18 Brumaire

Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return from Egypt with his army to ward off a possible invasion of France, but these messages never arrived.^[109] By the time that he reached Paris in October, France's situation had been improved by a series of victories. The Republic, however, was bankrupt and the ineffective Directory was unpopular.^[112] Despite the failures in Egypt, Bonaparte returned to a hero's welcome. The Directory discussed Bonaparte's desertion but was too weak to punish him.^[109]

Bonaparte formed an alliance with Talleyrand and leading members of the Council of Five Hundred and Directory: Lucien Bonaparte, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, Roger Ducos and Joseph Fouché to overthrow the government. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire according to the revolutionary calendar), the conspirators launched a coup, and the following day, backed by grenadiers with fixed bayonets, forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory and appoint Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos provisional consuls.^[113]^[114]

French Consulate

On 15 December, Bonaparte introduced the Constitution of the Year VIII, under which three consuls were appointed for 10 years. Real power lay with Bonaparte as First Consul, and his preferred candidates Cambacérès and Charles-François Lebrun were appointed as second and third consuls who only had an advisory role. The constitution also established a Legislative Body and Tribunate which were selected from indirectly elected candidates, and a Senate and Council of State which were effectively nominated by the executive.^[115]

The new constitution was approved by plebiscite on 7 February 1800. The official count was over three million in favour and 1,562 against. Lucien, however, had doubled the count of the "yes" vote to give the false impression that a majority of those eligible to vote had approved the constitution.^[116]^[117]

Historians have variously described Bonaparte's new regime as "dictatorship by plebiscite,"^[117] "absolutist rule decked out in the spirit of the age,"^[118] and "soft despotism."^[119] Local and regional administration was reformed to concentrate power in the central government,^[120] censorship was introduced, and most opposition newspapers were closed down to stifle dissent.^[121] Royalist and regional revolts were dealt with by a combination of amnesties for those who lay down their arms and brutal repression of those who continued to resist.^[122]^[123]^[124] Bonaparte also improved state finances by securing loans under a promise to defend private property, raising taxes on tobacco, alcohol and salt, and extracting levies from France's satellite republics.^[125]

Bonaparte believed that the best way to secure his regime was by a victorious peace.^[126] In May 1800, he led an army across the Swiss Alps into Italy, aiming to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula when Bonaparte was still in Egypt. After a difficult crossing over the Alps,^{[lower-alpha 6]} the French captured Milan on 2 June.^[128]^[129]

The French confronted an Austrian army under Michael von Melas at Marengo on 14 June.^[128]^[129] The Austrians fielded about 30,000 soldiers while Bonaparte commanded 24,000 troops.^[130] The Austrians' initial attack surprised the French who were gradually driven back.^[131] Late in the afternoon, however, a full division under Desaix arrived on the field and reversed the tide of the battle. The Austrian army fled leaving behind 14,000 casualties.^[132] The following day, the Austrians signed an armistice and agreed to abandon Northern Italy.^[132]

When peace negotiations with Austria stalled, Bonaparte reopened hostilities in November. A French army under General Moreau swept through Bavaria and scored an overwhelming victory over the Austrians at Hohenlinden in December. The Austrians capitulated and signed the Treaty of Lunéville in February 1801. The treaty reaffirmed and expanded earlier French gains at Campo Formio.^[133]

Bonaparte's triumph at Marengo increased his popularity and political authority. However, he still faced royalist plots and feared Jacobin influence, especially in the army. Several assassination plots, including the Conspiration des poignards (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise two months later, gave him a pretext to arrest about 100 suspected Jacobins and royalists, some of whom were shot and many others deported to penal colonies.^[134]^[135]

Temporary peace in Europe

After a decade of war, France and Britain signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, bringing the Revolutionary Wars to an end. Under the treaty, Britain agreed to withdraw from most of the colonies it had recently captured from France and her allies, and France agreed to evacuate Naples. In April, Bonaparte publicly celebrated the peace and his controversial Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII under which the Pope recognized Bonaparte's regime and the regime recognized Catholicism as the majority religion of France. In a further step towards national reconciliation (known as "fusion"), Bonaparte offered an amnesty to most émigrés who wished to return to France.^[136]^[137]

