Massacre at Wagram- Napoleon destroys Habsburg Empire

Coronation

10.XI.1809- Buda

-Do you- Esterházy Pál Antal swear to rule kingdom of Hungary and your subjects as best as you can?

Flashing memories filled mind of king-to-be: emperor and his wealthy retinue approaching his fathers estates... No, no more his fathers estates- his estates.

-I do.
-Do you swear to be loyal to Emperor of the French and friend to Hungary- Napoleon?

Francis II requesting his father- and him- to command Austrian left flank at Wagram. "It'd be an honor my lord"- his father responded. His father- as well as emperor- were together leading left flank- which proved to be their doom.

-I do.

It would be unthinkable yet few months ago- Estarhazy family was loyal to the crown. But now there was no crown left... No other than French one. Wagram was a disaster- everyone had to admit it, even British. Archduke Charles died trying to do impossible- stop retreat of imperial forces. But all was lost by then. All was lost the very moment Davout started his vicious attack. Emperor died in same manner as his brother- trying to stop human tide. On the other hand- he attempted to counterattack at least. And his father followed him. To the very end...

-Do you swear to fight enemies of Hungary with unvawering conviction, with all your strength?

Did he really wanted to do it? He was basically annihilating the empire. He almost laughed at this thought. What empire? There was no empire now- no other than French.

-I do.

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In following months what's been left of Austrian Empire, is effectively dismantled. Austria itself was left with its core territories (with Tirol annexed by Bavaria), Croatia has been divided between Hungary and France (Illyrian province), with bigger part of it going to the empire. Bohemia has become independent (or rather "independent") realm. Duchy of Warsaw gained whole Galicia, as opposed to otl, where Russian intervention stopped Poles from taking all of it. This time though, dismantling of Austria gives Poles incentive to clash with Russian forces. Supported by Saxony, Duchy manages to defeat Russians in battle of Lviv. Russians attribute their defeat mostly to sheer surprise, but being defeated by such small state (claimed to be theirs) is big hit for Tsar. Battle has two effects: Poland not only doubles its territory, but also angers Russia (with quiet consent of Napoleon). Nonetheless, Russia doesn't declare war immediately, mostly due to shock from annihilation of Austria. But Duchy stands directly on Russia's way to the west, so peace won't last long...

EDIT: My first timeline. I had this idea for quite some time now, but hadn't had to time to write it. I hope it's good ;)

EDIT 2: If I make some grammar mistakes, please feel free to correct me. English isn't my native language, so any comments are welcome.
 
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So what you wanna to say this both the emperor and his heir went to battle and command the same flank... and.. that flank got smashed and both died...

Do people at that time have such poor risk management?:confused:
 
So what you wanna to say this both the emperor and his heir went to battle and command the same flank... and.. that flank got smashed and both died...

Do people at that time have such poor risk management?:confused:

No, of course not- Francis II was emperor, while Archduke Charles his brother. His her at 1809 was Ferdinand born in 1793 (16 year old). Nonetheless- PoD is emperor asking Esterhazy (who otl refused crown of Hungary) to lead his left flank. On its own, it doesn't change very much, but emperor leading attack and dying in the process results in panic. Effectively Austrian army flees the field and is wiped... Nothing stops Napoleon from dismantling empire and Esterhazy Pal Antal decides it's better to take action...
 
Why the hell would Francis even be there, though? He never commanded the army IOTL and Charles was too popular to just dismiss, especially after his victory at Aspern-Essling.
 
Why the hell would Francis even be there, though? He never commanded the army IOTL and Charles was too popular to just dismiss, especially after his victory at Aspern-Essling.

He's not dismissed- although I should have addressed it. Idea is that emperor wants to be present at battlefield (as Napoleon is), so he takes command. He isn't stupid though, so he asks Esterhazy to actually command it (he's both loyal and military trained). It ends with disaster much worse than otl...
 
Cool timeline idea. A little wonky but cool.

So is this a Hungary wank? If so the title's deceiving...
 
No, it's not Hungary wank. But destroyed Austrian empire will never come back together... That's all I can say ;)
 
No, it's not Hungary wank. But destroyed Austrian empire will never come back together... That's all I can say ;)

Awesome. Interested to see how the Long Nineteenth Century will be affected by the emergence of [some of] the 'Revisionist' countries a century early.
 
