WI: Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise successful?

Essentially what it says on the tin. What if Napoleon was assassinated on 24 December 1800. He's already been made First Consul, already established the Bank of France, the Battle of Marengo was a massive success, and the Battles of Hohenlinden and of Pozzolo had essentially ended the Second Coalition.

Now however Napoleon is dead - what happens next?
 
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Wolfpaw

Banned
He becomes the greatest martyr-hero of the French Revolution and a national symbol of any modern French republic.

Centuries later, a group of internet nerds endlessly speculate on what could have been had this noble hero lived longer...
 
He becomes the greatest martyr-hero of the French Revolution and a national symbol of any modern French republic.

Centuries later, a group of internet nerds endlessly speculate on what could have been had this noble hero lived longer...

Hmm, quite, but in the immediate future after Bonaparte's death... ?

:D
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
As Second Consul, Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès would likely succeed him. He seems to have been well-liked, and with him we still get the Civil Code of the French and a good deal of other reforms that Napoleon gets undue credit for. I could actually see the Republic surviving.

The main issue would likely be
de Cambacérès' open homosexuality, which may be permissible for a high-ranking civil servant, but probably not for a head of state.
 
The main issue would likely be de Cambacérès' open homosexuality, which may be permissible for a high-ranking civil servant, but probably not for a head of state.

The french republic made homosexuality legal (or to be more precise, not illegal) so *maybe* (big maybe) his sexual proclivity would not have been as big of an issue within france whose population might have regarded it as a sign of revolutionary fervour to have such a head of state.

Of course, other government would have a very different outlook in that regard and might point to it as yet another sign of "Republican Decadence".
 
Would Cambacérès become First Consul? My gut feeling was Sieyès would step forward himself to take command of his 'theoretical perfect government' (e.g. the Consulate), or perhaps be foolish enough to look for another General; perhaps Moreau, or Brune? However I'm not well versed in the period and the personalities involved.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
The french republic made homosexuality legal (or to be more precise, not illegal) so *maybe* (big maybe) his sexual proclivity would not have been as big of an issue within france whose population might have regarded it as a sign of revolutionary fervour to have such a head of state.
The decriminalization of homosexuality was, however, limited. Public displays of "moral indecency" were still punishable, for example. And again, while most people who knew him seem to have been fine with it, it's a question of France at large, and despite the Revolution France was still a Catholic country, to say nothing of the less-than-enlightened royalists who were a fairly vocal minority. And it's going to be the issue his opponents seize upon to discredit him. "Do we really want a degenerate running the country?" and other such slander.
Of course, other government would have a very different outlook in that regard and might point to it as yet another sign of "Republican Decadence".
Yup. The press (both foreign and domestic) will have a field day with it.
 
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