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NAPOLEON AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2010

PHILIP G. DWYER
PHILIP G. DWYER*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle, Australia
*
Department of History, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales 2308, Australia. [email protected]
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Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 339 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 Jean Tulard, Le sacre de l'empereur Napoléon (Paris, 2004), p. 5; Laurence Chatel de Brancion, Le sacre de Napoléon: le rêve de changer le monde (Paris, 2004), p. 7.

2 Exceptions to the rule include Jourdan, Annie, ‘Le Premier Empire: un nouveau pacte social’, Cités: philosophie, politique, histoire, 20, (2004), pp. 51–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Chappey, Jean-Luc, ‘La notion d'empire et la question de légitimité politique’, Siècles: cahiers du Centre d'histoire ‘Espaces et culture’, 17, (2003), pp. 111–27Google Scholar.

3 Charles Esdaile, Napoleon's wars: an international history, 1803–1815 (London, 2007), p. 193.

4 For an example of the former, Alan Forrest, ‘Napoleon as monarch: a political evolution’, in Alan Forrest and Peter H. Wilson, eds., The bee and the eagle: Napoleonic France and the end of the Holy Roman Empire, 1806 (London, 2009), p. 116. The latter interpretation is implicit in Jean Tulard, Napoléon, ou, le mythe du sauveur (Paris, 1977), pp. 168–73; and Thierry Lentz, Le grand consulat, 1799–1804 (Paris, 1999), pp. 559–74.

5 Steven Englund, Napoleon: a political life (New York, NY, 2004), p. 231. Political opportunism is often used to explain changes in political adherence during this period. See Le Bozec, Christine, ‘Le républicanisme du possible: les opportuniste (Boissy d'Anglas, Lanjuinais, Durand-Maillaine … )’, Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 299, (1995), pp. 67–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a different approach that helps put rapid political changes in context see, Jean-Luc Chappey, ‘Les ideologues face au coup d'état du 18 brumaire an VIII: des illusions aux désillusions', Politix, 56, (2001), pp. 55–6.

6 Valérie Huet, ‘Napoleon I: a new Augustus?’, in Catherine Edwards, ed., Roman presences: receptions of Rome in European culture, 1789–1945 (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 53–69, argues that Napoleon wanted to be an emperor in the Roman style, pointing to a number of parallels between Napoleon and Augustus. However, there appears to be stronger parallels between Bonaparte and Caesar than between Bonaparte and Augustus. See, ‘Précis des guerres de Jules César’, Correspondance de Napoléon I (Corr.) (32 vols., Paris, 1858–70), xxxii, pp. 88–9; Jean Tulard, ‘Les empires napoléoniens’, in idem, ed., Les empires occidentaux de Rome à Berlin (Paris, 1997), p. 365; and June K. Burton, Napoleon and clio: historical writing, teaching and thinking during the First Empire (Durham, NC, 1979), pp. 41, 100–6. On the use of Charlemagne as political symbol, see Robert Morrissey, La barbe fleuri: Charlemagne dans la mythologie et l'histoire de France (Paris, 1997). On the use of Henry IV, see Robert Herbert, ‘Baron Gros's Napoleon and Voltaire's Henri IV’, in Francis Haskell and Robert Shackleton, eds., The artist and the writer in France: essays in honour of Jean Seznec (Oxford, 1974), pp. 51–75. Almost all the sovereigns used by the regime reigned in times of political turmoil and played a role in unifying the country, or large masses of territory, in the face of religious or political factionalism.

7 Smith, Jay M., ‘No more language games: words, beliefs, and political culture in early modern France’, American Historical Review, 102 (1997), p. 1416CrossRefGoogle Scholar, has argued that ‘Embedded in the meaning of words are traces of the values, assumptions, and operating principles, in short, the beliefs of those who employ political language.’