An empire that has not shown signs of disintegration/ decay got dismantled after a battle.. do we have historical precedent? (Not meaning to dismiss your idea, pure question)
 
An empire that has not shown signs of disintegration/ decay got dismantled after a battle.. do we have historical precedent? (Not meaning to dismiss your idea, pure question)

Well- imperial army gets wiped out. Emperor and his brother are dead, while strongest man in Hungary (after his father's death) takes crown for himself. Hungary at this point was very much like Poland before partitions- ruled mostly by magnates, with much smaller king's influence than in other parts. Hungarian revolution of 1848 very quickly established independent (but short-lived) state of Hungary on most of territory of Hungary. This leaves Austria without 2/3 of territory. Otl Napoleon took Tirol as well (and gave it to Bavaria), so nothing new here. Actually- only things that are significantly different from otl are Esterhazy taking crown and Bohemia becoming independent. It's not very strange, as Austria reduced to its core territories hardly can keep Bohemia in its borders (Czech nationalism slowly started to kick- in at this point, and while otl it's been more like: "let's work with Austria, they'll protect us", in this case Austria can't provide any significant protection):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Austria-Hungary_map_new.svg

On this map Austria would comprise only from 8,14, 12 and 3 (half of it). While I admit- it's huge loss for Austria, it doesn't look that implausible- otl Napoleon took 1/5th of Austria's territories. Would he be able to convince Esterhazy to take crown, Hungary would be independent as well. Galicia goes to Poland (can't see a problem here, these territories were never fully integrated into empire), which leaves Vienna and Bohemia...
 
Polish question

Destruction of Austrian state left Europe in state of shock. While previous Napoleon's achievements were surely considerable, he never managed to completely destroy whole realm- especially one as strong as Habsburg Empire. Destruction of Austria makes Great Britain pushing for next coalition and fast- French hegemony might soon be impossible to contain- some even believe, that's last chance to stop "Corsican tyrant". Tyrant himself, on the other hand, has his own problems...

**********************************************

Paris, 24.XII.1809

Napoleon was pacing nervously from one end of the room to the other. He was supposed to meet his future wife for the first time and for some reason it gave him shivers. Maybe it was caused by the fact that he was a man responsible for death of her father and uncle, as well as destruction of her country, or maybe he just felt uneasy due to fact that's been woman who he was supposed to spend rest of life with. Althoughly technically- emperor chuckled involuntarily- he was supposed to spend rest of his life with Josephine. Emperor had to had heir though, so he simply couldn't keep her around...

-My lord! I have urgent news for you!
-Is this about my future wife?- Napoleon tried to sound casually, but he felt it didn't work well.
-No, it's more... pressing matter- messenger supposedly felt that “important” wouldn't be a fitting word”- Russian and Prussian ambassadors demand audience.
-Well- it's Christmas Eve. We shouldn't let them waiting.- said emperor, content with having some more time before meeting his new wife.

*********************************************************

Details of Napoleon meeting with ambassadors are mostly unknown to history. Only documents are mentioning them is Napoleon's personal diaries, written during emperor's stay on Elba, four years later. Most significant is fact that meeting with ambassadors deserved only a footnote, while much more place is devoted to Napoleon's feelings about his meeting with new wife. She made bad impression on Napoleon initially: “I've expected strong and independent woman. One who came to visit me that day was “calm and collected” as Talleyrand stated. For me, though she's been shy and closed”. This statement contradicts everything else we know about Marie Louise though. After all, Napoleon spent rest of his life with her and she herself accompanied him wherever he went and has been faithful servant to French empire and her husband. If Napoleon diaries are correct, she must have quickly regained her self confidence. There's no doubt though- death of her father and subsequent destruction of the empire changed her. We will never know how much though...

Even though we can't say for sure what has been discussed during meeting with Napoleon, letter recently discovered in French National Library sheds some light on this matter. It's been addressed directly to Prussian ambassador in Paris and it's unknown how it survived, not mentioning ending in such place. What's important though, are contents of the letter- written by Prussian king it contains orders for ambassador. Recent destruction of Austria (dated on coronation of Stephen II [1]) caused quite an uproar, but what made matters worse, was Duchy of Warsaw subsequent expansion combined with clash with Russian forces was what made Tsar calling for Poles heads. Napoleon was to be threatened with another coalition, created specifically to destroy Duchy. As we know from the contents of letter, this threat was a bluff- if Napoleon wouldn't back off, Prussian ambassador was supposed to. Poland very existence hanged by a thread again. It's been left to the emperor to decide its fate...

At the same time, oblivious to (yet another) threat to a newly reborn Poland, Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski was facing another, internal one. Although technically he wasn't ruler of a Duchy, only its Prime Minister, it was up to him to deal with newly conquered- or rather regained- territories of Galicia. Although annexing Galicia added to Duchy much needed manpower and territory, these lands were very poor and ruled by old law. Thus, serfdom abolished in Duchy altogether with its creation, was still present on newly annexed lands, effectively stopping any development there. Any attempts of abolishing it was met with fierce resistance from nobles and threats of "confederation". Civil war could be disastrous for young country, so different approach has been decided on.

