If the war is not touching Wales or Scotland, then there is no impetus to revolt.
A God of Destin: A Napoleon Timeline
- Thread starter AndreMassena
- Start date
Exactly, meaning the French will have a easy time giving them a independent government mostly due to apathy and self service not wanting to still be shackled by a broken and devasted england.
How would it not work? You really think Scots and Welsh would want to be spending their money to help rebuild a England who's not only been devasted by war but also fraught with warlords and probably having the bulk of a french occupying army? I think not.
For pure pragmatic reasons, I just see the French giving them independence to make administrating england easier and because the elites and population won't have the will or means to fight now that the Royal Navy failed, they'll just have to accept it and become a French client state, and without a need for a Continental Blockade, they won't suffer as much economically.
The French are not going to stay in England a minute longer than they have to. Napoleon's army is large and capable, but it is finite and sooner or later he'd need the forces tied down in Britain on the continent. Pragmatism is exactly why France won't break up Great Britain.
wwbgdiaslt
Gone Fishin'
No, but he could set up client states under a Field Marshall or two, or even the Jacobites, or a local noble willing to take a bribe or two and an Imperial title, backed by local independence movements.
King Felix of the House of Wales-Bacciochi anyone?
Napoleon's Army is finite, but so is the British, and that's going to end up split between the Warlord factions, and with Nelson's fiefdom of the Royal Navy effectively having cut itself loose, there's no stopping Napoleon sending replacements but England et al are operating on a finite number of soldiers.
King Felix of the House of Wales-Bacciochi anyone?
Napoleon's Army is finite, but so is the British, and that's going to end up split between the Warlord factions, and with Nelson's fiefdom of the Royal Navy effectively having cut itself loose, there's no stopping Napoleon sending replacements but England et al are operating on a finite number of soldiers.
If there's support for it on the ground, why not? As long as breakaway states exist in Britain the UK will be too busy attacking them to interfere on the continent, which suits Napoleon just fine. I believe an independent Ireland is an overwhelmingly likely outcome here, and maybe Scotland too.
As @ Pempelune said, an independent Ireland seems very likely given that it actually revolted in the same generation and there is no centralised power in England to try and stop them.
If this Ireland is becoming United is another question, given the various factions that might want to take advantage of the situation, but independence seems hard to avoid.
Scotland is a maybe in my view. The will to remain independent was probably close to broken after the XVIII century uprisings. Not sure if elites in Scotland would want to detach themselves from England. And the Highlands have been broken.
Wales is unlikely. They have a minister in charge there, and if I understand the TL correctly, not one that is going to tolerate dissent.
If this Ireland is becoming United is another question, given the various factions that might want to take advantage of the situation, but independence seems hard to avoid.
Scotland is a maybe in my view. The will to remain independent was probably close to broken after the XVIII century uprisings. Not sure if elites in Scotland would want to detach themselves from England. And the Highlands have been broken.
Wales is unlikely. They have a minister in charge there, and if I understand the TL correctly, not one that is going to tolerate dissent.
Part Eleven: Ares
AGOD
Part Eleven: Ares
"God Mars Painting" by Juan Carlos Perez Martinez
I shall not survive this cruel misfortune. The consequences will be worse than defeat itself. I have no resources left, and, to speak quite frankly I believe everything is lost. I shall not outlive the downfall of my country. Farewell, forever!
~ King Frederick II (the Great)
It was October, 1806, and Bonaparte had set in motion his greatest of works: a total reformation of the European geopolitical order. Bonaparte, as a child of the blood feuding Corsican clan system, revered the institution of "family" above all else (even if, at most times, he was at the center of several long, acrid fights with his brothers and sisters). It was Bonaparte's near-worshiped want to legitimize his family of low Corsican nobility, integrate it with the greatest of his friends and compatriots (as well as with the existing aristocratic order), and to make it the new genesis of Europe's ruling class. Come then, and a "universal monarchy" will have been achieved, with "Bonaparte" as its title and Napoleon I as its god. By October, the first steps towards this ultimate Bonapartist "utopia" had been achieved. Napoleon was himself Emperor of the French, as well as King of Italy- the new Charlemagne, purposed with kingship over all other kings. The Kingdom of Naples, a Bourbon relic on the southern Italian peninsula, was conquered by French forces throughout early 1806 and Napoleon's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was made "King of Naples and Sicily" (though the island of Sicily remained, for now, unconquered). Also notable during this period was that Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson through Empress Joséphine's first marriage, served as "Viceroy" (the de facto head of government) of the Kingdom of Italy. Though never accepted into Napoleon's line of succession, Eugène was a good soldier, and a rational and competent leader. In the middle of 1806, Napoleon elevated one of his younger brothers, Louis Bonaparte, to be the King of Holland on top the corpse of the Batavian Republic. Though this arrangement would fail as Louis was something of a Dutch-oriented assimilationist and populist, it was nevertheless a step in Napoleon's expanding familial power.
