August 18, 2025 • 21 mins
FOREWORD In the popular imagination, Empress Josephine wears a halo of goodness, making her biographers task particularly challenging. The disdain many hold for Napoleon is often linked to the perceived cruelty he showed towards the woman who stood by him for fourteen years. This biography seeks not to judge but to paint a vivid portrait of Josephine as she truly was, allowing readers to form their own opinions about her character. Join Walter Geer and Celine Major in exploring this complex figure of history.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight of Napoleon, A Short Biography. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Napoleon,
A Short Biography by R. M. Johnston. Chapter eight. The
(00:22):
duc Doungen and Trafalgar conspiracies, the Bonaparte family, moreaux imperial aspirations,
the Duke Dongen, proclamation of the Empire war with England,
the Trafalgar Campaign. Alongside of the extraordinary building up of
(00:45):
the Napoleonic legislative and administrative edifice, the Consulate was one
long and secret struggle against the agitation and plots of
the ultra Jacobins on the one hand and of the
ultra Royalists on the other. Not long after Marengo, a
desperate attempt on the First Consul's life was made. A
(01:07):
barrel of gunpowder was loaded on a hand cart that
was placed in a convenient position at a spot in
the Russan nices by which the First Consul's carriage must
be driven on its way to the opera. That night,
Buonaparte was unpunctual, and the coachman, who is said to
have been intoxicated, lashed his horses furiously through the intricate
(01:30):
network of streets at the back of the toulerie to
make up for the lost time. The explosion took place
just an instant too late, and though many lives were
lost and much damage was done, the First Consul went unscathed.
At the opera, there was a scene of the greatest excitement,
during which only two persons maintained a calm and dignified exterior,
(01:53):
Napoleon and his sister Caroline. The personal friends of the
First Consul, such men as Duroc and Juneau, were quite unnerved.
Hortense Beauharnais was crying, Josephine was hysterical. The spectators were
eagerly demonstrating their joy at the escape of the head
of the state, and Caroline, alone with her brother, sat
(02:15):
in the front of the box, watching the scene with
a cool gaze. Of all Napoleon's brothers and sisters, she
probably resembled him most in uniting passionate ambition to cool
calculation and boundless courage. Of the brothers, the strongest in
character was Lucien, whose decisive action on the eighteenth and
(02:37):
nineteenth of Brumaire has already been noted conspicuous during the
early days of the consulate, he soon quarreled with his
powerful brother on a matrimonial question, and eventually separated himself
from him and lost all political influence. The eldest, Joseph,
was the most subservient and useful, Stronger in intellect than
(03:01):
in character, he was always conspicuous as a subordinate, and
was eventually rewarded with two insecure thrones. Louis, a man
of intelligence but uncertain disposition, married Napoleon's step daughter Hortense,
who inherited much of her mother's charm and temperament. What
(03:23):
with matrimonial difficulties with Hortense and political ones with Napoleon,
Louis found his career not an easy one. He was
never an important figure, but a son of Hortense was
destined to restore the empire as Napoleon the third, the
youngest of the brothers, Jerome, was the least weighty, though
(03:44):
even he was to become a king. His grandson, Prince
Napoleon Victor, is at the present day the Bonapartist pretender. Thus,
of the five sons of Charles Bonaparte, one was to
be an Emperor and three kings. His daughters rose almost
equally high. Elisa married a Corsican who was later created
(04:06):
Prince Bacciocchi and was given an Italian principality. Pauline, the
most beautiful member of a striking family, married First General
le Clerc, and, after his death in the Expedition of
San Domingo, Prince Borghese. Caroline, the youngest, married Joaquim Morat
(04:27):
and eventually became Queen of Naples. Her ambition finally drove
her to betray her brother in his greatest hour of need.
Josephine's son Eugene, is the only member of the first
Consul's family not yet mentioned at the commencement of the Consulate.
He was a mere boy before the end of the Empire.
