All language subtitles for BBC.Napoleon.2of3.1080p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

In the opening years
of the 19th century,

across the battlefields
and capital cities of Europe,

the Government of France
and her leader, Napoleon Bonaparte,

reigned supreme.

In 1804, at the age of just 35,

Napoleon had been crowned
Emperor of the French.

And within a year,
astride a white stallion,

he entered the city of Milan
in Italy in triumph

to add yet another title
to his name.

On 26th May 1805,

Napoleon was crowned King of Italy
here at Milan Cathedral.

He wore no fewer than
four crowns on that occasion,

including the Iron Crown
of the Emperor Charlemagne,

said to be made from nails
from the Crucifixion.

Raising it up, Napoleon declared,

"God has given me this.

"Beware, any man who touches it."

GUNFIRE

To the sovereign nations of Europe,

such a powerful defender
of revolution as Napoleon

posed a very grave threat.

They had turned hostile

and engulfed France in
little short of a world war.

A decade of epic, relentless warfare

would challenge all
of the Emperor's skills.

For all the majesty and power
of the coronation in Italy,

the security of France

and French Revolutionary
ideas remained fragile.

The great European monarchies

remained committed to
turning the clock back,

so, for the next five years,

France was subjected to a
series of debilitating attacks

from European coalitions.

Five years which, to my mind,
mark the genius of Napoleon

as one of the greatest generals
of all time.

It was in the rebuilding of Paris

that all of the idealism of a new,
Napoleonic France was expressed.

The commissioning of
an Arc de Triomphe...

..the construction of a Roman column
at the Place Vendome...

splendid new bridges
across the River Seine...

These projects heralded France

as home to a new
Napoleonic civilisation,

led by a man of
astonishing ambition.

Napoleon's decision to become

an emperor rather than a king

underlined the fact

that he intended to extend the ideas
of the French Revolution

far beyond the borders of France.

It also underlined the fact that
he had made, through his victories,

France into an empire
the equal of Austria and Russia.

But above all,

it referenced the last great
French Emperor,

Charlemagne.

Viewed through the prism
of the 20th century,

historians have chosen
to take that ambition

and turn Napoleon into
a vain, despotic madman -

a Hitler or Stalin.

In his own age, he was attacked
with cheap abuse,

denigrated as "the Corsican Ogre",

"the great despoiler",

"the Antichrist personified".

Napoleon's achievements as leader

of one of the most progressive
nations on earth

have been marginalised.

I believe this to be
little more than slander.

People think of Napoleon as
an egocentric megalomaniac -

yet it was he who said

that "A throne is nothing more than
a piece of wood covered in velvet."

He believed in rights -
in property rights,

in equality before the law,

in religious toleration.

"Every trace of serfdom must be
done away with," he ordered.

Hardly the remark of a megalomaniac.

In support of his new regime,

Napoleon exploited one of
the most powerful

and commendable qualities
of the human psyche -

the aspiration to better oneself.

In the Emperor's time,

this beautiful chateau
just outside Paris

was home to Marshal Jean Lannes.

Lannes, the son of a commoner,

had served France with distinction

in military campaigns
in Italy and Egypt.

When Napoleon became
Emperor in 1804,

he named Lannes and a larger
group of army officers

"Marshals of the Empire",
who came to be known as

"Les Gros Bonnets",
or "The Big Hats"

Berthier, Murat, Soult, Ney, Davout,

Oudinot, Augereau, Bernadotte,

Massena and Lannes.

These were just some of the
soldiers who became marshals,

appointed through their talent,

utterly regardless of
who their fathers were.

Granted titles and cash by Napoleon,

they were able to
live a life of luxury.

Under the old regime,

the French Army was commanded
by a small group of generals

who came almost exclusively from
the aristocracy and the gentry.

When Napoleon became Emperor,
he created 26 marshals,

some of whom came from very
different social backgrounds.

There was the son of an innkeeper,

a bailiff, a tanner, a miller,

a barber and a barrel-cooper.

It was the first genuine meritocracy
for 1,000 years.

Of those 26 marshals,
18 became dukes,

six became princes,
and two even became kings.

Imagine the dynamism unleashed
in Napoleonic France

when the son of an innkeeper
can become a king.

Here was an ethos utterly at odds
with the days of monarchy,

when the vast majority
of people in France

were promoted either by parentage
or patronage by the nobility.

Through the power of meritocracy,

Napoleon sought to unify the nation

and transform the effectiveness
of his government.

