392 



NAPOLEON I. 



then procured the alidication of the- king of Spain 

 l 



ami plaeed hi- brother JaMph on 



Hut lie did not foresee tiMOMBMfMMNfc Tin 1 spirit 

 of tin- imtiiiii was mused. mid a formidable insur- 

 rection broke out, while a llriti-li miny, under Sir 

 Arthur Wellc-ley, landed in Portugal, defeated 

 Junot at Vimieni, and forced him to -i-n tin 1 Con- 

 vention of Cintra, evacuating Portugal. So liegan 

 the Penin-ular war which tor the future was to 

 paralyse half Na|>oleon's strength. 



v/ In Gcimany also a spirit of revolt against his 

 tvranny wa.- rising, Austria at first taking thr lead. 

 and this brought on the war of 1809 against that 

 power. I'm -ia, already beginning to recover her 

 strength under tint military .-yste ..... f Scliarnhorst 

 and Stein (*ee SOHABNBOBST, STKIN), was hostile 

 to Napoleon in sentiment, hut was kept, down 

 by the pressure of Russia, Napoleon declared 

 war on the jiretext that Austria was arming, 

 and marching through Havana drove the Aus- 

 trian- out of Ratisl>on, and entered Vienna on 

 the 13th May. Eugene Beatiharnais, at the head 

 of the Army of Italy, drove the Austrians In-fore 

 him into Hungary, defeated them at Haal>, 

 and joined Napoleon. The emperor then tried to 

 cross the Danupe, but was checked at Aspern and 

 obliged to retire to the island of Lobau. Five 

 weeks of preparation then followed, the peasant 

 war under Hofer lieing carried on in Tyrol, and 

 then Na]Hilcon made a fresh and successful attempt 

 to cross the DanulM!, ami won the battle of Wagnini 

 on the 5th July. This was followed by the 

 armistice of Znaim and the treaty of Sch.inlirunn, 

 October 20, 1809, by which he obtained a heavy 

 indemnity in money and considerable accession of 

 territory in Carmola, Carinthin, Croatia, and 

 Galicia. But he mortally offended the Czar by 

 giving a large portion of the ceded territory of 

 Galicia to the duchy of Warsaw i.e. to Poland. 



On the Kith December 1809 Napoleon, desirous 

 of an heir, divorced Josephine, who was childless, 

 and married on the 1st April 1810 the Archduchess 

 Maria Louisa of Austria. He hail no doubt the 

 wish also to get a footing in the circle of the 

 legitimate reigning families of Europe. A son, to 

 whom the title of King of Home was given, was 

 born on March 20, 1811. 



Still bent on the humiliation of England, Napoleon 

 now tried to effect his purpose \>\ increasing the 

 stringency of the ( 'ontinental System, but this ended 

 in bringing him into conflict with l!u--ia. Me 

 first annexed the kingdoms of Holland and West- 

 phalia, to give him command of their seaboards, 

 and then prohibited English trade even when 

 carried in nentr.il bottoms. The Czar, ali'.nlv 

 estranged by Napoleon's alliance with Austria and 

 bis conduct as regards Poland, refused to adopt 

 this policy, and the relations between them gradu- 

 ally became so stiaincd that war was inevitable, 

 and Napoleon took the momentous resolve to invade 

 I Iii-Ma. With Maria Louisa, he arrived at Dresden 

 on the IGth May 1812, anil was there greeted by the 

 emperor of Austria, the king of Prussia, and other 

 sovereigns. His army for this gigantic enterprise 

 numbered alnmt 000,000, including French, Ger- 

 man-, ami Italians. He crossed the Niemen on 

 the 24th June, reaching Vilna, which was evacu- 

 ated by the Russians, on the 28th ; and he re- 

 mained at Vilna till the Kith July, hesitating to take 

 the linal resolution to invade the heart of Russia. 

 lie made overtures for peace to the Czar, who 

 refused to treat as long as an enemy remained on 

 Russian soil. Foiled here Napoleon at last decided 

 to go on with his enterprise ; so he advanced, and 

 at first the Russians were in no condition to meet 

 him. their forces licing scattered. If Napoleon 

 could have advanced rapidly to Smolensk, he 

 might have cut the Russian forces in two, but his 



vast host appears to have been iinniunngcnhle. 

