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Regency Britain: an age of war and revolution
Jane Austen’s lifetime coincided with near-constant conflict and bloodshed on both sides of the Atlantic
The American Revolutionary War (1775–83) Born eight months after the outbreak of the American Revolution, Jane Austen entered a world on the brink of seismic change. Although the conflict that ended with the independence of 13 North American colonies from British rule did not affect her directly, its geopolitical legacy shaped the world in which she came of age. During the 1760s and 1770s, colonists in North America grew increasingly frustrated with taxation by Britain, and by its legislative supremacy over their lives. In 1773, the Tea Act effectively gave the East India Company a monopoly on importing tea to America – and levied taxes on that tea, payable to the British Government. In response, colonists disguised as Mohawk Native Americans boarded British ships and dumped an entire shipment of tea into Boston Harbour – a protest known as the Boston Tea Party. Westminster responded by passing the Intolerable Acts, ending local self- government and commerce in Boston. Tensions boiled over in April 1775, when British troops in Massachusetts attempted to confiscate weapons in Lexington and Concord. When they met resisting local militia, the “shot heard ‘round the world” was fired – marking the start of the Revolutionary War. The following year, on 4 July 1776, delegates from 13 colonies assembled in Philadelphia declared their independence and established the United States of America. Over the next five years, on battlefields from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, the colonists – led by figures including George Washington – fought for liberty and self-governance. And, with support from France and other European powers, the tide turned in their favour. Signing the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain formally recognised the US as an independent nation, ending the conflict. But the ideals championed in that war opened the era of the Atlantic Revolutions. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) On 22 August 1791, the French colony of Saint- Domingue, on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, was shaken by an uprising. Inspired by the French Revolution, more than 100,000 enslaved Africans overthrew the oppressive regime, leaving many of its 8,000 plantations in ruins and more than 1,000 Europeans dead. The colony was the most lucrative in the Caribbean, producing around half of the world’s coffee and sugar, so in 1792 Paris dispatched a 6,000-strong force to pacify it. Following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, in 1793 British and Spanish troops arrived on the island, exacerbating the turmoil as these European powers recruited people to their war aims. Amid this chaos, Toussaint L’Ouverture – who had been born into slavery on Saint-Domingue – emerged as a figurehead. In 1796/97, he became deputy governor and then commander-in- chief of the French forces and, after expelling the British and Spanish, he established a new regime over much of Hispaniola, assuming dictatorial powers and launching efforts to revive its damaged economy. In 1802, another French expedition ousted L’Ouverture and whisked him to France, where he died in captivity a year later. When Napoleon restored slavery in Saint-Domingue, the revolution erupted afresh and, led by the formerly enslaved Jean-Jacques Dessalines, revolutionary forces decisively expelled the French. On 1 January 1804, the Republic of Haiti – the first led by people of colour –was declared, galvanising the international anti-slavery movement. Just three years later, Britain’s Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was signed into law. Though Austen’s views on the Haitian Revolution aren’t known, many in her circle supported abolitionism. And both her brother Francis and the fictional Captain Wentworth in Persuasion were present at the Napoleonic battle of Santo Domingo (the Spanish colony on Hispaniola) in 1806, so Jane was clearly familiar with events on the island. The French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802) Having provided support for the American independence cause, France's King Louis XVI grappled with a mounting economic crisis. In 1789, hunger and widespread discontent sparked revolution: on 14 July, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, reviled symbol of royal tyranny. But the movement's pursuit of liberty, equality and fraternity - and the revolutionary government's aspiration to spread these principles beyond France's borders - spooked Europe's monarchies. Over time, factionalism and infighting split the revolutionaries. In an effort to rally national unity, the government targeted France's historic enemies, and in April 1792 declared war on Austria. Later, Louis and his Austrian-born queen, Marie Antoinette, were toppled and executed. A series of coalitions formed by European powers including Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia aimed to contain and reverse the revolutionary changes in France in wars spanning much of the next decade. These conflicts spread revolutionary and nationalist ideals, and pioneered strategies such as national conscription. But their most significant legacy would be the meteoric rise of a Corsican corporal, Napoleon Bonaparte. After a decade of turmoil, the 1802 Treaty of Amiens was signed by France and Britain, bringing to an end the Revolutionary Wars - though not auguring a lasting peace with France. The Austen family wasn't untouched by these events. Of Jane's brothers, Henry joined the Oxfordshire Militia, while Francis and Charles enlisted in the Royal Navy. Jane was horrified by a description by her cousin (and, later, sister-in-law) Eliza de Feuillide of her first husband's guillotining in 1794, during the bloody period of the French Revolution known as the Terror. Like her contemporaries, Jane eagerly followed events. She even sported an Egyptian-style 'Mamalouc' cap to a ball honouring Lord Nelson's victory over the French at the battle of the Nile. Did you know? Winston Churchill, musing on Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, once quipped: "What calm lives they had... No worries about the French Revolution, or the crushing struggles of the Napoleonic Wars" The Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) Jane Austen’s career as a writer reached its zenith during the series of wars involving Napoleonic France. Her most famous novels were penned as those conflicts raged and, though war itself is absent from her stories, the military characters she created, and the references to everyday hardship in her books, attest to her lived reality. Two of her brothers were fighting in the Royal Navy, and the threat of a French invasion of England remained credible until Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. Napoleon Bonaparte was a skilled military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution. After seizing power in 1799, Napoleon – who later crowned himself Emperor of the French – aimed to establish an empire and exert his influence globally. Through military campaigns, he drove a rapid expansion of French territory, conquering numerous European nations and bringing them under his rule. His military victories – including in battles at Austerlitz in 1805 and Jena-Auerstedt in 1806 – demonstrated his tactical brilliance and reshaped the political landscape of the continent. Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and other nations joined forces in coalitions pushing back against Napoleonic France. A series of battles and campaigns followed, notably the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal, and the Russian campaign of 1812. Despite his military prowess, Napoleon’s invasion of Russia proved disastrous, and led to his first abdication in April 1814, followed by exile to the Mediterranean island of Elba. The following year, while European statesmen were gathered in Vienna to establish a new continental order, Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed in southern France. Arriving in Paris in March 1815, he resumed hostilities – culminating in French defeat at the battle of Waterloo in June 1815 by a combined British and Prussian force led by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Napoleon was subsequently exiled once more, to the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, marking the end of the Napoleonic era and decades of warfare. The War of 1812 (1812–15) In a letter dated 2 September 1814, Jane Austen wrote: “I place my hope of better things on a claim to the protection of Heaven, as a Religious Nation, a Nation in spite of much Evil improving in Religion, which I cannot believe the Americans to possess.” Despite her reticence in discussing many of the global events that defined her era, the coincidence of this scathing verdict with a conflict then raging in North America is perhaps telling. So-called ‘War Hawks’ in Congress asserted that Britain’s presence in Canada posed a threat to the US, and called for military action. Tensions had arisen as a direct result of two decades of near-constant warfare between Britain and France. Factors that frustrated the US included impressment (forced recruitment) into the Royal Navy of American sailors believed to be deserters; competing Anglo-French trade restrictions imposed on neutral powers such as the US; and British support for Native American resistance to US expansion westwards across North America. So, on 18 June 1812, the US declared war on Britain, launching a conflict that would last nearly three years. Despite initial American naval victories, the British were able to maintain blockades of key US ports. On 24 August 1814, in retaliation for American attacks on York (modern-day Toronto), British soldiers burned public buildings in Washington DC – including the White House and the Capitol. War fatigue and economic stresses forced both sides to the negotiating table, and on 24 December 1814 the Treaty of Ghent was signed. Even so, the distances involved delayed ratification of the treaty by Congress until 16 February 1815 – after US victory at the battle of New Orleans on 8 January. Explore more content from week three of our Regency course: War and Conflict, with Dr Lizzie Rogers – watching time 11 mins Uncertainty and unrest: the madness of the Regency period – reading time 8 mins Peterloo: the story of a massacre – listening time 37 mins Reading between the lines: the real-life events that inspired Jane Austen – reading time 6 mins 1816: the year without summer – reading time 9 mins The Napoleonic Wars: everything you wanted to know – listening time 1 hour, 3 mins The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve? – reading time 6 mins
Reading between the lines: the real-life events that inspired Jane Austen
Beneath the genteel surface of decorous society, unrest simmered in the world – and works – of Jane Austen
While the novels of Jane Austen might suggest an endless schedule of middle- and upper-class gaiety, disgruntlement was rumbling beneath the surface across the country – and, during this tail end of the Georgian era, it often erupted in violent, sometimes lethal protest. Not that Austen herself completely ignored what was happening in the country beyond Barton Cottage and Netherfield Park. For instance, her fifth novel, Northanger Abbey, refers to the unrest erupting in England’s larger cities. Although she writes about a riot as imagined by one of the characters, the rather visceral description depicts: “a mob of three thousand men assembling in St George’s Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London flowing with blood”. Whether real or imagined, Austen’s inspiration for this tableau does seem to have come from real-life events. The episode appears to be a conflation of at least two separate disturbances that occurred prior to Northanger Abbey’s publication. In 1808, perhaps 6,000 weavers from the local – and rapidly growing – textile industry in Manchester gathered in St George’s Fields to protest about the lack of a minimum wage in their trade. Eight years later, not long before Austen’s novel was published, another riot broke out in London at the end of a hitherto peaceful protest. During the violence, the rioters even planned to attack the Tower of London – so it was surely not mere coincidence that Austen’s imagined account of the unrest included the Tower being “threatened”. Fighting for fair pay The weavers’ protest in Manchester may have been violent but it did achieve a modicum of success. Though dragoons were called in to restore peace (and one protester died during this response), the rioting was replicated in surrounding towns in Lancashire, and the weavers won a small concession in the form of a modest rise in their wages. Some scholars of Jane Austen believe that the Gordon Riots of 1780 also contributed to her description in Northanger Abbey, though those events took place when the author was only four years old. In particular, these scholars cite her reference to a deadly disturbance during which “the streets of London [were] flowing with blood”, as well as an attack on the Bank of England. The Gordon Riots were certainly bloody, a violent response to the Papists Act 1778, which aimed to reduce discrimination faced by Catholics. Anti-Catholic protests, led by the head of the Protestant Association, Lord George Gordon, exploded into chaos, with a week of rioting, burning and looting following in the capital, resulting in several hundred deaths. Religion was also the cause of the 1791 