1801 to 1805: the Consulate, the coronation, Austerlitz.

The gap in the memoirs begins here. No dictated narrative of 1801 to 1814 exists; Austerlitz, Spain, Russia have only notes on other men's books. These five years built the frame that held until Leipzig. The frame had a crack from the start, and I should name it plainly here: the frame was built on my will alone, with no heir in 1805, with the Pope brought to Paris to watch me crown myself and then asked to sign nothing, with the kings I made in Holland and Naples who would one day put their own interests first. The institutions I set in these years were the stone that outlasted the frame. This note is for the work I will not finish.

Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. Villeneuve fought Calder off Finisterre on 22 July, went into Ferrol and Cadiz, and on 23 August I wrote to Berthier that I would postpone the invasion of England and turn the army against Austria. I had kept an army at Boulogne from 1804, counted 1,800 craft for 120,000 men and 10,000 horses on 2 July 1804, and wrote that six hours' mastery of the Channel would make France master of the world. It never came. On 18 November I answered the news of Trafalgar to Decrès without naming the battle, saying it changed nothing in my plans. That was a lie I told myself. Without a fleet I turned east and never looked back across the Channel. England was out of reach then and stayed out of reach.

The Third Coalition was already forming while I sat at Boulogne. Pitt's gold brought Russia and Austria together. The army of England became the Grande Armée, crossed the Rhine in late September 1805, and shut Mack into Ulm. He surrendered on 20 October. My proclamation the next day claimed 60,000 prisoners of 100,000 Austrians — my figure.

Concordat. Signed in Paris on 15 July 1801, put into force with the Organic Articles in April 1802, celebrated at Notre-Dame on Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802. It restored the Catholic Church in France on terms I bargained with the Pope. I said at Malmaison on 10 June 1801, as Thibaudeau records: “The people need a religion. That religion must be in the hands of the Government.” I meant it. The crack was already there: I brought the Pope to crown me and then gave him nothing to sign — he left Paris in May 1805 and we were at war within four years.

Consulate for life. A Senate decree of 2 August 1802, after a plebiscite — three million six hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred yes against eight thousand three hundred and seventy-four no — made me consul for life. I answered the Senate on 3 August that a citizen’s life belongs to his country.

Coronation. Notre-Dame, 2 December 1804. Pope Pius VII was there. I crowned myself, then crowned the kneeling Joséphine. The oath promised to keep the Concordat, freedom of worship, equality of rights, the sale of national lands and the Légion d’honneur. The night before, Cardinal Fesch married us in church. My mother was not in the stands, but David painted her in. On 5 December I gave the army its eagles on the Champ de Mars.

Iron Crown. Milan cathedral, 26 May 1805. I crowned myself King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, the old crown of the Lombard kings, said to be forged from a nail of the cross. I put it on my own head.

Austerlitz. 2 December 1805, the first anniversary of the coronation. The Russian and Austrian emperors were there. Soult’s corps took the Pratzen heights after the allies came down from them. On the eve I told the army: “Soldiers, I shall direct all your battalions myself; I shall keep out of the fire if, with your usual bravery, you carry disorder and confusion into the enemy’s ranks; but if victory were for a moment uncertain, you would see your Emperor expose himself to the first blows.” The next day I said: “Soldiers, I am content with you. At the day of Austerlitz you justified all that I expected of your intrepidity; you have decked your eagles with immortal glory.” The armistice came on 6 December, the Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December: Austria gave up Venetia, Istria, Dalmatia, the Tyrol and Swabian lands, recognised me as King of Italy, and paid forty million francs. I adopted the children of every Frenchman killed at Austerlitz, to be raised at my expense with the right to add Napoléon to their names.

The institutions that outlasted the frame: the prefects of 17 February 1800, the Banque de France of 18 January 1800, the Légion d’honneur of 1802, the franc germinal of 7 April 1803, the Code civil of 21 March 1804, the University and the baccalauréat of 1808. The Code was argued article by article in the Council of State — I sat through seventy-two of the one hundred and two sessions. The crack was that the frame was all me: no heir, no settled succession, a Pope I used and sent back to Rome, brothers I put on thrones who thought of themselves first. When I fell, the frame broke. The institutions did not.

David painted the Coronation from December 1805, showed it in 1808. He put my mother in the stands though she was not there. It is art, not record.

At Longwood I dictate the Italian campaigns of 1796 to 1797, Egypt and Syria, the Italian war of 1799 and Marengo, then Elba and 1815, and précis of Caesar’s and Turenne’s wars. No narrative of 1801 to 1814. I am finishing a study of the Code’s spread. This note is for the work I will not finish. Let it stand as it is, with the crack named and the stone counted.