The Treaties of Tilsit caused the expected effect for Napoleon, and soon the European powers began to fight between each other’s. Because Russia, under the terms of both Treaties, are now a forced ally of France, he had to fight firstly against the United Kingdom, in the called
Anglo-Russian War, who began on 28 October 1809, when Emperor Alexander I formally declared war on the United Kingdom after the British attack on Copenhagen in September 1809. The hostilities were limited primarily to minor naval actions in the Baltic and Barents Seas, where Britain's Royal Navy prevailed in all the actions. This war ended with the
Treaty of Örebro, signed on 10 January 1810.
Just in the middle of the war against the United Kingdom, Russia also entered in a conflict with Sweden, the called
Finnish War. Emperor Alexander I informed King Gustaf Adolf IV of Sweden that the peaceful relations between Russia and Sweden depended on Swedish agreement to abide by the limitations of the Treaties of Tilsit which in practice meant that Sweden would have been required to follow the Continental System. The Swedish King, who viewed Napoleon as the Antichrist and Britain, declared the war to Russia on 1 November 1809; however, within months, the Swedish troops, were completely defeated and the King was forced to sign the
Treaty of Fredrikshamn (21 February 1810), under which Sweden had to recognized the definitive loss of Finland, who emerged as a Grand Duchy under Russian government.
The loss of the war had disastrous consequences to King Gustaf Adolf IV: on 13 March 1810, under the accusations of fatal mistakes leading to the loss of Finland, was dethroned in Stockholm after a
Coup d'état and imprisoned with his family at Gripsholm Castle. Finally, without options and in a move to save the throne for his son, he voluntarily abdicated on 27 March; however, on 1 April the
Riksdag, dominated by the army, declared that not merely Gustav Adolf IV but his whole family had forfeited the throne, perhaps an excuse to exclude his family from succession based on the rumors of his alleged illegitimacy. A more likely cause, however, is that the revolutionaries feared that Gustav's son, if he inherited the throne, would avenge his father's deposition when he came of age. On 10 May, Prince Charles, Duke of Södermanland (Gustaf's uncle) was proclaimed King under the name of Charles XIII, after accepting a new liberal constitution, which was ratified by the diet the next day. On 19 June, the deposed King and his family were transported to Germany.
The settlements at Tilsit gave Napoleon time to organize his Empire. One of his major objectives became enforcing his policy against the United Kingdom; however, he decided to focus his attention on the Kingdom of Portugal, which consistently violated his trade prohibitions. After his defeat in the
War of the Oranges on 19 August 1807, Portugal adopted a double-sided policy. At first, King John VI agreed to close his ports to British trade. The situation changed dramatically after the Franco-Spanish defeat at Trafalgar; John VI grew bolder and officially resumed diplomatic and trade relations with the British, an event considerable enraged Napoleon.
Unhappy with this change of policy by the Portuguese government, Napoleon sent an army to invade Portugal. On 1 November 1808, 24,000 French troops under General Jean-Andoche Junot crossed the Pyrenees with Spanish cooperation and headed towards Portugal to enforce Napoleon's orders.
Throughout the winter of 1808, French agents became increasingly involved in Spanish internal affairs, attempting to incite discord between members of the Spanish royal family. On 10 February 1809, secret French machinations finally materialized when Napoleon announced that he would intervene to mediate between the rival political factions in the country. Marshal Murat led 120,000 troops into Spain and the French arrived in Madrid on 26 March, where wild riots against the occupation erupted just a few weeks later. Napoleon appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as the new King of Spain with the name of
Jose I in the summer of 1809. King Charles IV, with his wife and family, parted to exile in Italy, where they remained for the rest of their lives.
The appointment enraged a heavily religious and conservative Spanish population. Resistance to French aggression soon spread throughout the country. The shocking French defeat at the
Battle of Bailén in July gave hope to Napoleon's enemies and partly persuaded the French emperor to intervene in person.
