Today in History—February 26: Napoleon’s Escape from Exile

On this evening in 1815, a man boarded a ship and attempted one of history’s most audacious comebacks. It ended with his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The man, of course, was Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte, exiled emperor of France.

Napoleon had been hell-bent on expanding France’s territory during his reign. But the decision to invade Russia in 1812 was his undoing. Winter, hunger, and war on too many fronts shattered his army and spelled the beginning of the end, eventually forcing his abdication on April 6, 1814.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed days later, banished him to Elba, an idyllic island off the Tuscan coast with about 12,000 inhabitants. The treaty granted him ownership of the island, an annual income of two million francs, and a small guard and fleet of ships.

From the start, some of Napoleon’s detractors felt it wasn’t far enough away (a compliment, really). They were right.

Napoleon bided his time that year. He waited until sentiment turned against Louis XVIII back home and the British officer in charge of his guard went to Italy. He lied to get his ships ready, including the Inconstant.

He didn’t exactly creep away under cover of darkness. He gave a speech to a tearful crowd at the dock as he departed. (Apparently, when you start painting your ship to disguise it, people figure out you’re up to something.)

He sailed back to France and headed for Paris. Troops sent to stop him joined him instead, so by the time he reached the city on March 20, his force had swelled to nearly 1,500.

It didn’t matter. The French Army he returned to was in tatters. France was war-weary, broke, and politically divided under a monarchy few trusted. In the ensuing campaign, the Hundred Days, Napoleon commanded, at most, 200,000 men, against nearly 1 million allied troops. Not even Napoleon’s military genius could overcome those odds. The Battle of Waterloo resulted in a crushing defeat, and he abdicated—again. Louis XVIII was restored to the monarchy.

Napoleon intended to sail for America, but, unable to secure a passport, he threw himself on the mercy of the British.

They sent him farther away this time, to St. Helena, a remote British island in the Atlantic. Under the governor’s watchful eye—and a guard force of 3,000 men—this exile stuck.