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Little Napoleonic PODs

Aznavour

Well-known member
Published by SLP
A sequel to this thread.

For PODs smaller than Napoleon Crushes his Enemies at Waterloo and Reigns Forever.

-1795 If Napoleon had married Désirée Clary.

This one has a lot of effects great and small if we use Not Meeting the Beauharnais as a POD. Napoleon, Ney and Bernadotte have different spouses, as do some German princes, Louie Bonaparte and Archduchess Maria Louisa. The extended Imperial Family is smaller. Napoleon II is half-Clary, not half-Habsburg, and perhaps a decade and a half older. Eugène de Beauharnais, one of Napoleon’s best subordinates, languishes in obscurity.

-1802 if General Charles Leclerc had not been sent to Haiti

Napoleon’s other brother in law, not as memorable as Murat but not as forgettable as Borghese, was part of the 18 Brumaire, before being sent to suppress the slave revolution and reimpose Slavery at Saint Domingue. Probably not good enough for the Marshalate (though he is a relative), but there’s always battles here and there, plus puppet states that need staffing.

1804 if Napoleon and Lucien Bonaparte had not fallen out

The third Bonaparte brother and the actual revolutionary one, who didn’t need his brother’s coattails nor liked his ambitions, until the 100 Days, at least, when they reconciled. But what if they’d done so earlier, or not fought at all.

Admittedly, a Napoleonless world in which Lucien takes over Revolutionary France would be more interesting.

1807 if Bernadotte had been killed at Guttstadt.

Every Marshal has a story in which a grave wound could have ended their career early, except Oudinot, who had 30 such stories.

1808-1810 Musical Chairs.

In order, it seems Napoleon’s choices for King of Spain were Louis, Joseph, Bernadotte and maybe Murat. Two refused and Murat was Murat, as we know, but what if either Louis or Bernadotte had been more ambitious or less practical. Or what if he had said screw it and used Murat?

For Sweden, options included nephews (too young) and Eugène (not cool enough), before one guy took the initiative to approach Bernadotte. What if the Swedes had just taken Napoleon up on Eugène or another French Marshal?

1808 if Davout had been to Spain

Napoleon said he might have won in Spain had he had two Suchets, but Davout’s the next best thing, if not the better thing. Good for administration and discipline, better on the battlefield. Doubtful he would have been loved by the Spaniards anymore than he was by his own troops (who famously respected but not loved him), and he wouldn’t have been able to change the overall tide of the war, but having another clean Marshal who’s neither looting like Soult or dying of malaria like Massena might have helped.



1809 if Lannes had not died at Aspern-Essling

Perhaps a better question would be “what if Napoleon had taken his place?”, but the answer to that one is probably the one I came up with when writing around that POD: Emperor Joseph as puppet of a Marshalate Junta.

Also, a video with even more ideas.

 
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Have a ton of ideas, but I'll start with one I have recently come across:

1802: the wrong mosquito doesn't bite Latouche Tréville

Louis-René Levassor de Latouche Tréville was one of the most experienced admirals in the French fleet having seen action since the age of 14 at Quiberon Bay. He was overseer of the naval element of the Haitian expedition where he contracted malaria. He survived his first bout but a reoccurrence of the disease in 1804 would kill him. Critically just a few months into the preparations by Napoleon to launch his invasion of Britain. He would be replaced by Admiral Villeneuve whose reluctant strategy would result in the French navy missing multiple opportunities to catch the British fleet off guard. He is also notably one of the very few, if possibly only, commanders to have defeated Nelson in battle.
 
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