With Europe at peace and the economy recovering, Bonaparte became increasingly popular, both domestically and abroad.^[138] In May 1802, the Council of State recommended a new plebiscite asking the French people to make "Napoleon Bonaparte" Consul for life. (It was the first time his first name was officially used by the regime.)^[139] About 3.6 million voted "yes" and 8,374 "no." Around 40-60% of eligible Frenchmen voted, the highest turnout for a plebiscite since the Revolution.^[140]^[141]

France had regained her overseas colonies under Amiens but did not control them all. The French National Convention had voted to abolish slavery in February 1794, but, in May 1802, Bonaparte reintroduced it in all the recovered colonies except Saint-Domingue and Guadeloupe which were under the control of rebel generals. A French military expedition under Antoine Richepanse regained control of Guadeloupe and slavery was reintroduced there on 16 July.^[142]

Saint-Domingue was the most profitable of the colonies – a major source of sugar, coffee and indigo – but was under the control of the former slave Toussaint Louverture.^[143] Bonaparte sent the Saint-Domingue expedition under his brother-in-law General Leclerc to retake the colony and they landed there in February 1802 with 29,000 men. Although Toussaint was captured and sent to France in July, the expedition ultimately failed due to high rates of disease and a string of defeats against rebel commander Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In May 1803, Bonaparte acknowledged defeat, and the last 8,000 French troops left the island. The former slaves proclaimed the independent republic of Haiti in 1804.^[144]^[145]

As war with Britain again loomed in 1803, Bonaparte realized that his American colony of Louisiana would be difficult to defend.^[146] In need of funds, he agreed to the Louisiana Purchase with the United States, doubling the latter's size. The price was $15 million.^[147]^[148]^[149]

The peace with Britain was uneasy. Britain did not evacuate Malta as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his Act of Mediation, which established a new Swiss Confederation. Neither of these territories were covered by Amiens, but they inflamed tensions significantly, as did Bonaparte's occupation of Holland and apparent ambitions in India.^[150]^[151] The dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803. Bonaparte responded by reassembling the invasion camp at Boulogne and ordering the arrest of every British male between eighteen and sixty years old in France and its dependencies as a prisoner of war.^[152]

French Empire

Bonaparte becomes Napoleon I

In February 1804, Bonaparte's police made a series of arrests in relation to a royalist plot to kidnap or assassinate him that involved the British government, Moreau and an unnamed Bourbon prince. On the advice of his foreign minister, Talleyrand, Napoleon ordered the kidnapping of the Duke of Enghien, violating the sovereignty of Baden. The Duke was quickly executed after a secret military trial, even though there was no proof he had been involved in the plot. Enghien's kidnapping and execution infuriated royalists and monarchs throughout Europe, and drew a formal protest from Russia.^[153]^[154]^[155]

Following the royalist plot, Bonaparte's supporters convinced him that creating a hereditary regime would help secure it in case of his death, make it more acceptable to constitutional monarchists, and put it on the same footing as other European monarchies.^[156]^[157]^[158] On 18 May, the senate proclaimed Napoleon Emperor of the French and approved a new constitution. The following day, Napoleon appointed 18 of his leading generals Marshals of the Empire.^[159]

The hereditary empire was confirmed by a plebiscite in June. The official result showed 3.5 million voted "yes" and 2,569 voted "no". The yes count, however, was falsely inflated by 300,000 to 500,000 votes. The turnout, at 35%, was below the figure for the previous plebiscite.^[160]^[161] Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire refused to recognize Napoleon's new title. Austria, however, recognized Napoleon as Emperor of the French in return for his recognition of Francis I as Emperor of Austria.^[162]

Napoleon's coronation, with the participation of Pope Pius VII, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804. After having been anointed by the pope, Napoleon crowned himself with a replica of Charlemagne's crown. He then crowned Joséphine, who became only the second woman in French history, after Marie de' Medici, to be crowned and anointed. He then swore an oath to defend the territory of the Republic; to respect the Concordat, freedom of worship, political and civil liberty and the sale of nationalized lands; to raise no taxes except by law; to maintain the Legion of Honour; and to govern in the interests, wellbeing and the glory of the French people.^[163]

On 26 May, Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, at the Cathedral of Milan. Austria saw this as a provocation because of its own territorial interests in Italy. When Napoleon incorporated Genoa and Liguria into his empire, Austria formally protested against this violation of the Treaty of Lunéville.^[164]

War of the Third Coalition

By September 1805, Sweden, Russia, Austria, Naples and the Ottoman Empire had joined Britain in a coalition against France.^[165]^[166]