His honouring of civilians for
their service to the nation,

the Order of the Legion d'honneur,

remains the country's
principal civil award.

Lannes and his fellow marshals

weren't part of some kind of
a military dictatorship -

the civil administration of
France ran the country -

but rather, they were the elite

of a much larger programme
for a new nobility,

one that was based on merit
and service to the State,

rather than on birth.

The new order in France

was galvanised by the driving
ambition of her leader.

It had taken 18 years

for a commissioned artilleryman
in the French Army,

born a Corsican, an outsider,

to become Consul for Life
in France -

in effect, the nation's dictator.

Napoleon had risen fast through
the ranks of the military,

due to his brilliant leadership
in the first Italian campaign,

against the most aggressive
antirevolutionary nation in Europe,

and his careful cultivation
of a personal mythology.

Supported by his wife Josephine,

Napoleon had been part of a
successful military coup in 1799,

bringing order to a country

that for a decade had only known
political chaos.

Napoleon had banished the mob and
the guillotine from French politics.

His conviction was stunning -

a feature of the man
that I find inspirational.

In a world where leadership
is so circumscribed today

by opinion polls and interest groups

and focus groups,

there is something liberating
in seeing the example of a man

who followed his own beliefs,
his own destiny,

who explained to his people
what he wanted to do -

not what they wanted him to say,

but what he truly believed himself.

And that, it seems to me,

is something that is worthwhile
and liberating and admirable.

A key to that conviction can be
found in images of the Emperor.

In a painting that he commissioned
of himself in his coronation costume

by the celebrated painter Gerard,

Napoleon is pictured adorned
with a golden laurel crown...

..a symbol of victory
similar to that worn

by the great Roman General
and Consul, Julius Caesar.

Napoleon was near-obsessed
with antiquity.

He drew on it for
political precedent

and idolised the exploits
of its heroes.

Throughout his life,

Napoleon took his inspiration
from ancient history.

He called himself "Consul",

the title given in Ancient Rome
to the Heads of State.

He chose the eagle as
the symbol of Imperial France.

The Code Napoleon was strongly
influenced by Roman Law.

This influence and this inspiration
became so profound

that it became behavioural.

He actually put his hand
inside his waistcoat,

in conscious imitation of
the statues of the Caesars.

At school,
Napoleon had read many books

about Alexander the Great
and Julius Caesar,

and his palaces were decorated
with busts of them both.

Their narrative was so compelling

that by the early 1800s,

he even referred to himself,
without irony,

as "the new Caesar".

It's only when one gets really
close to ancient artefacts

that one can appreciate

the tremendous power
they had over Napoleon.

This is a glass token that was
given by Germanicus to his soldiers,

and this was given out to connect
the Emperor with the army,

something which was tremendously
important also to Napoleon.

Both in Napoleon's case
and the Roman case,

the soldier actually gave his
oath of allegiance to the Emperor,

rather than to the Empire.

And here, a beautiful cameo
of the Emperor Claudius.

Now, this would only go to
the top people in the Empire,

and this would be the kind of thing

that Napoleon would have given
to his top marshals,

like he gave land and cash.

In the Roman times,

you got this stunning representation
of the Emperor.

Here is discharge papers,
effectively,

of a member of the Praetorian Guard,
the Emperor's close bodyguard.

After 25 years, this man
would have got citizenship

and a land donation.

These artefacts remind me
very powerfully of the interaction

that Napoleon wanted to encourage
between him and his army.

He's demanding from them loyalty
and, to an extent, obedience,

but certainly a sense of willingness
to fight and die for him.

In the minds of the old
monarchist nations of Europe,

and Britain in particular, such
ancient allusions triggered fear.

For over 100 years, France had
harboured plans to invade Britain -

and in the Revolutionary era, those
plans had progressed with intent.

France feared the threat that
Britain's naval mastery of the world

posed to her trade and colonies.

Britain was committed to
defending her interests

against the bravura of
the new Napoleonic regime,

come what may.

She distrusted Napoleon intensely,

blaming him for the collapse of a
peace treaty between the two nations

that lasted for just over one year.

Britain was implacably opposed
to the French Revolution,

and here in Downing Street,

William Pitt the Younger
fought tirelessly to defeat it.

Tens of millions of pounds were
spent on new warships, weapons

and subsidies for any country
willing to fight against France.

"Never fear. Depend upon it,"

Pitt told the political
philosopher Edmund Burke,

"we shall carry on as we are,
even until the Day of Judgment."

In 1797, the French Government
had appointed General Bonaparte

Commander in Chief
of the Army of England.

