What young Robert Peel had just said was taken from Book Three of Tacitus's Histories. AD 68–69 was a rare period of civil war in Roman history, a time when upheaval and turmoil took turns tormenting the empire. Within a single year, the Roman Empire changed emperors four times—the so-called Year of the Four Emperors.
The first direct consequence of Nero's death was that the direct line of the Julio-Claudian dynasty was broken, leaving room for those who coveted the throne to compete for it, which manifested itself through civil war. And "in an age of civil war and chaos, no one could hope to hold supreme power alone."
Tacitus commented on this period of history as follows: "The history I am about to write is one filled with disasters. It contains terrible wars, fierce internal strife, strife that was terrifying even when no great military action took place. Four emperors were killed; there were three civil conflicts, more foreign wars, and often wars at home and abroad occurring at the same time."
Bernio, a Rouen official, had once served as Lucien's adviser. Those of his generation thought he appeared smooth and easygoing, but was in truth timid and afraid of trouble, the most cowardly of men. Georgiana had no idea where he had suddenly found the courage to argue with Napoleon, but it was already obvious that the trade agreement had created internal strife.
The English were skilled at creating internal strife and equally skilled at mediating from offshore. In any case, they used an invisible conductor's baton to make everyone follow their lead. Napoleon had become famous for disobeying orders when he was a soldier. Even when Alexander I, the future gendarme of Europe, stepped in... he did not seem to mend his ways.
Mercantilism was a form