Legacy of the Revolution (Prologue)

[Lumine]

Legacy of Revolution

Victory, Glory and Defeat in the Napoleonic Age

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The Year is 1802.

Thirteen years after the outbreak of the French Revolution, and ten years after the start of the Revolutionary Wars, Europe is, for the first time in a decade, at peace.

The signing of the Treaty of Amiens puts an end to ceaseless strife between Britain and France, but many observers do not expect such a peace to last for eternity.

And in the meantime, nations gear up for what’s to follow while the effects of the French Revolution continue to violently shake up the continent.

Three years after seizing power in a brazen coup d’etat, First Consul Bonaparte has shown himself a genius at politics as well as warfare, but the ceaseless growth of his ambitions signifies that France’s struggles have only just begun.

Across the sea, King George III goes in and out of madness while Pitt the Younger clamours for French blood. And just as an Empire is lost in the Americas, another one is being won in India.

In Central Europe, the old Austro-Prussian rivalry is somewhat tempered as Hapsburg and Hohenzollern feast on the Polish corpse, but it remains unlikely that they’ll share a common battlefield and foe.

In the frozen fields of Russia, a wary Alexander I uneasily succeeds his unstable father after a violent palace coup, and he must contend with the heavy weight of expectations.

Decadent but not finished, the Ottoman and Spanish Empires maintain their hold over vast dominions, with an aspiring Sultan and unscrupulous Minister keen to succeed.

And across the sea, the new American Republic experiences the first years of Democratic-Republican rule, as Thomas Jefferson tries to tame the Hamiltonian beast.

The future is open to all in this world, which ever since July 14th, 1789, can no longer be the same.

In an area of Kings and Revolutionaries, where the old clashes with the new, can you and your nation find success?

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An Explanation:

As discussed, this is the new Napoleonic game, which is not meant to start until mid-May at the absolute earliest. Sign-ups aren't open yet either, so this thread is solely to - in Spamage's Zenith-style provide future players with the necessary background to ease up their eventual participation. Over the next few weeks and days I'll be posting articles outlining the status of various countries, covering important news, and trying to ensure we have sufficient detail to avoid being buried in questions at the start of the game itself.

[Lumine]

The French Revolution

1789-1794

The Storming of the Bastille,
Wikimedia Commons

Après moi, le déluge

That the Kingdom of France was to undergo a revolution without precedent in European History was not a foregone conclusion at the start of 1789. However, more pieces were in place than observers realized at the time.

For one, the powerful Kingdom was in a financial crisis of great proportions. A combination of enormous foreign expenditure (supporting the nascent American rebellion against Britain), military expenditure (a major naval program to compete with Britain coupled with a large land army), and court expenditure (amidst the pomp of Versailles) had left public finances bare, putting the squeeze into the so-called "Third Estate" of the poor and the middle class while nobles and priests remained except for taxation. The Crown needed money.

For another, the political power and the popularity of the monarchy itself were on the decline. Although the vacillating, well-meaning Louis XVI remained well loved by the people, he was now decidedly at odds with a growing number in the nobility who demanded change, reform, and perhaps even, the sort of parliamentary system seen in neighboring Britain. And more concerning still, the Austrian-born Queen Marie Antoinette had steadily become the target of public anger and ridicule through scandal and a vibrant - and racy - opposition press that printed safe from harm in the Netherlands.

And finally, and in a particularly bad stroke of luck for the French monarchy, a series of difficult winters and bad harvests had pushed an over-taxed Third Estate into major discomfort, if not outright misery and starvation across much of France. Repeated attempts at reforming the finances were only met with the steadfast opposition of the nobility - and the clergy -, further complicating the situation as the traditional tribunals - the Parlements - thundered with subversion.

To the Bastille!

Under the advice of the reform-minded (Swiss-born) Finance Minister Necker, Louis XVI gambled by calling forth the Estates General, a general assembly of the three estates of the realm that could sidestep the Parlaments to increase taxation. The body, however, had not been summoned since 1614. And the nation answered with sheer enthusiasm. Well over 1,200 representatives were elected to the body, the traditional method of allowing the First (clergy) and Second (nobility) estates to outvote the Third unraveling almost immediately.

In the view of the Third Estate - itself led by a collection of lawyers and magistrates obsessed with change -, joined by a disturbing amount of reform-minded aristocrats and the more humble priests, being summoned to authorize a tax increase was not going to work. They wanted reform on the agenda, and the curbing of privilege, and more representative government, and they wanted it now. Before long, the deadlock had led the reformist cause to join forces, declaring themselves a sovereign National Assembly. Louis XVI, oscillating between brothers demanding blood and a minister urging moderation, merely tried to lock the doors.

Tennis Court Oath,
Wikimedia Commons

The National Assembly gathered at a neighboring tennis court and under their President, the astronomer Bailly, they took a sacred oath: they would not disperse nor dissolve until they had given France a Constitution. After a week of tension and mounting discontent, Louis relented at first in deigning to recognize their existence. But soon Marie Antoinette and Louis' younger brother, the Count of Artois, put it to him that the affront had gone too far. And sure enough, the King dismissed Necker, calling forth the foreign regiments of the Army - including the Swiss Guard - to keep control over an over-excited Paris.

The spark was lit. 29-year old lawyer Camille Desmoulins, standing atop a table in the middle of the  Palais Royal (gathering place for the opposition), thundered against the government. "The Swiss are coming", he warned, telling the grown that Necker's dismissal was but the opening shot for a Night of St. Bartholomew against all Patriots. He urged Parisians to take up arms, and soon there was a riot in place. Taking up the city's blue and red colors, said Patriots mobilized as the French-born troops refused to fire on them. Something had broken.

On July 14th, 1789, the previously disorganized Patriot crowds gathered outside the fortress of the Bastille. There, they said, was the powder and the muskets needed to defend their city. Despite an attempt at negotiation by the Royal Governor de Launay, the fortress was stormed in a pitch battle. That night, de Launay's head was placed atop a pike and paraded through the streets as excited citizens partied and celebrated having struck a blow against what they increasingly saw as tyranny. "Is it a revolt?", asked the King. "'No Sire," said a courtier - "It is a Revolution."

