 cm, respectively; he was 1.68 m (5′6″) tall, average height for the period.^{[note 12]}

In 1908 Alfred Adler, a psychologist, cited Napoleon to describe an inferiority complex in which short people adopt an over-aggressive behaviour to compensate for lack of height; this inspired the term Napoleon complex.^[190] The stock character of Napoleon is a comically short "petty tyrant" and this has become a cliché in popular culture. He is often portrayed wearing a large bicorne hat with a hand-in-waistcoat gesture—a reference to the painting produced in 1812 by Jacques-Louis David.^[191]

Legacy

Warfare

In the field of military organisation, Napoleon borrowed from previous theorists such as Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert, and from the reforms of preceding French governments, and then developed much of what was already in place. He continued the policy, which emerged from the Revolution, of promotion based primarily on merit.^[192]

Corps replaced divisions as the largest army units, mobile artillery was integrated into reserve batteries, the staff system became more fluid and cavalry returned as an important formation in French military doctrine. These methods are now referred to as essential features of Napoleonic warfare.^[192] Though he consolidated the practice of modern conscription introduced by the Directory, one of the restored monarchy's first acts was to end it.^[193]

His opponents learned from Napoleon's innovations. The increased importance of artillery after 1807 stemmed from his creation of a highly mobile artillery force, the growth in artillery numbers, and changes in artillery practices. As a result of these factors, Napoleon, rather than relying on infantry to wear away the enemy's defenses, now could use massed artillery as a spearhead to pound a break in the enemy's line that was then exploited by supporting infantry and cavalry. McConachy rejects the alternative theory that growing reliance on artillery by the French army beginning in 1807 was an outgrowth of the declining quality of the French infantry and, later, France's inferiority in cavalry numbers.^[194] Weapons and other kinds of military technology remained largely static through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, but 18th-century operational mobility underwent significant change.^[195]

Napoleon's biggest influence was in the conduct of warfare. Antoine-Henri Jomini explained Napoleon's methods in a widely used textbook that influenced all European and American armies.^[196] Napoleon was regarded by the influential military theorist Carl von Clausewitz as a genius in the operational art of war, and historians rank him as a great military commander.^[197] Wellington, when asked who was the greatest general of the day, answered: "In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon."^[198]

Under Napoleon, a new emphasis towards the destruction, not just outmanoeuvring, of enemy armies emerged. Invasions of enemy territory occurred over broader fronts which made wars costlier and more decisive. The political impact of war increased significantly; defeat for a European power meant more than the loss of isolated enclaves. Near-Carthaginian peaces intertwined whole national efforts, intensifying the Revolutionary phenomenon of total war.^[199]

Bonapartism

Bonapartism refers to his nephew Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte who exploited the family name to be elected president in 1848 and then made himself Emperor Napoleon III.

Criticism

Napoleon ended lawlessness and disorder in post-Revolutionary France.^[200] He was, however, considered a tyrant and usurper by his opponents.^[201] His critics charge that he was not significantly troubled when faced with the prospect of war and death for thousands, turned his search for undisputed rule into a series of conflicts throughout Europe and ignored treaties and conventions alike. His role in the Haitian Revolution and decision to reinstate slavery in France's oversea colonies are controversial and have an impact on his reputation.^[202]

Napoleon institutionalised plunder of conquered territories: French museums contain art stolen by Napoleon's forces from across Europe. Artefacts were brought to the Musée du Louvre for a grand central museum; his example would later serve as inspiration for more notorious imitators.^[203] He was compared to Adolf Hitler most famously by the historian Pieter Geyl in 1947^[204] and Claude Ribbe in 2005.^[205] David G. Chandler, a foremost historian of Napoleonic warfare, wrote in 1973 that, "Nothing could be more degrading to the former [Napoleon] and more flattering to the latter [Hitler]."^[206]

Critics argue Napoleon's true legacy must reflect the loss of status for France and needless deaths brought by his rule: historian Victor Davis Hanson writes, "After all, the military record is unquestioned—17 years of wars, perhaps six million Europeans dead, France bankrupt, her overseas colonies lost."^[207] McLynn notes that, "He can be viewed as the man who set back European economic life for a generation by the dislocating impact of his wars."^[201] However, Vincent Cronin replies that such criticism relies on the flawed premise that Napoleon was responsible for the wars which bear his name, when in fact France was the victim of a series of coalitions which aimed to destroy the ideals of the Revolution.^[208]

