“I think it would be useful to write some well-written articles, which would compare the misfortunes which afflicted France in 1709 with the prosperous situation of the Empire in 1809,” Napoleon wrote from Spain to his Minister of Police. , Fouche. Its role is not only to control security and prevent plots but also to shape public opinion through constant mobilization and propaganda in the press.
The blockade, imposed by Napoleon on all imperial territories and his coerced and forced allies, led to an economic crisis of which all Europeans, and among them the French, suffered the consequences. In the cities, manufacturers lack raw materials. Deprived of outlets due to the maritime war, trade declined and, despite conscription which emptied the countryside of all workers, unemployment increased.
To alleviate the concerns of his subjects, Napoleon leaves nothing to chance. These imperial and imperative instructions, sent from Spain, must be followed “to the letter”. He also accompanied them with a precise list of examples that he wanted to see cited and exploited, demonstrating to what extent the Emperor paid attention to everything, down to the most minute details: "Louis to build Versailles and hunting lodges. I took care of improving Paris, from the waters to the palace, from the markets to the Temple of Victory [the Madeleine], to the Stock Exchange. Everything had to be done, everything was done..." This letter sets out the legitimacy of the imperial building and suggests a comparative assessment with that of the reign of the Sun King (1).
The Emperor, upon his departure for Spain, did not want to risk seeing the social and economic climate of France deteriorate and instructed his minister to monitor its development. But the latter, like many of his colleagues, starting with that of Foreign Affairs Talleyrand, is one of those who fear that the growing difficulties of the Spanish War, which force the Emperor to intervene directly, will reverse the trends of profitability, war wealth which has occurred until then, and that a process of costly war begins. Precisely, after Spain another engagement in the East is looming; Archduke Charles's aide-de-camp officially declares his country's entry into the war, to Marshal Lefebvre. The Emperor then left France at the head of his armies, leaving the management of current affairs to his archchancellor, Cambacérès, assisted by Clarke, the Minister of War.
Rencontres secrètes
Les politiques se divisent en deux camps : les soumis et les ralliés, sous-entendu des opposants passifs. En tête des comploteurs, Napoléon soupçonne particulièrement deux de ses ministres, Fouché dans le pays, Talleyrand autour. Fouché, resté républicain, a pris langue avec d’autres opposants latents à Napoléon, comme le maréchal Bernadotte. Le beau-frère par alliance de Napoléon (2) se fait une règle de dire tout haut ce que beaucoup pense tout bas et n’hésite pas, se sachant intouchable, à critiquer, voire contredire l’Empereur.
Lors de la bataille de Wagram, Bernadotte commande les Saxons (le ixe corps) qui contribue à la victoire, malgré des pertes sévères (environ 50%). Or Napoléon, voulant que le succès soit dû essentiellement aux troupes françaises, ne cite pas le contingent étranger dans le 25e Bulletin de la Grande Armée célébrant la victoire de Wagram. Furieux, Bernadotte leur adresse un vibrant ordre du jour, rendant hommage à leur héroïsme.
Fouché, in Paris, allows Bernadotte's proclamation to be reproduced. As he monitors the press and has the upper hand over all publications, the newspapers publish him, to the great satisfaction of Bernadotte. And to the fury of Napoleon. He was then in Schönbrunn, negotiating peace with the Austrians, but did not fail to read the main French gazettes. He immediately noticed the article which partly contradicted his agenda and in retaliation, dissolved the 9th Saxon Corps, then sent Bernadotte back to Paris. The marshal returns to the capital, ulcerated by his disgrace. Fouché meets him and probes him in secret to find out his reactions in the event of a power vacuum, in war, anything can happen, right... And the Emperor is always far away, permanently exposed to danger... Both friends understand each other. Humiliated by this public disavowal that the Emperor has just inflicted on him, Bernadotte does not hide his hostility and does not reject the idea of considering, if others cooperate, a change of political regime. After all, since the Revolution, hasn’t he had “death to the tyrant” tattooed on his chest? He is not the only one plotting. We will certainly never be able to clarify the multiple secret contacts between men of the highest rank, both political and military; Talleyrand is certainly involved. In the event of the sudden death of the Emperor, the army remains the basis and legitimacy of power. We would then have seen the rebirth of the desires and the sharing of kingdoms which took place at the death of Alexander the Great. Murat is eyeing Poland, Soult Portugal...
