In 1814, when he had just learned of the arrival of the enemy armies in Paris, Napoleon became aware of the fate that awaited him. By Paul Delaroche. 1840. Army Museum, Paris “Alive he missed the world, dead he possesses it. This famous phrase by Chateaubriand, taken from Mémoires d'outre-tombe , summarizes the way in which, the day after his death, Napoleon's contemporaries became aware of the exceptional phenomenon embodied by the fallen emperor. That these words are written by one of his fiercest adversaries, author in 1814 of De Buonaparte et des Bourbons , pamphlet which contributes to the black legend of Napoleon, only gives them more value. They contribute to forging the myth of a Napoleon who has become universal. Because, in the construction of a myth, the negative and laudatory aspects count just as much. Against their will, Napoleon's detractors also contributed to forging his legend. In the aftermath of the Hundred Days, any form of support for the deposed emperor was tracked down by the police, who reported seditious remarks made in homage to Napoleon, as well as craftsmen making pipes, handkerchiefs, scarves or other objects bearing his effigy. . The conspiracies fomented against the Restoration, in which those nostalgic for the Empire have a prominent place, are foiled. Four sergeants, arrested in La Rochelle for having taken part in an uprising, were beheaded in Place de Grève in Paris, a little over a year after Napoleon's death. The emperor's shadow continues to hang over Europe, however. After the final fall of the Empire in 1815, and the return of the Bourbons to the throne, the repression against nostalgics and supporters of the Empire became virulent. The announcement of his death, which occurred on May 5, 1821 in Saint Helena, amazed public opinion. His followers, who lived with the idea that he was immortal, refuse to believe it. Some will go so far as to declare having met him. False Napoleons feed this “Christian” vein. Emperor Napoleon presented himself as a living God, like a Roman emperor. Therefore, why not believe in his resurrection, in a century where those nostalgic for the monarchy of the Ancien Régime believe in the survival of Louis XVII? But, as Chateaubriand points out, Napoleon has never been more alive than since he died. “I will substitute the pen for the sword” During his lifetime, Napoleon had begun to shape his legend, obsessed with the idea of leaving a trace in history. From the first Italian campaign, he multiplied in writing and in pictures the story of his exploits. Having become emperor, he amplified this exaltation of his actions, by relating them in the issues of the Bulletin de la Grande Armée , widely disseminated, and setting them in stone. He thus ordered the erection of the Vendôme column and the construction of the triumphal arch of the Carrousel to exalt the victorious campaign of 1805. The paintings, relayed by lithography and transposed into images of Épinal, also make known the great hours of his reign, from the coronation to the victories he won. Aware of the implacable need to leave a trace, Napoleon wrote to Josephine, on leaving for the island of Elba:"I am going to substitute the pen for the sword" and to the soldiers he left at Fontainebleau:" I want to write about the great things we've done together! » Tirelessly, in Saint Helena, he recounts, rereads his exploits, tries to understand why Spain resisted him, why "General Winter" destroyed his army in Russia, why Wellington refused to let himself be beaten at Waterloo. He found in Las Cases a skilful interpreter of his thought who would know, in the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène , mix the details of his daily life on the island and the main episodes of his life, revealing an emperor more liberal than he ever was, even the precursor of a unified Europe. Published in 1823, the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène release the word. The relatives of the emperor take the pen and tell. The dam erected by the restored monarchy is cracking. A literary hero But the legend of Napoleon would never have been built without the rallying to his cause of his adversaries of yesterday. Lamartine cannot help but recognize that, like Christ, he inscribed his name for eternity in the history of humanity. Vigny, who is desolate in an army that has deserted the ideal of victory, draws a parallel between Napoleon and Moïse. Victor Hugo, son of a general of the Empire, exalts the column of Vendôme. From Stendhal to Balzac, novelists put Napoleon at the heart of their work. From Italy to Russia, via Germany, the echo of his death is immeasurable. But the posterity of Napoleon would be nothing without the participation in his legend of the soldiers of his army. Nearly 1.5 million soldiers return to their homes after Napoleon's abdication. Among them are mutilated, seriously injured, quickly carried away and who will not testify. The army recruited in all territories, even the most remote ones. In each canton, even in each municipality, a former member of the Grande Armée is ready to tell what he has experienced, in stories that over the years magnify the actions accomplished and minimize the difficulties encountered. Napoleon allows many to leaf through their album of memories and reminisce about a happy youth, made of discoveries and encounters. By staging, in The Country Doctor , Goguelat, soldier of the Napoleonic armies recounting his adventures, Balzac powerfully demonstrates the influence of the passage through the Napoleonic armies on the construction of the legend. Statistically, the survivors are the youngest, and probably those who fought the least. But when recounting his experience, all digressions are allowed, especially since the writings of Napoleon's campaigns now abound. Under the July Monarchy, the political weight of Bonapartism was still weak. On the other hand, the memory of the Empire, as a memory of France's greatness, is present in people's minds. If the lack of echo gathered by the appeals to the King of Rome shows the weak influence of Bonapartism in France - understood as the desire to restore the imperial throne -, on the other hand the memory of the Empire, as a memory of the greatness of France , is present in the minds. The July Monarchy quickly took stock of this by reintegrating a number of former servants of the Empire into the army and the civil service. It also took on this commemorative mission by restoring a statue of Napoleon to the Vendôme column in 1833, by inaugurating the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile in 1836 or, the following year, the Museum of the History of France in