Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era

by George F Nafziger

  COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE. The Comédie Française was a theatrical company in Paris that traced its roots back to Molière in the middle of the 17th century. It officially dates from 1680. In 1782 it performed for the first time in the Théâtre de l’Odéon. The Revolution caused the company to split. From 1799 on, it was known as the Théâtre Française. During the Consulate it played in a theater on Rue de Richelieu. Napoleon enjoyed the theater and took a personal interest in its activities. During the second week of October 1812 he spent three evenings reviewing and modifying the statues intended for the Comédie Française. It was so important to Napoleon that he had couriers dispatched for Paris to advance ahead of the Grande Armée on the assumption that his attention to activities back in Paris would be positive for morale on the home front. The organization established by Napoleon would be the organization that remains to this day.

  CONCORDAT. The Concordat was signed on 15 July 1805 but negotiations had been finalized on 8 April 1802. It was the treaty between France and the papacy normalizing relationships after the break with the Catholic Church that had occurred during the French Revolution.

  CONSTANTINE, PAVLOVICH ZEFAREVICH, GRAND DUKE (1799–1831). Constantine was born as the second son of Paul I of Russia and Maria Feodorovna in Tsarskoye Selo on 8 May 1779. At age 17 he was married, by his grandmother Catherine II, to Juliana of Coburg, whose life he made intensely miserable. In 1801 she returned permanently to Coburg. As a prince of the blood, Constantine was expected to be a soldier and he went to war under the tutelage of the great Suvarov. Constantine was directly responsible for the loss of the battle of Bassignano, but at Novi he so distinguished himself that Paul I gave him the title of czarevitch, roughly the equivalent of crown prince and heir to the throne. Irrespective, Constantine did not inherit the throne upon Paul’s murder. Constantine commanded the Russian Guard at Austerlitz and shared the responsibility for its loss. Constantine would command the Russian Guard in 1807, 1812, 1813 and 1814, demonstrating no particular competence as a soldier. After the Congress of Poland he became commander in chief of the Polish forces and organized their army. Constantine remarried on 27 May 1820 to a Pole, Johanna Grudzinska, and in a secret memo formally renounced his claim to the Russian throne. When his brother, Alexander I, died on 1 December 1825, this renunciation caused some confusion until he again renounced it in favor of Nicholas I.

  On 26 December the “Dekabrist” uprising occurred and the mutineers called on Constantine to assume the throne. The uprising was suppressed and Constantine had no part in it. Despite that, problems arose between Constantine and his nephew, the czar. Constantine opposed the Turkish war of 1828 and 1829 and this caused further difficulties. In November 1830 Warsaw erupted in revolt and Constantine’s Polish army passed over to the revolutionaries. During the suppression of this revolution he showed himself lacking in both judgment and competence. Constantine died of cholera in Vitebsk on 27 June 1831.

  CONSULATE. The Consulate was the government formed by Napoleon after the coup d’État du 18 brumaire. When it was formed, the Directory was dispersed and an oligarchy formed of Napoleon, Sieyès and Roger Ducos. Under them were two commissions. The first was formed of 25 members of the Council of Five Hundred and the other with 25 members of the Council of Ancients. Executive power under the Consulate was very strong. The executive could initiate laws, name magistrates and members of the Council of State. Executive power was vested solely in Napoleon, who became First Consul. The Constitution of the Year VIII (1799) was submitted to a referendum on 13 December and passed overwhelmingly. The constitution was short and had no bill of rights. It did, however, maintain the inviolability of homes and individual liberty. There was no mention of liberty, equality or fraternity. It also restored universal male suffrage, which had been eliminated in 1795.

  In 1803, when war with Britain erupted, royalist plots arose and Napoleon was threatened with assassination. Taking advantage of this, Napoleon had his position transformed into a hereditary monarchy. The senatus consultum of 28 floréal Year XII (18 May 1804) created the French Empire and put Napoleon on its throne. Elements of the consulate government remained until 1814, but as a government of the people, it was effectively dead in 1804.

