The Envy of Napoleon Bonaparte

Joseph A. Crisp, II

Few historical figures are as controversial as the "Emperor of the French" Napoleon Bonaparte.  Today, through the work of his descendants and such enthusiasts as the "International Napoleonic Society", Bonaparte has become a somewhat celebrated and romanticized figure. Considering his life and career, while Napoleon certainly possessed considerable talents, such an idealized few is totally unrealistic. His entire life and career seemed to be a recurring cycle of envy for those above him and a driving desire toward ambition to compensate for his own limitations and inadequacy. The result was the emergence of the Bonapartes as the ultimate poseurs of European society. The rise of Napoleon is a perfect example of the dangers of the revolutionary mentality which can allow the least to seize by force the place of the greatest.

Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769, the second child of Charles and Letizia Bonaparte on the island of Corsica. Ironically, this "hero" of the French actually grew up more Italian than French. Despite his bourgeois background through family connections he was able to gain admittance to the Royal Military School at Brienne in 1779. He was not popular at school and gained a deep prejudice against the aristocratic background of most of his classmates.  In 1784 he moved on to the Paris Military Academy and a year later was made a lieutenant of artillery, even though he was far from being a brilliant student. He began to display republican sentiments, which he himself would later betray, as well as pledging himself to high ideals which he would never live up to. His talents won him promotion, but his attitude and treasonous outbursts won him few friends among his fellow officers.

In 1789, the Bastille was stormed and the French Revolution erupted. Napoleon himself, despite his oath of loyalty, seemed exuberant at the mayhem. He said, "This year promises to be favorable to good people after so many centuries of oppression and slavery." Napoleon could not have been more incorrect. On the contrary, France fell into absolute chaos as Frenchmen massacred each other on a scale never before witnessed in European memory. Napoleon was fully behind the murderous revolution, having all the men under his command replace their white cockades (of the Bourbon royals) for the blue, white and red of the republican tricolor. When the Tuilieries Palace was stormed, the Swiss Guards massacred and horrible atrocities became the rule of the day, Napoleon claimed that he would always oppose such barbaric acts, however, Napoleon later fought at Toulon in support of the "Reign of Terror" when he fought against local opponents of the Revolution and the British troops who had occupied the city. He became a friend of Agustin Robbspierre and was promoted to brigadier general by the "Committee of Public Safety". This was not out of character for Napoleon as earlier in his career he had supported the Corsican independence movement but in 1793 firmly abandoned it to support France after clashing with the movement's leader.

Once back in Paris, Napoleon was given another opportunity to show himself to be on the side of either the legitimate royalist forces or the revolutionary republicans. On October 3, 1795 the royalists and counterrevolutionaries held a march to protest the National Convention being held at the Tuilieries Palace. Napoleon ordered his artillery to fire into the crowd, committing just the sort of carnage he earlier pledged to oppose and forever after boasted that he had saved the revolution by a simple, "whiff of grape shot". This much publicized action carried Napoleon to great fame with the liberal elites and the newly established "Directory". He was so well placed in fact that he began having an affair with the mistress of the leader of the Directory Josephine de Beauharnais, an older widow who had been the mistress of a number of high officials before Napoleon became infatuated with her. The following year, against the vehement protests of most of his family, Napoleon married her on March 9 the following year. However, as can already be seen, fidelity was not one of Napoleon's virtues and his marriage would not last. In fact, in 1795 Napoleon had been ordered to suppress the royalist uprising in the Vendee but had refused saying, "Never my sword against the people!" Later, when he himself was ruler of France, he would easily forget this vow as well, becoming an enemy of democracy as well as monarchy.

In 1796, only days after his marriage, Napoleon took command of the forces invading Italy. It was here that he gained his nickname "the Little Corporal". Already scheming to seize power, Napoleon was careful to keep his options open and obey what orders he wished. He conquered Lombardy from the Austrians and defeated the small army of the Papal States, but still hoping to pose as a friend to the Church he disobeyed an order to occupy Rome and depose the Pontiff. Any attempt to say that Napoleon acted out of some nobler attitude that simple vain ambition is disproven by Napoleon's own words. As his conquest of Italy continued he remarked that, "When I see an empty throne, I feel the urge to sit on it". He was also cuckolded by his older, already well worn wife while he was in Italy.

