and, in the declaration of St-Cloud on 2 May, repudiated constitutional
monarchy and popular sovereignty. But in a Charter on 4 June he
guaranteed the position of the Constituent Assembly and the freedoms of
the Revolution, thus ensuring there would be no return to absolutism.
Crucially, too, he recognized all the financial arrangements entered into
by the Bonapartist regime, thus giving the notables what they wanted. A
new constitution would give executive power to the King, legislative
power to a chamber of deputies (which he could dissolve) and a chamber
of peers (to which he could nominate an unlimited number).
As for the general European settlement, by the Treaty of Paris on 30
May 1814, only the frontiers of 1792 were restored, so that Savoy,
A vignon and Montbeliard were the sole residue of all the wars fought
between 1792-1814. Belgium was annexed to Holland; Venetia and
Lombardy returned to Italy; many fortified towns, notably Hamburg and
Antwerp were restored to their owners and refortified; and the fate of the
rest of Europe was held over for a general congress to be held in Vienna.
Napoleon realized that this was a grievous blow to French pride and
wondered how the French people would react once it sank in that the loss
of all his conquests to the Allies was the price for having the Bourbons
restored. In propaganda terms there was a glaring contrast between
Napoloen Bonaparte, defender of an invaded France, and Louis XVIII,
brought back in a foreigner's wagon and imposed at the point of Allied
bayonets.
By the winter of 1814 Napoleon was seriously thinking of raising his
standard again on the mainland. The primary spur towards renewing the
struggle with the Allies was financial. The Bourbons had not paid the two
million francs pledged by Article Three of the Treaty of Fontainebleau
and showed no signs of ever doing so. There was no money to be had on
Elba, which could not export its iron because the Napoleonic wars had
created a glut on the market. Raising fresh taxes on the island was also
not an option. When the people of Capoliveri in the south refused to pay
their normal taxes, the Emperor had to send in his lancers. The taxes
were then paid, but out of the receipts Napoleon had to pay bonuses to
his faithful Poles, so he was back where he started.
The perfidy of the Bourbons was particularly reprehensible since
Napoleon had accepted the 'annuity' of two million francs in return for
the 1 6o million francs of real estate and other property he had left behind
on the mainland. By the end of 1814 the four million francs he had taken
with him in cash to Elba was exhausted. He would therefore not be able
to pay the 400 members of his Old Guard or the squadron of Polish
cavalry and would thus be wide open to assassination attempts which
marcin
(Marcin)
#1