Propaganda and memory

Napoleon's use of propaganda contributed to his rise to power, legitimated his regime, and established his image for posterity. Strict censorship, controlling aspects of the press, books, theater, and art, was part of his propaganda scheme, aimed at portraying him as bringing desperately wanted peace and stability to France. The propagandistic rhetoric changed in relation to events and the atmosphere of Napoleon's reign, focusing first on his role as a general in the army and identification as a soldier, and moving to his role as emperor and a civil leader. Specifically targeting his civilian audience, Napoleon fostered an important, though uneasy, relationship with the contemporary art community, taking an active role in commissioning and controlling different forms of art production to suit his propaganda goals.^[209]

Hazareesingh (2004) explores how Napoleon's image and memory are best understood. They played a key role in collective political defiance of the Bourbon restoration monarchy in 1815–30. People from different walks of life and areas of France, particularly Napoleonic veterans, drew on the Napoleonic legacy and its connections with the ideals of the 1789 revolution.^[210]

Widespread rumors of Napoleon's return from St. Helena and Napoleon as an inspiration for patriotism, individual and collective liberties, and political mobilization manifested themselves in seditious materials, displaying the tricolor and rosettes. There were also subversive activities celebrating anniversaries of Napoleon's life and reign and disrupting royal celebrations, and demonstrated the prevailing and successful goal of the varied supporters of Napoleon to constantly destabilize the Bourbon regime.^[210]

Datta (2005) shows that, following the collapse of militaristic Boulangism in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Concentrating on two plays and two novels from the period—Victorien Sardou's Madame Sans-Gêne (1893), Maurice Barrès's Les Déracinés (1897), Edmond Rostand's L'Aiglon (1900), and André de Lorde and Gyp's Napoléonette (1913) Datta examines how writers and critics of the Belle Epoque exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends.^[211]

Reduced to a minor character, the new fictional Napoleon was not a world historical figure but an intimate one fashioned by individual's needs and consumed as popular entertainment. In their attempts to represent the emperor as a figure of national unity, proponents and detractors of the Third Republic used the legend as a vehicle for exploring anxieties about gender and fears about the processes of democratization that accompanied this new era of mass politics and culture.^[211]

International Napoleonic Congresses are held regularly and include participation by members of the French and American military, French politicians and scholars from different countries.^[212] In January 2012, the mayor of Montereau-Fault-Yonne, near Paris—the site of a late victory of Napoleon—proposed development of Napoleonland, a commemorative theme park at a projected cost of 200 million euros.^[213]

Legacy outside France

Napoleon was responsible for overthrowing many Ancien Régime–type monarchies in Europe and spreading the official values of the French Revolution to other countries. In particular, Napoleon's French nationalism had the effect of influencing the development of nationalism elsewhere—often inadvertently. German nationalism of Fichte rose to challenge Napoleon's conquest of Germany. The Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian peninsula not only greatly fuelled Spanish and Portuguese national sentiment; it also helped provoke the Spanish American wars of independence. The Napoleonic ideal of a liberal/bourgeois empire would influence the First Mexican Empire and the Empire of Brazil. Napoleon also inflamed Italian nationalism, famously providing the design for the flag of Italy on the basis of the French tricolour.

The Napoleonic Code is a codification of law including civil, family and criminal law that Napoleon imposed on French-conquered territories. After the fall of Napoleon, not only was Napoleonic Code retained by many such countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, parts of Italy and Germany, but has also been used as the basis of certain parts of law outside Europe including the Dominican Republic, the US state of Louisiana and the Canadian province of Quebec.^[214]

The memory of Napoleon in Poland is highly favorable, for his support for independence and opposition to Russia, his legal code, the abolition of serfdom, and the introduction of modern middle class bureaucracies.^[215]

Marriages and children

Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796, when he was 26; she was a 32-year-old widow whose first husband had been executed during the Revolution. Until she met Bonaparte, she had been known as "Rose", a name which he disliked. He called her "Joséphine" instead, and she went by this name henceforth. Bonaparte often sent her love letters while on his campaigns.^[216] He formally adopted her son Eugène and cousin Stéphanie and arranged dynastic marriages for them. Joséphine had her daughter Hortense marry Napoleon's brother Louis.^[217]