Napoleon was angered by this, but only because it was an insult to his immense pride and vanity rather than out of any true devotion. He himself had many mistresses of his own throughout his career. His ambition was well known enough for the Directory to become alarmed and so they ordered him to war in Egypt. At best they would obtain new conquests for France if he succeeded, and even if not, they would at least remove Napoleon from France where he could threaten their power. Napoleon, however, was second to none in his estimation of his own importance. He dreamed of a massive campaign across the Middle East to forge a French empire there and to emulate Alexander the Great himself by marching all the way to British India. However, Napoleon was to prove to be no Alexander. He arrived in the great conqueror's city of Alexandria, Egypt in June of 1798 and won a victory over an outmoded force of Mamlukes at the Pyramids. However, this campaign showed a recurring weakness of Napoleon. Although he proved competent enough on the battlefield, his momentary obsessions blinded him to considering the "big picture" and his campaign was doomed when the British fleet under Lord Horatio Nelson won the Battle of the Nile and severed his supply lines across the sea to France. Napoleon continued in vain to Syria where he was defeated at Acre.

At that point, Napoleon displayed another of his flaws, which was to abandon his army when the going got rough.  On the pretext that the Directory was plotting against him and that Josephine was again causing scandal by her affairs behind his back, he deserted his faltering army, leaving General Jean Kleber to deal with the consequences of defeat while he returned to Paris. He came home, not as a conquering hero, in fact he barely managed to evade the British blockade, but as a defeated and humiliated man scheming to take power. This he immediately did, assuming control in the "Coup d'Etat of 18th Brumaire" (Revolutionary Calendar) after which he formed the three-man Consulate, becoming effective dictator of France as "First Consul". The arrogance of the revolutionaries and Napoleon himself was seen in their continued efforts to ape the glories of Rome, and Napoleon would carry this even further throughout his career. Once in power, he enacted only such reforms as he thought necessary to carry out his ultimate aim which was further conquests in his name. He enacted legal reforms, founded the Bank of France with himself as one of the directors naturally, and sold the Louisiana Territory to the fledgling United States after a vicious slave revolt on Haiti ended any hopes of expanding his American possessions. In any event, he was to need all of his men and money to focus on his primary ambition: the conquest of Europe and his own self-glorification.

This was proven when, in 1800, he crossed the Alps into northern Italy to attack the Austrians (still nominally at this point the Holy Roman Empire). However, it was not his greatest performance, despite the dramatic propaganda put out of his mountain crossing. At the battle of Marengo he would have been defeated by the Austrians were it not for the timely arrival of reinforcements under Generals Louis Desaix and Francois Kellermann. However, on December 2, 1800 the Austrians were defeated by General Jean Moreau at Hohenlinden. Afterwards, Austria signed a peace treaty with Napoleon's brother Joseph in February of 1801. From that point, Britain alone remained firm in their opposition to Napoleon. In 1800 the British took back the strategic island of Malta and in 1801 a combined Turk-British army drove the French out of Egypt once and for all. With the scales tipping against him, Napoleon was forced to negotiate and Joseph Bonaparte signed peace terms with Britain's Lord Cornwallis at Amiens on March 27, 1802.