  CONTÉ, NICOLAS JACQUES (1755–1805). Conté was born near Sées, France, on 4 August 1755. His early life was marked with considerable hardship. In 1795 Conté was working with Monge and Berthollet in their experiments with military balloons and perfected a method of producing pure hydrogen. In 1796 the Directory appointed him commander of the French balloon forces. In the same year he was made head of the Conservatoire des arts et métiers. Conté commanded the balloon corps during the 1799 Egyptian campaign, but his balloons were lost in the hold of a ship sunk in the battle of Aboukir Bay. Having no balloons he turned himself to making those tools and supplies that did not exist in primitive Egypt. Anything that was needed, he provided. Conté returned to Paris after the British invasion of Egypt and died there on 6 December 1805.

  CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. The Continental System was Napoleon’s response to Britain’s blockading of French ports and implementation of a form of economic warfare against France. Britain had, in violation of the rules of naval warfare and blockades, declared that all French ports, whether or not a British squadron was present, were in a state of blockade and that any ship trading in a French port was subject to seizure. Napoleon responded with the Berlin Decree (21 November 1806) and the Milan Decree (17 December 1807) in which he declared Britain to also be in a state of blockade and claiming the right to seize any ship entering British ports. Britain then responded with the Orders in Council, which formalized the blockades on both sides.

  Since his fleet could not match the British fleet, Napoleon had decided that by sealing off European markets to British commerce he could cripple the British economy and nearly did so. There were great financial hardships inflicted on both nations. Napoleon’s wars of conquest after 1807 were entirely designed to seal off European ports to English commerce. These actions would provoke the Americans to declare war on Britain in what would become known as the War of 1812. See also FONTAINEBLEAU DECREE.

  CORNWALLIS, CHARLES, 1ST MARQUESS (1738–1805). Cornwallis was born in England on 31 December 1738. The eldest son of Charles, 1st Earl Cornwallis, he was educated at Eton and Clare College, Cambridge. He entered the army and during the Seven Years War served in the 1761 campaign in Germany. He succeeded to the earldom in 1762 and in 1765 he became an aide-de-camp to the King. In 1770 he was appointed governor of the Tower of London. In 1780 he commanded the British forces in South Carolina and won the battle of Guildford Court House. He was besieged at Yorktown and surrendered to the Americans on 19 October 1781, effectively ending the American War of Independence. He was appointed governor-general of India, commander in chief of Bengal in 1786, and actively campaigned against Tippo Sahib, taking half his kingdom. In 1793 he returned to Britain, was made a marquess, and was master-general of ordnance. He served as viceroy of Ireland from June 1798 to 1801 and defeated the French landings and subsequent insurrection in 1798. In 1802 he was appointed plenipotentiary to negotiate the Treaty of Amiens. In 1805 he returned to India to replace Wellesley as governor-general of India, but died on 5 October 1805 en route to join his troops.

  COUNCIL OF ANCIENTS (CONSEIL DES ANCIENS). This was the upper legislative house established by the constitution of the Year III (1795) and continued through the Directory. It contained 250 men aged 40 and over. One third of the chamber was elected every year. It had the powers of deliberation, but could not initiate legislation. It was a conservative body and docilely supported Napoleon during the coup d’État du 18 brumaire.

  COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED. The Council of Five Hundred was the lower legislative assembly established under the Directory. It was charged with proposing and passing laws. Its members were to be 30 years old or over and they were elected for terms of three years. Its counterpart, the upper chamber, was known as the Council of the Ancients. Of the two, the
Council of Five Hundred was more heavily Jacobin and it opposed Napoleon during the coup d’État du 18 brumaire. Lucien Bonaparte was its chairman when it met in the Orangery at Saint-Cloud on 10 November 1799. During the coup Napoleon had stepped forward to speak, but fainted because of the heat and the press of bodies. The cry went out that Napoleon was being murdered and his troops rushed in and dispersed the council. The council being dispersed, its power was gone and Napoleon established himself as First Consul.

  COUNCIL OF STATE. Established in December 1799, the Council of State was the principal advisory body of the executive in France during the Consulate and Empire. It corresponded to the Royal Council under the Bourbons. It was a body of experts, handpicked by Napoleon. As it was purely consultative, it was given greater freedom to dissent and even oppose ideas that Napoleon presented to it, much more so than the Senate, Tribunate or legislative body. On 25 December 1799, 29 men were appointed to the council. Ten were lawyers, nine were educators or scientists and four held high rank in the armed forces of France. Only seven of the original 29 remained by the end of the Empire and most held office for more than five years, giving the Empire considerable stability.

