NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

(1642 to 1727)

CONTENTS
GO TONapoleon:  An Overview
GO TOThe rise of Napoleon
GO TONewton's Mysticism
GO TONewton's Writings

 

AN OVERVIEW


THE RISE OF NAPOLEON

The siege of Toulon.  Napoleon first came to the attention of French Revolutionary authorities for his part in the December 1793 victory at the southern French naval port of Toulon of Revolutionary troops over French Royalists and their English and Spainish allies.  Napoleon commanded the artillery units overseeing the city - whose well-placed bombardments forced the Revolution's enemies to withdraw.  (Under the direction of Paul Barras and Stanislas Fr?ron, the city was subsequently put to the sword for its support of the anti-Revolutionary forces.  However, just prior to the massacre Napoleon had moved on to Nice).

Napoloen's brief eclipse.  He subsequently underwent disgrace for his associations with Robespierre, who fell politically in July of 1794 - and for his refusal to serve in the Vendée in putting down anti-Revolutionary rebels there.

13 Vendémiaire.  But violence broke out in Paris that October when the new government, the Directory, failed to include royalists in its membership.  Barras, remembering Napoleon's military skills, called on him to come to Paris to put down the royalist rebellion.  Napoleon arrived and organized artillery units to fire on the royalist rebels - killing many (1400) and scattering the rest.  This brought widespread fame to Napoleon as the savior of the new Revolutionary government.  Napoleon was subsequently named Commander of the Interior - and given command over the Republic's Army of Italy.

The first Italian campaign.  In March of 1796 he led his army into Italy to face the Austrian army there.  First encountering some difficulties he was able after a number of battles to expell the Austrians (ultimately the Battle of Arcole) from Italy - and even bring the Papal states under French control.  The following year 1797 he invaded Austria and forced Austria to recognize French control over northern Italy - as well as French control over the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium).  As part of the deal (finalized in the Treaty of Campo Formio) he handed Venice over to Austria - ending that city-states's 1000-year existence as an independent empire.

In December of 1797 he returned to Paris - a national hero.

The coup of 18 Fructidor.  But in the meantime Napoleon had been maneuvering in and out of Paris politics.  Elections in mid 1797 had increased the position of the 'moderates' and even the royalists in the French legislature - and likewise increased the criticism of Napoleon (for his independence of action in dealing with the Austrians) and of his allies on the Directory.  In early September Barras (with Napoleon's vital support) organized a military coup which purged the Legislature of these 'conservative' political enemies - bringing France back under a new reign of 'leftist' political and social repression.

Paul Barras (Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras)
The most powerful member of the French Directory government (1795-1799)
and strong supporter of (and strongly supported by) Napoleon during this period


Napoleon's artillery firing on royalists in front of the Church of Saint-Roch - Paris
October 5, 1795 (13
Vendémiaire of Year IV) ... bringing Napoleon to great notice!

Napoléon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole (November 17, 1796)
- by Horace Vernet

Napoléon Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcole – by Antoine-Jean Gros (c. 1801)
Musée du Louvre

THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION (1798-1799)

Napoleon's anti-English strategy.  Napoleon now turned his attention to France's old enemy, England.  His intentions at first were to invade England - though further reflection revealed that the French navy was not yet ready for such a feat.  He decided instead to aim at England's economic and imperial links with Asia - with the intent of undercutting the English economy and replacing English influence in Asia with French influence.  His ultimate goal was to eliminate the English hold over India by encouraging anti-English Indian rebellion.  More immediately his plan was to establish a strong French base in Egypt - just astride the British trade route to the East. 

The Directory was hesitant about the cost involved in such a major expedition - but ultimately glad to get Napoleon out of France, where his popularity easily exceeded theirs.

In the late spring of 1798 Napoleon embarked for Egypt, capturing Malta as a resupply port along the way.  He landed in Alexandria in July and was met by the army of the Mameluk ruler of Egpyt.  At the 'Battle of the Pyramids' (July21) he crushed the Egyptians, scattering his opponents, some who moved southward up the Nile and others who moved to Syria to attempt to regroup there.