The sunny days of the Revolution

Right as the remnants of the Bastille smouldered, the Parisian militias organized themselves as a National Guard. An unsettled Louis XVI was forced to recognize their existence, and that of Bailly as Mayor of Paris and the young hero the Marquis of Lafayette as the Guard's commander. For his part, the moderate Lafayette would add the royal white to the Parisian red and blue for the Guard's cockades, creating what would soon be known as the tricolor. Civil authority soon dissipated across the provinces, with hordes of revolutionary-minded crowds delivering their own blows against tyranny and privilege: no shortage of noble property was ransacked, and aristocrats started fleeing the nation by the score.

In Paris, the truce was only temporary. Right after the National Assembly passed decree upon decree abolishing feudalism, enshrining the first political rights, and ending a large list of privileges. In August, the Assembly outlined its historic declaration of principles: the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a bold document that upheld a series of basic, inalienable rights as universal. And in October, the still hungry Parisian crowds marched on Versailles, forcing Louis XVI - amidst all this, still cheered as a father to his people misled by "The Austrian" to travel to Paris and settle down on the city.

Perhaps out of fear, and knowing only Lafayette's quick thinking had saved the Queen from a grisly fate at Versailles, Louis consented to the Declaration and the previous laws enacted by the National Assembly. The year ended with the complete collapse of the Ancien Regime. What came next was a mystery.

The women of Paris march on Versailles,
Wikimedia Commons

A Constitution was enacted, giving Louis XVI a suspensive veto and forcing him to share large powers with the National Assembly. As violence somewhat subsided, the next year and half gave many reason to hope for a peaceful Revolution that would thoroughly reform the old Kingdom without the need to spill blood. Despite Louis proving an awkward partner - his demurring constantly harming his popularity -, it was the time for the moderates and constitutionalists to shine: not just Lafayette and Bailly, but men like the Abbe Sieyes or the powerful, crafty Mirabeau, who still saw it possible to salvage a strong monarchy balanced with constitutional government.

Radicals, at least for now, seemed to be contained, if growing ever bolder through aggressive freedom of the press and ceaseless action by the radical-minded people of Paris. But it would end in tears. The National Assembly then targeted the Church, confiscating its property, dissolving its orders, and forcing on them a Civil Constitution of the Clergy that the Pope and the more conservative priests angrily denounced. Louis, meant to sign it into law, wrestled with his conscience as a "good Catholic". The King became politically paralyzed, forcing Marie Antoinette to step in.

To her credit, the Queen who'd lived her life amidst pleasure and frivolity found inner strength and guile, but Mirabeau's early death (1791) temporarily shattered the dreams of finding a wedge with which to divide the Assembly. Louis and Marie Antoinette grew fearful for their lives and their children, and resolved to escape their gilded cage in Paris with aid from the Swedish count Fersen, Marie Antoinette's friend and rumored lover. Dashing for the Rhine in hopes of linking up with Royalist troops, they were too slow. Caught red-handed trying to flee his Kingdom, Louis XVI destroyed his popularity: he was still King, but he was no longer any friend to the Revolution.

The Monarchy falls

The failed flight that destroyed a monarchy,
Wikimedia Commons

The wedge between the Revolutionaries finally developed. The moderates, led by Bailly and Lafayette, decided to save the monarchy, preserving it so long as Louis swore allegiance to the new 1791 Constitution. The radicals thundered, and gathered at the Champ de Mars in full view of the National Guard. Bailly ordered them to shoot. The ensuing massacre forced many radicals to flee abroad, but it also ruined Bailly and Lafayette's reputations. They too were no longer friends of the Revolution. Here the foreign monarchies of Europe, long terrified of these developments, reacted.

A declaration signed by the Hapsburg Emperor and the Prussian King warned the Revolutionaries against going any further. And here the next wedge developed, as the new - constitutionalist - moderates of Barnave found themselves against the new radicals: the so-called Girondists, whose leader Brissot demanded a republic and war against Austria for daring to stand in the way of the people. For a year Barnave and Brissot danced around as a new legislative body was elected, and Brissot prevailed. Backed by Louis XVI - who increasingly saw military defeat as his sole remaining salvation -, France declared war in April 1792: the French Revolutionary Wars had begun.

Said war soon proved disastrous. A French invasion of the Austrian Netherlands crashed and burned, and the pro-Royalist Coalition army (comprised of Prussian, Austrian and Emigré troops) prepared their march on Paris. Its commander, the Duke of Brunswick, threatened vengeance if the King was harmed. Only ten days later (August 10th, 1792), a radical insurrectionist Paris Commune was formed by those more radical than the Girondins themselves, and its armed militias stormed the Tuileries Palace. The Swiss Guard was slaughtered, and Louis took refuge at the Legislative Assembly. In a historic session, the representatives - pressured by the Commune - dissolved the Monarchy and proclaimed the French Republic.

Louis and his family were now prisoners under guard at the Temple Prison, and Lafayette defected to the enemy lines upon hearing of the events. The Monarchy was over.

August 10th: the bloody end of the French Monarchy
Wikimedia Commons

Audacity, more audacity, always audacity!

By all accounts, the new French Republic was at the end of the rope. Brunswick marched on Paris, and the Assembly remained divided. A new National Convention was swiftly elected, this time turning the Girondins into the new moderates: to their left, the Commune-inspired Mountain of Robespierre, Danton and Marat were now the radicals. August turned to September, and Brunswick drew closer. The energetic Danton, now Minister of Justice, thundered for violent resistance and mobilization of the people against the invader: "We must have audacity, more audacity, always audacity!", he bellowed.

In two days of infamy, Commune-aligned mobs stormed the prisons of Paris, and summarily executed well over 1,200 prisoners suspected of being a Royalist fifth-column. The city had been cleansed of treason. And right after, the miracle occurred: the French Revolutionary Army, devoid of resources but strong in morale, beat back the Prussians at Valmy. To thunderous applause and amidst the worried looks of the increasingly unpopular Girondins, Danton declared the Republic safe.

1793 opened up with a bang. As French troops marched under the stirring tunes of the new popular tune the Marseillaise, Louis XVI was put under trials for crimes against public liberty. His guilt was beyond doubt at the eyes of the Convention, but they struggled still with his actual sentence. The Mountain, backed by the Commune, prevailed: on January 21st, 1793, Citizen Louis Capet (Louis XVI of France) was executed by the guillotine at the Place de la Concorde. The next month, the Republic declared war on Britain. Soon after, it was at war with the world as the First Coalition (Austria, Prussia, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Naples) formed to crush the Revolution.

