12 - Napoleon, A Short Biography by Robert Matteson Johnston

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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eleven 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 eleven, Napoleonic

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Policy eighteen o six to eighteen o eight. Napoleon's ambition,
fall of the Germanic Empire, War and finance tilsit, Commercial
war on England, Copenhagen, Juneau occupies Lisbon, Continental policy, Spanish intrigue,

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occupation of Madrid, Joseph Buonaparte, King of Spain. It is
now time to consider the questions of policy that underlay
the wars we have just followed, and that soon drove
Napoleon to new and less fortunate enterprises. And first, the
personal element. The man must engage attention his successes, his ambitions,

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his plans were immoderate. They were the result of an
insensate craving to satisfy the selfish appetites of a gigantic intellect.
The good of others was with Napoleon nothing more than
a means for attaining some personal end, and France was
rather the instrument than the object of his achievements. To

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Cromwell and to Washington, even in a way, to Caesar,
their country had been a sufficient world of action. But
Bonaparte's imagination, ever soared to fresh fields of conquest. The
Corsican lieutenant of artillery had made France his and now
stretched his hand over Europe. Had he made Europe his,

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nothing can be more certain than that he would thence
have risen to the conquest of Asia or America. He
was the embodiment of man struggling to better himself, as
conceived by utilitarian or Darwinian philosophers, and the field of
ambition in which he strove for existence was only bounded
by planetary space. Nor was his aggressiveness veiled. It was

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the man himself, and came out in all his acts.
In his bulletins and familiar soldiers talk, he used the
most offensive language towards his opponents, sparing not even a
woman such as Queen Louisa of Prussia. In his diplomatic encounters,
he showed no greater generosity. When his opponent was down,

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he took from him everything he could, and, even when possible,
more than was bargained for. Thus it was after the
Treaty of Presburg that followed Austerlitz. By the terms of peace,
Napoleon extorted every session of territory and of money he could.
Yet he took more in the months that followed, having,

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by the terms of the treaty, increased the South German states,
especially Bavaria, at the expense of Austria. He subsequently proceeded
to form a South and West German body, which he
called the Confederation of the Rhine, and took under his
protectorate Bavaria and Wurtemberg, which he now raised to the

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rank of kingdoms, with Westphalia, later were the principle among
the numerous German states that, either through necessity or ambition,
joined the new confederation. But these states had been component
parts of the Germanic Body or Germanic Holy Roman Empire,
of which the head was the Emperor Francis of Habsburg Lorraine.

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The Empire had long been a weak and tottering institution.
This thrust of Napoleon overthrew it for the Emperor. Francis
thereupon issued a declaration announcing the dissolution of the Germanic
Empire and his assumption of the style of France's first
hereditary Emperor of Austria. There was another feature of Napoleon's

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system of politics that became strongly emphasized immediately after Austerlitz.
This was that he intended war to be self supporting. Heretofore,
in European politics, war had been an abnormal condition, entailing
abnormal expenditure on the country waging it. With this consequence

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that on a piece, armaments were reduced. With Napoleon, all
this was changed after Austerlitz. The French battalions were not
reduced by one man. The army was to its master
what the tool is to the craftsman, and he would
not admit of its efficiency being diminished. At the same time,

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it appeared in every way contrary to Napoleon's interests that
the abnormal charge for maintaining this great army should be
borne by France. He consequently entered on the policy of
quartering on his enemies, if possible, otherwise on his allies
large bodies of troops, which they were called on to

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maintain and in many cases to pay. For seven years
eighteen o six to thirteen. The greater part of Germany
thus served as pasture ground, and so evil and burdensome
was the system that even the placid people of that
prosperous country were nearly driven into open rebellion. When the

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victory of Friedland forced his last great continental antagonist to
confess defeat, Napoleon touched the summit of his power. The
days of the struggling Consulate appeared long past. Already after Austerlitz,
a great change had come over him. Physically. He was

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no longer the lean, intriguing Corsican struggling to reach the
front rank, but had filled out and assumed a better
satisfied corporal aspect. He had now established his equality with
the greatest sovereigns of Europe. Eighteen months later, at Tilsit,

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equality no longer satisfied him, and he decided to divide
the hegemony of the continent with the Tsar, providing that
sovereign would consent to follow his policy against Great Britain,
France and Russia could clearly dictate terms, for Prussia was
reduced to a secondary rank, while Austria alone retained a

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claim to military power. It was on this basis that
Napoleon framed his policy at Tilsit. He was prepared to
be friendly with Russia of Alexander. He claimed no terror
save the little island of Corfu. All he asked was
co operation in his struggle against England. He took pains

