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Welcome to the Age of Napoleon.

Episode 68 The Eagle and the Owls.

Thanks for joining me.

Before we get started, I'll remind you once again that you can listen to this and all future

episodes ad-free by supporting the show on Patreon.com.

I also need to make a quick pre-correction.

A couple times during this episode you'll hear me refer to the Duke of Provence.

Well, there was no such person. I, of course, mean the count of Provence. Just a small slip of the tongue. What can I say? This is why the

Revolutionaries wanted to get rid of all these noble titles.

Too confusing.

Anyway, last episode we continued our examination of Napoleon's reforms and domestic politics under the consulate.

We closed out our discussion of the new Civil Code,

how it helped seal the fate of Napoleon's critics in the tribunate, and how it contributed to his

wider project of forging a new political coalition and reconciling the country to the new regime.

As we discussed last time, Napoleon was throwing a lot of olive branches to the political right.

Everything from purely symbolic measures, like the restoration of the ceremonial trappings of monarchy,

to consequential concrete concessions, like conservative social policies in the new civil code.

This episode will continue that thread.

Examining Napoleon's overtures to conservatives and royalists,

most of whom had been alienated from the central government in Paris for the better part of a decade.

Many had engaged in violent resistance against the revolutionary government.

...