Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era

by George F Nafziger

  CLEMENCÍN, DIEGO (1765–1834). Clemencín was born in Murcia, Spain. He became a scholar and politician. In 1807 Clemencín edited the newspaper Gaceta de Madrid and was condemned in 1808 by Marshal Murat for publishing a patriotic article directed against the conquering French armies then occupying Spain. Clemencín fled to Cadiz and held several posts under the Central Junta. Clemencín was dismissed by the restored royal government in 1814. From 1820–23, during a more liberal regime, he took office as the colonial minister. After that term in office, Clemencín was exiled by the following government until 1827.

  CLEMENTI, MUZIO (1752–1832). Clementi was born in Rome in 1752. At the age of nine he became a church organist and by 14 he had written a Mass that was presented to the public. Clementi traveled Europe extensively and was received by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, in whose presence he fought a musical duel with Mozart. Among Clementi’s many compositions were 60 sonatas for piano and a collection of etudes.

  CLÈVES-BERG. Clèves-Berg was formed by the Act of Confederation of 16–17 July 1806, which was formalized in the Treaty of Tilsit. Joachim Murat was made its Grand Duke with all the rights, honors and prerogatives of royalty. The expanse of the grand duchy was not, however, finalized until 21 January 1808, when Prussia formally ceded additional territories to it. The duchy was formed from the states in table 1.

  Table 1

  In July 1808 Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, was sent to be King of Spain, and Murat moved to Naples and became king there. Napoleon’s brother, Louis, King of Holland, fell out of grace with his brother Napoleon and in 1810 was sent to Clèves-Berg to be grand duke.

  Though elements of its army fought in Spain, the first major military campaign in which Clèves-Berg participated was the 1812 Russian campaign. Its infantry had a disappointing habit of deserting, but at the Berezina it fought stubbornly. Little of it remained in 1813 and what did soon deserted or was sent to serve as garrisons on the French coast. Only its cavalry proved a solid unit and it was essentially destroyed at Leipzig.

  Clèves-Berg was overrun by the Allies in 1813. On 6 February 1814 it was annexed by Prussia and its armed forces, which had been rebuilding, were absorbed into the Prussian army. Portions of the army fought with the Allies in 1814 and in 1815 during the Waterloo campaign.

  COALITION, FIRST THROUGH SEVENTH. The First Coalition was formed on 26 June 1792 by Austria and Prussia in response to a long series of events involving the French Revolution and ending with the French declaration of war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia on 20 April. Britain joined in January 1793, followed by Spain in March. Russia, Holland, Tuscany and Naples were loosely affiliated with it, but made little substantive contributions. When the war began turning in 1795, Tuscany made peace. In April 1795 Prussia signed the Treaty of Basel and left the alliance. Holland was converted into the Batavian Republic and joined France on 16 May 1795, and Spain signed the Treaty of San Idelfonso on 19 August, removing itself from the wars. After their defeats at Mondovi and Cherasco, Sardinia and Piedmont signed a peace treaty in May 1796. With Napoleon’s victories in northern Italy and Austria’s signing of the preliminaries of Loeben on 18 April 1797 the First Coalition had effectively ceased to exist, but it finally collapsed on 17 November 1797 when France and Austria signed the Peace of Campo Formio.

  The Second Coalition was formed in May 1798 when France’s behavior in Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and on the Rhine was too much. Britain, Austria, Russia, Naples and Turkey joined through a series of individual treaties and formed this new coalition. The actual coalition was completed on 22 June 1799 with the conclusion of a formal alliance between Britain and Austria.

  The war started in Sardinia and Rome, moving to Egypt in 1798. In 1799 it moved to Naples, Syria, along the Rhine, northern Italy, Switzerland and Holland. Initially the war went badly for France, but Napoleon’s victory at Marengo on 14 June 1800 and Moreau’s victory at Hohenlinden on 3 December were more than Austria could endure. Russia had made peace with France on 8 October and by the fall the Armed Neutrality of the North had been established to oppose British naval activities. Austria and France signed the Treaty of Lunéville on 9 February 1801, leaving only Britain in the war. This lasted until 25 March 1802, when Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens.

