Napoleon I 1769-1821

Spain gave the signal for resistance. The Spanish people re fused to recognise Joseph, and a wide spread insurrection broke out. When, in July 18o8 General Dupont surrendered at Baylen, the Napoleonic empire suffered its first military reverse. The news resounded all over Europe. At the same time an English army landed in Portugal and Junot succumbed to superior num bers. Napoleon's desire to direct and control Spanish affairs had not only caused the English to be received as liberators, but had committed himself to an endless struggle against a people in arms. The uprising of the Spanish nation was infectious. In Prussia, in Tirol, in Dalmatia, patriotism was extolled, and the idea of a holy war for national independence took root and grew. In later days the emperor realized that Spain had been his first check, and that the limit of his power had been attained. In spite of a fresh interview at Erfurt, at which the two emperors paraded their friendship before an audience of kings, the Franco-Russian alliance languished. The partition of Turkey was hindered by the question of Constantinople, which neither emperor wished to see in the power of the other. Alexander was beginning to doubt the power of his new friend. Napoleon, feeling that the ill-suc cess of his policy in Spain was injuring his prestige, determined himself to cross the Pyrenees, and re-establish Joseph in Madrid.

Incited by England and lavishly supplied with English money, Austria took advantage of his absence to re-enter the struggle. Napoleon had to return in haste from the Ebro to the Danube. The Austrian plans were carefully laid, and their opposition was far from negligible. Essling was a difficult, and Wagram (July 1809) a costly victory, but in both he carried the day.

Russia.—From these very successes, however, there arose a further complication. Napoleon had made use of Poniatowski and his Poles against the Austrians. Alexander, who, in any case, had remained neutral, feared that Napoleon was planning the reconstitution of Poland. Abandoning his former ally, he de nounced the Continental blockade, and had in his turn to be en countered. The idea of conquering England by Europe and Asia, the sea by the land, had brought about a result which, though it seems at first absurd, was yet the logical conclusion.

It was with no light heart that Napoleon decided to carry the war into Russia. He still hoped that it might not be necessary, if Spain were subdued and if the United States, to whom he had ceded Louisiana and promised Florida, declared war on England, which, attacked in its vital interests by the Continental blockade, would at last sue for peace. There was no doubt that the block ade was having a disastrous effect on British trade; its results on the commerce of other nations were no less serious. Holland re

fused to enforce it, and Napoleon was obliged to resume control from his brother Louis, who had espoused the cause of his new subjects. He annexed the country, and divided it into depart ments, thus giving England a fresh reason for remaining under arms. In this way the Continental blockade led either to fresh wars or to expansions of territory which the English inevitably refused to recognise, since they had never recognised those revo lutionary conquests which the new ones consolidated.

France was growing uneasy. Common sense made it clear that this extension of territory and of war could not go on indefinitely, and yet no end was in sight. Far-seeing members of the emperor's own circle, such as Talleyrand and Fouche, began to fear that affairs were going wrong. "If it only lasts," said Laetitia Ramo lino, Madame Mere. Yet the empire never seemed so great, nor the future so secure as in 181o.

Marie-Louise.

Already on a level with kings, Napoleon in his second marriage equalled the proudest dynasties. The head of the house of Habsburg gave him the hand of his daughter. Jo sephine, though she was loved by the people and her dethrone ment regretted, was growing old and she had given him no heir. He was tired of her, and anxious to ensure the succession. The emperor of Austria must have shared his confidence in the future, since he was willing to accept the "Corsican ogre" as his son-in law. The marriage contract with the archduchess was modelled on that of Louis XVI. and Marie-Antoinette, into whose family he was now admitted, in one of the most extraordinary episodes of even his life. The following year Marie-Louise bore him a son; the empire had an heir, who was given the title king of Rome, as the heir to the Holy Roman Empire had been named king of the Romans. But in 181i Rome was but the capital of the depart ment of the Tiber. The pope had been deported to Savona and was about to be imprisoned at Fontainebleau. By the Continental blockade the restorer of Catholicism in France had been led to alienate CathOlics all over the world. Nevertheless, excommuni cated, having driven the Bourbons from Naples and from Madrid, the man who 20 years before had been an insignificant officer with neither name nor fortune, married a daughter of the Habs burgs. Confident in his star, he carried all before him.

Though his marriage gratified his ambition, Napoleon had de cided upon it only after the failure of negotiations for an alliance with a sister of Alexander. He would have preferred a Russian princess, for more than one old veteran of the Revolution, re membering Marie-Antoinette, asked why the "little corporal" should marry another "Austrian." But the Russian emperor was gradually disengaging himself from the alliance, on which Na poleon was ceasing to rely.