Napoleon's 100 Days

Podcast Transcript

After years of war throughout the continent of Europe, in 1814, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated and was exiled to the small island of Elba off the coast of Italy.

The European powers thought that they had seen the last of Napoleon. However, they were wrong.

He came back and, in a shockingly short period of time, regained control of France and its army.

Learn more about Napoleon’s 100 Days and the last gasp of the Emperor of the French on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in the wake of the French Revolution. He held the newly created position of First Consul in 1799 and then crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804.

As the leader of France, he led the French army to a series of conquests. He was a brilliant general who was able to beat a coalition of European powers. In addition to his military prowess, he instituted a series of legal reforms that radically reshaped the political landscape of France.

However, he eventually overstretched himself. In 1812, he attempted a disastrous invasion of Russia, which devastated the French Army, and on April 11, 1814, he abdicated his position as Emperor.

I’m skipping a whole bunch there, but for the purpose of this episode, he was forced to abdicate under the Treaty of Fontainebleau by the members of the Sixth Coalition, which included Prussia, Austria, and Russia.

The coalition didn’t want Napoleon to abdicate and live in a chateau in France, where he could still meddle in French politics. They wanted him gone. They couldn’t execute him if they wanted an easy end to the war, so the next best solution was to send him into exile.

The location that was chosen for his exile was the island of Elba, which is located between the Italian peninsula and the island of Corsica. It has an area of 224 square kilometers or 86 sq miles. It is about 25% larger than the island of Aruba.

Under the terms of his exile, he was given sovereignty over Elba, and he could continue to use the title Emperor, but only as Emperor of Elba. He would be given an annual pension, his family got some minor titles of nobility in Europe, and he was allowed a personal guard of about 1000 men.

Napoleon actually tried to kill himself with poison that he carried with him, but it had lost its potency, and his attempt failed.

In his first few months on Elba, he actually tried to apply himself to the island’s administration. He devised multiple plans to improve its infrastructure but was ultimately hamstrung by a lack of funding.

Back in France, the monarchy was restored, undoing most of the entire French Revolution. The House of Burbon was brought back to power when King Louis XVIII, the brother of the beheaded Louis XVI, was installed as king.

Months after Napoleon was sent to Elba, problems began to emerge. His allowance guaranteed under the treaty was cut, his wife and son were not allowed to come to Elba, and rumors were circulating that he would be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic.

At the same time, Louis XVIII had quickly become very unpopular.

Napoleon realized that he had to act, if only out of self-preservation. Moreover, given Louix XVIII’s unpopularity, by March 1815, there was an opportunity to possibly take back control of France.

On February 26, Napoleon and his followers got on a ship and on March 1 they landed in southern France, just down the coast from the city of Nice.

Here, I should express just how audacious of a plan this was. He had no real army. He only had his personal guard of about 1000 soldiers. He had almost nothing in the way of artillery. If he had to engage in a fight, his military brilliance would not have been able to overcome his lack of weapons and manpower.

All he had was his name and his reputation, and with that, he was planning to walk to Paris and just take over the government.

He and his entourage began marching north, and they started to accrete a following. Word that Napoleon was back in France sent shockwaves through the country as well as through the power centers of Europe.

On March 7, what I think is one of the most incredible events in history took place just outside of the city of Grenoble.

When Napoleon started marching with his followers to Paris, Louis sent the 5th Infantry Regiment to stop him. Heavily armed, they met Napoleon on the road outside of Grenoble.

This could have been a bloodbath and the end of Napoleon and his entire attempt at retaking France could have ended right there.

But it didn’t.

What he did was in many ways more brilliant than all of the battles he previously won.

He walked up to the soldiers tho all of them had their guns pointed at him…..alone.

He took off his famous bicorne hat and said, “If there is any man among you who would kill his emperor, here I stand!”

After a moment of confusion and hesitation amongst the soldiers, they were was a cry of “Vive l’empereur!”

…and just like that, Napoleon had himself the 5th Infantry Regiment.

On March 14, Napoleon met General Michel Ney and his 6000 men. Ney had promised King Louis that he would bring Napoleon back in an iron cage.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, Napoleon sent a currier ahead to deliver a message to Ney. It read, “I shall receive you as I did after the Battle of the Moskowa.” The Battle of Moskowa is also known as the Battle of Borodino, and was one of the largest and bloodiest battles ever fought by Napoleon.

The two met and reconciled at the town of Lons-le-Saulnier, and Napoleon’s force got that much bigger.

The defection of Ney, which Louis considered treason, was a huge blow to the monarchy.

Napoleon defeated everything Louis sent to stop him. He didn’t just defeat the forces sent to stop him, he converted them to his side, and he did so without firing a shot.