Faced against such odds, the Convention took desperate measures. The levée en masse was introduced, the first time mass national conscription had been successfully enacted in modern times. The citizen armies of the Republic, poorly equipped and questionably led, experienced defeat upon defeat, but kept fighting. And the Revolutionaries no longer had Louis to blame for the future: the time approached for them to eat each other like Saturn and its children. After the formation of a powerful Committee of Public Safety and a Revolutionary Tribunal, the Mountain moved against the Girondins, sick of their growing moderation and embrace of federalism.

Citizen Capet stands trial before the Convention,
Wikimedia Commons

In May 1793, the Convention was surrounded by a Commune-aligned militia: the Girondins were purged from the body and arrested, allowing the Mountain to seize absolute power over the state. A new radical Constitution was put in place, price controls and restrictions on property were enacted, and after Marat was murdered, summary executions at the guillotine by the Revolutionary Tribunal became the norm. The provinces exploded in anger and revolt across the west and south of France as Brittany, the Vendeé, Lyon and Marseilles declared themselves against the National Convention. Civil war had arrived.

The Reign of Terror

Once again, Paris prevailed, and with it the Mountain. Mobilizing the energies of the nation, the Convention was able to drown most revolts in blood through summary executions, successfully crushing the Lyon and Marseilles uprisings and starting a bitter war of annihilation at the royalist Vendee that soon came to resemble extermination of an entire people. The French Revolutionary Army, increasingly better supplied and led, gained its first lasting heroes after inflicting important defeats on the professional armies of the Coalition.

And then the Mountain doubled down. Despite mounting disagreements between Robespierre and Danton, Revolutionary justice became the order of the day. Hundreds of thousands were arrested, and every day the guillotine severed the head of more and more counterrevolutionaries. It was a scale of totalitarian repression never seen before in France or in Europe: it was the Reign of Terror. One by one the surviving protagonists of the early Revolution were executed, even those once vital to the Revolution itself. The hated Marie Antoinette went first, followed by Philippe Egalité, once Duke of Orleans. Then Bailly, never forgiven for the Champ de Mars.

And then the entire Gironde, from Brissot to the lowest deputy. As extreme followed extreme, Robespierre increasingly seized influence and power aided by his young and radical lieutenant Saint-Just, the voice of vengeance against treason. The more violent and the more zealot, the more a deputy would be applauded at the National Convention, as many future famous men soon learned. And when the Mountain at long last split itself yet again, Robespierre battled Danton and Desmoulins for power, with no mercy or hope for a reprieve. Danton lost, and he and his friend were added to the list of corpses.

Endgame at Thermidor,
Wikimedia Commons

Though never assuming a formal position other than his place at the Committee of Public Health, Robespierre came to resemble a dictator on mid 1794. A cult of reason was imposed to replace the hated Catholic faith, and Robespierre harangued and intimidated deputies by demanding the most absolute virtue and devotion of the Republic. The French Revolutionary Army kept winning victories, expelling the enemy from French soil after - partly thanks to the efforts of young artillery colonel Bonaparte - the siege of Toulon. The Revolutionary Tribunal was empowered to crush the enemies of the nation.

At the last moment, Robespierre stumbled. He had pushed too far. Scores of deputies, fearful of their own safety, resentful over Danton, or just plain sick of their would-be dictator, decided to act. Cowardice gave way to conspiracy, and when Robespierre threatened the Convention one time too many on the month of Thermidor (August 1794), the Convention fired back. At a heated session, the Mountain leader was repeatedly shouted down by his newfound enemies, and not even Saint-Just's desperate efforts could save him from what was about to come. Robespierre tried to rally the Commune to resist the traitorous deputies, only for the National Guard to storm the Hotel de Ville in which the Mountain planned its last stand.

A botched suicide left Robespierre in immense pain as he was carted off the streets of Paris. And when he was guillotined alongside Saint-Just and his surviving acolytes, the so-called Thermidorian conspirators - all of them men who had been comfortable with the bloodshed until very recently - were stunned by the public reaction: the people of Paris, who had worshiped Robespierre like a god, cheered the end of the Terror as the end of tyranny itself.

The Revolution was not over yet. But a Reaction had begun.

[Lumine]

The Directory

1794-1799

After Robespierre, the Reaction
Wikimedia Commons

Thermidorian Reaction

The Reign of Terror was (technically) over. As the prisons were opened, scores of political prisoners were released into an unexpected, bewildering freedom. Jean Lambert Tallien, a leading Thermidorian, celebrated the release of his beautiful mistress Theresa - the infamous Madame Tallien -, over whom it was rumored that it had been her beauty who had pushed Tallien into action. From the Conciergerie, the dark prison that held those soon to reach the guillotine, a woman and her lover were released into a world that had been their oyster until very recently.

The man was Lazare Hoche, a young, promising General denounced by his colleague. The woman was Rose de Beauharnais, widow to a guillotined noble General. Right as Rose and Hoche were released, another young officer - one Colonel Bonaparte - was arrested over his connections to Robespierre's brother. Fate would dictate one that the lovely vidow Rose, whom we better know as Josephine, would one day marry Bonaparte and not Hoche.

And much as Thermidor was a reaction against the worst excesses of the Revolution, it remained far far away from the sort of Royalist reaction that the Count of Artois and others wished for. Lest it be forgotten, France had changed enormously. The once Third Estate had grown a conscience of its own and, more or less, embraced the somewhat egalitarian principles set in stone by the Revolution. The State had grown almost all-powerful in a manner alien to the traditional monarchic absolutism.

Private property and wealth had been so thoroughly prosecuted as to make one embarassed - or, more accurately, terrified - of being rich. The Thermidorians were still sons of the Revolution, and most had earned the monicker of Regicides for having voted to execute Citizen Capet. So the Revolution was here to stay, though tempered to a degree that Robespierre would have denounced in bitter terms. There would be no puritan dictator forcing all good Republicans to live like ascetic monks. Virtue would soon be replaced by the return of money and pleasures, turning Paris once again into a city of luxuries amidst misery.

