Napoleon's son was given the title 'the King of Rome'. At the age of
three months, on 9 June I8II, he was solemnly baptized in Notre Dame.
But immediately after the birth, observers noted a change in the
Emperor's attitude to Marie-Louise. Whether it was because his cynicism
reasserted itself once the 'walking womb' had fulfilled its biological
function, or whether the gory scenes of childbirth had killed his appetite
for his wife, he immediately seemed to resume the old pattern that had
marked his life with Josephine. After a two-week tour of Normandy
(Caen, Cherbourg, Saint-Lo, Alens:on, Chartres) between 22 May and 5
June, he took his meals alone and spent most of the day in his office. He
even resumed his liaisons with other women, and brought Marie
Walewska and her son to Paris for another round of their on-off affair.
Marie-Louise began to grow disillusioned with her situation, especially
since the Bonaparte set now loathed her more vehemently then they had
loathed Josephine. She displayed an increasing tendency to withdraw into
seclusion, confiding only in her lady-in-waiting Madame de Montebello.
This woman was yet another in the long list of vipers Napoleon
unwittingly clasped to his bosom, for the twenty-nine-year-old Louise,
Madame de Montebello, was something of a fe male Bernadotte in her
hatred for the Emperor; a Breton Jacobin of virulent anti-Bonaparte
persuasion, she gradually poisoned Marie-Louise's mind against her
husband.
Napoleon could therefore not look for much even in his own
immediate family. Much more worrying in the long term was that in
I 8 IO-I I the social alliance between Emperor and bourgeoisie and
between Napoleon and the notables began to break down. Superficially,
this was because he appeared ever more despotic and demanding and thus
alienated his power base. This was not a totally negligible factor, but this
sort of analysis should be applied with care. The usual charge against
Napoleon is that he introduced the first police state, and it is true that the
heavy handed methods of Savary, the new chief of police, seriously
enraged the bourgeoisie. Savary, a notorious bull in a china shop, finally
replaced Fouche in I8IO after the sinister spymaster indulged in one
intrigue too many: he sent a peace mission to England which proposed
that the British abandon Spain in return for French help in reconquering
the U.S.A. Since these quixotic proposals were made without the
Emperor's knowledge and consent, he had no realistic option but to
dismiss Fouche. Theorists of Napoleon as despot need to explain why he
always took an unconscionable time to break with those who notably
betrayed him: relations with Bernadotte, Fouche, Talleyrand and Murat
all fo llow the same pattern.
marcin
(Marcin)
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