ABSTRACT
In 1803, of all the European capitals, Berlin was the least hostile to Napoleon. Frederick William III detested the Bourbons and had been entirely content to see Napoleon made First Consul. For Russia, too, the Napoleonic period opened with an attempted rapprochement with Napoleon. The Napoleonic Wars were primarily an economic conflict between Britain and France makes no more sense than to argue that they were an ideological conflict between France and the ancien regime. Napoleon the lawgiver was by no means separate from Napoleon the man of war, the First Consul’s classical studies having left him with the firm belief that the greatest figures of antiquity had been leaders who had excelled in both fields, such as the Spartan hero, Lycurgus. As for the peace of Amiens, the First Consul certainly did nothing to protect it, virtually his every action provoking grave disquiet in London.
