Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Eagles of Europe Read Online Free PDF Page A

mission. The two protagonists saw him only as a mediator. Therefore, when Alexander presented proposals for a settlement in July,neither party found them acceptable. Britain was to hand Malta over to Russia, while being granted Lampedusa, a tiny speck of land about 100 miles west of Malta, in compensation. France would remain secure behind her natural boundaries, but the creation of a corridor of neutral states, running through Holland, the German territories, Switzerland, and into Italy would bring security to Europe. Bonaparte listened incredulously as Alexander suggested confiscating the rewards of French martial success. Bonaparte rejected Alexander’s proposal out of hand in August, while Britain was now prepared to entrust Malta to no one. These developments marked a distinct change in French–Russian relationships, which did not improve in September, when Bonaparte launched a public verbal attack on Count Morkov, the Russian ambassador in Paris. Angered by this humiliation, Alexander immediately recalled Morkov to St Petersburg.
    The tsar now came under the influence of his deputy minister for foreign affairs, Adam Czartoryski, one of his friends from the ‘Secret Committee’, and one who had long cast a wary eye in the direction of France. In November, Russia initiated discussions with the British government on the subject of a new alliance, as reports circulated of increased activity by French agents in the Balkans, the Adriatic, and Constantinople. Britain made a positive response and dialogue between the two powers opened. But Czartoryski felt unable to push the scheme ahead without the support of Austria and an insight into Prussia’s attitude. However, Sweden’s ambassador to Vienna felt Austria’s policy was now ‘one of fear and hope – fear of the power of France, and hope to obtain favours from her’. Prussia raised objections to the French occupation of Hanover – a territory that had long attracted her own covetous glances as a means of strengthening her dominance in northern Germany – but would push matters no further.
    Before the year of 1803 drew to a close, increasing pressure by Bonaparte on Spain bore fruit. Faced with the threat of an advance by 80,000 French troops into their country, the government of Spain agreed to make an annual payment of 72 million francs to the French exchequer. Portugal purchased her own neutrality by a payment of 1 million francs per month.
    But attempts to draw Sweden into an alliance against Britain met with bold defiance. Instead, King Gustavus IV, a great opponent of the Revolution, turned to Britain in December 1803, seeking financial support for the protection of his European mainland province of Pomerania.
    Meanwhile, as the ruling families of Europe grew more and more disturbed by Bonaparte’s ambitions, a deposed dynasty proposed to take action to remove the root of the evil …
    The first Bourbon-inspired plot to assassinate Bonaparte took place in Paris, in 1800, when a bomb – known to history as the ‘infernal machine’ – exploded: failing to kill its target, but claiming the lives of a number of innocent bystanders.
    Early in 1803 Bonaparte approached the comte de Provence, exiled heir to the Bourbon throne, offering him a vast pension for life if he would renounce, on behalf of himself and future Bourbon claimants, all rights to the throne of France. The future Louis XVIII rejected Bonaparte’s advance with the dignified retort: ‘We have lost everything but honour.’ His response met with the approval of his brother, the comte d’Artois (the future King Charles X) and amongst others, the duc d’Enghein, a Royalist émigré of the Bourbon Condé line. The comte de Provence showed little enthusiasm for plots and intrigues, believing a return to the throne would follow in the wake of a future conflict between France and powers of Europe.
    However, in London, where a hotbed of Royalist intrigue flourished, ideas of a more direct action