Joséphine had lovers, including a Hussar lieutenant, Hippolyte Charles, during Napoleon's Italian campaign.^[218] Napoleon learnt the full extent of her affair with Charles while in Egypt, and a letter he wrote to his brother Joseph regarding the subject was intercepted by the British. The letter appeared in the London and Paris presses, much to Napoleon's embarrassment. Napoleon had his own affairs too: during the Egyptian campaign he took Pauline Bellisle Foures, the wife of a junior officer, as his mistress. She became known as "Cleopatra" after the Ancient Egyptian ruler.^{[219][note 13]}

While Napoleon's mistresses had children by him, Joséphine did not produce an heir, possibly because of either the stresses of her imprisonment during the Reign of Terror or an abortion she may have had in her 20s.^[220] Napoleon ultimately chose divorce so he could remarry in search of an heir. In March 1810, he married Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, and a great niece of Marie Antoinette by proxy; thus he had married into a German royal and imperial family.^[221]

They remained married until his death, though she did not join him in exile on Elba and thereafter never saw her husband again. The couple had one child, Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles (1811–1832), known from birth as the King of Rome. He became Napoleon II in 1814 and reigned for only two weeks. He was awarded the title of the Duke of Reichstadt in 1818 and died of tuberculosis aged 21, with no children.^[221]

Napoleon acknowledged one illegitimate son: Charles Léon (1806–1881) by Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne,.^[222][222] He may have had further unacknowledged illegitimate offspring as well, such as Karl Eugin von Mühlfeld by Victoria Kraus;^[108] Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte (1816–1910) by Albine de Montholon; and Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, whose mother remains unknown.^[223] In addition; he was widely assumed to be the biological father of Count Alexandre Joseph Colonna-Walewski (1810–1868) by Countess Marie Walewska; who was, however, acknowledged by his mother's husband as his son, and he was not acknowledged by Napoleon.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Emperor Napoleon I of France House of Bonaparte
Political offices
Preceded by French Directory	Provisional Consul of France 11 November – 12 December 1799 Served alongside: Roger Ducos and Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès	Became Consul
New title Consulate created	First Consul of France 12 December 1799 – 18 May 1804 Served alongside: Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès (Second Consul) Charles-François Lebrun (Third Consul)	Became Emperor
Regnal titles
Vacant French Revolution Title last held by Louis XVI of France as King of the French	Emperor of the French 18 May 1804 – 11 April 1814	Succeeded by Louis XVIII of France as King of France and Navarre
Vacant Title last held by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as last crowned monarch, 1530	King of Italy 17 March 1805 – 11 April 1814	Vacant Title next held by Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy
Preceded by Louis XVIII of France as King of France and Navarre	Emperor of the French 20 March – 22 June 1815	Succeeded by Louis XVIII of France as King of France and Navarre (Napoleon II according to his will only)
Vacant Title last held by Louis XVI of France	Co-Prince of Andorra 1806 – 11 April 1814	Succeeded by Louis XVIII of France
New title State created	Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine 12 July 1806 – 19 October 1813	Rhine Confederation dissolved successive ruler: Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor as President of the German Confederation
Titles in pretence
New title	— TITULAR — Emperor of the French 11 April 1814 – 20 March 1815	Vacant Title next held by Napoleon II

Titles and styles

Monarchical styles of Napoleon I of France
Reference style	His Imperial Majesty
Spoken style	Your Imperial Majesty
Alternative style	My Lord

Monarchical styles of Napoleon I of Italy
Reference style	His Royal Majesty
Spoken style	Your Royal Majesty
Alternative style	My Lord

• 18 May 1804 – 11 April 1814: His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French
• 17 March 1805 – 11 April 1814: His Imperial and Royal Majesty the Emperor of the French, King of Italy
• 20 March 1815 – 22 June 1815: His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French

Full titles

1804–1805

His Imperial Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Republic, Emperor of the French.

1805–1806

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Republic, Emperor of the French, King of Italy.

1806–1809

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Republic, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine.

1809–1814

His Imperial and Royal Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation.

1815

His Imperial Majesty Napoleon I, By the Grace of God and the Constitutions of the Empire, Emperor of the French.

