The Civil code of the French (1804)
© Fondation Napoleon
Napoleonean reforms
To devote the authority of the Napoleon Emperor, to make of all of the subjects flexible and attached to the mode, to provide money and men, such were the goals of the reforms imposed in all the countries. For that, it was necessary to remove the intermediate bodies by decreasing the influence of the aristocracy without alienating it, and reconciling the middle-class and the peasants. From where need for a wise and liberal administration, the introduction of the civil equality and religious liberty, the abolition of the feudal rights and tithe, the sale of the ecclesiastical goods, removal of the corporations, multiplication of the civils servant and the granting of constitutions envisaging the vote of the tax and the laws by the notable ones.
Napoleon endeavoured to introduce the Civil code everywhere, guarantor of these transformations. He did not conceive that whoever could resist, but often tolerated adjustments at the institutions and the laws according to local particularisms and of the inequality of the development reached by each country. However, it did not perceive contradiction between these ideas and the need for not alienating the aristocracy; the real feudal rights, the tithes were almost always declared redeemable: the peasants, in general unable to pay, refused to meet this requirement; as for the lords, they did not approach therefore the mode.
A family system
To facilitate the assimilation of the populations, Napoleon created vassal States enjoying an autonomy connect and with the head of which it named members of its family or high-ranking dignitaries of the Empire. Thus Joseph became king de Naples then of Spain, Louis king de Hollande until 1810, Jerome king de Westphalie; Murat, initially sovereign of the Grand Duchy of Berg, replaced Joseph in Naples in 1808. Elisa with Piombino, Berthier in Neuchâtel, Talleyrand with Bénévent, Bernadotte with Pontecorvo were under a dependence even narrower.
Napoleon maintained them under his supervision: “Remember, he says to Murat, which I made you king only for my system.” Some were rebiffèrent: “One is not king to obey”, exclaimed Murat, which will go until treason in 1814. They had, indeed, tendency to regard themselves as owners of their loads, to marry, in order to it reconcile, the interests of their people rather than those of the Emperor. With that competitions in the family were even added. These disagreements, the need for controlling the coasts to reinforce the continental Blockade, the prospect for one descent following the Austrian marriage supported the evolution towards a centralized Empire: since 1810, Holland and part of Hanover were annexed; in Spain, Joseph was king only in title; Murat feared for its throne of Naples.