In 1803 and 1804, Napoleon had assembled a force around Boulogne for an invasion of Britain. They never invaded, but the force formed the core of Napoleon's Grande Armée, created in August 1805.^[167]^[168] At the start, this French army had about 200,000 men organized into seven corps, artillery and cavalry reserves, and the élite Imperial Guard.^[169]^[168] By August 1805, the Grande Armée had grown to a force of 350,000 men,^[170] who were well equipped, well trained, and led by competent officers.^[171]

To facilitate the invasion, Napoleon planned to lure the Royal Navy from the English Channel by a diversionary attack on the British West Indies.^[172] However, the plan unravelled after the British victory at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805. French Admiral Villeneuve then retreated to Cádiz instead of linking up with French naval forces at Brest for an attack on the English Channel.^[173]

Facing a potential invasion from his continental enemies, Napoleon abandoned his invasion of England and sought to destroy the isolated Austrian armies in Southern Germany before their Russian ally could arrive in force. On 25 September, 200,000 French troops began to cross the Rhine on a front of 260 km (160 mi).^[174]^[175]

Austrian commander Karl Mack had gathered most of the Austrian army at the fortress of Ulm in Swabia. Napoleon's army, however, moved quickly and outflanked the Austrian positions. After some minor engagements that culminated in the Battle of Ulm, Mack surrendered. For just 2,000 French casualties, Napoleon had captured 60,000 Austrian soldiers through his army's rapid marching.^[176]

For the French, this spectacular victory on land was soured by the decisive victory that the Royal Navy attained at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October. After Trafalgar, the Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by Napoleon's fleet.^[177]

French forces occupied Vienna in November, capturing 100,000 muskets, 500 cannons, and the intact bridges across the Danube.^[178] Napoleon then sent his army north in pursuit of the Allies. Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Francis I decided to engage Napoleon in battle, despite reservations from some of their subordinates.^[179]

At the Battle of Austerlitz, on 2 December, Napoleon deployed his army below the Pratzen Heights. He ordered his right wing to feign retreat, enticing the Allies to descend from the heights in pursuit. The French centre and left wing then captured the heights and caught the allies in a pincer movement. Thousands of Russian troops fled across a frozen lake to escape the trap and 100 to 2,000 of them drowned.^[179]^[180] About a third of the allied forces were killed, captured or wounded.^[181]

The disaster at Austerlitz led Austria to seek an armistice. By the subsequent Treaty of Pressburg, signed on 26 December, Austria left the coalition, lost substantial territory to the Kingdom of Italy and Bavaria, and was forced to pay an indemnity of 40 million francs. Alexander's army was granted safe passage back to Russia.^[182]^[183]

Napoleon went on to say, "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought".^[182] Frank McLynn suggests that Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz that he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one".^[184] Vincent Cronin disagrees, stating that Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself, "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".^[185]

Middle-Eastern alliances

Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East in order to put pressure on Britain and Russia, possibly by forming an alliance with the Ottoman Empire.^[93] In February 1806, Ottoman Emperor Selim III recognized Napoleon as Emperor. He also opted for an alliance with France, calling France "our sincere and natural ally".^[186] That decision brought the Ottoman Empire into a losing war against Russia and Britain. A Franco-Persian alliance was formed between Napoleon and the Persian Empire of Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar. It collapsed in 1807 when France and Russia formed an unexpected alliance.^[93] In the end, Napoleon made no effective alliances in the Middle East.^[187]

War of the Fourth Coalition and Tilsit

Thumb — Napoleon reviewing the Imperial Guard before the Battle of Jena, 14 October 1806

After Austerlitz, Napoleon increased his political power in Europe. In 1806, he deposed the Bourbon king of Naples and installed his elder brother, Joseph, on the throne. He then made his younger brother, Louis, King of Holland.^[188] He also established the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of German states intended to serve as a buffer zone between France and Central Europe. The creation of the confederation spelled the end of the Holy Roman Empire.^[189]

Napoleon's growing influence in Germany threatened the status of Prussia as a great power and in response Frederick William III decided on war with France. Prussia and Russia signed a new military alliance creating the fourth coalition against France. Prussia, however, committed a strategic blunder by declaring war when French troops were still in southern Germany and months before sufficient Russian troops could reach the front.^[190]

