Meanwhile war had broken out with Eng land The vigilance of the English fleet pre vented that concentration of the French navy in the Channel which was essential to the escort of the Boulogne flotilla, but Napoleon had paved the way for a war with Austria, in case it should prove impossible to strike at London. On the pretext that an emperor could not also be president of a republic, it was determined to convert the Italian republic into a monarchy. The Italian crown was offered first to Joseph, then to Louis, but the brothers were too am bitious to renounce their claims on the imperial succession, and Napoleon finally decided to as sume the crown himself and to appoint Eugene Beauharnais his viceroy. Italian deputies were summoned to Paris to vote the crown and in May 1805 Napoleon went to Italy to receive it. In the cathedral of Milan on 26 May he placed the old iron circle of the Lombard kings upon his brow, and though the French senate and the rulers of Europe were assured that the Italian kingdom and the French empire would be kept strictly separate, no one was deceived. The an nexation of Genoa to France was a proof that Napoleon's ambition was insatiable, and adver tised to the powers that war was the only rem edy. By July 1805 Russia had determined to break off relations with Napoleon; on 9 August Austria gave her secret adhesion to the Russo British alliance, by the middle of September an Austrian army under General-Mack was at Ulm. The speed and genius of Napolatr-disconcerted all the calculations of his enemies. The army of England (rechristened 29 August the grand army) was swung round, and rapidly pushed through Germany into the valley of the Danube. On 20 October Mack, surprised, surrqunded, and overwhelmed, capitulated at Ulm; and on 2 December (the anniversary of the coronation the Austrians and Russians were defeated wit huge loss at Austerlitz. Francis withdrew from the war and on 20 Dec. 1805 signed the treaty of Pressburg with France.
The most obvious political result of the cam paign was that the influence of the French em pire was substituted for that of Austria in Italy and Germany. The Hapsburgs were compelled to recognize the Italian kingdom and the an nexation of Genoa, and to cede Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia to the victor. The Neapolitan Bourbons had received an Anglo-Russian force into their capital, and for this violation of neutrality they were condemned to expulsion. Accordingly no sooner had peace been struck at Pressburg than Napoleon sent Saint Cyr (q.v.) and Massena (q.v.) to expel ethe guilty who had so flagrantly °violated all that is sacred among men?) In this mission they were successful. On 13 Jan. 1806, Ferdinand and Caroline fled to Sicily, where they were secured by the protection of the English fleet. The kingdom of the two Sicilies was given to Joseph. Elise Bacciocchi, 'a sister of Napoleon, became princess of Lucca and Piombino, while another sister, the beautiful Pauline Borghese, received the principality of Guastalla. Thus the whole of the Italian peninsula, save the Papal States, came under French control.
The results of Austerlitz were no less im pressive in Germany. Before the war Na poleon had solicited and obtained the alliance of the South German dynasties and after the victory he proceeded to reward his allies. Ba varia and Wurtemburg were raised to the dig nity of kingdoms; Baden became a grand duchy, while marriages were arranged between Eugene and Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Je rome and Princess Caroline of Wurtemburg and Stephanie de Reauharnals and the Crown Prince of Baden. By recognizing the independ ent authority of the three South German princes Napoleon had practically eliminated Austrian influence from South Germany, but so long as the shadow of the Holy Roman Empire remained, the Hapsburgs still retained a right of intervention in German affairs. This right Napoleon determined to abolish. On 1 Aug. 1806, the Diet of Ratisbon was informed that the Holy Roman Empire was at an end. In place of this ancient and picturesque institution a confederation of the Rhine was formed under the protectorate of Napoleon, a °new Carolin gian code') as it was called in Paris, where it was drafted under the direction of Talleyrand. The 16 princes who joined the confederation were bound by a close offensive and defensive alliance to France and compelled to furnish contingents to the grand army. As the price of their subservience to the Protector of the League, they were encouraged to be autocratic in their own dominions.