  The Third Coalition grew from a number of causes, including the Enghien affair, the dispute between Britain and France over each other’s occupation of Malta and Hanover, respectively, and the growth of French economic and military power. The Third Coalition was formed on 11 April 1805 and included Britain, Russia, Austria and Sweden, along with a few German princes. Napoleon’s destruction of the Austrian army under Mack at Ulm, followed shortly by Austerlitz in December 1805, and the French operations around Caldiero overwhelmed the coalition. Austria signed an armistice on 6 December and the Treaty of Pressburg on 20 December.

  The Fourth Coalition grew quickly out of the Third. Prussia was upset over many issues, including Napoleon’s promises to give them Hanover, the personal possession of George III of Britain, and the movement of French troops in the 1805 campaign through Prussian territories. Prussia quickly signed the Treaty of Potsdam with Russia and Austria on 3 November 1806 and then Britain, bringing the coalition into effect on 6 October 1806. Barely was the ink dry on these treaties when Napoleon’s armies erupted into Prussia and destroyed their armies at the twin battles of Jena-Auerstädt. Even though most of it was overrun, Prussia refused to make peace and the Russians stood by them. Though checked at Eylau, the overwhelming French victory at Friedland forced Russia to the peace table and the Treaty of Tilsit was signed. Prussia, now helpless without its powerful ally, signed as well, but was dismembered and its army emasculated by the treaty. Aside from surrendering legitimate provinces held in western Germany it was forced to disgorge much of ancient Poland that it had seized in 1795 and before.

  The only member remaining was Britain, who Napoleon now began to attack via the Continental System. After two years, when the French armies had moved out of Germany and into Spain, Austria was brought into a new alliance with Britain, both by a desire for revenge and the bribe of hefty subsidies. This resulted in the formation of the Fifth Coalition on 9 April 1809.

  The Austrians launched their armies into southern Germany, only to find Napoleon’s Grande Armée streaming across Germany, crashing into their armies, and blowing them back to the vicinity of Vienna, which Napoleon soon occupied. In the battle of Aspern-Essling, Napoleon was checked, but in July he finished the job at Wagram. The British diversionary expedition into Walcheren (August–September) came too late to effect the outcome of the Austrian campaign. France and Austria signed the Treaty of Vienna on 14 October 1809 and Britain was once again alone and isolated.

  The Sixth Coalition began after Napoleon invaded Russia. Britain and Russia quickly formed an alliance, which was soon joined by Portugal and Spain. Prussia joined the alliance on 7 February 1813 after signing the Convention of Kalisch. Austria remained out of the 1813 spring campaign, but during the summer armistice joined the coalition and declared war on 10 August 1813. Over the summer of 1813 Sweden joined and as the victorious allied armies moved westward, clearing the French out of the various German states, most of them joined the coalition, raised armies, and declared war on France. With the defeat of France in April 1814 and Napoleon’s abdication, the Sixth Coalition ended.

  The Seventh Coalition was formed while the victorious Allies were at the Congress of Vienna in March 1815. News came that Napoleon had returned to France. On 25 March 1815 the Seventh Coalition was formed and included all of the signatories of the Sixth Coalition. They refused negotiations with Napoleon, declared war and began rallying their armies. The Waterloo campaign began in June 1815 and Napoleon abdicated on 22 June. The allied armies moved into France and began an occupation of several month’s duration. When Napoleon was safely tucked away on St. Helena the last coalition effectively ended.

