Napoleon and the Revolution Sources Question

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

Napoleon and the Revolution Sources Question

This reference implies that Napoleon is wishing to announce to the Council of the State that his emperorship will not change the representative ideas central to the revolution. For the key ideas of the revolution were liberty and equality and thus by Napoleon making this statement he is pointing out that there will be continuity from the revolution to his autocracy. This is because he points out that it is not just himself who will rule but ‘the Senate, the Council of State, the Legislative Body and the Tribunate’ along with himself rule together. Thus he is suggesting that he is keeping the revolutionary idea of liberty as the populace are still involved in the government.

This refers to the time before Napoleon became consul in the coup d’etat at Brumaire in 1799 and subsequently Emperor. Before the consulate system France was a state of chaos ever since the initial stages of the Revolution with France being governed by groups such as the Jacobins, the Thermidorians and the Directory. These groups only lasted a few years in power as other groups were constantly rebelling.The Jacobins in particular enforced a reign of Terror in the years of 1793-1794 where thousands of opponents were killed and all rebellions were crushed. During the reign of the Directory, which the consulate system replaced, there were many uprisings such as the Fructidor rebellion. The reign of the Directory was really a reign full of rebellions so Napoleon is showing how before he came to power France was in a state of Terror before the Directory and a state of rebellions during the Directory.

This refers to the high regard that Napoleon had for the principles of justice because during his reign as Emperor his civil codes were keen to stress that crimes would be punished much harder than before. For in the Penal Code of 1810, sentences were generally increased, criminals received draconian punishments such as branding and wearing a ball and chain and the cutting off of the right hand of a person about to be executed. He also increased the punishments on crimes against the person, property and the state which suggests that he held justice in the highest regard. The reforms of the jury system such as the majority verdict also showed his enthusiasm for the ‘sanctity of laws’ to depend on the principles of justice. In other codes he was also keen to stress the role of justice as in the Code of Civil Procedure of 1806 litigants had to make all attempts at conciliation before going to law.

Napoleon’s attitude towards Revolution seems to change to some extent from 1799 to 1815. In 1799 Napoleon was, as Lyons says, a ‘Republican’ who had ‘mellowed’ form being a Jacobin in 1793. Napoleon was therefore in 1799 still a believer in the Revolution but was not that strong a supporter of the Directory for he took his chance to become first consul after returning quickly from his Egyptian campaign. During these years Napoleon swiftly turned away from embracing Revolution to oppressing its ideas of liberty and the participation of the populace in the government of France. For when he came to power Napoleon said that ‘The Revolution is ended’ which signalled a move away from Revolutionary ideas to a more repressive regime. As his rule became more absolutist following being made consul for life in 1802 and his coronation as Emperor in 1804 he started to move against true Revolutionaries. For many Revolutionaries were political opponents and he had them tried in ‘special courts’ to have them prosecuted out of the public eye. He also repressed Revolutionary ideas about liberty in his codes by once again making the father the authoritative figure on the family, allowing illegitimate children no rights and by neglecting women and the lower classes. So Napoleon had changed from being a mild supporter of the Revolution to opposing some of its key concepts.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Yet in the Hundred Days as Lyons says Napoleon turned into ‘Napoleon the liberal’ where he switched his viewpoint dramatically and started re-embracing core values of the Revolution such as liberty for all and a representative body of people being a part of the government. For Napoleon said on St. Helena said that his dictatorship was only a temporary matter and that he was going to reintroduce a representative body into government when the time was right. However this does not appear to be the case because Napoleon only gave away libertarian reforms when he returned from Elba as he needed support from the populace. So it seems that, even though Napoleon altered his viewpoint towards the Revolution and became a fervent supporter of it in 1814, he had moved away from the ideas of the Revolution in his time of power to a repressive state and held the Revolution in contempt for its incompetence at ruling France.

