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Episode 114: The Limits of Power (Patreon)

Published:
2024-06-01 02:47:15
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

The Spanish uprising was a disaster for France. Napoleon tried to shore up his diplomatic situation but found himself undermined by a surprising new enemy. Cameo appearances by José de San Martín and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Comments

Smooth Shrek

I’m just hearing about this Napoleon guy for the first time from your podcast but I gotta say, surely the mind that solved Austerlitz will be able to handle this Spanish rabble. This is just a little upset tummy for the emperor. No biggie

Todd Campbell

I can’t believe you have been doing special episodes now for two years. Time flies.

Jeffrey Suzuki

I predict Napoleon round 2 by submission. There’s literally no way he loses this

Jeffrey Suzuki
>>139585285

Yeah Buonaparte’s basically unbeatable. Hasn’t been knocked down. Pretty quick with insane cardio. Pretty good takedown defense. No way he loses this one.

ageofnapoleon
>>139586733

I know, it didn't dawn on me until I saved the last one as "Dispatch 23" and realized the next one would be #24

Sean Mac

I hope you bring up La Romana and the evacuation of his division from Denmark, it's my favorite thread from this whole war.

Andrzej Gilek

Did Napoleon ever find out about Talleyrand’s scheming?

Steven Holmes

Brilliant episode.... as ever, thank you! Is this the forum for submitting questions for the bonus episodes?

Joe Waters

Are there any books on Talleyrand you would recommend? Fascinating figure.

Zach Spawn

It's incredible to me that we are 114 episodes and 23 dispatches in and there has yet to be a bad episode. Even topics such as diplomatic conferences, which can usually be quite dry, are just as riveting as the battles and palace intrigue. Not only is this one of the best podcasts I have ever listened to, but the fact that you can churn out a consistent quality of episodes and dispatches month after month is really impressive. It is some truly Napoleon/Berthier level discipline

ageofnapoleon
>>139596875

I was originally going to cover it in this episode, but I just couldn't make it fit, so it will be covered in the next episode

ageofnapoleon
>>139608401

It's easiest for me if the questions are all in the comments of the last Dispatch (the post below this one)

ageofnapoleon
>>139632697

His memoirs are a lot of fun and pretty accessible (although there are parts where he provides giant lists of names and full texts of treaties, which can and should be skipped). Duff Cooper's Talleyrand biography is an absolute classic, and Cooper is a fascinating figure in his own right, which makes it an even more interesting read

Andrzej Gilek

Did Talleyrand really say to Emperor Alexander, 'The French people are civilised, their sovereign is not. The sovereign of Russia {i.e. Alexander} is civilised, and his people are not'? :-O Wasn't it rude, perhaps even offensive, to suggest such things to the monarch of a foreign power?

Christian

Excuse me if something like this already exists but, would it be possible to add a reading list or perhaps preface every episode with a book recommendation like The History of Rome did?

Florian Viricelle

Thank you for this show. As a Frenchman, I appreciate the effort you put in the right prononciation of all these french names !

Kerry Spray

I had some questions, though perhaps more appropriate for a future Spainish episode or dispatch. I was wondering how was the war in Spain was portrayed to the French public? How did different sectors of the French public view the offical change in the Spainish monarchy and how was it justified? Was it even in the public consciousness and if so viewed positively, with ambivalence, or with concern? And how did the public interpret the Spainish resistance?

John Barrett

I read a long, anonymous letter from Fenelon to Louis XIV, near the close of war of the Grand Alliance that reminds me a lot of how you describe the situation between Talleyrand and Napoleon.

John Barrett

It’s long, but if of interest, I’m happy to share.

