THE NAPOLEONIC WARS

The Napoleonic Wars were fought between France and other European nations and were the result of the French Revolution. The dynastic rulers of Europe combined their efforts to try to overthrow the revolutionary government of France, which had been established after the revolution, and restore the French monarchy.
The First Coalition. France fought against an alliance of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Spain and the Netherlands in the War of the First Coalition. Less than a year after Napoleon had been placed in charge of an offensive in Northern Italy, he led his troops to victory over the larger Austrian army. In 1798, Napoleon was made leader of an Egyptian campaign, to secure a French colony in the Middle East and to threaten British possessions further East. However this campaign was a failure as neither of its goals was achieved. Both of these battles took place before Napoleon established his own government, the Consulate, but they were regarded as the opening stages of the Napoleonic Wars. These conflicts, as well as some of the earlier battles of the Second Coalition were among the first in which Napoleon's genius as a commander was displayed.

The Second Coalition. The First Coalition was put to an end when Napoleon defeated the Austrian army, but in his absence in Egypt, a new alliance was formed. The alliance was made up of Great Britain, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Austria and the kingdom of Naples. Collectively, they were known as the Second Coalition. The War of the Second Coalition broke out in Italy and Switzerland at the end of 1798. The Austrians and the Russians unified, and were under the leadership of Count Aleksandr. They defeated the French in northern Italy in the battles of Magnano (April 5th 1799), Cassano (April 27th), the Trebbia (June 17 - 19) and Novi (August 15). Milan was captured, Turin was occupied and the Cisalpine Republic, formed under French auspices in 1719, was put to an end by the Second Coalition. On the whole, France was deprived of its previous gains and victories in Italy. In Switzerland, however, the French dominated the battles. French general, Andre Massena defeated General Alexander Korsakov's Russian forces on September 26th, after a defeat by an Austrian army under Charles Louis John at Zurich, June 4th to 7th. The victorious Suvorov joined Korsakov from Italy, only to find Korsakov's army defeated and dispersed. Suvorov was driven into the mountains of the canton of Grisons, where his army was nearly wiped out by starvation and cold. The Russians drew out of the Second Coalition claiming to have hardly any cooperation by the Austrians. Napoleon became the leader of the Consulate after his return from Egypt and offered to make peace with the Second Coalition.

Napoleon

They refused and Napoleon planned a series of attacks on Austria and its German allies for the spring of 1800. Napoleon raised an army of 40,000 men, then crossed the Alps into northern Italy to defeat the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo. Under General Jean Victor Moreau, French forces crossed the Rhine river into southern Germany and took over Munich.

With Moreau's leadership, the French army defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Hohenliden in Bavaria on December 3rd and advanced to Linz, Austria. Together with other French victories, these successes caused Austria to retreat. In the Treaty of Luneville, Austria and its German allies ceded the left bank of the Rhine to France and made other concessions. The treaty also marked the break-up of the Second Coalition. Great Britain was the only country from the Second Coalition that continued fighting. They fought the French in Holland but lost, although they gained territories at the expense of France in Asia. Peace was made between Great Britain and France through the Treaty of Amiens. In 1803, another dispute arose between the two countries, concerning the treaty of provision that the island of Malta was to be returned by Great Britain to its original possessors, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Great Britain did not surrender the island as the people of Malta preferred the British crown, and thus war broke out. Consequently, Napoleon abandoned his army in the war, as he needed to focus his resources in his plan to establish a large French colonial empire in Louisiana, North America. However, he ended up selling Louisiana to the United States. In 1805, Great Britain rejoined by Austria, Russia and Sweden, while France was allied by Spain creating the Third Coalition.

Napoleon invades Egypt

The Third Coalition. During dissentions leading to the outbreak of war in 1803, Napoleon had greatly increased the French troops at Boulogne on the English Channel, to exert an even greater pressure on England. When the Third Coalition against France was formed, Napoleon moved those troops to meet the Austrians who had invaded Bavaria. Several German states made themselves allies of France. Napoleon defeated the Austrian army at Ulm, marched along the Danube River to capture Vienna and crushed the Russian reinforced by Austrians once again in the Battle of Austerlitz. Austria capitulated and signed the Treaty of Pressburg on December 26th 1805. Austria had to concede France her territory of northern Italy and Bavaria, as well as recognize the duchies of Württemberg and Baden as kingdoms.
The Confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon made his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, the king of Naples in 1806, after French forces defeated the Austrians under Charles Louis John. He also made his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, the king of Holland and established the Confederation of the Rhine on July 12th. The Confederation consisted of all the German states except Prussia, Austria, Brunswik and Hesse. It put an end to the Holy Roman Empire and brought most of Germany under Napoleon's power. Napoleon's success was offset when the French army was defeated by the British, led by the British Admiral Horatio Nelson, off Cape Trafalgar on October 21st 1805. Thus the British gained control of the seas throughout the era of the Napoleonic wars. Economic warfare began between France and Great Britain in 1806 where Napoleon established the Continental System, forbidding British trade with all other European countries. With the Orders of Council, Great Britain retaliated. The Orders in fact, did not allow neutrals to trade between ports of any nation obeying Napoleon's decrees. Eventually, the British control of the sea made it difficult for Napoleon to enforce his Continental System and thus it resulted in failure.

