Remember that King Louis XVI basically realized that Bonaparte is a genius that need something to be done, after the later managed to single-handedly kick Holy Roman Army twice as numerous with what could be said as a Corsican-Sardinian Penal Legion and a handful of Armed French Peasants. All while Previous French Governors of Corsica and Sardinia end up being either corrupt, or incompetent, or both.
That’s true. Louis XVI eventually realized this and was outraged when news of the Corsican governor’s cruelty and avarice reached his ears. Louis XVI is cited as the people’s King and even many fringe leftists who support Republicanism admire Louis XVI for his genuine concern and championing of the people. A second popular uprising emerged against the governor besieging his mansion, and when news that a French army arrived the people scattered expecting a violent crackdown. But much to everyone’s surprise the army began arresting the governor and his supporters. The King had issued a warrant of arrest citing charges of treason, corruption, and needless cruelty. He had also had a writ of Excommunication from the pope after personally writing to His Holliness about the issue. After the governor was arrested him and his followers were publicly executed via firing squad much to the joy of the jubliation population. The King had also had the governor’s wealth seized and distributed among the poor and also reduced their taxes considerably for a five year period. And thus the King had pragmatically put down and rebellious province and its place raised a loyal bastion for the French monarchy. Napoleon himself in his later memoirs and his own personal diaries expressed how this moved him into becoming a Royalist since the King was the one who genuinely cared for his subjects. Napoleon's beliefs in the monarchy was also cemented upon seeing the fractious nature of the American states. The Term Americanized refers to how the Republic of America failed and devolved into petty squabbling microstates that were dominated and later annexed by France and Spain. This discredited the idea of Republicanism in many people's minds and solidified Napoleon's later belief in the French Universalism: a universal empire or sphere dominated by France. This was also the main governing philosophy of the Bonapartist foreign policy that saw France utterly wreck the previous balance of power in Europe. Of course Napoleon wasn't alone in his thinking and he and King Louis formed an unlikely partnership in their vision of a Romanesque France dominating Europe and abroad. In recognition for his many achievents, Napoleon was made a Count and later Duke of Corsica-Sardinia with his famous son Napoleon the Younger also being granted the Duchy of Milan.
Now, we might see how King Louis XVI rewarded him to be Count of Corsica (and later Duke of Corsico-Sardinia), to be a straightforward reward for his service, but back then, it was the biggest gamble since nobody knew where Napoleon's true loyalty is at that point.
It's not like Napoleon was unchallenged in his reign. Napoleon faced lots of opposition from traditionalists and many of the older aristocracy because of his origins as part of minor Italian nobility. Also while Louis XVI wasn't some sort of tactical genius he was still the sovereign King of France who held the loyalty of the army and the state. Louis also devoted a lot of attention during his reign before Napoleon and had a pretty competent grasp on grand strategy which was why he was able to time the re-conquest of New France from the British. A coup attempt by Napoleon would have failed from the onset because of Louis's and House Borboun's popularity. But Louis XVI was convinced of his loyalty during his suppression of the Orleanist-Republican Plot that nearly saw him assassinated. Napoleon became the new favorite of the King and the two formed a very good working relationship which developed into a friendship over the years. This friendship made Napoleon and later his son ardent supporters of the Bourbon dynasty and the French monarchy (OOC: French Bismarck). But though he was his friend, Louis XVI was still a very paranoid man who took no chances unless he was certain of victory or rigged the game in his favor. His reforms of the intelligence networks throughout France allowed him to snuff out plots in their cribs. Any coup attempt by Napoleon would have been rapidly crushed by the King. Heck the King even started spying on his own family after the Orleanist Plot. This information of course came later when the King's letters where later declassified and released to the public 200 years after his death. This is a testament to Louis the second coming of the Universal Spider, for after all many nobles and even some of the clergy were kept in line out of fear of the King.
Of course, the Napoleon family still serve as hereditary Duke of Corsico-Sardinia, who practically controls the flow of trades in Mediterranean. They did have several moments of thinking about declaring Independence in 19th century, but then they didn't want to stain the Loyal Service of Napoleon Bonaparte.
