French II

Kingdom of France (Valois dynasty) 

The House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet to the French throne from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Alençon, Anjou, Burgundy and Orléans. They descended from Charles, Count of Valois (1270–1325), the third son of King Philip III of France (r. 1270–1285). 

House of Valois (1328–1422)

Through his mother, Isabella of France, Edward III of England was the grandson of Philip IV of France and nephew of Charles IV of France, the last king of the senior line of the House of Capet. In 1316, a principle was established denying women succession to the French throne. When Charles IV died in 1328, Edward III claimed the throne of France for himself, but a French Assembly chose Philip of Valois as King Philip VI of France. 

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Philip VI of Valois, the Fortunate	1 April 1328	22 August 1350	Grandson of Philip III of France	King of France
John II the Good	22 August 1350	8 April 1364	Son of Philip VI	King of France
Charles V the Wise	8 April 1364	16 Sept 1380	Son of John II	King of France
Charles VI the Beloved, the Mad	16 Sept 1380	21 October 1422	Son of Charles V	King of France

For about nine years (1328–1337), the English had accepted the Valois succession to the French throne. However, when Phillip VI confiscated the duchy of Aquitaine from England in 1337, Edward III responded by pressing his claim to the French throne, beginning the Hundred Years’ War. 

Hundred Years' War (1337–1453)

The Hundred Years' War waged from 1337 to 1453 was a series of conflicts fought between the House of Plantagenet and the House of Valois for control of the Kingdom of France.

Edward revived his claim and in 1340 formally assumed the title 'King of France and the French Royal Arms'. In June 1340, the English attacked the French fleet off the port of Sluis. The French fleet was almost destroyed in what became known as the Battle of Sluys. England dominated the English Channel for the rest of the war, preventing French invasions.

Several overwhelming English victories—especially the Battle of Crécy (1346), Battle of Poitiers (1356) raised the prospects of an ultimate English triumph. 

Edward invaded France, for the last time, hoping to capitalize on the discontent and seize the throne. Edward moved on to Paris but retreated after a few skirmishes in the suburbs. Disaster struck in a freak hailstorm on the encamped army, causing over 1,000 English deaths – the so-called Black Monday on Easter 1360. This devastated Edward's army and forced him to negotiate when approached by the French that resulted in the Treaty of Brétigny (8 May 1360). 

Henry V of England (reigned 1413-1422) of the House of Lancaster culminated in his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt  (1415) and saw him come close to conquering France. 

Henry retook much of Normandy, including Caen in 1417, and Rouen in 1419, turning Normandy English for the first time in two centuries. A formal alliance was made with the Duchy of Burgundy, which had taken Paris in 1419. In 1420, Henry met with King Charles VI and they signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which Henry finally married Charles' daughter Catherine of Valois and Henry's heirs would inherit the throne of France. The Dauphin, Charles VII, was declared illegitimate. Henry formally entered Paris later that year and the agreement was ratified by the Estates-General.

However, following Henry V's sudden and unexpected death in France two years later (on August 1422), and the elderly and insane Charles VI of France died two months later on October 1422,  Henry left an only child and he was succeeded his nine-month-old son, who reigned as Henry VI.

House of Lancaster (1422–1453) (disputed)

Henry VI of England, son of Catherine of Valois, became titular King of France upon his grandfather Charles VI's death in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes of 1420. However,  this was disputed and he is not always regarded as a legitimate king of France. 

In practical terms, King Henry's claim to de jure sovereignty and legitimacy as king of France was only recognized in the English and allied-controlled territories of France which were under the domination of his French regency council, while the Dauphin ruled as King of France in part of the realm south of the Loire.

Name	King From	King Until	Claim	Title
Henry VI of England	21 October 1422	19 October 1453	By right of his father Henry V of England  by the Treaty of Troyes become heir and regent to the French throne	King of France

House of Valois (1422–1498)

Joan of Arc's (1412 – 1431, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans") appearance sparked a revival of French spirit and the tide began to turn against the English.  She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the war, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. Joan claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support king Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the war. 

