newspapers and their scandal stories which pointed up the vulgar
ostentation of the regime and even its quasi-gangsterism. Metternich's
simultaneous affair with Caroline Murat and Laure Junot was the best
known of these scandals, for when the jealous Caroline tipped off Junot
about his wife's infidelity, and Junot found the incriminating evidence
Caroline had guided him to, he attacked his wife with scissors, leaving her
half dead, tried to challenge Metternich to a duel and insisted that the
Emperor declare war on Austria. Readers of the scandal sheets
particularly enjoyed the alleged riposte by Madame Metternich when
Junot 'peached' to her: 'The role of Othello ill becomes you.'
The notables acknowledged, too, that Napoleon had not threatened
their privileges with carriere ouverte aux talents meritocracy. The new
administrative elite came fr om their ranks: sons and in-laws of ministers,
senators, councillors of state, generals and prefects, provided they had an
annual income of 6,ooo fr ancs, were the only ones eligible as auditors to
the Council of State, as judges or as tax collectors, and the only ones who
could afford the ill-paid posts anyway. The elitist nature of Napoleon's
regime was also evinced by the Army, were nepotism and a caste
mentality prevailed, and by the creation in r8o8 of the Imperial
University and the Grandes Ecoles which established that the only route
to a decent education was through parental wealth.
The administrative elite, in a word, was the preserve of the old
aristocracy or the new plutocracy who had benefited fr om the spoils of
the Revolution. Surprising numbers of landed proprietors had weathered
the storms of 1789---94 to emerge as major real estate owners under the
Empire; meanwhile the sale of national property had virtually dried up
and the only entrepreneurial opportunity, apart from looting, was
speculation in colonial products. The reality of negligible social mobility
was obfuscated and 'mystified' in Napoleonic propaganda by constant
emphasis on the careers of the handful, like Murat, who had made their
way fr om the gutter to the top.
The traditional view is that the peasantry escaped their soil-bondage
under Napoleon by military service, but this is largely a myth. It was just
possible, but only just, fo r the average peasant to better himselfby joining
the Army and rising through the ranks. Every soldier may in theory have
carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack, but the reality was that fe w
peasants, however talented, could hope to progress beyond the rank of
lieutenant; the most that could be hoped for was the salary attached to the
legion d'honneur. As fo r loot from the conquest of Europe, again the
reality was that only the already privileged really benefited, with
marcin
(Marcin)
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