Citizen Emperor (147 page)
Authors: Philip Dwyer
| 72 . | Historians often write that, through a law passed on 20 May 1802, Bonaparte restored slavery. That is one way of seeing it, although it is not entirely accurate. In fact, Bonaparte maintained slavery in those colonies that had not abolished it in the first place – namely, Martinique and the Réunion – reintroducing the slave trade in the process (Philippe R. Girard, ‘Napoléon Bonaparte and the Emancipation Issue in Saint-Domingue, 1799–1803’, French Historical Studies , 32 (2009), 611). In other colonies, such as Guadeloupe and Saint-Domingue, he left matters alone. The revolutionaries themselves regretted the haste with which slavery had been abolished and freedom granted, as a result of which there was no opposition or outcry to the decree re-establishing slavery. See Yves Bénot and Marcel Dorigny (eds), 1802, rétablissement de l’esclavage dans les colonies françaises: aux origines d’Haïti: ruptures et continuités de la politique coloniale française, 1800–1830 (Paris, 2003); Thierry Lentz and Pierre Branda, Napoléon, l’esclavage et les colonies (Paris, 2006); Philippe R. Girard, The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence, 1801–1804 (Tuscaloosa, 2011). |
| 73 . | Jean-Paul Bertaud, The Army of the French Revolution: From Citizen-Soldiers to Instrument of Power , trans. R. R. Palmer (Princeton, 1988), pp. 328–34. |
| 74 . | According to Petiteau, ‘Pourquoi Napoléon crée-t-il la Légion d’honneur?’, pp. 41, 42. |
| 75 . | Rafe Blaufarb, ‘The Ancien Régime Origins of Napoleonic Social Reconstruction’, French History , 14:4 (2000), 415. |
| 76 . | Hughes, ‘Vive la République, Vive l’Empereur!’, pp. 69–72. Some historians argue that Napoleon was replacing the revolutionary notion of ‘virtue’ with the monarchical notion of ‘honour’. See Lynn, ‘Toward an Army of Honor’, 153–5; Norman Hampson, ‘The French Revolution and the Nationalization of Honour’, in M. R. D. Foot (ed.), War and Society: Historical Essays in Honour and Memory of J. R. Western, 1928–1971 (London, 1973), pp. 211–12. |
| 77 . | Charles-Hyacinthe His, Théorie du monde politique, ou de la Science du gouvernement considérée comme science exact (Paris, 1806), pp. 209–10. This was part of a ‘social management technique’, a way of channelling energies and passions for the good of the nation. See Olivier Ihl, ‘The Market of Honors: On the Bicentenary of the Legion of Honor’, French Politics, Culture & Society , 24 (2006), 10–11. |
| 78 . | Moniteur universel , 29 floreal an X (19 May 1802); Thibaudeau, Mémoires sur le Consulat , pp. 89–90. |
| 79 . | In fact, very few civilians received the Legion in Napoleon’s time – 1,400 out of 48,000 between 1802 and 1814 – that is, only about 3 per cent of recipients. It was largely awarded to the military (Alan Forrest, ‘The Military Culture of Napoleonic France’, in Philip Dwyer (ed.), Napoleon and Europe (London, 2001), p. 52). |
| 80 . | Remacle, Relations secrètes , p. 239 (25 January 1803). |
| 81 . | Arago, Histoire de ma jeunesse , p. 52. |
| 82 . | According to Abel Hugo, ‘Souvenirs et mémoires sur Joseph Napoléon en 1811, 1812 et 1813’, Revue des Deux Mondes , 1 (1833), 300–24, here 315. |
| 83 . | Martin van Creveld, ‘Napoleon and the Dawn of Operational Warfare’, in John Andreas Olsen and Martin van Creveld (eds), The Evolution of Operational Art: From Napoleon to the Present (Oxford, 2010), p. 21. |
| 84 . | On this event see Hughes, ‘Vive la République, Vive l’Empereur!’, pp. 30–2; Michael J. Hughes, Forging Napoleon’s Grande Armée: Motivation, Military Culture, and Masculinity in the French Army, 1800–1808 (New York, 2012), pp. 51–2. |
| 85 . | Commandant Giraud, Le carnet de campagne du commandant Giraud (Paris, 1899), pp. 67–8 (29 September 1804). |
| 86 . | Charles François, Journal du capitaine François: dit le Dromadaire d’Egypte 1792–1830 (Paris, 2003), p. 476 (15 August 1805); Laurence Chatel de Brancion, Le sacre de Napoléon: le rêve de changer le monde (Paris, 2004), pp. 102–4. |
