has deserved such an office.” Melzi was elected vice-president
with merely honorary functions. The constitution comprised a
consulta charged with executive duties, a legislative body of
150 members and a court charged with the maintenance of the
fundamental laws. These three bodies were to be chosen by
three electoral colleges consisting of (a) landed proprietors,
(b) learned men and clerics, (c) merchants and traders, holding
their sessions biennially at Milan, Bologna and Brescia respectively.
In practice the consulta could override the legislature;
and, as the consulta was little more than the organ of
the president, the whole constitution may be pronounced as
autocratic as that of France after the changes brought about
by Bonaparte in August 1802. Finally we must note that the
Cisalpine now took the name of the Italian Republic, and that
by a concordat with the pope, Bonaparte regulated its relations
to the Holy See in a manner analogous to that adopted in the
famous French concordat promulgated at Easter 1802 (see
Concordat). It remains to add that the Ligurian Republic
and that of Lucca remodelled their constitutions in a way somewhat
similar to that of the Cisalpine.
Bonaparte’s ascendancy did not pass unchallenged. Many of
the Italians retained their enthusiasm for democracy and national
independence. In 1803 movements in these directions
took place at Rimini, Brescia and Bologna; but they
were sharply repressed, and most Italians came to
Kingdom
of Italy.
acquiesce in the Napoleonic supremacy as inevitable and indeed
beneficial. The complete disregard shown by Napoleon for one
of the chief conditions of the treaty of Lunéville (February
1801)—that stipulating for the independence of the Ligurian
and Cisalpine Republics—became more and more apparent
every year. Alike in political and commercial affairs they were
for all practical purposes dependencies of France. Finally,
after the proclamation of the French empire (May 18, 1804)
Napoleon proposed to place his brother Joseph over the Italian
state, which now took the title of kingdom of Italy. On Joseph
declining, Napoleon finally decided to accept the crown which
Melzi, Marescalchi, Serbelloni and others begged him to assume.
Accordingly, on the 26th of May 1805, in the cathedral at Milan,
he crowned himself with the iron crown of the old Lombard
kings, using the traditional formula, “God gave it me: let him
beware who touches it.” On the 7th of June he appointed his
step-son, Eugène Beauharnais, to be viceroy. Eugène soon found
that his chief duty was to enforce the will of Napoleon. The
legislature at Milan having ventured to alter some details of
taxation, Eugène received the following rule of conduct from his
step-father: “Your system of government is simple: the
emperor wills it to be thus.” Republicanism was now everywhere
discouraged. The little republic of Lucca, along with
Piombino, was now awarded as a principality by the emperor
to Elisa Bonaparte and her husband, Bacciocchi.
In June 1805 there came a last and intolerable affront to the emperors of Austria and Russia, who at that very time were seeking to put bounds to Napoleon’s ambition and to redress the balance of power. The French emperor, at the supposed request of the doge of Genoa, declared the Ligurian Republic to be an integral part of the French empire. This defiance to the sovereigns of Russia and Austria rekindled the flames of war. The third coalition was formed between Great Britain, Russia and Austria, Naples soon joining its ranks.
For the chief events of the ensuing campaigns see Napoleonic
Campaigns. While Masséna pursued the Austrians into their
own lands at the close of 1805, Italian forces under Eugène
and Gouvion St Cyr (q.v.) held their ground against allied forces
landed at Naples. After Austerlitz (December 2, 1805)
Austria made peace by the treaty of Pressburg, ceding to the
kingdom of Italy her part of Venetia along with the provinces
of Istria and Dalmatia. Napoleon then turned fiercely against
Maria Carolina of Naples upbraiding her with her “perfidy.”
He sent Joseph Bonaparte and Masséna southwards with a
strong column, compelled the Anglo-Russian forces to evacuate
Naples, and occupied the south of the peninsula with little
opposition except at the fortress of Gaeta. The Bourbon court
sailed away to Palermo, where it remained for eight years
under the protection afforded by the British fleet and a
Joseph Bonaparte
in Naples.
British army of occupation. On the 15th of February
1806 Joseph Bonaparte entered Naples in triumph, his
troops capturing there two hundred pieces of cannon.
Gaeta, however, held out stoutly against the French.
Sir Sidney Smith with a British squadron captured Capri
(February 1806), and the peasants of the Abruzzi and Calabria
soon began to give trouble. Worst of all was the arrival of a
small British force in Calabria under Sir John Stuart, which
beat off with heavy loss an attack imprudently delivered by
General Réynier on level ground near the village of Maida
(July 4). The steady volleys of Kempt’s light infantry
were fatal to the French, who fell back in disorder under a
bayonet charge of the victors, with the loss of some 2700 men.
Calabria now rose in revolt against King Joseph, and the peasants
dealt out savage reprisals to the French troops. On the 18th
of July, however, Gaeta surrendered to Masséna, and that
marshal, now moving rapidly southwards, extricated Réynier,
crushed the Bourbon rising in Calabria with great barbarity,
and compelled the British force to re-embark for Sicily. At
Palermo Queen Maria Carolina continued to make vehement
but futile efforts for the overthrow of King Joseph.
It is more important to observe that under Joseph and his ministers or advisers, including the Frenchmen Roederer, Dumas, Miot de Melito and the Corsican Saliceti, great progress was made in abolishing feudal laws and customs, in reforming the judicial procedure and criminal laws on the model of the Code Napoléon, and in attempting the beginnings of elementary education. More questionable was Joseph’s policy in closing and confiscating the property of 213 of the richer monasteries of the land. The monks were pensioned off, but though the confiscated property helped to fill the empty coffers of the state, the measure aroused widespread alarm and resentment among that superstitious people.
The peace of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) enabled Napoleon to press on his projects for securing the command of the Mediterranean, thenceforth a fundamental axiom of his policy. Consequently, in the autumn of 1807 he urged on Joseph the adoption of vigorous measures for the capture of Sicily. Already, in the negotiations with England during the summer of 1806, the emperor had shown his sense of the extreme importance of gaining possession of that island, which indeed caused the breakdown of the peace proposals then being considered; and now he ordered French squadrons into the Mediterranean in order to secure Corfu and Sicily. His plans respecting Corfu succeeded. That island and some of the adjacent isles fell into the hands of the French (some of them were captured by British troops in 1809–10); but Sicily remained unassailable. Capri, however, fell to the French on the 18th of October 1808, shortly after the arrival at Naples of the new king, Murat.
This ambitious marshal, brother-in-law of Napoleon, foiled in his hope of gaining the crown of Spain, received that of Naples in the summer of 1808, Joseph Bonaparte being moved from Naples to Madrid. This arrangement pleased neither of the relatives of the emperor; but his will Murat, King of Naples. now was law on the continent. Joseph left Naples on the 23rd of May 1808; but it was not until the 6th of September that Joachim Murat made his entry. A fortnight later his consort Caroline arrived, and soon showed a vigour and restlessness of spirit which frequently clashed with the dictates of her brother, the emperor and the showy, unsteady policy of her consort. The Spanish national rising of 1808 and thereafter the Peninsular War diverted Napoleon’s attention from the affairs of south Italy. In June 1809, during his campaign against Austria, Sir John Stuart with an Anglo-Sicilian force sailed northwards, captured Ischia and threw Murat into great alarm; but on the news of the Austrian defeat at Wagram, Stuart sailed back again.
It is now time to turn to the affairs of central Italy. Early in 1808 Napoleon proceeded with plans which he had secretly concerted after the treaty of Tilsit for transferring the infanta
