Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). Emperor of France in 1804–1814 and in March - June 1815. 1799 - made a coup d'état and became the First Consul. 1804 - proclaimed emperor. Established a dictatorial regime. Thanks to victorious wars, he greatly expanded the territory of the empire, made most of the countries of Western and Central Europe dependent on France. 1814 - abdicated. 1815 - again took the throne, but after the defeat at Waterloo, he abdicated a second time. He spent the last years of his life on the island of St. Helena.
Origin. early years
Napoleon was born in 1769 in August, in the town of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. His father was a small estate nobleman - Carlo Bonaparte, who practiced as a lawyer. They write that Napoleon was a gloomy and irritable child from an early age. His mother loved him, but she gave him and her other children a very harsh upbringing. The Bonapartes lived economically, but the family did not feel the need. 1779 - 10-year-old Napoleon was placed on public account at a military school in Brienne (East France). 1784 - 15-year-old future emperor successfully completes the course and transfers to the Paris Military School, from where he enters the army in October 1785 with the rank of lieutenant.
The French Revolution
Bonaparte sent most of his salary to his mother (his father had died by that time), leaving himself only for the meager food, not allowing any entertainment. In the same house where he rented a room, there was a second-hand bookshop, and Napoleon began to spend all his free time reading books. He could hardly count on a quick promotion through the ranks, but the way to the top was opened to him by the Great French Revolution that began in 1789. 1793 - Napoleon was promoted to captain and sent to the army, besieging Toulon captured by the British and royalists.
Military career
The political leader here was Salichetti, a Corsican. Bonaparte proposed to him his plan for the assault on the city, and Salichetti allowed him to arrange the batteries as he wished. The results were beyond all expectations - unable to withstand the brutal cannonade, the British left the city, taking away the leaders of the rebellion on their ships. The fall of Toulon, which was considered an impregnable fortress, had a great public outcry and important consequences for Napoleon Bonaparte himself. 1794, January - he is given the rank of brigadier general.
However, having launched his career with such brilliance, Bonaparte almost stumbled on the first step. He became too close to the Jacobins and after the fall of Robespierre in July 1794 he was imprisoned. In the end, he was forced to leave the active army. 1795, August - the future emperor got a job in the topographic department of the Committee of Public Safety. This position did not bring much earnings, but it made it possible to be in the sight of the leaders of the Convention. Soon, fate gave Napoleon Bonaparte another opportunity to show his outstanding abilities. 1795, October - the royalists openly prepared a counter-revolutionary coup in Paris. On October 3, the Convention appointed one of its main leaders, Barras, head of the Parisian garrison. He was not a military man and entrusted the suppression of the rebellion to General Napoleon.
By morning, the general brought to the palace all the artillery pieces available in the capital and took aim at all the approaches. When the rebels began their assault at noon on October 5, Napoleon's cannons thundered towards them. Especially terrible was the beating of the royalists on the porch of the church of St. Roch, where their reserve stood. By the middle of the day it was all over. Leaving hundreds of corpses, the rebels fled. This day played a much greater role in the life of Napoleon Bonaparte than his first victory near Toulon. His name became widely known in all strata of society, and they began to look at him as a managerial, quick-witted and decisive person.
Italian campaign
1796, February - Napoleon achieved that he was appointed to the post of commander of the southern army, located on the borders of Italy. The directory considered this direction as secondary. Military operations here began only with the aim of diverting the attention of the Austrians from the main, German, front. However, the future emperor himself was of a different opinion. On April 5, he began his famous Italian campaign.
For several months, the French gave the Austrians and their allies the Piedmontese several bloody battles and inflicted a complete defeat on them. All of northern Italy fell under the control of the revolutionary troops. 1797, April - Emperor Franz of Austria sent Napoleon an official peace proposal, which was signed on October 17 in the town of Campo Formio. Under its terms, Austria abandoned most of its possessions in Lombardy, from which a puppet, dependent on France, the Cisalpine Republic was created.