England, rendered bloodless by the blockade, took advantage of the fact that the imperial armies were at the other end of Europe and partly stuck in Spain, to go on the offensive on the continent. British strategists have calculated that by the time the Emperor learns in Vienna what is happening, they will have a unique opportunity to gain the advantage. They intend to gain speed and benefit from the element of surprise. Napoleon is the master of the offensive and does not care about the defensive, so there are no fortifications planned. The English set their sights on Flanders, Belgium having an easy coast to approach. In addition, smuggling, which has become the bulk of trade, provides them with useful complicity which allows them to know both the details of the places where to disembark in complete safety, as well as the human defenses that they will have to face.
On July 28, 1809, one hundred and fifty warships escorting five hundred troopships weighed anchor simultaneously in several British ports and regrouped in the Channel. They are carrying forty thousand soldiers. The generalissimo is Lord Chatham, the full brother of William Pitt. It has been two months since the secret planning of this landing was organized. The meeting point is at the mouth of the Scheldt. On D-Day, July 30, twenty thousand men landed on the island of Walcheren and began the siege of Flessinge... After a few days of procrastination, the garrison preferred to surrender without having to fight. The road to Paris is open, all possible defenses being on the other side of the border.
Panic in Paris
In the capital, there is total panic. Parisians found themselves threatened in the early days of the Revolution when the allied armies marched to deliver Louis XVI, prompting the Committee of Public Safety to proclaim the “fatherland in danger” and to ask volunteers to enlist to defend it. None of the high dignitaries of the Empire to whom Napoleon entrusted the management of the capital is capable of making the slightest decision. All are paralyzed by the fear of displeasing their master by taking an initiative that could upset him. So they don't take any. Only one fact shows reactivity and determination: Fouché.
The former revolutionary experienced the iron fist of the Conventionalists and he still has the reflexes. Faced with the danger that threatens his country, he regains his momentum of 1792 and silences his secret resentments against the imperial regime. He sent the prefects a circular letter ordering them to establish a mass levy of the national guards to fight against the invader. In doing so, he does not fear exposing his true nature, and his sense of authority and organization, replacing himself of his own accord for the Minister of War, Clarke, and the Archchancellor, Cambacérès. These intrepid and authoritarian decisions appall ministers. How, without the authorization of the emperor, does he dare, under his sole responsibility, to make decisions of this importance? The most furious is Clarke. The Minister of War cannot digest that a civilian, a layman, dares to interfere in military function. He sets out to oppose it with all his might. He seeks to thwart his orders by all means and forbids the military from placing themselves at the minister's disposal.
Above all, it is necessary, he said, to have an order emanating from Schönbrunn, indicating whether or not to worry the country. But the Emperor is two weeks away and Fouché is determined not to wait. Faced with the pusillanimity of the other ministers, he officially took everything under his responsibility. If he manages from the inside, to deal with civilian panic, he needs a generalissimo capable of gathering and leading the troops. Not having Clarke's support, he therefore chose a soldier according to his tastes and his political ambitions. New audacity that made the Minister of War cringe: Fouché appointed Bernadotte to command his improvised army. We know he is in disgrace: to choose him is to contradict the imperial choice. The marshal accepted the mission entrusted to him by Fouché and immediately left for Holland and followed the meager troops he was able to gather there.
Upon his arrival in Flanders, the marshal demonstrated his remarkable military qualities inherited from the Revolution. It must firstly protect the port and the city of Antwerp, the only means of preventing the reinforcement of the enemy by depriving it of a shelter capable of receiving and disembarking reinforcements of troops and supplies.
He wrote to Fouché to inform him of the situation: “My first glimpse of the state of things presented me with nothing but chaos and disorder. I just walked the line and visited the forts. I have just corrected the location of the troops which was vicious. We lack men, weapons, equipment, and ammunition and the morale of our people is deplorable. However, I will try to do everything possible with these pitiful means. »
A good strategist and leader of men, the marshal managed to rectify the situation in a few weeks. The English planned to first capture Dunkirk, then conquer Antwerp and rouse the Belgians. From there, they intend to enter France. The British know that Napoleon is far away, with his armies, and that the country remains disarmed in the face of their unexpected arrival. The Fouché-Bernadotte alliance will reverse the situation. The army created by Fouché without authorization, commanded by a banished marshal, managed to put Antwerp in a state of defense and transformed the English expedition into defeat. On August 26, 1809, barely a month after the British landing, Lord Chatham decided to re-embark his troops for England, for fear of being crushed on the continent.