Versailles, which gives a large place to the wars of the Empire. But the apotheosis is yet to come with the staging of the return of the emperor's ashes in 1840, in the context of a diplomatic crisis in Europe over Egypt, which reactivates a wave of Anglophobia in the country. On December 15, the crowd massed on the course of the coffin is innumerable. The nephew takes power And yet, the July regime must then face the coup attempt of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in Boulogne. He fails miserably and is condemned to be imprisoned at Fort Ham, but takes a date. He took the opportunity to write, in particular, The Extinction of Pauperism . His escape in 1846 in the clothes of a worker named Badinguet will stick with him for a long time, but he is now ready to offer his body to France. Returned in 1848, elected deputy, then candidate for the presidency of the Republic, he was elected on December 20, 1848 on his own name. In a country that discovers universal suffrage, the name of Bonaparte hits the mark. Unknown in France a year earlier, with no experience, but a good connoisseur of several European countries and their languages, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is the embodiment of the Napoleonic legend in action. Louis Napoleon, who became emperor, used his uncle's inheritance in his early days, just as he associated the last servants of the Empire with his power and created in 1857 the medal of Saint Helena to honor the last grognards . But the will to break away from this tutelary shadow is the strongest. In 1861, the ceremony for the transfer of Napoleon's remains to his final tomb at Les Invalides received little publicity. The centenary of his birth in 1869 was modestly celebrated, Napoleon III leaving the Empress and the Prince Imperial alone to make the trip to Corsica. This distancing that the detractors of the regime also operate, beginning with Victor Hugo opposing "Napoleon the Little" to his uncle, ultimately serves Napoleon, who avoids being drawn into the abyss of defeat in 1870 into which his nephew. If Louis Napoléon embodied the Napoleonic legend in action in 1848, he gradually distanced himself from the tutelary shadow of his uncle. From one coup to another, the image of the gravedigger of the Revolution nevertheless imposed itself among the Republicans, like Pierre Larousse. But they cannot ignore the value of the military leader at a time when revenge against Germany is being prepared. In 1921, at the end of the Great War, a form of reconciliation took hold around his tomb. In 1969, it was the precursor of a united Europe that Georges Pompidou put forward. Always controversial, Napoleon nevertheless remains one of the most popular historical figures in France, but also in the world. Today, if his military glory and his irresistible rise continue to fascinate, it is the work he built and whose legacy France preserves that is first brought to his credit. Find out more Napoleon, the last Roman. From the cult of personality to the deification of the emperor, J.-O. Boudon, Les Belles Lettres, 2021. Fascination prevails in Russia The dazzling commemoration of the bicentenary of the Battle of the Moskva (Borodino), in the presence of Vladimir Putin, came to remind us of the importance that the Russians attach to the patriotic war of 1812. This marks a renewal in the he history of Russia, even if the image of a Russian people – essentially made up of serfs – united against the invader is partly a later reconstruction. But unlike the Spaniards, the Russians did not bear a grudge against Napoleon for the destruction and loss suffered by their country. On the contrary, they nourish a fascination with regard to the warlord, as if the fact of having overthrown Napoleon increased their own military value. The Russian officers, who came to Paris in 1814 and then in 1815, contributed to spreading the positive image of Napoleon on their return. It was then the writers who shaped the legend of Napoleon in Russia, Pushkin in the first place, writing in his poem Napoleon that “On the urn which contains your ashes, […] the ray of immortality shines”. Lermontov was a great admirer of Napoleon, who is also at the heart of Dostoyevsky's work, notably in Crime and Punishment . But it is above all Tolstoy, although very critical of the emperor, who makes him known to his readers of yesterday and today through War and Peace. The Emperor's ashes reconcile the French Fascinated by the history of the Empire to which he is preparing to devote a fresco in 20 volumes, Adolphe Thiers, who became head of government in 1840, convinced Louis-Philippe to ask the English for the return to France of Napoleon's remains. England accepts, provided that this return does not turn into a manifestation of Anglophobia. Expedition aboard the Belle Poule is headed by the Prince de Joinville, the king's third son. The ship embarked several of the companions of Saint Helena, as well as several servants. When Napoleon's coffin, which traveled up the Seine, was carried to the Invalides on December 15, 1840, it was surrounded by 1 million spectators, a sign that the memory of Napoleon was intact. Bonaparte was not a Bonapartist Bonapartism in politics is built late, because the foundation of Napoleon Bonaparte's thought was precisely not to give birth to a party, but to promote a consensus between the adversaries of yesterday, which sums up the formula " Neither red cap nor red heel”. When his nephew, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, prepared his presidential campaign in 1848, he enjoyed the support of a group of faithful who could be described as Bonapartists. But its success is due to the overcoming of this movement, since it rallies legitimists as well as socialists and conservative republicans. And at no time under the Second Empire did he attempt to encourage the emergence of a Bonapartist current. It is therefore under III e A Republic that a Bonapartist “party” is forming that tries to unite those nostalgic for an imperial monarchy and those who support an authoritarian regime. The electoral map then makes it possible to identify regions sensitive to this current (Charentes, Corsica, Landes, etc.). Bonapartism suffered first from its alliance with the right, then from its divisions, and finally from the disinterest that the potential heirs to the throne protest at the idea of taking power:Prince Victor at the beginning of the 20 th century, then his son, Louis, who declared in 1938 to renounce all claim to the throne. But right up to the current Prince Napoleon, all the Emperor's heirs were keen to keep the memory of the founder of the dynasty alive.