8 Pierre Serna, La république des girouettes (Paris, 2004), esp. pp. 453–69. Serna refers to a diverse group of figures he has dubbed the ‘extreme centre’, a somewhat quizzical term that muddies the waters. See also Andrew Jainchill, Reimagining politics after the terror: the republican origins of French liberalism (Ithaca, NY, 2008).

9 Chappey, ‘Les ideologues’, pp. 55–75.

10 I am grateful to Julian Hoppit for this suggestion.

11 For Roederer's ideas on monarchy during the Revolution, see Scurr, Ruth, ‘Pierre-Louis Roederer and the debate on forms of government in revolutionary France’, Political Studies, 52, (2004), pp. 251–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Antoine-Clair Thibaudeau, Mémoires de A.-C. Thibaudeau 1799–1815 (Paris, 1913), p. 70.

13 Comtesse de Rémusat, Mémoires de Madame de Rémusat (Paris, 1968), pp. 55–6; Jacques-Barthélemy Salgues, Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire de France sous le gouvernement de Napoléon Buonaparte et pendant l'absence de la maison de Bourbon (1760–1830) (9 vols., Paris, 1814–26), v, p. 194.

14 Antoine-Clair Thibaudeau, Mémoires sur le consulat, 1799 à 1804 (Paris, 1827), p. 236.

15 See, for example, the plea in favour of monarchy from Fontanes to Bonaparte, Archive Nationales (AN) AFiv 1041, 4 floréal an XII (23 Apr. 1804), in which he wrote that ‘I have always preferred the system of a unique and hereditary leader because I passionately love liberty and because it appears better assured against factions under this system than under any other.’

16 Chappey, ‘La notion d'empire’, pp. 122–3.

17 Martin Gaudin, Supplément aux mémoires et souvenirs de M. Gaudin, duc de Gaëte (Paris, 1834), pp. 21–5. See also Chappey, Jean-Luc, ‘Pierre-Louis Roederer et la presse sous le directoire et le consulat: l'opinion publique et les enjeux d'une politique éditoriale’, Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 334 (2003), p. 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Le Bozec, ‘Le républicanisme du possible’, pp. 70, 72.

19 Report from Sandoz-Rollin (28 Aug. 1799), in Paul Bailleu, ed., Preuβen und Frankreich von 1795 bis 1807: Diplomatische correspondenzen (2 vols., Leipzig, 1880–1887), i, p. 330.

20 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Mémoires du prince de Talleyrand (5 vols., Paris, 1891–2), i, pp. 274–5. See also Thierry Lentz, ‘Un parti autour de Bonaparte: les Brumairiens’, in Jacques-Olivier Boudon, ed., Brumaire: la prise de pouvoir de Bonaparte (Paris, 2001), pp. 72–5.

21 Thibaudeau, Mémoires sur le consulat, pp. 298–9; Thierry Lentz, Roederer, 1754–1835 (Metz, 1989), pp. 134–40.

22 Pierre-Louis Roederer, Mémoires sur la revolution, le consulat et l'Empire (Paris, 1942), pp. 116–17, 126–7, 203–11; idem, Œuvres du comte P.-L. Roederer (8 vols., Paris, 1855–), iii, pp. 331–3; Isser Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators: the making of a dictatorship (New York, NY, 2001), pp. 97–9.

23 Joseph Fouché, Mémoires de Joseph Fouché, duc d'Otrante, ministre de la police générale (2 vols., Paris, 1824), i, p. 304.

24 André-François, Comte Miot de Mélito, Mémoires du comte Miot de Melito, ancien ministre, ambassadeur, conseiller d'état et membre de l'Institut (1788–1815) (3 vols., Paris, 1858), ii, pp. 106–7.

25 See, for example, Corr. viii, p. 374 (24 June 1803), in response to a pamphlet by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales that portrayed the Revolution unfavourably.