Muscadins: the new (violent) dandies of Paris,
Wikimedia Commons

Fate dictated that, by making so many enemies, Robespierre was to be succeeded by very distinct characters. There was the former abbé Sieyes, the bourgeois reformer per excellence. There was the sinister Fouché, who had changed parties three times already, and had always found a way to live. There was Tallien and his lovely Theresa, ready to live for pleasure again. There was Collot d'Herbois, the actor, standing for the remnants of the Mountain. And then there was Paul Barras, the affable, congenial personification of corruption, and soon to be the closest thing to a Primus inter Pares. Such were the men of Thermidor, who rapidly set to signing an agreement (Treaty of La Jaunaye) that would allow for freedom of worship once again. The western provinces, though by no means pacified, quieted down somehwat.

For a few months, an uneasy calm set in Paris as the pillars of Robespierre's rule were torn down and the Thermidorians found ways to somewhat tolerate each other. But the Revolution was by no means done in devouring its many children.

The Whiff of Grapeshot

1795 started and continued with success on the battlefield. The French Revolutionary Army, increasingly more experienced despite shortages and the ceaseless changes in command, successfully crossed the frozen rivers of the Netherlands under General Pichegru, deposing the Dutch Stadtholder - who fled to England - and proclaiming a French-aligned Batavian Republic. Spain was knocked out of the war soon after, and the Prussians, more occupied with the prospect of partitioning Poland for good, also dropped out. Having fought the world for at least three whole years, the Republic now stared down only at Austria on land and England at the seas.

But success on the battlefield and success on the domestic front were very different things. 1794 was the worst winter in a century, dwarfing the ruinous 1787-1788 winters that had brought about the Revolution in the first place. The people starved, the currency devalued, and opposite gangs fought each other on the streets of Paris: the Jacobin sans-culottes, increasingly bitter over the perceived betrayal of the values of the Revolution; and the muscadins, perfume-wearing, well-dressed dandyish gangs who valued the Republic's increasingly more conservative turn. And as this took place, the Thermidorians were hard at work preparing a Constitution while pondering on when to gouge each other's eyes out.

The Jacobins were crushed first, an attempt to launch a coup in Paris resulting in a harsh crackdown. Under the so-called White Terror, the Muscadins mercilessly clubbed down the sans-culottes as even the Thermidorians who still aligned with the Jacobins and the Mountain were signaled to be enemies of the state. Fouché lost his power and was thrown into poverty, and off went Collot and his hapless radicals to the hell of Guiana, replaced in their seats by the still surviving Girodine deputies. But then the Royalist rose as the new threat. With the young Dauphin, still a prisoner of the Republic, now dead at age 10 - by all accounts, after a miserable, wretched life -, his uncle the Count of Provence assumed the crown in exile as Louis XVIII. His followers at the Vendee launched a new insurrection, and aided by a British fleet the Count of Artois landed in France.

Paris was filled with dread. The Royalists were on the upswing against an unpopular government and a new Constitution that pleased no one. And the Thermidorians, led by Barras, feared that at the first royalist uprising the National Guard would go with them, bringing a sudden end to the Republic. On the 13th of Vendémiaire (October) 1795, 30,000 royalists marched on the National Convention to bring back the Monarchy. The deputies were panicking. Barras, keeping his head, searched for a reliably Republican officer. He found young General Bonaparte, by this point released from prison and rehabilitated, if highly unpopular with his superiors. That night, the insurgents found themselves against several well-placed artillery batteries closing off all access to the Convention.

Bonaparte gives the Royalists a whiff of grapeshot
Wikimedia Commons

Outnumbered 6 to 1, the Republican guards held their ground, Bonaparte ordering grapeshot ammunition shot against the massed, packed crowds. Two hours later, the Royalist crowd receded, leaving dozens dead. Hoche, sent against the Vendee, crushed another Royalist army. Artois withdrew back to England. The Republic was saved, and a new form of government about to be enacted.

Barras' merry band of Directors

The Constitution of 1795 was purposedly written to get as far away as possible from the depths of the Reign of Terror. It introduced a bicameral parliament with a lower house (the Council of Five Hundred) handling legislation and an upper house (the Council of Ancients) reviewing it, with the lower house being partially and indirectly elected each year - by a culled, property owning electorate - to guarantee stability. And no longer would the legislature wield executive power. But instead of settling down on one man to lead - whether President or not -, Barras imposed a different formula: a five-man Directory, with one of them being replaced each year as well.

With Sieyes unwilling to join such a body, it was left to Barras to dominate it, serving originally alongside a radical, two moderates, and one Lazare Carnot, the Republican technocrat responsible for the levée en masse and for organizing the French Republican Army into a credible, fearsome force. And yet discontent lingered on. The body was increasingly seen as corrupt and ineffective, and the relaxation of policies like price controls caused another wave of mass popular discontent and unemployment in the large cities. Another Jacobin insurrection in 1796 failed, its leaders sent to the guillotine. Amidst the misery, high society revived in Paris, boosted by Victims' Balls - of those almost killed during the Terror -, new divorce laws and a relaxation of sexual norms, and new types began to emerge as the leading figures of society: bankers, public employees... and generals.

For, much as the Republic struggled on its insides, foreign affairs and the military situation were on the upsing. Despite a disastrous expedition to Ireland led by Hoche failing to land there, France got its first important ally in the war: the Kingdom of Spain, which declared war on England and rapidly forced the Royal Navy to rally in its attempt to maintain control of the seas. Having ditched his belief in defense, Carnot pressured to knock Austria out of the war through a major offensive across the Rhine, and a diversionary effort in Italy. The push to the Danube, spearheaded by the new military darlings - and committed Republicans - Joubert and Moreau, failed.

High society comes back in Paris with a vengeance
Wikimedia Commons

In Italy, the 28-year old General Bonaparte - by now Barras' protege and married to his mistress, the one and only Rose de Beauharnais - took on his sideshow army of 37,000 poorly fed and poorly clothed men. In eighteen months, Bonaparte crushed the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, occupied Northern Italy, and so thoroughly whipped the Austrian army so as to reach the outskirts of Vienna. Austria, France's enemy for five years now, sued for peace. But much as Bonaparte's victories made him a hero and his plundering of gold and silver alleviated the Republic's finances and inflationary rate, the Royalists were rallying again.

Showdown in Fructidor

What the Royalists had not obtained by force in Vendemaire, they were now obtaining at the ballot box. The elections of 1797 provided them - whether moderate or absoutist - a resounding triumph across the nation, securing a seat in the Directory under the Marquis of Barthelemy and winning the Presidency of the Five Hundred for General Pichegru, the hero of the Netherlands who had taken on an increasingly conservative turn. Fueled by ongoing grievances in the provinces of the South and West and Paris, the royalist movement was stronger each other, sidestepping exile and censure as a number of emigrés returned, a clandestine royalist press took place, and there was open and public mourning for Louis XVI.

