Chapter IV: , VII (92)

The beginnings of the great rising in Spain against Napoleon
(see SPAIN: A. D. 1808, and after) "were watched by Stein from
Berlin while he was engaged in negotiating with Daru; we can
imagine with what feelings! His cause had been, since his
ministry began, substantially the same as that of Spain; but
he had perhaps understood it himself but dimly, at any rate
hoped but faintly to see it prosper. But now he ripens at once
into a great nationality statesman; the reforms of Prussia
begin at once to take a more military stamp, and to point more
decisively to a great uprising of the German race against the
foreign oppressor. The change of feeling which took place in
Prussia after the beginning of the Spanish troubles is very
clearly marked in Stein's autobiography. After describing the
negotiations at Paris and Berlin, … he begins a new
paragraph thus: 'The popular war which had broken out in Spain
and was attended with good success, had heightened the
irritation of the inhabitants of the Prussian State caused by
the humiliation they had suffered. All thirsted for revenge;
plans of insurrection, which aimed at exterminating the French
scattered about the country, were arranged; among others, one
was to be carried out at Berlin, and I had the greatest
trouble to keep the leaders, who confided their intentions to
me, from a premature outbreak. We all watched the progress of
the Spanish war and the commencement of the Austrian, for the
preparations of that Power had not remained a secret;
expectation was strained to the highest point; pains were
necessary to moderate the excited eagerness for resistance in
order to profit by it in more favourable circumstances. …
Fichte's Addresses to the Germans, delivered during the French
occupation of Berlin and printed under the censorship of M.
Bignon, the Intendant, had a great effect upon the feelings of
the cultivated class.' … That in the midst of such weighty
matters he should remember to mention Fichte's Addresses is a
remarkable testimony to the effect produced by them on the
public mind, and at the same time it leads us to conjecture
that they must have strongly influenced his own. They had been
delivered in the winter at Berlin and of course could not be
heard by Stein, who was then with the King, but they were not
published till April. As affecting public opinion therefore,
and also as known to Stein, the book was almost exactly of the
same date as the Spanish Rebellion, and it is not unnatural
that he should mention the two influences together. … When
the lectures were delivered at Berlin a rising in Spain was
not dreamed of, and even when they were published it had not
taken place, nor could clearly be foreseen. And yet they teach
the same lesson. That doctrine of nationality which was taught
affirmatively by Spain had been suggested to Fichte's mind by
the reductio ad absurdum which events had given to the
negation of it in Germany.
{1516}
Nothing could be more convincing than the concurrence of the
two methods of proof at the same moment, and the prophetic
elevation of these discourses (which may have furnished a
model to Carlyle) was well fitted to drive the lesson home,
particularly to a mind like Stein's, which was quite capable
of being impressed by large principles. … Fichte's Addresses
do not profess to have in the first instance nationality for
their subject. They profess to inquire whether there exists
any grand comprehensive remedy for the evils with which
Germany is afflicted. They find such a remedy where Turgot
long before had looked for deliverance from the selfishness to
which he traced all the abuses of the old regime, that is, in
a grand system of national education. Fichte reiterates the
favourite doctrine of modern Liberalism, that education as
hitherto conducted by the Church has aimed only at securing
for men happiness in another life, and that this is not
enough, inasmuch as they need also to be taught how to bear
themselves in the present life so as to do their duty to the
state, to others and themselves. He is as sure as Turgot that
a system of national education will work so powerfully upon
the nation that in a few years they will not be recognisable,
and he explains at great length what should be the nature of
this system, dwelling principally upon the importance of
instilling a love of duty for its own sake rather than for
reward. The method to be adopted is that of Pestalozzi. Out of
fourteen lectures the first three are entirely occupied with
this. But then the subject is changed, and we find ourselves
plunged into a long discussion of the peculiar characteristics
which distinguish Germany from other nations and particularly
other nations of German origin. At the present day this
discussion, which occupies four lectures, seems hardly
satisfactory; but it is a striking deviation from the fashion
of that age. … But up to this point we perceive only that
the subject of German nationality occupies Fichte's mind very
much, and that there was more significance than we first
remarked in the title, Addresses to the German Nation;
otherwise we have met with nothing likely to seem of great
importance to a statesman. But the eighth Lecture propounds
the question, 'What is a Nation in the higher signification of
the word, and what is patriotism? It is here that he delivers
what might seem a commentary on the Spanish Revolution, which
had not yet taken place. … Fichte proclaims the Nation not
only to be different from the State, but to be something far
higher and greater. … Applied to Germany this doctrine would
lead to the practical conclusion that a united German State
ought to be set up in which the separate German States should
be absorbed. … In the lecture before us he contents himself
with advising that patriotism as distinguished from loyalty to
the State should be carefully inculcated in the new education,
and should influence the individual German Governments. It
would not indeed have been safe for Fichte to propose a
political reform, but it rather appears that he thought it an
advantage rather than a disadvantage that the Nation and the
State should be distinct. … I should not have lingered so
long over this book if it did not strike me as the prophetical
or canonical book which announces and explains a great
transition in Modern Europe, and the prophecies of which began
to be fulfilled immediately after its publication by the
rising in Spain. … It is this Spanish Revolution which when
it has extended to the other countries we call the
Anti-Napoleonic Revolution of Europe. It gave Europe years of
unparalleled bloodshed, but at the same time years over which
there broods a light of poetry; for no conception can be more
profoundly poetical than that which now woke up in every part
of Europe, the conception of the Nation. Those years also led
the way to the great movements which have filled so much of
the nineteenth century, and have rearranged the whole central
part of the map of Europe on a more natural system."