26 Lentz, Roederer, p. 135, is one of the few to assert that at the end of 1800 Napoleon was reticent about heredity.

27 The links between Louis Bonaparte and Fontanes were very close: Pierre-Louis Roederer, Autour de Bonaparte: Journal de Cte P.-L. Roederer (Paris, 1909), p. 50; Stanislas Girardin, Mémoires, journal et souvenirs (2 vols., Paris, 1829), i, p. 197; Norbert Savariau, Louis de Fontanes: belles-lettres et enseignement de la fin de l'ancien régime à l'Empire (Oxford, 2002), pp. 273–5. For a different take on this pamphlet, see Bernard Gainot, ‘L'opposition militaire: autour des sociétés secrètes dans l'armée’, Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 346, (2006), pp. 57–8. Gainot argues that the text presents Napoleon as a bulwark against an alliance of demagogues, anarchists, and the military.

28 Comte Remacle, Relations secrètes des agents de Louis XVIII à Paris sous le consulat (1802–1803) (Paris, 1899), p. 63; Lentz, Roederer, pp. 140–5.

29 Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 95.

30 Bailleu, ed., Preuβen und Frankreich, ii, p. 47.

31 Joseph Fievée dubbed these people ‘royalistes d'intérêt’, as distinct from ‘royalistes d'opinion’. The latter were pro-Bourbon and would not accept any other form of monarchy; the former were prepared to accept a ‘monarchist system’ regardless of the sovereign. See Joseph Fievée, Correspondance et relations de J. Fiévée avec Bonaparte, … pendant onze années, 1802 à 1813 (3 vols., Paris, 1837), i, pp. 11–14; Michael Polowetzky, A bond never broken: the relations between Napoleon and the authors of France (Rutherford, 1993), p. 96.

32 Roederer, Mémoires, pp. 126–7.

33 Malcolm Crook, ‘The plebiscite on the Empire’, in Philip G. Dwyer and Alan Forrest, eds., Napoleon and his Empire: Europe, 1804–1814 (London, 2007), p. 17.

34 Remacle, Relations secrètes, p. 66.

35 Miot de Mélito, Mémoires, ii, pp. 160–1; Tulard, Le sacre de l'empereur, p. 9; David Chanteranne, Le sacre de Napoléon (Paris, 2004), pp. 30–7.

36 See the introduction by Thierry Lentz in La proclamation de l'Empire ou recueil des pieces et actes relatifs á l'établissement du gouvernement imperial héréditaire (Paris, 2001), p. 7.

37 Miot de Mélito, Mémoires, ii, p. 162.

38 Sainson, Katia, ‘“Le régénérateur de la France”: literary accounts of Napoleonic regeneration 1799–1805’, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 30 (2001–2), pp. 11–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See, for example, Joseph-Balthazar Bonnet de Treyches, Tableau politique de la France régénérée (Paris, 1800); F. D. de Compiègne de Mouton, L'accomplissement des prédictions, ou les destinées de Bonaparte (Paris, 1801); Louis-Joseph-Marie Robert, De l'influence de la Révolution française sur la population (Paris, 1802).

39 Jean Chas, A la nation française (Paris, an XIII (1804)), pp. 25–7; Jean-Gabriel-Maurice Rocques, comte de Montgaillard, De la France et de l'Europe sous le gouvernement de Bonaparte (Paris, 1804), pp. 3–4, 12–13, 14–15, 23–4, 57; Louis Dubroca, Les quatre fondateurs des dynasties françaises, ou histoire de l'établissement de la monarchie française (Paris, 1806), pp. 71–2; Jean Sarrazin, Le onze frimaire, ou discours analytique de la vie, des exploits mémorables, et des droits de Napoléon Ier (Paris, 1804), pp. 49–53.

40 The image found an echo in the political literature of the day, whether in the petitions from the various civic and military authorities or the speeches of the Tribunes published in the Moniteur universel in March and April 1804. See, for example, Maximin Isnard, Réflexions relatives au sénatus-consulte du 28 floréal an XII (Draguignan, 1804), pp. 7–8, in which he declares that France would be lost if it were not for Napoleon.