3. Napoleon’s attitude towards liberty was not similar to the Revolutionary approach for several reasons. Napoleon was not keen on freedom of the press for he claimed he needed to bridle the press if he were to remain in power. Whereas in the years 1788 to 1793 the Press were given a free rein by the Revolution Napoleon slowly cracked down on the press and by 1811 there were only four newspapers in circulation including the official newspaper, Le Moniteur. He set up ‘special courts’ outside the normal judicial system to prosecute his political opponents which shows he was against political liberty. He also exiled any critics of his regime, many of whom were in the arts, such as Germaine De Stael and Chateaubriand which shows that he was very much against the idea of freedom of speech in his rule.

Napoleon’s approach to equality was less in touch with the Revolutionary approach as revolutionaries wanted better equality for women and the sans-culottes and also for illegitimate children. Yet Napoleon was very keen on the importance of the role on the authority of the father in the family which he emphasised in his Civil Code in 1804 which also neglected the equality of women and the lower classes. For with women he did not give them the same rights as men with extra marital affairs as a woman could be sent to prison for having an affair whereas a man could only be punished if he brought his mistress home. Napoleon also ignored the sans-culottes in his laws and held them in contempt as he enforced the Lois Chapelier of 1791 which banned Trade Unions which meant that workers had no chance of equality as it favoured employers. He also held the urban workers in contempt and was much more concerned with controlling workers through repressive measures than giving them better conditions and better equality with employers. Illegitmate children were also not allowed equality as all rights were taken away from them which was the opposite to Revolutionary ideas. However Napoleon did base his rule on social equality especially the quality of opportunity through ability, the equality of religious beliefs by not making the Catholic chruch the religion of France, equality before law and the abolition of fiscal priveleges. So in some repects in equality Napoleon was similar to the Revolution.

Napoleon also cared little for the basis of popular sovereignty being involved in ruling the country. He was not concerned about ruling in a hierarchical and authoritative way except that it must be based on rational principles. His rule was based on autocracy whereas the revolution was based on the everyone in France having a say in the rule of the country. Napoleon only gave the bourgoise a token show of say in government with plebiscites about him becoming consul for life. Local councils which were set up by the Revolutionaries became only advisory bodies under Napoleon as he took away all power from them. He also introduced Prefects, who were answerable to him, to rule departments which further moved away from popular sovereignty. Thus he was very authoritarian in his approach to government and ruled in a more absolutist way than the Bourbons. So again he and the Revolutionaries are at odds in their approach.

Napoleon was an agnostic in religious terms and was keen to keep to old established religions such as Catholicism which was the major religion in France which was the opposite of the Jacobins attitude towards religion. Due to this, he realised that it would better to make peace with the Catholic church who had been treated very badly under the Jacobins and other revolutionary orders. He signed a concordat with the Pope in 1801 and gave the Catholic church a certain freedom yet all clergy were answerable to him under an oath of loyalty and the Catholic church was only called the ‘religion of the Majority of Frenchmen’. He also crowned himself in his coronation of 1804 to show he was not answerable to the Pope and in 1809 he invaded the Papal states and exiled the Pope after disagreements with him. He said that ‘the inequality of fortunes cannot exist without religion’ and that ‘religion was…. the mystery of the social order’. Napoleon, therefore, realised the role of religion in society because without it the lower class workers would rebel as the hope of a better life in heaven when they die was what kept many going during their life and allowed them to accpet that they were less fortunate than others in this life. He was keen to conciliate with the chruch but not to the extent where it would undermine his position.

Whereas the Jacobins did not believe in God and Robespierre was keen to believe in the cult of the Supreme Being. The Jacobins did not tolerate religion and it was considered that religion had no place in a secular republic and held a much harder line than Napoleon on religion as they wanted to get rid of it rather than conciliate with it like Napoleon did. Fouche, a Jacobin and an ex-priest, made priests marry or adopt orphans, removed all signs of religion from cemetries and banned public exercise of religion. The Jacobins went even further as the Paris Commune sanctioned the destruction of religious statues, changed street names with religious connotations, banned clerical dress, encouraged the clergy to give up preaching and closed churches. Priests could also be deported if denounced by six citizens. Therefore while the Jacobins actively sought to displace religion from society Napoleon was completely different as he allowed equality of religious rights.