In Paris, the message of peace was greeted with stormy rejoicing. The directors wanted to entrust Napoleon with the war against England, but he proposed another plan for consideration: to conquer Egypt in order to threaten British rule in India from there. The offer was accepted. 1798, July 2 - 30,000 French soldiers in full order of battle unloaded on the Egyptian coast and entered Alexandria. July 20, in sight of the pyramids, they met with the enemy. The battle lasted several hours and ended with the complete defeat of the Turks.
Hike to Egypt
The future emperor moved to Cairo, which he occupied without much difficulty. At the end of the year he went to Syria. The campaign was terribly difficult, especially because of the lack of water. 1799, March 6 - The French took Jaffa, but the siege of Acre, which lasted two months, was unsuccessful, since Napoleon did not have siege artillery. This failure decided the outcome of the entire campaign. Bonaparte realized that his enterprise was doomed to failure and on August 23, 1799 he left Egypt.
"Savior of the Republic"
He sailed to France with the firm intention of overthrowing the Directory and seizing the supreme power in the state. Circumstances favored his plan. On October 16, as soon as Bonaparte entered the capital, the big financiers immediately expressed their support to him, offering him several million francs. On the morning of November 9 (Brumaire 18, according to the revolutionary calendar), he called together the generals on whom he could especially rely, and announced that the time had come to "save the republic." Cornet, a man devoted to Napoleon, announced in the Council of Elders about the "terrible conspiracy of terrorists" and the threat to the Republic.
First Consul
To restore order, the Council immediately appointed Napoleon the head of all armed forces located in the capital and its environs. Once at the head of the army, Napoleon Bonaparte demanded a fundamental change in the constitution. To the thunder of drums, the grenadiers burst into the assembly hall and drove all the deputies out of it. Most of them fled, but a few were captured and taken under escort to Bonaparte. He ordered them to vote a decree dissolving themselves and transferring all power to three consuls. In fact, all the fullness of power was concentrated in the hands of the first consul, who was declared to be General Napoleon.
1800, May 8 - quickly finishing with urgent internal affairs, Bonaparte went to a big war against the Austrians, who again occupied Northern Italy. On June 2, he captured Milan, and on the 14th, a meeting of the main forces took place near the village of Marengo. All the advantage was on the side of the Austrians. Nevertheless, their army was utterly defeated. According to the Treaty of Luneville, the remnants of Belgium, Luxembourg and all German possessions on the left bank of the Rhine were torn away from Austria. Napoleon signed a peace treaty with Russia even earlier. 1802, March 26 - in Amiens, a peace treaty was signed with England, which put an end to the difficult 9-year war of France against all of Europe.
The two years of peaceful respite, which France received after the Peace of Luneville, the future emperor devoted to vigorous activity in the field of organizing the administration of the country and legislation. He was clearly aware that the new system of bourgeois relations that had taken shape in France after the revolution was incapable of functioning normally without the fundamental development of new legal norms. The matter was very difficult, but Bonaparte set about it, organized it and brought it to the end with the same speed and thoroughness that always distinguished his work. 1800, August - a commission was formed to draft a civil code of laws.
Emperor of France
1804, March - the code signed by Bonaparte became the basic law and the basis of French jurisprudence. Like much of what was created under him, this code functioned under all subsequent regimes and governments for many years after the death of Bonaparte, causing well-deserved admiration for its clarity, consistency and logical consistency in protecting the interests of the bourgeois state. At the same time, work began on the commercial code, which was supposed to serve as an important addition to the civil one. April 1804 - The Senate passed a decree giving the first consul Bonaparte the title of Emperor of France. 1804, December 2 - in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Pope Pius VII solemnly crowned and anointed Napoleon as king.
Rise of an empire
1805, summer - a new European war broke out, in which, in addition to Great Britain, Austria and Russia entered. Napoleon Bonaparte moved swiftly against the allies. On December 2, in the hilly area around the Pracen Heights, west of the village of Austerlitz, a general battle unfolded. Russians and Austrians suffered a complete defeat in it. Emperor Franz asked for peace.
Under the terms of the concluded agreement, he ceded to Bonaparte the Venetian region, Friul, Istria and Dalmatia. All of southern Italy was also occupied by the French. But soon Prussia came out on the side of Russia against France. The war was expected to be very difficult. But already on October 14, 1806, in two simultaneous battles near Jena and Auerstedt, the Prussians were severely defeated. The defeat of the enemy was complete.