In 1428, the English laid siege to Orléans, Joan convinced the Dauphin to send her to the siege in 1429, saying she had received visions from God telling her to drive out the English. She raised the morale of the troops and they attacked the English redoubts, forcing the English to lift the siege.  This victory opened the way for the Dauphin to march to Reims for his coronation as Charles VII on 16 July 1429.

However, on 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction, a group of French nobles allied with the English. She was later handed over to the English and put on trial on a variety of charges. After her guilty was declared by the English, she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age.

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Charles VII the Victorious, the Well-Served	21 October 1422	22 July 1461	Son of Charles VI	King of France
Louis XI the Prudent, the Cunning, the Universal Spider	22 July 1461	30 August 1483	Son of Charles VII	King of France
Charles VIII the Affable	30 August 1483	7 April 1498	Son of Louis XI	King of France

In 1435, the Duke of Burgundy, released from his obligations to Henry VI by a papal legate, recognized Charles VII as the rightful king of France. The unification of duke of Orleans and Burgundy under the Valois crown made an English victory all but impossible. 

The dual monarchy of Henry VI of England came to an end with the capture of Bordeaux by Charles VII's forces on 19 October 1453 following their final victory at the Battle of Castillon (17 July 1453), thus bringing the Hundred Years' War to a conclusion. The English were expelled from all of the territories which they had controlled in France.

The Hundred Years' War almost resumed in 1474, when the duke Charles of Burgundy , counting on English support, took up arms against Louis XI. Louis managed to isolate the Burgundians by buying Edward IV of England off with a large cash sum and an annual pension, in the Treaty of Picquigny (1475). The treaty formally ended the Hundred Years' War with Edward renouncing his claim to the throne of France. 

With the death in 1477 of Charles the Bold of Burgundy-Valois during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) , France and the Habsburgs began a long process of dividing his rich Burgundian lands, leading to numerous wars. Duchy of Burgundy was incorporated into the Kingdom of France while the Burgundian Netherlands passed to the Habsburgs.

House of Orléans (1498–1589) 

France engaged in the long Italian Wars (1494–1559), which marked the beginning of early modern France. In 1494. Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. 

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Louis XII Father of the People	7 April 1498	1 January 1515	Great-grandson of Charles V Second cousin, and by first marriage son-in-law of Louis XI By second marriage husband of Anne of Brittany, widow of Charles VIII	King of France
Francis I the Father and Restorer of Letters	1 January 1515	31 March 1547	Great-great-grandson of Charles V First cousin once removed, and by first marriage son-in-law of Louis XII	King of France
Henry II	31 March 1547	10 July 1559	Son of Francis I/Maternal grandson of Louis XII	King of France
Francis II	10 July 1559	5 Dec 1560	Son of Henry II	King of France,
Charles IX	5 Dec 1560	30 May 1574	Son of Henry II	King of France
Henry III	30 May 1574	2 August 1589	Son of Henry II	King of France

The elevation of Charles I of Spain to Holy Roman Emperor on June 28, 1519 led to a collapse of relations between France and the Habsburgs. Francis I himself had been a candidate for election as Holy Roman Emperor before Charles was chosen. The deterioration of relations between the Habsburgs and France provided Francis I with a pretext for war (Italian War of 1521–26) with Charles.

Francis I personally led a French army into Lombardy in 1525, only to be utterly defeated and captured at the battle of Pavia on February 1525. With Francis imprisoned in Spain, a series of diplomatic maneuvers centered around his release ensued, including a French mission sent by Francis' mother Louise of Savoy to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent that would result in an unprecedented alliance between Christian and Muslim monarchs. Suleiman used the opportunity to invade Hungary in the summer of 1526, aiming to reach Vienna, and defeating Charles' allies at the Battle of Mohács in 1526.

Despite all these efforts, Francis was required to sign the Treaty of Madrid in January 1526 in which he surrendered his claims to Italy, Flanders, and Burgundy in order to be released from prison.