When he became First Consul
two years later,

he worked actively on plans

for the largest possible
invasion of Britain.

His commitment to the cause
was resolute,

later telling a general

who doubted the possibility
of a speedy invasion...

"'Impossible', sir?

"I am not acquainted with the word.

"It is not in the French language.

"Erase it from your dictionary."

As ever with Napoleon,

ancient history granted him
instructive precedent.

As he wrote later of his hero
Julius Caesar's attempt

to invade Britain in 55 and 54 BC...

"Caesar failed in
his foray into England.

"Two legions were not enough.
He needed at least four

"and he did not have any cavalry -

"an indispensable weapon
in a country like England.

"He did not make enough preparations
for an expedition of this importance.

"It turned to confusion and
it was considered good fortune

"that he was able to
withdraw without loss."

By July 1804,

a huge armada of boats
had been mustered

and a massive invasion force was
in training along the Channel coast.

Napoleon was palpably excited
by the prospect of invasion.

As he wrote to
Second Consul Cambaceres...

"I have seen the English coast

"as clearly as one can see the
wayside cross from the Tuileries.

"One could pick out the houses."

In response,

Britain fortified her coastal
defences as much as possible.

In time, she would build
a chain of Martello towers,

even a Grand Shaft in Dover

to allow soldiers to descend
the cliffs under cover.

Together, they might have
stopped Napoleon's armies

for about half an hour.

For eight years, Napoleon had
dreamt of invading Britain.

"The death knell of England
has sounded", he said.

"We must avenge the defeats of
Poitiers, Crecy and Agincourt."

It was no idle threat,

for Napoleon was now in possession

of a highly-trained army
of 350,000 men,

one of the great military phenomena
in history.

In 1805, he named it
"La Grande Armee".

As with every other institution
of French life,

the Revolution had radically altered
the organisation of the French Army.

Historically, the tactics of the
old, aristocrat-led French Army

were rigid, with troops arrayed
in two or sometimes three lines,

shoulder-to-shoulder,

exchanging volleys of fire
with the enemy at close range.

However, with the introduction
of universal conscription,

a much larger Revolutionary Army
had to change its strategy.

Napoleon instituted
the corps system,

turning the army into mini-armies
with their own infantry,

cavalry, artillery
and staff sections.

It was a masterstroke.

The army could now separate
when marching,

but also concentrate for fighting.

The corps could move within a day's
march, or 15 miles of each other,

each capable of becoming rearguard,

vanguard or reserve
at a moment's notice.

What's more, once one corps "fixed"
the enemy into battle position,

Napoleon could summon
the others to reinforce,

outflank and occasionally
completely envelop the enemy.

Here was a powerful new
operational level of warfare

that would be adopted by
every European army by 1812

and would last until 1945.

The dexterity of manoeuvre
of the Grande Armee

was matched by the suavity
of its appearance.

Decked out in scarlet, purple,
yellow, blue, gold and silver,

with fringes, buttons, epaulettes,
braids and leather,

the exotic look was all
part of the strategy.

ALL: Vive la France!

Vive la France!

ALL: Vive la France!

Vive la France!

ALL: Vive la France!

The uniform of the Grand Armee
was absolutely splendid.

This leopard skin-trimmed helmet
belonged to a Captain of Dragoons.

Here was a pageantry that was
intended to create esprit de corps,

a pride that would light
what was called "the sacred fire"

under the men in battle.

It was a magnificence that would
draw the attention of posterity.

It was also thought
to pull the girls.

With the Grande Armee
threatening to invade Britain,

the antirevolutionary monarchies
of Europe

now mobilised for war against
France, sweetened by British cash.

Austria formed an alliance
with Britain and Russia,

and despatched a large force
of troops westwards,

led by three archdukes.

Tsar Alexander I of Russia
had expanded his army

and sent them to support Austria.

Sweden, Naples and several
German principalities

joined the anti-French coalition.

The Allied strategy -
advance towards France,

and destroy the French
Imperial Army in Italy.

By 1805, simmering tensions
had turned to direct threat.

No fewer than half a million
Allied troops

were being mobilised against
Napoleon in yet another coalition.

So Napoleon had to postpone
the invasion of Britain,

and instead marched
600 miles to the east,

to confront the Austrian and
Russian empires on the Danube.

The movement by the Grande Armee
to meet the enemy

was one of the most brilliant,

speedily executed mass military
manoeuvres of all time,

as well as the finest expression
of the military power

of Imperial France.