The European powers began began panic as well. They thought that they had solved their Napoleon problem, but now it was back.

On March 13, the day before he added converted 6000 men, the European powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw.

On March 19, the French army stationed ouside of Paris, the last line of defense, switched sides and joined Napoleon.

At midnight, Louis left Paris and made his way to what is today Belgium and the city of Ghent.

On March 20, Napoleon arrived in Paris, took control of the French government, and reinstalled himself as the Emperor of the French.

On March 25, Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia formed the Seventh Coalition, each promising to contribute 150,000 men to meet him in the field.

Napoleon immediately set about creating a new government, appointing ministers to positions, and creating a new constitution that was approved by a plebiscite.

However, his highest priority was assembling an army to meet the forces of the seventh coalition. The coalition was very open in its plan for dealing with Napoleon. They would do what they did last time: march on Paris and force his abdication.

Despite having assumed control of the French military, it was not in a state to take on the combined forces of the Seventh Coalition. Much of this was largely due to the condition in which Napoleon left the army after his disastrous retreat from Russia.

When he took control in March, the French army only had 56,000 men.

By the end of May, France had 198,000 soldiers, with another 66,000 in training.

The problem was that these were not the veteran units that Napoleon had previously fought with across Europe. They were almost all fresh units with no combat experience. Moreover, the French constitution didn’t allow for conscription, so finding volunteers was his only option.

He had his units spread throughout France in May and early June to prevent any action by internal enemies.

However, on June 12, Napoleon moved his army toward Belgium to engage coalition forces before they could fully assemble. The coalition armies were larger and slower, which gave Napoleon an opportunity. The coalition’s plan was to invade France on July 1.

On June 16, the French forces showed signs of their old self. Two separate French armies fought two different battles on the same day.

The forces led by Napoleon defeated the Prussian forces under GeneralGebhard von Blücher at the Battle of Ligny. In a separate battle, the forces under Marshal Ney fought the united British and Dutch armies under the Duke of Wellington to a draw at the Battle of Quatre Bras.

Little did Napoleon know that it was the last battle he would ever win.

Napoleon now had to act fast. His goal was to take Wellington’s British army out of the war before they had a chance to link up with von Blücher’s Prussian army.

To that end, on June 18, Napolean advanced to where the British were encamped, just outside a small Belgian village known as Waterloo.

Due to time constraints, I won’t describe the battle extensively. I’ll leave that for a future episode.

Suffice it to say that Napoleon almost won the battle. What turned the course of the battle was the arrival of von Blücher’s Prussian army late in the day. Napoleon’s famed Imperial Guard broke with the arrival of the Prussians, and the French army collapsed.

Over 40,000 Frenchmen were lost at Waterloo.

This was a crushing defeat for Napoleon. He didn’t stay in Belgium with his army; rather, he rushed back to Paris to try to shore up political support.

The Prussians and the British were hot on his tail, and on June 22, he abdicated for the second time. In theory, the position of Emperor was passed to his four-year-old son, who was living in Austria.

Napoleon then tried to flee to the United States. The United States had been a neutral party to the wars in Europe, and it was no friend to the British, fresh after the conclusion of the 1812 war. Unfortunately, the British had seas blocked and wouldn’t allow Napoleon to leave the country.

On July 8, Louis XVIII was restored to the throne, and on July 15, the British finally caught Napoleon near the town of Rochefort.

His comeback lasted less than four months.

This time, the coalition would exile him somewhere he couldn’t escape. He was to be sent to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

On October 15, he arrived at Saint Helena. It was an effectual prison for a single person. There was a garrison of 2,100 soldiers on the island and at least two ships circling the island at all times.

No ship was allowed to leave the island until it was confirmed that Napoleon was at home.

He live in a bungalow called Longwood. Modest by imperial standards, but one of the nicest homes on the island. He had a small entourage with him. He spent is time reading, writing, and entertaining.

I had the pleasure of visiting Saint Helena several years ago, and I was able to visit Longwood. Today, it is owned and preserved by the French Government.

Napoleon never left Saint Helena. He died on May 5, 1821, at the age of just 51.

When he died, he was initially buried on the island. There was controversy as to whether his tombstone should read Emperor Bonepart or just Bonepart. In the end, his tombstone read nothing, as the British and French couldn’t agree.

In 1840, Napoleon’s body was exhumed and returned to France. A state funeral was held, which drew a crowd of a million people. He was buried in a place of honor in Les Invalides in Paris.

The period of Napoleon’s return is known as the 100 days, even though it isn’t exactly 100 days.

Despite his ultimate failure, it was one of the most impressive comebacks in world history. Through nothing more than the sheer force of his personality, he managed to assemble an army and came extremely close to vanquishing his enemies on the battlefield.