By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, ousting the Latin that had been used before then. Regional differences were still extremely pronounced throughout France: In the south of France, Occitan languages dominated; in east central France, Franco-Provençal languages were predominant; while, in the north of France, Oïl languages other than Francien continued to be spoken.

Brittany was incorporated into the Kingdom of France via the union of Brittany and France in 1532. In 1534, Francis I sent Jacques Cartier on the first of three voyages to explore the coast of Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River. He founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula.

French Wars of Religion (1562-1598)

The conflict involved disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, mainly the Reformed House of Condé (a branch of the House of Bourbon, led by Jeanne d'Albret and her son, Henry of Navarre) supported by Protestant England and Scotland;  and the Roman Catholic House of Guise (a branch of the House of Lorraine) supported by the Hapsburg Spain and the Duchy of Savoy. Politiques, consisting of the French kings and their advisers, tried to balance the situation and avoid an open bloodshed between the two religious groups, introducing gradual concessions to Huguenots.

Henry III was the fourth son of King Henry II of France, he was elected with the dual titles King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Of his three older brothers, two would live long enough to ascend the French throne, but both died young and without a legitimate male heir. He abandoned Poland when he had inherited the throne of France at the age of 22.

The French was at the time plagued by the Wars of Religion, and Henry's authority was undermined by violent political parties funded by foreign powers. In 1589, Jacques Clément, a Catholic fanatic, murdered Henry III. On his deathbed, Henry III called for  Henry of Navarre, and begged him, in the name of Statecraft, to become a Catholic, citing the brutal warfare that would ensue if he refused. In keeping with Salic Law, he named Henry as his heir. King Henry of Navarre became the first French king of the House of Bourbon as Henry IV.

Kingdom of France (Bourbon dynasty) 

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. They originated in 1268, when the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon married a younger son of King Louis IX. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, while more senior Capetians ruled France, until Henry IV became the first Bourbon king of France in 1589. 

House of Bourbon (1589–1791)

Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henry III of France in 1589, Henry IV was called to the French succession by the Salic law. He initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear France's crown as a Protestant. 

To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, he found it prudent to abjure the Calvinist faith. As a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the Wars of Religion. 

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Henry IV, Good King Henry, the Green Gallant	2 August 1589	14 May 1610	Tenth generation descendant of Louis IX in the male line By first marriage son in law of Henry II, Brother in law of Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XIII the Just	14 May 1610	14 May 1643	Son of Henry IV	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XIV the Great, the Sun King	14 May 1643	1 Sept 1715	Son of Louis XIII	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XV the Beloved	1 Sept 1715	10 May 1774	Great-grandson of Louis XIV	King of France and of Navarre
Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty	10 May 1774	21 Sept 1791	Grandson of Louis XV	King of France and of Navarre (1774–1791)

The early 17th century saw the first successful French settlements in the New World with the voyages of Samuel de Champlain. The largest settlement was New France, with the towns of Quebec City (1608) and Montreal.

Louis XIV (1643–1715)

Louis XIV, known as the "Sun King", reigned over France from 1643 until 1715 although his strongest period of personal rule did not begin until 1661 after the death of his Italian chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. 

Louis believed in the divine right of kings and continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from Paris, sought to eliminate remnants of feudalism in France, and subjugated and weakened the aristocracy.

Under Louis XIV, France pursued an expansionist policy and frequently held control of territories in the Southern Netherlands, confronted by opponents including the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. He fought the War of Devolution against Spain in 1667. France's defeat of Spain and invasion of the Spanish Netherlands alarmed England and Sweden. Louis XIV agreed to a peace at Aachen and gain Lille.

War broke out again between France and the Dutch Republic in the Franco-Dutch War (1672–78). This result in the Treaties of Nijmegen, and France annexed France-Comté (Country of Burgundy) and acquired further concessions in the Spanish Netherlands.

From 1670, Louis XIV introduced Chambers of Reunion to investigate if France had been granted all the territory that it had been owed. Three of these territories seized by Louis as part of the reunions were Alsace, Strasbourg and Luxembourg in 1681. However, seize of Luxembourg was not successful after the War of Reunions (1683–84) with the Habsburg.