Only the insignificant remnants of the Prussian army escaped and retained the appearance of soldiers. The rest were killed, captured or fled to their homes. On October 27, the Emperor of France solemnly entered Berlin. On November 8, the last Prussian fortress, Magdeburg, capitulated. Russia remained the most stubborn opponent of Napoleon on the continent. On December 26, a major battle took place near Pultusk with the Russian corps of Bennigsen, which ended in vain. Both sides were preparing for a decisive battle. She turned around on February 8, 1807 near Preussisch-Eylau. After a long and extremely bloody battle, the Russians retreated. However, a complete victory did not happen again. 1807, summer - Napoleon moved to Koenigsberg.
Bennigsen had to rush to his defense and concentrated his troops on the western bank of the Alle River near the town of Friedland. He happened to take the fight in very disadvantageous positions, because a heavy defeat turned out to be somewhat natural. The Russian army was driven back to the opposite bank. Many soldiers drowned in the process. Almost all the artillery was abandoned and ended up in the hands of the French. On June 19, a truce was concluded, and on July 8, Emperors Napoleon and Alexander I signed a final peace in Tilsit. Russia became an ally of France.
The Napoleonic Empire reached the zenith of its power. 1807, October - The French captured Portugal. 1808, May - Spain was occupied just as quickly. But soon a powerful uprising broke out here, which, despite all efforts, Napoleon could not suppress. 1809 - news came that Austria was about to enter the war. Napoleon Bonaparte left the Pyrenees and hastily left for Paris. Already in April, the Austrians were stopped and driven back across the Danube.
On July 6, they suffered a heavy defeat at Wagram. A third of their army (32,000 men) perished on the battlefield. The rest retreated in disarray. At the negotiations that had begun, Napoleon demanded that Emperor Franz cede the best Austrian possessions: Carinthia, Kraine, Istria, Trieste, part of Galicia and pay an indemnity of 85 million francs. The Austrian emperor was forced to agree to these demands.
War with Russia. The collapse of the empire
Beginning in January 1811, Bonaparte began to seriously prepare for war with Russia. It began on June 24, 1812 with the passage of the French army through the border Neman. The Emperor of France had by that time about 420,000 soldiers. The Russian troops (about 220,000) under the command of Barclay de Tolly were divided into two independent armies (one under the command of Barclay himself, the other under Bagration). The emperor expected to separate them, surround and destroy each one individually. Trying to avoid this, Barclay and Bagration began to hastily retreat inland.
On August 3, they successfully connected near Smolensk. In the same month, Emperor Alexander gave the main command of the Russian army to Field Marshal Kutuzov. Shortly after this, on September 7, there was a big battle near Borodino. Its outcome remained unclear, despite the fact that both sides suffered huge losses. On September 13, Napoleon entered Moscow. He considered the war over and awaited the start of negotiations.
But subsequent events showed that he was greatly mistaken. Already on September 14, strong fires broke out in Moscow, destroying all food supplies. Foraging outside the city, due to the actions of Russian partisans, also proved to be difficult. Under these conditions, the war began to lose all meaning. It was hardly reasonable to chase the constantly retreating Kutuzov across the vast devastated country.
Napoleon Bonaparte decided to move the army closer to the western Russian border and on October 19 gave the order to leave Moscow. The country was terribly devastated. In addition to an acute shortage of food, severe frosts soon began to pester Napoleon's army. Huge damage was inflicted on her by the Cossacks and partisans. The morale of the soldiers fell every day. Soon the retreat turned into a real flight. The whole road was littered with corpses. On November 26, the army approached the Berezina and began crossing. However, only the most combat-ready units managed to cross to the other side. 14,000 stragglers were mostly killed by the Cossacks. In mid-December, the remnants of the army crossed the frozen Neman.
The Moscow campaign caused irreparable damage to the power of the French emperor. But he still had colossal resources and did not consider the war lost. By the middle of the spring of 1813, he drew up all the reserves and created a new army. Meanwhile, the Russians continued to develop success. In February, they reached the Oder, and on March 4 they captured Berlin. On March 19, the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm entered into an alliance with the Russian emperor. But then came a series of failures. On 2 May the Russians and Prussians were defeated at Lützen, and on 20–21 May another at Bautzen.