Ancestry

<td rowspan="2>

 

16. Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte (1663–1703)

8. Sebastiano Nicola Buonaparte (1683–1720/60)

17. Maria Colonna Bozzi (1668–1704)

4. Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte (1713–1763)

18. Carlo Tusoli

9. Maria Anna Tusoli (1690–1760)

19. Isabella

2. Carlo Maria Buonaparte (1746–1785)

10. Giuseppe Maria Paravicini

5. Maria Saveria Paravicini (1715–bef. 1750)

22. Angelo Agostino Salineri

11. Maria Angela Salineri

23. Francetta Merezano

1. Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy (1769–1821)

24. Giovanni Girolamo Ramolino (1645–?)

12. Giovanni Agostino Ramolino

25. Maria Laetitia Boggiano

6. Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (1723–1755)

26. Andrea Peri (1669–?)

13. Angela Maria Peri

27. Maria Maddalena Colonna d'Istria

3. Maria Letizia Ramolino (1750–1836)

28. Giovanni Antonio Pietrasanta

14. Giuseppe Maria Pietrasanta

29. Paola Brigida Sorba

7. Angela Maria Pietrasanta (1725–1790)

15. Maria Giuseppa Malerba

Notes

Citations

References

Historiography

• Arnold, E. A. "English Language Napoleonic Historiography, 1973-1998: Thoughts and Considerations." Proceedings-Western Society for French History Vol. 26. (2000)
• Dunne, John. "Recent Napoleonic Historiography: 'Poor Relation' Makes Good?" French History (2004) 18#4 pp 484–491.
• Dwyer, Philip. "Remembering and Forgetting in Contemporary France: Napoleon, Slavery, and the French History Wars," French Politics, Culture & Society (2008) 26#3 pp 110–122. online
• Geyl, Pieter (1982) [1947]. Napoleon For and Against. Penguin Books. 
• Hanson, Victor Davis (2003). "The Claremont Institute: The Little Tyrant, A review of Napoleon: A Penguin Life". The Claremont Institute. Retrieved 30 May 2008. 
• Messenger, Charles, ed. (2001; 2013 reprint). Reader's Guide to Military History. Routledge. pp. 391–427. ISBN 9781135959708.  Check date values in: |date= (help) evaluation of the major books on Napoleon and his wars published by 2001.
• Nutting, Sinclair Holmes. "Napoleonic historiography" (MA Thesis, U. of Saskatchewan, 1950) citation; full text online free

Primary sources

• Herold, J. Christopher, ed. Mind of Napoleon: A Selection of His Written and Spoken Words (1955), 322pp
• Thompson, J.M. ed. Napoleon's Letters (1954)

External links

Find more about Napoleon Bonaparte at Wikipedia's sister projects
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks
	Learning resources from Wikiversity

• The Napoleonic Guide
• Napoleon Series
• International Napoleonic Society
• Biography by the US Public Broadcasting Service
• The last years in St. Helena Illustrated chronology of Napoleon's captivity in St. Helena.
• Inside Longwood Descriptions of Longwood House, St. Helena, and other places in the island, as well as articles about Napoleon's captivity.
• Booknotes interview with Alan Schom on Napoleon Bonaparte, 26 October 1997.
• Works by or about Napoleon in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Memoirs of Napoleon at Project Gutenberg
• John Holland Rose. The Life of Napoleon I at Project Gutenberg
• John Gibson Lockhart. The History of Napoleon Buonaparte at Project Gutenberg
• William Milligan Sloane. The Life of Napoleon I. at Project Gutenberg Vol. 1/4
• William Milligan Sloane. The Life of Napoleon I. at Project Gutenberg Vol. 3/4

