Ministers on Demand: French Senior Government Officials as Transnational Agents of Modernity in Napoleon’s Brother Kingdoms

TY - CHAP

T1 - Ministers on Demand

T2 - French Senior Government Officials as Transnational Agents of Modernity in Napoleon’s Brother Kingdoms

AU - Gabriëls, A.J.C.M. (Jos)

PY - 2022/6/30

Y1 - 2022/6/30

N2 - In six French satellite states, Holland, Westphalia, Berg, (Northern) Italy, Naples, and Spain, Napoleon placed his kinsmen on the throne to ensure the administrative, financial and social reforms necessary to supply men and money for the imperial war effort. In most of the brother kingdoms, French bureaucrats played a major role in implementing this modernisation process as senior government officials. They were either asked for by the Napoleonids or sent over by Napoleon, each of them applying different ways of recruitment. For the Emperor specialist knowledge and previous achievements were usually the deciding factor, while his royal relatives preferred to look for suitable candidates primarily in their personal entourages. Most friends and acquaintances of the Napoleonids proved to be expert and experienced administrators, but there were a few notorious exceptions. In general, French senior government officials in the brother kingdoms enjoyed a large measure of autonomy in the performance of their duties, thus enabling several of them not merely to implement policy but to shape it. As both the Emperor and his crowned siblings were keen to select moderate liberals, it was this specific political creed that marked the way modernisations were introduced abroad.

AB - In six French satellite states, Holland, Westphalia, Berg, (Northern) Italy, Naples, and Spain, Napoleon placed his kinsmen on the throne to ensure the administrative, financial and social reforms necessary to supply men and money for the imperial war effort. In most of the brother kingdoms, French bureaucrats played a major role in implementing this modernisation process as senior government officials. They were either asked for by the Napoleonids or sent over by Napoleon, each of them applying different ways of recruitment. For the Emperor specialist knowledge and previous achievements were usually the deciding factor, while his royal relatives preferred to look for suitable candidates primarily in their personal entourages. Most friends and acquaintances of the Napoleonids proved to be expert and experienced administrators, but there were a few notorious exceptions. In general, French senior government officials in the brother kingdoms enjoyed a large measure of autonomy in the performance of their duties, thus enabling several of them not merely to implement policy but to shape it. As both the Emperor and his crowned siblings were keen to select moderate liberals, it was this specific political creed that marked the way modernisations were introduced abroad.

KW - Napoleonic Empire

KW - bureaucracy

KW - Napoleonic Europe

KW - Kings and rulers

KW - civil servants

KW - modernisation

KW - political transfer

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780367544683

T3 - Routledge Research in Early Modern History

SP - 201

EP - 226

BT - The Early Modern State: Drivers, Beneficiaries and Discontents

A2 - Brandon, Pepijn

A2 - Heerma van Voss, Lex

A2 - Romein, Annemieke

PB - Routledge

CY - Abingdon / New York

ER -