41 Jean Tulard, Joseph Fiévée: conseiller secret de Napoléon (Paris, 1985), pp. 117–29.

42 Paolo Colombo, ‘La question du pouvoir exécutif dans l’évolution institutionnelle et le débat politique révolutionnaire', Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 319, (2000), pp. 12–20.

43 Roederer, for one, had argued in favour of a strong executive throughout the Directory (Jainchill, Reimagining politics, p. 209). See his ‘Du gouvernement’, in Œuvre, vii, p. 28; Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis, ‘Quelques considérations sur l'organisation sociale en générale et particulièrement sur la nouvelle constitution’, Œuvres philosophiques de Cabanis, texte établi et présenté par Claude Lehec (2 vols., Paris, 1956), ii, pp. 1–65. See Serna, Pierre, ‘Barère, penseur et acteur d'un premier opportunisme républicain face au directoire exécutif’, Annales historique de la Révolution française, 332, (2003), pp. 101–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 Décade philosophique (10 and 20 Brumaire an VIII), pp. 249 and 315 (in the foreign affairs section). Other contemporary examples in favour of a strong executive include Nicolas-Pierre Gilbert, Du pacte social, ou examen raisonné de la constitution de l'an VIII (Paris, an VIII (1799)), 41; and Charles-Louis Cadet-Gassicourt, Cahiers de réformes, ou Voeux d'un ami de l'ordre adressés aux consuls et aux commissions legislatives (Paris, an VIII (1799)). See also Jainchill, Reimagining politics, pp. 234–5, 238–9.

45 Gazette de France, 19 Nov. 1799 (25 Brumaire an VIII).

46 Marc-Antoine Jullien, Entretien politique sur la situation actuelle de la France et sur les plans du nouveau gouvernement (Paris, frimaire an VIII (1799)).

47 Chas, A la nation française, p. 2.

48 Cited in André Cabanis, Le sacre de Napoléon (Paris, 1970), p. 239.

49 V.-R. Barbet Du Bertrand, Les trois homes illustres, ou dissertations sur les institutions politiques de César-Auguste, de Charlemagne et de Napoléon Bonaparte (Paris, 1803), pp. 257–8, 264–5, 269–70.

50 J.-G.-M.-R. de Montgaillard, La France sous le gouvernement de Bonaparte (Paris, 1803).

51 According to Chatel de Brancion, Le sacre de Napoléon, pp. 31–5, although there does not appear to be a demonstrable connection between Napoleon and Louis Bonald, Théorie du pouvoir politique et religieux dans la société civile (3 vols., Paris, 1796).

52 Chatel de Brancion, Le sacre de Napoléon, p. 32, argues that Napoleon went about constructing the social family in part by reorganizing the natural family in the Code Civil.

53 Isnard, Réflexions relatives au sénatus-consulte, pp. 6–7.

54 Ibid., pp. 15, 16.

55 Ibid., p. 18.

56 As does, for example, Patrick Gueniffey, Le dix-huit Brumaire: l'épilogue de la Révolution française (Paris, 2008), pp. 320–1, when speaking of the petitions of congratulation sent in for 18 Brumaire, which he describes as ‘that toadying literature’ (cette littérature flagorneuse).

57 Legoy, Corinne, ‘Les poètes et les princes: figures et postures des thuriféraires du pouvoir sous la Restauration’, Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle, 35, (2007), pp. 35–49Google Scholar, here p. 40; idem, ‘La gloire et le temps’, Revue d'histoire du XIXe siècle, 25, (2002), pp. 165–70.

58 Gillet in Proclamation de l'empire, pp. 39–44.

59 Curée in Ibid., p. 28.

60 Jaubert in Ibid., p. 30.

61 Lahary in Ibid., p.101.

62 Curée in Ibid., pp. 27, 28, as well as Jaubert, pp. 30, 34.

63 Lahary in Ibid., p. 90. Similar sentiments were expressed by Delaistre, p. 173, and Delpierre, p. 187. For the views of the president of the Corps Législatif, Fontanes, see, Savariau, Louis de Fontanes, pp. 324–9.