v t e French Revolution Timeline Ancien Régime Causes Revolution Constitutional monarchy Republic Directory Consulate Glossary   Significant civil and political events by year 1788 Day of the Tiles (7 Jun 1788) Assembly of Vizille (21 Jul 1788) 1789 Reveillon riot (28 Apr 1789) Convocation of the Estates-General (5 May 1789) National Assembly (17 Jun – 9 Jul 1790) National Constituent Assembly (9 Jul – 30 Sep 1791) Tennis Court Oath (20 Jun 1789) Storming of the Bastille (14 Jul 1789) Great Fear (20 Jul – 5 Aug 1789) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (27 Aug 1789) Women's March on Versailles (5 Oct 1789) 1790 Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790) Abolition of the Nobility (19 Jun 1790) Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 Jul 1790) 1791 Flight to Varennes (20–21 Jun 1791) Champ de Mars Massacre (17 Jul 1791) Declaration of Pillnitz (27 Aug 1791) The Constitution of 1791 (3 Sep 1791) Legislative Assembly (1 Oct 1791 – Sep 1792) 1792 Brunswick Manifesto (25 Jul 1792) Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary (Jun 1792) 10th of August (10 Aug 1792) September Massacres (Sep 1792) National Convention (20 Sep 1792 – 26 Oct 1795) First republic declared (22 Sep 1792) 1793 Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793) Revolutionary Tribunal (9 Mar 1793 – 31 May 1795) Reign of Terror (27 Jun 1793 – 27 Jul 1794) Committee of Public Safety Committee of General Security Fall of the Girondists (2 Jun 1793) Assassination of Marat (13 Jul 1793) Levée en masse (23 Aug 1793) Law of Suspects (17 Sep 1793) Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793) Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year) 1794 Danton & Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794) Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794) Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794) White Terror (Fall 1794) Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794) 1795 1795 Constitution (22 Aug 1795) Conspiracy of the Equals (Nov 1795) Directoire (1795–99) Council of Five Hundred Council of Ancients 1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797) Second Congress of Rastatt (Dec 1797) 1799 Coup of 30 Prairial Year VII (18 Jun 1799) Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 Nov 1799) Constitution of the Year VIII (24 Dec 1799) Consulate   Revolutionary campaigns 1792 Verdun Thionville (fr) Valmy Royalist Revolts Chouannerie Vendée Dauphiné Lille Mayence (fr) Jemappes Namur (fr) 1793 First Coalition Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793) War in the Vendée Battle of Neerwinden) Battle of Famars (23 May 1793) Capture of San Pietro and Sant'Antioco (25 May 1793) Battle of Kaiserslautern Siege of Mainz Battle of Wattignies Battle of Hondschoote Siege of Bellegarde Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees) First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793) Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees) Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793) 1794 Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794) Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794) Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794) Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794) Chouannerie Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794) Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794) 1795 Peace of Basel 1796 Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796) Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796) Battle of Theiningen Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796) Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796) Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796) Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796) First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796) Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796) Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796) Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796) Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796) Battle of the Bridge of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796) The Ireland Expedition (Dec 1796) 1797 Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797) Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797) Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797) Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797) Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797) Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797) 1798 French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798) Quasi-War (1798–1800) Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798) 1799 Second Coalition (1798–1802) Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799) Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799) Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799) Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799) Battle of Cassano (27 Apr 1799) First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799) Battle of Trebbia (19 Jun 1799) Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799) Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799) 1800 Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800) Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800) League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02) 1801 Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801) Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801) Algeciras Campaign (8 Jul 1801) 1802 Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802)   Military leaders French Army Eustache Charles d'Aoust Pierre Augereau Alexandre de Beauharnais Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte Louis-Alexandre Berthier Jean-Baptiste Bessières Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune Jean François Carteaux Jean Étienne Championnet Chapuis de Tourville Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis Desaix Jacques François Dugommier Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Charles François Dumouriez Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino Louis-Charles de Flers Paul Grenier Emmanuel de Grouchy Jacques Maurice Hatry Lazare Hoche Jean-Baptiste Jourdan François Christophe de Kellermann Jean Baptiste Kléber Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Jean Lannes Charles Leclerc Claude Lecourbe François Joseph Lefebvre Jacques MacDonald Jean-Antoine Marbot Jean Baptiste de Marbot François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers Auguste de Marmont André Masséna Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey Jean Victor Marie Moreau Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier Joachim Murat Michel Ney Pierre-Jacques Osten (fr) Nicolas Oudinot Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon Jean-Charles Pichegru Józef Poniatowski Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier Joseph Souham Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult Louis-Gabriel Suchet Belgrand de Vaubois Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno French Navy Charles-Alexandre Linois Opposition Austria József Alvinczi Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Count of Clerfayt (Walloon) Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss) Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth Pál Kray (Hungarian) Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French) Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon) Karl Mack von Leiberich Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon) Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian) Karl Philipp Sebottendorf Dagobert von Wurmser Britain Sir Ralph Abercromby Admiral Sir James Saumarez Admiral Sir Edward Pellew Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Dutch Republic William V, Prince of Orange  Prussia Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen Russia Alexander Korsakov Alexander Suvorov Spain Luis Firmin de Carvajal Antonio Ricardos   Other significant figures and factions Royals and Royalists Charles X Louis XVI Louis XVII Louis XVIII Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien Louis Henri, Prince of Condé Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Louis Philippe I Marie Antoinette Madame de Lamballe Madame du Barry Louis de Breteuil Loménie de Brienne Charles Alexandre de Calonne de Chateaubriand Jean Chouan Grace Elliott Arnaud de La Porte Jean-Sifrein Maury Mirabeau Jacques Necker Feuillants Antoine Barnave Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth Charles Malo François Lameth Lafayette Girondists Jacques Pierre Brissot Étienne Clavière Marquis de Condorcet Charlotte Corday Marie Jean Hérault Roland de La Platière Madame Roland Jean Baptiste Treilhard Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve Montagnards Paul Nicolas, vicomte de Barras Georges Couthon Georges Danton Jacques-Louis David Camille Desmoulins Roger Ducos Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas Jean-Paul Marat Prieur de la Côte-d'Or Prieur de la Marne Maximilien de Robespierre Gilbert Romme Jean Bon Saint-André Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Jean-Lambert Tallien Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Hébertists Jacques Hébert Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne Pierre Gaspard Chaumette Charles-Philippe Ronsin Antoine-Francois Momoro François-Nicolas Vincent Enragés Jacques Roux Jean-Francois Varlet Theophile Leclerc Claire Lacombe Pauline Leon Bonapartists Napoléon Bonaparte de Cambacérès Jacques-Louis David Jean Debry Joseph Fesch Charles François Lebrun Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai Joachim Murat Lucien Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte Joséphine de Beauharnais Others Jean-Pierre-André Amar François-Noël Babeuf Jean Sylvain Bailly François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot André Chénier Philippe Egalite Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville Olympe de Gouges Father Henri Grégoire Jacques-Donatien Le Ray Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes Sylvain Marechal Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville Jean Joseph Mounier Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours François de Neufchâteau Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Pierre Louis Prieur Jean-François Rewbell Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux Marquis de Sade Antoine Christophe Saliceti Abbé Sieyès Madame de Staël Talleyrand Thérésa Tallien Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target Catherine Théot Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Jean-Henri Voulland Enragés List of people associated with the French Revolution   Influential thinkers Les Lumières Beaumarchais Edmund Burke Anacharsis Cloots Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Pierre Claude François Daunou Diderot Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Antoine Lavoisier Montesquieu Thomas Paine Jean-Jacques Rousseau Voltaire   Cultural impact La Marseillaise Fabre d'Églantine French Tricolour Liberté, égalité, fraternité Bastille Day Panthéon French Republican Calendar Cult of the Supreme Being Cult of Reason Sans-culottes Metric system Quatrevingt-treize A Tale of Two Cities The Scarlet Pimpernel Scaramouche La Révolution française (film) Orphans of the Storm Danton (1983 film)