Nothing could stop the vanity and ambition of Napoleon however, certainly not a written agreement. The fawning worshipers of Napoleon like to claim that he was driven by the "spirit of Saint-Cyr", and had nothing but noble intentions to better the world and defend the weak. An admirable notion certainly, but Napoleon's own actions show he acted in the exact opposite manner. Always seeking to glorify himself with greater power and prestige, never honoring his agreements and certainly being no gentleman at all. He was harsh and crude will all the women in his life, particularly his wives and mistresses, and was equally arrogant and domineering with his own family. He was often violent with his mistresses and wives and insulting to almost everyone around him. He once angrily chastised his step-daughter Hortense simply for mourning the death of her own son in a manner he thought too excessive. When the wife of a prominent banker refused to become his mistress Napoleon saw to it that he husband was financially ruined because of his wife's loyalty and refusal of Napoleon's advances. He once openly boasted that the "normal" rules of morality did not apply to him, said the deaths of millions had no effect on him and was not hesitant to order the execution of thousands at a time. His own people were no exception, Napoleon being the first world ruler to use modern mass conscription to quickly field huge armies of half-trained civilian-soldiers to throw into enemy fire. The mass casualties of modern war go back to him.

When the French public (already heavily influenced as they were) voted Napoleon the title of "First Consul for Life" his immense pride was still not satisfied. He slowly centralized all power into his own hands until he held absolute control over virtually every aspect of French government and society. He was consciously trying to imitate the glories of Rome (perhaps still clinging to his background which was actually more Italian than French). Roman styles began to appear everywhere, Roman eagles, Roman standards, much of which had been first instigated by the Revolutionaries, with Senators even walking around in Roman togas in their comically arrogant game of pretend. But all of this was still not enough for Napoleon, he wanted to be Caesar or nothing at all. Naturally, he had no intention to rule in the traditional, limited capacity of the Catholic emperors but as a new revolutionary-style liberal absolutist emperor. In 1804 Napoleon had his lackeys in the French Senate offer him the title of "Emperor of the French", which he of course accepted.

Napoleon wanted a grand, traditional style coronation, which naturally meant the Church would have to be involved, and no one less than the Pope himself would suffice. After ascending the Petrine Throne, Pope Pius VII had negotiated concordats with Napoleon and the Roman Republic and it was presented as a "reward" that the pontiff was invited to Paris to crown the French Emperor, but only after five months of negotiations. After his arrival, Pope Pius VII was drawn into Napoleon?s marital problems as well. His marriage to Josephine was not a happy one, and not just because of her own infidelities. Napoleon was extremely cruel to his wife. He made insulting remarks about private parts of her anatomy, flaunted his mistresses in front of her, bragging about their sexual superiority to her face. He also said to some guests at a party that women were only good for making babies, and this is what most worried Josephine as she and Napoleon were still childless and she feared he would divorce her. She went to the Pope and said the two had never had a Church marriage and entreated the Pope to convince Napoleon of the necessity of this in he hope that it would be a further obstacle to Napoleon discarding her. The Pope agreed that a religious ceremony was necessary and Napoleon and Josephine were hurriedly married by Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon's uncle. At the actual coronation ceremony however, Napoleon decided that he did not want to be crowned by the Pope as this would imply that the crown was given to him by the Church and that he owed his position to God and thus had a superior in the universe. Determined to show that he answered to no one but himself, at the ceremony on December 2, 1804 he snatched the crown from Pius VII and crowned himself before also crowning Josephine in Notre Dame Cathedral.

Napoleon now ruled France as emperor, but he did not rule as a traditional Catholic emperor with checks and balances and respect for the Church, but rather as a liberal absolutist. He was so vain that everything and everyone in France was set up to be used for his own glorification. All department prefects were his own appointees and he held strict control over education, the press and the Church, all of which he demanded to glorify his rule. He founded the University of France, which set the precedent for total state control of education. This was to place education outside of the control of the Church and to teach French children the "glories" of the Revolution and their new Emperor. Although the split of France from the Church had been healed, and Napoleon did finally abolish the ridiculous "Revolutionary Calendar", he also went back on his promises with Pius VII, demanded state control of the Church, wanted the Pope to bless his wars of conquest and even that the Papacy be moved to France. This caused the fragile peace between France and the Holy See to be broken, never to be fully healed as time would ultimately tell.

