Real Dictators - Napoleon Part 2: The Italian Job

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

After a quickie wedding, Napoleon Bonaparte dashes south to take command of the French Army in Italy. Here he announces himself with a devastating display of battlefield brilliance. In Milan, he gets a taste for political rule and good living. Napoleon will return to Paris both as a military hero and a budding statesman... A Noiser production, written by Jeff Dawson. This is Part 2 of 6. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's in this McDonald's bag? The McValue Meal. For $5.79 plus tax, you can get your choice of junior chicken, McDouble, or chicken snack wrap, plus small fries and a small fountain drink. So pick up a McValue Meal today at participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada. Prices exclude delivery. It's the morning of May the 10th, 1796. We're in the old walled town of Lodi in northern Italy. This ancient settlement nestles against the south bank of the river Adda. The sleepy waterway meanders through the fertile plains of Lombardy.

The land around is a patchwork of fields, green, gently wooded, quite beautiful. To the north, through the spring haze, you can glimpse a purple frieze of mountains, the Alps. Spanning the Adda is a narrow wooden bridge, 200 yards long, built on rickety wooden piles. It's the only crossing point for miles around.

For Napoleon's army, the river is the last strategic barrier to the most important city in the region, Milan. Get to the other side and the road is wide open. With the mantra that attack is the best form of defense, Napoleon's army has been relentless in pursuit of its Austrian foe. Over the past two months since he took charge, Napoleon has been rolling the enemy back at a furious rate. But at Lodi, the Austrians are making a stand. On the opposite bank they have three battalions of infantry dug in, plus a contingent of Neapolitan cavalry, not to mention plenty of cannon. All guns trained on the bridge.

Crossing it will be a suicide mission. Such is the belief now in Napoleon, a man with seemingly superhuman qualities, that his men can't volunteer fast enough. After a string of victories, their new general has imbued his army with a feeling of invincibility. An almighty artillery barrage is unleashed to soften up the Austrians. They're soon repaying the favor. The air is a swirl of black smoke and molten shrapnel, the hellish maelstrom into which the French vanguard must advance. Facing volley after volley of musket fire, Napoleon's men march onto the bridge, a first wave, a second wave, a third wave. A thousand of them will die.

But, eventually, sheer resolution and weight of numbers will see them across. By sunset, the Battle of Lodi is over. The Austrians turn and run. The victory will go down as the signature moment in Napoleon's first Italian campaign. Lodi will demonstrate that Napoleon is not just an impressive general, one whose men would quite literally die for him. As events unfold, they will also show that he has what it takes to be a statesman. From Neuser, this is part two of the Napoleon story.

And this is Real Dictators. In 1794, at the tender age of 24, Napoleon Bonaparte had become a fully-fledged general. Only eight weeks before Lodi, age twenty-six, he had landed a double whammy of a wife, Josephine, and a big military command. He is now the head of the French army of Italy. Napoleon has friends in high places.

He's being championed by Paul Barras, no less the executive leader of the new French government known as the Directory It was Barras who assigned him the Italian job The appointment came about with such urgency that the Bonapartes were forced into a quickie wedding from which Napoleon then rushed to the front After mustering the troops down in the southern city of Nice,

his army then crossed the Ligurian mountain passes into the province of Piedmont. There is, for the moment, no such country called Italy. It is, as one diplomat puts it, a geographical expression. Italian unification will take another 60 years, but now the peninsula, the famous Long Boot, remains an assortment of kingdoms and dukedoms. The dominant states in the north are possessions of the Austrian crown, the Habsburg monarchy.

The Habsburgs have holdings in Piedmont, which forms the mainland part of the larger kingdom of Sardinia, plus the duchies of Milan, Tuscany, Mantua, amongst others. Put simply, northern Italy is Austrian turf. It's an ideal launchpad for an attack on France, and, with a vengeance, Queen Marie-Antoinette, guillotined just over two years ago, was Austrian. She was the old emperor's sister and the aunt of the current emperor, Francis II. The revolving door of alliances and coalitions that will be ranged against France over the years gets complicated. Professor David Bell.

