200 years ago, on June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte suffered a final defeat at Waterloo. The battle took place in the course of Napoleon's attempt to defend the French throne, which was lost after the war against the coalition of the largest European states and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in the country. His triumphant return to power in France was called the Hundred Days of Napoleon. However, the European monarchs refused to recognize Napoleon's power over France and organized the VII anti-French coalition. This war was unjust because the French people supported Napoleon and hated the Bourbon regime. Napoleon lost the war to the strongest European powers and was exiled to the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
France after Napoleon
After the revolution and during the reign of Napoleon, the Bourbons were almost forgotten. They were on the periphery of social and political life. Only a small number of royalists, mostly in exile, cherished the hope of restoring their power. It is clear that there was no longer any hatred. An entire generation has lived since the execution of Louis XVI. The old generation did not remember the former dynasty, and the new generation knew about it only from stories. For most of the population, the Bourbons felt like a distant past.
During the campaigns of 1813-1814. Napoleon's army was defeated, Russian troops entered Paris. Napoleon was exiled to an honorable exile on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. Napoleon retained the title of emperor, he was the owner of the island. Napoleon felt rather at ease. He and his family were provided with a fairly high maintenance. The honorable entourage of Napoleon consisted of several generals and several companies of the Old Guard (about a battalion in number). Several other units were also subordinate to him: the Corsican battalion, the Elbe battalion, horse rangers, Polish lancers and an artillery battery. Also, Napoleon had several ships at his disposal.
Farewell of Napoleon to the Imperial Guard April 20, 1814
The winners determined the future of France. When the French minister Talleyrand, a master of intrigue who betrayed Napoleon, proposed returning the throne to the Bourbons, the Russian emperor Alexander Pavlovich reacted negatively to this idea. Alexander leaned initially in favor of Eugene de Beauharnais or Bernadotte. There was a likelihood of transferring the throne to someone from the Bonaparte dynasty or another dynasty, not the Bourbons. The Viennese court and the cunning Metternich were not averse to the regency of Maria Louise of Austria. However, this was contrary to the interests of England and Russia.
As a result, Talleyrand was able to achieve the transfer of the throne to the Bourbons. He began to insist on the principle of legitimacy, the legality of power. “Louis XVIII is a principle,” Talleyrand said. The principle of legitimacy was to the liking of Alexander, the Prussian king, and the Austrian emperor. On May 3, 1814, the new monarch Louis XVIII of Bourbon entered Paris, surrounded by a large retinue of emigrants who had returned from exile.
Unfortunately, the brother of the executed king was not the best monarch. For twenty years he wandered around different parts of Europe, lived on the support of the Russian tsar, the Prussian king, or the English government, grew old in fruitless hopes of returning the throne, and unexpectedly, when almost all hopes were exhausted, he returned to Paris. An aged, sickly and passive king, seated on the French throne with the help of foreign bayonets, could not win the sympathy of the people. He could at least not arouse people's hatred, not stir up old grievances.
However, his energetic brother Count d'Artois, the future King Charles X, leader of the extreme royalist party, gained great influence at court from the first days of the restoration. The Duchess of Angoulême, daughter of the executed Louis XVI, was also a match for him. The Royalists wanted revenge, places of honor, and money. The domestic policy of Louis XVIII's cabinet became largely determined by the returning emigrants and became reactionary, despite the relatively liberal Charter of 1814. The adherents of the emperor and the republic, as well as the Protestants, were persecuted, freedom of the press existed only formally. The elite of Napoleon's empire was relegated to the background and felt left out. The peasantry began to fear that the land would be taken away, feudal and church taxes would be returned.
As a result, it began to seem that a relatively small group of people, long cut off from their homeland, wants to return the past. If this depended only on the environment of Louis XVIII, it is possible that a harsh tyrannical regime would have been established in France. However, the Russian Tsar Alexander, and other allies, held back radical sentiments, since they did not want history to repeat itself from the beginning. The French king was given to understand that he would have to recognize the major changes that took place after the revolution.