The situation improved after Austria and Sweden entered the war against France on August 11. Now the forces of the Allies largely outnumbered those of Bonaparte. In mid-October, all their armies converged at Leipzig, where a stubborn battle took place on October 16-19 - the largest and bloodiest in the history of the Napoleonic Wars. The French suffered a heavy defeat in it and were forced to retreat.
Napoleon's first abdication
1814, January - the Allies crossed the Rhine. At the same time Wellington's English army crossed the Pyrenees and entered southern France. On March 30, the allies approached Paris and forced him to capitulate. April 4 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates the throne. The deposed emperor went to the island of Elba, which the allies gave him for life. During the first months he was weary of idleness and was in deep thought. But since November, Bonaparte began to listen carefully to the news that reached him from France. The Bourbons, who returned to power, behaved even more ridiculously than one could expect from them.
The emperor was well aware of the change in public mood and decided to take advantage of it. 1815, February 26 - he put the soldiers he had (there were about 1000 in total) on ships and set off for the shores of France. On March 1, the detachment landed in the bay of Juan, from where it moved to Paris through the province of Dauphine. All the troops sent against him, regiment after regiment, went over to the side of the rebels. On March 19, King Louis XVIII fled from Paris, and the next day Napoleon solemnly entered the capital.
But despite this success, the chances of Napoleon Bonaparte to stay in power were extremely small. After all, fighting alone against the whole of Europe, he could not count on victory. On June 12, the emperor went to the army to start the last campaign in his life. On June 16, there was a big battle with the Prussians at Ligny. After losing 20,000 soldiers, the German commander-in-chief Blücher retreated. Napoleon ordered Grouchy's 36,000th corps to pursue the Prussians, while he himself turned against the British.
The decisive battle took place 22 km from Brussels near the village of Waterloo. The British put up stubborn resistance. The outcome of the battle was still far from being decided when, around noon, the vanguard of the Prussian army appeared on the right flank of Bonaparte - it was Blucher, who managed to break away from Pear and hurried to the aid of Wellington. The unexpected appearance of the Prussians decided the outcome of the campaign. At about 8 pm Wellington launched a general offensive, and the Prussians overturned the Napoleonic right flank. The French retreat soon turned into a rout.
Second abdication. Link
June 21 Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris, and the next day he abdicated and went to Rochefort. He hoped to sail on some ship to America, but this plan proved impossible to carry out. Napoleon decided to surrender to the victors. On July 15, he went to the English flagship Bellerophon and gave himself into the hands of the British authorities. He was sent into exile on the remote island of Saint Helena.
Last years. Death
There he was placed under the supervision of the governor, Hudron Low, but could enjoy complete freedom within the island. Bonaparte read a lot, rode horseback, took walks and dictated his memoirs. But all these activities could not disperse his anguish. From 1819, the first signs of a devastating disease appeared. At the beginning of 1821, there was no longer any doubt that the former emperor was mortally ill with stomach cancer. The severe pains intensified every day, and on May 5, after severe agony, he died.
The French statesman and commander, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. He came from a family of an obscure Corsican nobleman.
In 1784 he graduated from the Brienne military school, in 1785 - the Paris military school. He began professional military service in 1785 with the rank of second lieutenant of artillery in the royal army.
From the first days of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, Bonaparte joined the political struggle on the island of Corsica, joined the most radical wing of the Republicans. In 1792 he joined the Jacobin Club in Valence.
In 1793, the supporters of France in Corsica, where Bonaparte was at that time, were defeated. The conflict with the Corsican separatists forced him to flee the island to France. Bonaparte became commander of an artillery battery in Nice. He distinguished himself in the battle against the British at Toulon, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of artillery of the Army of the Alps. After the counter-revolutionary coup in June 1794, Bonaparte was removed from office and arrested for ties with the Jacobins, but was soon released. He was listed in the reserve of the Ministry of War, in September 1795, after refusing the proposed position of commander of an infantry brigade, he was dismissed from the army.