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to charm the Tsar and succeeded, for his fascination could
be as great as his invective was brutal. Alexander agreed
to all that Napoleon asked of him, was content to
see peace made at the expense of Prussia, and was
repaid by gaining a free hand to take Finland from

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Sweden and various provinces from Turkey. The Tsar begged hard
for his ex ally, King Frederic William, but Napoleon was
bent on crushing the Prussian monarchy under his heel. By
the terms of peace, Prussia was not only despoiled of
much territory, but was also charged with an enormous war

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indemnity pending payment of which French troops were to occupy
Berlyn and her most fruitful provinces. So loose were the
terms of the treaty that Prussia remained saddled with the
French occupation until after the Great Catastrophe of November to
December eighteen twelve. But the point of greatest interest in

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the agreement arrived at by the two emperors was that
which concerned Great Britain. Alexander glad to pay for Austerlitz
and Friedland at so little direct cost, Fascinated by the
cajoleries of the Great Captain, agreed to turn against his
ancient ally. This part of the negotiations was intended to

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be kept secret for the present, but the British cabinet
secured information and determined to forestall a projected move of
the two great continental powers. Instead of accepting a proposal
for the mediation of Russia with a view to a
general peace, the government of King George sent an expedition

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to Copenheutauan to seize the Danish fleet. This event, September
eighteen o seven, rendered prospects of a peace with Great
Britain even more remote. It ruined Napoleon's naval projects, and
it prompted him to a counter stroke at England. Nearly
every country of the continent except Sweden and Turkey, was

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now closed to British trade, but in Portugal her commerce
found free outlet, and Napoleon determined, as an offset to
Copenhagen to close the Portuguese ports to Great Britain. To
effect this military action became necessary, and a small army

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under General Junou was marched through Spain and occupied Lisbon.
At the end of November eighteen o seven, the Portuguese
royal family fled to Brazil. This incursion into Portugal, though
it appeared merely a counter stroke for the British seizure
of the Danish fleet, was in reality an integral part

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of a vast scheme which Napoleon's mind had long been maturing.
The War of eighteen o five had drawn him from
the Channel, Trafalgar and Copenhagen, had deprived him of the
naval strength he required, and the invasion of England had
faded into the background of possibilities. But though invasion was

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no longer possible, the commercial attack was. If Napoleon could
no longer march an army to London, he might yet
hope to starve and ruin her. His first step towards
effecting this was when the conquest of Prussia gave him
the power to stretch his hand over the northwestern seaports.

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In November eighteen o six he issued the famous Decree
of Berlin, whereby it was ordered that no port in
the French Empire or its dependency should receive any ship
coming from Great Britain or any of her colonies, that
Great Britain herself was in a state of blockade, and

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that all British goods were seizable wherever found to this.
The British reply was an order in Council practically forbidding
neutral vessels to trade except through British ports, and later
proclaiming all French ports blockaded. Napoleon answered this by declaring

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all neutral vessels carrying British papers denationalized and seizable. This
last decree was in November eighteen o seven. The whole
force of Napoleon's intellect was now turned towards making this
extraordinary economic policy effective. He had not only to devise

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means whereby English cottons and colonial products should not be
smuggled through his extensive cordons of custom house officers, but
he had to devise means of bringing the whole of
the continent into his policy, for it was only on
the largest scale that it could be effective. Having secured
the csar's promise of co operation, having a strong hold

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on the coasts of the Baltic and north seas. His
attention was now more closely directed to the south. Italy
was his as far as the Strait of Messina, for
the Treaty of Presbourg had added Venetia to the Kingdom
of Italy. The papal dominions were virtually under French control.
The Bourbons had been driven from Naples, where Joseph Bonaparte

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was installed king in eighteen o six, the Treaty of
Tilsit had given Corfu to France, and now in the
winter of eighteen o seven o eight, Napoleon was revolving
plans whereby acting from that island and in concert with Russia,
he might arrange to partition, turn and thence launch a

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Franco Russian expedition through Persia towards India. These schemes were
inordinately vast, and their execution never passed the initial stages.
But leaving the Eastern for the western basin of the Mediterranean,
there was another detail of the Napoleonic plans that required attention,

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but appeared to offer little or no difficulty. Juno's march
to Lisbon in the autumn of eighteen o seven has
already been noticed. Portugal had fallen without resistance, and the
capital had not fired a shot to stop the paltry
force that captured it. Spain appeared as rotten as a

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feat as Portugal. The King, Charles the Fourth was perhaps
the most inept of all Bourbon sovereigns, and to make
matters worse, the Queen and the favorite good Doy were
little better than the king. In seventeen ninety five, Spain
had abandoned the struggle against the French Republic and ever

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since had dragged by her side in an unconvinced and
ineffective alliance. But the people and even the minister tired
of French dictation, and in eighteen o six, shortly before Jenna,
Gooddoy showed clear indications that he only awaited a favorable
opportunity to turn against Napoleon. The Spaniard chose his time badly.

