Faded Glory
Prelude
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3: Into the Mouth of Hell
It was a few days after Christmas in 1859. The streets were mostly deserted, as people chose to spend their time in the holiday season with family rather than braving the crisp Parisian dusk. In a café near the Rue Le Peletier, a patron sat sipping his evening coffee, admiring the setting sun. Despite the clear sky, the rumbles of thunder could be heard. A few blocks away, screams rose to the heavens with smoke, showing that it was not thunder which disturbed Paris that calm winter day. Through the smoke could be seen scurrying men in their army regalia, panicked horses who fought their riders barely less panicked orders, and above all, a burning carriage with the imperial seal.
Despite the best efforts of the army, soon the news leaked out: Emperor Napoleon III of France, along with his wife Empress Eugenie had been assassinated as several thrown bombs had detonated in their carriage. Later, it would be revealed that the mastermind behind the assassination was Felice Orsini. Orsini was an Italian who had been heavily involved in revolutionary plots, having been jailed twice, once by the Pope and once by the Austrians. After escaping from an Austrian jail, he went to Great Britain. There, he became convinced that Napoleon III was the chief obstacle to Italian independence and the principal cause of the anti-liberal reaction throughout Europe. With a successful assassination, Orsini believed that France would rise in revolt, which would allow the Italians to exploit the situation to also revolt.
The situation went somewhat according to Orsini’s plan, though he himself did not live to see it as he was captured and executed by firing squad days after the assassination. Napoleon’s assassination caused severe unrest in Paris. Because of the bomb’s English origin, severe anti-English protests spread throughout the capital. Radical republicans took this opportunity to spread unrest, raising the specter of the Canut revolts as well as the more recent June Days Uprising. The unstable French government was paralyzed. The official head, Emperor Napoleon Eugene Louis was only two years old, with nothing to contribute to the governance of a state but a famous name.
In this political scene, France needed a strong figure who could bring order out of the rapidly deteriorating circumstances. Unfortunately for France, such a strong leader was not immediately available. Politically, France was divided into several factions. The Legitimists were drawn from the ancient regime aristocracy, championed the powers of the monarchy, and supported Henri, comte de Chambord as the rightful King of France. The Orleanists also supported the restoration of the monarchy, though unlike the Legitimists, they supported a constitutional monarchy under the liberal Louis-Philippe Albert of Orleans. The Bonapartists supported the continuation of the French Empire under Napoleon Eugene Louis. Just as the supporters of the monarchy were divided, the supporters of a purely republican form of government were divided into many parties who roughly corresponded to moderate republicans and radical, or socialist, republicans.
With such an array of competing ideologies, it was almost impossible for a peaceful governmental transition to occur in the wake of Napoleon III’s assassination. This was only compounded by the interference of various powers. Great Britain supported the Orleanists; Russia, Germany, the Papal States, and Austria supported the Legitimists in varying degrees; those who wished to see a unified Italy supported moderate republicans, while various European socialist and anarchist groups supported the radical republicans.
In this climate of political unease, the Legitimists and Orleanists began plans to enact a coup to restore the monarchy. The Legitimist candidate, de Chambord, was both old and unmarried. The Orleanists thus proved willing to support de Chambord in exchange for their own candidate being named the formal heir, believing that Chambord would not live long. De Chambord, however, was an extreme reactionary. Before he would accept the throne of France, he had a list of demands, including France abandoning the revolutionary tricolor flag. When rumors of this reached the streets of Paris, the city erupted into revolutionary fervor. Hearing this, de Chambord decided not to leave his exile in Austria for France. Instead, he preferred to allow his advocates in France to act on his behalf.
Thus, France was torn among competing governments. The city of Paris, full of radicals, established a Parisian commune which claimed control over the rest of the country. The French Marshall Armand-Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, who had proved instrumental in Napoleon III’s coup which made him emperor, stayed loyal to his son, maintaining the infant son as the Emperor. A divided Parliament, meanwhile, seemed paralyzed by competing factions, limiting their short term effectiveness to deal with the brewing crisis.
1860 dawned. Only time would tell whether it would bring forth the revolutionary utopia Felice Orsini had hoped for…or merely more death.
? The concept of balance of power didn't become significant until after the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession.