Napoleon invaded Prussia with 180,000 troops, rapidly marching on the right bank of the River Saale. Upon learning the whereabouts of the Prussian army, the French swung westwards thus cutting the Prussians off from Berlin and the slowly approaching Russians. At the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, fought on 14 October, the French convincingly defeated the Prussians and inflicted heavy casualties. With several major commanders dead or incapacitated, the Prussian king proved incapable of effectively commanding the army, which quickly disintegrated.^[191]^[192]

In the following month, the French captured 140,000 soldiers and over 2,000 cannon. Despite their overwhelming defeat, the Prussians refused to negotiate with the French until the Russians had an opportunity to enter the fight.^[191]^[193]^[194]

Following his triumph, Napoleon imposed the first elements of the Continental System through the Berlin Decree issued in November 1806. The Continental System, which prohibited European nations from trading with Britain, was widely violated throughout his reign.^[195]

In the next few months, Napoleon marched against the advancing Russian armies through Poland and fought a bloody stalemate at the Battle of Eylau in February 1807.^[196] After a period of rest and consolidation on both sides, the war restarted in June with an initial struggle at Heilsberg that proved indecisive.^[197]

On 14 June Napoleon obtained an overwhelming victory over the Russians at the Battle of Friedland, wiping out about 30% of the Russian army.^[198] The scale of their defeat convinced the Russians to make peace with the French. The two emperors began peace negotiations on 25 June at the town of Tilsit during a meeting on a raft floating in the middle of the River Niemen which separated the French and Russian troops and their respective spheres of influence.^[199]

Napoleon offered Alexander relatively lenient terms—demanding that Russia join the Continental System, withdraw its forces from Wallachia and Moldavia, and hand over the Ionian Islands to France. In contrast, Prussia was treated harshly. It lost half its territory and population and underwent a two-year occupation costing it about 1.4 billion francs. From former Prussian territory, Napoleon created the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by his young brother Jérôme, and the Duchy of Warsaw.^[200]^[201]

Prussia's humiliating treatment at Tilsit caused lasting resentment against France in that country. The treaty was also unpopular in Russia, putting pressure on Alexander to end the alliance with France. Nevertheless, the Treaties of Tilsit gave Napoleon a respite from war and allowed him to return to France, which he had not seen in over 300 days.^[200]^[202]

Peninsular War and Erfurt

Thumb — Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, as King of Spain (1808–1813)

After Tilsit, Napoleon turned his attention to Portugal, which was reluctant to strictly enforce the blockade against its traditional ally Britain.^[203]^[204] On 17 October 1807, 24,000 French troops under General Junot crossed the Pyrenees with Spanish consent and headed towards Portugal to enforce the blockade.^[205] Junot occupied Lisbon in November, but the Portuguese royal family had already fled to Brazil with the Portuguese fleet.^[206]

In March 1808, a palace coup led to the abdication of the Spanish king Carlos IV in favour of his son Fernando VII.^[207]^[208] The following month, Napoleon summoned Carlos and Fernando to Bayonne where, in May, he forced them both to relinquish their claims to the Spanish throne. Napoleon then made his brother Joseph King of Spain.^[209]

By then, there were 120,000 French troops garrisoned in the peninsula^[210]^[211] and widespread Spanish opposition to the occupation and the overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons. On 2 May, an uprising against the French broke out in Madrid and spread throughout Spain in the following weeks. In the face of brutal French repression, the uprising developed into a sustained conflict.^[212]

In July, Joseph travelled to Madrid where he was proclaimed King of Spain on the 24th. However, following news of a French defeat by regular Spanish forces at the Battle of Bailén, Joseph fled Madrid several days later.^[213] The following month, a British force landed in Portugal and, on the 21st, they defeated the French at Vimiero. Under the Convention of Cintra, the French evacuated Portugal.^[214]^[215]

The defeats at Bailén and Vimiero convinced Napoleon that he had to take command of the Iberian campaign. Before leaving for Spain, he attempted to strengthen the alliance with Russia and obtain a commitment from Alexander that Russia would declare war on Austria if she attacked France. At the Congress of Erfurt in October 1808, Napoleon and Alexander reached an agreement that recognized the Russian conquest of Finland and called upon Britain to cease its war against France.^[216] However, Alexander failed to provide a firm commitment to make war with Austria.^[217]^[218]

On 6 November, Napoleon was in Vitoria and took command of 240,000 French troops. After a series of victories over Anglo-Spanish forces, Madrid was retaken on 4 December.^[219] Napoleon then pursued the retreating British forces who were eventually evacuated at Corunna in January 1809. Napoleon left for France on 17 January, leaving Joseph in command.^[220]^[221]