Over 170,000 infantry

and 29,000 cavalry

raced eastwards across
the continent of Europe.

They marched in support of a
commander set upon a swift victory.

Napoleon's plan -

gain two weeks on the enemy
and crush Austria

before the Russians
could arrive in support.

"Soldiers! Your Emperor
is in the midst of you.

"You are only the advance guard
of a great people.

"No matter what obstacles
are thrown in our way,

"we shall overcome them,
and we shall only rest

"after having planted our flags
on the territory of the enemy."

They advanced beneath
regimental banners

that represented not just an army,

but a civilisation on the march.

Easily the most prized possession
in the ranks of the Grand Armee

was the regimental eagle,
the regimental rallying point.

Here are three of these
magnificent creatures

that were captured in battle.

They are made up of
six pieces of bronze

that were welded together
and then gilded -

and there's the number
of the demi-brigade

that this one belonged to -

and they were attached to
eight-foot-long staffs,

which had the regimental
silken colour hanging from them.

And, in essence,

they represented the honour
of the regiment.

In one battle, a man actually
had his hand chopped off

sooner than release it.

Napoleon said that

"The loss of an eagle was an
affront to national honour,"

that "Neither victory nor the glory
of 100 battles could make amends."

Napoleon's army was drawn from
forces from the Atlantic coast

and across the continent of Europe.

The strategy was that they would
converge on the River Rhine

and defeat the Austrian Army
in Bavaria.

Troops stationed in Italy

would attack and frustrate
the Austrians there, too,

under the leadership of
Marshal Massena -

yet another soldier of humble birth

who'd been orphaned at an early age.

Napoleon wrote to Massena
on the 18th of September, 1805 -

as ever, using the imperative case.

"You have nearly 60,000 men
under your orders -

"that is one third more
than ever I had.

"I have full confidence
in your courage and ability.

"Win me some victories."

Minute planning,
highly efficient marching,

secret manoeuvres

and an ingenious campaign
of disinformation

enabled the French Army
to cross the Rhine unopposed

and reach the River Danube
by early October 1805.

After Marshal Ney routed an Austrian
Army in the town of Elchingen,

the Grande Armee reached
the city of Ulm,

an Austrian stronghold in Bavaria.

Utterly surprised by the speed
of the French advance

and many miles
from any relief force,

over 30,000 Austrians
were forced to surrender.

Napoleon was delighted -

and, in a proclamation,
made his troops a promise.

"Your progeny, 500 years hence,

"who may place themselves under
those eagles which you rally,

"will know in detail everything

"that your respective corps
shall achieve tomorrow.

"Your courage shall confer on them
eternal celebrity."

However, the Grande Armee was now in
an exceedingly perilous situation.

Over 500 miles from France,

it was at the very extremity
of extended lines of communication

and open to encirclement.

After Napoleon had captured Vienna,

the main Russian Army now joined
forces with the Austrians.

Napoleon knew that a decisive battle
now had to be fought,

and he found an appropriate site -
north of Vienna, in Moravia,

in today's Czech Republic.

Napoleon hadn't fought a battle
for five and a half years.

He'd brought the Grande Armee,
in that time,

up to a pitch of training
and professionalism

that made it the most formidable
fighting force in Europe.

He had a sixth sense, both for
what his army was capable of,

but also for what his enemy's
intentions were going to be.

He also had a lust
for the decisive battle.

He had not started this war himself,
but he meant to end it.

And he was going to do it here,
on the battlefield of Austerlitz.

Napoleon's battle plan hinged upon
the power of manoeuvre

that the corps system afforded him.

To feign weakness on one flank,
lure the enemy, pin him down

and then follow up with a
massive central counterattack.

It was clear in advance of the
battle that the Allied forces,

spearheaded by the Russians,

would attack from a hill in
the centre of the battlefield -

the Pratzen Heights.

So, to draw them into his trap,

Napoleon simply did nothing
to discourage them.

He appeared to concentrate
his troops to the north,

under Marshals Lannes
and Bernadotte,

and leave his forces to the
south relatively light,

under Marshal Davout.

The hope was that the enemy
would underestimate the chances

of a frontal attack from the centre

and an enveloping attack
from the south.

Battle was set to take place

on the first anniversary
of Napoleon's coronation.

The night before, in a famous
moment in military history,

the Emperor reviewed his troops
in a torchlight procession

and issued a celebrated
proclamation.

"Soldiers!

"The Russian Army is before you.

"I shall myself direct
all your battalions.

"If victory be for a moment doubtful,

"you shall see your Emperor
expose himself the first blows.

