Sanwei New Knowledge No. 155
In this issue:
Unable to give birth to an heir, Napoleon divorced his wife
He could not afford the Tsar's sister and asked to marry the Austrian Queen's daughter
Multiple wrong decisions, going downhill
— Read the article in conjunction with this episode —
01 No heir Josephine was hughed
Continue with the book, Napoleon the Great.
In the Battle of Wagram in 1809, Napoleon led the French army to a crushing victory over Austria. Although the battle was very fierce, after the defeat of Austria, France was at that time the whole european continent was dominant--Russia was its ally; Austria was originally in favor of yin and yang, but this time it was completely subdued; the remaining countries were either Allies of France or little brothers. France's only rival was Britain across the strait, and at this time the two sides could not fight due to the asymmetry of the navy, so Napoleon's empire was already at its strongest.
For Napoleon, he hoped to open up the foundation of all generations. We have said before that he very much hoped that his Bonaparte family would become an upright royal family in the history of Europe, a true nobleman, a real ruler of a great empire, so he must have wanted to have an heir. At this time, an important issue came to the table, that is, Napoleon had no heirs.
By this time Napoleon's marriage to Josephine had lasted for 13 years, but the two had not had children in those 13 years. If you can't give birth to a child, you naturally have to find a reason. Because Napoleon had a lot of lovers, as we have said before, by 1809, he had had more than one illegitimate child or illegitimate daughter with his lover, and at this time his favorite lover, Madame Valeska (Madame Polska), was also pregnant, so it was obvious that the problem was not napoleon but Josephine's side. By 1809, Josephine was 46 years old, so it was unlikely that she would be expected to bear an heir to Napoleon. So Napoleon is facing a very real problem here, he has to find another wife to give him an heir.
Here I have to say that the European court is not the same as the royal family in Chinese history, this royal family in Chinese history, you queen can't give birth to a concubine, and then the mother depends on the son, this is completely orthodox, right? But in Europe, because of this restriction of Christianity, it is still necessary to pay attention to monogamy, although this mess in the European court is not much, but it must be monogamous, that is, only the heirs born of the orthodox queen have the right to inherit, and your illegitimate children outside have no right of inheritance. So Napoleon had to get rid of Josephine and marry another wife. As the author writes, "Now this marriage hindered Napoleon's political and dynastic ambitions, and what he saw as the best interests of France, so it had to end." ”
Of course, the process of talking about divorce is still a little twisty, after all, Josephine is 46 years old, where do you let her go? Therefore, the two people are also discussing this matter at home, and it is inevitable that one cry, two troubles and three hangings are inevitable. In the end, it was Josephine's son and Napoleon's right-hand man Eugène who stepped in to reassure his mother to get the matter done. Josephine, after announcing his divorce from Napoleon, left the Tuileries without looking back and never returned.
Of course, Napoleon was still good to Josephine - retained her queen title, and at the same time paid off her debt of 2 million francs, returned her 3 million francs a year, and kept several of her castles, and the treatment was very generous.
02 I can't afford the Tsar's sister and ask to marry the Austrian queen's daughter
After getting divorced, Napoleon looked for his next wife. At this time he must marry a European royal family, because as we said before, he wants his Bonaparte family to justify the history of European royalty, so he must marry the daughter of a royal family with a very orthodox bloodline to be his wife and give birth to an heir.
At this time he had two objects, one was Anna, the sister of the Russian Tsar Alexander, who was very young, not yet 15 years old, Napoleon was 40 years old at this time, and the two were 25 years apart; the other choice was Louise, the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz.
At this time, Napoleon's first choice in his heart was of course to marry the Tsar's sister Anna, because at this time France and Russia were allies, and we had said before that in Tyrsit he and Tsar Alexander chatted very closely, the two people were talking about nothing, at this time to strengthen this alliance through in-law relations, Qin jin is good, of course, is a reasonable choice. But the problem was on the side of the Tsar, who was not at all willing to marry their princess to an explosive family like you, and they simply looked down on Napoleon.
Anna Pavlovna
As the book says, "The Tsar was no less opposed to the condescending marriage of the Romanov dynasty to the Corsican upstart. France had the upper hand and Russia had no allies, so he could not afford to offend Napoleon. "This is written very clearly, completely forced by reality. You fierce! Then I will make an alliance with you for the time being, and I will not be able to defeat you, which is such a situation.
Here to say more, in Tyrsit the two people talked very happily, Napoleon felt that he had found a lifelong close friend and even a love, but I think Napoleon was deeply in love with the Tsar, and in turn the Tsar never really had a close relationship with Napoleon in his heart, and it can even be said that he always looked down on Napoleon, always yin and yang, and there will be many things behind him that will continue to prove this.
In response to Napoleon's request for a proposal, the Russian side responded to a condition, saying that if it could promise never to restore Poland, it would be possible to marry Princess Anna to Napoleon. As the book says, "If Poland could be secured, the Russian Tsar would be more than happy to sacrifice his sister to marry the 40-year-old Corsican upstart in the eyes of the Romanovs." ”
So you see that the Russians only had interests at that time, and their biggest demand was to divide Poland, and everything else could be sacrificed and discussed.
But Napoleon felt that it was not worth it to tie himself up in Poland for such a princess, so he did not give a clear promise. Thus the negotiations with the Russians collapsed, and they turned to Louise, the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz.