(04:48):
He had made his mark and shown such qualities political
and military that it will be no exaggeration to say
that it would have proved fortunate for France had the
imperial throne come to him as a consequence of the
fall of his stepfather. But this enumeration of the Bonapartes
and Beauharnais is a digression. It is now necessary to
(05:10):
return to the struggle of the consular government for existence.
Plot succeeded Plot. The enemies of Bonaparte became more and
more desperate as each month increased his power and brought
him nearer to what was now his undisguised goal, the throne.
The crisis culminated in the early weeks of eighteen o four,
(05:33):
when a number of sensational arrests startled Paris. Several royalist conspirators,
with the secret assistance of the British government, had made
their way into the capital with the intention of making
some attempt against the first Consul. They were mostly men
of desperate fortunes who had taken part in the insurrectionary
(05:54):
movements in Vondi and Brittany. Their leaders were Cadudal and
the ex Republican Jenieneral Pichegreu. Cadadal was only taken after
a fierce resistance. Pichegru was found strangled in his prison
shortly after his capture. But the most important and sensational
arrest of all was that of General Moreau, who appears
(06:17):
to have had no real connection with the conspiracy. Moro,
the victor of Houenlinden, was as beloved by the army
of Germany as Bonaparte was by the army of Italy. Moro,
the staunch Republican, was the hope of many who saw
in Bonaparte the coming caesar. Moreau, who had always retreated
(06:39):
from politics, might be used to pull down a fellow
general who had forgotten his soldier's duty. He was accused
of complicity in the Royalist plot, arrested and tried. Although
nothing substantial could be proved against him, He was driven
into exile and left France for America. Deal was less fortunate,
(07:01):
and he, together with several of his accomplices, was sentenced
to death. But the matter did not end here. The
extremely dangerous conspiracy of Cadoudal, following as it had many others,
and coinciding with the moment at which Bonaparte had at
last decided to seize the crown, appears to have thrown
(07:21):
him into a state of nervous excitement. Was he to
reach the object of his ambition, or were his enemies
to pull him down At the last moment, he seems
to have thought, and Machiavelli would have approved, that under
such circumstances he could keep his enemies down only by
a stroke of terror. He aimed a blow at the
(07:44):
Republicans by arresting Moreaux, he dealt one to the Bourbons
by virtually assassinating the Duc d'un quen. This young prince
of the Conde branch of the House of Bourbon, was
near the French frontier, staying in a country house in
the Duchy of Baden. He had held a command in
the army with which the French emigree had fought the republic,
(08:08):
and his presence on the border was held to signify that,
on the success of Cadudal, he was to enter France
and take command of the royalist movement. On the fifteenth
of March, a party of gendarmes commanded by Savari, a
confidential agent of Bonaparte, violated the frontier of Baden, and,
(08:29):
taking the Duke from his bed, placed him in a
carriage and hurried him to Paris. He arrived there on
the night of the nineteenth was conveyed to the Fort
of Vascente, tried by a subservient court martial in the
course of the same night, sentenced to death on no evidence,
and shot at dawn. This crime, the most obvious blot
(08:54):
on Napoleon's name, produced a wave of indignation that swept
all Europe in including France. Not one of the first
consul's supporters approved the act. Most of them regretted or
repudiated it. Chateaubrian resigned from the diplomatic service. Taleran sententiously
(09:15):
declared that the execution of the Duc d'ungiem was worse
than a crime. It was a blunder, yet as a
stroke of terror, however unsuited to the political conditions of
the nineteenth century, it was not altogether unsuccessful. From that
time on, France acknowledged her master without question, and the
(09:37):
stain of blood of the twentieth of March eighteen o
four did not prevent the proclamation of the Empire on
the eighteenth of May. Following in eighteen o two, a
plebiscite had converted Bonaparte's consulate for ten years into a
consulate for life. In eighteen o four, there was little
(09:59):
more to do than to make the dignity hereditary and
to change its title. That of king would not have
been tolerated by France. Even that of Emperor, which Bonaparte chose,
was associated with the continuance of France as a republic,
and for many months after the proclamation of the Emperor Napoleon,
(10:20):
France still retained the political style she had assumed on
the first of Vondymnie of the year one, the twenty
second September seventeen ninety two. The coronation of the new
Emperor took place at the cathedral of Notre Dame on
the second of December, following his proclamation. The ceremony was
(10:41):
invested with the greatest pomp, and the Pope was persuaded
into traveling to Paris to perform it. It was many
years since the annals of the Papacy had registered a
similar event, and in the minds of all people of
the Latin Race, it gave the new monarch a consecration
that placed him on a not much lower level than
(11:03):
that of the proudest houses of Europe, whose power reposed
on the basis of divine right. In the following May
eighteen o five, Napoleon proceeded to Milan, the capital of
what had hitherto been known as the Cisalpine Republic. There
he proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, an ambitious and suggestive
(11:25):
name for such a small state as Lombardy and her dependencies.