"We must conquer these hirelings
of England,

"who are animated with so great
a hatred against our nation.

"This victory will finish our
campaign

"and the peace that I will make
will be worthy of my people -

"of you and of me.

"Before tomorrow night,
that army will be destroyed."

On the morning of the
Battle of Austerlitz,

something extraordinary happened.

When the sun came up,

it burnt off the mists
on the upper ground

where the Russians
and Austrians were,

but not on the lower ground,
where the French were.

So when, at nine o'clock,
Napoleon organised his attack,

it was a surprise attack.

It came straight out of the mist.

Forever thereafter,
the sun of Austerlitz

occupied a central role
in the Napoleonic myth.

And one can see why.

Napoleon watched as
columns of enemy troops

streamed down off
the Pratzen Heights,

intent on carrying out an elaborate
scheme to turn the French flank

and get astride the road to France.

Working from a vantage point
to the south of the battlefield,

the Emperor first ensured that
both his flanks were secure,

and then massed a central
striking force of 35,000 soldiers,

focusing them upon the enemy centre,

which was becoming steadily weaker.

Here I am, on the Zuran -
Napoleon's headquarters

for the opening stages
of the Battle of Austerlitz.

It was here that he met
his marshals and generals

and told them exactly
what he wanted them to do.

Up here, too, would have been
well over 100 other staff officers

and they were under
the overall command

of Marshal Alexander Berthier.

Now, he was
an organisational genius.

He was able to dictate
for 12 hours a day.

He had a filing system
that allowed him to know

where every single unit
of the French Army was,

and he had a photographic memory.

He was also something of
a diplomat - and he had to be.

He somehow managed
to persuade his mistress

to share a chateau with his wife,

and vice versa.

At 9am, some two hours
into the battle,

the enemy centre on the Pratzen
Heights was sufficiently weak

for Marshal Soult
to attempt to carry out

a classic Napoleonic manoeuvre.

Napoleon had seven marshals
at the Battle of Austerlitz,

six of whom had their own corps.

He used some to fix
the enemy into position

and others to fight that war of
manoeuvre at which he so excelled.

With split-second timing,

he sent Soult's division of
16,000 men to attack the Russians,

up there on the Pratzen Heights.

The Russians did what they could.

They sent in reinforcements,
but it was too late.

Every general dreams about
the chance

of smashing through
the enemy centre -

and here, at Austerlitz,
Napoleon did just that.

As his assault intensified,

the Russians could no longer
hold their position.

Here was a decisive moment
of the battle -

a tactic worthy of Julius Caesar.

As Napoleon later wrote of
Julius Caesar's attack

on the enemy centre
in a battle in 45 BC...

"There is a moment in combat

"when the slightest manoeuvre is
decisive and gives superiority.

"It is the drop of water
that starts the overflow."

This was that moment.

In a desperate attempt
to stave off catastrophe,

the Russians mounted
a powerful counterattack

with their Imperial Guard.

But it was to no avail.

Napoleon's Imperial Guard
was sent in

and the Russians were defeated
decisively.

More fighting broke out in villages
across the battlefield

and the close combat was brutal.

The woods here at Sokolnice

saw some of the most violent
clashes of the entire battle.

There was a lot of bayonet work.

The village changed hands
nine times.

In one regiment alone, 11 out of
the 12 company commanders

were either killed or wounded -

and one general had four horses
shot from under him.

It was a brutal, vicious,
bloody form of warfare,

but it changed the odds
for Napoleon.

By mid-afternoon, Napoleon
sensed the coming victory

and rode up to the Pratzen Heights

to oversee the final destruction
of the enemy.

By five o'clock,
the Battle of Austerlitz was over.

27,000 Russians and Austrians

were either dead, wounded
or taken prisoner -

for French losses
of fewer than 8,000.

A great victory had been won.

Enemy standards were
laid at Napoleon's feet.

All around, the regimental bands
played martial hymns.

The following day,

the sons of the innkeepers,
barrel-coopers and flower-sellers -

Napoleon's marshals -

had every right to swagger through
the corridors of Slavkov Castle.

Austerlitz was a decisive victory.

It completely vindicated Napoleon's
creation of the Grande Armee.

It was his jackpot -
not least in the financial sense.

He imposed swingeing reparations on
the Austrians of 40 million francs.

The day after the battle, he put out
an order of the day, saying,

"Soldiers, I am pleased with you" -

and well he might have been.

"Soldiers -

"you have decorated your eagles
with an immortal glory.

