The history of the Bonaparte family was no longer any secret. They had probably moved from Genoa to Corsica in the fifteenth century. Before the thirteenth century, Corsica had always been a battleground between Genoa and the Republic of Pisa.
But after the thirteenth century, the Republic of Pisa declined, especially after it was annexed by Florence, which badly needed an outlet to the sea. Corsica then effectively came under the control of Genoa.
Prussia had only one seaport, Danzig, and Frederick the Great had seized even that from Poland. How could they possibly have a dispute with the Batavian Republic over territorial waters?
Boston had opened the first rift between the New World and the Old World. Yet after the American Revolution ended, Europe's wars had not. William V of the House of Orange had originally opposed joining the war, but the Netherlands joined anyway. In the end, William V of Orange was driven out of the Netherlands.
He had a Prussian wife, Wilhelmina—the very woman whose position had been taken by Catherina, wife of Batavia's special envoy to Amiens. To reclaim power, she went openly to The Hague and gathered the Regents to support William V of Orange.
Back then, under Frederick the Great's leadership, Prussia had exerted such enormous influence over Europe that even France and Austria chose a marriage alliance to confront its threat.
Yet Talleyrand told some unknown Briton that he bet the Batavian Republic would not open its territorial waters to Prussia. The Briton said he had seen the decline of history.
Talleyrand's letter made it clear that he was angry. He even said that one of the two strings of his bow had snapped, though he could not explain who had provoked him. On the surface, it seemed that Napoleon had acted on