64 Jourdan, ‘Le Premier Empire’, 59.

65 Proclamation de l'empire, pp. 86, 91, 165, 167, 264.

66 Siméon in Ibid., p. 50.

67 Ibid., pp. 28, 30, 46, 144, 147, 149, 154–5.

68 Ibid., pp. 46.

69 Duvidal de Montferrier in Ibid., pp. 37, 38. See also the declarations on pp. 46, 143, 97, 101, 129, 171, 177, 180, 187–8, 202.

70 Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 109; idem, ‘From consulate to empire: impetus and resistance’, in Peter Baehr and Melvin Richter, eds., Dictatorship in history and theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and totalitariansim (Cambridge, 2004), p. 44.

71 Savoye-Rollin in La proclamation de l'Empire, p. 143.

72 It can be seen also in the addresses to Napoleon asking him to assume the imperial title. See, for example, Moniteur universel, 9 May 1804 (address from the first division of Dragons), 10 May 1804 (address from the municipal corps of the town of Paris).

73 Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 109 and n. 33, whose chapter on the transformation from republic to empire is perhaps the most thorough analysis to date, argues that the members of the legislative chambers deliberately distorted the principles of 1789 – Nation, Law, King – and the doctrine of popular sovereignty.

74 Isnard, Réflexions relatives au sénatus-consulte, p. 36.

75 See the memoir attached to the senate's response in La proclamation de l'Empire, pp. 217–21.

76 Moniteur universel, 3 May 1804, p. 1012; Robert Morrissey, ‘Charlemagne et la légende impériale’, in Jean-Claude Bonnet, ed., L'empire des muses: Napoléon, les arts et les lettres (Paris, 2004), p. 340.

77 Lazare Carnot in La proclamation de l'Empire, pp. 63–9. On Carnot's opposition and the response to it see, Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, pp. 105–9.

78 Although the official Correspondance does not contain a letter from Napoleon to Soult (or any other army commander) with this request, there is an allusion to such a document in a letter from Soult to Napoleon in which the former states, ‘You ordered me, general, to report, in the greatest detail, on the opinion of the army’ (Soult to Napoleon, AN AFiv 1599, 27 Germinal an XII (17 Apr. 1804). I would like to thank Michael J. Hughes for sharing his archival notes and for pointing me in this direction.

79 Soult to Napoleon, AN AFiv 1599, 21 Germinal an XII (10 Apr. 1804).

80 Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 111; Claude-Ambroise Regnier, Rapport du grand-juge au Premier Consul, et communiqué au Sénat dans sa séance de germinal, contenant toutes les pièces de la conspiration tramée par le gouvernement britannique, contre les jours du Premier Consul! (Paris, an XII (1804)).

81 At least according to Lentz, Le grand consulat, p. 563, but there does not appear to be a great deal of support for this assertion.

82 AN B ii 850A, 850B, 850C, and 851A. Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 113, has discerned three types of petitions. For an example of an officer feeling obliged to sign a petition in favour of the creation of the Empire see, ‘Memoires du capitaine Godet’, Carnet de la Sabretache, 10, (1927), pp. 174–6.

83 AN BB/ii/850B.

84 AN BB/ii/850A, 22 floréal XII. Also cited in Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 112.

85 For example, Woloch, Napoleon and his collaborators, p. 114.

86 Alan Forrest, Napoleon's men: the soldiers of the Revolution and Empire (London, 2002), p. 100.

87 Corr., ix, n. 7683 (14 Apr. 1804); Annie Jourdan, ‘Le sacre ou le pacte social’, in Napoléon le sacre (Ajaccio, 2004), p. 27; and idem, ‘Le Premier Empire’, pp. 51–64.

88 A change came about on 21 Mar. 1804, when the editors announced that the number of petitions coming through was so numerous that they were going to abandon publishing them in their entirety and instead print extracts. Many of the letters sent to the authorities and not published can be found in the series AN F/1Ciii.

