General Notes

In February 1804 a British-financed plot to assassinate Bonaparte was
uncovered by the former police minister Joseph Fouche (who recovered his job
as a result of this discovery). Of the leading conspirators, Jean Charles
Pichegru died in prison, Jean Victor Moreau fled the country, and Georges
Cadoudal was executed.  Another victim was the duc d'Enghien, a Bourban-Conde
prince who was kidnapped from the German state of Baden and executed in
France.

In the wake of these events, which revived royalist hostility, the Senate
petitioned Bonaparte to establish a hereditary dynasty.  On Dec.  2, 1804,
therefore, Napoleon crowned himself emperor in a ceremony presided over by
Pope Pius VII.  Napoleon created a titled court that included many of his
statesmen and generals as well as ex-royalists.  Believing that family ties
were more durable than treaties, in the next few years he placed members of
his family on the thrones of several satellite states--Naples, Holland,
Westphalia, and Spain--and married his relatives to some of the most
distinguished families in Europe.

Dynastic considerations also caused Bonaparte to divorce Josephine in 1809
because she had borne him no male heir.  He then married (Apr.  2, 1810) Marie
Louise, daughter of Austrian Emperor Francis I;  within a year a son, the king
of Rome, was born.

In 1805, Britain organized the Third Coalition against France, but Napoleon's
new Grand Army swept through Germany into Austria destroying both Austrian and
Russian armies at Ulm and Austerlitz.  Austria signed (Dec.  26, 1805) the
Treaty of Pressburg, by which Venice and Dalmatia were annexed to Napoleon's
Kingdom of Italy, and in 1806, Napoleon organized the Confederation of the
Rhine, a grouping of German states under French protection.  Soon after, the
Holy Roman Empire was formally dissolved.  Prussia helped organize the Fourth
Coalition against Napoleon late in 1806, but its forces were destroyed by
Napoleon in the Battle of Jena-Auerstadt (October 1806).  After defeating the
Russians at Eylau (Feb.  8, 1807) and Friedland (June 14, 1807), Napoleon
forced the allies to sign (July 7-9, 1807) the Treaties of Tilsit, which
resulted in the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of
Westphalia.

Dominant in Europe, Napoleon was obsessed with Britain's defiance and role as
the commercial "paymaster of Europe." To subdue Britain, Napoleon committed
his most serious blunders. He imposed (1806) the Continental System, a
blockade of British trade, on Europe to undermine the British economy.  The
refusal of Portugal to observe the blockade led to French intervention in
Iberia and embroilment in the Peninsular War.  While the
Peninsular War raged, Austria mobilized and began the War of the Fifth
Coalition.  A series of hard-fought battles culminated in final French victory
(July 5-6, 1809) at Wagram, and Austria lost Illyria and Galicia by the Treaty
of Schonbrunn (Oct.  14, 1809).

Although French control in Iberia was eroding by 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia
on June 23-24 of that year.  One major reason for the attack was the Russian
refusal to accept the Continental System.  The Russian armies withdrew,
drawing Napoleon deep into Russia.  Napoleon defeated them at Borodino on
Sept.  7, 1812, and a week later reached Moscow.  There he waited in vain for
Emperor Alexander I's surrender, while Russian arsonists set the city on fire.
With reinforced Russian armies attacking his outlying positions and signs of
winter's approach, Napoleon ordered a retreat in October. Despite the
deprivations suffered by his troops, the miserable weather, and the pursuing
Russian army, Napoleon held the nucleus of his army together and managed to
escape Russian encirclement.  After crossing the Berezina River he left his
ravaged army and hurried back to Paris on learning of an abortive coup in
Paris by the demented general Claude Malet.

After Napoleon's Russian debacle the Prussians deserted their alliance with
the French, and in 1813 the Sixth Coalition was formed among Prussia, Russia,
Britain, and Sweden (ruled by the erstwhile Napoleonic general Bernadotte,
later to be King Charles XIV John).  Napoleon soon formed a new army and
defeated the allies at Lutzen (May 2) and Bautzen (May 20-21). After a short
armistice, hostilities again began in August, when Austria joined the
coalition.  Although Napoleon was victorious (August 26-27) at Dresden, the
French were outnumbered two to one and defeated in the so-called Battle of
Nations at Leipzig on October 16-19.  Withdrawing across the Rhine, Napoleon
refused to surrender any conquered territory, convinced that such a concession
would cost him his crown in France.  In 1814, France was invaded, and Napoleon
again demonstrated his military genius by defeating each enemy army as it
advanced on Paris.  Hopelessly outnumbered he attempted to negotiate, but the
allies continued to advance and took Paris on March 31.

The Hundred Days

On April 6, Napoleon abdicated in favor of his son.  When the allies refused
to accept this, he made his abdication unconditional on April 11.  He then was
exiled to the island of Elba, where he was given sovereign power and
introduced administrative, economic, and political reforms.

Aware of France's dissatisfaction over the restoration rule of the Bourbon
dynasty, Napoleon decided to return to France in 1815.  Landing at Cannes on
March 1, he marched triumphantly through sympathetic areas of France and was
greeted as the returning hero.  King Louis XVIII fled abroad, and Napoleon
occupied Paris on March 20, beginning the period called the Hundred Days.
Although Napoleon proclaimed peaceful intentions, the allies, who were meeting
in Vienna, immediately outlawed him and prepared for
war. Before massive Russian and Austrian forces could reach France, Napoleon
resolved to separate and defeat the Prussian and Anglo-Dutch armies in what is
now Belgium.  Despite several initial victories he was defeated by the duke of
Wellington and Gebhard von Blucher at Waterloo on June 18, 1815

Napoleon returned to Paris, where he abdicated for the second time on June 23.
Fleeing to Aix, he surrendered to the captain of the British warship
Bellerophon and was exiled to the island of Saint Helena.  Living with his
secretary and a few loyal friends, he dictated his memoirs, laying the
foundation of the Napoleonic legend.  He died on May 5, 1821.

The Napoleonic legend was embellished by his followers in the succeeding
decades of turbulent French politics.  It facilitated the rise of Napoleon's
nephew, who eventually founded a Second Empire as Napoleon III in 1852.
Allowing for the exaggerations of the legend, there remains no question that
Napoleon I was a military genius.  Although his ambition to dominate Europe
cost France hundreds of thousands of lives, he left to that country many of
the institutions that form its modern basis.  His tomb in the Invalides in
Paris is a national shrine.