_J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 4, chapter 1 (volume 2)._

GERMANY: A. D. 1808 (January).
Kehl, Cassel and Wesel annexed to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1807-1808 (NOVEMBER-FEBRUARY).

GERMANY: A. D. 1808 (April-December).
The Tugendbund, and Stein's relations to it.

"English people think of Stein almost exclusively in connexion
with land laws. But the second and more warlike period of his
Ministry has also left a faint impression in the minds of many
among us, who are in the habit of regarding him as the founder
of the Tugendbund. In August and September [1808], the very
months in which Stein was taking up his new position, this
society was attracting general attention, and accordingly this
is the place to consider Stein's relation to it. That he was
secretly animating and urging it on must have seemed at the
time more than probable, almost self-evident. It aimed at the
very objects which he had at heart, it spoke of him with warm
admiration, and in general it used language which seemed an
echo of his own. … Whatever his connexion with the
Tugendbund may have been, it cannot have commenced till April,
1808, for it was in that month that the Tugendbund began its
existence, and therefore nothing can be more absurd than to
represent Stein as beginning to revolutionise the country with
the help of the Tugendbund, for his revolutionary edict had
been promulgated in the October before. … In his
autobiography … Stein [says]: 'An effect and not the cause
of this passionate national indignation at the despotism of
Napoleon was the Tugendbund, of which I was no more the
founder than I was a member, as I can assert on my honour and
as is well known to its originators. About July, 1808, there
was formed at Königsberg a society consisting of several
officers, for example, Colonel Gneisenau, Grolmann, &c., and
learned men, such as Professor Krug, in order to combat
selfishness and to rouse the nobler moral feelings; and
according to the requirements of the existing laws they
communicated their statutes and the list of their members to
the King's Majesty, who sanctioned the former without any
action on my part, it being my belief in general that there
was no need of any other institute but to put new life into
the spirit of Christian patriotism, the germ of which lay
already in the existing institutions of State and Church. The
new Society held its meetings, but of the proceedings I knew
nothing, and when later it proposed to exert an indirect
influence upon educational and military institutions I
rejected the proposal as encroaching on the department of the
civil and ecclesiastical governing bodies. As I was driven
soon afterwards out of the public service, I know nothing
of the further operations of this Society.' …
{1517}
He certainly seems to intend his readers to understand that he
had not even any indirect or underhand connexion with it, but
from first to last stood entirely aloof, except in one case
when he interfered to restrain its action. It is even possible
that by telling us that he had nothing to do with the step
taken by the King when he sanctioned the statutes of the
society he means to hint that; had his advice been taken, the
society would not have been even allowed to exist. … The
principal fact affirmed by Stein is indeed now beyond
controversy; Stein was certainly not either the founder or a
member of the Tugendbund. The society commonly known by that
name, which however designated itself as the Moral and
Scientific Union, was founded by a number of persons, of whom
many were Freemasons, at Konigsberg in the month of April.
Professor Krug, mentioned by Stein, was one of them; Gneisenau
and Grolmann, whom he also mentions, were not among the first
members, and Gneisenau, it seems, was never a member. The
statutes were drawn by Krug, Bardeleben and Baersch, and if
anyone person can be called the Founder of the Tugendbund, the
second of these, Bardeleben, seems best to deserve the title.
The Order of Cabinet by which the society was licensed is
dated Konigsberg, June 30th, and runs as follows: 'The revival
of morality, religion, serious taste and public spirit, is
assuredly most commendable; and, so far as the society now
being formed under the name of a Virtue Union (Tugendverein)
is occupied with this within the limits of the laws of the
country and without any interference in politics or public
administration, His Majesty the King of Prussia approves the
object and constitution of the society.' … From Konigsberg
missionaries went forth who established branch associations,
called Chambers, in other towns, first those of the Province
of Prussia, Braunsberg, Elbing, Graudenz, Eylau, Hohenstein,
Memel, Stallupöhnen; then in August and September Bardeleben
spread the movement with great success through Silesia. The
spirit which animated the new society could not but be
approved by every patriot. They had been deeply struck with
the decay of the nation, as shown in the occurrences of the
war, and their views of the way in which it might be revived
were much the same as those of Stein and Fichte. The only
question was whether they were wise in organising a society in
order to promulgate these views, whether such a society was
likely to do much good, and also whether it might not by
possibility do much harm. Stein's view, as he has given it,
was that it was not likely to do much good, and that such an
organisation was unnecessary. … It did not follow because he
desired Estates or Parliaments that he was prepared to
sanction a political club. … It may well have seemed to him
that to suffer a political club to come into existence was to
allow the guidance of the Revolution which he had begun to
pass out of his hands. There appears, then, when we consider
it closely, nothing unnatural in the course which Stein
declares himself to have taken."

_J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 4, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_T. Frost,
Secret Societies of the European Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 4._

GERMANY: A. D. 1808 (September-October).
Imperial conference and Treaty of Erfurt.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1808 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (January-June).
Outburst of Austrian feeling against France.
Reopening of war.
Napoleon's advance to Vienna.
His defeat at Aspern and perilous situation.
Austrian reverses in Italy and Hungary.