You're thinking of the plot by Lucien Bonaparte who became an ardent Revolutionary bent on having a Republic. He had a huge falling out with his brother Napoleon who later went on to disown him from the House of Bonaparte. Lucien and his later sons would later try to incite radical fervor in French held Italy, but it failed miserably. Many in Italy were in fact loyal to the King. In fact in Corsica which was once home to radicals and separatist activity, an angry mob basically ran him out of town. Plus "scholarship" regarding Bonapartes heading separatist movements was mostly written or funded by disgruntled French Aristocrats who hated the idea of an upstart Corsican gaining favor in the eyes of the King and praise all throughout France. Republican and academicians like Francois Bernard have been widely discredited by modern scholarship and actual evidence that we have. Napoleon the Younger who was also a great general in his own right was very close friends with King Louis XVIII. The two were childhood friends and their partnership in government mirrored the partnership between Louis XVI and Napoleon. The Bonapartes only gained their immense social status in France as a result of their merit and hard work. While the wealth of Bonaparte Industries was very large, the enormous wealth and resources of House Bourbon was larger many times over. The Bourbons are the richest men in continental Europe and France as well. The Bourbons are France's largest landowners and their collection of artwork is a sight to behold in the French Royal museum. Many of its works were also gained after France conquered Venice and took Vienna.
Had the Bonapartes realistically pursued secession from France it would have been the end of their House. Italy is well integrated into the Empire and many of its citizens have a very favorable view towards the monarchy. When France industrialized Italy grew very wealthy and experienced a massive population boom thanks to the French Kings looking for the well being of subjects French or otherwise. Napoleon's and Louis XVII's plan for universal citizenship also earned many supporters in France's newly acquired lands as well.
There are the Orléans side of the Bourbon royal family. Philippe the duke of Orléans is proper rank and avoid foreign entanglement, he is young well liked by the peoples.
Well he was popular and well liked until the Orleans-Republican Plot. What basically happened was that Phillippe hung around Republican circles and was taken by the radicals clamoring for a republic. This was tolerated by Louis and the other members of House Bourbon as long as Phillippe kept his feelings to himself when in public. Of course the attempted assassination of the King changed everything. The King liked to take public walks visiting orphanages, hospitals, and poorhouses talking with the poor of Paris. And apparently some radicals disguised as the King's personal guards tried to place a bomb under the King's Carriage while enroute back to the Royal Palace. This was detected by the King's spies and Napoleon who was the only high ranking military official in charge at the time marshaled a rag tag group of soldiers, peasants, and recruits in defense of the King. Luckily the bomb was found and the members of the plot and their accomplices were arrested. Of course the duc d'Orleans was implicated in the plot and was forced to flee Paris. His descendants maintain a claim to the throne of France but they were disinherited by Louis XVI.
Some anti-Bonapartists however speculate that the Duke of Orleans was innocent of the plot and that he was framed by Napoleon to get rid of his political rival. The two were of course pretty hostile to each other with Bonaparte's liberal autocratic view clashing with the ideas of Philippe Egalite. Though the validity of this cannot be verified as many of the documents related to this are classified by the French monarchy. Similarly the private correspondences by Napoleon relating to this event have also been omitted from the records by the current head of House Bonaparte.
I mean after the current succession crisis what's stopping the Bonapartes from seceding from France. They've already been printing their own money and have their own policy. Their vassalage is one of the last vestiges of the feudal age. Napoleon VII is one of the wealthiest men on the planet. He no longer has to pay tribute to the Bourbons. He might agree with the Spanish Compromise and put a Spanish puppet on the throne.
OOC: Something like this would be very unlikely to occur as Louis XIV and and Cardinal Richelieu worked to systematically strip the nobles of their taxation power. And under a successful Louis XVI friend or not there would no way that someone would be allowed to have such power over the King.
The Spanish Comprise is widely rejected in France after Spain's economic collapse in the 18th century with France basically propping it up under the guise of Louis XVII and Louis XVIII. If anything Spain is more of a puppet to France since France has a larger population and a booming economy. Plus there are closer relatives to Charles XIII than the Spanish Bourbons. The main controversy stems from Charles trying to make succession agnatic-cognatic to favor his daughters. But the traditional form of succession had been in place for many centuries and is still supported by many traditionalist and conservatives. If Charles somehow managed to issue a Pragmatic sanction it likely would cause a civil war or a very disputed succession for his daughter Charlotte. The other precedent for female inheritance in France goes back to Eleanor of Aquitaine whose inheritance saw more than 2/3 of France's lands go to the English. This led to centuries of warfare between the French and English over these lands.