All of this was the sort of self-centered arrogance that was pure Napoleon, and he soon turned his covetous eyes toward the conquest of Europe. In 1803 Napoleon broke the Peace of Amiens and declared war on Great Britain. He prepared for invasion, massing 150,000 troops on the coast and boasting that if he could only rule the English Channel for six hours he would rule the world. This was a highly optimistic estimate, but the Royal Navy would not even grant him 6 hours. The French navy were terrified of their enemies and lacked the quality of leadership which Britain possessed. Napoleon, who never grasped the wider importance of naval warfare, stubbornly demanded that his fleet attack regardless of their estimation of the chances of success. He was so arrogant in fact that he even had a medal minted to celebrate the invasion of England and the capture of London by French forces.

Other nations were alarmed by Napoleon?s actions and Russia, Austria and Sweden united with Britain against him. In 1805 he defeated the Austrians at Ulm, took Vienna and the following month defeated Russia and Austria at the epic battle of Austerlitz. Because Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I of Russia and  the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II were present, Austerlitz is sometimes called the "Battle of the Three Emperors". It may have been all victories on the continent, but at sea it was a different story. Finally frustrated in his plan to invade England, he ordered his admiral to return to the Mediterranean or be replaced. At the battle of Trafalgar on October 27, 1805 27 British ships under Lord Nelson faced and defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships in a victory so humiliating for Napoleon that he ordered no one to even mention the name of Trafalgar in his presence. Napoleon?s massive army of conscripts may have ruled most of Europe, but Britannia still ruled the waves. France was broken as a naval power and the British Isles were secured from any threat of invasion, a fact which had a huge strategic impact on Napoleon?s grand ambitions for European conquest.

On the continent though, Napoleon continued to do well. After the crushing defeat of Austria, Napoleon seized more territory and attempted to usurp the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Rather than see such a man degrade the crown of the preeminent Catholic monarchy, Francis II dissolved the Empire and became simply Emperor Francis I of Austria. Napoleon also showed his endless vanity and ambition as well as a penchant for cronyism and nepotism that would have put the Borgias to shame. He tore down traditional authority all across Europe and rebuilt everything on the French Revolutionary model. His brother Joseph became King of Naples, his brother Louis was made King of Holland and most of Germany and Italy were carved up and distributed to his relatives and favorite generals. This was too much for the proud Prussians and war soon broke out. In 1806 Napoleon defeated the Prussians at almost simultaneous battles at Jena and Auerstadt before marching into the Prussian capital. Here he issued the "Berlin Decree" which was intended to close all European ports to British trade.

This "Continental Blockade" had, for the most part, little effect on Great Britain. The British blockade of France and all French possessions, which was declared in retaliation, was more effective. One European ruler who refused to submit to the Berlin Decree was Pope Pius VII, who continued to allow British trade in the ports of the Papal States. Napoleon was outraged and invaded the Pope?s country, finally occupying Rome itself on February 2, 1808. Napoleon announced that he would annex the Papal States, making the Pope subject to the Emperor of France. Pius VII refused to budge and shouted, "You may tell them in Paris, that they may hack me in pieces, they may skin me alive, but I shall never agree!" Naturally, Napoleon did so anyway, annexing the states of the Church  on May 17, 1809. Pius VII then excommunicated Napoleon who retaliated by having the Pope taken prisoner.

In 1808 Napoleon launched what became known as the "Peninsular War" to conquer Spain. At first the French were successful, though the entire French presence in Spain would be marked by horrible atrocities. However, when Austria took this opportunity to recover some of their losses in Germany, Napoleon was forced to stop giving Spain his full attention. Eventually, through the tenacity of the Spanish guerillas and the skill of the hard driving British general, the Duke of Wellington, Spain would become a nightmare for the French and a continuous drain of manpower even after Austria was defeated. Napoleon was though dealt his first tactical defeat by the highly capable Austrian Archduke Charles at the battle of Aspern-Essling on May 22, 1809. Although Napoleon later made up for his losses, it was at the battle of Wagram that his notorious temper drove him to berate and insult Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte who was so insulted that he later accepted an offer of the Swedish crown and joined the allies against Napoleon.