In October 1795, a member of the Directory (the French government in 1795-1799), Paul Barras, who led the fight against the monarchist conspiracy, took Napoleon as an assistant. Bonaparte proved himself in the suppression of the royalist rebellion in October 1795, for which he was appointed commander of the troops of the Paris garrison. In February 1796 he was appointed commander of the Italian army, at the head of which he carried out the victorious Italian campaign (1796-1797).
In 1798-1801, he led the Egyptian expedition, which, despite the capture of Alexandria and Cairo and the defeat of the Mamelukes in the battle of the pyramids, was defeated.
In October 1799, Bonaparte arrived in Paris, where an acute political crisis reigned. Relying on the influential circles of the bourgeoisie, on November 9-10, 1799, he carried out a coup d'état. The government of the Directory was deposed, and the French Republic was headed by three consuls, the first of which was Napoleon.
The concordat (treaty) concluded with the Pope in 1801 provided Napoleon with the support of the Catholic Church.
In August 1802, he secured his appointment as consul for life.
In June 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon I.
On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral with the participation of the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In March 1805, he was crowned in Milan, after Italy recognized him as their king.
The foreign policy of Napoleon I was aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony in Europe. With his coming to power, France entered a period of almost continuous wars. Thanks to military successes, Napoleon significantly expanded the territory of the empire, made most of the states of Western and Central Europe dependent on France.
Napoleon was not only the emperor of France, which stretched to the left bank of the Rhine, but also the king of Italy, the mediator of the Swiss Confederation and the protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. His brothers became kings: Joseph in Naples, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia.
This empire was comparable in its territory to the empire of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V.
In 1812, Napoleon undertook a campaign against Russia, which ended in his complete defeat and became the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The entry of troops of the anti-French coalition into Paris in March 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate (April 6, 1814). The victorious allies retained the title of emperor to Napoleon and gave him the possession of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
In 1815, Napoleon, taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the people with the policy of the Bourbons who replaced him in France and the disagreements that arose at the Congress of Vienna between the victorious powers, tried to regain the throne. In March 1815, at the head of a small detachment, he unexpectedly landed in the south of France and three weeks later entered Paris without firing a shot. The second reign of Napoleon I, which went down in history under the name "Hundred Days", did not last long. The emperor did not justify the hopes placed in him by the French people. All this, as well as the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, led him to a second abdication and exile to St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died on May 5, 1821. In 1840, the ashes of Napoleon were transported to Paris, to the Les Invalides.
Name: Napoleon Bonaparte
Age: 51 years old
Growth: 168
Activity: emperor, commander, statesman who laid the foundations of the modern French state
Family status: was married
Napoleon Bonaparte was a brilliant commander, diplomat, possessed an excellent intellect, a phenomenal memory and an amazing capacity for work. An entire era is named after him, and his deeds were a shock to most of his contemporaries. His military strategies are in textbooks, and the norms of democracy in Western countries are based on Napoleonic law.
Napoleon Bonaparte on horseback The role of this outstanding personality in the history of France is ambiguous. In Spain and Russia, he was called the Antichrist, and some researchers consider Napoleon a somewhat embellished hero.
Childhood and youth
A brilliant commander, statesman, Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte was a native of Corsica. Born August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio in a poor noble family. The parents of the future emperor had eight children. Father Carlo di Buonaparte led the practice of law, mother Letizia, nee Ramolino, raised children. By nationality they were Corsicans. Bonaparte is a Tuscan version of the surname of the famous Corsican.
He was taught literacy and sacred history at home, at the age of six he was sent to a private school, at the age of ten - to Autun College, where the boy did not stay long. After college, he continues his studies at the military school Brienne. In 1784 he entered the Paris Military Academy. Upon graduation, he received the rank of lieutenant and from 1785 served in the artillery.
In his early youth, Napoleon lived in solitude, was fond of literature and military affairs. In 1788, while in Corsica, he participated in the development of defensive fortifications, worked on a report on the organization of the militia, etc. He considered literary works paramount, hoping to become famous in this field.
He reads with interest books on history, geography, the size of state revenues in European countries, works on the philosophy of legislation, is fond of the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Abbé Reynal. He writes the history of Corsica, the novels "A Conversation about Love", "The Disguised Prophet", "Earl of Essex" and keeps a diary.