So there are seven coalitions, technically, all in all, the way most historians count. The coalitions do wax and wane. Britain is certainly the mainstay of the anti-French coalitions. Britain is at war with France from 1793 through to 1815, with only two very short exceptions. Austria makes more peace treaties with France than anybody else, but they keep getting defeated by Napoleon. The War of the First Coalition, as it is known, has seen Austria, Prussia, Britain, Spain, plus the kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples all pulled together. Their sole intention? To stifle this rogue, revolutionary French republican state. The war was definitely up and running before Napoleon came on the scene,

and France has already made some pretty major conquests. Belgium has defeated the Netherlands, it has moved into the Rhineland, then it's been kicked out of the Rhineland. I mean, there's already been enormous amounts of change of borders, of populations. And this is one of the things, of course, that makes it so difficult for Napoleon ever to reach peace with his opponents. It's often said that he's a megalomaniac and that he just wanted to conquer and conquer. There's certainly something to that. But at the same time, the more borders that changed, the more populations that shifted, the more disputes were started, and the harder it was to actually reach a peace settlement that would last.

Despite his youth, Napoleon is no novice. Three years ago, he won popular acclaim as the eager young artillery captain who evicted the British Royal Navy from the port of Toulon. Soon after, he was deploying his cannon on the streets of the capital, putting down a reactionary mob. Hailed as the saviour of Paris, his rise has been meteoric. This is not strictly Napoleon's first campaign in Italy. He's been involved in two prior forays here. But this one, this is of a different order of magnitude. But this one, this is of a different order of magnitude. There are some in the French officer corps who are cynical about Napoleon's sudden

elevation. They consider it way beyond his station. If you remember, Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's new bride, had, till recently, been Paul Barras' own mistress. Her marriage to Napoleon, together with his promotion, are part of some shady deal, or so it's whispered. As one of his critics dismisses, he won his reputation in a street riot, his command in a marriage bed. Napoleon's retort is typically tart, if only half true.

I win nothing but battles, and Josephine, by her goodness, wins all hearts. Within a few short weeks, his detractors will be eating their hats. It's not just the military victories that will prove Napoleon's worth, but his sheer intensity and single-mindedness. I don't know why, as another general puts it, but the little bastard scares me. When Napoleon arrives on the scene in Italy, the War in the Alps, as it's known in France, has been in a stalemate for two years. Up in the Rhineland, on the Franco-Germanic border,

France's war against a new Austrian army has intensified. Compared to the extravaganza there, this Italian adventure is something of a support act. Dr. Michael Rowe. It's a minor front. It's not seen as the critical front, which is that across the Rhine. But then this young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, is made commander of the French army of Italy. And that front becomes of central importance. He turns it into the decisive theatre

through a brilliant campaign. The Italian campaign of 96-97 is seen as his best campaign, I think, along with that of France at the other end of his career in early 1814. The army of Italy has become neglected. The men Napoleon inspects for the first time are ill-equipped, ill-fed, ill-disciplined. Above all, they have little appetite for a fight.

When their new general stands before them promising honour, glory and riches, it seems just the usual hot air. But Napoleon Bonaparte is deadly serious. Professor Andrew Roberts. Napoleon had to completely alter the army that he had. The army was downtrodden, it had no shoes, it was low on ammunition, it didn't get fed regularly. It was mutinous, some of it. So in order to turn all that round, Napoleon needed to finance it. And he got in touch with various people in Paris who were willing to lend him money for this. And he also needed to show leadership. And of course, this is something that a 26-year-old general had to do because the leaders of the army, the generals and senior officers, only thought that he had got his command because he was married to this woman. And that was not

something that was likely to impress them. So he had to impress them with his own force of personality. He went about it immediately. There was nothing to inspire an army, even an army of ragamuffins, like a victory. News is that the enemy is mustering again, and so on April 2nd, 1796, less than four weeks after leaving Paris, Napoleon begins his advance. He has 38,000 men at his disposal. They will take on a combined Austrian and Piedmontese force nearly double the size. And, he assures his troops, they will win.

