Category: On This Day in Napoleonic History

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Joseph offers to change places with Napoleon

Joseph arrived at Rochefort, where Napoleon was awaiting his fate following his second abdication, and generously offered to exchange identities with his brother, since they looked alike. Napoleon was to take Joseph’s place in a vessel bound for America.

Rather than grasping the moment, Napoleon hesitated. He believed that any disguise was beneath his dignity. It was one of the very few instances when one of Napoleon’s siblings was actually useful to him but unfortunately Napoleon didn’t profit by this opportunity.

Joseph himself would later escape to America on the same vessel he was offering to his brother.

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Napoleon’s fleet arrives off Alexandria

Napoleon landed on the beach eight miles from Alexandria, telling his troops that ‘every soldier who enters the houses of the inhabitants to steal horses will be punished.’ Napoleon hoped to gain trust of the inhabitants and that included respecting their religion. ‘Do not contradict them. Deal with them as we dealt with the Jews and the Italians. The Roman legions protected all religions.’ He added that the first town they would enter was founded by Alexander the Great, a fact that clearly meant a lot to him.

French troops captured Alexandria the next day by storm. During his week-long stay, Napoleon supervised the disembarkation of his army, established a hospital for the wounded, disarmed the local population, made contact with the French merchants in Egypt, captured near-by Rosetta and wrote an anti-Mamluk letter to the Turkish Pasha in Cairo: ‘You know that France is the only ally that sultan has in Europe.’

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Napoleon is told to leave Malmaison following his second abdication

The commissaries of Joseph Fouché visited Napoleon, letting him know that he could no longer stay at Malmaison because the Prussians were on their way. Two frigates were made available for him.

In his last day at Malmaison, he said goodbye to his mother and visited the room where Josephine had died. ‘If only we could stay here, Hortense,’ he told his step-daughter with sadness, rightly sensing that his future held no joy.

He left with Marshal Henri Gatien Bertrand and Anne Jean Marie René Savary at 5.30 PM. ‘If I had gone to America, we might have founded an estate there,’ he said. He settled at the maritime prefecture of Rochefort, where he had spent twelve days trying to think of the way to bypass the HMS Bellerophon that was patrolling the harbour.

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Napoleon enters Vilnius, the capital of Polish Lithuania

The Second Polish Campaign, as Napoleon called it, or the Russian campaign, as it is commonly known, was underway.

Napoleon wrote to Marie Louise, telling her that his headquarters were located in a fine mansion only a few days earlier occupied by Emperor Alexander, who was ‘very far from thinking at the time that I was so soon to enter here’.

One of his officers reported, ‘Our entry into the city was triumphal. The streets were full of people, all the windows were garnished with ladies who displayed wildest enthusiasm.’ As he entered the city, Napoleon surrounded himself with Polish units.

During his ten days in Vilnius, he set up a provisional government for the Lithuanian Poles. Lithuania was officially joined to Poland in a ceremony at Vilnius Cathedral. ‘I love your nation. For the last 16 years I’ve seen your soldiers at my side in the battles of Italy and Spain,’ Napoleon told the representatives of the Poles. Although he offered Poland his ‘esteem and protection’, he would never go one step further and grant Poland the independence it so ardently wished for.

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Josephine leaves Paris for Milan

After her husband bombarded her with letters begging to join him, Josephine couldn’t postpone her journey to Italy any longer. She embarked on her trip in tears but there was one person she couldn’t part with – her lover, Hippolyte Charles, whom she brought with her.

Oblivious to his wife’s affair that by now had become common knowledge, Napoleon overwhelmed her with long love letters on her journey south. ‘Looking forward to the moment when I can be in your arms, at your feet, on your breasts,’ he wrote.

Josephine arrived in Milan on July 10 and Napoleon joined her there three days later. So happy was he to see his wife, he didn’t suspect Josephine’s relationship with Hippolyte Charles that was taking place right under his nose. Neither Junot, Murat nor Joseph were willing to tell him about Josephine’s betrayal.

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Napoleon and Alexander meet at Tilsit

The interview between the two emperors in the aftermath of French victory at Friedland was one of the greatest summit meetings in history. It took place in a pavilion that was erected on a raft in the middle of the Niemen River. Napoleon believed this meeting would ‘give repose to the existing generation.’ After 8 months on campaign, he was keen to conclude peace with Russia and Prussia, so he could concentrate on his far-reaching internal reforms.

Alexander was absolutely enchanted with Napoleon, and with good reason. The French Emperor could be charming when he wanted to. The feeling was mutual. Napoleon later wrote to Josephine, ‘I’m very well satisfied with him. He’s very handsome and a good young Emperor.’

Although King of Prussia Frederick William was also present at the meeting, he was mostly snubbed by the two main participants. On the first day he wasn’t invited on the raft at all but had to wait on the river bank. When he finally joined the two emperors on the raft, it quickly became obvious to him that Franco-Russian alliance would be bought at the grievous expense of Prussia. Napoleon wasn’t impressed with the Prussian king. ‘He kept me half an hour talking about my uniform and buttons,’ he said.

