Garnisaires in France during the Napoleonic Wars: regulation of repressive measures for maintaining conscription

The Institution of garnisaires was intended for providing lodging to bystanders in the homes of residents in order to comply with the requirements of the government. In France of the early XIX century, it was implemented as a repressive measure to ensure conscription of the recalcitrant. The article describes the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires in conducting conscription in France of the period of the Consulship and the First Empire. The object of this research is the Institution of garnisaires in the early XIX century; while the changes in legal regulation of this institution throughout the ruling of the First Consul and Emperor Napoleon I. The article employs the normative legal acts of the early XIX century: imperial decrees, governmental acts, executive orders and instructions of the officials of the central and local administration; as well as contextual analysis of legal acts, comparative-historical, and chronological methods. Taking into account that the topic of legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires is poorly covered, the article comprehensively analyzes the content of the fundamental legal acts, determines the peculiarities of stern measures applied for maintaining conscription at different stages of the reign of Napoleon I. The conclusion is made that the legal regulation of the institution of garnisaires during the indicated period has evolved from the first attempts to establish the practice of lodgment as repression, initially not implying specific restrictions, to introduction of more balanced and detailed regulation of the institution with a range of restrictive measures. The formation of legal framework of the institution was completed by 1807–1808 with issuing of the decrees of the Emperor and instructions of the Director General of Military Conscription Jean-Girard Lacuée.

Ending and Remembering

Huge numbers of lives were lost in all the imperial wars, and millions of Indians died, not just fighting for the British, but in famines under British rule. Napoleon I and III, Wilhelm II, and Karl I were forced to abdicate after military defeat and Agustín and Maximilian of Mexico were executed. Pedro II of Brazil and George VI of India relinquished their thrones for other reasons. The chapter discusses how imperial cities bear witness today to the regimes that have gone and discusses what statuary and monuments in Paris, in Petrópolis, in Koblenz, and in India tell us about how vanished emperors are remembered.

Harnessing Religion to the Imperial Cause

Religion plays a central role in any monarchical system, for it is God Himself who is considered the fount of monarchical power. Imperial regimes, like monarchical ones, used religion to legitimate as well as to project their power. This chapter discusses Franz Joseph of Austria’s Catholic piety and how Napoleon I instrumentalized religion and clashed with the pope. It analyses the Feast of the Saint-Napoleon, which Napoleon III used to project his power, and the Hohenzollerns’ presentation of themselves as the defenders of Protestantism. The renovation of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, a huge programme of church building in the Prussian lands, and Wilhelm II’s three most prestigious church projects are discussed in detail.

Projecting Imperial Power

The nineteenth century is notable for its newly proclaimed emperors, from Franz I of Austria and Napoleon I in 1804, through Agustín and Pedro, the emperors of Mexico and Brazil, in 1822, to Napoleon III in 1852, Maximilian of Mexico in 1864, Wilhelm I, German emperor, in 1871, and Victoria, empress of India in 1876. These monarchs projected an imperial aura by means of coronations and acclamations, courts, medals, and costumes, portraits and monuments, ceremonial and religion, international exhibitions and museums, festivals and pageants, architecture and town planning. They relied on ancient history for legitimacy while partially espousing modernity. The empress consorts had to find a meaningful role for themselves in a changing world. The first emperors’ successors—Pedro II of Brazil, Franz Joseph of Austria, and Wilhelm II of Germany—expanded their panoply of power, until Pedro was forced to abdicate in 1889 and the First World War brought the Austrian and German empires to an end. Britain invented an imperial myth for its Indian empire in the twentieth century, until George VI relinquished the title of emperor in 1947. The imperial cities of Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and New Delhi bear witness to these vanished empires, as does Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City and the town of Petrópolis in Brazil. How the empires came to an end and how imperial cities and statues are treated nowadays demonstrates the contested place of the emperors in national cultural memory.