A British-paid intelligence network was also hard at work, seeing the "sword" that would restore the rightful King Louis XVIII. They had stumbled on Pichegru, who was willing to lead the counter-revolution. Barras saw things increasingly slip out of control, opposed by Carnot and Barthelemy within the Directory, and by Pichegru from the legislature. But the wily Director could not be counted out yet. Barras had no shortage of friends and proteges, ranging from the rehabilitated Fouché as his spymaster and intriguer; the brilliant and amoral Foreign Minister Talleyrand; and General Bonaparte himself, whose by then still Republican sensibilities made it easy to supply the necessary troops.

This time, Barras struck first. On Fructidor (September) 1797, Paris awoke to another revolutionary purge. Having evidence of Pichegru's treason, the Directors had Carnot, Pichegru and Barthelemy expelled and arrested, the election results being nullified as dozens of Royalist deputies were also expelled and targeted. Several leading emigrés who had returned were executed or dealt with. In yet another shift of the balance, the Reaction went left, empowering the long-suffering Jacobines as a useful counter to the Royalist movement. Across the nation, a smaller terror took place, targeting royalists, disrupting the Church, and cracking down on the opposition press. There would be no return to the hated Monarchy.

The Directors: masters of the French Republic
Wikimedia Commons

By the time 1798 rolled in, it was time to elect not just another third of the legislature, but all the vacant seats left by the royalist deputies. And this time it was the left to come back with a vengeance, with scores of new Jacobin or "Neo-Jacobin" - of a more moderate disposition - elected to the legislature, including the young radical Lucien Bonaparte, brother to the conquering General. Barras, though able to unseat a few and elect a man of his own to the Directory, had opened up a major breech between a more radical legislature and a more moderate executive.

The Road to Brumaire

The Republic grew bolder on the foreign stage. Once by new, new sister republics joined the Batavians to create a large sphere of influence surrounding France, and a dangerous counter to neighboring monarchies. Switzerland (Hevetic), Genoa (Ligurian), Lombardy (Cisalpine), and even the Papal States (Roman), with Piedmont outright annexed to France by the bold General Joubert. Bonaparte himself was sent on a bold expedition to Egypt, a war almost declared against the United States of America, and more unsuccessful Irish adventured attempted. For Britain and the nations who had abandoned the anti-Republican struggle, it seemed clear that the Directory was a very dangerous animal not to be tolerated.

War resumed again at the end of 1798, this time with the enthusiastic support of Tsar Paul of Russia and the dangerous intervention of General Suvorov, Russia's military genius. One by one, French armies were smashed in Switzerland and across Italy, all while the Netherlands saw the arrival of a Anglo-Russian invasion. General Joubert, one of the bastions of the Republic and Sieyes' hope to see through Barras' eventual deposal, died in battle. Bonaparte's fleet was destroyed by Nelson at Aboukir, isolating France's best troops in Egypt. For a brief period of weeks, it appeared that the whole building would come crumbling down at last. At the last moment, the Army turned it around. Badly coordinated, the Austrians and Russians were beaten off the Netherlands and thoroughly smashed in Switzerland by General Massena at Zürich.

Barras, corruption personified in the flesh
Wikimedia Commons

By September 1799, France was saved. But the Directory, and by extension the Republic, was in mortal peril. The elections of 1799 had allowed the Neo-Jacobins to prevail, allowing the left - which elected the 24-year old Lucien Bonaparte as President of the Five Hundred - to pressure and then dismantle the current set of Directors one by one. Barras clinged to his post, Sieyes took up a new one, and three new Directors were installed to create a Jacobin majority. Corruption ran rampant to the highest degree. The govermnent was unpopular. The Army, increasingly political. The provinces unhappy. And to top it off, the leading citizen Barras may have been preparing to look for the exits and cut a deal with Louis XVIII.

All his previous allies and deputies, Talleyrand, Fouché and Sieyes, hopelessly looked around for a savior. And then Bonaparte landed in France.

[Lumine]

Rise of Bonaparte

1769-1799

One man versus the world
Wikimedia Commons

French by Accident

Napoleone di Buonaparte was born on August 1769, not six months after an invading French Army had finished defeating the Corsican independence movement. Having resisted the Republic of Genoa for years, only the sale of the island to France had been able to end Corsican independence, a move bitterly resisted by the Buonapartes, minor nobles whose descendants had arrived from Tuscany. The second to eight surviving children, Napoleone's mother Letizia - a small yet implacable woman - had carried him while the final battles were being fought. His early infancy proved peaceful, with his father Carlo making peace with the French administration and being rewarded with a few ceremonial roles. As fate would have it, the young child would be a French citizen by an accident of fate.

At age 10, important decisions were being made about Napoleone's future, and he was sent to the prestigious military academy at Brienne alongside other scions of noblemen. He would study under Pichegru, the future conqueror of the Netherlands and, later on, "royalist traitor" to the Republic. Though a noble - if a minor one - and one showing clear signs of aptitude, the young Napoleone spoke French with a heavy accent, proved melancholic, foul-tempered, and with a head filled with dreams of glory and conquest brought about by an excess of Plutarch and other Greek and Roman historians. Looked down by his peers, he was to be bullied mercilessly. He dreamt of an independent Corsica, and finished his military training in a rush after the sudden death of his father.

Up until the start of the Revolution, Buonaparte was but a young artillery lieutenant. Finding himself with no attachments to the Monarchy, he was rapidly filled with Revolutionary - and even Republican - fervor. He was even to witness the Commune storming the Tuileries on August 1792, the end of the Monarchy. Around that time, the now captain would become involved on the Revolution from Corsica itself, taking the side of the Jacobines, quarreling with the Corsican national hero Paoli over the fate of the island, and in a climactic moment, leading an expedition to secure Ajaccio against the now pro-British Paoli. The move failed, and the Corsican Assembly retaliated against the entire Buonaparte clan.

With nothing but what they could carry, Letizia, Napoleone and the seven remaining siblings fled on a ship to mainland France. They had lost it all, being pushed - like so many others who play a vital role in years to come - into an existence close to destitution and poverty. For all purposes, Captain Buonaparte was responsible for his whole family. 1793 found him fighting the federalist rebellion across the South of France, writing pamphlets in favor of the Republic and against the civil war, and making promising connections with men like Augustin Robespierre, brother to the fearsome orator. His first shot at immortality came to be at the port of Toulon, which had revolted against the Republic and been reinforced by an Anglo-Spanish force.