It was also in the middle of 1806 that Napoleon, on the basis of the post-Battle of Austerlitz Treaty of Pressburg, formed a body known as the "Confederated States of the Rhine" with himself as the "Protector of the Confederation", a hereditary office. This Confederation of the Rhine was a new and direct challenger to the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed, after Napoleon issued a final ultimatum, Francis II of Austria ended the Holy Roman Empire forever. It was but another ancient, thousand year-old institution washed over and dissolved in Napoleon's great deluge. This act, which had upgraded the feudal statuses of the most important German rulers (including the now-kings of Bavaria and Württemberg) permanently subjected those rulers to French power. All of this proved to be Prussia's breaking point. Prussia was threatened, its territories were being encroached on, and it was feeling weaker and more isolated come every morning. To top it all off, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Frederick William III's much, much better half) was dominating the Prussian court's pro-war faction and driving the king towards anti-Napoleon policies at all moments. Though a natural pacifist (or a vapid airhead, depending on your perspective), Frederick William III had seen the death of King George III and now viewed war as inevitable. When at last the War of the Fourth Coalition began, Prussia found itself alone against the Grande Armée's juggernaut, with no close allies but the German nation of Saxony and Russia, which was still in the middle of mobilizing new armies following the disaster of Austerlitz. Despite it all, the Prussian Army was regarded throughout Europe as the best on the planet. If ever a nation alone could best the Grande Armée, it was the war-state of Prussia… right?
"Queen Louise as Hebe in front of the Brandenburg Gate" by Karl Wilhelm Wach
In the case of the War of the Fourth Coalition, the popular opinions of Europe's royal courts had never been so, so! ignorant of Prussia's realities. Even before Frederick the Great's death, the Prussian Army had been entering strategic and tactical decadence. This fact had been ingloriously shown off at the Battle of Valmy in the War of the First Coalition, wherein the Duke of Brunswick was forced to retreat when faced with untrained and unequipped French volunteers. The Prussian Army was a fat, weighted-down beast. It struggled to march miles, and was burdened with slow logistic trains. Its soldiers were given ancient, obsolete muskets, and drilled in automated procedures following geometrical precepts that took forever (or somehow longer) to move through. The Prussian Army was a master of stiff, inflexible lines, and its commanders gave their attention to the pleasantries of headquarters rather than whatever was happening on the battlefield. Those same commanders were either ancient and obsolete themselves, or out of their depth. Frederick William III, who didn't even want a war, was Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of Brunswick, a man in his seventies, was second-in-command and shared his king's pacifist ideas. Another important commander was Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, a mad dog in his sixties. Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf, a man entering his eighties who had served under Frederick the Great, was the king's personal advisor. The king's "chief of staff" was a triumvirate of generals who all hated each other and who each implemented their own war plans at once. The youngest and most inexperienced of Prussia's officer corps were themselves the fuel for the war-supporting inferno that was Prussian high society. The famous remark that "Prussia" was just a nation of its armies was now a pathetic utterance; Prussian officers had become socialites, hedonists, and fops, not knights of the battlefield. A few of these men had, drowning in their own superiority, sharpened their swords on the steps of the French embassy. Once the king took field command, no one knew what to do, no one knew where Bonaparte was or what he was going to do, and so everyone got off on their own adventures against a background of a war of personalities in the high command. All of this is to say that, when a real war came, Prussia lost. Prussia wasn't just defeated, no, it lost all it ever had.
"The Death of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia" by Peter Edward Stroehling
It took little more than Bonaparte's crossing of the Thuringian Forest, a mountainous central German woodland, for Prussia's nerves to burn. At a minor encounter- the Battle of Saalfeld, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia was, like his brethren in England, slain to the last in a dark and forested pass. Come the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in the middle of October, 1806, and absolute victory for France broke the Prussian national ego. It required no special tactics or maneuvering to outmatch Prussia's opposing forces. Bonaparte's men deployed themselves, organized, and pushed forward. At Jena, the battle was over before a reinforcement force could hope to arrive, leaving Prussian soldiers to be rode down in a disordered mass retreat. At Auerstedt, in one of the most wretched failures Prussia has ever suffered, the main host of the Prussian Army was routed after facing Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps and… nothing else. The Duke of Brunswick was shot through the eye, and killed. Frederick William III then dithered and, after ponderous mental exercise, failed to take action besides fleeing from a French counter-attack. Soon following the defeats of Jena and Auerstedt, Prussia itself fell. Davout's III Corps were allowed to enter Berlin in triumph, and pockets of Prussian resistance surrendered at Prenzlau, Lübeck, and Magdeburg. All of this was accomplished in unthinkable time- less than a month.
