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Welcome to the Age of Napoleon.

Episode 21, Down and Out in Paris.

Thanks for joining me.

We left off last time in early 1795. Napoleon was out of jail and back in uniform.

Robes Pierre and the Jacobin faction had been toppled in the coup of Nine Thermidor the previous year.

Napoleon was well known as a Jacobin-aligned general, and many of his closest political patrons

had been consumed by the post-Coo Purge. General Bonaparte himself had

escaped physically unscathed, but Thermador was a serious blow to his career. Napoleon

was a political general. Many of his fellow officers saw

him purely as a creature of civilian politicians, a backroom

intriguing rather than a true soldier.

Many believed he did not deserve his rapid promotion to general.

I think it's open to debate whether or not that was a fair assessment. It certainly can't be denied that Napoleon

courted powerful friends and solicited their help and patronage. In fact he was

totally shameless about it.

Throughout his life, in almost all things, Napoleon acted decisively.

He never let decorum or modesty stand in the way of doing what he felt needed to be done.

This could be a good trait, but it also made him pushy,

and sometimes even led him to unscrupulousness or ruthlessness.

Throughout his life, that way of doing things inevitably rankled people he came into contact with.

On the other hand, he really had shown flashes of brilliance, particularly at Toulon, and in planning the Siorgio campaign.

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