By the late 18th century the business of warfare, killing and maiming, has, in technological terms, become quite sophisticated. The firearms and artillery deployed are the forerunners of the deadly weapons we still use today. In terms of war's conduct, however, little has changed since medieval times. Wars are not typically waged for the purposes of occupation or to affect regime change. The aim is to destroy an opponent's army in the field After a surrender or a good old routing The defeated party will then sue for peace

Or so the convention goes The subsequent peace treaty sorts out the nitty gritty The reparations, the territorial exchanges The disarmament, the promises to be good in future Behind it all is an anachronistic code of chivalry, an unspoken understanding. The two armies will face each other at a given location, often at an approved hour,

almost as if it were a challenge to a duel. Bernard Cornwell is the best-selling author of the Richard Sharp novels, set during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon was good at tactics, which is the business of moving an army around on a battlefield. He was even better at strategy, which is moving them around to get to that battlefield. I'm not sure there was too much gentlemanly behavior most of the time. It's dictated by the weapons themselves and by their ability. The musket is an incredibly blunt and inaccurate instrument.

So the only way to win is basically to mass lots and lots of them together and get close enough where they might actually work. It's what you can do with the weapons you have. And those weapons are horrible. They inflict dreadful, dreadful wounds and death, but do it at very close range. You're not going to win a battle by standing off. You're going to lose it. Napoleon has no time for outdated codes of honour.

If his troops are under-equipped for the moment, they can still do one thing, move, and move fast. An army's progress is hampered by its reliance on long supply lines. His army will do away with this inconvenience altogether. They will simply live off the land. An army marches on its stomach, as he puts it. In their case, a stomach filled by foraging on the hoof. As Napoleon storms across Piedmont,

word comes back that the Austrian and Piedmontese armies, manoeuvring at a glacial pace, have yet to link up. Napoleon eschews the notion that he should wait till they can square up to each other all nicey-nicey. Instead, he will move with decisive speed to split them. He tackles the Piedmontese first, circling round behind, attacking them from the rear. If a Piedmontese general spotters that this is unacceptable ungentlemanly, Napoleon doesn't give two hoots. In a lightning campaign of just two weeks, he wins six battles and takes thousands of prisoners.

weeks, he wins six battles and takes thousands of prisoners. Within three weeks, Victor Amadeus III, king of Sardinia, signs an armistice and abandons the coalition altogether. With the Austrians beating a tactical retreat, northwest Italy falls to the French Republic. It was that simple. Napoleon meanwhile plunders the Sardinian king's coffers to pay his army. He should be thrilled, but lovelorn Napoleon pours out his woes in his daily letters to Josephine, which continue to provide amusement for her friends as she reads them out loud. My only Josephine, far from you there is no joy. Away from you the world is a wilderness, where I remain alone without enjoying the sweetness of unburdening myself.

You have robbed me of more than my soul. You are the only thought of my life. You are the only thought of my life. Having seized Turin, the Piedmontese capital, Napoleon sets his sights on the adjacent region of Lombardy. I hope soon, he reports to Paris, to send you the keys of Milan and Pavia. There is no time to lose. He snaps at Habsburg heels. He fights by day. He fights by night. He fights

with unpredictability. He even, shockingly for the traditionalists, fights in inclement weather. As he closes in on Milan, he reaches Lodi, 20 miles to the southeast and its rickety old bridge. and its rickety old bridge. Although he fought a series of small actions before the Battle of Lodi, it was that battle that essentially made him into a self-confident commander. What essentially happened was the Austrians were on one side of this river, and he had to get across it, and he needed to infuse his men with a rousing speech to make sure that they charged across the bridge. But at the same time, he sent a body of cavalry to ford

the river further on down and then come behind the Austrians. And so as well as a uplifting speech, it was also a very clever outflanking maneuveroeuvre that won him the Battle of Loddy and told him that he was somebody who was capable of winning more battles. Dr Patrice Gueniffey In 1793, when he forced the British to leave Toulon, he exhibited exceptional command qualities. But that was a very small theater. He commanded a dozen cannon, which was nothing. It is really in Italy that, all of a sudden, he reveals all sorts of qualities. Firstly, tactical and strategic genius. He has a sense of speed, of movement. And then he reveals a gift for command. He is able to galvanize his soldiers to

inspire them with enthusiasm he makes his soldiers believe that he is like them napoleon the master motivator is in the thick of it once more getting his hands dirty, loading the cannon alongside his men. Aping his idol, Julius Caesar, he will not ask of his soldiers any task that he is not prepared to undertake himself. They coin a nickname for him, an affectionate one. It will stick with Napoleon throughout his military days, the Little Corporal. He was somebody who, if he saw someone being brave on the battlefield,

would ride up to them, take off his own Légion d'honneur medal and put it on this man's breast there and then. He was somebody who made sure that his sentries were always given wine before he was. He would invite even small drummer boys to come and sit by the fire if he could see that they were cold. This is somebody who cared about his men. And as a result, they loved him. His victory over the enemy here is not decisive. The Austrians get away.