He crowned himself with the iron Crown of the Lombards,
and announced that the Vice royalty would be entrusted to
Prince Eugene, who would be his heir to the Italian throne.
During these ceremonies, the Republic of Genoa sent a deputation
(11:47):
asking for incorporation with France. This was, of course an
instigated act. It gave more obvious proof than any previous
one that ambitious aggressiveness might be expected as the keynote
of the policy of the Emperor Napoleon. It offended Austria's
pride and before long drew that power into a new
(12:09):
contest with France, the third since the days of the Republic.
We must now re enter the atmosphere of war that
constitutes the background of Napoleon's career. In eighteen o five
began the first of the three great cycles of the
Wars of the Empire. But to understand the events of
(12:31):
the Continental War of eighteen o five, we must first
take up the relations of France and England at the
point at which we left them. Austria signed peace with
France at Luneville after Marengo in eighteen o one, leaving
Great Britain alone at war. That power having driven the
(12:51):
remains of Buonaparte's army from Egypt, and having also captured Malta,
now entered into negotiation. Peace was eventually concluded at Amnanc
on the twenty seventh of March eighteen o two. The
negotiations were difficult, but the only essential question was really
(13:11):
that of the Mediterranean and Malta. Great Britain finally agreed
to withdraw from the island in favor of some neutral power.
But the position of Malta midway between the western and
eastern extremities of the Mediterranean, and the now unveiled ambition
of Bonaparte to acquire a colonial empire and to resume
(13:34):
sooner or later his movement towards the east made the
British cabinet defer evacuation. French troops occupied part of the
Kingdom of Naples with the port of Taranto, and the
French government declined to remove them so long as the
British remained at Malta. The peace between the two countries
(13:55):
was in fact little more than a truce, as was
well shown by a medal struck by Denon, in which
Bonaparte's head is covered with a helmet and surmounted by
the threatening legend Arme Poulape armed for peace. After much
diplomatic disputation, during which the first Consul was strengthening his
(14:16):
hold on Italy and Switzerland and preparing plans for trans
oceanic extension, Great Britain broke off negotiations on the question
of Malta and withdrew her ambassador from Paris on the
twelfth of May eighteen o three. This renewal of hostilities
between France and Great Britain made Buonaparte adjourn his colonial ambitions.
(14:42):
It influenced, among other things, his relations with America. The
aggressive policy of the Directois had led to a rupture
between France and the United States in seventeen ninety eight.
This had been patched up by Bonaparte in eighteen oh one,
but a little later he set his eyes on Louisiana
(15:02):
and would have probably attempted its occupation with the ascent
of its Spanish owners, in the face of clearly expressed
American opposition, had not. The inevitableness of war with England
led him to reconsider his decision. The people of the
United States viewed the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to
France with the utmost dislike it would have given France
(15:27):
the western bank of the Mississippi from the Gulf to
the Canadian Lakes, barring all possibility of expansion to the west.