"The one man of all the Austrians who felt the least amount of
hatred against France, was, perhaps, the Emperor. All his
family and all his people—nobles and priests, the middle
classes and the peasantry—evinced a feeling full of anger
against the nation which had upset Europe. … By reason of
the French, the disturbers and spoilers, the enemies of the
human race, despisers of morality and religion alike, Princes
were suffering in their palaces, workmen in their shops,
business men in their offices, priests in their churches,
soldiers in their camps, peasants in their huts. The movement
of exasperation was irresistible. Everyone said that it was a
mistake to have laid down their arms; that they ought against
France to have fought on to the bitter end, and to have
sacrificed the last man and the last florin; that they had
been wrong in not having gone to the assistance of Prussia
after the Jena Campaign; and that the moment had arrived for
all the Powers to coalesce against the common enemy and crush
him. … All Europe had arrived at a paroxysm of indignation.
What was she waiting for before rising? A signal. That signal
Austria was about to give. And this time with what chances of
success! The motto was to be 'victory or death.' But they were
sure of victory. The French army, scattered from the Oder to
the Tagus, from the mountains of Bohemia to the Sierra Morena,
would not be able to resist the onslaught of so many nations
eager to break their bonds. … Vienna, in 1809, indulged in
the same language, and felt the same passions, that Berlin did
in 1806. … The Landwehr, then only organized a few months,
were impatiently awaiting the hour when they should measure
themselves against the Veterans of the French army. Volunteers
flocked in crowds to the colours. Patriotic subscriptions
flowed in. … Boys wanted to leave school to fight. All
classes of society vied with each other in zeal, courage, and
a spirit of sacrifice. When the news was made public that the
Archduke Charles had, on the 20th of February, 1809, been
appointed Generalissimo, there was an outburst of joy and
confidence from one end of the Empire to the other."

_Imbert de Saint-Amand,
Memoirs of the Empress Marie Louise,
part 1, chapter 2._

"On receiving decisive intelligence of these hostile
preparations, Napoleon returned with extraordinary expedition
from Spain to Paris, in January, 1809, and gave orders to
concentrate his forces in Germany, and call out the full
contingents of the Confederation of the Rhine. Some further
time was consumed by the preparations on either side. At last,
on the 8th of April, the Austrian troops crossed the frontiers
at once on the Inn, in Bohemia, in the Tyrol and in Italy. The
whole burthen of the war rested on Austria alone, for Prussia
remained neutral, and Russia, now allied to France, was even
bound to make a show at least, though it were no more, of
hostility to Austria. On the same day on which the Austrian
forces crossed the frontiers, the Tyrol rose in insurrection
[see below: A. D. 1809-1810 (APRIL-FEBRUARY)], and was swept
clear of the enemy in four days, with the exception of a
Bavarian garrison, that still held out in Kufstein.
{1518}
The French army was at this time dispersed over a line of
forty leagues in extent, with numerous undefended apertures
between the corps; so that the fairest possible opportunity
presented itself to the Austrians for cutting to pieces the
scattered forces of the French, and marching in triumph to the
Rhine. As usual, however, the archduke's early movements were
subjected to most impolitic delays by the Aulic Council; and
time was allowed Napoleon to arrive on the theatre of war
(April 17), and repair the faults committed by his
adjutant-general, Berthier. He instantly extricated his army
from its perilous position—almost cut in two by the advance
of the Austrians—and, beginning on the 19th, he beat the
latter in five battles on five successive days, at Thaun,
Abensberg, Landshut, Eckmühl, and Ratisbon. The Archduke
Charles retired into Bohemia to collect reinforcements, but
General Hiller was, in consequence of the delay in repairing
the fortifications of Linz, unable to maintain that place, the
possession of which was important, on account of its forming a
connecting point between Bohemia and the Austrian Oberland.
Hiller, however, at least saved his honour by pushing forward
to the Traun, and in a fearfully bloody encounter at
Ebersberg, captured three French eagles, one of his colours
alone falling into the enemy's hands. He was, nevertheless,
compelled to retire before the superior forces of the French,
and crossing over at Krems to the left bank of the Danube, he
formed a junction with the Archduke Charles. The way was now
clear to Vienna, which, after a slight show of defence,
capitulated to Napoleon on the 12th of May. The Archduke
Charles had hoped to reach the capital before the French, and
to give battle to them beneath its walls; but as he had to
make a circuit whilst the French pushed forward in a direct
line, his plan was frustrated, and he arrived, when too late,
from Bohemia. Both armies, separated by the Danube, stood
opposed to one another in the vicinity of the imperial city.
Both commanders were desirous of coming to a decisive
engagement. The French had secured the island of Lobau, to
serve as a mustering place, and point of transit across the
Danube. The archduke allowed them to establish a bridge of
boats, being resolved to await them on the Marchfeld. There it
was that Rudolph of Habsburg, in the battle against Ottakar,
had laid the foundation of the greatness of the house of
Austria; and there the political existence of that house and
the fate of the monarchy were now to be decided. Having
crossed the river, Napoleon was received on the opposite bank,
near Aspern and Esslingen, by his opponent, and, after a
dreadful battle [in which Marshal Lannes was killed], that was
carried on with unwearied animosity for two days, May 21st and
22nd, 1809, he was completely beaten, and compelled to fly for
refuge to the island of Lobau. The rising stream had,
meanwhile, carried away the bridge, Napoleon's sole chance of
escape to the opposite bank. For two days he remained on the
island with his defeated troops, without provisions, and in
hourly expectation of being cut to pieces; the Austrians,
however, neglected to turn the opportunity to advantage, and
allowed the French leisure to rebuild the bridge, a work of
extreme difficulty. During six weeks afterwards, the two
armies continued to occupy their former positions under the
walls of Vienna, on the right and left banks of the Danube,
narrowly watching each other's movements, and preparing for a
final struggle. Whilst these events were in progress, the
Archduke John had successfully penetrated into Italy, where he
had totally defeated the Viceroy Eugene at Salice, on the 16th
of April. Favoured by the simultaneous revolt of the Tyrolese,
he might have obtained the most decisive results from this
victory, but the extraordinary progress of Napoleon down the
valley of the Danube rendered necessary the concentration of
the whole forces of the monarchy for the defence of the
capital. Having begun a retreat, he was pursued by Eugene, and
defeated on the Piave, with great loss, on the 8th of May.
Escaping thence, without further molestation, to Villach, in
Carinthia, he received intelligence of the fall of Vienna,
together with a letter from the Archduke Charles, of the 15th
of May, directing him to move with all his forces upon Lintz,
to act on the rear and communications of Napoleon. Instead of
obeying these orders, he thought proper to march into Hungary,
abandoning the Tyrol and the whole projected operations on the
Upper Danube to their fate. His disobedience was disastrous to
the fortunes of his house, for it caused the fruits of the
victory at Aspern to be lost. He might have arrived, with
50,000 men, on the 24th or 25th, at Lintz, where no one
remained but Bernadotte and the Saxons, who were incapable of
offering any serious resistance. Such a force, concentrated on
the direct line of Napoleon's communications, immediately
after his defeat at Aspern, on the 22nd, would have deprived
him of all means of extricating himself from the most perilous
situation in which he had yet been placed since ascending the
consular throne. After totally defeating Jellachich in the
valley of the Muhr, Eugene desisted from his pursuit of the
army of Italy, and joined Napoleon at Vienna. The Archduke
John united his forces at Raab with those of the Hungarian
insurrection, under his brother, the Palatine. The viceroy
again marched against him, and defeated him at Raab on the
14th of June. The Palatine remained with the Hungarian
insurrection in Komorn; Archduke John moved on to Presburg. In
the north, the Archduke Ferdinand, who had advanced as far as
Warsaw, had been driven back by the Poles: under Poniatowsky,
and by a Russian force sent by the Emperor Alexander to their
aid, which, on this success, invaded Galicia."

