How far did Napoleon follow Revolutionary values? - SOCIAL

Question 1

Legion of Honour

Answer 1

• May 1802
• 15 cohorts each received a distinctive decoration
• Of 32,000 awards made in the years up to 1814, only 1500 went to civilians (rather than those in the military)

Question 2

Legion of Honour hereditary reward

Answer 2

• From 1808, award gave the holder the title of chevalier de l’Empire which was made hereditary after three generations of recipients

Question 3

New Imperial Nobility

Answer 3

• 1808 onwards

- Titles of Baron, Count and Chevalier introduced

Question 4

How was the New Imperial Nobility unlike the old nobility?

Answer 4

• Only 1/7 of size of old nobility of 1789
• Primarily linked to service
• Imperial titles didn’t give tax exemptions like those in the AR

Question 5

How was the New Imperial Nobility like the old nobility?

Answer 5

• Provisions made for titles to become hereditary when a recipient had sufficient income
• 22.5% of ennobled by Napoleon were from AR nobility and few were normal people
• Very aristocratic and offered the old nobility official appointments and other honours

Question 6

What did early revolutionaries want regarding education? How did Napoleon try to fulfil this?

Answer 6

• Revolutionaries wanted to extend education, making provision for all, regardless of background
• Little had been achieved other than removing schooling from the hands of the Church
• Napoleon could claim credit for devising a new ‘enlightened’ educational system for France

Question 7

How did Napoleons educational provisions fail to follow revolutionary ideals?

Answer 7

• Changes weren’t as extensive as early idealists would have wished
• May 1802 new law est. :
  École Populaire (state primary school) in each commune subject to inspection of a sous-prefect
• Lycées provided secondary schooling for boys aged 10-16
• Napoleon happy to allow other private and Church-run schools to exist alongside his new secular state schools, so long as the virtues of obedience to the state were instilled in pupils

Question 8

Stat about education under Napoleon

Answer 8

• 2400/6400 places in lycées went to sons of soldiers and civil servants (napoleon’s notables)

Question 9

Napoleon’s attitude to women not following revolutionary value of equality?

Answer 9

• Napoleon was a traditionalist
• Married women unable to accept an inheritance or legacy without their husbands’ authority
• Divorce law remained unfair; husband adultery only grounds for divorce if he brought his mistress home, vs. wife’s adultery did qualify for divorce and coal bring a 3 month gaol sentence

Question 10

How can Napoleon be seen to follow revolutionary values with his policies towards women?

Answer 10

• Partially increased women’s rights
• Civil Code 1804, women were granted marginally more control over their own property when they married; allowed to possess ‘immovable’ goods in her own right
• Moreover, DoRoMaC didn’t include women

Question 11

Overall analysis of social reform under Napoleon FOLLOWING revolutionary values?

Answer 11

• Power like bourgeois landowners now derived only from their wealth (no longer inherited)
• Fusion of social and professional groups essentially post-Revolutionary
• New nobility was different to the old? So resemblances between the imperial nobility and the AR nobility are superficial?

Question 12

Overall analysis of social reform under Napoleon NOT followingrevolutionary values?

Answer 12

• Reappearance of a ruling elite highlights Napoleon’s hierarchical view of French society
• Evidence from Napoleonic period testifies that old nobility remained the largest individual landowners in France