Priestley Riots in Birmingham, in which non-Anglicans who supported the French Revolution were attacked and their property damaged or destroyed. Local taxation was the reason for the Bristol Bridge Riot two years later; the militia were called to quell this disturbance, and 11 people died. Headstrong heroines As well as including occasional references to events playing out across the country, Austen didn’t confine her social commentary to the romantic politics of the gentry. Although by no means a polemical feminist, she put the disparity between men and women in the late Georgian period at the heart of her novels. They focus heavily on marriage, the ways women are defined by their husband, and what society’s expectations of women. Women seldom owned property; they couldn’t vote; they were barred from higher education; and they were rarely able to access prestigious professions. Certainly, a middle-class woman who had to work was looked down upon. Despite the absence of women’s rights, Austen’s headstrong heroines are by no means shrinking violets in their marriages or in their pursuit of suitable husbands. Although she can’t give her female characters the rights that society has denied them, Austen does empower them with purpose and intent. Women lower down the social strata simply had to work if their husband’s income wasn’t sufficient – those who were married, that is. Women were also required to maintain a functioning household, even when conditions beyond their control intervened. Such conditions arose in 1795, when a savagely cold winter brought the average temperature in the English Midlands down below –3°C. When the rivers thawed, great floods raged, so that crops didn’t grow, and animals couldn’t graze. Angry women tackled the resulting food scarcity head-on in what was later dubbed the ‘Revolt of the Housewives’ or the ‘Food Riots’. Unscrupulous merchants took full advantage of the fact that demand far outstripped supply, pushing up the prices of items such as flour and meat – but the rioters weren’t having high prices dictated to them. They seized merchants’ goods and sold them at what they believed were true market prices, giving the proceeds to the merchants. Such direct action was one way that women, with no electoral power, could effect change. But other people were also denied the vote in Austen’s time. Indeed, only 200,000 individuals – all of them property-owning men – had the vote. So a wave of vociferous reformers fiercely pushed for a large-scale extension of electoral suffrage – in the face of equally implacable opposition. Did you know? Initial goverment responses to the Gordon Riots were weak and badly planned. But when the army was called out to protect the Bank of England on 7 June 1780, the result was mass bloodshed – around 285 protesters were shot dead. Boasting nearly 30 MPs among its ranks, the Society of the Friends of the People filed a petition in the House of Commons in 1793, demanding electoral reform. This was heavily quashed in a parliamentary vote by MPs concerned about the redistribution of power to the masses after the French Revolution four years earlier. And while that Society was trying to put the subject of reform on the political agenda, organisations such as the Hampden Clubs and the London Corresponding Society, whose more radical proposals included extending the vote to all adults, met with even greater opposition. It wasn’t until the Reform Act of 1832 that the growing metropolis of Manchester gained any representation in the Commons. Unsurprisingly, then, the protection of entrenched interests in Parliament, and the means by which this was legitimised by a very limited notion of democracy, poured extra fuel on the bonfire of disquiet that flared among large swathes of the population. Problems at the pinnacle While the fabric of wider society was being unpicked, unease also proliferated right at the pinnacle of the British elite. While George III bounced between bouts of madness and lucidity, the threat of a constitutional crisis always hung heavy in the air. In 1788, a bill was passed in the Commons that would see the king’s eldest son, another George, become regent. The king emerged intact from that episode of mental ill health, and the bill was withdrawn before it had progressed through the House of Lords. By 1811, though, his insanity had become permanent, and another regency bill successfully negotiated its way through Parliament. With the Care of King During His Illness etc Act 1811, George III was replaced as head of state by his son, who eventually became King George IV on his father’s death in 1820. By then, Jane Austen had also died, passing away three years earlier, in 1817, at the age of just 41. Her great success and renown arrived only posthumously. Yet her legacy proved to be not only her artfully plotted novels, populated by enduring characters, but also her ability to depict – albeit subtly – the late Georgian period as it approached the crossroads of change. The industrial age cometh Austen’s writing did little to reflect the vast changes taking place in Britain’s cities Jane Austen’s novels might be set on rolling country estates and in well-heeled towns and cities, but the Industrial Revolution was well underway during her lifetime. Although more commonly associated with the early Victorian age, industrial development was progressing at lightning speed during Austen’s lifetime, and the largely rural economy that had dominated the countryside was being undermined. Towns and cities grew rapidly, their skylines soaring and their populations booming. The nature and pace of everyday life was irrevocably changed within a generation, and the world became driven by steam, not horse. Who knows what themes Austen’s novels might have touched on had she been born 50 years later, or if she’d grown up in the dirty heart of a city dominated by factories and chimneys. As it is, her works remain lasting memorials to a fading, possibly more innocent era. Explore more content from week three of our Regency course: War and Conflict, with Dr Lizzie Rogers – watching time 11 mins Uncertainty and unrest: the madness of the Regency period – reading time 8 mins Peterloo: the story of a massacre – listening time 37 mins 1816: the year without summer – reading time 9 mins Regency Britain: An age of war and revolution – reading time 6 mins The Napoleonic Wars: everything you wanted to know – listening time 1 hour, 3 mins The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve? – reading time 6 mins
What was the global impact of the Napoleonic Wars?
Although the opposing sides were European, their status as imperial powers meant the Napoleonic Wars played out in many different corners of the world. Michael Rapport explores the conflict’s surprising global impact.
The Napoleonic Wars were a global conflict that in some ways anticipated the world wars of the 20th century, while still being rooted in the imperial battles of the 18th. To a great extent, they were a classic clash of early modern empires. Although Europe witnessed the bloodiest of the carnage, the involvement of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal – all maritime and imperial powers – ensured that fighting would range across the globe. The European dimensions of the war, whether on the continent itself or overseas, have of course received ample attention from historians, but more genuinely global approaches have begun to explore how these struggles were entangled with the wider environment and context of the global regions concerned. So Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 interlocked with the politics and culture of the Middle East and the Ottoman empire. When the Franco-British rivalry in India ignited, the conflict was shaped by the relative strengths, weaknesses and aims of the Indian powers involved. Read more | Napoleonic Wars timeline: the key dates you need to know The Latin American wars of independence, which began in 1810 and were triggered by the Napoleonic Wars, were primarily shaped by local conditions. The fighting in North America during the War of 1812 may have helped to entrench American and Canadian identities, but they also involved Native Americans, whose motives were very different from those of the Europeans. The European war, in other words, was globalised because it became intertwined with longer-term rivalries and conflicts across the world – the consequences of which are explored here. The Middle East: Napoleonic-era power politics extended to Egypt and beyond “May God cause the upheaval in France to spread like syphilis to the enemies of the empire... Amen.” So wrote Ahmed Efendi, secretary to Selim III, the Ottoman sultan, in January 1792. His prayer was answered as the French Revolutionary Wars raged across most of Europe, leaving Turkey in peace. This changed in July 1798, when a French army under Napoleon invaded Egypt, then part of the Ottoman empire, mauled the famous Mamluk cavalry at the battle of the Pyramids and took Cairo. The attack brought Turkey into the wars against Revolutionary France. Henceforth Middle Eastern politics were never entirely absent from the global strategies of the European belligerents. Napoleon’s army was cut off from Europe when Nelson’s fleet shattered its French opponents at Aboukir Bay, off the coast of Egypt, in August. In February 1799, Napoleon sought to fight his way back to Europe and forestall a Turkish counter-attack by invading Palestine and Syria. His advance ground to a bloody halt at Acre which held out, supported by Turkish and British naval forces. Exhausted and ravaged by plague, the French trailed back into Egypt. Napoleon slipped ignominiously out of the country that August and seized power in France with his Brumaire coup in November. His deserted army clung on until a Turkish-British expedition (aided in partby Indian troops) retook Cairo in June 1801. The French invasion proved particularly alarming to the British since it directly threatened their own empire in India. Henceforth the Ottoman empire would be entangled in the Napoleonic Wars, as the imperial rivals – France, Britain, Russia and Austria – sought to assert their strategic interests. When Selim III yielded to French pressure in 1806 to favour French naval access to the Black Sea, the British launched attacks on the Turks in both the Dardanelles and Egypt – and were defeated. At the same time, the Russians sought to expand at Turkish expense and invaded through both the Balkans and the Caucasus in a war that would last until Tsar Alexander I, facing the prospect of Napoleon’s invasion of his own country, negotiated a peace in May 1812. Turkey’s neighbour, the Persian empire, was a diplomatic battleground between the Russians, French and British, as the three European powers vied to project their strategic interests – the Russians to expand their empire southwards, the French to threaten the other two and the British to ensure the security of India. Yet the importance of the Middle East was also cultural. When he invaded Egypt, Napoleon brought with him a team of scholars who, among other things, laid the foundations for modern Egyptology. The Rosetta Stone, enabling the deciphering of hieroglyphics, was discovered and the academics produced a series of publications that became famous as the Description of Egypt, documenting all aspects of Egypt, past and present. Yet in comparing Egypt’s past glories with its allegedly impoverished present, it made the Middle East seem not only different from the West but backwards, which in turn would provide a justification for European imperialism. Asia: In imperial struggles, Europeans exploited their eastern allies Fighting in the Napoleonic Wars spilled over into Asia as imperial frictions between the European belligerents exploded. The most important battleground was India, where the long Franco-British struggle was intermeshed with the crisis of the Mughal empire, which had been steadily unravelling since the late 17th century, and with rivalries between Indian states, the most powerful of which were the Hindu Maratha confederacy, Hyderabad and Mysore. The British East India Company held sway over territories that included Bengal (where the governor-general sat in Kolkata), Mumbai and Chennai, and with its own armed forces and its tax-raising powers, was virtually a state in its own right. The French, though defeated heavily in India during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), still had viable and potentially rich footholds in its five main comptoirs (trading ports), chief of which was Pondichéry (now Puducherry). Both European powers relied heavily on Indian allies, engaging in a system of ‘subsidiary treaties’, by which Indian rulers secured military support in return for payments of money or territory. In this way, British military and political presence gradually expanded in South Asia, but the Napoleonic Wars also provided opportunities for full-frontal conquest. The French invasion of Egypt in 1798 seemed to pose a direct threat to India, not least because Tipu, ruler of the militarily-powerful southern kingdom of Mysore, had entered into an alliance with the French. In May 1799, an army of British and Indian troops stormed the citadel at Srirangapatna, killing Tipu, the ‘Tiger of Mysore’, and effectively annexing the kingdom. Next came the Marathas in central India. A small French presence provided an excuse, but the real reason was the formidable power that the confederacy presented. In the Anglo-Maratha War of 1803–05, Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, won his bloodiest battle before Waterloo at Assaye (1803), but a British advance against the Maratha