Empire is peace

In early 1798, Bonaparte proposed a military expedition to seize Egypt and in March 1798 Directorate agreed to the plan.

On 19 May 1798 when the French Fleet started getting out of Toulon to sail to Egypt there was an explosion on the flagship "Orient". Nobody can tell why her magazines exploded (British or royalist sabotage was suspected) but as a result commander of the expedition, general Bonaparte was killed together with Admiral Brueys, generals Berthier, Alexandre Dumas, Kléber, Desaix and Bonaparte's aides de camp Louis Bonaparte, Duroc, Eugène de Beauharnais. The rest of the fleet got back to Toulon, the troops disembarked and, upon receiving the news, Directorate decided to abandon the whole expedition.

During the spring-summer of 1799 the Austro-Russian army under command of Suvorov defeated the French troops in Italy in a series of battles. The Bourbons had been restored in Naples and Austrians got back the territories they lost as a result of Bonaparte's Italian Campaign.

However, the silver lining was that by the end of the year Emperor Paul was completely disappointed in his British (unsuccessful Russian-British expedition in the Netherlands and capture of Malta) and Austrian (after Suvorov's Swiss campaign) allies and had been ready to talk but could not bring himself up to talking to the "Republic".

While a danger of the invasion was gone, Directorate was getting increasingly unpopular and the coup became a matter of time and "right person". The most influential member of the Directorate, Sieyès, had been looking for the suitable "man of the sword" expecting to be the main beneficiary of the the coup. Finding the right candidate was not easy: Moreau and Massena were not interested in politics, Bonaparte, Hoche and Joubert had been dead.

As a result, at the top of a (very short list) was general Bernadotte. While not being one of the top generals of the Republic, he well distinguished himself in the wars of the Republic, had been Ambassador to Vienna and currently was Minister of War, showing great ability. He was popular among the Jackobins (which was not necessarily a big plus) and among the military but what's more important, by marriage he became a member of the influential (even after general's death) Bonaparte clan and also was a personal friend of general Moreau and on good terms with Barras. While being generally reluctant to stick his neck (as someone said, he would rather prevent others from doing something than act himself). On Brumaire 18 (November 9th 1799) there was a coup which left Bernadotte, Sieyès, and Ducos as the provisional consuls. Sieyès attempted to draw a constitution that would make him the most important figure while leaving Bernadotte a purely decorative role but, to his surprise, "man of the sword" proved to be too intelligent and the whole thing ended up with Constitution of the Year VIII, which left all power in the hands of the 1st Consul, Bernadotte.

This gave emperor Paul an opportunity to declare that France finally "got a king if not by the name then by substance", get out of the 2nd Coalition and agree to the peace talks.

However, the Brits and Austrians still had been active. Moreau was put in charge of the Army of the Rhine, Massena was defending Genoa against the Austrians and Bernadotte had been speedily forming Army of Reserve (out of the respect to his friend Moreau decided not to object to him taking military command even if the 1st Consul was not supposed to do such a thing). On December 3 Moreau decisively defeated Austrians at Hohenlinden and started march on Vienna. On Italian front Bernadotte opted for relief of Massena as his top priority. In mid-May his troops started arriving to the besieged city forcing Austrians under Melas to raise the siege and start a retreat. The event was commemorated in "Relief of Genoa" by David, a painting famous both for its huge size (5x3 meters) and for a complete absence of a common sense and taste (well, the same can be said about many other works of this painter but who cares). After the joined French army defeated him at Marengo Melas began evacuating Italy and by the early 1800 Austria sued for peace.

9 February 1801 the Austrians negotiated the Treaty of Lunéville, basically accepting the terms of the previous Treaty of Campo Formio. Britain continued war at sea but after Portugal had been forced to sign Treaty of Badajoz, it run out of the allies and in 1802 signed Treaty of Amiens. To commemorate this event, the grateful nation offered the 1st consul the imperial title which he accepted. The official slogan was: "Empire is peace" (unofficial was "live and let me benefit financially").

To everybody's surprise the peace proved to be a lasting one: Emperor Jean Baptist I minimized French interference into the German affairs, agreed to demilitarize Dunkirk and publicly acknowledged that, as an elector of the Holy Roman Empire King George III has a vested interest in the continental affairs. OTOH, a joined diplomatic pressure from Russia (after Paul I successfully avoided an attempted coup and excluded his 2 elder sons from the line of succession) and France forced Britain to deliver on the Malta-related item - the island was returned to the Knights Hospitaller and and declared neutral.

