The Mentor: Napoleon Bonaparte, Serial No. 38 — John Shaqi
The Mentor: Napoleon Bonaparte, Serial No. 38Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
History
The Mentor: Napoleon Bonaparte, Serial No. 38
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
A coalition against him was inevitable, and in 1805 he took the field
again. The campaigns that followed closely in the next four years
include some of his most interesting military feats,--the battle of
Austerlitz, of which he was proudest himself; the campaign of Jena, by
which he humbled Prussia, increased French territory largely, and won
the czar of Russia as an ally; the war on Spain, which ended in his own
deserved defeat (Napoleon at St. Helena characterized his attack on
Spain as “unjust,” “cynical,” “villainous”); the campaign of Wagram,
which finally humbled his persistent enemy Austria.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE
For reasons of state Napoleon divorced the Empress Josephine to marry
Marie Louise, the daughter of the emperor of Austria. His last words to
the woman who loved him were: “My destiny and France demand it!”]
At the end of these four years Napoleon was himself the practical
master of Europe; the only nation not recognizing his power being
England, which was at least temporarily quiet. He had created an
empire; but what was he to do with it? He had no heir. To provide
for one he carried out a plan long considered,--he divorced Empress
Josephine and married again. The new empress was the daughter of the
old and now humbled enemy of France, the emperor of Austria. Napoleon
apparently believed that on the birth of an heir France would accept
him fully, and that Europe would cease to fear and resent his power. He
was wrong. He had stripped too many of wealth and position, outraged
too many social and religious conventions, set in motion too many
ideas hostile to those that Europe as a whole lived by. His demands on
subjects and allies were too heavy, and particularly the one that he
had most at heart,--that no continental nation should allow a dollar’s
worth of England’s goods to cross its borders. His punishment of those
who displeased him and disobeyed his orders was too severe. A revolt
against his monstrous assumption was inevitable.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
From a portrait of the Emperor painted by Paul Delaroche.]
THE SETTING STAR
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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