  Initially the council was divided into five sections: internal affairs, finance, laws, navy and war. Eventually a foreign relations section was established. A special secretariat was established to support the Council of State and gifted civil servants were attached as supplementary advisers (auditeurs).

  CRAONNE, BATTLE OF. The battle of Craonne was fought on 7 March 1814. Napoleon, commanding around 30,000 men, engaged Winzingerode’s army of around 19,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry on the plateau near Craonne. The battle was a bloody frontal assault on the narrow confines of the Craonne plateau. With little room to maneuver, Napoleon sent his forces straightforward into the allied positions, where well-placed Russian artillery savaged their ranks. The French lost around 8,000 casualties while inflicting around 5,000 on the Allies, forcing them to withdraw.

  CZARTORYSKI, ADAM GEORGE, PRINCE (1770–1861). Czartoryski was born in Poland to a noble family. He received a good education from a series of tutors. In 1789 and 1793 Czartoryski visited Britain and studied the English constitution. During the 1795 invasion that led to the final partitioning of Poland he fought to maintain Polish independence. This partitioning resulted in the confiscation of his estates and in May 1795 Czartoryski was summoned to St. Petersburg where he was ordered to enter Russian military service. Catherine II restored part of his estates in 1796 and made him a gentleman-in-waiting in her court. During this time Czartoryski would become a close friend of Alexander, who would eventually ascend to the Russian throne.

  Czartoryski began to take a large part in Russian affairs. On 6 November 1804 he framed the convention whereby Russia agreed to send 115,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Austrians in what would become the 1805 campaign. On 11 April 1805 Czartoryski signed, for Russia, an offensive-defensive treaty with Britain, by which it was agreed that Russia would acquire the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, the Bosporus with Constantinople, and Corfu. Furthermore, an autonomous Poland would be restored that extended from Danzig to the source of the Vistula that would come under Russian hegemony.

  Czartoryski held the confidence of Czar Alexander I until February 1807, when he was superseded by A. E. Budberg. Despite this, he continued to enjoy the czar’s private confidence.

  When the congressional Kingdom of Poland was formed after the Napoleonic Wars, Czartoryski became senator-palatine and had a position in its administration. In 1817 Czartoryski married Anna Sapiezanko, which resulted in a duel with his rival Pac. In 1823 he retired to his family castle at Pulawy, remaining there until 1830 when the Polish insurrection called him to become president of the provisional government. On 18 December 1830 Czartoryski summoned the Diet of 1831. When his dictatorship ended, he became chief of the Supreme Council. Czartoryski left the government on 16 September, after spending half his fortune in the cause of Polish independence. Czartoryski joined Girolano Ramorino’s army corps as a volunteer. When the revolt was suppressed, Czartoryski emigrated to France and remained there for 30 years, until his death at Mont-fermeil, near Meaux, on 15 July 1861.

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  DARU, PIERRE ANTOINE, COMTE (1767–1829). Daru was born on 12 January 1767 in Montpellier. He served as an army administrator and commissary to the army assigned to the defense of the Breton coast in 1793. Later he served in Masséna’s army in Switzerland (1799), in Berthier’s army in Italy (1799), and back on the Breton coast (1803). Napoleon had complete trust in him and employed him as the chief commissary of the Grande Armée in 1805 and also made him intendant of his military household. During the 1806–07 campaign he again served with the Grande Armée and was involved in the drafting of the Treaty of Tilsit. Following that he oversaw the administrative and financial requirements of the French army of occupation in Prussia. During the 1808 Congress of Erfurt he participated in Napoleon’s interview with Goethe, injecting appropriate references to Goethe’s poetry and other works. He returned to the field in the 1809 campaign against Austria, but did not participate in the invasion of Russia. In 1813 he assumed the portfolio of military affairs. He retired after the first abdication in 1814, but served Napoleon during the Hundred Days. During the Second Restoration he became a member of the Chamber of Peers and served the cause of popular liberty, defending it against the ultraroyalists. He died on 5 September 1829 in Melun.