So it proved fortunate for the good relations of France
and the United States that the former now plunged into
war with Great Britain once more. By so doing, she
(15:47):
lost all power of action beyond the seas, and was
better prepared to abandon her new colonial scheme. A rapid
negotiation resulted in the transfer of Louisiana to the United
States for a sum of sixty million francs eleven million,
two hundred fifty thousand dollars Footnote one. Louisiana included not
(16:12):
only what is now the state of that name, but
the whole of the western half of the basin of
the Mississippi end footnote. In eighteen o three, the position
of Bonaparte in regard to a war with Great Britain
was very different from what it had been in seventeen
ninety eight. Then, the resources of France were limited, the
(16:36):
ambition of the young general urged him to hazardous courses.
Now the resources of the country were vastly increased, and
the first Consul was no longer ready to leave France
and seek for glory at the further end of the Mediterranean.
For every reason, the opposite mode of attack to that
of seventeen ninety eight was chosen, and Bonaparte decided on
(16:59):
then invasion of England. This great naval and military operation
could not be carried out at a moment's notice, but
necessitated preparations spreading over many months. From Yet to Antwerp.
The coast was armed with batteries covering numerous camps in
which troops began to accumulate. Every port great and small
(17:24):
was fortified, improved, and filled with pontoons and gunboats. Hundreds
of gun vessels and numerous light cruisers were collected to
engage the British ships that scoured the channel. But it
was useless to venture troops in light transports to cross
the channel while a British fleet held command of the sea,
(17:46):
nor did Napoleon seriously contemplate doing so. He planned a
gigantic naval campaign that was to give him control of
the channel. His plan changed in details almost from day
to day, but in broad outline as it came nearest execution.
It was as follows There were at that time several
(18:08):
French squadrons, of which the two largest were stationed at
Brest and Toulon. Between these two ports, following the coast
line of France and of Spain her ally, were several others,
such as Rochefort, Ferraut, Cadiz and Cartagena, where smaller divisions
were stationed. But the breast fleet was closely blockaded by
(18:31):
Lord Cornwallis, and that at Toulon was watched by Lord Nelson.
At every point as the fleets were distributed, the British
were practically assured of success. To neutralize this advantage, to
delude the British admirals to concentrate the greatest possible force
on the decisive point, Napoleon worked out a scheme of
(18:54):
which we will now follow. The unfolding Admiral Villeneuve, commanding
the Toulis l fleet, in obedience to instructions, took advantage
of a favoring slant of wind to make his escape
from that port. In the spring of eighteen o five.
He sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar and thence nearly
(19:14):
due west. Nelson was quickly on his track and followed
out into the Atlantic The British admiral soon learned that
his adversary was sailing west, and, concluding that his business
was in the West Indian Islands, determined to cross the
Atlantic in pursuit. But Vieneuve's real objective was not of
(19:35):
West Indies. His long journey of three thousand miles was
only intended to deceive and distract the eye from the
real point of danger. Had Nelson's instinct been as keen
as Napoleon's plan was large, he would have sailed from
Gibraltar not for the West Indies, but for the mouth
of the Channel, for there was the vital point. As
(19:58):
it was, he sailed west, and, having reached the West Indies,
discovered that Villeneuve, after a stay of a few days,
only had put to sea again, this time steering east.
Once more. Nelson pursued, but once more he failed to
see the bearing of Villeneuve's extraordinary movement, and did not
(20:19):
shape his course for the Channel, but sailed back towards
the Mediterranean. The intention of Napoleon was that the fleet
should make land at Ferrol, free the small squadron there,
and thence sailed to Rochefort and breast. At that point
he hoped that the superiority of his combined fleets would
(20:39):
enable them to overpower Cornwallis and sweep up the channel.