"My people will see you again
with joy

"and it will be enough for you
to say,

"'I was at the Battle of Austerlitz,'

"for them to reply,
'There is a brave man!'"

Austerlitz was the finest victory
of Napoleon's career

and a moment
of personal affirmation.

The ascendancy of
the new meritocracy of France

over the old aristocracy of Europe
had been confirmed.

No less a person than the Emperor of
Austria and the Holy Roman Empire,

Francis II, now asked to meet
Napoleon in person.

A great moment, described by
one of those present as...

"An Emperor of Germany
come to humble himself

"by suing for peace to the
son of a small Corsican family,

"made arbiter of the
destinies of Europe."

Napoleon returned to France,
feted by the people,

and the mayors of Paris erected
this magnificent arch to his glory.

Yet he knew that
the security of his Empire

and the security
of the French Revolution itself

were still at stake.

The British had not made peace.

They'd financed the Third Coalition

and there was a chance that
they would finance more.

In a bulletin after
the Battle of Austerlitz,

he described the British as

"perfidious islanders
and cowardly oligarchs".

To me, the Arc du Carrousel

represents France's return
to its global superpower status.

But it's also a symbol
of the triumph,

under Napoleon's rule,
of the self-made man.

For the Emperor had done everything
in his power

to protect the interests
of the richer peasantry,

the small businesses,
the strivers of France

against the monarchists
and aristocrats.

Yet the new values were anathema
to the old nations of Europe -

the Europe of kings.

They accused Napoleon of
vanity and belligerence,

but this was simply untrue.

Although Napoleon has been
constantly attacked as a warmonger,

in fact, most of the wars were
caused by a series of coalitions -

seven in all - that were formed
against the French Revolution

and subsequently, against him.

The ideas of the French Revolution
were what the great powers,

the coalition powers,
hated and feared,

especially when
personified by this man,

who was not one of them -

who was not a king
from hundreds of years back,

like the Austrians
and the Russians were.

So they totally felt that he
threatened - his very existence -

threatened them,
and in a sense, it did.

The confidence of the
antirevolutionary powers

had been emboldened by
the victory of the British

at the Battle of Trafalgar.

While Napoleon and his army
were advancing to Austerlitz,

Admiral Nelson had
resoundingly defeated

the combined French
and Spanish navies.

Towards the end of the battle,

Nelson was shot dead
by a French marksman.

As a trigger for national
emotion in Britain,

Trafalgar and the death
of Lord Nelson

are up there with victory
in the Battle of Britain,

winning the World Cup
and the death of Lady Di -

but all taking place
on the same day.

At the time, Napoleon
wasn't overly concerned.

He had half a million Austrian
and Russian troops on his mind.

Trafalgar simply reinforced

the immovable, aggressive power
of Britain.

Within just a year, a new
Fourth Coalition of powers,

encouraged and paid for by Britain,

formed to attack Napoleon
once again.

This time, Prussia
led the offensive,

in alliance with Russia,
Saxony, Sweden and Britain

and she declared war
in October 1806.

The counterattack of Marshal Davout
at the Battle of Auerstadt,

defeating a force nearly
thrice his number,

the cavalry charge of
Marshal Murat at Eylau,

the Charge of the Cuirassiers
at the Battle of Friedland,

this war was the crowning glory
of the Marshalate.

The pace of French victory
was astonishing

and in the peace that followed,

the defeat of Prussia, Russia

and the capture of prized assets
such as Berlin,

the marshals reaped fine reward.

Lannes became the Duke of
Montebello, in Italy.

Marshal Ney, the Duke of Elchingen,
in Bavaria.

Davout, the Duke of Auerstadt,
in Thuringia.

And Soult, the Duke of Dalmatia.

To all appearances,
the French Empire was all-powerful.

Yet the way in which Napoleon
now chose to run his Empire

was inherently weak.

Because the French Revolution

had not spawned sister revolutions
across Europe,

Napoleon was obliged
to rule as a monarch,

embracing all the old politics
of dynasties and treaties

and marriage alliances.

He sent his brother Joseph

to become King of Naples, there,

and, after that, King of Spain.

He sent Louis to become
King of Holland,

and his brother Jerome
to become King of Westphalia.

Now, this policy of ruling Europe
through his family

proved to be a terrible
Achilles heel

and a source of awful frustration
for him -

because they weren't any good.

"You can play the fool
in your own country,"

he said to Louis in 1807,
"..but you can't play it in mine."

With monarchies,
dynastic legacy is all.