  COBBETT, WILLIAM (1763–1835). Cobbett was born in Farnham, Surrey
, England, on 9 March 1763. His father was a small farmer and his grandfather had been a day laborer. At the age of 14, after working the fields alongside his father, he ran away, working in Kew Gardens. He returned, but at age 19 after an unsuccessful attempt to join the Navy, found employment as a solicitor’s clerk. Having little patience, this soon wore thin and he found himself enlisted in a line infantry regiment. After a year in the depot he had taught himself grammar and writing, and he was promoted to corporal. He was sent to Canada and soon rose to the rank of regimental sergeant-major. In this position he became aware of the systemic fraud that occurred in the regiment and the entire army. He began collecting evidence against the principal offenders. In 1791 his regiment was ordered home and he procured his discharge. That done, he demanded a court-martial for the officers against whom he had been collecting evidence. This was eventually granted, but he was unable to obtain the discharge of his principal witness or have the regimental books impounded. Fearing no fair hearing, he fled to France in March 1792. When war became imminent, he sailed to America and published a pamphlet entitled The Soldier’s Friend, in which he recounted his evidence.

  Cobbett then met the great Unitarian radical, Joseph Priestley. The pronouncements by the American radical societies supporting the French Revolution provoked him into writing Observations on Dr. Priestley’s Emigration (1794). From that date until 1800 he wrote numerous pro-British and virulently antirevolutionary tracts, attacking any American who supported any sort of radicalism. Cobbett soon established a reputation and came into trouble with the law. He libeled Dr. Rush, a doctor and well-known democratic politician, accusing him of killing George Washington with his bleeding treatments. In fact, they may well have significantly contributed to Washington’s death. Cobbett suffered a heavy fine and responded by writing scurrilous pamphlets about the judge who had fined him. The judge, KcKean, also chanced to be an ally of Rush.

  Cobbett’s welcome in the United States was soon worn out and he returned to England, where his writings had created an enthusiastic following for him. He had dinner with Pitt and was offered the editorship and ownership of one of the leading government newspapers, but he refused. He chose, instead, to start his own newspaper, The Porcupine. It promptly failed, but in 1802 two friends helped him start the Political Register, an extreme anti-Jacobin journal. Cobbett strongly opposed Addington, called for the renewal of war with France, and when Pitt came to power, he gradually slipped into opposition to him. He then found himself in alliance with Windham and Fox. In 1806 his friends came into power in the Ministry of All the Talents. Soon, however, they were not his friends and he was busily denouncing them and the “Pitt system” as the root of all evil. In 1807 the ministry broke up and Cobbett was a confirmed radical.

  Cobbett’s life had changed with his success as a publisher. In 1805 he had bought a substantial farm and he soon saw the economic devastation being wrought in the countryside by the wartime prices. He realized the misery of the laboring classes, the effects of the Speenhamland system of poor relief, of the Enclosure Act and of the great revolution in agrarian conditions that was then at its height. His conversion to radicalism was completed and he became the voice of the suffering countryside. He immediately found himself as a powerful leader. In 1809 there was a minor mutiny of soldiers in Ely over withholdings from their pay. The ringleaders were flogged under the eyes of German mercenaries and their grievances not addressed. Cobbett denounced the floggings and was prosecuted for sedition, fined £1,000, and sentenced to two years in Newgate jail. Bail was set at £3,000 and a finding of two sureties of £1,000 each were his reward.

  The discipline at Newgate was poor, so Cobbett continued writing and editing the Register. He wrote his famous Paper against Gold in Newgate, in which he denounced wartime inflation. His imprisonment, however, ruined him financially. He lost his farm and all his possessions. He barely saved the Register, but had to sell three other publishing enterprises.

  Freed from prison in 1812, he waited only for his opportunity, which came in 1815. The postwar era was marked by widespread unemployment and economic distress. Unrest grew and farmers were oppressed by high taxation. Cobbett became the leader of the working classes. As Cobbett came into leadership, the British government had grown terrified by hunger riots and had embarked on a campaign of repression. In 1817 Lord Sidmouth, the home secretary, passed his “Gagging Bills” and procured a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. In 1817 widespread arrests of the Radical leaders followed, but Cobbett fled to the United States.