Napoleon never returned to Spain after the 1808 campaign. In April, the British sent another army to the peninsula under Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. British, Portuguese and Spanish regular forces engaged the French in a protracted series of conflicts. Meanwhile, a brutal guerrilla war engulfed much of the Spanish countryside, a conflict in which atrocities were committed by both sides.^[222]^[215]

Napoleon later called the Peninsular campaign, "the unlucky war [that] ruined me."^[223] It tied up some 300,000 French troops from 1808 to 1812. By 1814, the French had been driven from the peninsula, with over 150,000 casualties in the campaign.^[222]^[224]

War of the Fifth Coalition

The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons caused alarm in Austria over Napoleon's ambitions while France's military difficulties in the Peninsular encouraged Austria to go to war.^[225]^[226] In the early morning of 10 April 1809, the Austrian army crossed the Inn River and invaded Bavaria. The Austrian advance, however, was disorganized and they were unable to defeat the Bavarian army before the French could concentrate their forces.^[227] Napoleon arrived from Paris on the 17th to lead the French campaign. In the following Battle of Eckmühl he was slightly wounded in the heel but the Austrians were forced to retreat across the Danube. The French occupied Vienna on 13 May but most of the population had fled and the retreating army had destroyed all four bridges across the river.^[228]

On 21 May, the French attempted to cross the Danube, precipitating the Battle of Aspern-Essling. Both sides inflicted about 23,000 casualties on each other and the French were forced back.^[229] The battle was reported in European capitals as a defeat for Napoleon and damaged his aura of invincibility.^[230]^[231]

After six weeks of preparations, Napoleon made another attempt at crossing the Danube.^[232] In the ensuing Battle of Wagram (5–6 July) the Austrians were forced to retreat but the French and Austrians each suffered losses of 37,000 to 39,000 killed, wounded or captured.^[233]^[234] The French caught up with the retreating Austrians at Znaim on 10 July, and the latter signed an armistice on the 12th.^[235]

In August, a British force landed in Holland but lost 4,000 men, mainly to illness, before withdrawing in December.^[236]

The Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809 was harsh for Austria which lost substantial territory and over three million subjects.^[237] France received Carinthia, Carniola, and the Adriatic ports of Trieste and Fiume(Rijeka); the part of Poland annexed by Austria in the third partition in 1795, known at the time as West Galicia, was given to the Polish-ruled Duchy of Warsaw; and the territory of the former Archbishopric of Salzburg went to Bavaria.^[238] Austria was required to pay an indemnity of 200 million francs and its army was reduced to 150,000 men.^[239]

Consolidation of the Empire

Napoleon's union with Joséphine had not produced a child, and he decided to secure the dynasty and strengthen its position in Europe by a strategic marriage into one of Europe's major royal houses. In November 1809, he announced his decision to divorce Joséphine and the marriage was annulled in January 1810.^[240] Napoleon had already commenced negotiations for the marriage of Tsar Alexander's sister Anna, but the Tsar responded that she was too young. Napoleon then turned to Austria, and a marriage to the Austrian Emperor's daughter, Marie Louise, was quickly agreed.^[241]

The marriage was formalized in a civil ceremony on 1 April and a religious service at the Louvre on the following day. The marriage to Marie Louise was widely seen as a shift in French policy towards stronger ties with Austria and away from the already strained relationship with Russia.^[242] On 20 March 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to the heir apparent, François Charles Joseph Napoleon, King of Rome.^[243]

With the annexation of the Papal states (May 1809, February 1810), Holland (July 1810) and the northern coastal regions of Westphalia (August 1810), mainland France further increased its territory. Napoleon now ruled about 40% of the European population either directly or indirectly through his satellite kingdoms.^[244]

Invasion of Russia

Tsar Alexander saw the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Napoleon's marriage alliance with Austria and the election of the French Marshal Bernadotte as Crown Prince of Sweden as attempts to contain Russia. In December 1810, Napoleon annexed the Duchy of Oldenburg which Alexander considered an insult as his uncle was the duke. The Tsar responded by allowing neutral shipping into Russian ports and banning most French imports. Russia feared that Napoleon intended to restore the Kingdom of Poland while Napoleon suspected Russia of seeking an alliance with Britain against France.^[245]^[246]