The Revolution fights for its life at Toulon
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Up and down the greasy pole

Over three months of siege, and starting at a junior role from the artillery batteries, Buonaparte stunned his superiors through feats of bravery and skill, a meteoric rise that by the end of the siege saw him become commander of the artillery with the rank of Colonel. Three young officers who had caught his eye: Junot, Muiron and Marmont, were now his loyal aides. On the final week of the siege, Buonaparte led the assault on the main British defensive position of Little Gibraltar. In a brutal nightly raid, the brash Colonel was wounded, but victory was his. The British fleet withdrew, leaving Napoleone a hero and, at age 25, a Brigadier General in the French Revolutionary Army. The world was his.

Until Thermidor, that is. Augustin Robespierre's arrest and execution alongside all supporters of Robespierre led to Napoleone's arrest as a suspect character. He was released two weeks after, but he was no longer to be a darling of those in power. For the next two years, Buonaparte faced a series of false starts in life, various frustrating posts, and his first meaningful romantic relationship with the charming Désirée Clary, his sister in law. Having developed a keen distaste for civil war, a decision by the Minister of War to send him to the Vendéé and his subsequent refusal undermined his career yet again. Stuck in Paris working on military plans and removed off the list of active generals, the General had had enough. Issuing a request to be sent to Constantinople in a military mission to improve the Ottoman artillery, he prepared to leave France.

His request had been granted, but it was also the chosen moment by the Royalist crowds to launch their insurrection on Vendemiaire 1795. Barras chose him to defend the Republic. Thankfully for Buonaparte, the memories from August 10th 1792 were fresh, and he decided upon cannons to fight back the Royalist horde. With help from Murat, a fearless cavalry officer, sufficient artillery was procured, and the Royalists were given the "whiff of grapeshot". It was to be Buonaparte's second shot at immortality. A grateful Barras took Buonaparte under his wing, turning him into a darling of the Directory, giving him the Army of the Interior, and enabling him to lift the family out of poverty.

Josephine de Beauharnais, his muse
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His relationship with Désirée gave way to the more exciting Beauharnais widow, who had already gone through Hoche and Barras as lovers. Renaming her "Josephine", he insisted on marriage, and Barras - keen to lock down Buonaparte as a key ally - gave her the push. As their wedding gift, the young General was given command of the Army of Italy, part of a plan by Carnot to ensure a diversionary strike enabled the Republic to knock Austria out of the war through the Rhine. By now firmly committed to France and the Republic, the General renamed himself. It was to be Napoleon Bonaparte from here on out.

The Conquest of Italy

Despite its name, the Army of Italy was anything but. Barely 37,000 strong, poorly fed and poorly clothed, lacking cavalry and resources, and facing firmly entrenched Austrian and Piedmontese forces who had by then repulsed several past Republican offensives. Not just that, Bonaparte inherited a group of brilliant but highly temperamental subordinates, at least two of which: Massena and Augereau, felt more entitled than the young, short man to take command. But as Massena himself would admit soon, Napoleon's energy, impatience and bad tempered made him a sight to be feared. In very limited time he found ways to feed the army and restore a basic sense of morale, urging them - despite the terrible situation -  to march him with to "the most fertile plains of the world."

Devoid of a chance, they joined him. And with Napoleon was his growing entourage of equally young and promising officers, including Junot, Muiron, Marmont and Murat. Using Genoa as misdirection, crossing the Alps as the Carthaginians did in ancient times, it took Napoleon two weeks to smash Sardinia-Piedmont, forcing a harsh armistice on them and then turning towards the Austrians. Whether it be surrounded at Castiglione, or forced to cross a bridge under enemy fire at Arcole, Bonaparte remained undefeated, thoroughly breaching the established rules of warfare - with help from his Chief of Staff, Berthier - to move around like a madman and defeat the divided enemy forces in detail. But he was no immune to danger. Having overstepped himself at the bridge on Arcole, he lost Muiron there.

It took him one year from crossing the Alps from reaching the outskirts of Vienna, knocking the Hapsburg Monarchy out of the war even as the other Revolutionary armies failed in Germany. He was now the conquering hero, having rallied Northern Italy against Austria, plundered endless sources of wealth and art to be sent back to France, and being a newfound pillar for the Republic and the Directory itself. He was even able to start playing internal politics, sending Augereau with men to back up Barras' coup at Fructidor and help secure a definitive political victory against the Royalists. Bonaparte was still very much yet the committed Republican, if growing increasingly mired in the allure of power after being master of almost all of Italy.

Conquering glory and losing Muiron at Arcole
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Plainly, it was time for another challenge. Working closely with Talleyrand, Napoleon planned for an invasion of England, a decisive blow struck against the worst enemy of the Revolution, if one filled with bad omens given Hoche's earlier failure. In Bonaparte's mind, a different dream emerged, one whose scale was only outmatched by audacity and, more likely, a very unrealistic understanding of the East. In his view, and while French naval strength grew large enough for a direct challenge across the Channel, Britain should be challenged on their new growing empire on India. For that purpose, Bonaparte proposed occupying Egypt with the Ottoman Sultan's benign tolerance, and then off to India.

The Directory, growing somewhat wary of Napoleon's growing popularity and influence, gave the green light. Surely, they pondered, he would not be much of a bother isolated in Egypt.

Forty centuries look down on us

The Egyptian expedition was no ordinary military adventure, and Bonaparte made sure of it. Alongside his 40,000 strong army of battle-hardened veterans, and his cadre of subordinates like Junot, Marmont, Murat, Berthier, and the new additions Desaix and Kleber -, the General brought a large assortment of scientists to explore the mysterious, alluring country. Seizing Malta from the decadent, near decrepit Knights Hospitaller - an act that invoked the wrath of Tsar Paul of Russia - and narrowly avoiding Admiral Nelson's pursuing fleet, Bonaparte landed in Egypt in July 1798. Forced into an immediate fight with the Mamluks, the elite that controlled the nation in the name of the Sultan, the Army of the Orient thoroughly smashed them at the Battle of the Pyramids.