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The Corsican played his game more deliberately. He wanted the
full use of the Spanish naval resources against England, he
viewed with contempt the Bourbon occupant of the throne. He
did not contemplate as possible a serious resistance from Spain
to the conqueror of Austria, Prussia and Russia without showing

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his hand very clearly, without perhaps quite deciding what his
precise policy he should be. He pushed on supporting columns
behind Juno's army of Portugal and gradually established a considerable
force in the northern provinces of Spain. In the early
months of eighteen o eight, Napoleon showed his hand more clearly.

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A large French army was now moving towards Madrid, and
Murat was given supreme command. This steadily increasing pressure applied
by Napoleon proved too much for the Bourbons, dislodged them
from their throne. There were recriminations between Charles the fourth,
his son Ferdinand, and his minister Godoy. Popular discontent broke out.

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Charles the fourth resigned a mob nearly massacred Godoy, who
was barely saved by the French troops. Muratu had quietly
installed himself at Madrid, declined to recognize Ferdinand as king,
and Charles repented his hasty abdication. Father and son proceeded

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to Bayonne to lay their case before Napoleon, and he,
by menace and cajolery, obtained from them a renunciation of
their rights in his favor. Spain was now apparently his,
and he appointed to its throne his brother Joseph, giving
in turn that of Naples to Murat. It was on

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the fifth of May that the renunciation of his crown
by Charles the Fourth gave Napoleon Spain with a stroke
of the pen. But the people of Madrid had demonstrated
that they were no willing parties to the shameful transaction
of their king. Three days earlier, a street insurrection broke out,
which Murat subdued with much trouble and punished severely. It

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was the precursor of a national rising continued for five years,
and that ended in success. France had hitherto conquered by
means of a national army, she was now to be
met with the same arm she had so triumphantly used
and abused. French troops were now advancing in every direction,

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but a provisional government organized resistance, and within a few
weeks the imperial arms received the most decisive check they
had yet met with South of Madrid, the French general
du Pont allowed his communications to be cut, and, failing
to force a passage, was compelled to surrender with twenty

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thousand men at balin July nineteenth. A few weeks later,
a similar disaster occurred in Portugal. A British force under
Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, landed close to Lisbon,
fought and defeated Juno's army Vimiero August twenty one. A

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capitulation was signed at Cintra a few days later, whereby
the French evacuated Portugal. These unexpected reverses roused Napoleon. His
army in Spain was made up mostly of new levies.
He now ordered several corps of the Grand Army to

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leave their cantonments in Germany for the peninsula. Other corps
were formed in France and hurried to the frontier, and Napoleon,
determined to take command in person. He joined his troops
in November. They were then concentrated between the Ebro and
the Pyrenees, faced by several Spanish armies, for the most

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part poorly drilled, insufficiently equipped, and miserably led. A few
rapid strokes to the right and left shattered resistance, and
Napoleon marched irresistibly on Madrid, which he entered on the
fourth of December. This first success was elusive. There were
several peculiarities that rendered campaigning in Spain a far more

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difficult task than in Italy or Germany. The country was
poor and troops had to be accompanied by long convoys.
The peasantry, fanaticized by the priests, took up arms, cut
off detached parties, and isolated the French columns. The mountain
ranges of the peninsula ran generally east and west, that is,

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across the line of invasion, making movements slow and arduous,
and affording continuous openings for rapid flank attacks up the valleys.
While Napoleon was marching south on Madrid, a British army
under Sir John Moore was moving east from Lisbon and
nearly succeeded in striking the French line of communications in

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the neighborhood of Valla Doli. No sooner did Napoleon reach
realized the presence of this new enemy. Then he turned
all his available force towards the British, and taking command,
pushed forward to attack Sir John Moore. It was now
winter and the mountain passes were covered with snow, but

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the French pressed on rapidly, and the British general heavily
outnumbered hastily retreated. He eventually reached Coruna after severe losses
and hardships, and there succeeded in embarking his army, but
lost his life in the fighting. Napoleon had not pursued

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the British as far as Coruna. Midway, important despatches had
reached him from Paris, handing over the command to Marshal Soules,
he took a few personal attendants, and, galloping as fast
as saddle and post horses could carry him, unexpectedly reached
his capital on the twenty third of January eighteen o nine.

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End of chapter eleven. Recording by Linda Johnson