The work of a long line of French kings and
statesmen,--Francis I, Henry IV, Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XIV,--was
thus consummated by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Holy Roman Empire had at
last come to the inglorious end which it had long deserved. And its
last emperor had to content himself with his newly appropriated title
of Francis I, Hereditary Emperor of Austria. The dignity and might of
the proud Habsburgs had declined before a mere upstart of the people as
never before a royal Bourbon. And this same year, 1806, witnessed, as
we have seen, not only the humiliation of Austria but the deepest
degradation of Prussia.
By 1808 all the Germanies were at the mercy of Napoleon. Prussia was
shorn of half her possessions and forced to obey the behests of her
conqueror. The Confederation of the Rhine was enlarged and solidified.
A kingdom of Westphalia was carved out of northern and western Germany
at the expense of Prussia, Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse, and bestowed
upon Jerome, brother of Napoleon.
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