On 6 May 1682, the royal court moved to the lavish Palace of Versailles, which Louis XIV had greatly expanded. Over time, Louis XIV compelled many members of the nobility, especially the noble elite, to inhabit Versailles. He controlled the nobility with an elaborate system of pensions and privileges, and replaced their power with himself.

In 1701 the War of the Spanish Succession began. The Bourbon Philip of Anjou was designated heir to the throne of Spain as Philip V. The Habsburg Emperor Leopold opposed a Bourbon succession, because such a succession would disturb the delicate balance of power in Europe, and he claimed the Spanish thrones for himself. England and the Dutch Republic joined Leopold against Louis XIV and Philip of Anjou. Finally, a compromise was achieved with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Philip of Anjou was confirmed as Philip V, king of Spain.

Louis XIV (1715-1774)

Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeed by his grandson Louis XIV at the age of five. Most scholars believe Louis XIV's decisions damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerable to distrust and destruction, as happened in the French Revolution, which broke out 15 years after his death.

In the North American theater, France was allied with Native American peoples during the war and, despite a temporary success at the battles of the Great Meadows and Monongahela, French forces were defeated at the disastrous Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. In 1762 Russia, France, and Austria were on the verge of crushing Prussia, when the Anglo-Prussian Alliance was saved by the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. At sea, naval defeats against British fleets at Lagos and Quiberon Bay in 1759 and a crippling blockade forced France to keep its ships in port. 

Finally peace was concluded in the Treaty of Paris (1763), and Louis XIV ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War.

Britain's success in the Seven Years' War had allowed them to eclipse France as the leading colonial power. France sought revenge for this defeat, and under Choiseul France started to rebuild. In 1766 the French Kingdom annexed Lorraine and the following year bought Corsica from Genoa. 

Age of Enlightenment (1715-1789)

French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on the sovereignty of reason and the evidence of the senses as such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state.

In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. The Enlightenment has been frequently linked to the French Revolution of 1789. 

Revolutionary France 

French Revolution 1789-1790

The immediate trigger was Louis XVI's attempts to solve the government's worsening financial situation. When Louis XV died in 1774 he left his grandson Louis XVI, "A heavy legacy, with ruined finances, unhappy subjects, and a faulty and incompetent government." Regardless, the people, meanwhile, still had confidence in royalty, and the accession of Louis XVI was welcomed with enthusiasm.

Recent wars, especially the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) had effectively bankrupted the state. In February 1787 his finance minister, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, convened an Assembly of Notables, a group of nobles, clergy, bourgeoisie, and bureaucrats selected in order to bypass the local parliaments. This group was asked to approve a new land tax that would include a tax on the property of nobles and clergy. In August 1788 the King agreed to convene the Estates-General in May 1789.

While the Third Estate demanded and was granted "double representation" so as to balance the First and Second Estate, voting was to occur "by orders" – votes of the Third Estate were to be weighted – effectively canceling double representation. This eventually led to the Third Estate breaking away from the Estates-General and, joined by members of the other estates, proclaiming the creation of the National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates but of "the People."

After the king fired the finance minister Jacques Necker for giving his support to the Third Estate, worries surfaced that the legitimacy of the newly formed National Assembly might be threatened by royalists. Paris was soon in a state of anarchy. It was consumed with riots and widespread looting. The royal leadership essentially abandoned the city and the mobs soon had the support of the French Guard, including arms and trained soldiers. 

On 14 July 1789, the insurgents set their eyes on the large weapons and ammunition cache inside the Bastille fortress, which also served as a symbol of royal tyranny. Insurgents seized the Bastille prison, killing the governor and several of his guards. By late July, the spirit of popular sovereignty had spread throughout France. 

On 4 and 11 August the National Constituent Assembly abolished privileges and feudalism, in what became known as the August Decrees. On 26 August the Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which comprised a statement of principles rather than a constitution with legal effect. 