But the British had been close behind Napoleon and met his Navy on August 1 to fight the 'Battle of the Nile.'  This time it was the French who received the crushing - at the hands of Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson.   This French defeat left Napoleon and his army stranded in Egypt.

Nonetheless Napoleon continued his consolidation of French power in Egypt - despite continuing Mamaluk resistance.  Much of the venture was actually an archeological expedition - as French scientists gathered Egyptian antiquities in great number (including the Rosetta Stone).

Encouraged by news of Napoleon's defeat by the British Navy, the Ottoman sultan Selim III decided to mass an army to drive Napoleon out of his lands.  But Napoleon decided that rather than wait for the sultan to gather an overwhelming force, he would move to the offensive first - striking out in February of 1799 toward Syria, capturing the key city of Jaffa along the way.  But the fortress at Acre proved resistant, his supplies were rapidly dwingling, and his men were suffering from the plague.  Thus in May Napoleon was forced to retreat back to Egypt. 

However, an Ottoman fleet sent out to Egypt to engage Napoleon in July was defeated by the French - helping Napoleon to recover some of his reputation lost the previous year at the Battle of the Nile.

 

Napoléon Before the Sphinx – Jean-Léon Gérôme (1867-8)
Hearst Castle

Battle of the Pyramids –  July 21, 1798 – François-Louis-Joseph Watteau  (1798-1799)
Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

The Battle of the Nile – August 1, 1798 – by Thomas Luny (1801)
(showing the explosion of the French flagship Orient)

Bonaparte Visiting the Pesthouse in Jaffa – March 1799 – Antoine-Jean Gros (1804)
Musée du Louvre

NAPOLEON'S TAKEOVER OF FRANCE

 

Napoléon Bonaparte in the "coup d'état" of the 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799)
- by Fran
çois Bouchot



The coronation of Napoleon and Josephine in Notre Dame (Pope Pius VII seated behind Napoleon)
  - December 2, 1804 -  by Jacques Louis David
Musée du Louvre

NAPOLEON'S IMPERIAL COURT

 

Napoleon as King of Italy – by Andrea Appiani (1805)
Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna

Napoléon on his Imperial throne – Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1806)

Joséphine de Beauharnais – François Gérard  (1808)

Josephine's first husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror.  Napoleon married her in 1796 ... but divorced her in 1810 not having any children resulting from their marriage (she did have children by her first marriage ... including the future Napoleon III).  Napoleon still loved her deeply ... and mourned her death deeply while he was still confined to the Island of Elba.  Nonetheless, he married the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise, in 1810 ... as a diplomatic move to improve French-Austrian relations (Marie-Louise would remarry after Napoleon's death in 1821).


Napoleon in his study – Jacques-Louis David (1812)
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art

The French mathematician and astronomer Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace
 (March 23, 1749 - March 5, 1827)

NAPOLEON TAKES ON AUSTRIA AND GERMANY


Napoléon crossing the Alps – Spring of 1800 – Jacques Louis David
Bonaparte led the French Army over the Alps (actually on a mule!),
eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo
.

Musée national du château de Malmaison

The Battle of Marengo – June 14 1800 – by Louis-François Lejeune
Musée national du Château, Versailles



General  Mack, his Austrian officers, and 60,00 Austrian trrops surrender to Napoleon
after the Battle of Ulm - October 1805
by Rene Theodore Berthon
Palais de Versailles

The Battle of 'Austerlitz –  December 2, 1805 – by Baron François Pascal Simon Gérard
Napoleon crushed the larger joint Austro-Russian army in Moravia at Austerlitz

Napoleon reviewing the Imperial Guard prior to the Battle of Jena and Auerstädt
– October 14, 1806 – by Horace Vernet

Palais de Versailles

The entrance of Napoleon through the Brandenburg Gate
at the head of his troops after his victories at Jena and Auerstädt – October 27, 1806
– by Charles Meynier (1810)
 Versailles, Château et Trianons

Napoléon on the battlefield of Preussisch-Eylau – February 7-8, 1807 – Antoine-Jean Gros (1808)
Musée du Louvre