At her palace at Malmaison,

his wife, the Empress Josephine,
was living life to the full.

She had commissioned leading
architects to decorate the interior,

and expenditure on her lifestyle,
especially her clothes,

had ratcheted up to an estimated -
and astonishing -

one million francs a year.

However, the Empress
was now infertile.

Her children were ineligible
to succeed Napoleon,

because they didn't have his blood -

and Napoleon knew that
he wasn't infertile,

since he had a baby
by a previous mistress.

The favourite of his 22 mistresses

was the beautiful, blue-eyed
Countess Maria Walewska,

the 20-year-old wife of
an elderly Polish noble.

Napoleon had met her
in January 1807, near Warsaw

and immediately afterwards
put a cloying pen to paper.

"Marie, my sweet Marie,
my first thought is of you.

"My first desire is to see you
again."

Feminine, soft, bookish and frugal,

Marie was the polar opposite
to Josephine.

Josephine brought in bills.

As the libertine and revolutionary
Marquis de Sade once said...

"The money she gets, she spends
with a gambler's fervour -

"her unbridled luxury would swallow
up the income of many provinces."

She loved pearls and elaborate
sets of gems with diamonds,

and had a wardrobe of
astonishing extravagance,

with one gown decorated
with real rose petals,

another made from toucan feathers,
each tipped with a pearl.

There were spectacular rows
over Josephine's spending,

and Napoleon thought her
disloyal in her self-interest.

As he wrote to her in
February 1807...

"You tell me that your glory
consists in your happiness.

"That is not what one says
in marriage.

"One should say, "My glory consists
in the happiness of my husband."

As the child of a revolution

that had replaced primogeniture
and blood inheritance

with the will of the people,

Napoleon knew that without
a son by Josephine,

he lacked the legitimacy of kings.

As he would tell his Minister of the
Interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal...

"Five or six families share
the thrones of Europe

"and it pains them to see that

"a Corsican has come to
sit on one of them.

"I can only keep myself
there by force.

"My Empire would be destroyed
if I stopped being intimidating."

So now, in the absence of an heir

and in order to neutralise

the threat to France
of the European powers,

Napoleon went on the offensive.

From 1793 onwards, the British
Government had bankrolled

global aggression against France.

Buoyed by the dramatic growth of
her economy between 1799 and 1804,

Britain had poured some 14% of her
annual tax yield into the effort.

Britain could afford this,
since she dominated world trade

and, in particular, the markets
in cotton, iron and steel.

It was the command of the oceans

that allowed Britain
to exploit to the full

the promise of
the Industrial Revolution.

So Napoleon decided to leverage

the immense scope
and power of his Empire

to fight a war of economic blockade
against Britain.

He instituted a Europe-wide
blockade.

"I will conquer the sea," he said,

"through the power of the land."

In a decree published in Berlin,

Napoleon prohibited
all trade with Britain,

declared all British subjects on the
Continent to be prisoners of war

and ordered the seizure
of all merchandise

from Britain and her colonies,

much of which was publicly burnt.

Any country that refused to
participate in the blockade

was assumed to be an enemy of
France, and treated as such.

Napoleon knew that
the British political class

were dead set on destroying
him and the Revolution.

Now, the idea of
an economic blockade

against the most powerful
trading nation in the world

might sound like an incredibly
ambitious project,

but to my mind, it actually betrays
a lack of confidence.

Yes, France was the most powerful

trading nation in Europe
at the time,

but it was miles behind the Britain
of the Industrial Revolution.

Napoleon knew he couldn't compete,

so he changed the rules of the game.

To reinforce the isolation
of Britain,

Napoleon now sought to divide
the Coalition politically.

Russia had been a cornerstone

of the force for counter-revolution
in the world -

a country that was so antithetical
to the principles of revolution

that it even retained serfdom,
a feudal form of human bondage.

But in July 1807,

Napoleon agreed a peace
agreement with Russia.

In a no-expense-spared event,

to all intents and purposes,
the first modern superpower summit,

the Emperor met Tsar Alexander I

on a huge, specially-constructed
and rather lavish raft

on the River Niemen at Tilsit,

close to the modern border
of Lithuania and Russia.

Rounds of meetings, state dinners

and the exchange of sumptuous gifts

concluded with
the agreement of Russia

to join the blockade
against Britain.

In the words of Napoleon's
private secretary at the time,

Louis Antoine Bourrienne,

"Tilsit was one of the culminating
points of modern history."

Writing enthusiastically
to the Empress Josephine,

Napoleon shared news of the deal,
and teased her...