"Dragoon of the Swiss guards at the Russian Campaign, ca. 1812" by Johann Heinrich Bleuler
But the course of the war would not end here. Frederick William III set up a new base of operations in a far eastern corner of Prussia, all his hopes dependent on Russian intervention. A force under general Levin August von Bennigsen, a Brunswick-ian transplant into the Imperial Russian Army, had just entered East Prussia. Bonaparte, in an attempt to force a set-piece battle with Bennigsen, charged into ex-Polish territories before his lines of logistics had solidified. Poland was a poor location for Bonaparte's maneuvering- it was impoverished, bereft of food supplies, and frost thaws transformed Polish roads into oceans of freezing mud. These environmental factors led to Bonaparte's initial failure to pin down Bennigsen at the Battle of Pułtusk. In spite of French soldiers holding Poland's depressing locales in contempt, local Poles saw France as their national savior. It was while wintering in Warsaw that Bonaparte initiated an affair with Marie Walewska, a Polish noblewoman and patriot who attempted to seduce him into supporting independent Polish nationhood (a not-popular topic for Bonaparte). She would come to cherish their weeks spent together. Action would pick up at the height of winter, when Bennigsen attempted a (failed) surprise attack on Bonaparte's northernmost corps. After a trap of Bonaparte's design failed because Bennigsen captured the messenger, Bennigsen retreated northwards. Following rearguard skirmishes at the battles of Allenstein and Hoff, Bennigsen positioned himself in the town of Eylau and refused to allow a French occupation of Königsberg. The Battle of Eylau was the decisive set-piece battle Bonaparte wished for, though it was also a deathly winter nightmare that all sides regretted taking part in. Deep rains transformed into a blizzard on top the Russian lines during the first assaults of the battle, blinding them, and sewing chaos and inter-warfare among the Russian soldiers. A massed cavalry charge, led by Marshal Joachim Murat, then devastated Russian organization, discipline, and morale. Davout's forces, after several hours of hard-fighting on the Russian left wing, drove it into collapse before the arrival of Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq, who was commanding a Prussian reinforcement force. Pinned down, in disorder, and suffering collapse on their left wing, Bennigsen's men fell apart. The result was a desperate, exhaustive slaughter of the encircled Russian soldiers, which was itself transformed into "Cocytus" with the arrival of Marshal Michel Ney, whose horsemen charged into the flank of the Russian right wing. The aftermath was a below-freezing hellscape of ravagement, bloodstained snow, and corpses, to which it is recorded that Michel Ney, upon viewing the destruction of that night, observed "What a massacre! A massacre, and none else!". Alexander I sued for peace soon after, and agreed to a final meeting with Bonaparte on the Niemen River.
Untitled work by unknown
"Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau" by Antoine-Jean Gros
On the frozen-over waters of the Niemen River was placed a pavilion with silk curtains and golden embroideries. Bonaparte and Alexander I, escorted by their imperial missions, embraced one another and Alexander I pecked Bonaparte's cheek with a light kiss. Both men retreated into the pavilion for hours upon hours of geopolitical discussion, intermixed with a carnival atmosphere of parades, festivals, dinners, and outings. Alexander I's goal in meeting with Bonaparte was to, as commanding had proven impossible, reign victorious in a charm offensive. He hoped to convince Bonaparte of his personal intellectualism, manipulate the greater man's ego, push all negativities of the new peace onto Prussia, and form a positive working relationship with Bonaparte so that Russia could go on to conquer Finland and the Danubian Principalities without French interference. Bonaparte was, however, not in a cooperative (or naive) mood. His ego was inflamed following never-ending victories in London, south-western England, Jena, Auerstedt, and now, the Emperor of Russia was at his boots. The mortal chains of ambition were dead to him. And it wasn't just Bonaparte's personal egomania- this Polish winter had agonized him, and he was left uninclined towards compromises and the shallow, half-truthful philosophies of Alexander I he now suffered in listening to. It also appears that, during this time, Marie Walewska still haunted Bonaparte's mind. When a true reordering of the European geopolitical order was, at last, discussed, Bonaparte forced through his ultimate Bonapartist "utopia" without regards to Alexander I's ever-more fearful visage. Alexander I would be a subject of Bonaparte's grandeur, and that was all he would ever be.