On 6 October 1789, the King and the royal family moved from Versailles under the "protection" of the National Guards, thus legitimizing the National Assembly.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed on 12 July 1790, turned the remaining clergy into employees of the state. This established an election system for parish priests and bishops and set a pay rate for the clergy. Many Catholics objected to the election system because it effectively denied the authority of the Pope in Rome over the French Church. On 14 July and for several days following, crowds in the Champ de Mars celebrated the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille; participants swore an oath of "fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king"; the King and the royal family actively participated.

Kingdom of the French (1791–1792)

With most of the Assembly still favoring a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, the various groupings reached a compromise. The Constitution of 1791 abolished the nobility of France and created all men equal before the law, and France would function as a constitutional monarchy with Louis XVI as little more than a figurehead as King of the French.

Meanwhile, in August 1791, a new threat arose from abroad: the King's brother-in-law Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Frederick William II of Prussia, and the King's brother Count Charles of Artois, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, declaring their intention to bring the French king in the position "to consolidate the basis of a monarchical government" and hinting at an invasion of France on the King's behalf.

These noblemen also required the Assembly to be dissolved through threats of war, but, instead of cowing the French, it infuriated them. The borders were militarized as a consequence.

Louis XVI reluctantly declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792 bowing to the assembly's wishes and France invaded the Austrian Netherlands. Prussia joined the war, on 30 July Austria and Prussia began an invasion of France, hoping to occupy Paris.

Louis XVI was suspected of treason and taken along with his family from the Tuileries Palace in August 1792 by insurgents supported by a new revolutionary Paris Commune. The King and Queen ended up prisoners, and a rump session of the Legislative Assembly suspended the monarchy.

Name	King From	King Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty	3 Sept 1791	21 Sept 1792	Grandson of Louis XV	King of the French (1791–1792)
Louis XVII  (Claimant)	21 January 1793	8 June 1795	Son of Louis XVI	King of France and of Navarre

The role of the King in France in a Revolution gone berserk, was finally brought to a shattering end with the "guillotined" execution (beheading) in the public square of the "Place de la Revolution" of Louis XVI on Monday, January 21, 1793.

From 21 January 1793 to 8 June 1795, Louis XVI's son Louis-Charles was the titular King of France as Louis XVII; in reality, however, he was imprisoned in the Temple throughout this duration, and power was held by the leaders of the Republic. Upon Louis XVII's death, his uncle (Louis XVI's brother) Louis-Stanislas claimed the throne, as Louis XVIII, but only became de facto King of France in 1814.

French First Republic (1792-1804)

France declared war on Prussia and Austria (the First Coalition), which responded with a coordinated invasion of the country that was eventually turned back at the  Battle of Valmy.After the first great victory of the French revolutionary troops at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792, the French First Republic was proclaimed the next day, on 21 September. The victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. The new French Republican Calendar was then legally enforced.

A series of victories abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793. The remainder of the year witnessed additional defeats for the French, and these difficult times allowed the Jacobins to rise to power and impose the Reign of Terror as a method of attempting to unify the nation.

In 1794, the situation improved dramatically for the French, as huge victories at Fleurus against the Austrians and at the Black Mountain against the Spanish signaled the start of a new stage in the wars. By 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel. 

A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy In April 1796. In less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, ending the First Coalition against the Republic. 

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Corsica ( the same year the Republic of Genoa transferred Corsica to France) to a relatively modest Italian family from minor nobility.  

When he turned 9 years old, he moved to the French mainland and transferred with a scholarship to a military academy at Brienne-le-Château. In his youth he was an outspoken Corsican nationalist and supported the state's independence from France. Napoleon spoke and read Corsican (as his mother tongue) and Italian (as the official language of Corsica). He began learning French in school at around age 10.

He was serving as an artillery officer in the French army when the French Revolution erupted in 1789. He rapidly rose through the ranks of the military, seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution and becoming a general at age 24. 

In 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt (the Second Coalition) that served as a springboard to political power. Napoleon's forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor, and Abukir. The conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleon's popularity back in France; he returned in the fall of 1799 to cheering throngs in the streets.

