- Title
- Napoleon and his empire: some issues and perspectives
- Creator
- Dwyer, Philip G.; Forrest, Alan
- Relation
- Napoleon and His Empire: Europe, 1804-1814 p. 1-15
- Relation
- http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=276384
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2007
- Description
- Just as there was nothing inevitable about the coup that brought Napoleon to power in November 1799, so, too, there was nothing inevitable about the establishment of the Empire in May 1804. It was the culmination of a process that took a number of years to complete, and which in some respects harks back to the first Italian campaign. Miot de Melito, a French commissaire attached to the army in Italy during that campaign, is often quoted as overhearing Napoleon uttering the prophetic words: 'Do you believe that I triumph in Italy for the likes of Carnot and Barras? ... I wish to undermine the Republican party, but only for my own profit and not that of the former dynasty ... As for me, my dear Miot, I have tasted authority and I will not give it up.' This does not mean, of course, that Napoleon was already bent on introducing some form of monarchical power during his years in Italy; but it is remarkable that in the summer of 1797, at the chateau of Mombello just outside Milan, he should have held court in a manner that was entirely out of keeping with Republican generals of the time.
- Subject
- Napoleon; French military; Napoleonic wars; Europe
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/923755
- Identifier
- uon:9811
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780230008069
- Language
- eng
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