It would have taken a stronger man than Villeneuve to
carry out this great plant successfully. He fought an indecisive
action with a smaller English fleet under calder Off Ferrel
on the twenty second of July, and then decided he
could not reach Breast, eventually retire to Cadiz. Other events
(21:03):
had meanwhile put an end to Napoleon's project of an
invasion of England, but before relating those events, the fate
of Villeneuve's fleet must be briefly told. The Emperor was
indignant at what he considered his admiral's pusillanimity. Vineuve to
forestall his removal from command, determined to take his fleet
(21:23):
out of Cadiz and fight at any cost. On the
twenty first of October eighteen o five, he met Nelson
off Cape Trafalgar and was utterly defeated by the superior
skill of his opponent. The Franco Spanish fleet was nearly
entirely destroyed, but England's greatest admiral paid for victory with
his life. End of chapter eight recording by Linda Johnson,
Chapter eight of Napoleon, A Short Biography. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Napoleon,
A Short Biography by R. M. Johnston. Chapter eight. The
(00:22):
duc Doungen and Trafalgar conspiracies, the Bonaparte family, moreaux imperial aspirations,
the Duke Dongen, proclamation of the Empire war with England,
the Trafalgar Campaign. Alongside of the extraordinary building up of
(00:45):
the Napoleonic legislative and administrative edifice, the Consulate was one
long and secret struggle against the agitation and plots of
the ultra Jacobins on the one hand and of the
ultra Royalists on the other. Not long after Marengo, a
desperate attempt on the First Consul's life was made. A
(01:07):
barrel of gunpowder was loaded on a hand cart that
was placed in a convenient position at a spot in
the Russan nices by which the First Consul's carriage must
be driven on its way to the opera. That night,
Buonaparte was unpunctual, and the coachman, who is said to
have been intoxicated, lashed his horses furiously through the intricate
(01:30):
network of streets at the back of the toulerie to
make up for the lost time. The explosion took place
just an instant too late, and though many lives were
lost and much damage was done, the First Consul went unscathed.
At the opera, there was a scene of the greatest excitement,
during which only two persons maintained a calm and dignified exterior,
(01:53):
Napoleon and his sister Caroline. The personal friends of the
First Consul, such men as Duroc and Juneau, were quite unnerved.
Hortense Beauharnais was crying, Josephine was hysterical. The spectators were
eagerly demonstrating their joy at the escape of the head
of the state, and Caroline, alone with her brother, sat
(02:15):
in the front of the box, watching the scene with
a cool gaze. Of all Napoleon's brothers and sisters, she
probably resembled him most in uniting passionate ambition to cool
calculation and boundless courage. Of the brothers, the strongest in
character was Lucien, whose decisive action on the eighteenth and
(02:37):
nineteenth of Brumaire has already been noted conspicuous during the
early days of the consulate, he soon quarreled with his
powerful brother on a matrimonial question, and eventually separated himself
from him and lost all political influence. The eldest, Joseph,
was the most subservient and useful, Stronger in intellect than
(03:01):
in character, he was always conspicuous as a subordinate, and
was eventually rewarded with two insecure thrones. Louis, a man
of intelligence but uncertain disposition, married Napoleon's step daughter Hortense,
who inherited much of her mother's charm and temperament. What
(03:23):
with matrimonial difficulties with Hortense and political ones with Napoleon,
Louis found his career not an easy one. He was
never an important figure, but a son of Hortense was
destined to restore the empire as Napoleon the third, the
youngest of the brothers, Jerome, was the least weighty, though
(03:44):
even he was to become a king. His grandson, Prince
Napoleon Victor, is at the present day the Bonapartist pretender. Thus,
of the five sons of Charles Bonaparte, one was to
be an Emperor and three kings. His daughters rose almost
equally high. Elisa married a Corsican who was later created
(04:06):
Prince Bacciocchi and was given an Italian principality. Pauline, the
most beautiful member of a striking family, married First General
le Clerc, and, after his death in the Expedition of
San Domingo, Prince Borghese. Caroline, the youngest, married Joaquim Morat
(04:27):
and eventually became Queen of Naples. Her ambition finally drove
her to betray her brother in his greatest hour of need.
Josephine's son Eugene, is the only member of the first
Consul's family not yet mentioned at the commencement of the Consulate.
He was a mere boy before the end of the Empire.
(04:48):
He had made his mark and shown such qualities political
and military that it will be no exaggeration to say
that it would have proved fortunate for France had the
imperial throne come to him as a consequence of the
fall of his stepfather. But this enumeration of the Bonapartes
and Beauharnais is a digression. It is now necessary to
(05:10):
return to the struggle of the consular government for existence.