Before going to Iberia, Napoleon decided to address several lingering issues with the Russians. At the
Congress of Erfurt in January 1809, Napoleon hoped to definitely keep Russia on his side during the upcoming struggle in Spain and during any potential conflict against Austria. The two sides reached an agreement, the Erfurt Convention, that called upon Britain to cease its war against France, that recognized the Russian conquest of Finland from Sweden, and that affirmed Russian support for France in a possible war against Austria "to the best of its ability." Napoleon then returned to France and prepared for war. The French troops, under the Emperor's personal command, rapidly crossed the Ebro River in April 1809 and inflicted a series of crushing defeats against the Spanish forces. After clearing the last Spanish force guarding the capital at Somosierra, Napoleon entered Madrid on 12 July with 80,000 troops. He then unleashed his soldiers against Moore and the British forces. The British were swiftly driven to the coast, and they withdrew from Spain entirely after a last stand at the
Battle of La Coruña in 12 August 1809.
The invasion of Portugal and Spain caused that Austria (who wanted to avenge its recent defeats) again declared the war against France and formed the Fifth Coalition with the United Kingdom, Sicly, Sardinia and the famous
Black Brunswickers, the Ducal troops under the command of Frederick William, the new Duke of Brunswick and son of the late Charles Ferdinand, who fall in the Battle of Jena.
This time, the Austrian Empire couldn't count with Russian support because Emperor Alexander I was forcibly bonded by the Treaties of Tilsit and was at war with the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire. Frederick William III of Prussia (again aimed by his wife Queen Louise) initially promised to help the Austrians, but later reneged before conflict began. A report from the Austrian finance minister suggested that the treasury would be in the risk of complete bankruptcy if the large army was mobilized. Archduke Charles warned that given this circumstance, would be a madness to fight again Napoleon, an opinion that soon created the so-called "Peace Party"; however, the advocates of war finally succeeded when the Imperial Government secretly decided on another confrontation against the French (13 November 1809).
In the early morning of 1 December, leading elements of the Austrian army crossed the Inn River and invaded Bavaria. The early Austrian attack surprised the French; Napoleon himself was still in Paris when he heard about the invasion. He arrived at Donauwörth on 17 December to find his army in a dangerous position, with its two wings separated by 75 miles (121 km) and joined together by a thin cordon of Bavarian troops. Arcnduke Charles pressed the left wing of the French army and hurled his men towards the troops of Marshal Davout. In response, Napoleon came up with a plan to cut off the Austrians in the celebrated
Landshut Maneuver. He realigned the axis of his army and marched his soldiers towards the town of Eckmühl. The French scored a convincing win in the resulting
Battle of Eckmühl (28-09 December 1809), who forced Archduke Charles to withdraw his forces over the Danube and into Bohemia. On 12 January 1810, Vienna fell for the second time in four years, although the war continued since most of the Austrian army had survived the initial engagements in Southern Germany.
By 21 February, the main Austrian army under Archduke Charles had arrived on the Marchfeld. He kept the bulk of his troops several miles away from the river bank in hopes of concentrating them at the point where Napoleon decided to cross. On 24 February, the French made their first major effort to cross the Danube, precipitating the
Battle of Aspern-Essling. The Austrians enjoyed a comfortable numerical superiority over the French throughout the battle; on the first day, Archduke Charles disposed of 110,000 soldiers against only 31,000 commanded by Napoleon. By the second day, reinforcements had boosted French numbers up to 70,000. The battle was characterized by a vicious back-and-forth struggle for the two villages of Aspern and Essling, the focal points of the French bridgehead. By the end of the fighting, the French had lost Aspern but still controlled Essling. A sustained Austrian artillery bombardment eventually convinced Napoleon to withdraw his forces back onto Lobau Island. Both sides inflicted about 23,000 casualties on each other. It was the first defeat Napoleon suffered in a major set-piece battle, and it caused excitement throughout many parts of Europe because it proved that he could be beaten on the battlefield.
