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For a love of a father, a nation will rise

AKA "What if Napoleon from Elba will turns towards Italy"

Portoferraio, Island of Elba, May 1814


Napoleon Bonaparte, Former Emperor of the French and King of Italy, established few days ago its quarters in Villa dei Mulini, a Medician mansion towering the town of Portoferraio, his new "capital".

Napoleon, despite the bad turn of the events of the last months (the failure of the campaign of Russia, the defeat of Leipzig, the abdication, the exile, and lastly his separation from his wife Marie Louise and his son Napoleon Francois brought to Wien), decided to not succumb into a state of inertia and decided with energy to reorganize the entire island. Elba was a little island, but was a sort of conforting place for Napoleon, because from there could saw his Corsican homeland and the Italian coast which was theatre of his first successes. And also, despite the vigilance of the English stationed between the island and Livorno, Elba was enough near to the European continent and allow him to keep contact with people still loyal to him and distasteful of the process of restructuration of Europe the anti-French coalized powers were going to build in Wien.

In fact, just few days since his arrival on Elba, Napoleon received a group of Italian patriots asking him to return in the peninsula and attempt to incite a revolt, as the Austrian return in North Italy was far from being consolidated to the point the occupants were attempting to concede some form of lenience to the adminstrators of the dismantled Kingdom of Italy.

Among this group was present Ugo Foscolo, Venetian patriot and poet, who failed to build a resistance around the Viceroy Eugene Behaurnais in Milan before the Austrian arrival. Despite his failure, the Austrians were willing to ask his services in their attempt to restore their control over Lombardy; but Foscolo hesitated and decided to roam across Italy, deciding to point towards Elba when the news of the arrival of Napoleon came to him.

Napoleon hesitated. He was sure, or believed, that at the opportune moment wherever he returns in Italy or in France, the populace will rise and rally among him against the reactionary forces just returned, being the Bourbons or the Hapsburg; but he believed also to have more chances of success in France, whereas Italy was too fragmented and the patriot movement too weak to have a chance against the Austrians.

But the Corse was taunted by another fear... what if he failed. It's not that the definitive loss of any form of power anguished him much, but more the fact he could risks to not see anymore his wife, and above all, his son.

His son...

Napoleon feared that his son in hand of his enemies would be a powerful asset against him. He believed that Francois's life would be enough secure, being the nephew of the Austrian Emperor, but even if Napoleon will triumph, his son wouldn't be keep reclused in Wien and ostracized for being the son of the "Corsian Ogre?".

No, he needed to adopt another strategy. He needed to retrieve his son back, at any cost. Truth to be told, he hoped initially to convince his wife to return or to be returned as well, but after a deep thought, he doubted that Marie Louise, even in the case her father would allow here to rejoin her husband, would accept to live in Elba. Even if their relation was cordial and both arrived to respect each other, Napoleon knew that Marie Louise grew with a distorted idea of him and was still an Hapsburg in the end, so she would never lower herself now that he was in his lowest point. He doubted even if she really loved motherly Francois, having more the impression she gave birth to him more to comply her marriage duties than other else; the fact she tried to save the Imperial throne for Francois didn't reassured much Napoleon, as he suspected she only did it to become regent and rule alone over France.

So in the end Napoleon matured the convinction Marie Louise didn't want to return with him, even if she does have the chance, so that's it. But he wasn't intentioned to give up over Francois.

Napoleon stalled for the moment any project with the Italian patriots, as a more slow reconstruction of their network would be more proficient than an immediate attempt to return into Italy. Still, the meeting with them wasn't a complete waste: the Emperor had the occasion to talk various times with Foscolo and, in the end, a sort of friendship and cooperation was reached between the two men, as Foscolo managed to came over the only lingering reason of tension with the Corse - the (even if temporary) cession of Venice to the Austrians as the treaty of Campoformido recognized.

It was during those meetings with Foscolo that Napoleon started to develop a certain plan - he needed to negotiate with his father-in-law Francis II, in some way. But he realized also giving his current conditions to achieve his objective he needed to negotiate with all his enemies, from the restored Louis XVIII to Alexander I, because he realized to win their trust at the moment.

Even at cost to repeal back his father.

So, towards the end of May, Napoleon called Foscolo to ask him to become the ambassador of the Principate of Elba, with the duty to move towards Wien and negotiate with the various delegations which were gathering for the start of October. The Corse decided to appoint Foscolo to that position because aside from the recent gained trust, he had still connections with the Austrian which would allow him to move with a certain freedom across North Italy and Austria. Plus his being a rather used man of culture, would be useful to negotiate with the various diplomats.

Napoleon believed to be in his own right to send an embassy as Elba was de facto a sovereign country due by his same forced and yet recognized settlement.

Foscolo, as he wrote later in his memories, was initially left struck by the intentions of Napoleon after hearing them, but them, he affirmed, "I saw from the first time the man behind the emperor; I was moved and I accepted to serve him". Besides the mission received gave an unexpected sparkle to a man renown for his cyclical bouts of depression. Foscolo was deterred to not fail.

And so, after some last days of work, at the start of July Ugo Foscolo, ambassador of "Napoleone I Bonaparte, prince of Elba", left Portoferraio in direction of Wien...

((Hi to everyone. This is my new attempt of a timeline and, whoever knows me, knows this would be an Italiancentric TL. It's a way for me to came out my long hiatus and, despite this prologue, I am intentioned to write short updates a la Blunted Sickle format, also to allow me to write something whenever and whatever I want and can. Albeit I have a first horizon to reach here in this story, I am still vague over certain directions the TL will take in the middle term and outside the Italian scenery, so not only comments, but also suggestions would be largely appreciated!))
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