Louis XVIII had to reckon with the people who helped him ascend the throne. The first government was headed by Talleyrand. The Minister of War was Marshal Soult. Most of Napoleon's generals retained their command posts. However, gradually, having strengthened and feeling a taste for power, the royalists began to crowd out the Napoleonic elite. Higher positions were filled by emigrants and their relatives, who did not have any talents and did not have any merits before France. Step by step, the Catholic Church strengthened its position, occupied leading positions in society, which irritated the intelligentsia. Covered with glory by victory, the tricolor banner popular in the army - the banner of the French revolution was replaced by the white banner of the Bourbons. The tricolor cockade was replaced with a white cockade with lilies.
People, first with surprise, and then with irritation and hatred, followed the activities of the new masters of the country. These embittered people, many of whom lived for a long time in the hallways and doorways of various European capitals, were very fond of money. They eagerly clutched at the state pie. The king handed out to the right and left positions, titles that brought a lot of income and were not associated with intense service. But it was not enough for them. The general demand of the royalists was the return of the former possessions, properties that were transferred to new owners. By royal ordinance, that part of the national property, which had previously been confiscated and did not have time to sell, was returned to its former owners.
However, this was not enough for them. They were preparing the next step - the alienation of the possessions that had passed into new hands, and the transfer to the old owners. This was a very dangerous step, since it struck a blow at a significant layer of people who benefited from the revolution. The activities of the royalists, which affected the material results of the revolution and the Napoleonic era, caused great anxiety and public irritation. Talleyrand, the smartest of all who betrayed Napoleon and helped the Bourbons to take the throne, almost immediately noted: "They have not forgotten anything and have not learned anything." The same idea was expressed by the Russian Tsar Alexander I in a conversation with Caulaincourt: "The Bourbons have not corrected themselves and are incorrigible."
Only a few months passed, and the new government not only did not get close to the people, on the contrary, it aroused discontent of almost all the main strata. The new owners feared for their possessions, their rights were questioned. There was a threat of a new redistribution of property, already in the interests of the royalists. The peasants were afraid that the old lords and clergymen would take their land away from them, restore tithes and other hated feudal extortions. The army was offended by the disdain and disrespect for its past exploits. Many military generals and officers were gradually dismissed. Their places were taken by emigrant nobles, who not only did not distinguish themselves in the battles for France, but also often fought against it. It was obvious that the Napoleonic military elite would soon be squeezed out even more.
The bourgeoisie was initially overjoyed by the fall of Napoleon's empire. Endless wars that harmed trade ended, sea routes blocked by the British fleet were freed, recruits for the army stopped (in the last years of Napoleon's empire, the rich simply could not insert hired substitutes instead of their sons, as men simply ran out). However, just a few months after the fall of the empire and the lifting of the continental blockade, the commercial and industrial circles noted with grief that the royal government did not even think of starting a decisive customs war with the British.
The intelligentsia, people of the liberal professions, lawyers, writers, doctors, etc. also initially sympathized with the Bourbons. After the iron dictatorship of Napoleon, it seemed that freedom had come. A moderate constitution was a boon. However, soon educated people, brought up in the spirit of the French Revolution, began to resent the dominance of the church. The Church began to actively occupy dominant positions in the public life of the country, suppressing the Voltairean spirit. Religious fanatics were especially violent in the provinces, where many officials were appointed on the recommendation of the church.
Less than six months after the restoration of the Bourbons, widespread opposition developed in Paris. Even the former Napoleonic Minister of Police Fouche entered it, he several times offered his services to the new government, warned about the danger of Napoleon's closeness to France. But his services were rejected. Then he joined the anti-government opposition. At the same time, not everyone wanted Napoleon's return to power. Someone wanted to establish the power of Eugene de Beauharnais, others proposed to transfer the supreme power to Lazar Carnot.
Louis XVIII
Flight of the eagle
Napoleon closely watched the political situation in France. He had reason to be dissatisfied. Not all obligations to him were fulfilled. He was separated from his wife Maria Louise and son. The Austrians feared that Napoleon's son would take the French throne and continue the dynasty of Bonapartes, hostile to the Austrian Empire. Therefore, it was decided to turn Napoleon's son into an Austrian prince. His father was to be replaced by his grandfather, the Austrian emperor, in whose palace the future Duke of Reichstadt had been brought up since 1814. Napoleon was offended. He did not know whether his wife had abandoned him, or whether she was not allowed to see him.
