The Son of the Emperor

Before the battle of Gotha, Napoleon II had been presuming over a meeting of his cabinet about France’s overall war goals. The ailing Emperor, who had not publically been seen now for over a year was mostly a figure head by this point as Prince Philippe had become the man in charge behind the scenes. Like his father, Prince Philippe had an expansive knowledge of history, and thought to repeat certain parts of it that were very beneficial to France. One of the most constructive pieces of history was the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; who provided thousands of loyal soldiers to Napoleon I during his wars.

On September 4th, the military staff, Prince Philippe, and the ailing Napoleon II had come to a consensus that the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was to be re-established under French protection. These were lofty goals for sure, as Warsaw’s land was still under control of Prussia, Russia and Austria. Not only was France at war with the mentioned countries, she still fought her wars against Britain, and the Ottoman Empire, though one of the countries was about to leave the coalition.

On September 21st, Paris and Istanbul came to an understanding that would allow for a peace treaty that would end the hostilities between the two. Greece, a minor ally of France would be awarded the region of Thessalia; while France would assume control of the Ottoman provinces that formed modern day Libya. In return for the concession by the Ottomans, France would agree to intervene in any conflict that other great powers sought to diminish the territorial holdings of the Empire.


The Ottoman Empire had proven to be one of the weakest great power members of the Ninth Coalition, but its defeat proved to be a powerful morale booster to the people of France. Prince Philippe, along with the general staff had planned to follow up the defeat of the Ottomans with an offensive designed to bring about the end of the next weakest member of the coalition: Prussia. Prussia had a relatively small army, since it lost the populated territories of Rhineland and Westfalen. Prussia depended on the armies of Russia and Austria to protect her from invasion by the French, but with additional French troops available from the African adventure, France would be able to bring about numerical superiority – at least that is what the Ninth Coalition thought.

Before the troops could even embark on their ships from Tripoli, the French armies in central Europe began an offensive in the beginning of October 1852. The first battle, at Magdeburg would originally witness to evenly matched corps of about 30,000 a piece fighting against each other, before additional reinforcements arrived for France. Although Prussians could claim a tactical victory (killing 7,804 French men compared to 5,353 Prussians), they were forced to retreat. The Prussians were forced to retreat towards Berlin, and were quickly placed under siege by 55,000 troops of Antonie Guillaumat’s army. By October 20th, 7,929 French men were dead, while 5,638 Prussians were dead, but Berlin had fallen into French hands!


Prussia quickly reorganized its shattering army by calling up additional Landwehr, but even those units would prove to be no match for the inevitable showdown. On November 15th, at the Battle of Pritzwalk, 27,000 soldiers of the Prussian army would disintegrate against France’s corps of 39,000. Over 7,000 Prussians were slaughtered for the loss of 4,287 French men. Prussia’s army was no more. Now the negotiations for Prussia’s eventual surrender – and the first building block for the Grand Duchy of Warsaw could be established.

​

After the battle of Pritzwalk, on November 15th, the Prussian nation had been humbled and would find itself once again discussing terms with a Napoleonic France. Prussia would not be the only nation in discussion with France, several other countries like Belgium and Hannover were being subjected to same scrutiny and “torture” as Prussia. Belgium would be the first nation to succumb to the demands of the House of Bonaparte. On November 24th, Belgium officially ceased to exist as it officially was annexed into the French Empire.

As the winter months came, France had much to celebrate, but still much to worry about, as the relentless war continued against Great Britain, Austria and Russia. Though there was a slight beacon of hope on December 2nd, 1852, when Emperor Napoleon II made a public speech to celebrate his twenty-second year reign. However; the Emperor’s health still continued to plague him, and there was speculation that he would not outlast the current war between the other Great Powers.

Regardless of the Emperor’s health, the general well being of the nation was stronger than ever and growing further by her conquests on the field of battle. As winter turned into early Spring; than into late Spring, France was once again on the move to secure a peace treaty or at least weaken the Coalition. On May 3rd, 1853 part of France’s hope of weakening the Coalition would be answered. Prussia would succumb to internal pressures and finally cave to French demands; which were severe. Prussia’s ancestral homelands that were known as West and East Prussia were annexed by France; along with the region of Magdeburg. Along with the annexations from Prussia, the nations of Lubeck, Mecklenburg and Oldenburg were incorporated into the French Empire.

Following the annexation of West and East Prussia, in a proclamation of May 30th, 1853, Prince Imperial Philippe would announce the formation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Critics quickly pointed out that the Grand Duchy did not control Warsaw and saw the proclamation of France’s blatant attitude to rewrite the borders of Europe to her will. The critics were right, France was going to rewrite the borders of Europe to the benefit of France and all nations that had been oppressed under the rule and iron fists of nations opposed to the liberties provided by the House of Bonaparte to the people of the French Empire.



​

Although his health was failing and his doctors pleading with him to head south to a better climate than Versailles, the Emperor Napoleon II stayed put. Several times over the month of May 1853 conferences were held discussing the expansion of the conflict in Europe, to include smaller states that would greatly benefit the French Empire and the Confederation of the Rhine. Two Germanic states, Bavaria and Württemberg had remained neutral at the beginning of the war between France and the Coalition. However; numerous reports and eye witness accounts revealed that Bavaria had been granting access to its territory for the Coalition.

At the time of such revelations, France could ill-afford to send a corps or two down to resolve the issue with the once former ally. However, with Prussia forced to a peace treaty, French troops were now available to secure the southern border. Bavaria had been warned before to disallow access to its territory by Coalition troops; however such access was permitted to continue. On June 8th, the declaration of war arrived at the Munich, the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria.

French troops would begin the long march towards Munich almost immediately but would be delayed by resistance in the form of local bands of militia using delaying tactics. On July 22nd, after more than a month since the declaration of war against Bavaria the first battle would occur. At the Battle of Bayreuth, a Russian host of 40,000 soldiers were prepared to stop the advancing French juggernaught of 56,000. In less than two days, the Russians were forced to retreat, losing over 10,000 men for about 5,000 French.


On August 8th, another battle would occur between French and Russian troops at Chemnitz in Saxony. In a quick battle, the force of roughly 20,000 French troops suffered 293 deaths against the Russian’s force of 9,000 receiving 3,355 dead. The battles with the Russians seemed to confirm the suspicion and the reason for the declaration of war. Bavaria was clearly being used as a staging ground for the Coalition – most importantly for Russia’s armies.

Historians would probably conclude the decision of October 17th as idiotic. On October 17th a declaration of war was handed to Württemberg, which would force several thousands of troops to do an about face from Bavaria into Württemberg. The decision to invade Württemberg was complicated, but the primary reason for the invasion was to prevent another Bavaria-like issue.


​