La Bataille de Deutsch Wagram 1809

Memorable Year 1809–France versus Austria

For the last two years ending in 1814, Pius VII was under arrest at the Palace of Fontainebleau. We have a picture of his simple apartment.

The Pope Pius VII’s simple apartment at Fontainebleau during his arrest

Under Pius VII, the Jews in the Papal States had been forced to live in ghettos with few civil liberties. Upon the French Annexation, the ghettos were abolished as was the practice of forcing Jews to wear identification of their religion. Under the Republic they were given their full rights as citizens. Unfortunately, upon the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Pius VII reinstituted these harsh measures despite the protests of the Austrians. These included restoring the mandatory ghettos, particularly oppressive in Rome, where the overcrowded, squalid conditions seemed appalling even to a Vatican commission instructed to investigate. Also restored were the requirements of attendance at conversionary sermons and acts of ritual degradation associated with the Christian Carnival. No schools teaching nonreligious subjects were permitted in the ghetto, and Jewish children were forbidden to attend schools outside its walls, or to engage in professions or skilled occupations. In other actions related to Napoleon’s Italian realms, Viceroy Eugene, under the tutelage of General Macdonald, gathered The Army of Italy, together and started moving it to Vienna. The Archduke Johann defeated Eugene at Sacile, but substantial victories by Eugene in Caldiero in the Italian Alps and later at Raab in Hungary prohibited Karl from receiving the assistance of his brother. So as Davout and Napoleon defeat Charles at Eckmuhl and Landshut; Karl stops Napoleon at Aspern-Essling. However, Karl could not receive enough help from the other Austrian armies. The Army of Italy and The Army of Dalmatia are able to join Napoleon however at Wagram, where French superiority in numbers and generalship led to a decisive

Marshal Enterprises Page 5 of 6