The first wife Josephine, whom he once loved so passionately, did not come to visit him either. She died in her palace in Malmaison near Paris a few weeks after Napoleon's arrival on the island of Elba, on May 29, 1814. The Emperor received this news with great sadness.
However, it was not personal motives that influenced Napoleon's decision most of all, but politics. This great man longed to return to the Great Game. He closely followed the events in France and became more and more convinced that the power of the Bourbons irritated the people and the army. At the same time, news reached him that in Vienna they wanted to exile him further, to the island of St. Helena or to America.
Napoleon was a man of action, he was 45 years old, he was not yet tired of life. It was a political player. After some deliberation, he decided to act. On February 26, 1815, Napoleon left Port Ferayo. He happily passed all the patrol ships. On March 1, 1815, several small ships landed on the deserted coast of the Bay of Juan on the southern coast of the French kingdom. A small detachment came down with him. The entire "army" of Napoleon at that time numbered only one thousand one hundred people. The arrived customs guard only greeted the emperor. Cannes and Grace recognized the power of the returning emperor without any attempt at resistance. Napoleon issued a manifesto to the French, followed by appeals to the inhabitants of Gap, Grenoble and Lyon. These appeals were of great importance, the people believed that their emperor had returned.
With a swift march, a small detachment walked along mountain paths to the north. To avoid resistance, Napoleon chose the most difficult path - through the Alpine foothills. The emperor wanted to succeed, to conquer France without firing a single shot. Napoleon did not want to fight the French; the path to the throne had to be bloodless. He gave the order not to open fire, not to use weapons under any circumstances. The detachment made long transitions and spent the night in the villages, where the peasants sympathetically greeted Napoleon. Napoleon's tactic was to avoid collisions at the first stage, twisting along little-known roads and mountain paths, where it was possible to go only in single file.
I must say that the peasants actively supported Napoleon. From village to village he was accompanied by crowds of thousands of peasants. In a new place, they seemed to transfer the emperor to a new group of peasants. Rumors about the return of the land to its former owners worried them very much. And the church behaved very arrogantly. The churchmen openly preached that the peasants who had once bought the confiscated land would suffer God's wrath.
On March 7, Napoleon went to Grenoble. In Paris, that Napoleon had left Elba, they learned on March 3, then the whole of France learned about it. The whole country was shocked, and then Europe. The French troops in the south of France were commanded by the old Marshal Massena. True to his oath, Massena, having learned about the landing of Napoleon, gave the order to General Miolisse to find and arrest the Napoleonic detachment. General Miolisse served for a long time under the command of Napoleon and at one time enjoyed his full confidence. However, it turned out that Napoleon's detachment was ahead of Miolissa's troops. Either Napoleon's soldiers walked very quickly, or Miolissa was in no hurry. But, one way or another, they did not meet on the narrow path.
Meanwhile, Paris was already panicking. The royal government took urgent measures to eliminate the threat. Minister of War Soult gave the order 30 thousand. army to move across the detachment of Bonaparte. However, Soult seemed too unreliable to the suspicious royal court. Clarke replaced him. Count d'Artois himself hastened to Lyon to stop the "Corsican monster," as the press of the ruling clique called Napoleon. Many were confused. They didn’t like the Bourbons, but they didn’t want a new war. France has been drained by previous wars. The French feared that Napoleon's success would again lead to a major war.
In Grenoble there was a significant garrison under the command of General Marchand. It was impossible to avoid the collision. At the village of Lafre, government forces blocked the entrance to the gorge. Here stood the vanguard under the command of Captain Random. Napoleon led the soldiers to a rapprochement with the royal troops. When they were in sight, he ordered the soldiers to shift their guns from right to left. That is, they could not shoot. One of the closest associates of the emperor, Colonel Mallet, was in despair and tried to convince Napoleon of this insane, in his opinion, act. But Napoleon took this deadly risk.