"From the heights of the Pyramids, forty centuries look down on us”, Bonaparte said. Victory was followed by tragedy: Admiral Nelson caught the French fleet at Battle of the Nile, delivering one of the most crushing and crippling naval defeats of the area. For all purposes, Bonaparte was now a prisoner in Egypt, with an Ottoman Sultan who - through deficient diplomacy in Paris - declared war and sent his armies down to the captured province. Napoleon, keen to obtain the support of the local population, engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to portray himself as a liberator from oppression, as well as a figure friendly to Islam. But for every discovery his scientists made, another riot or rebellion erupted, and the Army of the Orient slowly lost strength.

Unwilling to cede the initiative, Bonaparte invaded Syria in a mad dash. Violent battle upon violent battle took place in the desert as the Army advanced through untold misery and pain. The plague erupted, thousands of prisoners were executed at Jaffa due to a lack of supplies, and right before the walls of Arce - manned not only by British marines, but by an old classmate and bully of his at Brienne: Phélippeaux -, Bonaparte tasted the first major defeat of his career. Though Phélippeaux perished of fever soon after, the Syria campaign had been a debacle. Forced into a defensive position, Napoleon waited for the Ottoman offensive to arrive, and turned the situation around through a desperate defense at Aboukir. The Ottomans were smashed and driven into the sea.

From reading it in Plutarch to living it in life
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But overall, the situation looked hopeless. Napoleon was isolated, his wife by all accounts carrying off blatant infidelity in Paris, and according to a newspaper sent by the British, France was under siege by the Second Coalition. Bonaparte made his choice. Taking on a very select group, he abandoned Egypt and his army, leaving Kleber down to hold the fort. It was to be a dangerous trip, one in which Junot and Desaix both fell into temporarily British captivity. But once again Napoleon bested Nelson through luck, landing on France in October 1799.

Brumaire

Twas' an awkward return. Thanks to Massena and others, the Republic was saved from military disaster, much as the Directory remained bankrupt, corrupt and unpopular. Bonaparte had technically deserted his army, which on normal circumstances merited harsh punishment. And yet his Egypt expedition had captured the imagination of the people, making it impossible for the Directory to even consider punishing Bonaparte. He was now the hero to a public increasingly hungering for an end to the Directory, an institution whose days were counted as its leading members pondered on how to dismantle it. Napoleon, for his part, did not return to Barras' orbit despite having been his well-rewarded protegé. Italy and Egypt had taught him otherwise. It was time for him to lead.

Almost immediately the General fell into the complex web of schemes laid all across Paris. Sieyes wanted a "sword" to enable him to remake the Republic, had despaired at the early deaths of Joubert and Hoche - taken by a fever -, and did not trust men like Moreau, Jourdan or the fierce Jacobin Bernadotte to lead a coup. Talleyrand wanted a more stable government, and Fouché wanted to keep pulling the strings after becoming the all-powerful Minister of Police. All three fell into Napoleon's orbit, if overstating the amount of power there were meant to wield. Napoleon's family joined in, with his brother Lucien - as President of the Five Hundred - proving a key piece. The conspiracy grew, making the still Jacobin-committed directors Gohier and Moulin suspicious.

Bonaparte and his cohorts struck on Brumaire (November) 1799. Under false pretenses of a Jacobin coup, Lucien took the legislature to Saint Cloud, where they could be isolated by the Army. Fouché closed Paris down tightly. Sieyes and Ducos, another director, both resigned their posts, and so did Barras under some pressure by Talleyrand. The outraged Gohier and Moulin were arrested by General Moreau, removing the Directory from all future consideration in the crisis. Next day came the showdown with the legislature. In what could only be described as one of the weakest moments in Bonaparte's career, he completely blundered and botched his speech before the Five Hundred, and was even assaulted by the angry Jacobin deputies. Bonaparte, it is said, almost fainted.

Bonaparte prevails at his weakest moment
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The plotters appeared to be doomed. Lucien's sang froid won the day. Taking Napoleon's sword, he promised in front of the troops to pierce his own brother should he ever betray the Republic. The cheering troops under Murat expelled the deputies and dissolved the Five Hundred, enabling the remnants of both chambers to confirm the legality of the coup that night. Barras, who had played such a leading role for five years, was left alone. Having raised Bonaparte, Fouche and others from almost nothing, he was to be indifferently retired with a couple of millions to his estate. Napoleon, Sieyes and the fellow conspirator Ducos were named provisional consuls of the Republic, and tasked with presenting a new Constitution for the nation.

The cycle was complete. Going from accidental citizen to first citizen of the nation had taken Napoleon Bonaparte exactly thirty years of age.

[Lumine]

War and Peace (of Amiens)

1798-1802

The Battle of the Nile
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War of the Second Coalition

The British-led allies had started their assault on the French Republic in early 1799 with dreams of victory and of an overturning of the monstrosity started by the Storming of the Bastille. Up until the end of the year, they appeared to have come close. Backed by the might of the Russian Empire, courtesy of Tsar Paul and his mounting hatred for the French Republic - as well as hurt feelings over Napoleon's seizure of Malta from the old Knights Hospitaller -, as well as by a Hapsburg Monarchy keen to take revenge from its recent debacle in Italy, the so-called Second Coalition struck viciously.

One by one, all the leading French generals had been humiliated across the occupied Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and across the Rhine: Massena, Schérer, Moreau, even Joubert, the latter killed in action at the most desperate point. Admiral Nelson, the newest and brightest star in the Royal Navy, had thoroughly spanked the Spanish fleet and delivered the coup de grace to Napoleon's fleet at the Battle of the Nile. Not since 1792 had France been backed into such a corner, on the verge of being evicted from all its conquests since the Girondins had pushed for war against the world.

At the last moment, the Army turned it around, exploiting the bad coordination amongst Austrians, Russians and English commanders and armies. The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, initially promising, turned into a debacle at Castricum, the Duke of York being pushed back into a small bridgehead. Subsequent and honorable capitulation allowed for the evacuation of the Anglo-Russian forces, bringing the campaign to an end. In Zürich, Suvorov's subordinates were thoroughly smashed in Switzerland by  Massena, a disaster that ended the Swiss campaign and suddenly forced Suvorov to face certain doom.

Against the odds, Suvorov matched Bonaparte's daring, crossing the Alps and saving the remnants - and the honor - of the Russian army. He was to pass away a few months after.

