1805       


In 1804 Bonaparte crowned himself Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Germany's luckier Princes had seen their territories grow into middle large states. The Duke of Wurttemberg became Elector and in 1805 King. The Margrave of Baden became a Grand duke. The Electors of Saxony and Bavaria were also elevated to Kings. Francis II, Habsburg ruler and Holy Roman Emperor, foresaw that the defunct and loosely organized Holy Roman Empire would not survive the onslaught of French influence and long overdue reform. In order to safeguard the Imperial status for him and his dynasty, he decided to carve a brand new Empire out of his ancestral territories. The Archduchy of Austria, with the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary were united into the Empire of Austria, of which he became Emperor Francis I, remaining at the same time, Francis II of the old Holy Roman Empire (marked by the red border). Scholars of international state law were now confronted with the bizarre reality of two overlapping Empires, sharing a great part of their respective territories and their Emperor like Siamese twins.

Napoleon also took the title of King of Italy, and created his brother Louis, King of Holland. Prussia was greatly enlarged in the German west, taking Hanover from Britain and gaining lots of territory from the former ecclesiastical states. It didn't take part in the Third Coalition against France. That Coalition consisted of Britain, Sweden, Russia, Austria and Naples and Sicily. The enlarged and elevated rulers of Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria joined Napoleon, as did the King of Spain.

Napoleon continued with his habit of making relatives, ministers and marshals, rulers of subjugated territories. His minister, de Talleyrand was made Prince of Beneveto, a former Papal exclave within the Kingdom of Naples. Another former papal exclave within Naples, Pontecorvo, was given as a Principality to Field Marshall Bernadotte. Napoleon’s elder brother Joseph became King of Naples for a while, and would eventually become King of Spain. General Berthier became Prince of Neuchatel, a former Prussian possession in the Swiss Jura. Like the former client-republics, states ruled by Napoleons relatives and marshals are coloured lilac-purple on the maps.