Without slowing down, the French emperor calmly approached the royal soldiers. Then he stopped his detachment and went alone, without protection. Coming close, he unbuttoned his coat and said: “Soldiers, do you recognize me? How many of you want to shoot your emperor? I'm getting hit by your bullets. " In response, the command of the captain of the government troops sounded: "Fire!" However, Napoleon calculated everything correctly. He was always loved in the army. "Long live the emperor!" - exclaimed the French soldiers, and the detachment in full strength went over to the side of Napoleon. Napoleon was supported by local peasants, suburban workers, who smashed the city gates. The Emperor occupied Grenoble without a fight. Now he had six regiments with artillery.
Napoleon continued his triumphal march north. He already had an army, into which peasants, workers, soldiers of various garrisons and townspeople joined. People felt the strength of the spirit in Napoleon. Thanks to popular support, Napoleon's campaign ended in victory. On March 10, Napoleon's army approached the walls of Lyon. The proud Count d'Artois fled the second largest city in France, handing over command to MacDonald. He saw that it was dangerous for him to stay in the city. The entire city of Lyon and its garrison went over to the side of their emperor.
Then the most famous Marshal Michel Ney was moved against Napoleon. He promised Louis XVIII to bring Napoleon alive or dead, preventing civil war. The royal court had high hopes for Ney. The army was much stronger than Napoleon's. However, Napoleon knew his former comrade-in-arms well. Ney was from Napoleon's "iron guard", "the bravest of the brave" could not fight his emperor. A short note was sent to her: “Ney! Come meet me at Chalon. I will receive you in the same way as on the day after the battle of Moscow. " Napoleon's supporters tried to convince Ney that not all foreign powers supported the Bourbons, it was not for nothing that the British released the emperor from Elba. Ney hesitated. On March 17, when the two armies met, Ney drew his sword from its scabbard and shouted: “Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers! The Bourbon case is lost forever! " And the army in full force, without a single shot, went over to the side of the emperor.
Now the powerful, unstoppable stream could not be stopped. It was in those days that a handwritten poster “Napoleon to Louis XVIII. King, my brother! Don't send me more soldiers, I have enough of them. Napoleon . This ironic entry was true. Almost the entire army went over to the side of Napoleon. He was supported by the common people, peasants, townspeople and workers.
On the night of 19-20 March, the French king and his family fled in panic on the road to Lille. Napoleon's army was just approaching Fontainebleau, and in the capital, the white banner had already been torn from the Tuileries Palace and replaced with a tricolor one. People poured out into the street. The Parisians were sincerely happy, letting sharp jokes in the direction of the escaped king and the royalists. The remaining royalists hid in haste, tore off their white cockades. Bourbon rule collapsed.
On March 20, Napoleon entered the Tuileries, greeted by enthusiastic people. Thus, twenty days after landing on the French coast, Napoleon entered Paris without firing a shot and became the head of France again. It was a brilliant victory.
Already on March 20, the new government began work. It included Napoleon's old comrades-in-arms: Caulaincourt was minister of foreign affairs, Fouche was minister of police, Carnot was minister of the interior, Davout was governor-general of Paris and minister of war, Mare was a secretary (he was one of the first secretaries of the first consul).
It was a happy day for Napoleon. After many failures and defeats, he again won a brilliant victory. What happened in France was perceived by contemporaries as a miracle. A handful of people in three weeks, without firing a single shot, without killing a single person, captured an entire country. This was, apparently, one of the brightest adventures of Napoleon. It was not for nothing that it was later called "the flight of the eagle." We must pay tribute to courage, determination, ability to take risks and knowledge of Napoleon's policies. He embarked on an unparalleled venture and achieved success.
Napoleon's triumph is due to two main factors. First, it is the uniqueness of Napoleon's personality. He calculated everything perfectly and took a reasonable risk. As a result, a small detachment that did not use weapons, within three weeks defeated a huge kingdom with a large army. The immense popularity of Napoleon among the people and the army played a role.
Secondly, it is parasitism and anti-nationality of the Bourbon regime. The royal power in the shortest possible time was able to inspire the hatred of the widest sections of the people. The army, which was peasant in composition, went over to the side of the emperor. During the capture of Grenoble, Lyon and in a number of other cities, Napoleon was actively supported by the workers. The urban poor actively sided with the emperor in Paris. A significant part of the officers and generals, the elite of Napoleon's empire went over to his side. The bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia were irritated by the policies of the royal court. There was no one left on the side of the Bourbons.
