Napoleon's Hundred Days and the Politics of Legitimacy

2017

Michel Verge-Franceschi, Pozzo di Borgo. L’ennemi jure de Napoleon, Paris (Editions Payot) 2016, 413 p., ISBN 978-2-228-91651-6, EUR 24,00.

The media of the day represented three predominant models around Napoleon: the all-conquering victorious general, the virtuous republican who stood above factions, and the man who brought peace to the Continent. These images became the foundation of a 'hero-saviour' myth that helped Napoleon take power on his return from Egypt at the end of 1799. However, they sit uncomfortably with the manner in which he represented power in public that, outside France, took on quasi-monarchical trappings. This article attempts to explain not only the origins and evolution of Napoleonic propaganda in the early years of his career, but also the ambiguity between the political imagery and rhetoric used to promote Napoleon in France on the one hand, and the manner in which he behaved in public outside France on the other. The hero-saviour myth was further developed and exploited during the Consulate and the Empire as a means of legitimating Napoleon's accession to power.

Napoleonic Scholarship. The Journal of The International Napoleonic Society, No. 11, 2022

The interpretations of historians and art historians differed methodologically and terminologically in the question of Napoleon's representation via art both in space and in time. The usual "black-and-white" view of Napoleon's imperial style degraded this artistic style, especially by the tendencious Marxist historiography, to a mere means of political propaganda by the Napoleonic regime. Such a concept completely denied the nature of the specific art that developed in France as one of the consequences of Napoleon's cultural policy. Art? Propaganda? How do these two instances relate to each other in the case of Napoleon's art representation? To what extent can art serve as a tool of propaganda? This question is complicated to the same extent by the divergence of experts. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the significance of the Empire style and return it to its artistic license which was denied to him mainly in the countries of the Eastern Bloc bound by the ideologies of Marxism and Communism. The bicentennial of Napoleon's death, commemorated by memory institutions through the concept of places of memory and cultural heritage in the interests of interdisciplinary and international cooperation, contributes to the construction of a pillar that could support the legitimacy of this license.

Journal of Modern European History

Napoleon’s Vision for Europe, 2018

Much is written about Napoleon Bonaparte and Napoleonic France. However this is for the most part about his life, his career and campaigns. This tells a lot about what he did but what the actual idea was behind the action is something which still raises a lot of questions. This essay intends to find Napoleon’s vision on Europe. What plans did he have in mind for the continent? Some historians even claim that there was no “Great Masterplan” and that Napoleon was more of a pragmatist then a man with a clear vision. He just did what best suited his interests every time a new situation arose. This essay will try to answer the question of Napoleon’s Vision by looking for mentions of his ideas and plans. In addition, his actions will be investigated in order to see if these can tell us something about his vision.

Historians generally discount the advent of the First French Empire as the result of Napoleon’s personal ambition. Napoleon, however, could not have brought about the transition from republic to empire without wide support, not only among the political and military elite, but also among the French people. This article re-examines the reasons why, a little more than ten years after the execution of Louis XVI, moderate-conservative elements in the political elite opted for a monarchical-style political system, and why it was so widely accepted by ordinary people across France. It does so by examining the arguments in favour of empire in three ‘ sites of ideas ’ : the neo-monarchists in Napoleon’s entourage ; the political elite, preoccupied with many of the same concerns that had plagued France since 1789; and the wider political nation, which expressed a manifest adhesion to Napoleon as emperor that was marked by an affective bond. The push to empire, it is argued, was an expression of a dominant set of political beliefs and values. Napoleon, on the other hand, only reluctantly came to accept the notion of heredity.

This article examines one man’s account of how he used entrepreneurship and stubborn adherence to personal principals to navigate the cataclysmic landscape that was Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More specifically, it will examine a reported encounter involving that man, actor Jakob Neukäufler, and Napoleon. The article also presents new documentation of the relationship between Jakob Neukäufler and entrepreneur Emmanuel Schikaneder. By considering Neukäufler’s own representation of the above encounter and its aftermath in the light of three unpublished letters from the secret files of Bavaria’s first King, Maximillian I Joseph, we will gain a rare, detailed look into the life of a thespian during the time of the Napoleonic wars.