prince Holkar proved disastrous by July 1804. A bloody siege of the formidable fortress of Bharatpur was repulsed in February 1805. These defeats compelled the Company to reach a peace with the Marathas, who would not bend to British domination until defeated in 1817–18. The British did, however, secure the intercontinental shipping route between Britain and Asia. In January 1806, they managed to wrest control of the Cape Colony in southern Africa from the Dutch, who were allied to the French. In 1810 they took, first, the Île Bourbon (now Réunion) and then Mauritius, partly to expel French privateers who raided British shipping on the Indian Ocean. In 1811, the British also began seizing the lucrative Dutch-controlled spice islands of Indonesia, including Java. Yet the Asian capacity to resist European incursions was still vigorous. In 1793, Chinese emperor Qianlong rebuffed a British mission seeking privileged commercial relations. In 1805, the Japanese Shogunate dismissed a Russian attempt by Nikolai Rezanov to prise their country open to the Tsar’s trade. It would take the shock of new, industrialised military technology for European and Asian capabilities to diverge dramatically, and before the former would foist themselves decisively on the latter. North America: The clash of European powers inflamed conflict in the US On 3 December 1805, William Clark carved his name and ‘By Land from the U. States in 1804 & 1805’ into a tree on America’s Pacific coast. With Meriwether Lewis, Clark had led an American expedition, commissioned by President Jefferson and setting off in May 1804, to explore the regions west of the Mississippi acquired by the US from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. France had originally acquired this vast, funnel-shaped territory (extending from the Mississippi Delta to Canada, and at its broadest, to the western border of Montana) as the result of its alliance with Spain. Napoleon’s original plan had been to exploit the region in order to supply France’s Caribbean slave plantations with food and raw materials. Yet the jewel of the French empire, Saint-Domingue, had erupted into insurrection in 1791, when its enslaved Africans rose up, inspired by a combination of resistance to oppression, their Vodu religion, and – among leaders such as Toussaint Louverture – the French Revolution. France abolished slavery in 1794, Napoleon restored it in 1802 and the insurgents of Saint-Domingue, renaming their country Haiti, resisted and defeated a French force that had been sent to repress it. By 1803, it was clear France was on the cusp of losing its richest colony and so Louisiana lost its primary purpose. Napoleon also desperately needed funds for a planned invasion of Britain. So the American negotiators sent to Paris to secure free commercial access through New Orleans were surprised to be greeted with an offer of the entire territory for the knock-down price of 3 cents an acre. The deal was announced in July 1803. This westward leap by the US was not universally welcomed: the northern ‘free’ states worried that slavery would spread into the new territory. The Purchase also increased border tensions with the British in Canada and war eventually exploded in 1812, over the US-Canadian frontier and over British pressing of American sailors into the Royal Navy. Initial American attacks on Canada in Autumn 1812 ended in failure and the British exploited their naval supremacy by blockading American ports and mounting coastal raids, including an assault on Washington, where government buildings (most famously the White House) were burned in August 1814. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/10/GettyImages-153417045cmyk-e11709a.jpg" width="3587" height="2461" alt="A painting of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, featuring 11 men. One in the middle is holding" title="A Hundred Years Peace, the signing of the Treaty of Ghent between Great Britain and the US Dec. 24, 1814, to end the War of 1812. Painting by Amedee Forestier (1854-1930) made in 1914, oil on canvas, 71.4 x102 cm. Belgium, 19th century. (Photo by Getty Images)" /> The conflict ended with negotiations in Ghent and a treaty signed on Christmas Eve, 1814. News of the peace reached America too late to stop a battle at New Orleans on 8 January 1815, when the Americans under Andrew Jackson repulsed a British assault on the city. One legacy of the War of 1812 was that it crystallised both American and Canadian identities, but it was a tragedy for the Native Americans. Since 1808, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh had forged a tribal confederation to defend Native American independence. He helped the British take Detroit in August 1812, but when the Americans swept the Royal Navy from Lake Erie in September 1813, it became harder for Tecumseh to protect tribal lands and he was killed in battle in October 1813. The Native American alliance fell apart, losing its lands to the Americans. South America: War in Europe triggered a crisis in the Spanish and Portuguese empires The most striking global consequence of the Napoleonic Wars was the independence of South America. Most of the continent had been part of the Spanish empire, with Brazil ruled by the Portuguese. The European war triggered, but did not cause, the Latin American wars of independence. These flowed from longer-term efforts by the Spanish monarchy to strengthen its grip on its colonies (provoking a backlash among creole elites) and from discontent among the colonies’ merchants chafing against the Spanish monopoly of trade. On top of this, a rebellion in what is now Peru in 1780–83 (led by Túpac Amaru until 1781) against Spanish reforms, taxation and the repression of indigenous and mixed-race (mestizo) people had also shaken Spanish rule to the core. The wars were sparked when Napoleon seized the Spanish King Fernando VII and the royal family in 1808 and tried to take over Spain. The Spanish resistance to French rule created a Cortes, a parliament meeting in Cádiz, which passed a liberal constitution in 1812, declaring free men in any Spanish-ruled domain to be citizens – so in the colonies this included creole, mixed race and native men, but not women or slaves. This attempt to create a liberal, imperial monarchy came too late to stop the first stirrings for independence. In Latin America royal officials were squeezed out by creole elites who, as in Spain, formed committees or juntas, initially to defend the colonies against the French. Yet while the Latin American colonies sent delegates to the Cortes and helped shape the Spanish constitution, these provincial committees frequently clashed with the central junta in Spain. In the process, they also began fitfully to shape claims for independence. The first declarations of independence came in 1810 and positions hardened when, in 1814 at the end of the Peninsular War, King Fernando VII was restored to the Spanish throne and repudiated the 1812 Constitution. This restoration of the absolute monarchy accelerated the imperial crisis as, one by one, Latin American states declared and fought for independence in bitter wars. Perhaps most notably, the victory of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar at the battle of Boyacá in 1819 led to the creation of Gran Colombia, a state encompassing much of northern South America and part of Central America. By 1825, many of Spain’s American colonies, from Chile to Mexico, were independent republics that would soon abolish slavery and end the colonial caste system based on race. Portuguese-ruled Brazil also followed a path partially conditioned by events in Napoleonic Europe. When the French invaded Portugal in 1807, the British evacuated the royal family to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro became the functioning capital of the Portuguese empire under King Juan VI. At the end of the war, Juan stayed in Brazil, while his son, Pedro, became Portuguese regent: the two countries were declared to be a union of equals in 1815. A liberal revolution in Portugal in 1820 demanded Juan’s return to Lisbon, sent Pedro back to Brazil and in 1821 sought to reimpose Portuguese sovereignty over the colony. A Brazilian uprising ensued and led Pedro to declare independence in 1822, culminating in Portuguese recognition in 1825. Michael Rapport is reader in modern European history at the University of Glasgow and the author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2013) This article was first published in the Napoleonic Wars Collectors' Edition, produced by BBC History Magazine
Napoleonic Wars timeline: the key dates you need to know
Jeremy Black charts Napoleon’s rise to power in Revolutionary France and the dramatic chain of events leading up to his final defeat at Waterloo
20 April 1792 – Start of the French Revolutionary Wars Three years into the French Revolution, France’s Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria, fearing that it will launch an invasion in a bid to restore the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI. A Prussian-led coalition army attempts to march on Paris in September, but it is defeated at Valmy, around 108 miles from the capital. The first stage of the French Revolutionary Wars – commonly known as the War of the First Coalition – is now underway. 22 September 1792 – The French Republic is born Emboldened by the victory at Valmy, the revolutionaries abolish Louis XVI’s constitutional monarchy and proclaim the new French Republic. In November, General Charles François Dumouriez leads an army into the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) to prevent an invasion of France via the Low Countries, defeating the main Austrian force in the region at the battle of Jemappes. 21 January 1793 – Louis XVI is executed Having been convicted of high treason, Louis XVI is beheaded by guillotine in what is now Place de la Concorde, Paris. The execution sparks outrage among the monarchies of Europe. 1 June 1794 – Britain’s ‘Glorious First of June’ With Britain now part of the coalition of powers fighting France, a fleet led by Admiral Lord Howe attacks 26 French warships sent to escort an American grain convoy into Brest. The vital convoy does reach France, but superior British gunnery costs the French seven warships (six captured and one sunk) and 5,000 casualties. 14 February 1797 – Spain is defeated at Cape St Vincent With Spain now allied to the French Republic, Britain’s Admiral Sir John Jervis (pictured below) and 15 warships attack a Spanish fleet of 27 off southern Portugal. Thanks to a melee created by the then-commodore Horatio Nelson, British captains win several individual ship encounters. Their superior rate of fire has a deadly effect and four Spanish ships are captured. 21 July 1798 – Battle of the Pyramids A young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, leads an invasion of Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an effort to defend French trade interests and weaken Britain’s access to India. At the so-called battle of the Pyramids, he repels the Mamluk cavalry to seize Lower Egypt. On the podcast | Great Reputations: Napoleon 9–10 November 1799 – Napoleon seizes power Having made his name in Italy and Egypt, Napoleon returns to France to find the government under pressure after setbacks in the War of the Second Coalition (led by Britain, Austria and Russia). He mounts a bloodless coup and becomes first consul of France, eventually crowning himself emperor in 1804. 14 June 1800 – A decisive moment at Marengo Napoleon’s opening campaign as first consul is an invasion of northern Italy, beginning with a crossing of the Great St Bernard Pass. At Marengo, he finds the Austrians a formidable rival, and his enforced retreat for much of the battle is only reversed following a successful counter-attack by French reinforcements. A quarter of the French army become casualties. The Austrians ask for an armistice. 27 March 1802 – The Peace of Amiens Britain, Spain and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands) agree a peace treaty with France in the city of Amiens, marking the end of the War of the Second Coalition and the French Revolutionary Wars as a whole. The French signatory is Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte. 20 October 1805 – The French leader shows his brilliance at Ulm Attacking the Austrians in the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon moves his Grande Armée (a ‘Great Army’, comprising troops from the Armée d’Angleterre) by rapid marches that outmanoeuvre part of the Austrian army based at Ulm. In the face of his brilliant strategic campaign the enemy surrenders (although Austria remains in the war), opening the way for the overrunning of southern Germany. 21 October 1805 – Britain’s Royal Navy triumphs at Trafalgar Vice Admiral Lord Nelson intercepts a Franco-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar near Cádiz. The British attack in two divisions, splitting the opponents into groups. The battle of Trafalgar then becomes a series of small struggles between individual ships or groups in which British gunnery and seamanship prevails, albeit at the cost of heavy casualties – including Nelson himself. Meanwhile, Napoleon’s planned invasion of Britain has failed to materialise. 2 December 1805 – Battle of Austerlitz In perhaps his greatest ever victory, Napoleon defeats a larger Russian and Austrian army near the town of Austerlitz (now in the Czech Republic). Around 16,000 Austrian and Russian troops are killed or wounded, with 11,000 taken prisoner. The defeat leads Francis I of Austria to accepta harsh peace two days later. 