Napoleon shaped the Revolution rather than being shaped by the Revolution for several reasons. The firs is that in terms of civil laws revolutionaries wanted there to be a much freer attitude in society towards divorce and illegitimate children and have a less authoritarian attitude. This is because they wished for the authority of the father in family to be reduced, freedon for testamentary bequests, illegitiamte children’s rights to be recognised and divorce to be recognised even on the grounds of incompatability which was a very radical view to take. He was also not shaped by the Revolution in terms of the ideas of justice as Napoleon felt that the Revolution had discarded ‘the sacred principles of justice’ because he enforced draconian punishments in the Penal Coide of 1810.

Secondly, in terms of religion Napoleon was not shaped at all by the Revolution because the revolution felt that religion had no place in the new French republic. Whereas Napoleon felt that religion was a very important in the French state as he said ‘it is the state alone that gives the state a firm and durable support’. He encouraged people to pursue their religious beliefs as he did not make the Catholic church ‘the Church of France’ but ‘the religion of the Majority of Frenchmen’ which meant that pagans could pursue their own beliefs free of persecution of the church. The Revolution actively encouraged the persecution of religion whereas Napoleon, as shwon, was keen on the equality of religious rights. However he did control the Church by paying the clergy their wages and enforcing strict rules on the church via the Concrodat of 1801.

Thirdly Napoleon was also not a supporter of the value of liberty which characterised the Revolution. For he said that liberty ‘may be repressed with impunity’ as it ‘is a need felt by a small class of people’. Consequently his reign was very authoritarian in his outlook and shaped the Revolution as it was at odds with one of the key ideas of the Revolution. He did not give any freedom to the press and once said ‘If the press is not bridled I shall not remain three days in power’ and by 1811 there were only four national newspapers left including his official newspaper, Le Moniteur. He also exiled any critics from the arts including Germaine De Stael, daughter of the notorious Joseph Necker, and Chateaubriand. He only gave a token of support to the participation of the middle classes in government by plebiscites to elect him consul. Yet even these were probably fixed as he obtained a ninety-nine percent success rate in a plebiscite over whether he should become consul for life. He also established himself as a more absolute ruler than the Bourbon kings because he managed to make himself consul for life and also then made himself emperor with a permanenet hereditary dynasty. Napoleon aslo made elected local councils into an advisory function whereas they had an important part in governemtn under the Revolution.

However, Napoleon did share some values of the Revolution however because he introduced the Legion of Honour which was in theory open to everyone although not many lay people were awarded who were not in the army. As he said to Las Cases that ‘the universality of its application was the symbol of equality’ which shows that he was keen on the ideas of social equality. Secondly, ministers for central government were open to people anyone of ability not of just the nobility as in the Ancien Regime. This led to people from opposite ends of the political scale such as the ex-revolutionary Douai and Portalis, a former servant of the Bourbons. For he also founded the University of France in 1808 which was open to all who were good enough academically. He was also shaped by the Revolution in terms of his financial policy because his reforms had begun to be implemented by the Directory in 1797 and had been proposed by the Constituent Assembly. For they were carried out by Gaudin, who himself was an official under the Ancien Regime. Central government appointed officials to collect taxes and they were strictly enforced. Assessment was made more careful to produce a much more stable revenue and the Bank of France was set up to limit the money supply and so to increase the strength of the livre. Finally he also kept in place the reforms put in place by the Constituent Assembly such as the abolition of provincial estates with them being replaced by departments, cantonnes and communes and, most importantly, the abolition of fiscal privevleges.

Therefore Napoleon shaped the Revolution more than it shaped him because his rule was very authoritarian and went against many of the key ideas of the Revolution such as liberty for all and the abolition of religion in the secular state. Thus even though this is true he was still shaped by the Revolution in certain aspects such as his financial policy, equality of opportunity and the abolition of fiscal priveleges.