15 - 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 fourteen of Napoleon, A Short Biography. This is a
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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Russell Newton. Napoleon, A Short Biography by R. M. Johnson,

(00:21):
Chapter fourteen, The Struggle for Germany and Italy eighteen thirteen.
Effects of the Russian catastrophe Lutzen and Botzen, Austrian intervention Dresden, Leipzig,
Marat and Italy. The Great Catastrophe of Russia had a
twofold effect material and morale. It destroyed the veteran army

(00:46):
that had for so long imposed its master's will on
the continent, and it broke the spell of invincibility that
had so often paralyzed Napoleon's enemies. Schwarzenberg, who had done
little or nothing, concluded a military convention with the Russian
general and withdrew his troops. The Prussians, serving under MacDonald
deserted him, and before many weeks had passed, the Prussian

(01:08):
government plucked up enough courage to approve this course officially
signed a treaty of alliance with Russia. Klish February twenty
seventh and declared war. The King of Naples soon abandoned
his trust as commander in chief to return to his capital,
and Prince Eugene and Prince Eugene, who asson command, then
gradually withdrew the small army he had collected from the

(01:31):
Vistula to the oder and then from the Odour to
the Elp. His numbers were quite insufficient to meet the
Russians and Prussians in the field. Meanwhile, Napoleon in Paris
was making gigantic efforts to retrieve his impaired fortunes. New
levies were raised, amounting for the whole year eighteen thirteen
to over a million. Men, women, children and old men

(01:53):
did the work of the fields, while every able bodied
man and boy was seized by the conscription, passed through
the Barrika Guard, armed uniformed, and marched on the road
to Germany. By the month of April, Napoleon once more
had a large army across the Rhine, rapidly advancing to
join that of Prince Eugene. The Emperor took command in

(02:14):
person and pushed on toward Leipzig. He effected his junction
with the Prince and was preparing to march on Berlin
when he was attacked in flank by the Russians and
Prussians under Wittgenstein and Blucher at Lutzen May two. Here
a great battle was fought, and the French conscripts astonished
their generals and brought victory back to the imperial standards.

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But Lutzen was a hard fought field, barely won, and
Napoleon's lack of cavalry prevented his impeding the retreat of
the Allies. Three weeks later, another battle was fought with
much the same results at Botzen. In the pursuit that
followed into Silesia, Napoleon once more sadly missed an efficient

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force of cavalry, and on the fourth of June he
agreed to an armistice that gave him Saxony and the
line of the Elbe. He hoped by this means to
gain time to bring up his strength in men and horses,
but as events turned out, the suspension of a hostilities
proved more to the advantage of the Allies. During this
armistice came the news of Wellington's decisive victory at Victoria,

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which drove the French from Spain, and Austria notified France
that she was prepared to offer her mediation with a
view to peace. As soon as Medinich had realized the
magnitude of the disaster that had overtaken the French army
in Russia, he determined to prepare to take advantage of it,
but advanced with prudence. The Austrian army was rapidly increased

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and placed on a war footing, and after many hesitations
due to the timidity of the Emperor Francis, Austria finally
put forward her conditions. These were broadly that the Great
Duchy of Warsaw should be abolished, that Prussia should regain
her boundaries of eighteen oh five, that the Confederation of
the Rhine should be dissolved, and that Austria should regain

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Trust and Dalmatia. There followed interviews between Napoleon and Metternich,
extensions of the armistice, a peace congress at Prague, but
the Emperor never meant to accept peace, He was only
negotiating to gain time. The upshot was that Austria, on
her mediation failing, joined the Allied powers. On the tenth

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of August. Hostilities were resumed and Napoleon now had to
face an Austrian army of two hundred thousand men, besides
those of Russia, Prussia and Sweden, for Sweden had now
joined the Allies. Marshal Bernadotte had been elected Crown Prince
three years before and now led her army, while another Frenchman,
General Moreau, had left the United States and joined the

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staff of the Tsar Alexander. Even Marat, sick of the
war and anxious for his throne, had been engaged in
negotiations with Austria. While the French army was utterly dispirited
and longed for peace. The marshals were weary and entreated
the emperor to accept reasonable conditions. The conscripts mutilated themselves
by thousands so as to be sent home. Yet Napoleon's

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relentless energy drove his army to victory once more at
Dresden on the twenty seventh of August. The Austrians under
Schwarzenburg were heavily defeated, largely owing to the King of
Naples brilliant leadership of the French right. Then followed a
series of inconclusive maneuvers and partial engagements in which the
Allies were constantly successful against the detached French troops. The