By 1810 the French Empire seemed to have reached her height of greatness. Napoleon ruled the French Empire, and through his puppet officials controlled Switzerland, the Confederation of the Rhine, and the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Through his nepotistic division of Europe, his brother Joseph was King of Spain, his brother Jerome was King of Westphalia, his step son Eugene de Beauharnais was King of Italy (for the moment), his brother-in-law Joachim Murat was King of Naples and his brother-in-law Felix Bacciochi was Prince of Lucca and Piombino. Both Prussia and Austria were also forced into alliances with France. This was quite a stance for someone who once claimed to be such a passionate enemy of monarchy. However, his ambition was never satisfied. An empire must have a dynasty and Josephine had still given him no children. Given the way he treated all women but his own mother, he decided to discard his wife, who was 6 years his senior, and marry a younger woman with better political connections. After divorcing Josephine, he married Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria on April 2, 1810. However, he was, as usual, as horrible as he was with women in general. When the teenaged wife of a Polish count, Marie Walewska, offered herself to Napoleon on the plea that he spare her country, she fainted upon first meeting the emperor in private only to have Napoleon rape her while she was unconscious and then devastate her country anyway. Nevertheless, he kept the woman for a time and even fathered an illegitimate child by her. Not that this should be surprising with Napoleon, he was cruel to every woman he ever encountered save his own mother. He told some women guests at a party that they were ugly and dirty, told numerous women all the time how they should better dress themselves, told his sisters who to marry and could not abide a woman to discuss politics with him. He was all the time crude, insulting and even violent with virtually all women.

By 1811, the peace worked out previously between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I was about to collapse. The Russian nobility was outraged and insulted by Napoleon?s arrogant behavior and his blockade of Europe which they saw as condescending that he should dictate to Russia with whom they could do business.  They also wanted to take back Poland and were worried about the growth of radical liberalism being spread through his puppet states across Europe. Napoleon could see that trouble with Russia was brewing and so with typical Napoleonic arrogance, he prepared to invade Russia. By this time, Napoleon?s wars of conquest and massive army of conscripts had already seen most of the able bodied men in France massacred in costly battles all across Europe; so, Napoleon was forced to rely heavily on foreign troops supplied by his allies and puppet states to build up the massive numbers he always seemed to need. He gathered together an army of roughly 600,000 troops and, acting against the good advice of many of his officers, invaded Russia on June 23, 1812.

Nothing seemed to go right for Napoleon. Although he tried to gain Polish support by claiming to be fighting on their behalf, it was sheer dishonesty as he had no intention of restoring any land to Poland. He also failed to win any support from embittered Russians when he made it clear that French "liberty, equality and fraternity" did not apply to any conquered serfs. However, with his massive army, Napoleon was able to overcome the initial Russian resistance, but his decision for a massive push rather than conquering a piece at a time was extremely foolish. The Russians retreated eastward, leaving behind nothing but scorched earth. Napoleon won a victory at Borodino but the main Russian army continued to evade him and Napoleon stubbornly pushed on. Obsessive in his lust for conquest, Napoleon finally captured Moscow, but he found only an empty, burned out ruin. The Russians had retreated before him and destroyed everything that remained behind. Now, Napoleon's arrogance began to take a fearful toll on his army. He had made no sufficient provisions for a winter campaign and after the Russians refused to agree to a truce, he was forced by the combination of famine and the Russian winter to retreat westward, harassed the entire way by Cossacks.  His losses were massive, losing hundreds of thousands to death in battle, starvation, the elements and desertion. Once again, the supposedly "brave" conqueror abandoned his doomed army, leaving Murat in command and returning to Paris; but his reputation had been ruined and the image of invincibility his propaganda had built up was destroyed forever on the frozen steppes of Russia.