The writings of the young Bonaparte, with the exception of one, remained in manuscript. In these works, the author expresses negative emotions towards France, considering her the enslaver of Corsica, and love for the motherland. The records of the young Napoleon are politically tinged and imbued with a revolutionary spirit.
Napoleon Bonaparte met the French Revolution with enthusiasm, in 1792 he joined the Jacobin Club. After the victory over the British for the capture of Toulon in 1793, he was awarded the rank of brigadier general. This becomes a turning point in his biography, after which a brilliant military career begins.
In 1795, Napoleon distinguished himself in dispersing the royalist rebellion, after which he was appointed commander of the army. The Italian campaign undertaken in 1796-1797 under his command demonstrated the talent of the commander and glorified him throughout the continent. In 1798-1799, the Directory sent him on a distant military expedition to Syria and Egypt.
The expedition ended in defeat, but it was not considered a failure. He arbitrarily leaves the army to fight the Russians under the command of Suvorov. In 1799, General Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris. The Directory regime at this time was already at the peak of the crisis.
Domestic politics
After the coup and the proclamation of the consulate in 1802, he became consul, and in 1804 - emperor. In the same year, with the participation of Napoleon, a new Civil Code was published, based on Roman law.
The internal policy pursued by the emperor is aimed at strengthening his own power, which, in his opinion, guaranteed the preservation of the gains of the revolution. Carries out reforms in the field of law and administration. He undertook a number of reforms in the legal and administrative spheres. Some of these innovations still form the basis of the functioning of states. Napoleon ended anarchy. A law was passed to ensure the right to property. French citizens were recognized as equal in rights and opportunities.
Mayors were appointed to towns and villages, and the French Bank was created. A revival of the economy began, which could not but rejoice even the poorest sections of the population. Recruitment into the army allowed the poor to earn money. Lyceums opened all over the country. At the same time, the police network expanded, a secret department began to work, and the press was subjected to strict censorship. Gradually there was a return to the monarchical system of government.
An important event for the French government was an agreement concluded with the Pope, thanks to which the legitimacy of Bonaparte's power was recognized in exchange for the proclamation of Catholicism as the main religion of the majority of citizens. Society in relation to the emperor was divided into two camps. Some citizens said that Napoleon had betrayed the revolution, but Bonaparte himself believed that he was the successor of its ideas.
Foreign policy
The beginning of Napoleon's reign came at a time when France was conducting hostilities with Austria and England. A new victorious Italian campaign eliminated the threat at the French borders. The result of hostilities was the subjugation of almost all European countries. In the territories that were not part of France, kingdoms subordinate to the emperor were created, the rulers of which were members of his family. Russia, Prussia and Austria form an alliance.
At first, Napoleon was perceived as the savior of the motherland. The people were proud of his achievements, there was a national upsurge in the country. But the 20-year war has exhausted everyone. The Continental blockade proclaimed by Bonaparte, which led to the decline of the economy of England, its light industry, forced the British to stop trade relations with European states. The crisis hit the port cities of France, the supply of colonial goods, to which Europe had already become accustomed, was stopped. Even the French court suffered from a lack of coffee, sugar, tea.
The situation was aggravated by the economic crisis of 1810. The bourgeoisie did not want to spend money on wars, since the threat of attack by other countries remained in the distant past. She understood that the goal of the emperor's foreign policy was to expand her own power and protect the interests of the dynasty.
The collapse of the empire began in 1812, when Russian troops defeated the Napoleonic army. The creation of an anti-French coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden, in 1814 was the collapse of the empire. This year she defeated the French and entered Paris.
Napoleon had to abdicate, but he retained the status of emperor. He was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. However, the exiled emperor did not stay there for long.
The French citizens and military were dissatisfied with the situation, they feared the return of the Bourbons and the nobility. Bonaparte escapes and on March 1, 1815 moves to Paris, where he is greeted with enthusiastic exclamations by the townspeople. Hostilities resume. This period has gone down in history as the Hundred Days. The final defeat of the Napoleonic army occurred on June 18, 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo.