89 AN F/1Ciii/Aisne 12, 2 ventôse an XII (21 Feb. 1804).

90 AN AFiv, 1953, 12 ventôse an XII (2 Mar. 1804). Other examples include a letter from the civil magistrates of Marseilles to Napoleon, f/1ciii/Bouches-du-Rhône 8, 4 ventôse an XII (23 Feb. 1804).

91 For this see, Elaine Williamson, ‘Denon, la presse et la propagande impériale’, in D. Gallo, ed., Les vies de Dominique-Vivant Denon (2 vols., Paris, 2001), i, pp. 154–5.

92 The assertion by Jourdan, ‘Le sacre’, p. 27, that the petitions pleaded in favour of heredity or that, more specifically, the electoral colleges of the Var, the Yonne, the Nord, the Hautes-Pyrénées, and the Roër (found in the Moniteur universel, 14 Apr. 1804) ‘begged’ Napoleon to accept the crown is simply not borne out. There is at most a vague hint in the petition from the Yonne that ‘It is time to merge without reserve your [that is, Napoleon's] destiny and that of the state’.

93 For example, Moniteur universel, 19 Mar. 1804.

94 Ibid., 1 May 1804.

95 AN F/1Ciii/Aisne 12, letter from the ‘tribunal de commerce’ of Soissons (no date but probably end of floréal an XII (May 1804)).

96 AN F/1Ciii/Bouches-du-Rhône 8, prefect of the department to the minister of the interior, 9 prairial an XII (28 May 1804).

97 Corinne Legoy, ‘Les marges captivantes, de l'histoire: la parole de gloire de la Restauration’, in Anne-Emmanuelle Demartini and Dominique Kalifa, eds., Imaginaire et sensibilités au XIXe siècle: études pour Alain Corbin (Paris, 2005), pp. 115–24, here pp. 119–20.

98 The quote is from a letter by Pierre Hartmann Richard, Lyons, no date, in AN AFiv, Fond de la secrétairerie d'état, 1951. A few examples from these cartons have been used by Natalie Petiteau, Les français et l'empire (1799–1815) (Paris, 2008), pp. 160–6.

99 AN AFiv 1951, P. Barrere to the minister of the interior, 25 floréal an XII (14 May 1804).

100 AN AFiv, 1953, Paris, 3 ventôse an XII (22 Feb. 1804).

101 Both letters in AN AFiv 1953 (no dates).

102 AN AFiv, 1953, 24 priarial an 12 (14 June 1804).

103 A printed example is L'avènement de Napoléon à l'empire; stance lyrique par J. B. (Paris, 1804).

104 Sarrazin, Le onze frimaire, p. 80.

105 AN B ii 850B, letter from the adjudant commandant of the Army of St Domingue, General Henry, Nantes, 13 floréal an XII (2 May 1804).

106 AN AFiv 1953, Lafontaine, 2 May 1804.

107 AN AFiv 1953, the widow Maillet (no date, no place).

108 AN AFiv 1953, Jean-Baptiste Chabrier, Mirmande, 14 ventôse an XII (4 May 1804).

109 Petiteau, Les français et l'empire, pp. 165, 170, argues that this period sees a reinvention of relations between monarch and subject and that we are seeing a return to a new kind of sacralization of the monarchy, less superstitious, than that which preceded the Revolution.

110 AN AFiv 1953, Pradier, from Castres, Department of Tarn, 30 germinal an XII (15 June 1804).

111 AN AFiv 1953, Jean-Aime Lautour, 7 floréal an XII (26 Apr. 1804); Egron, retired commandant de Place, 11 floréal an XII (30 Apr. 1804); Jean Jacques Nicolas André, 27 floréal an XII (16 May 1804); Jacques Nicolas André, lawyer, Turin, 27 floréal an XII (16 May 1804); and Sarrazin, Le onze frimaire, pp. 83–4.

