The Poetry of Discontent: Jérôme Bonaparte and his Alleged Exploitation of the Kingdom of Westphalia

Abstract

The kingdom of Westphalia was an entirely artificial creation borne out of the territorial consolidations that accompanied Napoleon’s victories over the major powers of Central Europe. Intended to be an experimental kingdom where the revolutionary values of liberty and especially equality could be transplanted onto German soil, the kingdom was to be ruled by the French emperor’s youngest brother, Jérôme. During the kingdom’s short existence, from 1807 until 1813, many of Jérôme’s policies, especially with regard to taxation and conscription, were unpopular, and his own personal reputation for a luxurious and licentious lifestyle became fodder for German liberationists. As Napoleon’s power fell into jeopardy following his disastrous Russian Campaign of 1812, war poets throughout Central Europe seized the opportunity and began publishing seditious lyrics about their French conquerors. Within the unique context afforded by the kingdom of Westphalia, where a Bonaparte ruled directly, war poets wove together a creative, multi-pronged narrative of exploitation, wherein the king’s heavy taxes were characterized as funding a widespread conscription system, which robbed Westphalia of its young men, in the absence of which Westphalia’s young women were left vulnerable to the French king’s insatiable sexual passions.