As Austerlitz gave Napoleon control of Southern Germany, so Jena and Friedland made him master of the north. The Prussian court, roused by the occupation of Hanover in 1803, the murder of the Duc d'Enghein in 1804, and the violation of Prussian neutrality by Ber nadotte's corps in 1805, determined (October 1805) to present an ultimatum to Napoleon and in the event of his refusal to cast in her lot with the allies. But the battle of Austerlitz intervened, and Haugwitz, the bearer of the Prussian ultimatum, was compelled to sign the humiliating treaty of Schonbrunn (15 Dec. 1805), the main object of which was to involve Prussia in war with England by forcing her to accept Hanover. But the war spirit was now
high in Berlin, and everything in Napoleon's conduct during the ensuing months — the for mation of the Confederation of the Rhine, the obstacles placed in the way of a counterbalanc ing confederation of the North—was calcu lated to raise it. Finally Prussia learned that Napoleon was offering Hanover to England, and rushed into war. Napoleon, swiftly march ing through the depths of Thuringia, beat the Prussians at 'ena and Auerstadt, 14 Oct. 1806, occupied Berlin, compelled the Saxons to enter the confederation of the Rhine, and finally, after the bloody and indecisive battle of Eylau, 6 Feb. 1807, won a crowning victory at Fried land, 14 June, which led Alexander of Russia to decide for peace. The three sovereigns met at Tilsit, and then a peace was signed 7 July 1807. Prussia was not only compelled to pay a heavy war indemnity, and to support a French army of occupation, but was stripped both of her eastern and western provinces. The prov inces (save the circle of Bialystock) acquired by the second and third partition of Poland, were formed into a grand duchy of Warsaw which was attached to the Saxon kingdom, and consequently included in the Rhenish confede ration. On the western frontier, the Westpha lian province, including the important fortress of Magdeburg were, together with the Duchy of Brunswick, parts of Hanover and the elec torate of Hesse-Cassel, formed into a kingdom of Westphalia for Prince Jerome, the youngest brother of the emperor, likewise included in the Rhenish confederation. The Baltic littoral passed under French control, for, though Dan zig was proclaimed a free city, it was to be governed by a French force, and though the Duchies of Oldenburg and Mecklenburg Schwerin were restored to their respective 803 dukes, they were to sustain a French army of occupation until the general peace. Meanwhile, on 21 Nov. 1806, Napoleon had issued the fa mous Berlin decree (q.v.), the object of which was to ruin England by excluding her goods from the continent, and by declaring the British isles to be in a state of blockade. But to make the continental blockade completely effective it was necessary to control all the littoral of con tinental Europe; and this, accordingly, became the primary aim of imperial policy. The Bata vian Republic was converted into a kingdom of Holland, and placed under the control of Louis in 1806, while the refusal of the Pope to accede to the blockade led to the gradual absorption of the Papal States, and to their final incorpo ration in the French Empire in 1809. This, too, was the primary motive for Napoleon's in tervention in the affairs of the Iberian penin sula. While returning from Tilsit, Napoleon commanded Talleyrand to inform the Portu guese that unless they closed their forts to the British by 1 Sept. 1807, he would declare war upon the Prince Regent As Portugal did not acquiesce, a secret convention was signed at Fontainebleau, 27 Oct 1807, between France and Spain, providing for the joint conquest and partition of the Portuguese kingdom. The con quest was rapidly effected, and as Junot (q.v.) with 1,500 famished grenadiers struggled into Lisbon, 30 Nov. 1807, the Prince Regent and the royal family fled to South America. But meanwhile Napoleon was preparing to over throw the Bourbon house in Spain. The court of Madrid had secret grudges against the French Empire, and in a moment of infatuation during the summer of 1806, the Spanish army had been mobilized, with a view of rejecting the treaty of Ildefonzo, which had been the source of the destruction of the Spanish navy. But Jena upset the calculation of Godoy, the miserable favorite, who held the reins of Span ish policy. He explained away his action, pro tested friendship, showed himself in the treaty of Fontainebleau, prepared to connive at the destruction of the house of Braganza, and did not for a moment deceive Napoleon. The Portuguese campaign, and the dissensions be tween Charles IV and his son Ferdinand, gave to Napoleon the pretext for interference. French troops were sent across the Pyrennees, nominally for the purpose of supporting the army of Portugal, really in order to effect the subjugation of the country. Finally the royal family was enticed to Bayonne, and father and son compelled, 5 May 1808, to renounce their claims to the throne. Joseph was sent to gov ern in Madrid, while Murat, the grand duke of Berg, took his place in Naples. By the middle of May the whole Iberian peninsula had nomi nally become an annex of the French Empire. In reality the gravest mistake had been com mitted. An English army under Sir Arthur Wellesley (q.v.) defeated Junot at Vimievo 21 Aug. 1805, and forced the French to evacuate Portugal, while the Spanish people, passionately loyal to the fallen dynasty, hating the French revolution, and impervious to the charms of a scientific administration, everywhere rose in re volt. On 22 July 1808, a large French force under Dupont (q.v.) capitulated at Baylen. It was the first serious military reverse which the French Empire had sustained.