03 It is the spring breeze that is proud, and it is inevitable that the prosperity will inevitably decline
Princess Louise had just turned 18 at the time, but she had always been a demonized presence in the environment in which she grew up. Growing up in the court, Louise and her friends would have the ugliest looking doll named "Napoleon". Because the European courts at that time generally did not recognize such an upstart, thinking that you were not a nobleman at all, how could you enter the palace and become the emperor of such a big empire. So Napoleon was completely hostile to the mainstream courts in Europe, and Louise received such an education. And when she was 14 and 18 years old, that is, in 1805 and 1809, the French army attacked Vienna twice, forcing Louise to follow her family, and the Austrian royal family to escape from the capital, so she should be quite afraid of Napoleon, at least not good.
But at this time, the Austrian side has its own strong demand for an alliance with France, because Austria has broken the wrist with France four times before, all of which have failed miserably, so at this time it was completely subdued, thinking that I am still allied with France, of course, this alliance is actually a kind of yin and yang. But eventually Napoleon married Princess Louise, and France and Austria formed an in-law relationship. After the two men were married, Louise was still dutiful to Napoleon, fulfilled the duty of an empress, and a year later bore Napoleon a son, which is the legitimate heir, which will be discussed later.
At this time, Napoleon was 40 years old, in fact, the spring breeze was proud of the horseshoe disease, his entire Napoleonic Empire was the most powerful empire in Europe, and he married a wife waiting for the birth of his heir. But as the book says, "Napoleon's Empire was the largest empire in Europe after Ancient Rome, even larger than Charlemagne's Empire, and no enemy could threaten his existence, only Napoleon himself." In short, "no zuo no die."
But the course of history has proved countless times that prosperity is bound to decline, often because the protagonist himself did it at the height of his own, and So did Napoleon. At the height of his life, he began to continue and amplify a series of mistakes he had made, a topic he addressed in the 13th issue, and continues today.
04 France blockades Britain Russia suffered heavy losses
First of all, the most important thing is the "continental blockade system", because the sea can not defeat Britain, so Napoleon can only fight a trade war with you, and block the trade between the entire European continent and Britain. At this time, any opening in the trade between the European continent and Britain or the opening of smuggling was regarded by Napoleon as a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh.
So he first opened his eyes on the Pope, because the Papal States was an important smuggling hub in Europe at that time. Napoleon was also quite ruthless, and directly arrested the pope. The Pope was the supreme presence in the hearts of Catholics throughout Europe at that time, and Napoleon did not care directly, and the Papal States took the Pope away, first to Savona, Italy, and then to the Palace of Fontainebleau in Paris, France, and put him under house arrest. The Pope did not hesitate at all and directly expelled Napoleon from the church. One of the very bad consequences of this is that you think of so many Catholics in Europe, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and so on, and this leads to the loss of the hearts of these Catholics, Napoleon.
Fontainebleau Palace
Then there was his own brother, the dutch king Louis at the time, because the Dutch smuggling was also very strong at that time, Napoleon directly stripped Louis of the throne, which also tore Louis's face, and Louis ran to Austria.
Then relations with Russia, the Russian economy suffered great losses due to the continental blockade. The book provides a set of figures that "Russia lost 126 million rubles in 1808, 157 million rubles in 1809, and 77 million rubles in 1810." "Such bad trade data has led to a sharp depreciation of the ruble, so the continental blockade of this matter Russia was completely kidnapped by the French, they themselves are completely reluctant, who wants to lose money to play this with you? This is also an important root cause that directly leads to the eventual rift in the relationship between the two sides.
05 Annexation of Oldenburg The Tsar broke the treaty in anger
Then when France handled its relations with Russia, there were still several things that it did not deal with.
One is the Polish thing. We have just said that Russia has always had its own little calculations in the matter of Poland, and they will ensure that Poland will not be restored in any case. But Napoleon did not agree to this, so Russia looked at you Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which was the prototype of a Poland, always pestle on my doorstep. This was one of the things that Russia was particularly concerned about at that time.
Another thing That Napoleon also offended Russia was the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. This place was in the northwest of present-day Germany near the mouth of the North Sea, when the Grand Duke of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, the ruler, was related to the Romanov family of Russia. But in order to maintain the integrity of his continental blockade system and control these port cities, Napoleon brazenly annexed the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and some ports in the Hanseatic town in December 1810.
This move completely infuriated Tsar Alexander, so the Russians immediately counterattacked and opened up trade to neutral countries, which effectively broke Napoleon's continental blockade. But Russia also retained a little hand, saving some face for France, that is, it did not open direct trade with Britain. But this was really just a face project, because the British ship could dock in the Russian port as long as it changed its flag, and in fact it had already nullified Napoleon's continental blockade.
So this incident made Napoleon furious, he felt that his former most iron ally, the best little brother Tsar Alexander, how could he betray himself, and all his sincerity was finally wrongly paid. So this matter made both Russia and France, and also let the two emperors completely tear their faces. Therefore, by 1811, both sides felt that Russia and France had changed from allies to enemies, and military conflicts were inevitable, so they began to mobilize and prepare for war.
If the two european superpowers were to fight, it would certainly be a big battle, so the preparation cycle was very long, and the preparation cycle lasted for more than a year. But in fact, in the past year, France has a very good opportunity, because do not forget that Napoleon's greatest enemy is finally Britain. And because of Napoleon's continental blockade system, coupled with the economic crisis in Europe at that time, in fact, Britain was very difficult from 1811 to 1812, when there was a period called the "Great British Crisis", and the unemployment rate in Liverpool was as high as nearly 20%. And don't forget that in 1812, due to trade problems, Britain and the United States fought a war, which was called the "Second War of Independence", or "1812 War", when the British army did not burn the White House, right? A little bit of diverge, and then talk about the United States, let's connect the two sides. So if Napoleon hadn't insisted on using force against Russia in 1812, perhaps the British side would have really collapsed.
But history does not assume that Napoleon in 1812 resolutely opened the war against Russia, which was also a path that led him to destruction. We'll move on in the next issue.