14 October 1806 – Prussian resistance is crushed Frederick William III of Prussia joins Russia as part of the Fourth Coalition, but Napoleon attacks before Russian reinforcements can arrive. At the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt in Saxony, the poorly-commanded Prussian forces are defeated. Napoleon crushes what he thinks is the main body of the Prussian army at Jena, but it is actually at Auerstädt, where it is expertly defeated by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout. 7–8 February 1807 – Napoleon struggles at Eylau Moving east, Napoleon finds the Russians to be tough opponents. At Eylau in East Prussia, repeated French attacks fail to break the Russians, who withdraw during the night. French casualties are heavy and, although Napoleon gains possession of the battlefield and Russian losses are heavier, he wins neither tactically nor strategically. 14 June 1807 – Battle of Friedland Russia, with an inferior force and their backs to a river, attacks the French at Friedland. The plan fails and leads to heavy losses. It leaves the Russians so battered that they need time to rebuild their army. The subsequent Treaties of Tilsit on 7 and 9 July bring about an uneasy peace. 5 May 1808 – The costly Peninsular War begins After Portugal refuses to adopt Napoleon’s Continental System (blocking it from trading with Britain), he invades the country via Spain, causing the royal family to flee. He then occupies Madrid, sparking a mass uprising, before overthrowing the Spanish monarchy on 5 May 1808. The Peninsular War ensues, with Anglo-Portuguese troops securing early victories against the French at Roliça and Vimeiro in August. 21–22 May 1809 – Napoleon faces a challenge by the Danube Austria resumes conflict with France in 1809 as part of the Fifth Coalition. The first major battle, fought at Aspern and Essling near Vienna, reflects little credit on Napoleon, whose bold attack on a superior Austrian force is repelled, before a serious Austrian assault leaves the French isolated on the north bank of the Danube. The French army is not destroyed, but Napoleon abandons the battlefield. 5–6 July 1809 – The French counter-attack at Wagram After failure at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon counter-attacks north of Vienna at Wagram. He drives Archduke Charles from the field, helped by a successful flank manoeuvre, but the Austrian army is not routed. Both sides use artillery to great effect. Wagram is followed by peace with Austria on French terms. 24–25 June 1812 – France invades Russia Napoleon seeks to deal with the crisis in his relations with Russia by striking at the centre of its power, and with an army so large that it will guarantee victory. More than 600,000 French and allied troops cross the Niemen river and invade Russian territory without resistance, denying Napoleon the decisive battle he had initially sought. 7 September 1812 –A deadly day at Borodino The Russians attempt to stop Napoleon’s advance on Moscow at Borodino, a battle involving around 250,000 men and in excess of 1,100 cannon. The battle lasts all day with total casualties of some 77,000. The Russians resist French attacks and are driven back without breaking. Napoleon refuses to commit his Imperial Guard, which might have been decisive. The Russians abandon the battlefield at night. Despite heavier Russian casualties, it is Napoleon’s losses – about a quarter of his army – that are crucial. 14 September 1812 – Napoleon enters Moscow After the battle of Borodino, the road to Moscow is left open. Napoleon enters an undefended city on 14 September, only to find it set ablaze that night. Alexander I refuses to negotiate and Napoleon’s supply situation deteriorates, forcing him to abandon Moscow on 19 October. Heavy snowfalls turn the retreat into a nightmare and thousands of troops die. Meanwhile, the costly Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal continues to drain Napoleon’s resources even further. 26–27 August 1813 - Battle of Dresden In 1813, Prussia, Austria and Sweden join Russia in the fight against a now-outnumbered Napoleon as part of the Sixth Coalition. They plan to avoid direct battle with him and only attack forces led by his subordinates. However, Frederick William III of Prussia insists on fighting the French emperor, and an army commanded by Prince Schwarzenberg is beaten by Napoleon at Dresden. 16–19 October 1813 – Severe losses at Leipzig At the battle of the Nations at Leipzig, Napoleon is heavily outnumbered by converging Allied forces. Unable to defeat his opponents, whom he nevertheless holds off, he decides to retreat. In total, the French lose around 68,000 men. 6 April 1814 – Napoleon abdicates In early 1814, Napoleon, with some success, attacks the Austro-Prussian-Russian forces that invade eastern France, manoeuvring with skill to destroy the most exposed units. Their superior numbers tell, however, and the coalition troops march into Paris. A provisional government deposes Napoleon and he formally abdicates on 6 April. Unaware of the news, Britain’s Arthur Wellesley captures Toulouse a few days later, having invaded France via the Pyrenees. 1 March 1815 – An unexpected return Napoleon escapes from exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba with a small flotilla and about 1,100 troops. He comes ashore near Antibes, southern France, on 1 March where the garrison surrenders. The army of the new French king, Louis XVIII, proves unwilling to mount effective opposition, and on 20 March, Napoleon enters Paris to reclaim power. Louis has already fled the city. 9 June 1815 – The Congress of Vienna ends Following months of negotiations in Vienna, ambassadors from several major powers (including Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia) sign an act that redistributes a number of European territories. The objective is to create long-term peace by settling issues arising from both the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. 15 June 1815 – The Waterloo campaign begins As coalition forces prepare to mount an invasion of France, Napoleon decides the best way of breaking it down is to attack the powers individually. In what is now Belgium, he plans a concentration of troops south of the Prussian and British-led armies, with the intention of following it with a rapid advance designed to defeat them separately before advancing on Brussels. 16 June 1815 – A futile French victory at Ligny The French defeat the Prussians at Ligny but Napoleon can’t outflank them as he had hoped. He instead has to rely on costly frontal attacks that drive the Prussians back without breaking them. French losses ensure Napoleon has a smaller margin of manpower for subsequent operations. To the northwest, the French are less successful against a British-led allied force at Quatre Bras. 18 June 1815 – Wellington’s triumph Napoleon’s hopes are crushed during the battle of Waterloo as a result of a defensive engagement with the British-led army under Arthur Wellesley (now Duke of Wellington), joined later in the day by the Prussian army, which moves to their support. Napoleon’s lack of operational and tactical imagination plays a major part in his defeat. 15 July 1815 – Final surrender Facing rising opposition and an erosion of support, Napoleon’s regime collapses. Having abdicated in favour of his son on 22 June, he plans to go to America, but a British naval blockade makes it impossible. Feeling he will get better treatment from Britain than other foes, he boards HMS Bellerophon on 15 July. He is sent to the island of St Helena, in the distant south Atlantic, where he is imprisoned until his death on 5 May 1821. One the podcast | The Napoleonic Wars: Everything you wanted to know
7 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Napoleonic Wars
Jem Duducu, author of The Napoleonic Wars in 100 Facts, reveals seven things you might not have known about the 25 years (or so) of conflict...
What were the Napoleonic Wars? The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts that occurred from 1803 to 1815, fought between France under Napoleon and a series of coalitions of European powers. Though the Napoleonic Wars are often seen as a clash of European powers fighting for dominance over the European continent, in many ways they were also an example of a global conflict before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The Napoleonic Wars are usually numbered by the coalitions that were raised against Napoleonic France between 1803 and 1815: The War of the Third Coalition, 1805–06 The War of the Fourth Coalition, 1806–07 The War of the Fifth Coalition, 1809 The War of the Sixth Coalition, 1813–14 The War of the Seventh Coalition, also known as the Hundred Days, 1815 What of the wars of the first and second coalitions? These precede the Napoleonic Wars, both being part of the French Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s. Read more | Napoleonic Wars timeline: the key dates you need to know Why did the Napoleonic Wars happen? There are many explanations, but you could consider the Napoleonic Wars to be a consequence of the French Revolutionary Wars, which concluded with the 1802 Peace of Amiens. These wars had left France in a commanding strategic position in Western Europe, “something that no other European power could tolerate, because it appeared to threaten their own strategic security”, says Michael Rapport, reader in modern European history at the University of Glasgow, who spoke to us about the Napoleonic Wars on the HistoryExtra podcast. “Any peace – which occurred in 1802 through the Treaty of Amiens – was going to be really a truce.” That peace broke down in 1803. “The Peace of Amiens wasn't really honoured by either side,” he says. Neither side really trusted each other.” Who was Napoleon? The Napoleonic Wars are named after a single man – Napoleon Bonaparte. How did a young, inexperienced artillery officer from Corsica rise to such a position of military prominence, not to mention Emperor of France? It took Napoleon just six years from being a relative unknown in 1793 to taking personal rule of France through a coup d’etat in 1799, something Rapport believes that it is no small part thanks to the French Revolution itself. “What the revolution did was it unlocked careers in the army, in government and in law to talent, rather than to birth and status,” he says. “Even though he was noble and he was never barred from the officer corps, the chances of him maybe advancing really high up were probably slimmer than they would have been if it hadn't been for the French Revolution.” War itself provided opportunities. Staggering death rates among officers plus the loss of royalists created opportunities for advancement – if you were politically motivated that is (“Napoleon, initially at least – wore some Republican credentials fairly visibly,” notes Rapport.) Read more about the rise and fall of Napoleon How did the Napoleonic Wars end? In March 1814, the allied powers of the Sixth Coalition occupied Paris, prompting Napoleon’s abdication on 11 April. He was exiled to Elba, an island home to some 12,000 people just off Italy’s Tuscan coast, to live out his days as its sovereign. And that should have been the end of that. Napoleon was held in high esteem even after his abdication, and so when he and 700 of his followers escaped from Elba back to France, he quickly gained support. Among the most totemic was his former marshal turned royalist commander, Michel Ney. Sent to intercept Napoleon, Ney had promised to bring him back to Paris in an iron cage; instead he joined his army of 6,000 to Napoleon’s. So began the Hundred Days, Napoleon’s final roll of the dice. Realising that he could not sit still in Paris, lest the powers of Europe join and assault him en masse, he went on the offensive – culminating in the battle of Waterloo. Waterloo was Napoleon’s final defeat, at the hands of Britain and Prussia. He was forced to abdicate once more, and banished anew – this time he was exiled to St Helena, an East India Company possession deep in the Atlantic, where he remained until his death in 1821. How many people died during the Napoleonic Wars? Five million people died in the Napoleonic Wars between 1803 and 1815, notes Rapport. “It's an estimate, but it's the best estimate we have,” he says. “In terms of the size of the European population at the time, that is the same number, proportionately, as in the First World War.” Michael Rapport is reader in modern European history at the University of Glasgow and the author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2013). He was speaking to Jon Bauckham On the podcast | The Napoleonic Wars: Everything you wanted to know Seven facts about the Napoleonic Wars… The young Napoleon showed little promise The Bonapartes (Buonapartes in Italian) originated in Italy, but Napoleon was born into a branch of the family that moved to Corsica [an island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France]. His parents were both of minor Corsican nobility and had married young. The couple had had another son called Napoleon four years before the more famous one, but the child died in infancy. Growing up in Corsica, Napoleon’s first language was Italian, not French. However, as his family was well off (by Corsican standards), he and his brother Joseph were sent to military academies in France. Read more | What killed Napoleon Bonaparte? Napoleon did not fit in particularly well. While he did learn French, he spoke it with an accent that betrayed his roots, and he was teased for sounding like a peasant. Furthermore, the other boys came from well-connected and more affluent families, and while they were good at dancing, Napoleon’s skills