But it is hugely symbolic. The making of the legend. Napoleon, the leader of men. The making of the legend. Napoleon, the leader of men. And these things spread like wildfire. I mean, generals of the old regime did not behave like this. They did not talk one-on-one with their soldiers. They did not allow their soldiers familiarity with them.

This is a country at the time which has a conscript army. It has hundreds of thousands of men under arms who have been drafted. The army got up to almost 800,000 at one point. And so these soldiers, they have relatives back home. They're writing letters also. I mean, this is one of the most literate armies in European history up to this time. They're all writing letters home.

And they're writing letters back to their families saying, we have this great general. Boy, do we love him. Napoleon quite loves himself too. I no longer regard myself as a simple general, he muses, but as a man called upon to decide the fate of peoples. On May 15, 1796, Napoleon makes his heroic entry into Milan. He is presented and welcomed as a liberator by his spin doctors and the hand-picked

crowds. We come to break your chains, he proclaims. Our only quarrel is with the tyrants who have enslaved you. For good measure, he makes himself head of a provisional government. He announces the creation of a new Jacobin-style republic in Lombardy. He gifts this entity a red, white and green tricolour flag. It will prove inspirational to the Risorgimento movement that will one day result in Italian unification. Dr Michael Rapport. There's a long period, really, between 1796, the invasion of Italy, and into the early 1800s, where he

establishes republics where he conquers, especially in northern Italy. And I'm not doubting some of his sincerity. We have some of his correspondence which suggests, yes, republicanism, it's great. On the other hand, the kind of nation building he's doing in Italy is also a platform for his own power. He's also using these republics to fuel his war effort. They're forced into alliances, part of the terms of those alliances being they would raise armies of themselves, and those armies would be aligned with French military and a strategic policy. Going deep enough beneath the surface, it's about French strategic interests, Napoleon's ambition, his power, his authority as well and and his ability to raise

funds both for himself his men and also for the french republic napoleon puts himself up in the sumptuous palazzo serbaloni he takes to milan high life like caviar to a cracker, entertaining its writers and intellectuals, admiring its works of art, going to the opera. Flushed with success in his new seat of power, Napoleon appeals to Josephine to join him, petitioning, begging, his reluctant wife, for over a month. But Madame Bonaparte is unable to travel, she informs him, for, music to Napoleon's ears, she is pregnant.

The little corporal is overjoyed. Unfortunately, it's a complete fabrication. Just an excuse not to see him, and a rather cruel one. The truth is that Josephine is preoccupied. Less than two months on from their wedding and she's already having an affair. Her new lover is a dashing young cavalry officer, nine years her junior, a lieutenant named Ippoli Charles. He's a bit of a wag, it is said, a practical joker, a lot of fun, and a bit of a demon between the sheets. After some serious pleading and diplomatic intervention at the highest level,

Josephine is finally persuaded to pack her bags. Practically bundled into the carriage by Paul Barras, she heads for Italy. Napoleon requests that she not wash before travelling, so that he might wallow in her scent When Josephine gets to Milan she finds that Napoleon has filled the Palazzo Cerbelloni with flowers Her lovestruck hubby has hot-footed it 300 miles back from the front to be with her Josephine's entourage includes her maid and her dog a yappy pug named Fortuné.

She's discreet enough not to mention that Lieutenant Hippolyte Charles has also come along for the ride. No one dare look Napoleon in the eye. Josephine's foot-dragging has paid off, however. As with their wedding, she is forced to endure no more than 48 hours in her husband's company. She's said to have cried the whole time. It's with some relief then when she hears that he must once again depart. Orders have come from Paris. Napoleon must press on. The phantom pregnancy is forgotten. The phantom pregnancy is forgotten.