In late 1811, Napoleon began planning an invasion of Russia. A Franco-Prussian alliance signed in February 1812 forced Prussia to provide 20,000 troops for the invasion and, in March, Austria agreed to provide 30,000 men.^[247]^[248] Napoleon's multinational grande armée comprised around 450,000 frontline troops of which about a third were native French speakers. Napoleon called the invasion the "Second Polish War," but he refused to guarantee an independent Poland for fear of alienating his Austrian and Prussian allies.^[249]^[250]^[251]

On 24 June, Napoleon's troops began crossing the Nieman river into Russian Lithuania with the aim of luring the Russians into one or two decisive battles.^[252] The Russians retreated 320 kilometres east to the Dvina river and implemented a scorched earth policy, making it increasingly difficult for the French to forage food for themselves and their horses.^[253]^[254] On 18 August, Napoleon captured Smolensk with the loss of 9,000 of his men, but the Russians were able to withdraw in good order.^[255]

The Russians, now commanded by Kutuzov, made a stand at Borodino, outside Moscow, on 7 September. The battle resulted in 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, in one of the bloodiest days of battle in Europe up to that time.^[256]^[257] The Russians withdrew overnight and Napoleon later stated, "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of victory, and the Russians worthy of being invincible".^[258]

The Russians retreated to Tarutino, and Napoleon entered Moscow on 14 September. The following evening, the city was set on fire on the orders of its governor Feodor Rostopchin. Alexander, in St Petersburg, refused to negotiate a peace, and after six weeks Napoleon's army evacuated Moscow.^[259]

After capturing Maloyaroslavets with the loss of 4,000 to 10,000 men, Napoleon retreated towards Smolensk. The French were attacked by Cossacks and peasants and suffered from the intense cold, disease and lack of food and water. Around 40,000 to 50,000 troops reached Smolensk on 9 November, a loss of about 60,000 in three weeks. Napoleon also heard that an attempted coup by General Malet in Paris had only narrowly failed.^[260]

From Smolensk, Napoleon's army headed for Vilnius, where there was a French garrison of 20,000. In late November, under attack from all sides by Russian forces, the grande armée managed to cross the Berezina river on pontoon bridges in temperatures reaching −40 °C (−40 °F). On 5 December, shortly before arriving in Vilnius, Napoleon left his disintegrating army for Paris.^[261] In the following weeks, the remnants of the grande armée, about 75,000 troops, crossed the Nieman into allied territory. Russian military losses in the campaign were up to 300,000 and total deaths were up to one million.^[262]

War of the Sixth Coalition

The French, pursued by the Russians, withdrew from most of Poland and Prussia over the winter of 1812–13 while both sides rebuilt their forces.^[263] Sweden and Prussia declared war on France in March 1813. In April, Napoleon assumed command of an army of 200,000 troops,^[264]^[265] and defeated the coalition at Lützen and Bauzen.^[266] Britain formally joined the coalition in June followed by Austria in August,^[267] but the allies were again defeated in the Battle of Dresden (August 1813).^[268]

The coalition, however, had a growing advantage in infantry, cavalry, reserves and armaments. In the largest battle of the Napoleonic wars, the coalition was victorious at Leipzig in October. Although coalition casualties were 54,000 men, the French lost 38,000 killed or wounded and 15,000 taken prisoner. Up to 50,000 more were lost to death, illness and desertion during the French retreat to the Rhine.^[269]^[270]

Thumb — *Napoleon after his abdication in Fontainebleau, 4 April 1814*, by Paul Delaroche

The Frankfurt proposals were peace terms offered by the coalition in November 1813 under which Napoleon would remain emperor, but France would be reduced to its "natural frontiers." That meant that France would retain control of Belgium, Savoy and the west bank of the Rhine, while withdrawing from Spain, Holland, Italy and Germany. Napoleon did not accept the terms and the allies crossed the Rhine into French territory on 1 January 1814.^[271] Wellington's British forces had already crossed the Pyrenees into south-western France.^[272]

In north-eastern France, Napoleon led about 70,000 troops against a coalition army of 200,000. After a defeat at La Rothière, the French won a series of victories in February which induced the coalition to offer peace on the basis of France's 1791 frontiers. Napoleon, however, decided to fight on.^[273]^[274]