Plot succeeded Plot. The enemies of Bonaparte became more and
more desperate as each month increased his power and brought
him nearer to what was now his undisguised goal, the throne.
The crisis culminated in the early weeks of eighteen o four,
(05:33):
when a number of sensational arrests startled Paris. Several royalist conspirators,
with the secret assistance of the British government, had made
their way into the capital with the intention of making
some attempt against the first Consul. They were mostly men
of desperate fortunes who had taken part in the insurrectionary
(05:54):
movements in Vondi and Brittany. Their leaders were Cadudal and
the ex Republican Jenieneral Pichegreu. Cadadal was only taken after
a fierce resistance. Pichegru was found strangled in his prison
shortly after his capture. But the most important and sensational
arrest of all was that of General Moreau, who appears
(06:17):
to have had no real connection with the conspiracy. Moro,
the victor of Houenlinden, was as beloved by the army
of Germany as Bonaparte was by the army of Italy. Moro,
the staunch Republican, was the hope of many who saw
in Bonaparte the coming caesar. Moreau, who had always retreated
(06:39):
from politics, might be used to pull down a fellow
general who had forgotten his soldier's duty. He was accused
of complicity in the Royalist plot, arrested and tried. Although
nothing substantial could be proved against him, He was driven
into exile and left France for America. Deal was less fortunate,
(07:01):
and he, together with several of his accomplices, was sentenced
to death. But the matter did not end here. The
extremely dangerous conspiracy of Cadoudal, following as it had many others,
and coinciding with the moment at which Bonaparte had at
last decided to seize the crown, appears to have thrown
(07:21):
him into a state of nervous excitement. Was he to
reach the object of his ambition, or were his enemies
to pull him down At the last moment, he seems
to have thought, and Machiavelli would have approved, that under
such circumstances he could keep his enemies down only by
a stroke of terror. He aimed a blow at the
(07:44):
Republicans by arresting Moreaux, he dealt one to the Bourbons
by virtually assassinating the Duc d'un quen. This young prince
of the Conde branch of the House of Bourbon, was
near the French frontier, staying in a country house in
the Duchy of Baden. He had held a command in
the army with which the French emigree had fought the republic,
(08:08):
and his presence on the border was held to signify that,
on the success of Cadudal, he was to enter France
and take command of the royalist movement. On the fifteenth
of March, a party of gendarmes commanded by Savari, a
confidential agent of Bonaparte, violated the frontier of Baden, and,
(08:29):
taking the Duke from his bed, placed him in a
carriage and hurried him to Paris. He arrived there on
the night of the nineteenth was conveyed to the Fort
of Vascente, tried by a subservient court martial in the
course of the same night, sentenced to death on no evidence,
and shot at dawn. This crime, the most obvious blot
(08:54):
on Napoleon's name, produced a wave of indignation that swept
all Europe in including France. Not one of the first
consul's supporters approved the act. Most of them regretted or
repudiated it. Chateaubrian resigned from the diplomatic service. Taleran sententiously
(09:15):
declared that the execution of the Duc d'ungiem was worse
than a crime. It was a blunder, yet as a
stroke of terror, however unsuited to the political conditions of
the nineteenth century, it was not altogether unsuccessful. From that
time on, France acknowledged her master without question, and the
(09:37):
stain of blood of the twentieth of March eighteen o
four did not prevent the proclamation of the Empire on
the eighteenth of May. Following in eighteen o two, a
plebiscite had converted Bonaparte's consulate for ten years into a
consulate for life. In eighteen o four, there was little
(09:59):
more to do than to make the dignity hereditary and
to change its title. That of king would not have
been tolerated by France. Even that of Emperor, which Bonaparte chose,
was associated with the continuance of France as a republic,
and for many months after the proclamation of the Emperor Napoleon,
(10:20):
France still retained the political style she had assumed on
the first of Vondymnie of the year one, the twenty
second September seventeen ninety two. The coronation of the new
Emperor took place at the cathedral of Notre Dame on
the second of December, following his proclamation. The ceremony was
(10:41):
invested with the greatest pomp, and the Pope was persuaded
into traveling to Paris to perform it. It was many
years since the annals of the Papacy had registered a
similar event, and in the minds of all people of
the Latin Race, it gave the new monarch a consecration
that placed him on a not much lower level than
(11:03):
that of the proudest houses of Europe, whose power reposed
on the basis of divine right. In the following May
eighteen o five, Napoleon proceeded to Milan, the capital of
what had hitherto been known as the Cisalpine Republic. There
he proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, an ambitious and suggestive
(11:25):
name for such a small state as Lombardy and her dependencies.