Napoleon's military command is beginning to mark him out as someone with unique gifts. He is obsessed with maps and geography. He has a near photographic memory. He studies the history of every campaign ever fought on the same terrain, leaving no detail to chance. As a workaholic, he sleeps little, sometimes rising to start his day at midnight. He's also a good delegator. He's the first notable military leader to employ a chief of staff, a man named Louis Alexandre Berthier, a rock-steady veteran of the American War of Independence, someone who can take care of Napoleon's business.

Napoleon also trusts decisions to capable lieutenants, and, as we know, he's got his ear to the ground when it comes to the rank and file. Such is the esprit de corps fostered that, when some of his troops are singled out for punishment, their banner is simply inscribed with the words These men no longer belong to the army of Italy. The offending soldiers blub like babies, ashamed of letting down their beloved little corporal. They will, they wail, fight extra hard next time.

Napoleon's instinct is to give chase to the Austrians and finish the job. But those in the Directory have other ideas. Their generals on the Rhine front are growing rather jealous of this new kid on the block, this young Turk suddenly rolling in all the glory. Defeating Austria was supposed to be their privilege. Defeating Austria was supposed to be their privilege Rather than give chase they prefer that Napoleon busy himself with a mopping up operation bringing the remainder of northern and central Italy under French control

He must turn south and march on Rome A gigantic hissy fit leaves Paris in no doubt as the Bonaparte's displeasure That said, Napoleon is soon advancing on the central papal states. So fearsome is his reputation by now, that by June Pope Pius VI is offering Napoleon an armistice, 15 million francs, and as much booty as he can carry. Soon the King of Naples, a Bourbon, and a member of the Coalition is throwing in the towel too. He also reveals a talent for diplomacy because as he conquers all sorts of Italian territories,

he has to conduct discussions with the local rulers, even negotiate with the Pope's envoys. It was no small thing to negotiate with the envoys of the Pope or the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and he was at ease. He also writes laws and constitutions, and he is at ease in everything, as if everything is natural to him. Back in the north, Napoleon's tour continues. Brescia, Modena, Bologna, Livorno, Florence, Verona. The main obstacle for some time has been the town of Mantua, where the Austrians have a large garrison. Taking Mantua turns into a protracted siege.

It lasts a frustrating seven months. It's not till January 1797 that Napoleon can get back on track, moving into the Italian northeast. Finally, near Lake Garda, he's ready for the big showdown. On the snow-swept plateau above Rivoli, the bloody battle goes on for three days. A combined 20,000 men will die, but here Napoleon delivers the Austrians the coup de grâce he considers long overdue. It's his biggest victory to date. Now, if his army can just cross the Eastern Alps,

they can carry the war all the way into Austria itself. Not even his most optimistic supporters back in Paris had dreamt this was remotely possible. It is way beyond the remit of the script, a success that is simply off the scale. There is something else that is starting to endear Napoleon to those in the corridors of power. In the cash-strapped French Republic, he is also swelling the coffers of the Treasury. This is much appreciated when inflation is spiralling out of control. Looting has long been considered a legitimate part of warfare, the spoils of war. Some 40 million francs worth of capital has already flowed to Paris during the first phase of the Italian adventure.

But Napoleon loots, and then some. Priceless works of art are soon being shipped back to France on an industrial scale. The treasures from the Italian expeditions begin to fill the Paris Musée Central des Arts. It will be renamed shortly the Musée Napoleon. After his downfall in 1815, it will become simply the Louvre. Dr. Catherine Callie-Gallitz. He had a commission of scientists and artists who advised him on what he should be removing.

And it wasn't like the B-list stuff. He was going straight for A-plus masterpiece quality. Works of art ripped from their locations, literally ripping canvases off the wall, like Veronese's The Wedding Feast at Cana, painted for a refactory at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. It was meant to be there in perpetuity, but under Napoleon, it was stripped, literally ripped from the wall. And this was very much propaganda because essentially Napoleon was attempting to rival princes and kings and show himself to be a collector. It was a form of demoralizing really the enemy because he was still in the cultural patrimony of those different places.

