I'm not a history expert...

>implying Napoleon's power was limited

>France has a really unpopular monarch and aristocracy.
>France is basically bankrupt after funding the American revolution and making some shitty tax reforms. A famine happens at the same time.
>The enlightenment intelligentsia organize the plebs into a revolution.
>The plebs turn out to be really bloodthirsty and the intelligentsia lets them have at it.
>The intelligentsia consolidate power and form the Directory, and start to purge each other out of paranoia/grudges.
>Meanwhile the other European powers notice how fucking unstable France has become and decide to invade it to restore order/grab clay.
>France is being invaded and several young officers make a name for themselves by winning battles and driving them back, one of these people is Napoleon.
>Napoleon leverages his victories into convincing the Directory to give him more military power.
>Eventually the foreign powers are beaten back, but they're only recovering and still eager to "stabilize"/pillage France.
>Napoleon convinces the Directory to send him on an expedition to Egypt to defend French trade/weaken British influence.
>The expedition is a propaganda victory for France and Napoleon and basically creates Egyptology, but a strategic defeat since the Brits sank the French fleet at the battle of the Nile.
>The Directory plots to strip Napoleon of his powers back home in France.
>Napoleon ditches his men in Egypt and races home to France past the British blockade and seizes power.
>He installs 2 puppets and rules jointly as first consul, but only he has any real power.
>Everyone is cool with it since the Directory was a bunch of murderous cunts and Napoleon is popular, relatively fair, makes some good reforms, and most importantly kicks European ass whenever they try to reinstall the monarchy, which they try to do several more times.
>Eventually Napoleon drops the consul bullshit and proclaims himself Emperor, because why not.

They lost l'incorruptible - and thus their virtue and values.

frogs r dum

oh cheeky lad

It's because a lot of the desire for liberty, egalitarianism and fraternity came from the bourgeois elements of the revolution. Most of the Third Estate didn't give a shit about that stuff they just wanted food, peace and for the other two Estates to stop fucking them over so much. But as they were riled up it was quite easy for the liberal elites to turn their rage towards the monarchist regime and destroy it utterly. Most revolutionaries in any civil war don't so much want to destroy the old order as they simply wish to reform it. Of course the people who start revolutions are never the ones who finish them and the previous desire on the part of the revolutionaries to reform the system were soon perverted by the hardliners who insisted it be destroyed altogether.

So once Napoleon seized power much of the anti-monarchist sentiments were quelled as the factors which fermented them: lack of jobs, food and opportunities, were remedied under Napoleon's regime. Napoleon made France into a continental power, allowed for merit to count more than birth and instituted his Code Napoleon which curbed much of the legal torts and abuses under France's previously feudal legal system. Aside from that, however, I wouldn't be surprised if there was also a psychological need on the part of many Frenchmen to see one person in power. Most of them would have spent their entire life under the rule of one person and as such were much more content with one person in charge of the fate of the country than many.

Having the King plot treasonous invasion by foreign armies might have had something to do with his beheading

It was clearly a prank

read Weber
To grossly oversimplify:
Ancien regime was traditional domination, the State relied on the divine right of kings and feudalist traditions to function.
Napoleon on the other hand practiced charismatic domination, the State relied on him fuxxing up all the ennemies of France and keeping his popularity quota up.

>what's that? you want me to die for you in a war? well, since you stopped us from killing each other...

Was still an improvement given that even during the Revolution, the French were already dying massively in wars all over Europe when not busy killing each others

>Napoleon also (rightly) believed that France would never be secure so long as the British Royals were free to conspire against the Revolution. His ultimate goal was to invade Britain and put an end to the monarchist menace once and for all.

It didn't really happen that way tho
After the end of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1802, Napoleon basically just wanted peace so he could get France back on its feet and rule it forever
But buttblasted British faggots were still sore about their defeat in the previous war and declared war on France in 1803, soon dragging Russia and the HRE with them against France
That's the moment Napoleon realized there could be no peace unless Britain would be subdued

The king had divine right, he was installed there by God, God put his family in charge, they have blue blood, and are descendant from roman emperors, bla bla bla papal shit.
Napoleon was king because of supposed merit and military victories, it wasn't the same as an actual monarch.

The revolution was against:
>aristocracy owns all the land, people who work it don't
>promotions are about bloodlines, nor merit
>monasteries and church owns a lot of land, while not producing shit

Under Napoleon the middle class owned land, promotions were (at least partially) about merit, and the church was robbed and castrated.
So its not like he just replaced the king, a lot changed. A lot that people wanted to see change.