The deposed emperor was captured by the British and again sent into exile. This time he ended up in the Atlantic Ocean on the island of St. Helena, where he lived for another 6 years. But not all the British treated Napoleon negatively. In 1815, George Byron, impressed by the fate of the deposed emperor, created the "Napoleonic Cycle" of five verses, after which the poet was reproached for being unpatriotic. Among the British there was another admirer of Napoleon - Princess Charlotte, daughter of the future George IV, on whose support the emperor at one time counted, but she died in 1817 during childbirth.
Personal life
Napoleon Bonaparte from a young age was distinguished by amorousness. Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon's height was above the average according to the standards that existed in those years - 168 cm, which could not but attract the attention of the opposite sex. Courageous features, posture, which are visible in the reproductions presented in the form of a photo, aroused the interest of the ladies around him.
The first lover to whom the young man proposed was 16-year-old Desiree-Eugenia-Clara. But at that time, his career in Paris began to develop rapidly, and Napoleon could not resist the charm of Parisians. In the capital of France, Bonaparte preferred to have affairs with older women.
An important event in the personal life of Napoleon, which took place in 1796, was his marriage to Josephine de Beauharnais. Beloved Bonaparte turned out to be 6 years older than him. She was born to a planter's family on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. From the age of 16 she was married to Viscount Alexander de Beauharnais, and had two children. Six years after the marriage, she divorced her husband and at one time lived in Paris, then in her father's house. After the revolution of 1789, she again went to France. In Paris, she was supported by her ex-husband, who by then held a high political post. But in 1794, the viscount was executed, and Josephine herself spent some time in prison.
A year later, having miraculously gained freedom, Josephine met Bonaparte, who was not yet so famous. According to some reports, at the time of their acquaintance, she was in a love affair with the then ruler of France, Barras, but this did not prevent him from becoming a witness at the wedding of Bonaparte and Josephine. In addition, Barras granted the groom the position of commander of the Italian army of the republic.
The researchers argue that the lovers had a lot in common. Both were born away from France on small islands, knew hardships, were in prison, both were dreamers. After the wedding, Napoleon went to the positions of the Italian army, and Josephine remained in Paris. After the Italian campaign, Bonaparte was sent to Egypt. Josephine still did not follow her husband, but enjoyed the social life in the capital of France.
Tormented by jealousy, Napoleon began to get himself favorites. According to researchers, Napoleon had between 20 and 50 lovers. A series of novels followed, which led to the appearance of illegitimate heirs. Two are known - Alexander Colonna-Walevsky and Charles Leon. The Colonna-Walevsky family has survived to this day. Alexander's mother was the daughter of a Polish aristocrat, Maria Walewska.
Josephine could not have children, so in 1810 Napoleon divorced her. Initially, Bonaparte planned to intermarry with the Romanov imperial family. He asked Anna Pavlovna's hand in marriage from her brother Alexander I. But the Russian emperor did not want to be related to a ruler of non-royal blood. In many ways, these disagreements influenced the cooling of relations between France and Russia. Napoleon marries the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, Marie-Louise, who in 1811 bore him an heir. This marriage was not approved by the French public.
Ironically, it is Josephine's grandson, and not Napoleon's, who later becomes the French emperor. Her descendants reign in Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Luxembourg. There were no descendants of Napoleon, since his son had no children, and he himself died young.
After being expelled to the island of Elba, Bonaparte expected to see his lawful wife next to him, but Marie Louise went to her father's possessions. Maria Valevskaya came to Bonaparte with her son. Returning to France, Napoleon dreamed of seeing only Marie-Louise, but the emperor never received an answer to all the letters sent to Austria.
Death
After the defeat at Waterloo, Bonaparte spent time on the island of St. Helena. The last years of his life were filled with suffering from an incurable disease. On May 5, 1821, Napoleon I Bonaparte died at the age of 52.
According to one version, the cause of death was oncology, according to another - arsenic poisoning. Researchers who adhere to the version of stomach cancer appeal to the results of the autopsy, as well as to the heredity of Bonaparte, whose father died of stomach cancer. Other historians mention that before his death, Napoleon was getting fat. And this became an indirect sign of arsenic poisoning, since oncology patients lose weight. In addition, traces of high concentrations of arsenic were later found in the emperor's hair.