lay in gardening. It was not a promising start for a boy who, at various times, dreamed of becoming an officer in the French navy or an artillery instructor in the Ottoman Empire. How different history would have been had he taken one of those routes. Aged 15, Napoleon was admitted to the elite École Militaire in Paris. This was a huge honour, which turned into a disaster when his father died of stomach cancer while Napoleon was in his first year. The young cadet was now expected to be the family’s chief source of income, while at the same time attending one of the most expensive schools in France. The situation forced him to complete the two-year course in just one, and while he came only 42nd in a class of 58, graduation meant he could become a commissioned officer just after his 16th birthday. By 1791, as war was about to break out across Europe, Napoleon, still a second lieutenant stationed in a sleepy garrison town, went on leave to see his family in Corsica. This was about as unexceptional a start to a military career as can be imagined. No one could have predicted that within 10 years Napoleon would be the most feared military commander in Europe, and later would become one of the greatest generals in history. Read more | Your guide to the Seven Years' War The royal navy attacked a city France was courting Denmark and Norway in 1801, and, if they could be persuaded to join the fight, it looked like Russia might also join them. The possibility that Denmark might attack the British mainland could not be contemplated – something had to be done. Step forward Admiral Parker, who was sent to carry out some very British gunboat diplomacy (ie turn up with some warships and force a settlement). It wasn’t necessarily meant to be a shooting war. When the royal navy arrived, the Danish fleet was moored against the gun batteries and naval defences of the city, so a frontal assault would have been impossible. However, Parker’s subordinate was Vice Admiral Nelson, who was just the right mix of brilliant, brave and mad. He attacked the weaker southern end of the Danish defences, which resulted in a brutal artillery duel between land and sea. Parker lacked Nelson’s grit and, on seeing the devastating effect of close-quarter cannon fire, signalled the retreat. Nelson replied with a signal that acknowledged the order, but did nothing. Instead, he lifted his telescope to his blind eye and said to his flag-captain, Thomas Foley: “You know, Foley, I only have one eye. I have the right to be blind sometimes.” Read more | 5 facts you (probably) didn’t know about Nelson’s navy With that, he continued to press his attack. In the heat of the battle, Nelson was seen to be carefully preparing a letter for the terms of Copenhagen’s surrender – amid the roar of cannons, the screams of men and the sound of splintering wood. This forced at least one of his officers to conclude that Nelson had lost his mind, but Nelson calmly explained that if he was seen to have the time and the conditions to prepare a decent letter, it would make the Danes think they weren’t causing as much damage as they were. It was remarkable logic, and an example of the ultimate cool head under fire. The ruse worked, and Copenhagen surrendered. Remarkably, no royal navy ships were sunk; however, around 1,000–1,200 British crew were either killed or wounded. The Danes suffered 50 per cent more casualties and lost three ships, including their flagship, the Dannebrog, when it exploded. After this short but bloody encounter, the two nations agreed an armistice. Following this, Parker sailed the fleet to Sweden in an attempt to persuade it to break away from the armed neutrality league that had been set up in the Baltic, but the Swedes declined his offer. As a result of Parker’s wavering at Copenhagen, followed by his rather lacklustre display in Sweden, he was relieved of duty, and Nelson was promoted to vice-admiral. All sides understood the ‘propaganda war’ The Napoleonic Wars were not the first to use the medium of print for propaganda purposes – The Times, for example, started in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, was not above bias. But this particular era of conflict excelled at printing scurrilous opinions and defamatory cartoons. The leaders of the age knew the power of the press. As Napoleon once said: “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” However, it wasn’t just opinion pieces that influenced; imagery was often more powerful and lingered longer. Napoleon understood this, and became known for self-aggrandisement. The famous painting of him crossing the Alps (painted by the French artist Jacques-Louis David between 1801 and 1805), for example, shows a strongly idealised view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made across the Alps. Napoleon also made sure his coronation as emperor was immortalised in oil paintings, and both he and his wife, Josephine, commissioned regal portraits of themselves in their splendid imperial robes. While Napoleon didn’t plan his own tomb, it continued the themes of power and supremacy – this time with Napoleon as an Adonis; a god among men. Brilliant general he assuredly was, but physically Napoleon was a little on the pudgy side, and had a crooked nose. Napoleon had the twin advantages of being both a general and an absolute ruler; he was able to dictate and control the French press. Britain did not provide its monarchs and leaders with the same benefits; it had a freer press, and parliamentary democracy meant magazines could draw witheringly satirical cartoons of friend and foe alike. For example, Napoleon’s nickname, ‘Boney’, was a British invention designed to conjure antipathy. At the time, it was thought that having some meat on your bones was a good thing; therefore, horrible old ‘Boney’ was a wraith to be feared or mocked. ‘Boney’ stood in stark contrast to the famous John Bull cartoon popularised first by British print makers. Bull was the national personification of England; a plump, down-to-earth patriot and beer lover. Napoleon is often portrayed as compensating for his lack of stature with comically large hats and boots. But to set the record straight, Napoleon wasn’t short. This misunderstanding arose because French measurements were different to British ones, and we now know that Napoleon was a little taller than the average man of his time (although he would probably have looked diminutive standing next to someone like the Duke of Wellington). The idea that Napoleon was short still exists to this day, all thanks to British propaganda from 200 years ago. The best way to defeat Spain was to invade Argentina By 1806, Britain had been at war almost constantly for well over a decade. Its continental allies were continually being humbled by French armies, and Britain’s own contributions to the war thus far had been mainly naval victories. However, William Pitt and Sir Home Riggs Popham (the British royal naval commander) had been mulling over for a year or so ideas to weaken France’s main ally, Spain. Spain’s South American empire was largely undefended. Trying to resist a British invasion there would take Spanish troops away from the resources that Napoleon could use in Europe. So, in short, it was decided (by Popham, without authorisation) that the best way to win a war against France in Europe was to invade Argentina in South America. These operations were referred to as the British invasions of the Río de la Plata. Britain achieved early success when it captured Buenos Aires – one of the key cities in the area – and held it for more than a month. When the invaders were ejected, it wasn’t thanks to the arrival of Spanish troops, but an uprising of the local population. In 1807, the British responded by sending a larger invasion force – this time successfully storming Montevideo, where they stayed for a few months just to prove a point. Shortly afterwards, the British sent a third force back to Buenos Aires, but after heavy fighting with a combined force of Spanish soldiers standing side-by-side with the local militia, they were pushed back and suffered more than 50 per cent casualties. The British lost this campaign. It was an ambitious plan that had assumed resistance could only be achieved by Spanish regular troops. In fact, it was the bravery of the locals that saved Río de la Plata from becoming part of the British empire. The repercussions of this attempted invasion were unforeseen by everyone. The Spanish were, at first, overjoyed that their colonies had resisted so resolutely. However, those same colonies felt their actions had earned them the right to be considered the equal of their colonial masters in Spain. The Spanish were, at this time, also having serious trouble with a French invasion of their own country, so could do little. By 1810, the South American colonies felt confident enough to carry out their own revolution (the May Revolution), which removed the Spanish Viceroy and set up a local government for the first time. This led, in July 1816, to the declaration of independence for the United Provinces of South America, which later became known as Argentina. At the time, some of the ex-Spanish colonies were at war with each other but, overall, shrugging off the old colonial overlord was seen as beneficial. The irony then was that while Britain lost the campaign, it achieved its goals of weakening Spain and distracting Spanish priorities and forces. Another irony is that today in Argentina, Britain’s actions of 1806–7 are seen as the trigger for independence, and are widely considered to have been a good thing. Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition to end The story of the Spanish Inquisition [a tribunal established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms] is a long and complex one. However, the first area to come under its scrutiny was in 12th-century France. The more notorious version of these religious enquiries into potential heretics or apostates started in Spain in the late 15th century, and never really went away until the 19th century. The French Revolution (which began in 1789) sparked real concerns in Spain. King Charles IV worried about how his people might regard the wealth and power not only of the monarchy, but also of the church. With this in mind, he took steps to clip the wings of the Spanish Inquisition. A number of the monolithic Catholic organisations were anathema to the enlightenment ideals of revolutionary France, and there were a number of times Napoleon (and others) dismantled century old ‘Holy Cows’ in the name of modernity. Read more | What triggered the French Revolution? When the French invaded Malta they had ended the Hospitallers; a religious organisation founded in the Middle Ages. Napoleon also abolished another ancient organisation, the Holy Roman Empire, the argument being that it too was a remnant of a theocratic past incompatible with a new Europe. So it should therefore come as little surprise that once the French invaded Spain, it was Joseph Bonaparte who tried to abolish the Spanish Inquisition once and for all. However, Bonaparte was king of Spain from 1808 to 1813, which wasn't long enough to overthrow all the old ways. Consequently, by 1814 the inquisition was back in business. The last person to be killed by the Spanish Inquisition was a teacher in 1826, for suggesting so-called heretical ideas. The inquisition was officially abolished in 1834. The showdown at Waterloo was delayed due to rain With the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny fought on 16 June 1815, and all the main forces still in roughly the same area, it would have been safe to assume that the next clash would be on the 17th. However, there were surprises in store for everyone. First of all, Marshall Ney, Napoleon’s right-hand man returned to Quatre Bras to fight the second round of this encounter… except that when he got there, he found that Wellington had largely moved on. The challenge then was to find the allied positions and engage. However, while a brief skirmish did take place between the British and French on the 17th, it quickly faded as the heavens opened and torrential rain lashed all the armies for hours. A year earlier, Wellington had been in this very region, and had recognised that a ridge with a reverse slope would be the perfect defensive position for a battle, should one ever take place in the area. Now was the time, and he positioned his forces both along and behind the ridge, located near the small Belgian town of Waterloo. Read more | How the French won Waterloo (or think they did) Wellington spent the night at a Waterloo inn, impatiently waiting for communication from the Prussian leader Blücher. It finally came at around 2am. After that, Wellington was wide awake and spent the rest of the night consulting with his officers and sending out orders. Blücher’s message had been delayed while he argued with his subordinate, Gneisenau, about how their forces could effectively work with Wellington’s. Blücher knew that a concentration of troops was the best bet to beat Napoleon; however, Gneisenau distrusted the British. Meanwhile, Napoleon was unusually indecisive. Grouchy had not advanced as fast as he’d hoped, and in the middle of the night Napoleon was seen going for a walk. He sent ambiguous orders to Grouchy who, instead of coming to his aid, continued to advance towards Wavre. Napoleon bedded down in a farmhouse and, in the morning, had fine breakfast with his officers. When they expressed concerns about Wellington – the only major allied general Napoleon had yet to face on the battlefield – Napoleon admonished them by saying: “Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general; the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast.” On the morning of 18 June, Napoleon delayed the start of battle as he waited for the ground to harden after the downpour of the previous day. This, he believed, would make it easier to reposition his artillery, and would allow better conditions for cavalry movements. He gave Ney operational command and could be seen sitting in an armchair, miles from the front line. It seems that Napoleon had been, once again, struck down with illness, and his haemorrhoids made it impossible for him to remain in the saddle for the whole day. Waterloo was not the final battle against France Conflicts are messy. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that there is no neat ending to this period of warfare. Waterloo was undeniably the most pivotal battle of this campaign, and it shattered Napoleon’s authority – less than a week after the battle, Napoleon abdicated. But the fighting had been in Belgium, and the race was now on to get to the French capital to ensure an allied army was present to oversee the dismantling of Napoleonic power and the return of Louis XVIII. Read more | What is the significance of Waterloo? The French, however, didn’t see things in quite the same way. They had around 65,000 troops in the area [25,000 others had been killed or wounded at Waterloo, and 9,000 captured], and French General Vandamme led part of that army out to meet the approaching Prussians at a small town to the south of Paris. Wellington’s forces were also on their way, so quite what Vandamme was hoping to achieve is uncertain. He might not have been able to win in the long run, but in the short term he’d be damned if he’d allow Blücher to march to the capital without a fight. The allies had come in a southerly direction because Paris’s main defences had been constructed north of the Seine. The battle was a Prussian/French affair because Vandamme chose to attack Blücher, rather than Wellington. Battle commenced on 2 July 1815 around the town of Issy and the commanding heights of Meudon. That night a council in Paris discussed whether it was time to surrender; however, it was Davout, one of Napoleon’s most loyal and talented marshals, who dug in his heels and insisted that Vandamme should try to oust the Prussians from their position. The next day the French attacked the Prussians (who by now had barricaded themselves in) with artillery fire. Then the French infantry advanced. After fierce fighting, the French were driven back, only to regroup and try to break the Prussians once more. This attempt also failed, and for the rest of the day the French alternated between pounding the Prussians with cannon fire and then surging forwards with an infantry assault. But the French never threw everything they had into any assault. Vandamme, for reasons unknown, never fully committed to the battle, and because of this the Prussians were able to hold their positions (despite high casualties). Ultimately, the French were forced to retreat back to Paris. The Prussians pursued Vandamme’s retreating men, and some forward units even clashed with the French rear guard in the Parisian suburbs. This was quickly followed by a unilateral French ceasefire, and by now, Wellington had linked up with Blücher. Allied negotiators met French representatives at the Palace of St Cloud, chosen as a relatively neutral location. It was here that Paris formally surrendered in a hastily created document now rather formally known as ‘The Convention of St Cloud’. Ironically, the palace was destroyed by German troops the next time the Prussians attacked Paris, in 1870. In summary, the Napoleonic Wars are like most of history – a swirling mass of facts, with areas that simply don’t fit into an easy narrative. But they shaped the political and cultural landscapes from Egypt to Russia and from Argentina to Belgium. Today, their legacy reverberates throughout Europe and beyond. The above facts are abridged versions taken from Jem Duducu’s The Napoleonic Wars in 100 Facts (Amberley Publishing, 2015). Find out more, and you can also follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @JemDuducu This article was first published by HistoryExtra in June 2015
The Napoleonic Wars: everything you wanted to know
Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
Mike Rapport tackles listener questions about the 19th-century conflicts that tore Europe apart and had repercussions across the globe
Dr Mike Rapport tackles popular search queries and listener questions about the 19th-century conflicts that tore Europe apart and triggered seismic political changes around the globe. He speaks to Jon Bauckham about the causes of the Napoleonic wars, the pivotal battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo, and the life of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. Read more | Napoleonic Wars timeline: the key dates you need to know How to download the HistoryExtra podcast Download as MP3 Explore more content from week three of our Regency course: War and Conflict, with Dr Lizzie Rogers – watching time 11 mins Uncertainty and unrest: the madness of the Regency period – reading time 8 mins Peterloo: the story of a massacre – listening time 37 mins Reading between the lines: the real-life events that inspired Jane Austen – reading time 6 mins 1816: the year without summer – reading time 9 mins Regency Britain: An age of war and revolution – reading time 6 mins The Peterloo Massacre: what did it achieve? – reading time 6 mins
Napoleon's planned invasion of England: what went wrong?
On 2 December 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of France, and his imperial ambitions extended to the islands across the Channel. Nicholas Best explains how Napoleon intended to invade Britain, and what Britain planned to do to stop him.
Napoleon’s coronation took place in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, on 2 December 1804. Clad from head to toe in satin and diamonds, he marched up the aisle, wearing high-heeled shoes and carrying the sceptre of Charlemagne in his right hand. He was received by the Pope, who had travelled from Rome for the enthronement. In a ceremony that was partly religious but mostly secular, Napoleon was crowned with a diadem of gold laurel leaves designed to make him look like a Roman emperor. He placed the crown firmly on his own head at the climax of the proceedings, rather than receive it from the Catholic Church, as custom demanded. The Pope looked on with barely suppressed disapproval. Afterwards, Napoleon and his wife Josephine emerged from Notre-Dame to a mixed reception from the crowds lining the streets for the procession. Whatever his military achievements, Napoleon was far from popular with the ordinary people of Paris. They enjoyed the spectacle of the coronation – all the fireworks and illuminations – but they had little real enthusiasm for Napoleon himself, as he sourly noted. If anything, they preferred his wife. It was a critical time for Napoleon. He had been declared emperor in May as a “sure means of establishing peace and quiet in France”. Despite the horrors of the French Revolution, the country was still monarchist at heart and had grown weary of the constant plots against its head of state. By making Napoleon emperor and guaranteeing the succession to his heirs, the French were hoping to put an end to the attempts on his life and secure the continuity and stability of the new regime. But there were still plenty of people in France who preferred a return of the Bourbons to the promotion of this Corsican upstart. Napoleon’s chance: why the French Revolution was Bonaparte’s big break The ending of privilege in France gave the young Napoleon the opportunity to shine in his military career, says Marisa Linton, but what really allowed him to rise to the top was his astute exploitation of the political instability and years of war that followed the French Revolution... The flames of discontent were vigorously fanned by the British, who saw Napoleon as a threat to world order. Convinced that he was using the Peace of Amiens as a breathing space in his quest for domination of Europe, the British had declared war again in May 1803, before Napoleon could complete the build-up of his armed forces. Their aim now was to topple him by any legitimate means possible. They baulked at assassinating a foreign head of state, but were quite happy to finance Napoleon’s overthrow by his own people, if it could be arranged. Large supplies of gold coin were stored at Walmer Castle, Kent, for the purpose. The money was shipped across to France at night, along with a constant stream of spies and agents provocateurs seeking to bring an end to Napoleon’s rule. The traffic was so intense that Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, had lodged a formal protest, accusing the British of interfering in France’s internal affairs. The British had huffed and puffed, but had been unable to deny this diplomatic faux pas. “It is an acknowledged Right of Belligerent Powers to avail themselves of any discontents existing in the countries with which they happen to be at war,” they had claimed in response. The French in turn had decided that the quickest way to end the war was to invade Britain before the British could effect an alliance with Russia and Austria. Once the British had been subdued, there would be no alliance and Napoleon would be free to concentrate on his ambitions in Italy, Egypt, Turkey and northern Europe. He coveted Britain’s imperial possessions as well – the sugar islands of the West Indies and the seemingly bottomless resources of India. His aim was for France to supplant Britain as the richest and most powerful trading nation on Earth, with himself at the country’s head. He saw himself as another Charlemagne, moulding all of western Europe into a new Frankish empire. There would be little to stop him, once the British were out of the way. Napoleon's Grand Army Napoleon began to assemble his invasion force immediately after the resumption of the war in 1803. Later to be renamed the Grand Army, it was known initially as the Army of England and at its peak numbered perhaps 167,000 men – an astonishing figure in the days when the logistics of maintaining a large force were far more formidable than now. Most were housed in camps specially built along the cliff tops between Calais and Boulogne, with a perfect view of England in clear weather. The troops looking across the Channel were the elite of the French army, carefully selected for the task ahead. Almost all the officers had seen active service in Italy, Egypt and other campaigns. So had more than half the men. With commanders as distinguished as Ney, Soult and Davout, there had never been an army like it in modern times. “I do not believe,” wrote one of their junior officers, “that there existed at any period, nor in any country, such an excellent military school as there was at the Boulogne camp. The general who had command of it, the generals under his orders, and the troops which it comprised were all drafted from the pick of the French army, and the greatest general that had ever appeared, Napoleon Bonaparte, used to come himself frequently to inspect those old troops and the young fighting men who were being formed under those excellent models”. Napoleon's 'bat hat' and more: his life in 10 objects Two hundred years after his death, Nicole Cochrane and Emma Butcher examine 10 objects that offer us a fresh perspective on the French emperor The new emperor knew exactly what he would do when his men had captured London. Napoleon claimed: “With God’s help I will put an end to the future and very existence of England.” King George would be overthrown and a republic proclaimed, with liberty, equality and fraternity for all. The nobility would be abolished and their lands and fine houses would be confiscated. The House of Lords would be abolished as well. The House of Commons would be allowed to remain, but only after major reform. There would be democracy for all and a redistribution of property in favour of the ordinary working man. A proclamation was to be issued, announcing that the French came as friends, to restore popular government and liberate common people from a corrupt aristocracy. Before any of that could be done however, Napoleon had to get his troops across the Channel. They practised the invasion repeatedly on nearby beaches, storming ashore from their landing craft to seize the cliffs of Boulogne. Sometimes they came ashore under gunfire from their own batteries, to give them a taste of what the real thing would be like. For the younger soldiers, these live-firing exercises were often all too realistic: “During a practice attack, I sniffed the scent of powder for the first time and received my baptism of fire. I hate to admit it, but I was really frightened! The terrible reality of danger, the brutality of cannon balls, bullets flying, corpses lying around would make any recruit’s heart beat faster. But we soon got used to it. A searching look from the veterans, a scornful smile, above all the fear of ridicule, banished all nervousness and we ended up encouraging danger”. Britain will be mine, all mine Napoleon oversaw the training from a wooden pavilion that had been built for him at Boulogne, on the cliff next to the telegraph station. The pavilion contained a four foot telescope on a mahogany tripod, pointing towards Dover. On clear days, Napoleon liked to look across the sea to the castle, muttering to himself that England would be his with a few hours of calm weather. It was in the pavilion that his admirals tried to explain the difficulties of the invasion to him. Napoleon had assembled