v t e Imperial House of France of the First French Empire Emperor and immediate family Napoleon, Emperor of the French Joséphine, Empress of the French Marie Louise, Empress of the French Napoleon, King of Rome French Princes Joseph Bonaparte Louis Bonaparte Joachim Murat Eugène de Beauharnais Elisa Bonaparte Jérôme Bonaparte Joseph Fesch Lucien Bonaparte Several family members held additional titles in vassal states

v t e Bonaparte family 1st generation Joseph I of Spain Napoléon I Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musignano Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Louis I of Holland Pauline, Princess of Guastalla Caroline, Queen of Naples and Sicily Jérôme of Westfalia 2nd generation Edmond Raymer Bonaparte I Zénaïde, Princess of Canino and Musignano Princess Charlotte Napoléon II Charlotte, Princess Mario Gabrielli Princess Victoire Christine, Lady Dudley Coutts Stuart Charles Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musignano Laetitia, Lady Wyse Prince Joseph Jeanne, Marchioness Honorato Honrati Prince Paul Prince Louis Lucien Prince Pierre Napoléon Prince Antoine Alexandrine, Countess Vincenzo Valentini di Laviano Princess Constance Napoléon Charles, Prince Royal of Holland Louis II of Holland Napoléon III Prince Jérôme Napoléon Jérôme Napoléon Charles, Prince of Montfort Mathilde, Princess of San Donato Napoléon Joseph, Prince Napoléon 3rd generation Joseph Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musignano Princess Alexandrine Lucien Cardinal Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano Julie, Marchioness of Roccagiovine Charlotte, Countess Pietro Primoli di Foglia Princess Léonie Marie Desirée, Comtesse Paolo Campello della Spina Augusta, Princess Placido Gabrielli Napoléon Charles, Prince of Canino and Musignano Bathile, Countess of Cambacérès Princess Albertine Prince Charles Edmond Raymer Bonaparte II Roland, Prince of Canino and Musignano Jeanne, Marchioness of Villeneuve-Escaplon Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France Prince Jerome Napoleon Prince Charles Victor, Prince Napoléon Prince Napoléon Louis Marie Letizia, Duchess of Aosta William Bonaparte-Wyse Marie Bonaparte-Wyse Lucien Bonaparte-Wyse 4th generation Princess Mary, Mrs. Enrico Gotti Eugénie, Princess of La Moskowa Marie, Princess George of Greece and Denmark Louise Eugenie, Countess Adam of Moltke-Huitfeld Prince Jérôme Napoléon Marie Clotilde, Countess Serge de Witt Louis, Prince Napoléon Andrew Bonaparte-Wyse 5th generation Charles, Prince Napoléon Princess Catherine, Mrs. Jean Dualé Princess Laure, Mrs. Jean-Claude Leconte Prince Jérôme Napoléon 6th generation Princess Caroline Napoléon Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon Princess Sophie Napoléon

v t e French monarchs Detailed family tree Simplified family tree Merovingians (428–751) Chlodio (428–445/448) Merovech (445/448–457) Childeric I (457–481/482) Clovis I (481/482–511) Childebert I (511–558) Chlothar I (511–561) Charibert I (561–567) Guntram (561–593) Chilperic I (561–584) Sigebert I (561–575) Childebert II (575–595) Chlothar II (584–629) Dagobert I (623–639) Sigebert II (639–656) Clovis II (639–657) Chlothar III (657–673) Childeric II (673–675) Theuderic III (675–691) Clovis IV (691–695) Childebert III (695–711) Dagobert III (711–715) Chilperic II (715–721) Chlothar IV (717–719) Theuderic IV (721–737) Childeric III (737–751) Carolingians (751–888, 898–922, 936–987) Pepin the Short (751–768) Carloman I (768–771) Charles I (768–814) Louis I (814–840) Charles II (843–877) Louis II (877–879) Louis III (879–882) Carloman II (879–884) Charles the Fat (885–888) Charles III (898–922) Louis IV (936–954) Lothair (954–986) Louis V (986–987) Robertians (888–898, 922–923) Odo (888–898) Robert I (922–923) Bosonids (923–936) Rudolph (923–936) House of Capet (987–1328) Hugh Capet (987–996) Robert II (996–1031) Henry I (1031–1060) Philip I (1060–1108) Louis VI (1108–1137) Louis VII (1137–1180) Philip II (1180–1223) Louis VIII (1223–1226) Louis IX (1226–1270) Philip III (1270–1285) Philip IV (1285–1314) Louis X (1314–1316) John I (1316) Philip V (1316–1322) Charles IV (1322–1328) House of Valois (1328–1498) Philip VI (1328–1350) John II (1350–1364) Charles V (1364–1380) Charles VI (1380–1422) Charles VII (1422–1461) Louis XI (1461–1483) Charles VIII (1483–1498) House of Valois-Orléans (1498–1515) Louis XII (1498–1515) House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589) Francis I (1515–1547) Henry II (1547–1559) Francis II (1559–1560) Charles IX (1560–1574) Henry III (1574–1589) House of Bourbon (1589–1792, 1814-1815, 1815-1830) Henry IV (1589–1610) Louis XIII (1610–1643) Louis XIV (1643–1715) Louis XV (1715–1774) Louis XVI (1774–1792) Louis XVII (claimant, 1792–1795) Louis XVIII (1814–1824) Charles X (1824–1830) Louis XIX (1830) Henry V (1830) House of Bonaparte First Empire (1804–1814, 1815) Napoleon I (1804–1814, 1815) Napoleon II (1815) House of Orléans July Monarchy (1830–1848) Louis Philippe I (1830–1848) House of Bonaparte Second Empire (1852–1870) Napoleon III (1852–1870) Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics

v t e German Confederations 1806–1871 Confederation of the Rhine 1806–1813 Protector Napoleon I (1806–1813) Prince primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg (1806–1813) Eugène de Beauharnais (1813) German Confederation 1815–1866 Presidents Francis I of Austria (1815–1835) Ferdinand I of Austria (1835–1848) Francis Joseph I of Austria (1849–1866) Imperial regent Archduke Johann of Austria (1848–1849) North German Confederation 1867–1871 President Wilhelm I of Prussia (1867–1871) Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1867–1871) List of German monarchs History of Germany House of Habsburg-Lorraine House of Hohenzollern

v t e Pretenders to the French throne since 1792 Monarchy in exile (1792–1815) 1792 Louis XVI 1793 Louis XVII 1795 Louis XVIII 1814 1815 Legitimist pretenders (1830–present) 1830 Charles X 1836 Louis XIX 1844 Henry V 1883 John III 1887 Charles XI 1909 Jacques I 1931 Charles XII 1936 Alphonse I 1941 Henry VI 1975 Alphonse II 1989 Louis XX present Orléanist pretenders (1848–present) 1848 Louis Philippe I 1850 Philip VII (or Louis-Philippe II) 1894 Philip VIII 1926 John III 1940 Henry VI 1999 Henry VII present Bonapartist Prince Imperial (1814–present) 1814 1815 Napoléon I 1821 Napoléon II 1832 Joseph 1844 Louis 1846 Napoléon III (Emperor 1852–1870) 1873 Napoléon IV 1879 Napoléon V 1926 Napoléon VI 1997 Napoléon VII / Napoléon VIII present (disputed) Bonapartist Prince Canino (1832–1924) 1832 Lucien I 1840 Charles 1857 Joseph 1865 Lucien II 1895 Napoléon Charles 1899 Roland 1924

v t e Heads of State of France Styled President of the Republic after 1871, except from 1940–44 (Chief of State) and 1944–47 (Chairman of the Provisional Government) First Republic (1792–1804) National Convention Directory Consulate First Empire (1804–1815) Napoleon I Napoleon II Bourbon Restoration (1815–1830) Louis XVIII Charles X July Monarchy (1830-1848) Louis-Philippe I Second Republic (1848–1852) Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure Executive Commission Louis-Eugène Cavaignac Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte Second Empire (1852–1870) Napoleon III National Defence Government (1870–1871) Louis Jules Trochu Third Republic (1871–1940) Adolphe Thiers Patrice de Mac-Mahon Jules Armand Dufaure Jules Grévy Maurice Rouvier Sadi Carnot Charles Dupuy Jean Casimir-Perier Charles Dupuy Félix Faure Charles Dupuy Émile Loubet Armand Fallières Raymond Poincaré Paul Deschanel Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand Frédéric François-Marsal Gaston Doumergue Paul Doumer André Tardieu Albert Lebrun Vichy France (1940–1944) Philippe Pétain Provisional Government (1944–1947) Charles de Gaulle Félix Gouin Georges Bidault Vincent Auriol Léon Blum Fourth Republic (1947–1959) Vincent Auriol René Coty Fifth Republic (1959–present) Charles de Gaulle Alain Poher Georges Pompidou Alain Poher Valéry Giscard d'Estaing François Mitterrand Jacques Chirac Nicolas Sarkozy François Hollande Italics indicate interim officeholder

v t e Marshals of the First French Empire Augereau Bernadotte Berthier Bessières Brune Davout Gouvion Saint-Cyr Grouchy Jourdan Kellermann Lannes Lefebvre MacDonald Marmont Masséna Moncey Mortier Murat Ney Oudinot Pérignon Poniatowski Sérurier Soult Suchet Victor

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 106964661 LCCN: n79054933 ISNI: 0000 0001 2283 8283 GND: 118586408 SUDOC: 02733791X BNF: cb12008245w NDL: 00450992 NKC: jn20000604140 ICCU: IT\ICCU\CFIV\096977

Persondata
Name	Bonaparte, Napoleon
Alternative names	Napoleon I Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, King of Italy
Short description	French general and ruler
Date of birth	15 August 1769
Place of birth	Ajaccio, Corsica
Date of death	5 May 1821
Place of death	Saint Helena