According to Napoleon's will, his remains were transported to France in 1840, where they were reburied in the Les Invalides in Paris on the territory of the cathedral. Sculptures by Jean-Jacques Pradier are displayed around the tomb of the former French emperor.
Memory
The memory of the exploits of Napoleon Bonaparte is captured in art. Among them are opuses by Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, literary works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Rudyard Kipling. In cinema, his image is captured in films of different eras, starting with silent films. A genus of trees growing on the African continent is named after the commander, as well as a culinary masterpiece - a layer cake with cream. Napoleon's letters were published in France under Napoleon III and were sorted into quotations.
The French statesman and commander, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. He came from a family of an obscure Corsican nobleman.
In 1784 he graduated from the Brienne military school, in 1785 - the Paris military school. He began professional military service in 1785 with the rank of second lieutenant of artillery in the royal army.
From the first days of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, Bonaparte joined the political struggle on the island of Corsica, joined the most radical wing of the Republicans. In 1792 he joined the Jacobin Club in Valence.
In 1793, the supporters of France in Corsica, where Bonaparte was at that time, were defeated. The conflict with the Corsican separatists forced him to flee the island to France. Bonaparte became commander of an artillery battery in Nice. He distinguished himself in the battle against the British at Toulon, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of artillery of the Army of the Alps. After the counter-revolutionary coup in June 1794, Bonaparte was removed from office and arrested for ties with the Jacobins, but was soon released. He was listed in the reserve of the Ministry of War, in September 1795, after refusing the proposed position of commander of an infantry brigade, he was dismissed from the army.
In October 1795, a member of the Directory (the French government in 1795-1799), Paul Barras, who led the fight against the monarchist conspiracy, took Napoleon as an assistant. Bonaparte proved himself in the suppression of the royalist rebellion in October 1795, for which he was appointed commander of the troops of the Paris garrison. In February 1796 he was appointed commander of the Italian army, at the head of which he carried out the victorious Italian campaign (1796-1797).
In 1798-1801, he led the Egyptian expedition, which, despite the capture of Alexandria and Cairo and the defeat of the Mamelukes in the battle of the pyramids, was defeated.
In October 1799, Bonaparte arrived in Paris, where an acute political crisis reigned. Relying on the influential circles of the bourgeoisie, on November 9-10, 1799, he carried out a coup d'état. The government of the Directory was deposed, and the French Republic was headed by three consuls, the first of which was Napoleon.
The concordat (treaty) concluded with the Pope in 1801 provided Napoleon with the support of the Catholic Church.
In August 1802, he secured his appointment as consul for life.
In June 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon I.
On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral with the participation of the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
In March 1805, he was crowned in Milan, after Italy recognized him as their king.
The foreign policy of Napoleon I was aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony in Europe. With his coming to power, France entered a period of almost continuous wars. Thanks to military successes, Napoleon significantly expanded the territory of the empire, made most of the states of Western and Central Europe dependent on France.
Napoleon was not only the emperor of France, which stretched to the left bank of the Rhine, but also the king of Italy, the mediator of the Swiss Confederation and the protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. His brothers became kings: Joseph in Naples, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia.
This empire was comparable in its territory to the empire of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V.
In 1812, Napoleon undertook a campaign against Russia, which ended in his complete defeat and became the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The entry of troops of the anti-French coalition into Paris in March 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate (April 6, 1814). The victorious allies retained the title of emperor to Napoleon and gave him the possession of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
In 1815, Napoleon, taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the people with the policy of the Bourbons who replaced him in France and the disagreements that arose at the Congress of Vienna between the victorious powers, tried to regain the throne. In March 1815, at the head of a small detachment, he unexpectedly landed in the south of France and three weeks later entered Paris without firing a shot. The second reign of Napoleon I, which went down in history under the name "Hundred Days", did not last long. The emperor did not justify the hopes placed in him by the French people. All this, as well as the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, led him to a second abdication and exile to St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died on May 5, 1821. In 1840, the ashes of Napoleon were transported to Paris, to the Les Invalides.