Napoleon conquered most of Italy 1797–99. He consolidated old units and split up Austria's holdings. He set up a series of new republics, complete with new codes of law and abolition of old feudal privileges. Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic was centred on Milan. Genoa the city became a republic while its hinterland became the Ligurian Republic. The Roman Republic was formed out of the papal holdings and the pope was sent to France.

Batavian-French Era in Netherlands (1795-1813)

By the end of the 18th century, the Netherlands found themselves in a deep economic crisis, caused by the devastating Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Like in much of Europe, the people of the Netherlands grew increasingly discontent with the authoritarian regime of the stadtholder, William V.

During this time, the banks of the Dutch Republic held much of the world's capital. The government sponsored banks owned up to 40% of Great Britain's national debt. This concentration of wealth (and the connections the government had to the House of Stuart) led to the formation of the Dutch Patriots by a minor Dutch noble. They were seeking to reduce the amount of power held by the stadtholder.

Thus, the division emerged between the Orangists, who supported the stadtholder, and the Patriots who, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, desired a more democratic government and a more equal society. 

Two years later, the French Revolution began, which embraced many of the political ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt. The Patriots enthusiastically supported the Revolution, and when the French revolutionary armies started spreading it, the Patriots joined in, hoping to liberate their own country from its authoritarian yoke. 

By 1795, the French captured Austrian Netherlands at the south and broke the resistance of the forces of the Stadtholder, and his Austrian and British allies. However, in many cities revolution broke out even before the French arrived and Revolutionary Committees took over the city governments, and (provisionally) the national government also. The Batavian Revolution ended with the proclamation of the Batavian Republic in 1795. William was forced to flee to England.

Several coups followed in 1798, 1801 and 1805 which brought different groups of Patriots to power. Though the French presented themselves as liberators, they behaved like conquerors. The Batavian Republic ended in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was founded, with Napoleon's brother, Louis Napoleon as King of Holland.

French First Empire 

House of Bonaparte (1804–1815)

The new "Constitution of the Year III" was created by a national plebiscite and took effect on 26 September 1795. The new constitution created the Directory and the first bicameral legislature in French history. The Directory lasted until 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France, staged a coup and installed The Consulate. Napoleon was a co-conspirator in the coup, and became head of the government as the First Consul. 

The First French Republic lasted until the declaration of the First Empire in 1804. The Consulate was replaced by the First French Empire, established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, who was declared Emperor of the French on 18 May 1804. Napoleon's coronation, officiated by Pope Pius VII, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804. Napoleon was also crowned King of Italy at the Cathedral of Milan on 26 May 1805. 

Name	Emperor From	Emperor Until	Relationship with Predecessor(s)	Title
Napoleon I, the Great	18 May 1804	11 April 1814	-	Emperor of the French King of Italy
Napoleon I	20 March 1815	22 June 1815	-	Emperor of the French
Napoleon II	22 June 1815	7 July 1815	Son of Napoleon I	Emperor of the French

The War of Third Coalition came to full fruition in 1804–05 as Napoleon's actions in Italy (crowning himself with the Iron Crown of Lombardy) and Germany (notably the arrest and execution of the Duc d'Enghien) spurred Austria and Russia into joining Britain against France. In the Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805), the widely regarded as the greatest victory achieved by Napoleon, the French defeated a larger Russian and Austrian army led by Emperor Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. The battle effectively brought the Third Coalition to an end.

On 26 December 1805, Austria and France signed the Treaty of Pressburg. The treaty confirmed the Austrian cession of lands in Italy and Bavaria to France and Napoleon's German allies. The Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states joined together with Napoleon as their "protector" and intended as a buffer zone between France and central Europe, was also created. As a results, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist when, in 1806, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated the Imperial throne, emerging as Emperor of Austria Francis I. 

Kingdom of Holland (1806 - 1810) was set up as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The new king was unpopular and Napoleon forced his abdication in 1810 and incorporated the Netherlands directly into the French empire.

Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia.

