Even this venture at first seemed successful, for in the
following year a son was born who received the high-sounding
appellation of king of Rome. But Austria remained at heart thoroughly
hostile; Maria Louisa later grew faithless; and the young prince, half-
Habsburg and half-Bonaparte, was destined to drag out a weary and
futile existence among enemies and spies.
[Sidenote: Influence of the French Revolution upon Prussia]
Meanwhile, the national reaction against Napoleon grew apace. It was in
Prussia that it reached more portentous dimensions than even in Austria
or in Spain. Following so closely upon the invigorating victories of
Frederick the Great, the disaster of Jena and the humiliation of Tilsit
had been a doubly bitter cup for the Prussian people. Prussian
statesmen were not lacking who put the blame for their country's
degradation upon many of the social and political conditions which had
characterized the "old regime" in all European monarchies, and, as
these statesmen were called in counsel by the well-intentioned King
Frederick William III (1797-1840), the years from 1807 to 1813 were
marked by a series of internal reforms almost as significant in the
history of Prussia as were those from 1789 to 1795 in the history of
France.
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