After a series of battles in March, the allies forced Napoleon to retreat at the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube (20–21 March). The coalition then moved towards Paris, whose defence was under the command of Joseph Bonaparte.^[275] On 29 March, a coalition army of 200,000 began their attack on the Belleville and Montmartre heights. Empress Marie Louise fled Paris that evening with her son, the King of Rome. With an army of only 38,000 to defend the capital, Joseph authorized the French marshal Auguste de Marmont to capitulate on 31 March. The following day, the allies accepted Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord as head of a provisional government. On 2 April, the Senate deposed Napoleon.^[276]

Meanwhile, Napoleon was in Fontainebleau with an army of 40,000 to 60,000. He contemplated a march on Paris but, on 4 April, his senior commanders persuaded him to abdicate in favour of his son, with Marie Louise as regent.^{[lower-alpha 7]} Tsar Alexander, however, demanded an unconditional abdication and Napoleon reluctantly complied on 6 April.^[278]^[279]^[280]^[281]

In his farewell address to the soldiers of the Old Guard on 20 April, Napoleon said:

"Soldiers of my Old Guard, I have come to bid you farewell. For twenty years you have accompanied me faithfully on the paths of honor and glory. ...With men like you, our cause was [not] lost, but the war would have dragged on interminably, and it would have been a civil war. ... So I am sacrificing our interests to those of our country. ...Do not lament my fate; if I have agreed to live on, it is to serve our glory. I wish to write the history of the great deeds we have done together. Farewell, my children!"^[282]

Exile to Elba

With the Treaty of Fontainebleau of 11 April 1814, the allies exiled Napoleon to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 10 km (6 mi) off the Tuscan coast, where they made him sovereign. The following night, Napoleon attempted suicide with poison he had carried after nearly being captured by the Russians during the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, however, and he survived to be exiled, while his wife and son took refuge in Austria.^[283] He was conveyed to the island on HMS Undaunted and disembarked at Portoferraio on 4 May 1814. In the first few months on Elba, he drew up plans for administrative reforms, road and building works, and improvements to the island's mines and agriculture, but results were limited by lack of funds.^[284]^[285]^[286] When Napoleon learned that Joséphine had died in France on 29 May, he was distraught and locked himself in his room for two days.^[287]

Napoleon understood that the French king Louis XVIII was unpopular. Realizing that his wife and son would not be joining him in exile, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba in the brig Inconstant on 26 February 1815 with about 1,000 men and a flotilla of seven vessels.^[288]^[289]

Hundred Days

On 1 March 1815, Napoleon and his followers landed on the French mainland at Golfe-Juan and headed for Grenoble through the foothills of the Alps, taking the route now known as Route Napoléon.^[288]^[290] The 5th Regiment intercepted him just south of Grenoble on 7 March. Napoleon approached the battalion alone and called to them, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish!" The soldiers responded with, "Vive l'empereur!" and joined Napoleon's men.^[291]^[292] Six days later, 5,000 troops under Michel Ney, who had boasted that he would bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron cage, also joined Napoleon.^[293]

On 13 March, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw.^[294] Four days later, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia each pledged to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.^[295] Louis XVIII, however, fled Paris for Belgium in the early hours of 20 March after realizing that he did not have enough reliable troops to oppose Napoleon. Napoleon entered Paris that evening.^[296]

Napoleon appointed a government and introduced constitutional changes which were approved by plebiscite in May. A Chamber of Representatives was also indirectly elected that month on a highly restrictive property franchise.^[297]^[298] Napoleon's priority was to raise an army to face the coalition, but the law did not allow conscription and he was only able to raise about 300,000 men, mostly raw recruits and national guards.^[299]

On 12 June, Napoleon led about 124,000 men, known as the Army of the North, into Belgium, aiming to drive a wedge between Wellington's army of 112,000 British, German and Dutch troops and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's force of 130,000 Prussians and Saxons.^[300]^[301] After engagements at the Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, Napoleon confronted Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June. Wellington's army withstood repeated attacks by the French until, late in the afternoon, Blücher's Prussians arrived in force on Napoleon's right flank. The coalition forces broke through Napoleon's lines, inflicting a devastating defeat.^[302]

Napoleon returned to Paris and found that the legislature had turned against him. Realizing that his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son. He left Paris three days later and settled at Joséphine's former palace in Château de Malmaison.^[303] By 28 June, the Prussian army was at Senlis, just north of Paris.^[304]

When Napoleon heard that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, considering an escape to the United States. However, when he found that British ships were blockading the port, he surrendered to Frederick Lewis Maitland on HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.^[305]^[306]