Until his death in 1844 Emperor Jean Baptist maintained France (and its satellite states) in peace, except for some colonial wars: France conquered Tunisia, started conquest of Algiers, made the 1st steps in conquest of Indo-China and joined Britain in the 1st Opium War. He was suceeded by his son, Oscar I.
 
Interesting concept. Bernadotte is one of the more intriguing figures of the period.

Yes. He was probably the only one of Napoleon's marshals who was not just a military figure but also a capable administrator. Probably his experience in governing the German territories was unique in at least one area: he was not considering them just as the looting area and left the "natives" reasonably happy with his rule. Marbot (IIRC) "credited" him with the invention of a method to bypass the Continental System: the captains in the German territories within his jurisdiction could purchase a license for privateering activities and then it was a matter of agreement between them and the British "suppliers" to met in the sea, load cargo and then to sell it legally as the captured goods.

Of course, a lot had been said about his Gasconian character and tendency to the exaggerations and much less about his tendency to look for his personal financial interests (or his love of the omelettes :)) but he managed to end up as a popular monarch and to make Sweden a peaceful and prosperous country.
 
Choosing Oscar as his regnal name would be interesting

His full name was Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte;

He chose Oscar for his Scandinavian regnal name because there had been a ton of them previously, but might he not choose to be Joseph Francois for France, especially if his fatther had also taken the two-name format for his regnal name?

Other than that, love it! It reminds me of my own Joubert timeline, in its general idea

Hope you go somewhere with this!
 
Choosing Oscar as his regnal name would be interesting

His full name was Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte;

He chose Oscar for his Scandinavian regnal name because there had been a ton of them previously, but might he not choose to be Joseph Francois for France, especially if his fatther had also taken the two-name format for his regnal name?

That's fine by me but would not "Oscar" be more "romantic"?


Other than that, love it! It reminds me of my own Joubert timeline, in its general idea

Hope you go somewhere with this!

Does not look like being a popular subject. :perservingface:
 
That's fine by me but would not "Oscar" be more "romantic"?

I've read why the name was inserted into his name at birth, but I'm not familiar with the legends cited, or in how familiar the general public or intelligensia at the time would have been with them?

Does not look like being a popular subject. :perservingface:

If it interests YOU keep going, then it will bring more readers in
 
I've read why the name was inserted into his name at birth, but I'm not familiar with the legends cited, or in how familiar the general public or intelligensia at the time would have been with them?

At that time everybody in Europe (including Nappy) was absolutely crazy about "The Poems of Ossian" (as I understand, it is not 100% clear if this was not a literary mystification, like Merime's "La Guzla") so the things "Scandinavian" became quite popular even if the poems were presumably based upon the Celtic and Scottish folklore (but this was a Romantic period so who cared about the geography and ethnic details?). Besides being translated to (at least) French and German, it inspired numerous paintings of the Romantic period. For example, "Ossian meets fallen republican generals in Heaven"? I don't remember an artist and not 100% about exact name of the painting (it quite well may be not a "Heaven") but how about the very idea of combining the pseudo-Scandinavian/Celtic entourage with the Republican uniforms?

Getting back to your initial post, the reason why I chose Bernadotte and not some other Republican general (like Joubert) is that he was, to the best of my knowledge, the only one of the bunch (Nappy aside) who, besides being a capable military commander, also was a political animal AND a capable administrator. His tenure as a Minister of War had been cut short but it seems to create a foundation of a system that was later expanded by Napoleon. When Nappy made him a governor of Hanover and then of the Hanseatic towns he managed to end being liked by the locals due to his "live and let live" policy. Of course, he was not neglecting his own interests but, unlike most of his colleagues, he was not down to a primitive looting (Massena was not beyond stealing the shirts and most of the others were not noticeably better).

As a crown prince he managed to accomplish a rather complicated maneuvering that not only put him on a winning side but also allowed to retain his position: Austria (IIRC) was demanding his removal but he had a firm backing by Alexander whom he supported at the most critical moment (by siding with him rather than with Napoleon in 1812).

Plus, while being prone to bragging (after all, he was from Gascony), he seemingly had a rather pleasant personality that made him quite popular in Sweden even if he never managed to get fluent in Swedish.

If it interests YOU keep going, then it will bring more readers in
 
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