| 87 . | Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, Un peintre sous la Révolution et le premier Empire: mémoires de Philippe-Auguste Hennequin écrits par lui-même (Paris, 1933), p. 228; Jérémie Benoît, Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, 1762–1833 (Paris, 1994), pp. 64–6. |
| 88 . | Jean-Marguerite Tupinier, Mémoires du baron Tupinier: directeur des ports et arsenaux, 1779–1850 (Paris, 1994), p. 69; Constant, Mémoires , i. pp. 262–5; Louis Béchet de Léocour, Souvenirs: écrits en 1838–1839 (Paris, 2000), pp. 207–9; Porterfield and Siegfried, Staging Empire , pp. 29–30. |
| 89 . | Moniteur universel , 1 fructidor an XII (18 August 1804). ‘Et vous soldats, vous jurez de défendre, au péril de votre vie, l’honneur du nom français, votre patrie et votre Empereur?’ |
| 90 . | Tupinier, Mémoires , p. 69; Cabanis, Le sacre de Napoléon , pp. 129–30. |
| 91 . | See Dubroca, Les quatre fondateurs des dynasties françaises , and Jean-Gabriel-Maurice-Rocque, comte de Montgaillard, Fondation de la quatrième dynastie, ou la Dynastie impériale (Paris, 1804), both of which present Napoleon as the fourth dynasty after the Merovingians, the Carolingians and the Capetians. The term ‘fourth dynasty’ was not used though till 1810 (Jean Tulard, ‘Les empires napoléoniens’, in Jean Tulard (ed.), Les empires occidentaux de Rome à Berlin (Paris, 1997), pp. 363–82, here p. 365). |
| 92 . | Avner Ben-Amos, Funerals, Politics and Memory in Modern France, 1789–1996 (Oxford, 2000), p. 4. |
| 93 . | Tulard, ‘Les empires napoléoniens’, p. 365; Peter R. Baehr, Caesar and the Fading of the Roman World: A Study in Republicanism and Caesarism (New Brunswick, 1998), pp. 92–102. |
| 94 . | Thomas Biskup, ‘Das Schwert Friedrichs des Großen: universalhistorische “Größe” und monarchische Genealogie in der napoleonischen Symbolpolitik nach Iéna ’, in Andreas Klinger, Hans-Werner Hahn and Georg Schmidt (eds), Das Jahr 1806 im europäischen Kontext: Balance, Hegemonie und politische Kulturen (Weimar, 2008), p. 197. |
| 95 . | For this and the following see Masson, Le sacre et le couronnement de Napoléon , pp. 60–9; Gaubert, Le sacre de Napoléon , pp. 22–32; Robert Morrissey, La barbe fleuri: Charlemagne dans la mythologie et l’histoire de France (Paris, 1997), and Morrissey, ‘Charlemagne et la légende impériale’, pp. 331–47; Jean-Claude Valla, La nostalgie de l’Empire: une relecture de l’histoire napoléonienne (Paris, 2004), pp. 41–80; Porterfield and Siegfried, Staging Empire , pp. 79–82. |
| 96 . | Napoleon may have thought of using Charlemagne as a more substantial political symbol, but he was called to the throne by his people, whereas Napoleon presented the imperial title to the French people as a fait accompli. It would not have been prudent or politic to push the analogy too far. |
| 97 . | Journal de Paris , 1 prairial an XII (21 May 1804). |
| 98 . | Moniteur universel , speech by Duveyrier (2 May), Arnould (4 May), and an address from the camp of Montreuil (9 May 1804). See also the extract of C. Théveneau, ‘Charlemagne, ou la Carolëide’, in La Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique , 18 (1804), 543–8; 19 (1804), 27–31; and 23 (1804), 283–92. |
| 99 . | Mercure de France , 1 messidor an VIII (20 June 1800), in the article entitled ‘Pièces divers relatives aux opérations militaires’; Journal des Débats , 28 thermidor an XII (16 August 1804). A few months later, a book entitled the Histoire de l’Empereur Charlemagne , translated from the German, was reviewed in the Moniteur universel , 18 December 1804. See also Jacques Mallet du Pan, Correspondance inédite de Mallet du Pan avec la Cour de Vienne (1794–1798) , 2 vols (Paris, 1884), ii. pp. 277, 293 (10 May, 17 June 1797); André Cabanis, ‘Les courants contre-révolutionnaire sous le Consulat et l’Empire’, Revue des sciences politiques , 24 (1971), 56; Dean, L’Eglise constitutionnelle , pp. 43–6. |
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