_W. K. Kelly,
History of the House of Austria (Continuation of Coxe),
chapter 4._

ALSO IN:
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 56-57 (volume 12)._

_Duke de Rovigo,
Memoirs,
volume 2, part 2, chapters 3-12._

_Baron Jomini,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 14 (volume 3)._

_Baron de Marbot,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 42-48._

GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (April-July).
Risings against the French in the North.

"A general revolt against the French had nearly taken place in
Saxony and Westphalia, where the enormous burdens imposed on
the people, and the insolence of the French troops, had
kindled a deadly spirit of hostility against the oppressors.
Everywhere the Tugendbund were in activity; and the advance of
the Austrians towards Franconia and Saxony, at the beginning
of the war, blew up the flame. The two first attempts at
insurrection, headed respectively by Katt, a Prussian officer
(April 3), and Dornberg, a Westphalian colonel (April 23),
proved abortive; but the enterprise of the celebrated Schill
was of a more formidable character.
{1519}
This enthusiastic patriot, then a colonel in the Prussian
army, had been compromised in the revolt of Dornberg; and
finding himself discovered, he boldly raised the standard
(April 29) at the head of 600 soldiers. His force speedily
received accessions, but failing in his attempts on Wittenberg
and Magdeburg, he moved towards the Baltic, in hope of succour
from the British cruisers, and at last threw himself into
Stralsund. Here he was speedily invested; the place was
stormed (May 31), and the gallant Schill slain in the assault,
a few hours only before the appearance of the British vessels
—the timely arrival of which might have secured the place,
and spread the rising over all Northern Germany. The Duke of
Brunswick-Oels, with his 'black band' of volunteers, had at
the same time invaded Saxony from Bohemia; and though then
obliged to retreat, he made a second incursion in June,
occupied Dresden and Leipsic, and drove the King of Westphalia
into France. After the battle of Wagram he made his way across
all Northern Germany, and was eventually conveyed, with his
gallant followers, still 2,000 strong, to England."

_Epitome of Alison's History of Europe,
sections 525-526._

GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (July-September).
Napoleon's victory at Wagram.
The Peace of Schonbrunn.
Immense surrender of Austrian territory.