He crowned himself with the iron Crown of the Lombards,
and announced that the Vice royalty would be entrusted to
Prince Eugene, who would be his heir to the Italian throne.
During these ceremonies, the Republic of Genoa sent a deputation
(11:47):
asking for incorporation with France. This was, of course an
instigated act. It gave more obvious proof than any previous
one that ambitious aggressiveness might be expected as the keynote
of the policy of the Emperor Napoleon. It offended Austria's
pride and before long drew that power into a new
(12:09):
contest with France, the third since the days of the Republic.
We must now re enter the atmosphere of war that
constitutes the background of Napoleon's career. In eighteen o five
began the first of the three great cycles of the
Wars of the Empire. But to understand the events of
(12:31):
the Continental War of eighteen o five, we must first
take up the relations of France and England at the
point at which we left them. Austria signed peace with
France at Luneville after Marengo in eighteen o one, leaving
Great Britain alone at war. That power having driven the
(12:51):
remains of Buonaparte's army from Egypt, and having also captured Malta,
now entered into negotiation. Peace was eventually concluded at Amnanc
on the twenty seventh of March eighteen o two. The
negotiations were difficult, but the only essential question was really
(13:11):
that of the Mediterranean and Malta. Great Britain finally agreed
to withdraw from the island in favor of some neutral power.
But the position of Malta midway between the western and
eastern extremities of the Mediterranean, and the now unveiled ambition
of Bonaparte to acquire a colonial empire and to resume
(13:34):
sooner or later his movement towards the east made the
British cabinet defer evacuation. French troops occupied part of the
Kingdom of Naples with the port of Taranto, and the
French government declined to remove them so long as the
British remained at Malta. The peace between the two countries
(13:55):
was in fact little more than a truce, as was
well shown by a medal struck by Denon, in which
Bonaparte's head is covered with a helmet and surmounted by
the threatening legend Arme Poulape armed for peace. After much
diplomatic disputation, during which the first Consul was strengthening his
(14:16):
hold on Italy and Switzerland and preparing plans for trans
oceanic extension, Great Britain broke off negotiations on the question
of Malta and withdrew her ambassador from Paris on the
twelfth of May eighteen o three. This renewal of hostilities
between France and Great Britain made Buonaparte adjourn his colonial ambitions.
(14:42):
It influenced, among other things, his relations with America. The
aggressive policy of the Directois had led to a rupture
between France and the United States in seventeen ninety eight.
This had been patched up by Bonaparte in eighteen oh one,
but a little later he set his eyes on Louisiana
(15:02):
and would have probably attempted its occupation with the ascent
of its Spanish owners, in the face of clearly expressed
American opposition, had not. The inevitableness of war with England
led him to reconsider his decision. The people of the
United States viewed the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to
France with the utmost dislike it would have given France
(15:27):
the western bank of the Mississippi from the Gulf to
the Canadian Lakes, barring all possibility of expansion to the west.
So it proved fortunate for the good relations of France
and the United States that the former now plunged into
war with Great Britain once more. By so doing, she
(15:47):
lost all power of action beyond the seas, and was
better prepared to abandon her new colonial scheme. A rapid
negotiation resulted in the transfer of Louisiana to the United
States for a sum of sixty million francs eleven million,
two hundred fifty thousand dollars Footnote one. Louisiana included not
(16:12):
only what is now the state of that name, but
the whole of the western half of the basin of
the Mississippi end footnote. In eighteen o three, the position
of Bonaparte in regard to a war with Great Britain
was very different from what it had been in seventeen
ninety eight. Then, the resources of France were limited, the
(16:36):
ambition of the young general urged him to hazardous courses.