Year 1810 in Galicia has seen violence on scale unprecedented earlier. Peasants incited by central government rose against ruling nobles, killing hundreds in the process, looting their manors, and driving them out. This violent process has been finally stopped by Polish army, which- peacefully- managed to stop slaughter. Decimated nobles, happy to keep their lives, agreed to abolish serfdom, in many cases being left with nothing- after their possessions have been plundered. Most known leader of the peasants was Jakub Szela [2]. Central government was bent on trying him for massacres he had caused (in some cases going way to far even for initiators). His popularity though stood in way, so it's been decided to let the matter slide. It'd lead to interesting developments in the future...

[1]Numeration is correct- Even though there were few Stephens in Hungarian history, he's called second, after Stephen the First, semi- legendary first king of Hungary.

[2]This is basically same person as otl:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakub_Szela
While events are more or less earlier version of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_slaughter
Only real difference is that it's earlier and incited by Poles rather than Austrians.
 
So let's get this straight. Napoleon wins a crushing victory over the Archduke Charles at Wagram nstead of the very narrow victory IOTL.

Presumeably

1 Bernadotte's Saxon Corps did not rout during its' assault on Aderklaa
2 The Austrian assault on the French left Wing is crushed
3 Davout storms the Russbach Heights more easily than he di.
4 The Austrian centre is smashed by MacDonald's Corps assisted by the Saxons and Bavarians. These swing to the left and encircles th Austrian Right Wing forcing them to lay down their arms on the field.

The Archduke Charles dies as he tries to rally an Austrian infantry regiment to cover the withdrawl of what remains of his centre and left flank. He seizes their flag and attempts to lead them forward at which point he is shot through the heart by a French musketeer.

Napoleon having crushed the Austrians in 1805 and again in 1809 does not wan to fight a future war with the Austria Empire who have been France's toughes continetal opponent thhroughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Yes, I can accept the plausibility of this POD even if it is a little unclear as to what exactly has happened.
 
So let's get this straight. Napoleon wins a crushing victory over the Archduke Charles at Wagram nstead of the very narrow victory IOTL.

Presumeably

1 Bernadotte's Saxon Corps did not rout during its' assault on Aderklaa
2 The Austrian assault on the French left Wing is crushed
3 Davout storms the Russbach Heights more easily than he di.
4 The Austrian centre is smashed by MacDonald's Corps assisted by the Saxons and Bavarians. These swing to the left and encircles th Austrian Right Wing forcing them to lay down their arms on the field.

The Archduke Charles dies as he tries to rally an Austrian infantry regiment to cover the withdrawl of what remains of his centre and left flank. He seizes their flag and attempts to lead them forward at which point he is shot through the heart by a French musketeer.


Yes, I can accept the plausibility of this POD even if it is a little unclear as to what exactly has happened.

Well- I wanted to clear out what have actually happened in some of the future update, but I guess its better to do it now ;)

Idea is that Francis decides to be present on the battlefield. While he understands he's not fitting to command, he wishes to have someone trusted with him, so he takes Esterhazy (killing two birds with one stone- literally). Battle goes as otl, Davout attacks and left flank starts to break- that's where emperor steps in- he tries to rally man and lead counter charge. It works for a while, but stroke of bad luck kills him, causing counter attack to break and what otl has been withdraw called by Charles, becomes a disaster (emperor's death causing soldiers to lose heart)- left flank wraps and Esterhazy dies, while trying to save left flank he's been commanding. Archduke's death is presumed only, he's missing actually and only thing that's known is that he fell from the horse. Whether he's actually dead and impossible to identify (lying in the pile of bodies) or somehow saved himself is yet unknown... What's sure is that he hadn't tried to gather his scattered forces after battle, leaving Austria on Napoleon's mercy.

BTW- I know that's pretty much gathering everyone in one place and killing them off, but I can't see another way of destroying Austria, then after Wagram. And while making (young) Esterhazy accept crown is surely a good shove, it's death of the emperor that makes empire crumble completely.

And about this:
Napoleon having crushed the Austrians in 1805 and again in 1809 does not wan to fight a future war with the Austria Empire who have been France's toughes continetal opponent thhroughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

As far as I know, Napoleon tried to dismantle Austria IOTL (or at least significantly weaken it). Hungary was offered independence and would Esterhazy agree to it, there most likely wouldn't be too much trouble to split off. Which (after otl concessions) would leave Austria with mentioned territories plus Bohemia. And because there's virtually no army or person to rally around, Bohemia splits off just like that.
 
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