"The Queen of Prussia
is really charming.

"She flirts a lot with me,
but don't be jealous.

"I am a waterproof cloth
and all that just slides off.

"It would cost me too much
to play the lover."

The deal with Russia was risky,

because it relied upon Napoleon's
trust and Tsar Alexander's goodwill.

Napoleon's new ally was a
complicated, occasionally mystical

and deeply conflicted personality.

He had assumed power after
effectively turning a blind eye

to the assassination
of his own father.

And he'd only agreed
to peace with Napoleon

because the alternative was
another battle with the French,

which he would surely lose.

Yet Napoleon chose to
trust Alexander.

A fault of nature,
but also of necessity -

to enforce the blockade of England
and legitimise his political power -

legitimacy that could be
conferred by the Romanovs,

rulers of Russia since 1613.

Much of what Napoleon
does after Tilsit

betrays a sensitivity
to humiliation

that might seem incongruous
in such a self-confident man.

But he was sensitive.

He was sensitive to the fact that
unlike the monarchs of Austria

and Russia and Prussia
and various other monarchies,

who had been there for generations,

Napoleon was the first
of his royal house

and so, a humiliation of France
would cost him his place

in a way that it simply wouldn't
with all of those other monarchs.

To secure his legacy,

Napoleon now addressed the
problem of the lack of an heir

in the very way in which
monarchs of Old Europe

had secured their legacies

and decided on an arranged,
political marriage.

By 1809, the Emperor
had tired of Josephine,

his expensive sweetheart
from the Revolutionary era.

In April, Austria had broken
her agreement with France,

struck after the
Battle of Austerlitz,

and with the support of Britain,

declared war on Napoleon in
yet another Coalition - a fifth.

The campaign was not
an easy one for the French.

They suffered a rare defeat at
the Battle of Aspern-Essling -

but, after regrouping, they
defeated the Austrians resoundingly

at the two-day Battle of Wagram,

the largest battle in the history
of Europe up to that time.

Returning from the campaign,

Napoleon embarked on an affair
with his sister's lady-in-waiting,

and ordered that the door connecting
Josephine's and his bedrooms

at the Palace of Fontainebleau
be bricked up.

Soon afterwards, he sought
an end to their marriage.

On 30th November 1809,

the final icy scenes of
the melodrama took place.

Napoleon and Josephine
had dinner together.

She was fighting back the tears.

He said nothing,
except to ask what time it was.

When coffee was brought in,
which she usually poured,

he poured it himself...

and as the granules of sugar slowly
dissolved, he just gazed at her.

And then, finally,
he made a gesture,

asking her to leave the room.

She left for an adjacent
drawing room.

Through the door, Napoleon heard
a shrieking wail from Josephine,

who had flung herself on the floor
and was crying and moaning.

A palace chamberlain helped
Napoleon carry her down

a narrow staircase
to her apartments.

Divorce proceedings soon followed.

For some time,
the Austrian Foreign Ministry

had been scheming for Napoleon to
marry the Archduchess Marie Louise,

the eldest child of
the Emperor Francis.

It was a coupling they hoped

would salvage Austria's
position in Europe.

As a personality,

Marie Louise could not have been
more different from Josephine -

not least because she was the
gentle, naive daughter

of an emperor.

"So long as she is kind",
Napoleon is quoted as saying

"and gives me a healthy son,

"I will love her as though

"she were the most beautiful
woman in the world."

Within just four months
of his divorce,

Napoleon and Marie Louise
were married.

The relationship between the two
turned out surprisingly well,

not least because she quickly
kept her side of the bargain.

At 9:20 on the morning of
Wednesday the 20th March 1811,

in the Tuileries Palace,

Marie Louise gave birth
to a 9lb baby boy.

Napoleon was delighted.

At the baptism ceremony at
the Cathedral of Notre Dame,

he took the infant from
the arms of his mother

and raised him up twice,
to show him to the public.

Marriage had won for Napoleon
a legacy for his work

and a legitimacy to his rule.

His military skill had won him
glory on the battlefield.

His political action -

aggressive, pragmatic,

but potentially over-trusting.

Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise

turned him from
the Corsican adventurer

into an in-law of
the grandest dynasty of Europe.

The birth of the King of Rome
secured his own dynasty.

Equally secure were the benefits
of the French Revolution.

No-one could turn
the clock back now.

Napoleon was at the zenith
of his power.

But his very success

had consolidated his enemies'
opposition to him.

He was about to play
directly into their hands.

Therein lay his downfall.