Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815

by H. Morse Stephens

In the month of May Bonaparte crossed the Great Saint Bernard Pass at the head of 40,000 men, and fell at once on the Austrian flank. He was too late to relieve Genoa, which surrendered on the 4th of June, when but few of the soldiers were still able to stand, but he was in time to close the retreat of the Austrians upon Lombardy. On the 9th June 1800 General Lannes defeated the Austrian advanced guard at Montebello, and Bonaparte then barred the road from Alessandria to Piacenza. General Melas, though not yet joined by the troops which had taken Genoa, had a larger army than Bonaparte; on June 14 he forced his way out of Alessandria, and drove back the French columns which occupied the village of Marengo. The battle was practically lost by the French, when Desaix, who had been detached to the left with 6000 men, fell upon the Austrian flank. Desaix was killed, but the vigour of his attack practically cut the Austrian army in two. The dragoons of Kellermann completed the victory, and General Melas signed the Convention of Alessandria, by which he surrendered Genoa, Piedmont, and the Milanese to the French, and promised to withdraw the Austrian garrisons from all cities to the west of the Mincio. Bonaparte then attended a Te Deum sung in honour of his victory in the cathedral of Milan, and returned to Paris, leaving the Army of Grisons, under the command of General Macdonald, to follow up the Austrians.

Campaign of Hohenlinden.

While Bonaparte was winning the battle of Marengo, and reconquering Italy by a single blow, Moreau was again face to face with his old opponent, the Archduke Charles. The French advance was very slow. Fierce battles were fought at Engen, Mœskirchen, and Biberach in May 1800, and by the close of the summer Moreau had his headquarters at Augsburg, and his advanced guard at Munich. The slowness of Moreau’s progress dissatisfied the First Consul, as did the want of success of the Archduke Charles dissatisfy the court of Vienna. Augereau was sent with 20,000 men to the assistance of Moreau, who was ordered, in spite of the severity of the winter, to continue his advance; and the Archduke John was appointed to succeed his brother, and ordered to take the offensive. The crowning event of this winter campaign was the great victory of Hohenlinden, which was won by Moreau on the 3d of December 1800. The Austrians lost the whole of their baggage and artillery and 12,000 prisoners.

The Winter Campaign of 1800.

The First Consul from Paris ordered Moreau and Macdonald to advance into the home districts of the House of Austria. Moreau accordingly pushed along the Inn, the Salz, the Traun, and the Ens, driving the disorganised and discouraged Austrians before him until he was within twenty leagues of Vienna. Macdonald, at the same time, crossed the Splügen Pass in spite of the avalanches, and penetrated into the Tyrol, thus turning the Austrian forces on the Mincio and the Adige. On arriving at Trent, Macdonald turned to the right and was joined by Brune, who had occupied the territory of Venice, and the united French army marched upon Vienna. Under these circumstances, with Italy lost, and Vienna threatened from two quarters, the Emperor Francis sued for peace, which was concluded at Lunéville on the 9th of February 1801.

The Treaty of Lunéville. Feb. 9, 1801.

The Treaty of Lunéville was more important from its destruction of the old Holy Roman Empire than as the treaty of peace between France and Austria. From the latter point of view the Emperor Francis once more, as in the Treaty of Campo-Formio, recognised the Rhine as the limit of France. In Italy the Cisalpine Republic was once more constituted with the Adige as its frontier, Modena was to be compensated with the Breisgau, and Venice was again left to the House of Austria. Tuscany was taken from its Austrian Grand Duke, and erected into a kingdom of Etruria in favour of the Prince of Parma, a relative of the King of Spain, and Piedmont was annexed to France; but the King of the Two Sicilies was allowed to retain his dominions, and the Pope was restored to all his possessions except the Legations of Bologna and Ferrara. The Cisalpine Republic was reorganised, and granted a Constitution on the model of that of the Year VIII., in which Bonaparte was appointed First Consul. The Ligurian Republic was maintained, with the alteration that its Doge was nominated by France instead of being elected. The result of the new arrangements in Northern Italy was that both France and Austria had a foothold by their occupation of Piedmont and Venice, with the Cisalpine Republic as a buffer between them. The principle of secularising the German bishoprics was also again recognised in the Treaty of Lunéville, and the actual manner in which it should be carried out was referred to a special commission, whose conclusions were not adopted till 1803. The principal result of the treaty in Austria was the retirement of the minister Thugut, who was succeeded as State Chancellor by Count Louis Cobenzl, the diplomatist, who had negotiated the treaties both of Campo-Formio and of Lunéville.

Murder of the Emperor Paul. 23d March 1801.

The admiration of the Emperor Paul for Bonaparte increased daily, and it was the Russian Czar, not the French First Consul, who proposed an invasion of India across Asia, in order to strike a blow at the English power in the East. Indeed, the English had taken the place of the French in the mind of Paul, who, not satisfied with forming once again the Neutral League of the North, determined to send his best troops against them. The Emperor’s proposition was that one expedition should consist of 35,000 Frenchmen and 35,000 Russians, under the command of Masséna. This column was to go down the Danube, and then up the Don to a point whence it would be but a short march to the Volga. It was then to proceed down the Volga to Astrakhan, thence across the Caspian Sea to Astrabad, and then to march by Herat and Kandahar to the Punjab. Another column was to move by Khiva and Bokhara, and to invade India by the north of Afghanistan. These grandiose plans were not entirely accepted by Bonaparte, and the death of the Emperor prevented an attempt being made to see if they were practicable. The madness of Paul had steadily increased during his short reign. His nobility disapproved heartily of his war policy, both against France and later against England; his adoption of the Neutral League and its policy had done much to ruin the wealthy nobles of Northern Russia by forbidding the exportation of Russian commodities on English ships. To the discontent of the nobility, of the politicians, and of the capitalists must be added the fears of the courtiers. Even the heir to the throne, his eldest son Alexander, perceived that the rule of the maniac could not be borne much longer. It is hardly necessary to particularise all the causes of his unpopularity; it is enough to say that his behaviour was that of a madman. Certain courtiers, of whom the leaders were Count Pahlen, a Livonian nobleman; Benningsen, a Hanoverian general; Plato Zubov, the last favourite of the Empress Catherine, and his brother Nicholas, and the Prince Jachvill, determined to put an end to the tyranny of the Czar. In the night of the 23d of March 1801 he was attacked by these conspirators and ordered to sign an act of abdication; he refused; the lamp went out, and the Emperor was struck down and strangled by an unknown hand among his assailants.

The Neutral League of the North. 1800–1.