Now the resources of the country were vastly increased, and
the first Consul was no longer ready to leave France
and seek for glory at the further end of the Mediterranean.
For every reason, the opposite mode of attack to that
of seventeen ninety eight was chosen, and Bonaparte decided on
(16:59):
then invasion of England. This great naval and military operation
could not be carried out at a moment's notice, but
necessitated preparations spreading over many months. From Yet to Antwerp.
The coast was armed with batteries covering numerous camps in
which troops began to accumulate. Every port great and small
(17:24):
was fortified, improved, and filled with pontoons and gunboats. Hundreds
of gun vessels and numerous light cruisers were collected to
engage the British ships that scoured the channel. But it
was useless to venture troops in light transports to cross
the channel while a British fleet held command of the sea,
(17:46):
nor did Napoleon seriously contemplate doing so. He planned a
gigantic naval campaign that was to give him control of
the channel. His plan changed in details almost from day
to day, but in broad outline as it came nearest execution.
It was as follows There were at that time several
(18:08):
French squadrons, of which the two largest were stationed at
Brest and Toulon. Between these two ports, following the coast
line of France and of Spain her ally, were several others,
such as Rochefort, Ferraut, Cadiz and Cartagena, where smaller divisions
were stationed. But the breast fleet was closely blockaded by
(18:31):
Lord Cornwallis, and that at Toulon was watched by Lord Nelson.
At every point as the fleets were distributed, the British
were practically assured of success. To neutralize this advantage, to
delude the British admirals to concentrate the greatest possible force
on the decisive point, Napoleon worked out a scheme of
(18:54):
which we will now follow. The unfolding Admiral Villeneuve, commanding
the Toulis l fleet, in obedience to instructions, took advantage
of a favoring slant of wind to make his escape
from that port. In the spring of eighteen o five.
He sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar and thence nearly
(19:14):
due west. Nelson was quickly on his track and followed
out into the Atlantic The British admiral soon learned that
his adversary was sailing west, and, concluding that his business
was in the West Indian Islands, determined to cross the
Atlantic in pursuit. But Vieneuve's real objective was not of
(19:35):
West Indies. His long journey of three thousand miles was
only intended to deceive and distract the eye from the
real point of danger. Had Nelson's instinct been as keen
as Napoleon's plan was large, he would have sailed from
Gibraltar not for the West Indies, but for the mouth
of the Channel, for there was the vital point. As
(19:58):
it was, he sailed west, and, having reached the West Indies,
discovered that Villeneuve, after a stay of a few days,
only had put to sea again, this time steering east.
Once more. Nelson pursued, but once more he failed to
see the bearing of Villeneuve's extraordinary movement, and did not
(20:19):
shape his course for the Channel, but sailed back towards
the Mediterranean. The intention of Napoleon was that the fleet
should make land at Ferrol, free the small squadron there,
and thence sailed to Rochefort and breast. At that point
he hoped that the superiority of his combined fleets would
(20:39):
enable them to overpower Cornwallis and sweep up the channel.
It would have taken a stronger man than Villeneuve to
carry out this great plant successfully. He fought an indecisive
action with a smaller English fleet under calder Off Ferrel
on the twenty second of July, and then decided he
could not reach Breast, eventually retire to Cadiz. Other events
(21:03):
had meanwhile put an end to Napoleon's project of an
invasion of England, but before relating those events, the fate
of Villeneuve's fleet must be briefly told. The Emperor was
indignant at what he considered his admiral's pusillanimity. Vineuve to
forestall his removal from command, determined to take his fleet
(21:23):
out of Cadiz and fight at any cost. On the
twenty first of October eighteen o five, he met Nelson
off Cape Trafalgar and was utterly defeated by the superior
skill of his opponent. The Franco Spanish fleet was nearly
entirely destroyed, but England's greatest admiral paid for victory with
his life. End of chapter eight recording by Linda Johnson,
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