The Militarisation of the Revolution
The army had become increasingly important to the French Revolutionary cause with victories at the very end of the 18th century in Italy and the Netherlands against a coalition of Russia, Britain, Turkey, Sweden and Austria. The campaign of the rising young Bonaparte in Egypt, following his decisive intervention to regain the port of Toulon from the British and a successful campaign in Italy, added an exotic note, carefully spun by its commander for positive publicity.
The epitome of a man on a white horse arriving to save his nation, he was unabashed by the relative failure of his expedition to Egypt with its inconclusive outcome on land and Britain’s naval victory in the Battle of the Nile. He imposed himself on the regime of the Consulate introduced in 1799 and was confirmed as First Consul by a referendum in February 1800 – the official approval rate was 99.9 per cent.
He reached a Concordat with the Vatican, which recognised Catholicism as ‘the religion of the great majority of the French people’ while providing a quid pro quo in state control over bishoprics and parishes.
Though a man of war, he made diplomatic accords when it suited him, such as the division of Europe with Russia at his meeting with the Tsar on a raft on the River Niemen in 1807 and his marriage three years later to Marie-Louise of Austria, after he had jettisoned the love of his life, the childless Josephine de Beauharnais, in quest of an heir born to a wife from an older empire. Their religious wedding reproduced the last royal marriage, of Louis XVI, down to the last detail, in keeping with the upstart’s desire to buttress his claims by drawing on the past.
Teetering on the edge of megalomania at times, he became the template of ambition:
‘What a novel my life has been!’ he exclaimed.
He might have used the rhetoric of national liberation, but his huge empire was always dominated by France, with other constituent parts ruled by members of his family and expected to adopt French ways. His energy was formidable and his ambition meant he was unable to accept that anything was beyond him.
The Napoleonic legacy
Napoleon's wedding to Marie-Louise of Austria, plenty of pomp and splendour