"The operation of establishing the bridges between the French
camp and the left bank of the Danube commenced on the night of
the 30th of June; and during the night of the 4th of July the
whole French army, passing between the villages of Enzersdorf
and Muhlleuten, debouched on the Marchfeld, wheeling to their
left. Napoleon was on horseback in the midst of them by
daylight; all the Austrian fortifications erected to defend
the former bridge were turned, the villages occupied by their
army taken, and the Archduke Charles was menaced both in flank
and rear, the French line of battle appuyed on Enzersdorf
being at a right angle to his left wing. Under these
circumstances the Archduke, retiring his left, attempted to
outflank the French right, while Napoleon bore down upon his
centre at Wagram. This village became the scene of a
sanguinary struggle, and one house only remained standing when
night closed in. The Archduke sent courier after courier to
hasten the advance of his brother, between whom and himself
was Napoleon, whose line on the night of the 5th extended from
Loibersdorf on the right to some two miles beyond Wagram on
the left. Napoleon passed the night in massing his centre,
still determining to manœuvre by his left in order to throw
back the Archduke Charles on that side before the Archduke
John could come up on the other. At six o'clock on the morning
of the 6th of July he commanded the attack in person.
Disregarding all risk, he appeared throughout the day in the
hottest of the fire, mounted on a snow-white charger,
Euphrates, a present from the Shah of Persia. The Archduke
Charles as usual committed the error which Napoleon's enemies
had not even yet learned was invariably fatal to them:
extending his line too greatly he weakened his centre, at the
same time opening tremendous assaults on the French wings,
which suffered dreadfully. Napoleon ordered Lauriston to
advance upon the Austrian centre with a hundred guns,
supported by two whole divisions of infantry in column. The
artillery, when within half cannon-shot, opened a terrific
fire: nothing could withstand such a shock. The infantry, led
by Macdonald, charged; the Austrian line was broken and the
centre driven back in confusion. The right, in a panic,
retrograded; the French cavalry then bore down upon them and
decided the battle, the Archduke still fighting to secure his
retreat, which he at length effected in tolerably good order.
By noon the whole Austrian army was abandoning the contest.
Their defeat so demoralized them that the Archduke John, who
came up on Napoleon's right before the battle was over, was
glad to retire with the rest, unnoticed by the enemy. That
evening the Marchfeld and Wagram were in possession of the
French. The population of Vienna had watched the battle from
the roofs and ramparts of the city, and saw the retreat of
their army with fear and gloom. Between 300,000 and 400,000
men were engaged, and the loss on both sides was nearly equal.
About 20,000 dead and 30,000 wounded strewed the ground; the
latter were conveyed to the hospitals of Vienna. … Twenty
thousand Austrians were taken prisoners, but the number would
have been greater had the French cavalry acted with their
usual spirit. Bernadotte, issuing a bulletin, almost assuming
to himself the sole merit of the victory, was removed from his
command. Macdonald was created a marshal of the empire on the
morning after the battle. … The battle of Wagram was won
more by good fortune than skill. Napoleon's strategy was at
fault, and had the Austrians fought as stoutly as they did at
Aspern, Napoleon would have been signally defeated. Had the
Archduke John acted promptly and vigorously, he might have
united with his brother's left—which was intact—and
overwhelmed the French. … The defeated army retired to
Znaim, followed by the French; but further resistance was
abandoned by the Emperor of Austria. The Archduke Charles
solicited an armistice on the 9th; hostilities ceased, and
Napoleon returned to the palace of Schonbrunn while the
plenipotentiaries settled the terms of peace. … English
Ministers displayed another instance of their customary spirit
of procrastination. Exactly eight days after the armistice of
Znaim, which assured them that Austria was no longer in a
position to profit by or co-operate with their proceedings,
they sent more than 80,000 fighting men, under the command of
Lord Chatham, to besiege Antwerp. …

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1809 (JULY-DECEMBER).

Operations against Naples proved equally abortive. … In
Spain alone English arms were successful. Sir Arthur Wellesley
won the battle of Talavera on the 28th of July. …

See SPAIN: A. D. 1809 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

A treaty of peace, between France and Austria was signed on
the 14th of October at Vienna [sometimes called the Treaty of
Vienna, but more commonly the Peace of Schonbrunn]. The
Emperor of Austria ceded Salzburg and a part of Upper Austria
to the Confederation of the Rhine; part of Bohemia, Cracow,
and Western Galicia to the King of Saxony as Grand Duke of
Warsaw; part of Eastern Galicia to the Emperor of Russia; and
Trieste, Carniola, Friuli, Villach, and some part of Croatia
and Dalmatia to France: thus connecting the kingdom of Italy
with Napoleon's Illyrian possessions, making him master of the
entire coast of the Adriatic, and depriving Austria of its
last seaport. It was computed that the Emperor Francis gave up
territory to the amount of 45,000 square miles, with a
population of nearly 4,000,000. He also paid a large
contribution in money."

_R. H. Horne,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 32._

{1520}

"The cessions made directly to Napoleon were the county of
Görtz, or Goricia, and that of Montefalcone, forming the
Austrian Friuli; the town and government of Trieste, Carniola,
the circle of Villach in Carinthia, part of Croatia and
Dalmatia, and the lordship of Räzuns in the Grison territory.
All these provinces, with the exception of Räzuns, were
incorporated by a decree of Napoleon, with Dalmatia and its
islands, into a single state with the name of the Illyrian
Provinces. They were never united with France, but always
governed by Napoleon as an independent state. A few districts
before possessed by Napoleon were also incorporated with them:
as Venetian Istria and Dalmatia with the Bocca di Cattaro,
Ragusa, and part of the Tyrol. … The only other articles of
the treaty of much importance are the recognition by Austria
of any changes made, or to be made, in Spain, Portugal, and
Italy; the adherence of the Emperor to the prohibitive system
adopted by France and Russia, and his engaging to cease all
correspondence and relationship with Great Britain. By a
decree made at Ratisbon, April 24th, 1809, Napoleon had
suppressed the Teutonic Order in all the States belonging to
the Rhenish Confederation, reannexed its possessions to the
domains of the prince in which they were situated, and
incorporated Mergentheim, with the rights, domains, and
revenues attached to the Grand Mastership of the Order, with
the Kingdom of Würtemberg. These dispositions were confirmed
by the Treaty of Schönbrunn. The effect aimed at by the Treaty
of Schönbrunn was to surround Austria with powerful states,
and thus to paralyse all her military efforts. … The Emperor
of Russia … was very ill satisfied with the small portion of
the spoils assigned to him, and the augmentation awarded to
the duchy of Warsaw. Hence the first occasion of coldness
between him and Napoleon, whom he suspected of a design to
reestablish the Kingdom of Poland."