Desperate for a legitimate heir, Napoleon divorced  Empress Joséphine on 10 January 1810 and started looking for a new wife. Hoping to cement the recent alliance with Austria through a family connection, Napoleon married the 18-years old Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, daughter of Francis II. On 20 March 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to a baby boy, whom Napoleon made heir apparent and bestowed the title of King of Rome. Historians often refer to his son as Napoleon II.

Invasion of Russia and the Sixth Coalition 1812-1813

In 1808, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander met at the Congress of Erfurt to preserve the Russo-French alliance. By 1811, however, tensions had increased and Alexander was under pressure from the Russian nobility to break off the alliance. By 1812, advisers to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire and the recapture of Poland. 

Napoleon expanded his army, ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the Russian heartland and prepared for an offensive campaign; on 24 June 1812 the invasion commenced. 

The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia. A brief attempt at resistance was made at Smolensk in August; the Russians were defeated in a series of battles, and Napoleon resumed his advance. Owing to the Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their horses.

The Russians eventually offered battle outside Moscow on 7 September: the Battle of Borodino resulted in approximately 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, and may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history up to that point in time.

The Russian army withdrew and retreated past Moscow. Napoleon entered the city, assuming its fall would end the war and Alexander would negotiate peace. However, Moscow was burned on orders of the city's governor. Napoleon and his army left after five weeks. In early November Napoleon got concerned about loss of control back in France after the Malet coup of 1812. His army walked through snow up to their knees, and nearly 10,000 men and horses froze to death on the night of 8/9 November alone. 

After the defeat at the Battle of Berezina (26-29 November), Napoleon managed to escape but had to abandon much of the remaining artillery and baggage train. On 5 December, Napoleon left the army in a sledge. 

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces. Heartened by France's loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in the Sixth Coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.

Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813 by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total. 

The Allies offered peace terms in the Frankfurt proposals in November 1813. Napoleon would remain as Emperor of France, but it would be reduced to its "natural frontiers" : France could retain control of Belgium, Savoy and the Rhineland (the west bank of the Rhine River), while giving up all the rest in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Austria's Metternich's motivation was to maintain France as a balance against Russian threats, while ending the highly destabilizing series of wars.

Napoleon refused the proposal and withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers. The French were surrounded by British armies and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days' Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide. The leaders of Paris surrendered to the Coalition in March 1814. 

Napoleon abdicated on 11 April 1814. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the Allies exiled Napoleon to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean off the Tuscan coast.  He was separated from his wife and son, who had returned to Austria. 

On the verge of Napoleon's defeat, the Four Great Powers, Austria, Prussia, Russia and the United Kingdom, which formed the core of the Sixth Coalition, outlined their common position in the Treaty of Chaumont (March 1814), and later negotiated the Treaty of Paris (May 1814, the confirmation of France's loss of the territories annexed between 1795–1810) with the Bourbons during their restoration. 

Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)

After the Napoleon Wars, the Congress of Vienna was held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815, a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Metternich of Austria. The participating nations had very different and conflicting goals: Tsar Alexander of Russia had expected to absorb much of Poland (the Duchy of Warsaw); the renewed Prussian state demanded all of the Kingdom of Saxony; Austria expected to regain control of northern Italy. 

Austria was represented by Prince Metternich, the Foreign Minister. As the Congress's sessions were in Vienna, Emperor Francis was kept closely informed.

Britain was represented first by its Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh; then by the Duke of Wellington, after February 1815. 

Tsar Alexander I controlled the Russian delegation which was formally led by the foreign minister, Count Karl Robert Nesselrode.  

Prussia was represented by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor. King Frederick William III of Prussia was also in Vienna, playing his role behind the scenes.

France, the "fifth" power, was represented by its foreign minister, Talleyrand, as well as the Minister Plenipotentiary the Duke of Dalberg. Talleyrand had already negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1814) for Louis XVIII of France; the king, however, distrusted him and was also secretly negotiating with Metternich.