Imperial reaction
When he learned of the British landing at Vlissingen, Napoleon stuck in Vienna, was initially worried about its significance. This action demonstrates to other European countries that England remains a formidable power since it dared to strike the Empire. Despite the undisputed successes of his armies, Napoleon's military situation has never been so disorganized, scattered across the entire continent from the Ebro to the Vistula. Who knows, say the naysayers, if this will not strike the clay heel of this brazen colossus? This action does not bode well for the outcome of the discussions he is having with the Austrians. Fouché's initiative, if it surprised him, then seemed to him to best respond to the situation.
However, in Schönbrunn, letters from ministries began to flow. Accusatory missives from the Chancellor and Clarke, both complaining vehemently about Fouché’s initiatives and the “inconveniences” he caused. A civilian summoning the National Guard and putting the country in a state of war! Everyone hopes that Napoleon, upon his return, will punish and dismiss Fouché. To their surprise, even before knowing whether the minister's measures were effective, the Emperor agreed with him against everyone. As a priority, he expressed his dissatisfaction to Cambacérès and Clarke, who should have taken these initiatives. The chancellor received this remonstrance: “I am angry that you have made so little use of the powers that I had given you in these extraordinary circumstances. At the first sound of a descent, you should have raised twenty thousand, forty thousand, sixty thousand national guards. »
The criticized ministers immediately form a sacred union. Rather than justifying themselves, they attack Fouché. Napoleon responded to them on August 10, 1809, by defending his minister. But this imperial satisfaction does not last.
When the British danger disappears, it is forgotten, and ministers Cambacérès and Clarke return to the attack. They underline, under the eyes of Napoleon, certain passages of the famous circular, which Fouché addressed to the prefects, to oblige them to carry out an extraordinary levy of men in arms, in particular a small sentence: "Let us prove to Europe that if Napoleon's genius can give shine to France, his presence is not necessary to repel the enemy. » The Emperor is sensitive and he sees more clearly than in all the tangled reports from his multiple parallel police forces what his Minister of Police thinks. Soon the tone of his letters about the latter became less laudatory, treating him as “Don Quixote battling windmills.” However, Napoleon will grant him the honors reserved for his comrades in arms. Fouché, the former adversary of the aristocrats, the Jacobin guillotine, will become duke. On August 15, 1809, in the gala salon of the palace of the emperors of Austria, the Emperor signed and sealed the diploma of the man who was henceforth called Duke of Otranto.
Let him take advantage of it: he was in the sights of the Emperor, in other words in the eye of the storm. Upon his return, all affairs ceasing, Napoleon began by settling accounts with Bernadotte, whom he immediately relieved of his command. The hour of disgrace will come for Fouché the following year. Diplomatically, after making him Duke of Otranto, the Emperor will thank him and replace him with Savary, Duke of Rovigo, faithful among the faithful.
(1) A few months later, the comparison between the imperial regime and the reign of Louis XIV, that is to say, the most intense phase of the construction of the modern French State, will be taken up and magnified in the monumental Topographical and statistical description of France by Peuchet and Canlaire.
(2) His wife Désirée Clary is the sister of the Queen of Spain, wife of Joseph Bonaparte.
Bernadotte's agenda
"Saxons, / On July 5, 1809, seven to eight thousand of you broke through the center of the enemy army and moved towards Deutsch-Wagram, despite the efforts of four thousand Austrians, supported by fifty cannons. On the 6th, at dawn, you began the fight again amid the ravages of enemy artillery. Your living columns have remained motionless like brass. »
Napoleon responded to his ministers on August 10, 1809
“I can’t imagine what you’re doing in Paris. You're probably waiting for the English to come and take you into your bed! When twenty-five thousand English attack our construction sites and threaten our provinces, the minister remains in action! What harm is there in raising sixty thousand National Guards? What harm is there in sending the Prince of Ponté Corvo to take command of a point where there is no one? What harm is there in putting my places of Antwerp, Ostend, and Lille under siege? I only see Mr. Fouché who did what he could and who felt the disadvantage of remaining in a dangerous and dishonorable inaction..."
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