Help us produce more episodes by supporting the Napoleonic Quarterly on Patreon: patreon.com/napoleonicquarterly

1798. January.. February... March... Three months in which the United States is outraged by the villainy of France’s foreign minister Talleyrand... The French make short work of the Pope’s forces... And to the south the King who rules Naples and the Queen who rules him are cooking up plans to get even with the French. This is episode 25 of the Napoleonic Quarterly - covering three months in which the world wonders what France will do next.

[18:18] - Frank Cogliano on the XYZ Affair troubling Franco-American relations

[37:03] - Mary Robinson on the French takeover of the Papal States - and the Pope's response

[55:00] - Jonathan North on why Naples matters - and some background on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

And from [1:13:00] or thereabouts Charles Esdaile and Alexander Mikaberidze offer their somewhat different interpretations of what the French were thinking in cooking up their plans to invade Egypt.