The nations of Europe were encouraged by this stunning French defeat and joined forces to eliminate the threat of Napoleon once and for all. Great Britain, Prussia, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Portugal, Russia and several lesser German states united against France. Napoleon hastily drafted more soldiers to rebuild his army and though he won battles at Luetzen, Bautzen and Dresden he was nonetheless hopelessly outmatched. In October of 1813 he met with a crushing defeat at the hands of the Allied forces at the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig. Napoleon tried to draft more troops to defend him, but the French Empire was crumbling. British troops under the Duke of Wellington were marching on Paris from the south, Germans in the Rhineland were turning Napoleon?s own brand of nationalism against him in a campaign to drive out the French and their dictatorial rule over Germany. Moreover, tired of his aggressive, useless wars, the huge loss of life and his autocratic rule, the French people began to turn against Napoleon. The Senate called for the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and Napoleon's closest supporters were urging him to flee for his life.

On March 31, 1814 Allied troops occupied Paris. At the pressing of his marshals, Napoleon abdicated in favor of his son, Napoleon II, on 6 April but the Allies demanded an unconditional surrender and so Napoleon was obliged, to his great humiliation, to abdicate a second time, with no strings attached, on April 11at Fontainebleau. The French people called for the restoration of the legitimate monarchy and the Bourbon Louis XVIII was rightly crowned King of France. As for Napoleon, according to the Treaty of Fontainebleau he was allowed to retain his invented title but was exiled permanently to the Island of Elba in the Mediterranean off the Italian coast. The proud, boastful dictator was so humiliated by his downfall that he tried to commit suicide, and was so unpopular someone tried to spare him the trouble by assassinating him. He failed, but his hatred only grew in his impotent state and only a year later he escaped from the island and landed in France on March 1, 1815.

Marshal Michel Ney was sent to arrest Napoleon, but his forces joined with him and advanced on Paris, forcing King Louis XVIII to flee as Napoleon assumed power once again. The Allies, who had been meeting at the Congress of Vienna, trying to put Europe back together after the liberal mutilation Napoleon had subjected it too, were forced to take to the field again to crush the upstart Corsican once and for all. Napoleon left Paris on June 12 to take command of his army. His primary opponents were the British troops under the Duke of Wellington and the Prussians of Marshal Gebhard von Bluecher. Bluecher was defeated at Ligny on June 16, but Wellington proved a tougher nut to crack. Ney pushed the Duke back to Waterloo were he occupied a highly advantageous position and stood firm as Napoleon turned to attack. On June 18 Napoleon threw everything he had at the British squares on the hills outside Waterloo. The fighting was desperate but the determined British held their ground. Wellington grew worried as the day wore on, hoping he said for either Bluecher or nightfall to save them. Frustrated, Napoleon ordered in the pride of his army, the elite "Old Guard", to charge the British lines. In perhaps the most dramatic moment of the battle, to Napoleon's horror, the British repelled them and the famous cry went out, "the Guard recoils!" At the crucial moment, the Prussians appeared in the distance, encouraging the British and Napoleon was totally defeated, his army all but annihilated and the remnant forced to retreat toward Paris.

Waterloo was the final battle of Napoleon. Compared with the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon had fought 70 battles and won 60 of them while Wellington, though he fought far less, had emerged victorious after every one. Once again, Napoleon was forced to abdicate and flee as his enemies converged on him. While trying to escape to the United States he was captured off Rochefort by HMS Bellerophon on July 15, 1815. Not willing to risk him ever returning to seize power again, Napoleon was taken to England and then exiled to the tiny, rocky island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. Reduced to nothing but his arrogance, he retained that in abundance, refusing for instance to deal with a British officer who "dared" to refer to him as General Bonaparte. Napoleon angrily bellowed, "I haven't been called General Bonaparte since the days when I was in Egypt!" He lived out the rest of his sad, lonely life on that small island, his wife having refused to follow him and the rest of Europe being happy to at last be free of the strutting tyrant. He died on St Helena, by means which are still debated, on May 5, 1821, bringing to an end a life that was spent in the vain pursuit of trying to prove he was something greater than he was, trying to force everyone and everything to swallow the exalted image he had of himself. At the end of the day, Napoleon was the typical bully, lashing out from the resentment he felt toward his own background and shortcomings, desperately trying to be something he was not and trying to bend all of Europe, and perhaps the world, to his own twisted will.

Napoleon and Pope Pius VII