Hundred Days

Napoleon escaped from Elba, in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with 700 men. Two days later, he landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and started heading north. Napoleon arrived in Paris on 20 March and governed for a period now called the Hundred Days, from Napoleon's return to Paris until the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 111 days). 

Napoleon returned while the Congress of Vienna was sitting. On 13 March, seven days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw, and on 25 March, the four Great Powers bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule.

By the start of June the armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 200,000, and he decided to go on the offensive to attempt to drive a wedge between the oncoming British and Prussian armies. Napoleon's forces fought two Coalition armies, commanded by the British Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Prince Blücher, at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.  The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French. 

He abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son Napoleon II. On 24 June the Provisional Government proclaimed the fact to the French nation. On 25 June Napoleon left Paris for the final time and left for the coast hoping to reach the United States of America. In the meantime, the Provisional Government deposed his son and tried to negotiate a conditional surrender with the Coalition powers. They failed to obtain any significant concessions from the Coalition who insisted on a military surrender and the restoration of Louis XVIII. Finally Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland on 15 July 1815.

Final Act 1815

The Final Act, embodying all the separate treaties, was signed on 9 June 1815 (a few days before the Battle of Waterloo). Its provisions included:

Russia was given most of the Duchy of Warsaw (Poland) and was allowed to keep Finland (which it had annexed from Sweden in 1809 and held until 1917).

Prussia was given three fifths of Saxony, parts of the Duchy of Warsaw (the Grand Duchy of Posen), Danzig, and the Rhineland/Westphalia.

A German Confederation of 39 states was created from the previous 300 of the Holy Roman Empire, under the presidency of the Austrian Emperor. Only portions of the territory of Austria and Prussia were included in the Confederation.

The Netherlands and the Southern Netherlands were united in a monarchy, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, with William VI of Orange-Nassau proclaimed himself King William I at the Congress of Vienna, thus fulfilled the nearly three-century quest of the House of Orange to unite the Low Countries under a single rule.

They agreed to merge the northern Netherlands with the more populated Austrian Netherlands and the smaller Prince-Bishopric of Liège into a single constitutional monarchy. Having a stronger country on France's northern border was considered to be an important part of the strategy to keep France's power in check.

To compensate for the Orange-Nassau's loss of the Nassau lands to Prussia, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg were to form a personal union under the House of Orange-Nassau, with Luxembourg (but not the Netherlands) inside the German Confederation.

Swedish Pomerania, given to Denmark a year earlier in return for Norway, was ceded by Denmark to Prussia. France received back Guadeloupe from Sweden in return for yearly installments to the Swedish king.

The neutrality of Switzerland was guaranteed.

Hanover gave up the Duchy of Lauenburg to Denmark, but was enlarged by the addition of former territories of the Bishop of Münster and by the formerly Prussian East Frisia, and made a kingdom.

Most of the territorial gains of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau under the mediatizations of 1801–1806 were recognized. Bavaria also gained control of the Rhenish Palatinate and parts of the Napoleonic Duchy of Würzburg and Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Hesse-Darmstadt, in exchange for giving up the Duchy of Westphalia to Prussia, received Rhenish Hesse with its capital at Mainz.

Austria regained control of the Tyrol and Salzburg; of the former Illyrian Provinces; of Tarnopol district (from Russia); received Lombardy-Venetia in Italy and Ragusa in Dalmatia. Former Austrian territory in Southwest Germany remained under the control of Württemberg and Baden, and the Austrian Netherlands were also not recovered. 

Habsburg princes were returned to control of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Duchy of Modena. The Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla were given to Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife. 

The Papal States were under the rule of the pope and restored to their former extent, with the exception of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, which remained part of France.

Britain was confirmed in control of the Cape Colony in Southern Africa; Tobago; Ceylon; and various other colonies in Africa and Asia. 

The King of Sardinia was restored in Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy, and was given control of Genoa (putting an end to the brief proclamation of a restored Republic).

The Bourbon Ferdinand IV, King of Sicily was restored to control of the Kingdom of Naples after Joachim Murat, the king installed by Bonaparte, supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days.