The territories of East Frisia and its East Frisian Islands now belonged to the Kingdom of Holland, Louis Bonaparte's (or Lodewijk I's, as he preferred to be called) French vassalage realm. The territories of Lingen and Münster, both exclaves of Prussian spittle, were integrated into the "Grand Duchy of Berg", a collection of north-western Rhenish states under the command of Marshal Joachim Murat, Napoleon's half-brother through a marriage with his sister, Caroline Bonaparte. A part-German artificial beast was created out of Brandenburg, Altmark, Magdeburg, Halle, and a host of other non-Prussian territories. This realm, the "Kingdom of Westphalia" under the rule of one of Napoleon's younger brothers, Jérôme Bonaparte, was to be a German "model state" and a leading figurehead for the rest of the Confederation of the Rhine. Berlin, a nexus of Germanism, was now a component in the Bonapartist order. Prussian Lusatia was handed over to Napoleon's newest German friend: the Kingdom of Saxony. Out of Pomerania was created another grand duchy, and its grand duke was none other than Bernadotte. Bernadotte, who was also a brother-in-law to Napoleon through his marriage to the sister of Joseph Bonaparte's wife, was chosen for this position for the same reasons he had been given command of the English campaign. He was a now-divine familial relation, he was trusted with independent command, and Napoleon had never lost sight of the great potential within his "rival". Silesia, the object of the Silesian Wars and famed for its status as a manpower, tax, and industrial base, was gifted to Austria. Austria, it was assumed, would not forget this merciful act of "compassion" for another decade, at least. South Prussia (Greater Poland), West Prussia (Pomorze), New East Prussia (Mazovia), and New Silesia (Siewierz) formed together the "Duchy of Warsaw", a realm intended as a stepping stone towards Polish nationhood. A rebirth of Poland as it existed was a red line for Alexander I, and so this Duchy of Warsaw was instead under a personal union with Frederick Augustus I, King of Saxony, who would have been eligible for Poland-Lithuania's royal elections were the old Poland still alive. Last- and least, was the remainder of Prussia itself. Alexander I could not leave this meeting on the Niemen River without something having been gained for Russia. And so, as a small bone, a "Prussia" existing in nothing but East Prussia, its original birthplace, entered into Russia's sphere of influence. If Saint Peterburgian aristocrats wished for more annexations, Napoleon joked, rump Prussia was open to them. And so it was that the war-state of Prussia, in all true senses, died. The Treaties of Tilsit dismembered the nation, and in Prussia's void rose nothing but Napoleon's supernova.
Napoleon's partition of the Kingdom of Prussia
Napoleon's partition of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Confederation of the Rhine and naming included
Regarding events on England as 1806 entered 1807, it was a period of relative stasis. Leclerc and Augereau extended the far reaches of the Hawkesburean occupation, entering deeper into Cornwall and failing to capture the middle-western transition point of Gloucester before the arrival of winter. Nelson, in adherence to his overarching goal of capturing more mainland port-cities, "commandeered" resistance along England's southern coast, creating "His Majesty's West Dorset English Military Administration" or "H.M. - W.D.E.M.A.", as well as "His Majesty's South Hams English Military Administration", or "H.M. - S.H.E.M.A.". The most important occurrences of this period were, however, in eastern England, the Midlands, and in southern Wales. Canning's realm collapsed under the Castlereaghan onslaught, leaving pockets of opposition in the besieged town of Ipswich and in the most rural, unconquerable counties of Norfolk. Perceval was near-reaching the breaking point of his Castlereaghan "appeasement" policies, and Bernadotte was looking northward for future campaigning. Soon, however, word from South Wales would silence all pandemonium on these much-troubled isles.
Map of England's cities and "great towns"
Map of England's "front lines", present
AGOD
Part Eleven: Mars
Part Eleven: Ares
"God Mars Painting" by Juan Carlos Perez Martinez
I shall not survive this cruel misfortune. The consequences will be worse than defeat itself. I have no resources left, and, to speak quite frankly I believe everything is lost. I shall not outlive the downfall of my country. Farewell, forever!
