NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

HISTORICAL FIGURES

ABOUT NAPOLENFRENCH EMPIREREFORMS

PERSONALITY

WAR’S

MARRIAGES AND CHILDRENDEATH

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE (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.

• NAPOLEON WAS BORN IN CORSICA IN A FAMILY OF NOBLE ITALIAN ANCESTRY THAT 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.

NAPOLEONIC WARS

• THE NAPOLEONIC WARS (1803–1815) WERE A SERIES OF WARS BETWEEN NAPOLEON’S FRENCH EMPIRE EMPIRE AND A SERIES OF OPPOSING COALITIONS LED BY GREAT BRITAIN.

• AS A CONTINUATION OF THE WARS SPARKED BY THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1789, THEY REVOLUTIONIZED EUROPEAN ARMIES AND PLAYED OUT ON AN UNPRECEDENTED SCALE, MAINLY OWING TO THE APPLICATION OF MODERN MASS CONSCPRITION.

• FRENCH POWER ROSE QUICKLY AS NAPOLEON'S ARMIES CONQUERED MUCH OF EUROPE BUT COLLAPSED RAPIDLY AFTER FRANCE'S DISASTROUSINVASION OF RUSSIA IN 1812. NAPOLEON WAS DEFEATED IN 1814; HE RETURNED AND WAS FINALLY DEFEATED IN 1815 AT WATERLOO, AND ALL FRANCE'S GAINS WERE TAKEN AWAY BY THE VICTORS.

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. 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.

Napoleon's coronation

REFORM’S• 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 ORGANICS 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.

First remittance of the Légion d'Honneur, 15 July 1804

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. SECOND, HIS INTELLECTUAL POWERS WERE UNRIVALED. 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.

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. 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.

Napoleon's first wife, Joséphine, Empress of the French

Second marriag

MARRIAGES AND CHILDREN• 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.[223]

• 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.

Napoleon's second wife, Marie-Louise, Empress of the French

DEATHDEATH

• 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. HE DIED TWO DAYS LATER, AFTER CONFESSION, EXTREME UNCTION AND VIATICUM IN THE PRESENCE OF FATHER ANGE VIGNALI. HIS LAST WORDS WERE, "FRANCE, ARMÉE, TÊTE D'ARMÉE, JOSÉPHINE." ("FRANCE, ARMY, HEAD OF THE ARMY, JOSÉPHINE.")

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