 I'.aielav de Tolly and Itagration succeeded in unit- 

 ing at Smolensk, but were ilihen fiom it on the 

 Isth August after an obstinate defence. At 

 Smolensk Napoleon again hesitated as to whether 

 he should go into w inter i|u.utci s. but eventually 

 derided to press on to Moscow, trusting to the 

 moral effect of the fall of the ancient capital. It 

 si -'-ins as if, while his superstitions belief in his 

 star still remained, Uxlily nilim nts had caused a 

 deterioiation in his power of rapid decision ami in 

 hi- energy of action. Meanwhile, great discontent 

 had I . in Russia by the continued retreat 



of the armies. Kutusoff was appointed to the 

 eliii-t command, and stood to light at Borodino on 

 Septcmlier II. Napoleon won the battle, but with 

 unwonted and misplaced caution iclu.-ed to engage 

 his Guard, and the victory was almost fruitless. 



He entered Moscow on the 14th Sciiteml>er, and 

 fire broke out the next night, the hrst effect of 

 which was slill further to ahum the Russians, who 

 believed it to ! the work of the French. The liie 

 raged fiercely till the 20th, and a great part of the 

 city was burned to the ground. Had the victory of 

 Borodino been more decisive the C/ar might now 

 have yielded; but as it was he listened to the 

 advice of Stein and Sir R. Wilson and refused 

 to treat, thus pulling Napoleon in a dilemma. 

 Hi- plans were always made on the basis of im- 

 mediate success, and the course to be adopted in 

 case of failure was not considered. Again he 

 hesitated, with the result that when at last he 

 resolved to retire from Moscow the winter, coming 

 earlier than usual, upset his calculations, and the 

 miseries of that terrible retreat followed. Hi- left 

 Moscow on the 18th October, and. reaching the 

 Heir-ilia with but 12,000 men. was joined there by 

 Oudinot and Victor, who had been holding the 

 line of the Dw ina. with IS.IHIO. His passage of the 

 river was opposed, but he succeeded in crossing, 

 and on the tith December the miseiable remnant 

 of the Grand Army reached Vilna. Maedonald, 

 Keynier. and Schwar/enberg. with 100,000 men, on 

 the Polish frontier ami in the Raltie piovii 

 were safe, but this w;u- the w hole available remnant 

 of the 600,000 with which the campaign commenced. 

 It might have been expected that Napoleon would 

 now be anxious for iwace, but his haughty spirit 

 could not brook any diminution of his prestige, and, 

 determining to try and efface the past with fresh 

 triumphs, he returned to Paris to raise new levies. 

 The Czar fully understood that no half-measures 

 would be of any avail, but that he must follow 

 up what had been l>gun and carry the war into 

 Germany the next year, rousing the Germans in Ilia 

 aid. On the 30th Decemlier 1812 the Prussian 

 contingent of the Grand Army, under York, came 

 over to the Russians, and on the 22d January 1SI3 

 Stein procured the meeting of the estates of I 

 I'nis-ia, when the Landwchr was called out. 

 Saxony also joined l!u>sia. contrary to the wishes 

 of the king, but Austria and the middle stat.s 

 still clung to Naiioleon. 



Napoleon left Paris for Mainz on the 15th April 

 1813, Ilia object being Dresden, which was held by 

 the (Varand the king of Prussia. Eugene I'.caii- 

 harnais was on the Lower Soalc with 70,(KK) men, 

 and Napoleon, with 150,000 men, well officered, 

 though raw and short of cavalry, moved to meet 

 him by way of Erfurt. Davoflt was holding down 

 insurrection in north Germany with 30,000. The 

 allies at first hail only 100,000 available, the pro- 

 cess of calling out and drilling the people being 

 slow. NajKileon moved on Leipzig, and won the 

 battle of Lut/cn on the 'Jd May. which restored 

 Diesdcn to the king of Saxony. 'He then follovvid 

 the allies, l>eat them, though with heavy loss, at 

 lkiuizc.ii ou the 20th and 21st May, and forced 