~ King Frederick II (the Great)
It was October, 1806, and Bonaparte had set in motion his greatest of works: a total reformation of the European geopolitical order. Bonaparte, as a child of the blood feuding Corsican clan system, revered the institution of "family" above all else (even if, at most times, he was at the center of several long, acrid fights with his brothers and sisters). It was Bonaparte's near-worshiped want to legitimize his family of low Corsican nobility, integrate it with the greatest of his friends and compatriots (as well as with the existing aristocratic order), and to make it the new genesis of Europe's ruling class. Come then, and a "universal monarchy" will have been achieved, with "Bonaparte" as its title and Napoleon I as its god. By October, the first steps towards this ultimate Bonapartist "utopia" had been achieved. Napoleon was himself Emperor of the French, as well as King of Italy- the new Charlemagne, purposed with kingship over all other kings. The Kingdom of Naples, a Bourbon relic on the southern Italian peninsula, was conquered by French forces throughout early 1806 and Napoleon's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was made "King of Naples and Sicily" (though the island of Sicily remained, for now, unconquered). Also notable during this period was that Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepson through Empress Joséphine's first marriage, served as "Viceroy" (the de facto head of government) of the Kingdom of Italy. Though never accepted into Napoleon's line of succession, Eugène was a good soldier, and a rational and competent leader. In the middle of 1806, Napoleon elevated one of his younger brothers, Louis Bonaparte, to be the King of Holland on top the corpse of the Batavian Republic. Though this arrangement would fail as Louis was something of a Dutch-oriented assimilationist and populist, it was nevertheless a step in Napoleon's expanding familial power.
It was also in the middle of 1806 that Napoleon, on the basis of the post-Battle of Austerlitz Treaty of Pressburg, formed a body known as the "Confederated States of the Rhine" with himself as the "Protector of the Confederation", a hereditary office. This Confederation of the Rhine was a new and direct challenger to the Holy Roman Empire, and indeed, after Napoleon issued a final ultimatum, Francis II of Austria ended the Holy Roman Empire forever. It was but another ancient, thousand year-old institution washed over and dissolved in Napoleon's great deluge. This act, which had upgraded the feudal statuses of the most important German rulers (including the now-kings of Bavaria and Württemberg) permanently subjected those rulers to French power. All of this proved to be Prussia's breaking point. Prussia was threatened, its territories were being encroached on, and it was feeling weaker and more isolated come every morning. To top it all off, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Frederick William III's much, much better half) was dominating the Prussian court's pro-war faction and driving the king towards anti-Napoleon policies at all moments. Though a natural pacifist (or a vapid airhead, depending on your perspective), Frederick William III had seen the death of King George III and now viewed war as inevitable. When at last the War of the Fourth Coalition began, Prussia found itself alone against the Grande Armée's juggernaut, with no close allies but the German nation of Saxony and Russia, which was still in the middle of mobilizing new armies following the disaster of Austerlitz. Despite it all, the Prussian Army was regarded throughout Europe as the best on the planet. If ever a nation alone could best the Grande Armée, it was the war-state of Prussia… right?
"Queen Louise as Hebe in front of the Brandenburg Gate" by Karl Wilhelm Wach
In the case of the War of the Fourth Coalition, the popular opinions of Europe's royal courts had never been so, so! ignorant of Prussia's realities. Even before Frederick the Great's death, the Prussian Army had been entering strategic and tactical decadence. This fact had been ingloriously shown off at the Battle of Valmy in the War of the First Coalition, wherein the Duke of Brunswick was forced to retreat when faced with untrained and unequipped French volunteers. The Prussian Army was a fat, weighted-down beast. It struggled to march miles, and was burdened with slow logistic trains. Its soldiers were given ancient, obsolete muskets, and drilled in automated procedures following geometrical precepts that took forever (or somehow longer) to move through. The Prussian Army was a master of stiff, inflexible lines, and its commanders gave their attention to the pleasantries of headquarters rather than whatever was happening on the battlefield. Those same commanders were either ancient and obsolete themselves, or out of their depth. Frederick William III, who didn't even want a war, was Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of Brunswick, a man in his seventies, was second-in-command and shared his king's pacifist ideas. Another important commander was Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, a mad dog in his sixties. Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf, a man entering his eighties who had served under Frederick the Great, was the king's personal advisor. The king's "chief of staff" was a triumvirate of generals who all hated each other and who each implemented their own war plans at once. The youngest and most inexperienced of Prussia's officer corps were themselves the fuel for the war-supporting inferno that was Prussian high society. The famous remark that "Prussia" was just a nation of its armies was now a pathetic utterance; Prussian officers had become socialites, hedonists, and fops, not knights of the battlefield. A few of these men had, drowning in their own superiority, sharpened their swords on the steps of the French embassy. Once the king took field command, no one knew what to do, no one knew where Bonaparte was or what he was going to do, and so everyone got off on their own adventures against a background of a war of personalities in the high command. All of this is to say that, when a real war came, Prussia lost. Prussia wasn't just defeated, no, it lost all it ever had.
