Despite the official settlement with the papacy, some priests refused to bury those who had supported the pro–revolutionary wing of the church in the 1790s and others preached royalism from the pulpit. These excerpts come from a report made to the…
Klemens von Metternich, head of the Austrian government and therefore a sharp critic of Napoleon, reported that Napoleon viewed Catholicism in largely utilitarian, even cynical terms.
One of Napoleon’s first priorities was to reestablish good relations with the papacy, which had fought the revolutionary church settlement tooth and nail. Napoleon gained everything he desired in the Concordat: he appointed the bishops and…
Naming his brother Lucien to the key post of minister of the interior, Bonaparte quickly moved to establish his political control over the country. He set up “prefects” for every administrative region known as a department; these appointees had final…
Napoleon glosses over the conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution of 1795 and the duly elected legislature. This conspiracy was organized in part by his younger brother Lucien. He does, however, admit that some of the deputies opposed his endeavor…
In his memoirs, André François Miot de Melito, a special minister from the French government to Piedmont, tells of his first impressions of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, who was only twenty-seven but already an important general because of his…
One of the targets of the left was the officer corps. Recruited from the aristocracy, the military leadership was, of course, suspect. When early battles went poorly, suspicion, justifiable or not, only mounted. Such circumstances led to even more…
In this review of a book by an author favorable to women’s education, Pipelet argues that republics should demonstrate a different attitude toward women than monarchies. She restates the arguments for more education and more opportunities for women…
Once the uprising of May 1795 had been suppressed, the government set up a military tribunal, which gathered denunciations of presumed rioters. This one gives a good sense of the charges made and the kind of language used ("infernal sect of Jacobin…