After the setback at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon took several weeks in planning and preparing for contingencies before he made another attempt at crossing the Danube. From 19 March to the early days of April, the French recrossed the Danube in strength, with more than 180,000 troops marching across the Marchfeld towards the Austrians. Archduke Charles received the French with 150,000 of his own men. In the ensuing
Battle of Wagram (8-9 April 1810), which also lasted two days, Napoleon commanded his forces in what was the largest battle of his career up until then. Both sides launched major assaults on their flanks. Austrian attacks against the French left wing looked dangerous initially, but they were all beaten back. Meanwhile, a steady French attack against the Austrian left wing eventually compromised the entire position for Archduke Charles. Napoleon finished off the battle with a concentrated central thrust that punctured a hole in the Austrian army and forced Charles to retreat. Austrian losses were very heavy, reaching well over 40,000 casualties. The French were too exhausted to pursue the Austrians immediately, but Napoleon eventually caught up with Charles at Znaim and the latter was forced to signed an armistice on 12 April.
With this disastrous defeat, the Austrian Empire was forced to signed the
Treaty of Schönbrunn on 12 July 1810, who was the harshest that France had imposed on Austria in recent memory. Metternich and Archduke Charles had the preservation of the Habsburg Empire as their fundamental goal, and to this end they succeeded by making Napoleon seek more modest goals in return for promises of friendship between the two powers. Nevertheless, while most of the hereditary lands remained a part of the Habsburg realm, France received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports, while Galicia was given to the Poles and the Salzburg area of the Tyrol went to the Bavarians. Austria lost over three million subjects, about one-fifth of her total population, as a result of these territorial changes. The Fifth Coalition, in consequence, was virtually destroyed.
With the Austrian Empire finally defeated, Napoleon focused now in his domestic affairs, who also were a source of concern to him. His wife Joséphine was unable to bear children, and Napoleon became worried about the future of his Empire following his death. Desperate for a legitimate heir, Napoleon formally pronounced his divorce from Joséphine in 18 August 1810 and started looking for a new wife. The first choice for a bride: a Russian Grand Duchess.
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Jelgava Palace, February 1809-June 1811:
The following months after the recovery of the Duke of Normandy from his war wounds, the young prince continue his arguments with his mother because he wanted desperately to fight again, this time at the Austrian side.
Marie Antoinette, however, not only refused her son's pleas for his safety, but also because she, at this point, had virtually severed all her ties with her Austrian relatives, except her sister Maria Carolina (now again exiled to Vienna after her husband abdicated the government in favor of their son the Duke of Calabria) and didn't want to
help to same people who left us at mercy of the enemy, as the Queen wrote to her sister.
In addition to her familiar troubles (she also had a difficult relationship with Madame Royale, who desperately wanted to marry her cousin the Duke of Angoulême, and the Queen, horrified of the love of her daughter to
such man with a stone in the place of heart, firmly refused to gave her consent), Marie Antoinette now had to face the danger of the alliance between Napoleon and Alexander I: she and her family are at the mercy of the Russian Emperor, and if the
Corsican pig asked
his beloved Russian brother to expelled the Bourbons from Courland, they had any real place to settled.
Desperate to secured the safety of her family, Marie Antoinette began an intense corresponde with both Emperor Alexander I and his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna; in particular, the Queen wrote many letters to the Dowager Empress, because Marie Antoinette knew that she had a considerable influence over her son and she was practically the real power at the Russian court. At first, Maria Feodorovna reply very formally to Marie Antoinette (mainly because of the "calid" relationship between their children), but soon with her almost forgot charm and sympathy, the French Queen could conquer the heart of the Dowager Empress.
In June 1809, Marie Antoinette received a formal letter from Emperor Alexander I (of course addressed to Louis XVI, who continue paralyzed in his wheelchair) where he confirmed the Bourbons with the possession of Courland and secured them that he never would be expelled an
anointed King by the Grace of God and mostly his close and dear friend, as the extremely pious Alexander I wrote.