"The Death of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia" by Peter Edward Stroehling
It took little more than Bonaparte's crossing of the Thuringian Forest, a mountainous central German woodland, for Prussia's nerves to burn. At a minor encounter- the Battle of Saalfeld, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia was, like his brethren in England, slain to the last in a dark and forested pass. Come the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in the middle of October, 1806, and absolute victory for France broke the Prussian national ego. It required no special tactics or maneuvering to outmatch Prussia's opposing forces. Bonaparte's men deployed themselves, organized, and pushed forward. At Jena, the battle was over before a reinforcement force could hope to arrive, leaving Prussian soldiers to be rode down in a disordered mass retreat. At Auerstedt, in one of the most wretched failures Prussia has ever suffered, the main host of the Prussian Army was routed after facing Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout's III Corps and… nothing else. The Duke of Brunswick was shot through the eye, and killed. Frederick William III then dithered and, after ponderous mental exercise, failed to take action besides fleeing from a French counter-attack. Soon following the defeats of Jena and Auerstedt, Prussia itself fell. Davout's III Corps were allowed to enter Berlin in triumph, and pockets of Prussian resistance surrendered at Prenzlau, Lübeck, and Magdeburg. All of this was accomplished in unthinkable time- less than a month.
"Dragoon of the Swiss guards at the Russian Campaign, ca. 1812" by Johann Heinrich Bleuler
But the course of the war would not end here. Frederick William III set up a new base of operations in a far eastern corner of Prussia, all his hopes dependent on Russian intervention. A force under general Levin August von Bennigsen, a Brunswick-ian transplant into the Imperial Russian Army, had just entered East Prussia. Bonaparte, in an attempt to force a set-piece battle with Bennigsen, charged into ex-Polish territories before his lines of logistics had solidified. Poland was a poor location for Bonaparte's maneuvering- it was impoverished, bereft of food supplies, and frost thaws transformed Polish roads into oceans of freezing mud. These environmental factors led to Bonaparte's initial failure to pin down Bennigsen at the Battle of Pułtusk. In spite of French soldiers holding Poland's depressing locales in contempt, local Poles saw France as their national savior. It was while wintering in Warsaw that Bonaparte initiated an affair with Marie Walewska, a Polish noblewoman and patriot who attempted to seduce him into supporting independent Polish nationhood (a not-popular topic for Bonaparte). She would come to cherish their weeks spent together. Action would pick up at the height of winter, when Bennigsen attempted a (failed) surprise attack on Bonaparte's northernmost corps. After a trap of Bonaparte's design failed because Bennigsen captured the messenger, Bennigsen retreated northwards. Following rearguard skirmishes at the battles of Allenstein and Hoff, Bennigsen positioned himself in the town of Eylau and refused to allow a French occupation of Königsberg. The Battle of Eylau was the decisive set-piece battle Bonaparte wished for, though it was also a deathly winter nightmare that all sides regretted taking part in. Deep rains transformed into a blizzard on top the Russian lines during the first assaults of the battle, blinding them, and sewing chaos and inter-warfare among the Russian soldiers. A massed cavalry charge, led by Marshal Joachim Murat, then devastated Russian organization, discipline, and morale. Davout's forces, after several hours of hard-fighting on the Russian left wing, drove it into collapse before the arrival of Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq, who was commanding a Prussian reinforcement force. Pinned down, in disorder, and suffering collapse on their left wing, Bennigsen's men fell apart. The result was a desperate, exhaustive slaughter of the encircled Russian soldiers, which was itself transformed into "Cocytus" with the arrival of Marshal Michel Ney, whose horsemen charged into the flank of the Russian right wing. The aftermath was a below-freezing hellscape of ravagement, bloodstained snow, and corpses, to which it is recorded that Michel Ney, upon viewing the destruction of that night, observed "What a massacre! A massacre, and none else!". Alexander I sued for peace soon after, and agreed to a final meeting with Bonaparte on the Niemen River.