112 AN B ii 850B, General Henry, Nantes, 13 floréal an XII (2 May 1804); B ii 851A, letter from the camp of Montreuil (no date); F/1Ciii/Aisne 12, letter from the sub-prefect of the Aisne, floréal an XII (Apr. 1804).

113 See, for example, the letter from a notary in the Tarn, Pierre Guibert, in AFIV 1953, in which he refers to Napoleon as the father of the French people, called on to conserve the glory and prosperity of the Empire. Also, F/1ciii/Lot/9, adjunct mayor of the town of Caussade, department of Lot, to Napoleon, 19 floréal an XII (8 May 1804); AFiv, 1953, François Louis Marguet, Besançon, 12 ventôse an XII (2 Mar. 1804); and Lieutenant Boutaud, Paris, 15 floréal an XII (4 May 1804).

114 Smith, ‘No more language games’, p. 1426.

115 Petiteau, Les français et l'empire, p. 123.

116 François Arago, Histoire de ma jeunesse (Brussels and Leipzig, 1854), pp. 52–3; Remacle, Relations secrètes, pp. 53, 74–5.

117 Souvenirs du général baron Teste (Paris, 1999), pp. 100–1. He described the swearing of the oath to the imperial regime as a ceremony in which a ‘sad and gloomy silence’ reigned.

118 Natalie Petiteau, ‘Insultes et hostilités politiques sous le consulat et l'Empire’, in Thomas Bouchet, Matthew Legget, Jean Vigreux, and Geneviève Verdo, eds., L'insulte (en) politique: Europe et Amérique latine du XIXe siècle à nos jours (Dijon, 2005), p. 213.

119 Auxonne-Marie-Théodose de Thiard, Souvenirs diplomatiques et militaires (Paris, 2007), pp. 128–9; Gilbert Bodinier, ‘Officiers et soldats de l'armée impériale face à Napoléon’, in Napoléon, de l'histoire à la légende: actes du colloque des 30 novembre et le 1er décembre 1999 (Paris, 2000), pp. 215–16.

120 J.-N.-A. Noël, Souvenirs militaires d'un officier du premier empire (1792–1832) (Paris, 1895), pp. 34–5.

121 F. W. J. Hemmings, The theatre industry in nineteenth-century France (New York, NY, 1993), pp. 82–3.

122 Alphonse Aulard, Paris sous le Premier Empire: recueil de documents pour l'histoire de l'esprit public à Paris (3 vols. Paris, 1912–23), i, p. 100, ‘Ce jour te sera prospère/Ton soutien est un héros.’

123 Corr., vi, n. 4422 (9 Nov. 1799).

124 See Serna, La république des girouettes, p. 20.

125 The term is from Girard, Philippe R., ‘Napoléon Bonaparte and the emancipation issue in Saint-Domingue, 1799–1803’, French Historical Studies, 32 (2009), p. 589CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

126 A similar view is expressed by Pierre Serna, ‘“Gouvernement du lion … ou règne de de l'astre brillant?” Le 18 Brumaire au regard des historiens contemporains du Premier consulat (1800–1802)’, in Jean-Pierre Jessenne, ed., Du directoire au consulat: Brumaire dans l'histoire du lien politique et de l'état-nation (4 vols., Villeneuve d'Ascq, 2001), iii, p. 366.

127 Jean-Marc Olivesi, ‘De l'impossible porphyrogénèse à un rituel de légitimation: le Sacre’, in Napoléon le sacre (Ajaccio, 2004), p. 10; Chappey, ‘La notion d'empire’, p. 117. The phrase ‘hybrid regime’ is from Jacques Bainville, Napoléon (Paris, 1931, re-ed. 1995), p. 172.

128 On this point, Marc Belissa, Repenser l'ordre européen (1795–1802): de la société des rois aux droits des nations (Paris, 2006), p. 178.

129 Richard Koebner, Empire (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 279–84.