Napoleon Deceased Late 1811

So, exactly what was the probable sucession, what might the policies of the the likely sucessors have been, any chance of M Bonapartes new French empire holding together for more than half decade, or even evolving into the dominant European state for the 19th Century?

My own take is his heirs were not all that capable & the whole thing would have fallen apart. but, I am not a expert and am ready for contrary information.
 
1811 is an interesting choice, as Nap II is born in march, and that means that someone becomes reagent. Joseph is the heir after Nap II, but he is King of Spain in 1811 (even if a pull out is on the cards if their is to be peace). Joseph never had any sons in otl, but did live until 1844, so if Nap II dies, that leaves Louis (until 1846 if he lives as long as in otl). I doe not think a French holland is going to be accepted by the English.

Joseph would be official reagent, but we are probably going to see a first minister or ministry actually pulling the strings. France with "natural" border is possible.
 
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1811 is an interesting choice, as Nap II is born in march, and that means that someone becomes reagent.
Officially that's true however I'm rather sceptical about if people are going to follow the 'correct' procedure. Just looked at what happened during the attempted Malet coup in 1812, just about everyone seems to have ignored the imperial succession and the Bonaparte family. Personally I think you're much more likely to see one of the generals take over, either officially or as pretend regent for a bit before taking over themselves, or some sort of a return to a republic.
 
I'm getting the impression the lack of a stable internal structure, particularly government, would lead to a collapse of the imperial aspects of Napoleons France. Frances enemies would be alert to any weakness & it might require someone of Napoleons leadership caliber to preserve any of that, or a the larger France.
 
Napoleon/France have reached their zenith at this POD. Without Nap, France and the whole setup installed might crumble terribly, but is there really any reason for it to be catastrophically sudden?

On the other hand, without Nap, is it likely that France does not get sucked into the disasterous Russia campaign, which did cause France to crumble suddenly and catastrophically?

Still have the peninsular war going on, but without Russia debacle, it's not enough to topple France.

There's still going to be coalitions fighting for a Bourbon restoration, because the rest of Europe was still delusional that they could put the French Revolution Genie back in the bottle, but it really has a long was to go if France doesn't self implode. that grand army isn't going anywhere by itself, so IF you take the Russian Campaign out the equation, and set up any sort of stable (or slow crumbling) French Government/ruling class, the coalitions are going to be left wishing OTL had kept it's course (even though they wouldn't know it)
 
Do not underestimate that one important coalition member now might have an agenda of its' own, Austria. Since Napoleon II is the grandson of Austrian Emperor Francis I (II HRR) the desire to see the King of Rome on the french imperial throne might easily take precedence over the coalition's resolve to restaure the Count of Provence as King Louis XVIII.
 
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