Untitled work by unknown
"Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau" by Antoine-Jean Gros
On the frozen-over waters of the Niemen River was placed a pavilion with silk curtains and golden embroideries. Bonaparte and Alexander I, escorted by their imperial missions, embraced one another and Alexander I pecked Bonaparte's cheek with a light kiss. Both men retreated into the pavilion for hours upon hours of geopolitical discussion, intermixed with a carnival atmosphere of parades, festivals, dinners, and outings. Alexander I's goal in meeting with Bonaparte was to, as commanding had proven impossible, reign victorious in a charm offensive. He hoped to convince Bonaparte of his personal intellectualism, manipulate the greater man's ego, push all negativities of the new peace onto Prussia, and form a positive working relationship with Bonaparte so that Russia could go on to conquer Finland and the Danubian Principalities without French interference. Bonaparte was, however, not in a cooperative (or naive) mood. His ego was inflamed following never-ending victories in London, south-western England, Jena, Auerstedt, and now, the Emperor of Russia was at his boots. The mortal chains of ambition were dead to him. And it wasn't just Bonaparte's personal egomania- this Polish winter had agonized him, and he was left uninclined towards compromises and the shallow, half-truthful philosophies of Alexander I he now suffered in listening to. It also appears that, during this time, Marie Walewska still haunted Bonaparte's mind. When a true reordering of the European geopolitical order was, at last, discussed, Bonaparte forced through his ultimate Bonapartist "utopia" without regards to Alexander I's ever-more fearful visage. Alexander I would be a subject of Bonaparte's grandeur, and that was all he would ever be.
The territories of East Frisia and its East Frisian Islands now belonged to the Kingdom of Holland, Louis Bonaparte's (or Lodewijk I's, as he preferred to be called) French vassalage realm. The territories of Lingen and Münster, both exclaves of Prussian spittle, were integrated into the "Grand Duchy of Berg", a collection of north-western Rhenish states under the command of Marshal Joachim Murat, Napoleon's half-brother through a marriage with his sister, Caroline Bonaparte. A part-German artificial beast was created out of Brandenburg, Altmark, Magdeburg, Halle, and a host of other non-Prussian territories. This realm, the "Kingdom of Westphalia" under the rule of one of Napoleon's younger brothers, Jérôme Bonaparte, was to be a German "model state" and a leading figurehead for the rest of the Confederation of the Rhine. Berlin, a nexus of Germanism, was now a component in the Bonapartist order. Prussian Lusatia was handed over to Napoleon's newest German friend: the Kingdom of Saxony. Out of Pomerania was created another grand duchy, and its grand duke was none other than Bernadotte. Bernadotte, who was also a brother-in-law to Napoleon through his marriage to the sister of Joseph Bonaparte's wife, was chosen for this position for the same reasons he had been given command of the English campaign. He was a now-divine familial relation, he was trusted with independent command, and Napoleon had never lost sight of the great potential within his "rival". Silesia, the object of the Silesian Wars and famed for its status as a manpower, tax, and industrial base, was gifted to Austria. Austria, it was assumed, would not forget this merciful act of "compassion" for another decade, at least. South Prussia (Greater Poland), West Prussia (Pomorze), New East Prussia (Mazovia), and New Silesia (Siewierz) formed together the "Duchy of Warsaw", a realm intended as a stepping stone towards Polish nationhood. A rebirth of Poland as it existed was a red line for Alexander I, and so this Duchy of Warsaw was instead under a personal union with Frederick Augustus I, King of Saxony, who would have been eligible for Poland-Lithuania's royal elections were the old Poland still alive. Last- and least, was the remainder of Prussia itself. Alexander I could not leave this meeting on the Niemen River without something having been gained for Russia. And so, as a small bone, a "Prussia" existing in nothing but East Prussia, its original birthplace, entered into Russia's sphere of influence. If Saint Peterburgian aristocrats wished for more annexations, Napoleon joked, rump Prussia was open to them. And so it was that the war-state of Prussia, in all true senses, died. The Treaties of Tilsit dismembered the nation, and in Prussia's void rose nothing but Napoleon's supernova.
Napoleon's partition of the Kingdom of Prussia
Napoleon's partition of the Kingdom of Prussia, the Confederation of the Rhine and naming included
Regarding events on England as 1806 entered 1807, it was a period of relative stasis. Leclerc and Augereau extended the far reaches of the Hawkesburean occupation, entering deeper into Cornwall and failing to capture the middle-western transition point of Gloucester before the arrival of winter. Nelson, in adherence to his overarching goal of capturing more mainland port-cities, "commandeered" resistance along England's southern coast, creating "His Majesty's West Dorset English Military Administration" or "H.M. - W.D.E.M.A.", as well as "His Majesty's South Hams English Military Administration", or "H.M. - S.H.E.M.A.". The most important occurrences of this period were, however, in eastern England, the Midlands, and in southern Wales. Canning's realm collapsed under the Castlereaghan onslaught, leaving pockets of opposition in the besieged town of Ipswich and in the most rural, unconquerable counties of Norfolk. Perceval was near-reaching the breaking point of his Castlereaghan "appeasement" policies, and Bernadotte was looking northward for future campaigning. Soon, however, word from South Wales would silence all pandemonium on these much-troubled isles.