  Daru was one of the most respected and admired men of Napoleon’s Empire. Once, while bemoaning his lack of skills as a courtier, Napoleon responded, “Courtiers! They are common enough about me; I shall never be in want of them. What I want is an enlightened, firm and vigilant administrator; and that is why I have chosen you.” Napoleon also stated, “Daru is good on all sides; he has good judgment, a good intellect, a great power for work, and a body and mind of iron.” From Napoleon, who was himself a workaholic, this was great praise indeed.

  DAUNOU, PIERRE CLAUDE FRANÇOIS (1761–1840). Born on 18 August 1761 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Daunou was educated in the School of the Oratorians in Boulogne and joined that order in Paris in 1777. He served as a professor in various seminaries between 1780 and 1787, when he was ordained a priest. He was elected to the Convention and joined the Girondists, but strongly opposed the death sentence for Louis XVI. He had little involvement in the struggle with the Montagnards, but was caught up in the overthrow of the Girondists and was imprisoned for a year. Daunou returned to the Convention in December 1794 and was the principal author of the Constitution of the Year III. It was Daunou who suggested that the Council of Ancients had the right to convene the corps législatif outside of Paris, which is what made possible Napoleon’s coup d’État du 18 brumaire. He was also responsible for the creation of the Institut de France and drew up the plans for its organization. Daunou was responsible for the suppression of the royalist revolt of 13 vendémiaire, was elected to the Council of Five Hundred, and became its first president during the establishment of the Directory. After a brief literary career, he was brought back into government by Napoleon where he worked on the Constitution of the Year VIII. He supported Napoleon in his struggles with the pope, but took little other part in Napoleon’s regime. During the Restoration he was deprived of his post as the archivist of the Empire, which he had held from 1807. However, he returned to that post from 1819 to 1830 and held the chair of history and ethics at the Collège de France. In 1839 Daunou was made a peer of France and he died in 1840.

  A collection of Daunou’s lectures at the Collège de France was published after his death (Cours d’études historiques, 1842–1846, 20 volumes). They dealt with criticism of sources and historiography, filling an important place in the evolution of concepts of history as a science. His work as an archivist in the time when Napoleon was “acquiring” various artistic and historical treasures has also garnered praise and the gratitude of many modern scholars.

  DAVID, JACQUES–LOUIS (1748–1825). David was born on 30
April 1748 in Paris. David was educated at the Collège des Quatre Nations and then as an understudy in the studio of François Boucher. After Boucher he understudied with J. M. Vien. In 1775 David won the Prix de Rome. His first important painting, the Date obolum Belisario, was exhibited in Paris in 1780. His sketch for a painting of the Oath of the Tennis Court and his pro-revolutionary attitude had him elected to the Convention in September 1792 by the Section du Musée. In January David voted for the death of King Louis XVI. Despite this he continued painting and his work Marat Assassinated ranks among his most famous paintings. Napoleon became an admirer of his work and would pose for a famous painting of him on a rearing horse crossing the Alps during his 1800 campaign. David also painted for Napoleon the Coronation of Joséphine and The Distribution of the Eagles. Despite a number of Napoleonic topics, he remained faithful to his classical subjects and continued painting several major works on classical Greek and Roman subjects until his death in Brussels on 29 December 1825.

  DAVOUT, LOUIS NICOLAS, DUC D’AUERSTÄDT, PRINCE DE ECKMÜHL, MARÉCHAL D’EMPIRE (1770–1823). Sometimes known as d’Avout or d’Avoust, Davout was born on 10 May 1770 in Annoux, France. He was born to a family of lesser nobility and studied at the Military School of Auxerre. Davout joined the Paris Military School on 29 September 1785 and on 19 February 1788 was made a sous-lieutenant in the Royal Champagne Cavalry Regiment. His career through the Revolution was marked by rapid promotions and not inconsiderable controversy. On 15 September 1791, after his regiment mutinied, he was imprisoned in the Arras citadel. Not imprisoned long, Davout was a lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion of the Yonne on 22 September 1791 and joined the Army of the North shortly later. When Dumouriez defected it was Davout’s battalion that tracked him down and fired on him as he made his escape. On 25 July 1793 Davout was made a général de brigade and on 30 July 1793 he was made a général de division. He was removed from service on 29 August 1793 because of his noble origins and returned to service on 21 September 1794 as a général de brigade.