Suvorov's army crosses the Alps,
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Bonaparte's War

As Bonaparte made his triumphant return to France and staged the Brumaire coup, geopolitics were drastically shifting over within the Second Coalition. In a manner reminiscent of the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg, the Russian Tsar abandoned the Allies, irate over the apparent Austro-British mistreatment of his troops and, perhaps, fuelled by his own mercurial nature. Drawing closer to Sweden and Norway-Denmark, as well as drawing down on his previously virulent opposition to the French, the Russians had left Austria as the main French opponent in land, with Britain offering his logistical, financial and naval support. It was time for a showdown.

Now in - not quite firm - control, Bonaparte's armies marched east. With the previously victorious Massena now besieged in Genoa by an Austrian army, Napoleon returned to Italy in a lightning campaign. Despite a failure to relieve Massena, the First Consul faced the Austrians on the field at the Battle of Marengo (June 1800). Facing an aggressive surprise assault by Field Marshal von Melas, the French Revolutionary Army began to cave. Defeat looked imminent, and with it, the full collapse of Napoleon's shaky political power. And then a new army approached the battlefield. It was Desaix, carrying with him reinforcements after a forced march.

Defeat turned into victory. The Austrian Army was smashed, ending the Italian campaign for all purposes, consolidating Napoleon's hold over France, and confirming that the French were in Italy to stay. Desaix, the true hero of Marengo, died at the moment of victory. His friend Kléber, left behind in Egypt, was assassinated on that same day. Henceforth, Marengo would be a symbol of Napoleonic propaganda, masking how close the First Consul had come to utter disaster. Soon afterwards, Moreau - who had taken over the Rhine front - delivered a crushing blow to the Austrians at Hohenlinden (December 1800). Beaten in all fronts, Vienna sued for peace.

Desaix saves Napoleon at the cost of his life
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With the signing of the Treaty of Luneville (1801), the hapless Hapsburg Emperor had been forced to yield the left bank of the Rhine and much of Italy to the French Republic, and even worse, to recognize French-allied Republics across the Netherlands (Batavian), Switzerland (Helvetic) and Northern Italy (Cisalpine). To make matters more difficult for London, a League of Armed Neutrality had risen from Tsar Paul’s initiative, bringing Russia, Sweden, Prussia, and Denmark together to protect free trade with France against Britain’s wishes for a blockade. For all purposes, St. Petersburg now threatened to align with Paris, forever upending the continent's balance of power.

The Road to Amiens

Britain, however, had resolved not to give up the fight. Despite having undergone a French-inspired major revolt across Ireland in 1798 (the Irish Rebellion) Albion had rallied, drowning the rebellion in blood, abolishing the Irish Parliament, and achieving the legal unification of the British Isles under the 1801 Act of Union. Working alongside the Ottomans, the isolated French troops still in Egypt were surrounded, beaten, and bought to heel. With Kleber assassinated by a malcontent student, depriving Bonaparte of yet another capable subordinate, the remnants of the high quality invasion force that had arrived in 1798 to conquer the Orient had to capitulate. The dreams of reaching India were gone for now.

Next on the target list was the League of Armed Neutrality, a threat that required termination with extreme prejudice.  Through the courageous acts of Admiral Nelson, the Danish fleet was thoroughly smashed at Copenhagen (April 1801). Paul I, heart of the anti-British league, was assassinated by a conspiracy of unhappy noblemen and officers, removing Russia from the French-friendly orbit, and putting his enigmatic son Alexander on the throne. For their part, and acting in joint – if awkward – cooperation, France and Spain had invaded Portugal and forced it to close its ports to Britain, and in spite of the loss of Russia as a direct ally, it could no longer be denied that Bonaparte enjoyed a commanding position in Europe.

The League of Armed Neutrality perishes suddenly
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By the same measure, it could also no longer be denied that the French public had tired of war, and, up to a certain degree, that the British public had tired of it as well. The sudden departure of the anti-French Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger from high office had given rise to a more conciliatory government, all while men like Talleyrand pressed Bonaparte to legitimize his present advantage and avoid further conflict. Months of painful negotiations ensued, pitting English demands over the French occupation of Switzerland, Holland, and Italy over French demands for the return of multiple Dutch and French colonies seized by the British. Despite the odds, an unlikely settlement was reached.

The Peace of Amiens (1802), complemented by a follow-up treaty between France and the Ottoman Empire, signalled something equally dramatic and long awaited: for the first time since 1792, Europe would be at a peace, or at least nominally so.

The Terms

Signed at virtually the last moment between chief negotiators Lord Cornwallis - of Indian and American Revolutionary War fame - and Joseph Bonaparte - brother to the Consul -, the Treaty of Amiens and other associated documents ended the ten-year state of warfare between Britain and France, ensuring the liberty of commerce and the seas as the extensive blockade by the Royal Navy was lifted. All in all, key planks included:

-The British recognition of the French Republic.
-Restoration of prisoners and hostages.
-British withdrawal from Egypt and Malta, the latter of which was to be restored under Hospitaller rule.
-Return of the captured Dutch colonial possessions, with Ceylon handed over to Britain.
-French withdrawal from the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples.
-Spanish cession of the island of Trinidad to Britain.
-The return of Menorca to Spanish rule.
-(Non-Batavian) Compensation to the House of Orange-Nassau.
-Recognition of the Septinsular Republic in the Ionian Islands.

Initially, there was much rejoicing in London and Paris as Amiens was signed and ratified. Celebrations took place across not just the capitals and respective nations, but even in neutral or formerly belligerent nations. Peace, most judged, would revive trade and bring the prosperity lost since the 1790's.

However, not all issues had been addressed. Chief among them were the future status of trade between France and Britain, of keen interest to Paris; and the French occupation of Switzerland, Holland and Northern Italy, of keen interest to London. Bonaparte, insisting that such matters were covered by his own Treaty of Luneville with Austria, refused discussions, but withdrew from Switzerland in particular whilst a - very unstable - Republican regime was being established. Britain, while implementing most of the treaty, slow walked the withdrawal from Malta and the removal of troops from the Dutch Cape Colony.

At the year of 1802 continues, the implementation of the Treaty of Amiens will remain a difficult subject to address between Bonaparte and the British government, one that could easily lead to renewed warfare if not handled with care. Europe, well aware that peace cannot be eternal, hopes for an extended period of rest.

Amiens: peace in Europe, or an interlude for further carnage?
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