The following months, the Queen dedicated her days to pray, supporting her son the Duke of Normandy in his military decisions (after his success in battle, she increased the intervention of Louis Charles in the Restoration activities and intrigues) and moreover, to supervised the education of her grandchildren, in particular her eldest grandson, the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand Paul, former Duke of Burgundy. The 10-year-old easy going and extroverted boy who showed an extremely intelligence and a robust health; Marie Antoinette watched him proudly how he attended his lessons with diligence and began to act as a future King. The Dauphin's sisters Antoinette Caroline Pia (aged 11) and Elisabeth Thérèse Louise (aged 9), are the exact copy of their grandmother: they
are such vivacious and pretty girls...they talked and laughted so loudly that the governess (Madame de Tourzel)
had to constantly reprimanded them, but I told her that leave them play and enjoy their childhood...you and me know, dear Charlotte, how soon ended the happy days for a princess, as Marie Antoinette wrote to Maria Carolina. The Dauphin's younger brother Louis Frédéric Guillaume, Duke of Anjou, was the extreme opposite: the 8-years-old boy was shy and reserved, who enjoyed to spent his time with his mother the Dowager Dauphine, his aunts and his grandfather Louis XVI; the prince visited the ill King at least four times in a day, a fact who surprised Marie Antoinette, because she
didn't like sick people, as she always remarked.
On 12 December 1809 the long battle of Madame Royale for her happiness was finally won: Marie Antoinette, following the orders of her husband (after an unexpected decline in his health, Louis XVI asked his wife to permitted the wedding) relented and gave her consent for the marriage of her eldest daughter with her cousin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême and eldest son of the Count of Artois, in turn the younger brother of Louis XVI. The wedding ceremony was celebrated at the Ducal Chapel of Jelgava Palace, with the Duke of Normandy representing his father in the marriage contract and the young Dauphin escorting his aunt to the altar, at her request.
Despite her consent, Marie Antoinette couldn't dissimulated her distress and disappointment about her eldest daughter's choice of husband; even his own father, the Count of Artois remarked that his first-born son was
a plain and cold-hearted men, a true son of his late mother (the Countess of Artois, Maria Teresa of Savoy, had died some months earlier, on 11 May, being her death
hardly noted and only mourning because of her rank and not for her person). The Count of Provence, by the other hand, was happy with the union of both his nephew and niece, because, as he later remarked,
this marriage bonded even further the family; hopefully their had better luck that their olders (this statement was clearly in allusion to his own disastrous marriage with Maria Giuseppina of Savoy, a princess considered
ugly, tedious, and ignorant and whose lesbian scandals made a complete breach between the spouses: at that point they are
only a royal marriage in name but not in person; after two miscarriages in 1774 and 1781, they stopped to had marital relations
(a painful and repulsed duty, as the Count say) and thus never had children). In the ceremony, the Count and the Countess of Provence take their seats but rarely saw each other.
All the presents would noted the joy and emotion of the now Duchess of Angoulême offered a dramatic contrast with the Duke, who showed a complete indifference during all the ceremony and in the latter reception offered to the couple. Louis XVI, in the middle of his illness, was happy for his favorite daughter although felt that Louis Antoine wasn't probably prepared to be
a true husband, just like him in the past: rumors about the Duke of Angoulême's impotence (in contrast with his younger brother, the Duke of Berry -who had several mistresses- he never had one) inundated the Jelgava court and thus created an uncomfortable atmosphere in the wedding's celebrations.
By mid-July 1810 arrived to Jelgava the news of the signing of the Treaty of Schönbrunn, under which Napoleon
put the Habsburg under his feets, as Marie Antoinette bitterly wrote to her sister. Despite being distanced from her Austrian relatives, the Queen continue to be proud to be an Habsburg and especially a daughter of Maria Theresia, the last real powerful ruler of the dynasty:
if our mother would be watch the destruction of her legacy, she must be died again.
When in the following month of August also arrived the news of the divorce of Napoleon and his desires to remarry with a Russian Grand Duchess, Marie Antoinette wrote to the Dowager Empress, warning her about
gave such legitimacy to a pig, a monster who only destroy our world.