Bibliography

Book titles, authors’ names, and places of publication appear below in their original language, format, and spellings. ADAMS, Henry: Napoleon I and San Domingo in Historical Essays (New York, 1891).American Historical Review: ‘Documents: Letters of Toussaint Louverture and Edward Stevens’ (#26, 1910).ARDOUIN, Beaubrun...

Jean Nicolas Corvisart (1755–1821) – Leibarzt Napoleons, Retter der Auenbruggerschen Perkussion und Pionier der Herzerkrankungen

ZusammenfassungJean-Nicolas Corvisart des Marets (1755–1821) war der persönliche Leibarzt von Kaiser Napoleon I. Er war einer der führenden französischen Ärzte, der die klinisch-anatomische Diagnostik exzellent beherrscht und gelehrt hat. Corvisart war ein Pionier der modernen Kardiologie. Bekannt geworden ist er aber v. a. dadurch, dass er die von Leopold Auenbrugger (1722–1809) entwickelte Perkussionstechnik wieder „belebt“ und bekannt gemacht hat.

THE WRITINGS OF URAL ORIGIN ON NAPOLEON THE ANTICHRIST OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The article is devoted to the analysis of two Old Believers eschatological writings created in the Urals in 1820–1840s, which are now kept in the largest collections of the Ural Cyrillic old printed books and manuscripts: the Laboratory of Archaeographical Studies (LAS) of the Ural Federal University and the library of the Ekaterinburg Orthodox seminary. One of these essays is “Tolkivanie o Antichriste” (“The exegesis on the Antichrist”), which substantiates the idea that Napoleon I is the Antichrist. It has already been introduced into scientific circulation in the 19th century, but its copies from the LAS fund allowed revealing a new data about the history of its existence. The article clarifies the date of the essay, determines its impact on later Old Believers literature. The second essay, “Tsvetnik” (“Flower Garden”), continues the theme of the first one, relying on it. “Tsvetnik” is a rather complicated and multifaceted work, containing a lot of reasoning. It covers a lot of questions, problems and assessments of domestic and foreign events contemporary to the author. The main task of the essay was to substantiate the fact that Louis Napoleon, the future French emperor Napoleon III, was the new hypostasis of Napoleon I, the antichrist. The article analyses in detail main ideas of the Tsvetnik’s author, the source base of his work, which included not only traditional Christian literature, but also contemporary to the author secular publications.

La visión de la participación polaca en los Sitios de Zaragoza (1808-1809) en Cenizas de Stefan Żeromski y Andrzej Wajda

En Polonia, el conocimiento de la participación de los legionarios de la Legión del Vístula y de los lanceros del Vístula en los Sitios de Zaragoza proviene principalmente de la literatura y el cine. Las primeras obras proceden del género novelístico. La falta de un estudio histórico riguroso propició que estos trabajos se alzasen como portadores auténticos de los hechos allí narrados, cuando, en realidad, eran interpretaciones creadas por la pluma del escritor de turno. De esta manera se fueron forjando mitos que han perdurado hasta la actualidad. Una de estas leyendas salió de la imaginación de Stefan Żeromski, quien, a partir de un texto anónimo, inventó una escena que ha sido motivo de remordimiento para generaciones de polacos: el suicidio de una religiosa al verse ante el inminente peligro de ser violada por la soldadesca en un convento de Zaragoza. Andrzej Wajda recogió ese pasaje plasmándolo en una escena de su película. Nosotros hemos demostrado que el texto inspirador de Żeromski, y, por ende, de Wajda, es apócrifo, probablemente por la propaganda zarista con el fin de ensuciar acciones polacas en las guerras napoleónicas, cuando los polacos volvieron a ser libres en tiempos del Ducado de Varsovia de la mano de Napoleón I Bonaparte. Con este artículo, demostramos la necesidad de volver a interpretar las fuentes originales, para desterrar mitos creadores de errores con fines políticos claros.