a flotilla of more than 2,000 vessels for the crossing, but they were crammed so tight into the Channel ports that it would be impossible to launch them all on one tide. It would need several days of calm weather to get all the ships to sea, by which time the Royal Navy would certainly have launched a counter-attack. There were sandbanks to negotiate as well, and treacherous currents off the English coast. The flotilla’s flat-bottomed barges were ideal for running troops ashore, but highly unsafe for a Channel crossing. They would be swamped in even the lightest of swells, and thousands would drown. The whole operation was fraught with difficulties that Napoleon, a soldier rather than a sailor, had not properly considered when he drew up his plans. But he was determined to invade, whatever the problems might be. He would not have a free hand in the rest of Europe until the British had been eliminated. The British knew it and stepped up their espionage as Napoleon’s activities gathered pace. In June 1804 alone, eight smartly dressed Englishmen had been captured at Boulogne, carrying incendiary devices to set fire to the flotilla. They were shot within the hour. The men were followed by another Englishman who was searched in front of Napoleon himself and found to have a map sewn into his clothes. The map showed all the latest Boulogne fortifications, including Napoleon’s pavilion on the cliff. “All right,” the man admitted, as the French ripped the lining of his waistcoat. “The game’s up. There’s 20 guineas gone.” Boldest of all was the beautiful English blonde who presented herself to Napoleon’s staff one day, insisting that she had a message for the emperor’s ears alone. She was almost certainly a spy, hoping to get secrets out of him in bed, but Napoleon saw her anyway, granting her an audience in his pavilion. He fended off her advances and sent her away empty-handed. With the flotilla assembled and the army ready to go, the only remaining obstacle to the invasion was the Royal Navy, which maintained a constant blockade of the Channel ports. In spring 1805, Napoleon devised a plan to lure the navy away by sending Admiral Villeneuve and a large Franco-Spanish fleet to attack British interests in the West Indies. He reasoned that the Royal Navy would have to abandon its blockade and follow, rather than see Britain’s sugar islands captured by the French. Napoleon Bonaparte's greatest triumphs and disasters He himself added to the deception by embarking on a tour of Italy to lull the British into a false sense of security. He returned secretly in July and headed back to Boulogne on 3 August to launch the invasion – only to discover the Royal Navy blockade still in place. Undaunted, Napoleon pinned his hopes on Villeneuve’s return from the West Indies. At 3am on 21 August, apparently under the impression that Villeneuve’s fleet would appear with the dawn to protect his flotilla from the Royal Navy, Napoleon gave the order for the invasion to proceed. His step-daughter Hortense was at a military ball when word came for officers to rejoin their units at once and embark the landing craft. She followed as they galloped through the night to Boulogne. “I myself felt overcome with an inexpressible emotion at the idea that such a momentous event was happening before my eyes. I already imagined that I was witnessing the naval battle and seeing our vessels plunge into the watery deep. I trembled at the thought.” In the event though, Villeneuve’s ships did not appear at dawn and Napoleon cancelled the invasion, declaring that it had all just been a training exercise. His troops were outraged as they disembarked and trudged back to camp. Many had sold their watches so as to have spending money in London. Fortune smiles on Britain A few days later, Napoleon paraded his troops again and gave them some astonishing news. Alarmed at Napoleon’s annexation of territory during his Italian tour, and funded with English gold, the Austrians had declared war on France. They had invaded Bavaria, where they intended to link up with the Russian army and attack France across the Rhine. Napoleon responded at once. Leaving 25,000 troops behind to keep the English guessing, he ordered the rest to march to the Rhine immediately. The Grand Army left within hours, hurrying across France at breakneck speed. They took the Austrians by surprise, defeating them first at Ulm, then decisively at the battle of Austerlitz. Napoleon had intended to double back thereafter and renew his attack on Britain, but Villeneuve’s fleet had ceased to exist by then, destroyed at the battle of Trafalgar. Britain was safe from invasion, but Napoleon reigned supreme in Europe. The war dragged on for another ten years. Britain was ill-prepared for an attack, had Napoleon landed Invasion seemed imminent to the British after the resumption of the war in 1803. The tents of Napoleon’s army were clearly visible along the cliffs between Calais and Boulogne, growing more numerous by the day. The army’s lights shone threateningly at night and its guns could sometimes be heard booming across the water. More than once, people in Dover and Folkestone packed their valuables and fled inland, convinced that the activity on the opposite shore heralded the beginning of the invasion. The country was woefully ill-prepared for an attack. The navy was short of ships and the army thinly spread along an invasion coastline stretching from Yarmouth to Land’s End. Thousands of civilians had rushed to join the Militia or the Volunteers, but there weren’t enough uniforms for them at first, let alone weapons. “You must train yourselves to wield a pitch-fork, or a hedgestake, if you cannot procure a musquet”, they were advised instead. The coast had few permanent defences either. Apart from Dover Castle and a couple of crumbling Tudor forts, Kent and Sussex had no military strong points. The defences were so weak that General Bonaparte and his army would almost certainly be in London within five days of coming ashore. Napoleon's planned invasion of Britain: how the threat fizzled out 27 March 1802 | Unable to defeat each other after nine years of war, Britain and France agree an uneasy peace in the Treaty of Amiens 17 May 1803 | France continues to annex territory. Britain declares war again before the French complete their naval expansion May 1804 | Pitt succeeds Addington as Britain’s prime minister and turns his attention to Napoleon’s gathering invasion forces 5 October 1804 | Spanish ships with bullion for Napoleon are waylaid by the Royal Navy with great loss of life; Spain declares war in December 2 December 1804 | Napoleon crowns himself at Notre Dame while the Pope looks on. Governments all across Europe are horrified 29 March 1805 | Admiral Villeneuve’s fleet leaves Toulon for the West Indies, hoping to lure the Royal Navy away from its defence of the English Channel April 1805 | Napoleon begins a tour of north Italy, planning to lull the British into a false sense of security before returning secretly to Boulogne to launch an invasion May 1805 | Napoleon annexes more Italian territory, forcing Russia and Austria into a military alliance with Britain as the only way to stop him 22 July 1805 | Villeneuve’s Franco-Spanish fleet returns from the West Indies, aiming for Boulogne. Intercepted by the Royal Navy, it retreats to Cadiz instead August–December 1805 | Napoleon speeds his army across France as the Austrians invade Bavaria to attack France while the Grand Army is in Boulogne. The Austrians are routed at Austerlitz 21 October 1805 | Lord Nelson attacks Villeneuve’s fleet off Cape Trafalgar, south of Cadiz. Twenty enemy ships are destroyed. The remainder never fight again The battle of Trafalgar, hour by hour: what happened and why did Britain win? Admiral Nelson spent 10 months hunting the French fleet. Finally, as it left Cadiz, he had his chance to destroy forever Napoleon's hopes of invading Britain. Tim Clayton describes the dramatic clash between 60 warships when in October 1805 the two sides met at last... <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2005/10/GettyImages-629457381-0d82b6a.jpg" width="4643" height="3058" alt="A painting by Louis Philippe Crepin depicting the battle of Trafalgar, 1805. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)" title="A painting by Louis Philippe Crepin depicting the battle of Trafalgar, 1805. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)" /> Nicholas Best is an author and former literary critic for the Financial Times. His books include Trafalgar: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sea Battle in History This article was first published in the December 2004 issue of BBC History Magazine
Napoleon on St Helena: how exile became the French emperor's last battle
He’d already escaped one island internment, but Napoleon’s banishment to St Helena in 1815 was permanent. All at sea in the Atlantic, the fallen French ruler’s final years were a battle of a different kind, writes historian Julian Humphrys
The isle of St Helena, 4,500 miles from England and 1,200 miles from West Africa, was once described as being the place “further away from anywhere else in all the world”. So when, in 1815, the British government was looking for somewhere secure to house Napoleon Bonaparte – who not long before had abdicated as Emperor of France and surrendered to them – St Helena seemed the ideal place. This was the second time Napoleon had abdicated. He did so for the first on 6 April 1814; Paris had fallen to the European coalition formed against him, the Duke of Wellington had crossed the Pyrenees and invaded the south of France, and Napoleon’s marshals were no longer prepared to fight on. 7 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Napoleonic Wars The defeated emperor was treated relatively generously by the victorious allies. They sent him to rule the Mediterranean island of Elba and even allowed him to take a tiny army with him, chiefly drawn from his Imperial Guard. Energetic as ever, Napoleon busied himself with a series of improvements to the island’s infrastructure, but he always kept a close eye on European affairs. Aware of the growing unpopularity of the restored French monarchy, he soon decided to take a gamble. Slipping away from Elba with a small force, he landed in France near Antibes on 1 March 1815. As he headed north, the troops sent to intercept him came over to his side in droves and – on 20 March – he was back in the Tuileries Palace in Paris, which had been hastily abandoned by Louis XVIII. The nations of Europe began mobilising once more, but Napoleon struck first, attacking an allied army under Wellington and a Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher in what is now Belgium. Napoleon initially caught his enemies on the hop, but on 18 June he was crushingly defeated at the battle of Waterloo. Four days later, after what has become known as the Hundred Days, he abdicated for a second time. View Riddle on the source website Napoleon’s immediate plan was to try and escape to America. He made for Rochefort on the west coast of France, where he hoped a frigate would transport him across the Atlantic. But there was a major flaw – the port was blockaded by the Royal Navy in the form of the 74-gun HMS Bellerophon, a veteran of Britain’s wars against the French. Napoleon’s life was now genuinely in danger: there was little doubt that both the restored French monarchy and the Prussians would have executed him had he fallen into their hands. Eventually, he and his advisors realised that the only option was to surrender to the British, whom Napoleon described in a letter to the future George IV, then Prince Regent, as “the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous” of his enemies. On the morning of Saturday 15 July, Napoleon boarded the Bellerophon and surrendered to its captain, Frederick Maitland. As the ship set off for England, the British government had already decided what to do with their exalted prisoner. Napoleon clearly hoped that he would be given an estate in Britain on which he could live out his days. Indeed, that’s what he claimed he’d been promised by Maitland – a claim vigorously denied by the captain himself. But there was little chance that the British government would allow such a dangerous figure to live in their midst. Bad manners and a game of thrones: inside the court of Napoleon Bonaparte They needed somewhere secure – and a very long way away. And in the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, they had the very place. The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, wrote that it was “the place in the world best calculated for the confinement of such a person”, adding that “there is only one place ... where ships can anchor, and we have the power of excluding neutral ships altogether”. He goes on to say that “at such a place and such a distance all intrigue would be impossible; and, being so far from the European world, [Napoleon] would soon be forgotten”. How wrong he was about the last bit. On 24 July, the Bellerophon anchored off Torbay. The news that Napoleon was on board leaked out, and soon the old warship was surrounded by hundreds of small craft, all packed with passengers desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of the fallen emperor. A similar scene was played out two days later when she anchored off Plymouth, and it was there that a furious Napoleon learned of his final destination. On 7 August, Napoleon and 26 companions boarded the HMS Northumberland as the long voyage south began. More had wanted to go with him, but the British were wary of creating a Napoleonic colony on the island and so restricted the number. Who