  In the United States Cobbett began a literary career, He would return to England in late 1819 and assumed the position of the outstanding leader of working-class radical agitation. Between 1819 and 1832 his history was one of agitation for parliamentary reform. In the 1820s he had recovered from his bankruptcy and had begun to rebuild his fortune with his pen. In 1820 he stood for Parliament and again in 1826, but he did not achieve office in either case. In 1830, when Wellington fell, reform agitation came to a head. The Whigs, under Lord Grey, assumed office and reform became the political question of the day. Grey’s appointment was immediately followed by the hunger movement of the rural laborers in the southern and eastern counties that was known as the “last laborer’s revolt.” Cobbett was blamed and the Whigs, in an effort to gain the support of the moneyed classes, prosecuted him. In his trial Cobbett defended himself and turned the tables on his opponents. The jury found him innocent, but the revolt was savagely repressed.

  In 1832 the Reform Act became law. Cobbett, smarting from his prosecution by the Whigs, still urged the workers to support the Whigs on the ground that it was the best that could be hoped for by those seeking reform. In the following election, Cobbett was elected member of Parliament for Oldham. He spent two and a half years in Parliament, leading the extreme radicals. He opposed the 1834 “new poor law” and fought against it until his death. His health failed under the strain and on 18 June 1835 he died of influenza.

  CODE NAPOLEON. The Code Napoleon is a code of French civil law that evolved during the French Revolution and was codified under the aegis of and with some limited involvement by Napoleon Bonaparte, after whom it is named. It was initially issued under the name Code civil des français, on 30 ventôse Year XII (21 March 1804).

  Prior to its issuance, French law suffered from the lack of a single, unified set of laws. It was promised by the constitution of 1791, but the first two assemblies were only able to prepare small portions of it. It truly began to develop under the Convention. The first two major schemes for the civil code were presented by Cambracérès under a commission from the Convention. He presented a third under the Directory. After considerable refinement the final product was issued in 1804.

  As a set of laws, the influence of the Code Napoleon extends far beyond the borders of France. It and English common law form the two major legal systems in the world today. As the modern world evolved many European and South American nations modeled their legal system after the Code Napoleon.

  The Code Napoleon followed the victorious French armies into the Lowlands, western Germany, northern Italy and as far east as Warsaw. When the French armies retreated back to France, this legacy was hurriedly buried by the restored governments, but the benefits of it were such that the people demanded its restoration. Revised codes, bearing the French stamp, soon appeared in the Two Sicilies, Parma, Piedmont, and the civil code of Este. When the new Kingdom of Italy was formed, its legal system was heavily influenced as well. Oddly enough, in 1874 a modified version of the Code Napoleon became the law of Egypt. The German civil code, issued in final form, in 1895, bears many signs of influence of the Code Napoleon, but benefited from another century of experience.

  COLLETTA, PIETRO (1775–1831). Colletta was a Neapolitan general and historian. In 1798 he fought against the French. As a supporter of the Parthenopean Republic, when Naples surrendered Colletta was imprisoned, but escaped execution. When Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples in 1806 Colletta was r
einstated and in 1812 he was promoted to the rank of general. When King Ferdinand was restored, Colletta retained his rank. In 1820, when a revolution erupted, he brutally crushed the separatist movement in Sicily. When the autocracy was restored in 1821 he was exiled to Brunn in Moravia. In 1823 Colletta moved to Florence and wrote Storia del reame di Napoli, which became the standard history of Naples during the period of 1734 to 1825.

  COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD, BARON (1750–1810). Collingwood was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne on 26 September 1750. At age 11 he went to sea. As a lieutenant he met and began his association with Nelson. In 1792 Collingwood was appointed flag-captain to Rear Admiral Boyer aboard the Prince. Collingwood fought at the battle of Cape Saint Vincent. In 1799 he was promoted to rear admiral. Collingwood was second in command at Trafalgar and succeeded Nelson when he fell. Collingwood died at sea on 7 March 1810. He was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral at Nelson’s side.

  COMBINATION ACTS (1799 AND 1800). These were repressive measures instituted by British prime minister William Pitt to curb movements by workers to unionize. To agitate for unions and to force employers to increase wages or shorten working hours was made a criminal act. These laws were not repealed until 1824.