From Rome, Milan, Bologna, Florence, come pieces by Raphael and Titian. From Venice, come the four bronze horse statues from St. Mark's Basilica. statues from St. Mark's Basilica. From the Duke of Parma, paintings by Michelangelo, Correggio, as well as a 5th century manuscript of Virgil. I mean, it started in Italy, but he did that in Germany. He did it in Belgium. Oh, and also, they wouldn't hesitate, his people, to kind of cut things down. Oh, too big, not a problem. We'll chop it in half. If it was on panel, they wouldn't hesitate to cut something to make it transportable. Canvases were removed from their wood stretchers and rolled so that they can be transported in these giant rolled up tubes. It was quite an operation. Paris, it is declared, is the new aesthetic center of the universe, the new Rome, the custodian of Europe's

treasures. The museum is so stuffed with priceless art that new homes have to be found for some of its pieces. In later years, it is rumoured, Napoleon will have hanging over his bed in the Tuileries Palace, a sundry item called La Gioconda, better known today as the Mona Lisa. It's not just the subjects of the Grand Masters that are occupying Napoleon, however, but the image of something else, himself. He knows his deeds are only of significance if the folks back in France actually hear about them. He has taken care of the basic merchandising.

Medals for his men, featuring his own head in profile, sporting a crown of laurel leaves. There are engraved commemorative sabres for his officers. In print, he has founded military journals which eulogise his heroics. Napoleon flies like lightning and strikes like thunder, records the newspaper of the Army of Italy, in one of many articles penned by his own fair hand. With the narrative controlled, there is no mention of his savage reprisals against those who revolt against French rule,

the burning down of villages, the wholesale executions of civilians. Napoleon knew that the French revolutionaries hated making a cult of the personality, and they were very much against that. And yet he ignored all that. He went out of his way to create his own image as a great conqueror and peace giver. Even though lots of these pictures didn't actually look like him in the slightest, everybody knew that it was this Napoleon Bonaparte, this successful general who people were talking about. Well, Napoleon was just as good at publicizing his victories as he was at winning them. He really does start to believe that he

has some sort of special destiny. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. I mean, he himself says it many times that after the Battle of Lodi, he's convinced that he has some sort of special destiny. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. I mean, he himself says it many times that after the Battle of Lodi, he's convinced that he has this special destiny. He has nothing but scorn for the politicians back in Paris. He's already thinking about being able to come to power someday in France. Napoleon has a team of artists follow him everywhere. The war photographers of their day.

They are briefed to use as much artistic license as they wish. At the Battle of Arcole, when Napoleon falls in a muddy ditch while trying to wrangle a flagpole, he is depicted waving his collars, sword in hand, steaming towards the enemy guns. When Napoleon crosses the Alps clad in a shabby winter coat, he's rendered in Jacques Louis David's famous painting as resplendent on a bucking white charger, arm raised, cloak billowing, hair flowing. It's this image of Bonaparte as this heroic general, calm atop a fiery steed, when in fact he had crossed the Alps several days after his army

had made the crossing, right? So the army that you see in the background was not in fact there at the time. And there was Bonaparte on a mule, not on this dramatic rearing horse. And if you follow the line of the horse's hooves down to the rocky mountain pass, you can see inscribed in the rocks the names of two heroic generals who had preceded Bonaparte in this Alpine crossing. Bonaparte's name is inscribed above that of Charlemagne, above that of Hannibal. It's myth-making. Even at this early date, before he was even emperor, it's already begun. The propaganda even works its spell on the enemy. Napoleon leads his army through the mountain passes all the way into the Tyrol.

The Austrian rulers begin to ponder what might happen to Vienna if Napoleon gets his hands on it. Forget the 120,000 killed, wounded or captured by Napoleon thus far. Think of the paintings. wounded or captured by Napoleon thus far. Think of the paintings. With the French army only 100 miles from the Austrian capital, the Habsburgs cut their losses. They send emissaries to sue for peace. On April 2nd, 1797, at the town of Leoben,

