June to December 1815
The second abdication
Napoleon leaves the army and reaches Paris at 5:30 on 21 June. The chambers turn against him, and on 22 June he abdicates in favour of his four-year-old son, Napoleon II, who is in Austria. A provisional government under Joseph Fouché takes over, and on 25 June Napoleon withdraws to Malmaison, the former house of Joséphine.
Grouchy defeats Thielmann at Wavre on the morning of 19 June and retreats to Paris in good order, while Wellington and Blücher follow the beaten army into France. After Zieten defeats Vandamme at Issy on 3 July, the provisional government accepts the Convention of St. Cloud, and Davout's army leaves Paris for the Loire. The allies enter Paris on 7 July, and Louis XVIII returns on 8 July.
On 29 June, with Prussian troops ordered to seize him dead or alive, Napoleon leaves for Rochefort, hoping to sail for the United States. British warships blockade the port, and on 15 July he surrenders to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon, which takes him to England. The British government sends him to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, 1,870 km from the coast of Africa, and in October 1815 he lands at Jamestown from HMS Northumberland with 27 followers.
Napoleon on board HMS Bellerophon, painting by William Quiller Orchardson, about 1880Wikimedia Commons, William Quiller Orchardson, Public domain (Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon - Sir William Quiller Orchardson.jpg)
Marshal Ney is arrested on 3 August, tried before the Chamber of Peers in November and shot in Paris on 7 December 1815. La Bédoyère, who brought the 7th Regiment over to Napoleon at Grenoble, is also executed.
HMS Bellerophon with Napoleon on board in Plymouth Sound, August 1815, painting by John James Chalon, 1816Wikimedia Commons, John James Chalon, Public domain (Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815 Sub-Title- The 'Bellerophon' with Napoleon Aboard at Plymouth (26 July - 4 August 1815) RMG BHC3227.tiff)
Sources
- David Chandler, Waterloo: The Hundred Days (1981).
- John Hussey, Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815, Volume II (2017).
- David Cordingly, Billy Ruffian (2013).
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