The Battle of Wagram – July 5-6, 1809 – by Emil Adam

NAPOLEON'S TAKES ON THE BRITISH

 

King George III by Sir William Beechey (1799–1800)
London, National Portrait Gallery

William Pitt the Younger - Attributed to Thomas Gainsborough (c. 1804)
Prime Minister 1783 –  1801; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1804 – 1806

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount of Nelson as Vice Admiral - by Lemuel Francis Abbott

Admiral Nelson shot on the quarterdeck of Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar - (October 21, 1805)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - by Robert Home (1804)
National Portrait Gallery, London

THE ILL-FATED INVASION OF RUSSIA - 1812


The Battle of Borodino, August 26, 1812 – Peter von Hess  – 1843
Though battlefield casualites are disputed it seems that the largest consenus was
approximately 28,000 dead and wounded French and 45,000 Russians -
the highest single-day military loss in modern history

Napoléon on Borodino Heights, August 26, 1812 – Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin  – 1897

Napoléon in a burning Moscow (Moscow was seized by the French on September 14, 1812)

Napoléon's retreat from Moscow –  Adolph Northern

"In 1812" – Illarion Prianishnikov

August 1813 - Napoleon's newly reassembled 350,000-man army defeats (but does not discourage)
a new anti-French coalition comprised at the time of Russian, Austria, and Prussia

Napoleon and Poniatowski at Leipzig (October 18, 1813) 

NAPOLEON ABDICATES - THEN RETURNS TO POWER (1814-1815)

The anti-French coalition was joined by Sweden ... and at the Battle of Leipzig, the French were defeated.  In November, the allies offered Napoleon peace terms.  He could keep his position as emperor in France and hold French territory in Belgium, the Rhineland ... but he would have to give up his position in Spain, the Netherlands and most of Italy and Germany.  But Napoleon did not accept the terms ...  until it became rather immediately obvious that his position had weakened deeply.  But then the coaltion merely stiffened its terms against France ... and marched coalition troops even across French borders in January of 1814.  Napoleon was able to hold off the coalition forces for a while.  But by the end of March the coaltion had reached the outskirts of Paris.  At the beginning of April it was obvious that Napoleon was a defeated monarch.



A defeated Napoleon –  by Paul Delaroche
Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste

Napoleon signs his abdication at Fontainebleau - April 11, 1814 - by Francois Bouchot
Palace of Versailles

Napoleon is exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of northwestern Italy ... where he is given the right to govern the small island as "emperor.  However, the following February (1815) he escaped Elba in order to return to France and attempt a restoration of his power there. 

In the meantime, the Bourbon monarchy had been restored by the coalition, with Louis XVIII retaking the French throne in 1814.  But Napoleon's return and the military switching its loyalties to Napoleon caused Louis XVIII to flee to the Netherlands.




Napoleon on March 7, 1815 - greeted by his 7th Regiment on his return to France from the Isle of Elba
 - by Charles de Steuben (1818)

But Napoleon would hold his position in France only for "a Hundred Days" ... before coaliton forces (British, Dutch, and German) met Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815.  But French marshal Ney's cavalry was not able to break the ranks of British general Wellington's infantry square despite numerous assaults.  And the arrival of Blücher's Prussians merely swing the strength even more greatly to the coalition's side.



But the coalition of Prussian, British, Dutch and other German forces (led by Wellington and Blücher)
defeats a smaller French army (led by Napoleon and Ney) at the Battle of Waterloo - June 18, 1815.



The Battle of Waterloo   June 18, 1815

The following day, the exhausted French were forced to fall back ... as the coalition began its advance on Paris.  Within a few days Napoleon realized that further resistance was pointless (French support for his rule was fading quickly) ... and finally announced his second abdication on June 24th. 

There was no path of escape available for Napoleon and on July 15th he surrendered himself ot the British ... who then exhiled him to St. Helena, a small island in the middle of the South Atlantic. There would be no possiblity of escape this time.




Napoleon confined to the Island of Saint Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic


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  Miles H. Hodges