they accept Napoleon's terms to an armistice. Napoleon has wrapped up the campaign in a year to the day and without losing a single battle. It would have been even quicker, he might suggest, had the politicians not interfered. Napoleon is now his own man. Paris be damned. He forgoes the usual diplomatic channels to conduct the peace negotiations himself. He refuses to wait for a mandate from Talleyrand, the new foreign minister. Napoleon demands Austria surrender many of its Italian holdings and give up the southern Netherlands, along with further territory on the Rhine. Napoleon declares that he will merge the new northern Italian conquests

into a Cisalpine Republic, a south of the Alps Republic. Once again, it's a tip of the hat to his idol, Julius Caesar, paying homage to the Cisalpine Gaul once ruled by the great Roman general. Napoleon employs no diplomatic niceties during the talks. During one temper tantrum, famously, he smashes up a priceless imperial tea service. It had once belonged to Catherine the Great. This is what will happen to your empire, he shrieks,

to the shocked Habsburg dignitaries. Your empire is nothing but an old maid servant, accustomed to being raped by everyone. He was somebody who would make up anger. He was able to feign anger and use it in negotiations. Once he had actually negotiated a peace treaty with Austria, he recognised himself as being a statesman and certainly a diplomat. And this also gave him tremendous confidence in terms of his future.

This was somebody who was working out for himself at a tremendously young age, he was still only 27 by that age, what he was capable of. what he was capable of. One can perhaps forgive his funk, real or fabricated. Recently he received a letter from Josephine, written, it is said, in her own blood. In it, she informed her husband that she doesn't love him anymore. For all his brilliance as a reader of situations,

Napoleon has proven a spectacular dunce when it comes to divining his own marriage. In November, he dashed back to Milan, where Josephine had been persuaded for another reluctant visit. He turned up to find her absent. She'd hopped off on a mini-break to Genoa with her young stud cavalryman. Her letter has simply spelt out what everyone down to the tea lady has known for months. Napoleon's response is typical. Farewell, Josephine, he writes. A thousand daggers are tearing my heart asunder. Do not plunge them any deeper. He arranges for someone to poison her dog. deeper. He arranges for someone to poison her dog.

The crockery flinging does have some effect. In the peace talks, Austria caves in. Napoleon gets everything he asks for. In the absence of Josephine's pug, little Fortuna, it is now the Habsburgs who are being thrown a bone. Napoleon has no right to do it, but he is soon awarding them dominion over the independent Venetian Republic. This will allow Austria to extend its access to the Adriatic Sea. Napoleon, it seems, knows just how to sweeten a deal. As the Treaty of Campo Formio is signed that October, Austria is knocked out of the war. The first coalition has collapsed. Only Britain remains in formal hostilities. And it's pretty much all Napoleon's doing. When Napoleon returns to Paris at the end of 1797, he's just 28 years old and a national hero.

The government in France at the time of the Directory is itself very divided, it's very unstable. So there are all sorts of directives coming out from it, and by the time that he's won his great victories in Italy, he is basically taking the attitude of, well, I'll obey the orders that I want to obey. Of course, the French government, which was extremely happy with the victory over Austria, nonetheless was very concerned that Napoleon might set himself up to be a dictator and overthrow them. One of the people who was extremely concerned about this was Talleyrand, who was the foreign minister, a particularly wily operator, and somebody who had come in and out of favour over the previous years, but somebody who also saw very clearly where power lay.

And when Talleyrand started to befriend Napoleon, it was very much a sign that power was slipping towards Napoleon and away from the French government. Napoleon has arrived home at a time of ineffective, vacillating government. One found lurching from one crisis to another. The French public, it seems, is crying out for strong and decisive leadership. For a saviour. Cometh the hour, you would expect, cometh the man. But Napoleon has other plans.

He's just getting warmed up. What I have done up to now is nothing, he dismisses, issuing the mother of all gallic shrugs. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. I can no longer obey. I have tasted command and I cannot give it up. The announcement of his next trick blindsides everybody. He will, he declares, bring France new glories and riches on an unimaginable and exotic scale.

He will conquer Egypt. He will conquer Egypt. Next time, in the next part of the Napoleon story. Napoleon sails for the Middle East. After the Battle of the Pyramids, a scientific mission makes remarkable findings, introducing the Western world to the mysteries of ancient Egypt. Soon, Napoleon will be forced to withdraw, but with his return to Paris timed to perfection, almost by accident, he will seize power.

That's next time.