Map of England's cities and "great towns"
Map of England's "front lines", present
AGOD
Part Eleven: Mars
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In practice, he reduced Prussia to a minimum. Additionally, he strengthened Warsaw principality by giving them Gdansk and access to the sea, which allowed them to control trade on the Vistula. It will be interesting to see how Napoleon's code will be implemented in the countries he dominated. In my opinion in this timeline it will be more permanent considering all his victories.
iddt3
Donor
God, forget conquering Canada, at this rate they'll petition for annexation because the mother country has gone nuts.
On a more positive note, this might help strangle slavery. If it pushes back the industrial revolution in the UK, that drastically reduces the demand for cotton, and without King Cotton, you probably abort the Southern doubling down on slavery, and instead continue with the gradual abolition. If the border south states abolish slavery, especially Virginia, than that removes a major source of sectional tensions.
The loss of European markets also kind of means the Federalists win by default, as you need to develop American Industries because otherwise there's no goods to buy. So potentially a somewhat poorer, slower developing, but larger, less diverse divided United States, which is interesting.
On a more positive note, this might help strangle slavery. If it pushes back the industrial revolution in the UK, that drastically reduces the demand for cotton, and without King Cotton, you probably abort the Southern doubling down on slavery, and instead continue with the gradual abolition. If the border south states abolish slavery, especially Virginia, than that removes a major source of sectional tensions.
The loss of European markets also kind of means the Federalists win by default, as you need to develop American Industries because otherwise there's no goods to buy. So potentially a somewhat poorer, slower developing, but larger, less diverse divided United States, which is interesting.
It's the second recent Napoleonic timeline that rewards Austria with Silesia as a thanks for waging war AGAINST the Grande Armée.
Where is this trend coming from?
Saxony already got Lusatia. Why not split Silesia between northern Silesia for Saxony and southern Silesia for the Duchy of Warsaw. Both are intended as client states of the Napoleonic order, whereas Austria is 't (at least not at this stage most likely).
Where is this trend coming from?
Saxony already got Lusatia. Why not split Silesia between northern Silesia for Saxony and southern Silesia for the Duchy of Warsaw. Both are intended as client states of the Napoleonic order, whereas Austria is 't (at least not at this stage most likely).
I can't speak for the other timeline, but I did it because it was the most historically realistic outcome if Napoleon didn't attempt to form a strong alliance with Russia. It was always Napoleon's goal to form a strong and lasting alliance with a fellow Great Power, which is why he gave land away for annexation to Russia and capitulated to Alexander I's demands during negotiations for Tilsit- he wanted Russia as his ally, even if Alexander I was an anglophile who had done nothing but war with him. What Napoleon didn't realize at the time of Tilsit was that Russia was a bad ally (Alexander I just wanted to use French non-interference to complete his conquests), while Austria under Metternich (and especially after Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise) was the most pro-Napoleon and accomodationist a Great Power ever got. The below passage is page 63 of "The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte" by Robert Asprey, and it's, as far as I've found, the only time Napoleon IRL ever mentioned an alternate outcome for Silesia.
Hopefully France will keep Austria in it's good graces here, both as a buwalrk against Russia but also helping them keep general order in Europe
Thank you for explaining your reasoning.
If Napoleon wanted indeed a Great Power ally, and he chose Austria instead of Russia in OTL it makes some sense. However in this timeline, Napoleon seems even more unhinged in his peace deals than in history, and that's saying something. Would he really have the state of mind to completely destroy Prussia, give the middle finger to Russia but still try and accomodate Austria to serve as a great power ally?
The extract mentions also only "a portion" of Silesia, not the full province. A two or three way split between Saxony, Warsaw and Austria could have been considered maybe?
In any case, it's a great timeline and the Silesian "gift" to Austria is plausible even if my eyebrows are a little bit raised. Please keep it up
If Napoleon wanted indeed a Great Power ally, and he chose Austria instead of Russia in OTL it makes some sense. However in this timeline, Napoleon seems even more unhinged in his peace deals than in history, and that's saying something. Would he really have the state of mind to completely destroy Prussia, give the middle finger to Russia but still try and accomodate Austria to serve as a great power ally?
The extract mentions also only "a portion" of Silesia, not the full province. A two or three way split between Saxony, Warsaw and Austria could have been considered maybe?
In any case, it's a great timeline and the Silesian "gift" to Austria is plausible even if my eyebrows are a little bit raised. Please keep it up
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