_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 7, chapter 14 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapters 59-60 (volume 13)._

_General Count M. Dumas,
Memoirs,
chapter 13 (volume 2)._

_E. Baines,
History of the Wars of the French Revolution,
book 4, chapter 9 (volume 3)._

_J. C. Ropes,
The First Napoleon,
lecture 4._

GERMANY: A. D. 1809-1810.
Humboldt's reform of Public Instruction in Prussia.

See EDUCATION, MODERN:
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. PRUSSIA: A. D. 1809.

GERMANY: A. D. 1809-1810 (April-February).
The revolt in the Tyrol.
Heroic struggle of Andrew Hofer and his countrymen.

"The Tyrol, for centuries a possession of Austria, was ceded
to Bavaria by the Peace of Presburg in 1805. The Bavarians
made many innovations, in the French style, some good and some
bad; but the mountaineers, clinging to their ancient ways,
resisted them all alike. They hated the Bavarians as foreign
masters forced upon them; and especially detested the military
conscription, to which Austria had never subjected them. The
priests had an almost unlimited influence over these faithful
Catholics, and the Bavarians, who treated them rudely, were
regarded as innovators and allies of revolutionary France.
Thus the country submitted restlessly to the yoke of the Rhine
League until the spring of 1809. A secret understanding was
maintained with Austria and the Archduke John, and the people
never abandoned the hope of returning to their Austrian
allegiance. When the great war of 1809 began, the Emperor
Francis summoned all his people to arms. The Tyrolese answered
the call. … They are a people trained in early life to the
use of arms, and to activity, courage, and ready devices in
hunting, and in traveling on their mountain paths. Austria
could be sure of the faithfulness of the Tyrol, and made haste
to occupy the country. When the first troops were seen entering
the passes, the people arose and drove away the Bavarian
garrisons. The alarm was soon sounded through the deepest
ravines of the land. Never was there a more united people, and
each troop or company chose its own officers, in the ancient
German style, from among their strongest and best men. Their
commanders were hunters, shepherds, priests: the former
gamekeeper, Speckbacher; the innkeeper, Martin Teimer; the
fiery Capuchin monk, Haspinger, whose sole weapon in the field
was a huge ebony crucifix, and many more of like peaceful
occupations. At the head of the whole army was a man who, like
Saul, towered by a head above all others, while his handsome
black beard fell to his girdle—Andrew Hofer, formerly an
innkeeper at Passeyr—a man of humble piety and simple
faithfulness, who fairly represented the people he led. He
regarded the war as dutiful service to his religion, his
emperor, and his country. The whole land soon swarmed with
little bands of men, making their way to Innsprück (April,
1809), whence the Bavarian garrison fled. Meanwhile a small
French corps came from Italy to relieve them. Though fired
upon by the peasants from every ravine and hill, they passed
the Brenner, and reached the Iselberg, near Innsprück. But
here they were surrounded on every side, and forced to
surrender. The first Austrian soldiers, under General
Chasteler, then reached the capital, and their welcome was a
popular festival. The liberators, as the Tyrolese soldiers
regarded themselves, committed no cruelties, but carried on
their enterprise in the spirit of a national jubilee. The
tidings of the disasters at Regensburg [Ratisbon] now came
upon them like a thunderbolt. The withdrawal of the Austrian
army then left the Tyrol without protection. Napoleon treated
the war as a mutiny, and set a price upon Chasteler's head.
Neither Chasteler nor any of the Austrian officers with him
understood the warfare of the peasantry. The Tyrolese were
left almost wholly to themselves, but they resolved to defend
their mountains. On May 11 the Bavarians under Wrede again set
out, from Salzburg, captured the pass of the Strub after a
bloody fight, and then climbed into the valley of the Inn.
They practiced frightful cruelties in their way. A fierce
struggle took place at the little village of Schwatz; the
Bavarians burned the place, and marched to Innsprück.
Chasteler withdrew, and the Bavarians and French, under Wrede
and Lefevre, entered the capital. The country again appeared
to be subdued. But cruelty had embittered the people. Wrede
was recalled, with his corps, by Napoleon; and now Hofer, with
his South Tyrolese, recrossed the Brenner Pass. Again the
general alarm was given, the leaders called to arms, and again
every pass, every wall of rock, every narrow road was seized.
The struggle took place at the Iselberg.
{1521}
The Bavarians, 7,000 in number, were defeated with heavy loss.
The Tyrol now remained for several months undisturbed, during
the campaign around Vienna. After the battle of Aspern, an
imperial proclamation formally assured the Tyrolese that they
should never be severed from the Austrian Empire; and that no
peace should be signed unless their indissoluble union with
the monarchy were recognized. The Tyrolese quietly trusted the
emperor's promise, until the armistice of Znaim. But in this
the Tyrol was not mentioned, and the French and their allies
prepared to chastise the loyal and abandoned country."