Someone wrote a ridiculous ASB timeline that Napoleon Bonaparte becomes "Emperor of The French Empire". It's well written in terms of style, prose, and theme, but just too unbelievable. Napoleon looks like the second coming of Alexander the Great for heaven's sake. Unplausible, but nice fiction reading.
Oh yes its quite a popular alternate history book where the monarchy is overthrown in a revolution, and Napoleon is forced to become a monarch to restore order to France. Napoleon was very ambitious, and if he had been half as ambitious as he was presented to be in the book, its likely that he would have caused a giant coalition to form around overthrowing him. By sheer logistics this would have doomed him. But the comparison of Napoleon to famous military commanders like Scipion and Alexander is to be somewhat expected. Napoleon was probably the greatest military commander of his era and his many military reforms saw France ascend to its current status as a world power. His armies utterly smashed that of the other European powers bringing great wealth and glory to France. But while Napoleon was the great General Louis was often the master strategist balancing Napoleons tactical brilliance with his geopolitical aims and logistics systems. If anything Napoleon should be called the Belisarius of France. His stunning military achievements with little resources saved France many times and his method of making war saw many grow to both fear and admire him. Napoleon after all beat back a huge British and Austrian army with little more than a rag tag army of peasants and some conscripted convicts. This stunned the Austrians as the defeat was so humiliating that it gave France time to muster a proper army forcing the Austrians to a peace. Napoleon's later conquest of Egypt was also a masterful campaign as the King fully expected Napoleon to fail when he in fact ended up bringing France Great wealth and started a rebirth in Ancient Egyptian scholarship with the discovery of the Rosetta stone.
Now, if this were to actually happen. I think the Holy Roman Empire might actually collapse prematurely... Is that too implausible even for a fiction story?
Its actually amazing how that moribund institution stayed in effect for so long. Though its formal collapse was after Charles X or Charlemagne II was the one who destroyed the Holy Roman Empire with his massive invasion of Germany that saw France puppet Bavaria and other German states. The pope who was firmly under the Bourbon's thumb even gave Charles X the Imperial title. He even called him the true heir to Charlemagne and Rome. This of course was contested by the Habsburgs who were the Holy Roman Emperors for centuries. Based on Charles X's personality, had he not received the Imperial title he likely would have proclaimed himself as French Emperor of Gallic Emperor. He certainly saw himself as a Roman Emperor with his liberation of Greece and the Balkans from the Ottoman yoke. His lightning campaigns saw a puppet Tsardom of Bulgaria and Kingdom of Serbia emerge while he created the revived Basilea ton Rhomaion (Empire of the Romans) for the Greeks who held the Eastern Roman titles till Constantinople fell in 1453. He gave the Rhomaoi basically the pre 1204 borders with much of the Anatolian coast being made part of the state. He of course crowned his cousin who took the name Konstantinos XII (Constantine) in honor of Constantine XI.
Of course Charles XI's reign nearly saw the end of all the great gains made by his illustrious predecessor. Charles XI refused to take action while a strong and centralized Germany formed aimed as a dagger towards the heart of the Empire. Thankfully the fool died when he did allowing for the more capable Charles XII to maintain the dominance of the Empire.
Hell, Corsico-Sardinia only have Gendarmes, who are basically glorified Police Force nowadays, compare that to heavily militarized Swiss, or even Egypt, and you'll realize that the Napoleons powers are mostly financial ones nowadays.
Even at the height of the Bonaparte's political power they never had a chance to act against the Bourbons. The Bourbons were far wealthier with their large land estates and many stakes in large French companies that quadrupled their wealth. The army stationed in the provinces were also loyal to the King first and foremost. Also with the populations of the added French domains with the Universal Citizenship Decree, many were assimilated into France which presents itself as a universal Empire along the mantles of the Roman Empire of Antiquity.