Maria Feodorovna shared the feelings of the French Queen, and began to had several (and even violent) discussions with her son the Emperor. Alexander I had mixed feelings about this probable union with Bonaparte: if he agreed, Napoleon would be began to had even more political ambitions towards the Russian Empire, but if he refused, this would bring the anger of the French Empire, who could be feeling rejected.
The formal petition of marriage arrived to Saint Petersburg on 1 November 1810: Napoleon asked the hand of the eldest unmarried Grand Duchess, Catherine Pavlovna.
When the news of the intended wedding (and moreover the name of the pretended bride) arrived at Jelgava, was the Duke of Normandy who became shocked and devastated. "Katya", in complete despair, wrote to "Karl" a secret letter begging him to came to rescue her from
that terribly destiny. Louis Charles decided to go to Saint Petersburg immediately, and if his pleas wouldn't be useless, he was ready to kidnap Catherine with the help of an small royalist contingent who remained in Russia.
However, Marie Antoinette (watching the desperation of her son and worried about the upcoming disaster) wrote another letter to Maria Feodorovna, especially touching and emotional, about
the feelings of our children.
The Dowager Empress, who already was an strong and bitter opponent to Napoleon, luckily had the final word in the matter: only over her dead body, one of her daughters would marry to that
Corsican general as she described the French Emperor.
Being a wise woman, Maria Feodorovna advised her son to delayed the conversations with Napoleon until he became tired of wait and searched a bride in another country. Alexander I, desperate to create a solution to avoid the marriage without compromising his alliance with the French Empire, agreed with his mother. The conversations between France and Russia continue by February 1811, when Austria, afraid of being sandwiched between two great powers allied with each other, offered to Napoleon to marry with the Archduchess Marie Louise.
Frustrated by the Russians delaying the marriage negotiations, Napoleon rescinded his proposal in late March 1811 and began negotiations to marry Archduchess Marie Louise with the Austrian ambassador, Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, who signed the marriage contract between Napoleon and the Archduchess on 7 April. The wedding by proxy took place on 11 May 1811 at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, with Napoleon being represented by Archduke Charles, the bride's uncle. Two days later (13 May), the Archduchess parted to France with a magnificent retinue, arriving to Compiègne on 27 May, where she and Napoleon meet for the first time. The civil wedding was held at the Saint Joseph's Church on 1 June. The next day (2 June), Napoleon and Marie Louise made the journey to Paris in the coronation coach. The Imperial Guard cavalry led the procession, followed by the herald-at-arms and then the carriages. The Marshals of France rode on each side, near the doors of the carriages. The procession arrived at the Tuileries Palace, and the Imperial couple made their way to the
Salon Carré chapel (in the Louvre) for the religious wedding ceremony, who was conducted by the Cardinal Joseph Fesch,
Grand Almoner of France.
Ten days after Napoleon and Marie Louise's wedding, on 12 June, was formally announced the betrothal between Louis Charles of France, Duke of Normandy and Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, with the wedding date being settled on 1 July at Gatchina Palace.
Marie Antoinette had ambiguous feelings at this time: for one side, she felt sincerely happy for
the good luck and happiness of her son (when he finally received the news of his marriage, Louis Charles was ecstatic and eager to travel to Saint Petersburg) but the other side, she felt terribly betrayed and insulted that an Habsburg Archduchess like her, agreed to marry Napoleon, and moreover Marie Louise was the granddaughter of her sister Maria Carolina, who was dismayed and horrified about this event:
I cried for days and days, dear Antonia, and tried to stopped this madness, but was for nothing...I would never forgave the Emperor for sacrifice my Louise, my favorite granddaughter, with his politics, wrote the Queen of Naples to her sister.
In Saint Petersburg, the Dowager Empress became inmensely relieved that her daughters being saved of a marriage with the
Corsican devil. When Catherine Pavlovna knew about the consent of her marriage, she
became so happy and blessed to be married with the man she loved, that jumped and run for all the palace waiting to the arrival of her groom, with such joy that only to watch her all would be sharing her happiness, wrote Maria Feodorovna to her brother, King Frederick I of Württemberg.
TO BE CONTINUED......