The Fourth Coalition. Napoleon increased his power over Europe before the effect of British sea power could be felt. Prussia joined the Fourth Coalition in 1806, after noticing Napoleon's growing strength in Germany. Besides Prussia, Great Britain and Sweden also joined the Fourth Coalition. Napoleon led his troops to victory over the Prussians and Russians in the Battle of Jena on October 14th 1806 and the Battle of Friedland, respectively. Berlin was captured and Russia and Prussia were made to agree to terms of the Treaty of Tilsit. All Polish possessions of Russia had to be given up and Russia was made to become an ally of France while Prussia was reduced to a third-rate power, deprived of about half of its territories and restricted by heavy indemnity payments and limitations on the size of its army. Gustav IV Adolph of Sweden was forced to abdicate in favour of his uncle, Charles XIII, through military actions by Russia and Denmark. Charles XIII was forced to name his heir General Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, after one of Napoleon's marshals. Bernadotte became king as Charles XVI John, in 1818, founding the present royal line. The effects. The Napoleonic Wars, as with other wars of great internal strife, left a large legacy of conflict. The Allied victors continued to portray Napoleon as “the monster” even though wars had already been in full swing when he arrived on the scene. Napoleon's enormous ego definitely lengthened the wars and like other great leaders of his era, caused the unnecessary death of thousands. However, all the people, both from the French side and the Allied coalitions share the guilt for almost 2 decades of war, which began in 1799, because of the overthrow of a French Monarch. Anti-Napoleonic nationalism. Napoleon was the ruler of all Europe except for Great Britain and Russia by 1808. However, his power began to decline soon after this mainly because of the nationalistic spirit in the defeated nations of Europe and the persistence of Great Britain.

Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson (1758 - 1805)

Great Britain was never defeated and thus never stopped organizing new coalitions against France. When Napoleon dethroned King Charles IV of Spain in 1808, and made his brother Joseph Bonaparte king, the Spanish people retaliated and revolted to drive Joseph out of Madrid. This was the first nationalistic spirit felt by Napoleon that led to his downfall. A violent struggle, the Peninsular War, broke out from 1808-1814, between the French, who were keen on restoring Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish who were helped by the British, under the first duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley. The French were defeated and suffered enormous losses in manpower that severely crippled Napoleon's strategies when he was forced to meet enemy forces east and north of Europe. The French army met the Austrian army at Wagram on July 1809, and emerged victorious, inflicting on the Austrians the Treaty of Vienna, forcing Austria to give up Salzburg, part of Galica and a large slice of its southern European lands. Napoleon also divorced his first wife and married the daughter of Francis II of Austria in hope of keeping Austria out of more coalitions against him.
The defeat of Napoleon. The war which broke out between France and Russia because Alexander I, emperor of Russia, refused to abide by and enforce the Continental System, marked the turning point of Napoleon's career. One of his armies was already engaged in battle against the Spanish when Napoleon invaded and defeated Russia at Borodino. The French captured Moscow on September 14th 1812, but were unable to establish winter quarters in the city as it was burned down by the Russians for that purpose.

The French were forced back across Russia into Germany, suffering the loss of manpower through starvation, cold and Russian guerilla attacks. Russia then joined Prussia, Great Britain and Sweden in the Fifth Coalition. Political and economic reforms that had taken place since Prussia's defeat at Jena caused them to open the War of Liberation against Napoleon. Napoleon defeated the Prussians at Lutzen and Bautzen and achieved his last significant victory at the Battle of Dresden on 27 August 1813, where his forces of 100 000 men defeated a combined troop from Austria, Prussia and Russia of about 150 000 men. He was forced to retreat across the Rhine, in the Battle of Leipzig, freeing Germany. France was invaded from the north by Russia, Austria and Prussia and in 1814, and on March 31st 1814, Paris was surrendered. Napoleon was captured and exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. Napoleon had grown restless by the spring of 1815 and returned to southern France with his Elba bodyguard. He marched towards Paris and drew most of the army to his side.

As the word spread quickly throughout France of Napoleon's return, King Louis XVIII, who had recently been installed, evacuated and once again, Napoleon took over the government. The Seventh Coalition was immediately declared against Napoleon and all the countries mobilized for war. Napoleon tried to move against the Anglo-German army in Belgium and Holland but failed.
The war climaxed at the Battle of Waterloo, where the French army disintegrated after being improperly employed in a manner rather similar of that the Borodino. This was the last needed victory of the allied coalition and Napoleon was thus sent to his final exile on the Island of St. Helena on the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821.

THE CIVIL LIST

The Civil List is the sum provided by Parliament to meet the official expenses of the Sovereign's Household so that King or Queen can fulfil the role of Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth. It is not in any sense “pay” for the Sovereign.
The Civil List dates back to the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, but the current system was created on the accession of George III in 1760, when it was decided that the whole cost of civil government should be provided by Parliament in return for the surrender of the hereditary revenues by the King for the duration of the reign. Revenue from the Crown Estate amounted to £113.2 million in 1997/98 and this was paid to the Treasury.
About 70 per cent of Civil List expenditure goes to pay the salaries of staff working directly for the Sovereign. Their duties include dealing with State papers, organising public engagements and arranging meetings and receptions undertaken by the Sovereign.
The Civil List also meets the costs of functions such as the Royal Garden Parties official entertainment during State Visits. The Civil List is set by Parliament as a fixed annual amount of £7.9 million for a period of up to 10 years. The Household is currently succeeding in containing Civil List expenditure within inflation, however, and the resulting surplus is being carried forward to reduce the amount of the Civil List for the next 10-year period.
The budget for each year's projected net Civil List spending is reviewed by the Treasury, which audits the accounts and verifies that the Household's financial management is in line with best practice. Details of expenditure are published.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 736