_C. T. Lewis,
History of Germany,
chapter 28._

"In the mouth of July, an army of 40,000 French and Bavarians
attacked the Tyrol from the German side; while from Italy,
General Rusca, with 18,000 men, entered from Clagenfurth, on
the southern side of the Tyrolese Alps. Undismayed by this
double and formidable invasion, they assailed the invaders as
they penetrated into their fastnesses, defeated and destroyed
them. The fate of a division of 10,000 men, belonging to the
French and Bavarian army, which entered the Upper Innthal, or
Valley of the Inn, will explain in part the means by which
these victories were obtained. The invading troops advanced in
a long column up a road bordered on the one side by the river
Inn, there a deep and rapid torrent, where cliffs of immense
height overhang both road and river. The vanguard was
permitted to advance unopposed as far as Prutz, the object of
their expedition. The rest of the army were therefore induced
to trust themselves still deeper in this tremendous pass,
where the precipices, becoming more and more narrow as they
advanced, seemed about to close above their heads. No sound
but of the screaming of the eagles disturbed from, their
eyries, and the roar of the river, reached the ears of the
soldier, and on the precipices, partly enveloped in a hazy
mist, no human forms showed themselves. At length the voice of
a man was heard calling across the ravine, 'Shall we
begin?'—'No,' was returned in an authoritative tone of voice,
by one who, like the first speaker, seemed the inhabitant of
some upper region. The Bavarian detachment halted, and sent to
the general for orders;' when presently was heard the terrible
signal, 'In the name of the Holy Trinity, cut all loose!' Huge
rocks, and trunks of trees, long prepared and laid in heaps
for the purpose, began now to descend rapidly in every
direction, while the deadly fire of the Tyrolese, who never
throw away a shot, opened from every bush, crag, or corner of
rock, which would afford the shooter cover. As this dreadful
attack was made on the whole line at once, two-thirds of the
enemy were instantly destroyed; while the Tyrolese, rushing
from their shelter, with swords, spears, axes, scythes, clubs
and all other rustic instruments which could be converted into
weapons, beat down and routed the shattered remainder. As the
vanguard, which had reached Prutz, was obliged to surrender,
very few of the 10,000 invaders are computed to have
extricated themselves from the fatal pass. But not all the
courage of the Tyrolese, not all the strength of their
country, could possibly enable them to defend themselves, when
the peace with Austria had permitted Buonaparte to engage his
whole immense means for the acquisition of these mountains.
Austria too—Austria herself, in whose cause they had
incurred all the dangers of war, instead of securing their
indemnity by some stipulations in the treaty, sent them a cold
exhortation to lay down their arms. Resistance, therefore, was
abandoned as fruitless; Hofer, chief commander of the
Tyrolese, resigned his command, and the Bavarians regained the
possession of a country which they could never have won back
by their own efforts. Hofer, and about thirty chiefs of these
valiant defenders of their country, were put to death
[February, 1810], in poor revenge for the loss their bravery
had occasioned. But their fame, as their immortal spirit, was
beyond the power of the judge alike and executioner; and the
place where their blood was shed, becomes sacred to the
thoughts of freedom, as the precincts of a temple to those of
religion."

_Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon,
volume 2, chapter 7._

ALSO IN:
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 58 (volume 12)._

_History of Hofer
(Quarterly Review, July, 1817)._

_C. H. Hall,
Life of Andrew Hofer._

GERMANY: A. D. 1810.
Annexation of the Hanse Towns and territory on the North Sea
to France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1810 (FEBRUARY-DECEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1810-1812.
Marriage of the Archduchess Marie Louise
of Austria to Napoleon.
Alliance of German powers with Napoleon against Russia.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1810-1812.

GERMANY: A. D. 1812.
The Russian campaign of Napoleon and its disastrous ending.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER),
(SEPTEMBER), and (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

GERMANY: A. D. 1812-1813.
The Teutonic uprising against Napoleon.
Beginning of the War of Liberation.
Alliance of Prussia and Russia.

"During Napoleon's march on Moscow and his fatal return,
Macdonald remained on the Lower Dwina, before Riga, with an
observation corps of Prussians and Poles, nor had he ever
received an order to retreat from Napoleon. Learning of the
misfortunes of the grand army, he went from the Dwina towards
the Niemen. As he passed through Courland, General York,
commander of the Prussian troops, allowed him to lead the way
with the Poles, and then signed an agreement of neutrality
with the Russians (December 30, 1812). The Prussian troops,
from a military spirit of honor, had fought the Russians
bravely; they retained some scruples relative to the worthy
marshal under whom they served, and forsook without betraying
him, that is, they left him time to escape. This was a most
important event and the beginning of the inevitable defection
of Germany. The attitude of Czar Alexander decided General
York; the former was completely dazzled by his triumphs, and
aspired to nothing less than to destroy Napoleon and liberate
Europe, even France! With mingled enthusiasm and calculation,
he promised all things to all men; on returning to Wilna, he
granted an amnesty for all acts committed in Poland against
Russian authority. On the one hand, he circulated a rumor that
he was about to make himself King of Poland, and, on the other
hand, he announced to the Prussians that he was ready to
restore the Polish provinces taken from them by Napoleon. He
authorized ex-Minister Stein to take possession, as we may
say, of Old Prussia, just evacuated by the French, and to
promise the speedy enfranchisement of Germany, protesting, at
the same time, that he would not dispute 'the legitimate
greatness' of France.
{1522}
The French army, on hearing of York's defection, left
Königsberg with ten or twelve thousand sick men and eight or
ten thousand armed troops, withdrawing to the Vistula and
thence to Warta and Posen. General Rapp had succeeded in
gathering at Dantzic, the great French depot of stores and
reserves, 25,000 men, few of whom had gone through the Russian
campaign, and a division of almost equal numbers occupied
Berlin. The French had in all barely 80,000 men, from Dantzic
to the Rhine, not including their Austrian and Saxon allies,
who had fallen back on Warsaw and seemed disposed to fight no
more. Murat, to whom Napoleon confided the remains of the
grand army, followed the Emperor's example and set out to
defend his Neapolitan kingdom, leaving the chief command to
Prince Eugene. Great agitation prevailed around the feeble
French forces still occupying Germany. The Russians
themselves, worn out, did not press the French very hotly; but
York and Stein, masters of Königsberg, organized and armed Old
Prussia without awaiting authorization from the king, who was
not considered as a free agent, being under foreign rule.
Pamphlets, proclamations, and popular songs were circulated
everywhere, provoking the people to rebellion. The idea of
German union ran like wildfire from the Niemen to the Rhine;
federal union, not unity in a single body or state, which was
not thought of then."