John Barrett

In 1694 Fénelon, soon to be archbishop of Cambrai, addressed to Louis XIV an anonymous letter: SIRE, he who takes the liberty to write you this letter has no worldly interest. He writes through neither disappointment nor amibition, nor through desire to mingle in great affairs. He loves you without being known to you; he sees God in your person. . . . There is no evil that he would not gladly suffer to make you recognize the truths necessary to your salvation. If he speaks strongly to you, do not be surprised; it is only because truth is free and strong. You are not used to hearing it. People accustomed to be flattered mistake for resentment, bitterness, or excess that which is only pure truth. It would be treason to the truth not to show it to you. . . . God is witness that he who now speaks to you does so with a heart full of zeal, of respect, of fidelity and devotion for everything that concerns your real interest. . . . For some thirty years past your chief ministers have overturned all the ancient maxims of state to raise your authority to the utmost, because it was in their hands. No one spoke any more of the state and its laws; they spoke only of the King and his good pleasure. They have extended your revenues and your expenditure without limit. They have raised you to the skies in order, they say, to efface the grandeur of all your predecessors combined, but actually they have impoverished all France to establish at the court a monstrous and incurable luxury. They have wished to elevate you upon the ruin of every class in the state—as if you could be great while ruining all the subjects upon whom your greatness depends. True, you have been jealous of authority, . . . but in reality each minister has been master within the scope of his administration. . . . They have been hard, haughty, unjust, violent, and of bad faith. In domestic and foreign affairs they have known no rule but to threaten, remove, or destroy everything that opposed them. . . . They have accustomed you constantly to receive extreme praises verging upon idolatry, which, for your own honor, you should have rejected with indignation. They have made your name hateful—and the whole French nation unbearable—to neighboring peoples. They have retained none of our old allies, because they wanted only slaves. They have been the cause, through twenty years, of bloody wars . . . whose only motives were glory and vengeance. . . . All the frontiers that have been extended by war have been unjustly acquired. You have always wished to dictate peace, to impose conditions, instead of arranging them with moderation; that is why no peace has endured. Your enemies, shamefully struck down, have only one thought: to stand up again and unite themselves against you. Is it surprising? You have not even stayed within the limits of the peace terms that you so proudly dictated. In time of peace you have made war and immense conquests. . . . Such conduct has aroused and united all Europe against you. Meanwhile your people, whom you should have loved as your children, and who have till now been so devoted to you, are dying of hunger. The cultivation of the earth is almost abandoned; the towns and the countryside are depopulated; all industry languishes, and no longer supports the workers. All commerce is destroyed. You have consumed half the wealth and vitality of the nation to make and defend vain conquests abroad. . . . All France is now but a vast hospital, desolate and without provisions. The magistrates are worn out and despised. . . . Popular uprisings, so long unknown, increase in frequency. Paris itself, so near you, is not exempt; its officials must tolerate the insolence of rebels, and spread money to appease them. You are reduced to the sad and disgraceful extremity of letting sedition go unpunished and therefore grow, or to slaughter without pity people whom you have driven to despair by snatching from them, through taxes for war, the bread that they toil to earn by the sweat of their brows. . . . For a long time now the arm of God has been raised above you, but He is slow to strike because He pities a prince who all his life has been surrounded by sycophants, and because, also, your enemies are His. . . . You do not love God, you only fear Him, and with a slavish fear. . . . Your only religion consists in superstitions, in petty superficial observances . . . You love only your glory and your gain. You bring back everything to yourself, as if you were the god of the earth, and everything else were made to be sacrificed to you. On the contrary, God has put you in this world only for your people. . . . We have hoped, Sire, that your Council would draw you away from the wrong road; but it has neither the courage nor the strength. At least Mme. de M. [Maintenon] and M. le D. de B. [Beauvilliers] might use the confidence you place in them to undeceive you; but their weakness and timidity are a disgrace and scandal before the world. . . . You ask, perhaps, Sire, what it is they should do. This: they should show you that you must humble yourself under the powerful hand of God, if you do not wish Him to humble you; that you must ask for peace, and expiate by that humiliation all the glory which you have made your idol. . .; that to save the state you must as soon as possible restore to your enemies all that you cannot with justice retain. Sire, he who tells you these truths, far from opposing your interests, would give his life to see you such as God wishes you to be; and he will not cease to pray for you.III Fénelon did not dare send this letter directly to the King; he had it delivered to Mme. de Maintenon, Durant, Will; Durant, Ariel. The Age of Louis XIV (The Story of Civilization Book 8) (pp. 1055-1058). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

John Barrett

At this time: "Poverty, famine, disease, and war reduced the population of France from some 23,000,000 in 1670 to some 19,000,000 in 1700.30 The province of Touraine lost a fourth of its people; its capital, Tours, had only 33,000 left of the 80,000 who had peopled it under Colbert." Durant, Will; Durant, Ariel. The Age of Louis XIV (The Story of Civilization Book 8) (p. 1055). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.