FRANCE, Premier République. Consulat. Napoléon Bonaparte. Premier Consul, 1799-1804. Æ Medal (56mm, 82.4 g, 12h). Peace of Luneville. By Duvivier. Dated L’An 9 (AD 1801). BONAPARTE PREMIER CONSUL, GENERAL A MARENGO, bare head left; D. DUVIVIER F. below / LA FRANCE VICTORIEUSE, France standing facing beneath palm tree, holding olive branches in right hand and raising left arm; rooster to right; around, the river gods Rhine, holding cornucopia and resting arm on overflowing urn inscribed RHIN, Danube, raising right arm and resting left on overflowing urn inscribed DANUBE, Po, holding olive branch in left hand and resting right on overflowing urn inscribed LE PO, and Tiber, holding cornucopia in right hand and rudder inscribed TIBRE in left; D.V on ground line; PAIX CONTINENTALE/ A LUNEVILLE/ AN 9 in exergue. Bramsen 105; Julius 899. Choice EF.
Following the French victories in the War of the First Coalition, the signatories of the resulting treaty were able to avoid armed conflict for a year and and a half, but the situation became untenable once again, as France and Austria remained at odds concerning the amount of territory owed to France. Republican forces in the Swiss cantons, aided by French soldiers, overthrew the central government and created the Helvetic Republic, and Napoléon, on his return from Egypt, demanded that his fleet be allowed to dock at the Maltese port city of Valetta, ultimately bombarding the neutral island and enraging the honorary head of the Order, Paul of Russia. The War of the Second Coalition saw the region’s powers–the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, Russia, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire, join against Napoléon and the French Republic. Rather than rolling back the gains of the French during the first war, the allied monarchies continued to lose more, as Napoléon’s tactical skills forged a new European power, eager to add further gains in the coming decade and a half.