_H. Martin,
Popular History of France from 1789,
volume 2, chapter 16._

"The king of Prussia had suddenly abandoned Berlin [January,
1813], which was still in the hands of the French, for
Breslau, whence he declared war against France. A conference
also took place between him and the emperor Alexander at
Calisch [Kalisch], and, on the 28th of February, 1813, an
offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between them.
The hour for vengeance had at length arrived. The whole
Prussian nation, eager to throw off the hated yoke of the
foreigner, to obliterate their disgrace in 1806, to regain
their ancient name, cheerfully hastened to place their lives
and property at the service of the impoverished government.
The whole of the able-bodied population was put under arms.
The standing army was increased: to each regiment were
appended troops of volunteers, Jaegers, composed of young' men
belonging to the higher classes, who furnished their own
equipments: a numerous Landwehr, a sort of militia, was, as in
Austria, raised besides the standing army, and measures were
even taken to call out, in case of necessity, the heads of
families and elderly men remaining at home, under the name of
the Landsturm. The enthusiastic people, besides furnishing the
customary supplies and paying the taxes, contributed to the
full extent of their means towards defraying the immense
expense of this general arming. Every heart throbbed high with
pride and hope. … More loudly than even in 1809 in Austria
was the German cause now discussed, the great name of the
German empire now invoked in Prussia, for in that name alone
could all the races of Germany be united against their
hereditary foe. The celebrated proclamation, promising
external and internal liberty to Germany, was, with this view,
published at Calisch by Prussia and Russia. Nor was the appeal
vain. It found an echo in every German heart, and such plain
demonstrations of the state of the popular feeling on this
side the Rhine were made, that Davoust sent serious warning to
Napoleon, who contemptuously replied, 'Pah! Germans never can
become Spaniards!' With his customary rapidity he levied in
France a fresh army 300,000 strong, with which he so
completely awed the Rhenish confederation as to compel it once
more to take the field with thousands of Germans against their
brother Germans. The troops, however, reluctantly obeyed, and
even the traitors were but lukewarm, for they doubted of
success. Mecklenburg alone sided with Prussia. Austria
remained neutral. A Russian corps under General Tettenborn had
preceded the rest of the troops and reached the coasts of the
Baltic. As early as the 24th of March, 1813, it appeared in
Hamburg and expelled the French authorities from the city. The
heavily oppressed people of Hamburg, whose commerce had been
totally annihilated by the continental system, gave way to the
utmost demonstrations of delight, received their deliverers
with open arms, revived their ancient rights, and immediately
raised a Hanseatic corps destined to take the field against
Napoleon. Dörnberg, the ancient foe to France, with another
flying squadron took the French division under Morand
prisoner, and the Prussian, Major Hellwig (the same who, in
1806, liberated the garrison of Erfurt), dispersed, with
merely 120 hussars, a Bavarian regiment 1,300 strong and
captured five pieces of artillery. In January, the peasantry
of the upper country had already revolted against the
conscription, and, in February, patriotic proclamations had
been disseminated throughout Westphalia under the signature of
the Baron von Stein. In this month, also, Captain Maas and two
other patriots, who had attempted to raise a rebellion, were
executed. As the army advanced, Stein was nominated chief of
the provisional government of the still unconquered provinces
of Western Germany. The first Russian army, 17,000 strong,
under Wittgenstein, pushed forward to Magdeburg, and, at
Mökern, repulsed 40,000 French who were advancing upon Berlin.
The Prussians, under their veteran general, Blücher, entered
Saxony and garrisoned Dresden, on the 27th of March, 1813,
after an arch of the fine bridge across the Elbe [had] been
uselessly blown up by the French. Blücher, whose gallantry in
the former wars had gained for him the general esteem and
whose kind and generous disposition had won the affection of
the soldiery, was nominated generalissimo of the Prussian
forces, but subordinate in command to Wittgenstein, who
replaced Kutusow as generalissimo of the united forces of
Russia and Prussia. The Emperor of Russia and the King of
Prussia accompanied the army and were received with loud
acclamations by the people of Dresden and Leipzig."

_W. Menzel,
History of Germany,
chapter 260 (volume 3)._

Bernadotte, the adopted Crown Prince and expectant King of
Sweden, had been finally thrown into the arms of the new
Coalition against Napoleon, by the refusal of the latter to
take Norway from Denmark and give it to Sweden. "The
disastrous retreat of the French from Moscow … led to the
signature of the Treaty of Stockholm on the 2d of March, 1813,
by which England acceded to the union of Norway to Sweden, and a
Swedish force was sent to Pomerania under General Sandels. On
the 18th of May, 1813, Bernadotte landed at Stralsund."

_Lady Bloomfield,
Biographical Sketch of Bernadotte
(Memoir of Lord Bloomfield, volume 1, page 31)._

ALSO IN:
_J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 7 (volume 3)._

_A. Thiers,
History of the Consulate and the Empire,
book 47 (volume 4)._

{1523}

GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (April-May).
Battle of Lützen.
Humiliation of the King of Saxony.