The peace treaty with Russia was signed on July 7 and with Prussia 2 days later. It effectively divided Europe into zones of French and Russian influence. Considering Russia was decisively defeated at Friedland, she got off lightly at Tilsit, losing almost no territory, except for the Ionian Isles, including Corfu, which Napoleon called the key to the Adriatic. The German lands ruled by the Tsar’s family remained under their control and were not forced into the Confederation of the Rhine. Alexander agreed to evacuate Moldavia and was allowed to invade Finland, which belonged to Sweden. He was also obligated by the treaty to join the Continental System, the only significant concession he had to make at Tilsit but one that would eventually lead to the breakdown of peace between France and Russia.

Prussia, on the other hand, paid dearly for her defeat. Russia took the Eastern part of Poland that belonged to Prussia, and Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw out of other Prussian provinces, igniting the hopes of Polish nationalists for an independent Poland. Prussian lands west of the Elbe became a new Kingdom of Westphalia. Prussia was subjected to heavy indemnities and reduced to two thirds of its territory and a population of 4.5 million, half of its pre-war number. The harsh conditions of the Treaty of Tilsit ensured that Prussia would soon be at war with Napoleon again.

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Napoleon abdicates in favour of his son

The deposed Emperor wrote the following Proclamation to the French People upon his abdication: ‘Frenchmen! In commencing war for the national independence, I relied on the union of all efforts, of all wills and the concurrence of all national authorities. I had reason to hope for success and I braved all the declarations of the powers against me. Circumstances appear to me changed. I offer myself a sacrifice to the hatred of the enemies of France. May they prove sincere in their declarations and really have directed them only against my power. My political life is terminated, and I proclaim my son, under the title of Napoleon II, Emperor of the French. The present ministers will provisionally form the council of the Government. The interest which I take in my son induces me to invite the chambers to form, without delay, the regency by a law. Unite all for the public safety that you may continue an independent nation.’

Once Napoleon had abdicated, he remained calm, giving advice on the army positions and peace negotiation with the enemy. Joseph Fouché became the president of the provisional government on June 24th. MacDonald was appointed to command France’s armies. Lafayette was put in charge of the National Guard, with Oudinot as his second in command. Talleyrand became foreign minister for the fourth time.

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Napoleon arrives at Élysée Palace following the Battle of Waterloo

The exhausted Emperor who hadn’t slept for several nights summoned his family and ministers, seeing them while taking a bath. No one in Paris knew about the defeat. 101 cannon were fired on the 18th to announce the victory at Ligny but there had been no bulletins since.

Napoleon notified the chambers of his return to Paris but later regretted not going there in person. Marquis de Lafayette had orchestrated a parliamentary coup-d’etat, appointing five members of each chamber to take on ministerial functions. Lucien tried to dissuade the parliament from this course but Lafayette was persuasive in his denunciation of Napoleon, even though it was General Bonaparte who had secured his release from Austrian prison as one of the conditions of the Treaty of Campo-Formio in 1797. Accused of treachery by Lucien, Lafayette replied, ‘We have followed your brother to the sands of Africa, to the deserts of Russia. The bones of Frenchmen scattered in every region there are witnesses to our fidelity.’

In his bulletin of the same day, Napoleon said that the Battle of Waterloo was ‘glorious for the French army and yet so fateful.’ It was definitely fateful for Napoleon’s throne. It is possible that Napoleon tried to poison himself again that night, just like he did the previous year. There is only one witness account – that of his physician – to confirm this.

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Napoleon witnesses Parisian mob invade the Tuileries Palace

Napoleon was in a restaurant on Rue Saint-Honoré with his future secretary Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne when he saw heavily armed crowd marching towards the palace. Two days later, Napoleon described the historic scenes to his brother Joseph: ‘Between 7 and 8 thousand men armed with pikes, axes, swords, guns, spit, sharpened sticks went to the king. They broke down the gates, entered the palace, pointed the cannon at the king’s apartment, threw four doors to the ground and presented the king with tow cockades – one white, the Bourbon colour, and the other tricolour. They made him choose. All this is unconstitutional and sets a dangerous precedent.’

Bourrienne claimed that Napoleon later said: ‘What madness. How could they allow that rabble to enter? Why do they not sweep away 4 or 5 hundred of them with cannon? Then the rest will take themselves away very quickly.’ The humiliation of the royal family on that occasion further lowered the monarchy in Napoleon’s estimation. Although he supported the Revolution, he couldn’t understand why Louis XVI would meekly allow himself to be humiliated.

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Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon thus described his Waterloo campaign: ‘I sensed that Fortune was abandoning me. I no longer had in me the feeling of ultimate success. And if one is not prepared to take risks when the time is right, one ends up doing nothing.’ He added, ‘In war, the game is always with him who commits the fewest faults.’ In the Waterloo campaign, the general who committed the fewest faults was Wellington.

Waterloo is the costliest single battle of the Napoleonic Wars after Borodino. ‘Incomprehensible day,’ Napoleon would later say.