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weather was inclement, the country exhausted, and the French army
was reduced to some two hundred thousand men, while that
of the Allies had gradually increased to more than double
that figure. Germany was now partly in arms, and as
success appeared more hopeful, defection spread from one state to another.
North south and east of the Elbe. Between Dresden and Magdeburg,

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three Great Allied Arts armies nearly surrounded that of Napoleon,
avoiding battle with them but engaging as marshals when he
was absent. Finally on Bavaria. Joining the Allies, Schwarzenburg moved
from Bohemia westwards and threatened to strike at the man's
Leipzig Road in Napoleon's rear. The Emperor now divided his army.
One half marched northwards under his own orders for a

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stroke at Blucher or Bernadot. The other, under the King
of Naples, was left to contain Schwarzenburg. Napoleon failed in
his attempt to bring the Prusso Russians or Swedes to
an engagement, and fell back towards Leipzig. At the same time,
the King of Naples retired towards the same point. Pressed

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hard by Schwarzenburg's superior numbers, all the armies were now
converging from south, east and north on Leipzig one hundred
and fifty thousand French three hundred thousand Allies, and on
the sixteenth and eighteenth of October a decisive battle was
fought there. The French, placed in a semicircle, fought on

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the defensive, but were slowly and surely driven back. A
dramatic incident marked this second day's fighting, when a corps
of Saxon troops left their position in the French lines
and went over to the enemy. On the night of
the nineteenth Napoleon, though hard pressed and driven back, still
held positions covering the town, but he was virtually defeated

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and had not enough ammunition in hand to continue the struggle.
Orders for a retreat were therefore issued, but to leave
Leipzig by the road to Mayense, a bridge over the
Elster had to be crossed. This was insufficient for the
passage of the army, and Napoleon, bent as ever on
the offensive, had neglected to make provision for a retreat.

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On the morning of the nineteenth, the last French corps
were caught in the trap, and the bridge was blown
up when thirty thousand men or more were still on
the further bank. Probably Napoleon's total losses at Leipzig did
not fall far short of sixty thousand men, and a
few weeks later the army he led back across the
Rhine only numbered about seventy thousand. An incident of this

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retreat must now be mentioned that will lead to a
digression on the affairs of Italy, hitherto somewhat neglected. A
few days after leaving Leipzig, Joaquim Murat suddenly left headquarters and,
traveling posthaste, returned to Naples, where he arrived in the
first week of November. Murat, like nearly every one of
Napoleon's generals, was heartily sick of war, and now considered

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the emperor irretrievably defeated. He hoped for a prompt peace,
but was anxious, whatever happened, to maintain his own position
as King of Naples if fighting were to continue. This
could only be done, so, he thought, either by treating
with the allies or in another way, one that opens
up a large and interesting question of policy by various

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consecutive steps. By the creation of the Kingdom of Italy,
by the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples, by the
absorption of the states of the Church, Napoleon had brought
all the peninsula of Italy under his rule for the
first time since the days of Rome. Italians from north
and from south fought under the same flag, obeyed, similar laws,

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were governed by the same system, and this too was
the work of a man of Italian race. The designation
he had chosen for his Lombard provinces, the declarations he
had made during the campaign of seventeen ninety six, the
title he had given his son were all indications of
a possible creation of an Italian nationality. Now that Germany

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and Spain were lost, now that Victorious Austria was on
the point of invading her lost provinces south of the Alps,
the question arose, how were they to be defended. Prince Eugene,
Viceroy of Italy, had been sent to assume command of
such troops as could be collected, but his army was small,
there was no public spirit behind him, and the King

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of Naples persistently declined to move his troops to assist
the Prince. Murat wanted to do one of two things,
either to obtain a guarantee of his throne from Austria
and Great Britain, or to obtain from Napoleon a declaration
creating Italy I and giving him the command of her
combined and now national resources. In the latter case, he

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made sure that, joining his troops to those of the Viceroy,
and supported by the nationalists sentiment of the people, he
could successfully resist any Austrian invasion. Appealing both to Metternich
and Napoleon, he found the former willing, the latter unwilling
to treat. The dream of Italy unity fated, and Murat
turned traitor to his old colors by signing a treaty

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of alliance with Austria on the eleventh of January eighteen fourteen.
At that date, the Austrians had already occupied Venetia to
the south of the Alps, while to the north they
had crossed the Rhine and were marching on Paris. Chronology
second of May eighteen thirteen, Lutzen twenty first of May, Botzen,

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fourth of June and tenth of August. Armistice twenty first
of June. Wellington successful at Victoria twenty sixth of August,
Dresden sixteenth through eighteen of October, Leipzig end of Chapter fourteen,