A coalition against him was inevitable, and in 1805 he took the field again. The campaigns that followed closely in the next four years include some of his most interesting military feats,—the battle of Austerlitz, of which he was proudest himself; the campaign of Jena, by which he humbled Prussia, increased French territory largely, and won the czar of Russia as an ally; the war on Spain, which ended in his own deserved defeat (Napoleon at St. Helena characterized his attack on Spain as “unjust,” “cynical,” “villainous”); the campaign of Wagram, which finally humbled his persistent enemy Austria.
NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE
For reasons of state Napoleon divorced the Empress Josephine to marry Marie Louise, the daughter of the emperor of Austria. His last words to the woman who loved him were: “My destiny and France demand it!”
At the end of these four years Napoleon was himself the practical master of Europe; the only nation not recognizing his power being England, which was at least temporarily quiet. He had created an empire; but what was he to do with it? He had no heir. To provide for one he carried out a plan long considered,—he divorced Empress Josephine and married again. The new empress was the daughter of the old and now humbled enemy of France, the emperor of Austria. Napoleon apparently believed that on the birth of an heir France would accept him fully, and that Europe would cease to fear and resent his power. He was wrong. He had stripped too many of wealth and position, outraged too many social and religious conventions, set in motion too many ideas hostile to those that Europe as a whole lived by. His demands on subjects and allies were too heavy, and particularly the one that he had most at heart,—that no continental nation should allow a dollar’s worth of England’s goods to cross its borders. His punishment of those who displeased him and disobeyed his orders was too severe. A revolt against his monstrous assumption was inevitable.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
From a portrait of the Emperor painted by Paul Delaroche.