was with Napoleon on St Helena? Henri-Gatien Bertrand A talented general and loyal servant of Napoleon. His wife became hysterical and tried to jump overboard when she heard that she and her husband were accompanying the fallen emperor to St Helena. He stayed with Napoleon until his death and was a member of the expedition sent to recover his remains in 1840. Charlestristan De Montholon A general and diplomat. His wife Albine is reputed to have been Napoleon’s mistress on St Helena. Although she would leave the island in 1818, Montholon stayed with Napoleon at Longwood until his death. Emmanuel, Count De Las Cases A former royalist who became a chamberlain of Napoleon. He took copious notes of his conversations and later published them as The Memorial of St Helena. He was expelled from the island in November 1816 when it was discovered he was smuggling secret correspondence. Gaspard Gourgaud Soldier who fought in many of Napoleon’s battles and saved his life at the Battle of Brienne in 1814. Despite insisting on accompanying Napoleon to St Helena, his hot-headed nature led to friction with the other companions and, in 1818, he was permitted to leave the island. It wasn’t until 14 October that the black, volcanic cliffs of St Helena came into view. Predictably, Napoleon was far from impressed, remarking that he would have been better off if he had stayed in Egypt. Three days later, he disembarked with his entourage at Jamestown, the island’s main settlement. Longwood House, the residence set aside for him, wasn’t ready, and so while the Northumberland’s carpenters busied themselves repairing it, Napoleon spent seven weeks in The Briars, a bungalow near to Jamestown that was the residence of William Balcombe, an official of the East India Company. While he was there he struck up an avuncular friendship with Balcombe’s 14-year-old daughter, Betsy. Christmas at Longwood House On 10 December 1815, he finally moved into Longwood, the house that, despite his protests, would be his home for the rest of his life. Longwood was a large, rambling single-storey building set amongst lava fields on a high plateau, near the stunted trees of the rather ominously named Deadwood Plain. Although it hardly compared with the palaces of Europe, Longwood was spacious by St Helena standards: it had room for Napoleon’s entourage as well as a billiard room, salon, library and dining room. On the other hand, its lofty location meant that it missed out on the pleasant climate enjoyed by the inhabitants down at Jamestown. It was windswept, regularly swathed in clouds and full of damp. How tall was Napoleon Bonaparte? While this made for rather unpleasant living conditions, Napoleon saw an opportunity to get off the island by claiming that its unhealthy climate was ruining his health. His argument was backed up by his doctor, Barry O’Meara, who had completely fallen for his patient’s famous charm and remained a devotee of the ex-emperor until his death. Meanwhile, his adherents bombarded Europe with letters and pamphlets complaining of unhealthy conditions, unnecessary restrictions, insults and poor provisions - and laid the blame squarely on the new governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, who had arrived on the island in April 1816. Lowe’s first meeting with Napoleon went badly, and things didn’t get any better. Even though they lived just three miles apart they only met sixm times in the first four months that Lowe was on St Helena, and then never saw each other again. Lowe has been described as a tactless martinet, but in these stormy meetings he retained his self-control even when Napoleon accused him of being a clerk and not a soldier. Napoleon’s comment was not only provocative, it was inaccurate. Lowe had campaigned all around the Mediterranean - much of it in command of a unit formed from anti-French Corsicans. He had been the senior British officer present at the battle of Leipzig in 1813 and was the first officer to bring Britain news of Napoleon’s abdication in 1814. General Sir John Moore thought highly of him, saying when “Lowe’s at the outposts I’m sure of a good night”. Wellington was less impressed, calling him “a damned old fool”. As a soldier, Lowe seems to have been diligent and reliable rather than brilliant and imaginative, but that was exactly what was required for this job. In any case, what other senior officer would have taken the position? As Lord Bathurst wrote to the Duke of Wellington, he did not believe that they “could have found a fitter person of his rank in the army willing to accept a situation of so much confinement, responsibility and exclusion from society”. Napoleon's second exile on St Helena Napoleon’s life on St Helena was governed by a mass of restrictive regulations, all enforced by Lowe. He was denied newspapers, subjected to a curfew, watched all the time and heavily guarded, with 125 men stationed around Longwood in the day and 72 at night. He was, in effect, under house arrest. Lowe is frequently seen as the architect of these regulations, but in fact he was merely carrying out specific instructions sent to him from London. Napoleon had escaped from an island before, and the British weren’t taking any chances. Lowe had been sent to do a job and he followed his instructions to the letter. During his first couple of years on St Helena, Napoleon took regular walks, went riding and spent much of his time reminiscing and dictating his memoirs to his companions. But as time went on, and the months turned into years, loneliness and boredom began to take its toll. Napoleon became increasingly lethargic and depressed, spending long hours sitting alone or lying on his bed. Why Napoleon merits the title ‘the Great’ By 1820, it was clear that he was seriously ill. He suffered from abdominal pains, nausea, fevers, constipation and diarrhoea; his gums, lips and nails were colourless. For a while, he thought he was being poisoned, but then decided that he’d the same cancer that had killed his father. But there was still time for one last swipe at the British, and at Lowe in particular. Dictating his last will and testament in April 1821, he added, “My death is premature. I have been assassinated by the English oligopoly and their hired murderer.” Although some conspiracy theorists have taken these words literally, Napoleon was probably implying that the authorities’ refusal to agree to his demands to be moved from the unhealthy Longwood had hastened his death. On 4 May, he lost consciousness; the following day, surrounded by his companions, he died. Was Napoleon murdered? Did Napoleon meet a sticky end? The doctors who attended his autopsy certainly didn't think so. As far as they were concerned, Napoleon had died of stomach cancer, but rumours that Napoleon might have been a target for something more sinister had been around for years &ndash; since 1818, when Barry O'Meara, the Royal Navy surgeon who had been Napoleon's doctor, insinuated that Sir Hudson Lowe had once asked him to shorten Napoleon's life. The British authorities took a dim view of O'Meara's claims and he was dismissed, but the idea that Napoleon could have been murdered lingered. Eventually, in the 1960s, an analysis of a lock of Napoleon's hair proved that he had high levels of arsenic in his system, leading some to argue that Napoleon had been poisoned, probably by the British government. But others, while agreeing that arsenic might have killed Napoleon, argued that it was more likely to have been accidental. An analysis of the wallpaper from Longwood did indeed show that it contained an arsenic-based dye that mould transformed into poisonous fumes. Later researchers tested hairs from some of Napoleon's contemporaries and concluded that by modern standards they all had abnormally high levels of arsenic, for at the time it was widely used in paint, tapestry, medicine and even the preservation of food. The final blow to the murder by arsenic theory was struck by a team of Italian scientists a decade ago, who analysed hairs taken from Napoleon&rsquo;s head at various times in his life (including when he was a boy) and discovered that the arsenic levels were the same in all of them. The doctors had almost certainly been right all along. Read next: Where is Napoleon buried? Julian Humphrys is a historian and battlefields expert This content first appeared in the December 2018 issue of BBC History Revealed
Napoleon's comeback: from exile on Elba to the Hundred Days
After abdication, exile and humiliation, the ex-emperor of France was down, but not out. Soon enough, Napoleon launched his return to greatness, and to the battlefield…
The former master of Europe was now the nominal monarch of an obscure island. In exile on Elba, he was surrounded by the faded trappings of court ceremony, while the pension promised to him did not materialise. Napoleon wrote again and again to his wife Marie Louise, the daughter of the Austrian emperor, asking her to come to him. Even if she could not or would not, he begged her to send their infant son. Neither request was granted as, although he did not know it, the letters were intercepted by his wife’s family and never reached her. Napoleon's exile on Elba A Napoleon who longs for his wife and child may cut a very human figure, but he remained the ambitious, supremely self-confident gambler who had made himself emperor. As the months passed, he received regular reports on events in Europe and sensed a shift. The Bourbon King Louis XVIII, younger brother of the man beheaded in 1793, returned to rule France. Ageing, overweight and lacking charisma, he had spent the last decades as an exile in Britain. He did not know his subjects and they did not know him. The same was true of all the royalist exiles who returned with him and received plum posts in government and the army. This was no longer the France of before the Revolution. Napoleon’s soldiers resented the drastic reduction in size of the army and being made to serve under exiles who had never smelled powder. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war returned home and were left unemployed and resentful of their former captors. Civilians saw the royal court as corrupt, incompetent and arrogant. At the same time, the great powers met at the Congress of Vienna to decide the shape of Europe, where memories of their recent alliance quickly faded as old rivalries reappeared. Disputes over territory became so bitter that there were fears of war. Napoleon watched and waited, sensing the game was not yet over, and that even from defeat he could somehow turn everything around. He could not delay too long. Given time, the new king might establish himself, the allies might settle their differences, and the outrage of his old soldiers might fade. At the end of February 1815, he slipped away from Elba, landing on the Côte d’Azure on 1 March. He had just 600 soldiers and Paris was almost as many miles away, but the march that followed became epic. Near Grenoble, a battalion of the 5th Line Infantry blocked their path. Not wanting civil war, Napoleon walked alone towards them – the soldiers tore off the white cockades of the Bourbon king and rallied to their emperor. His old commander, Marshal Ney, boasted that he would bring Napoleon back in an iron cage, but his troops also defected. Napoleon regains his army The closer he got to Paris, and the more soldiers joined him, the more respect he commanded, as shown in the way the story was told in the newspaper Le Moniteur. At first he was the “Corsican Ogre”, a “monster”, a “tyrant” and the “usurper”. Then he became “Bonaparte”, next “Napoleon”, until, on 22 March, the paper announced that “yesterday His Majesty” arrived in Paris. Louis XVIII had already fled to the Netherlands. Napoleon claimed that he wanted only to restore pride and prosperity to France, and wished for peace with his neighbours. The year when fear of Napoleon stalked the land As Britain's military fortunes ebbed and flowed in the run-up to Waterloo, the public mood routinely swung from joy to horror and back again, writes Jenny Uglow... For all their differences, the powers at Vienna would not accept the return of Napoleon, and none believed that he would keep the peace in the long run. Yet no one was ready to fight a war. Their armies had mainly returned home. The Russians and Austrians were not capable of taking the field before late summer at the earliest. A Prussian army could be mustered quicker than that, but it would not include many of their best troops. Even so, the army was sent to the Netherlands to act alongside a mixed force of Dutch, Belgian, German and British troops. Time was against Napoleon, and once again he worked miracles as he assembled an army, organising and equipping new units, but he could not afford to wait. If he remained on the defensive then, eventually, the allies would attack France in overwhelming numbers. Napoleon had to strike, and the only place he could do this was to hit the armies gathering in the Netherlands. Win a great victory there, and it might just make some of the allies waver and be willing to negotiate with him. At the very least, he could hope to inflict heavy losses and so start to even the odds against him. In the early hours of 15 June, the first French soldiers crossed the border into Belgium. The Hundred Days heat up Napoleon had 123,000 men and 358 cannon. Facing him were some 130,000 Prussians under Field Marshal Blücher and 100,000 men in the Anglo-Dutch army under the Duke of Wellington. Both armies included large numbers of inexperienced soldiers, and others who, until only recently, had fought as allies of the French. They were also widely dispersed to cover the border and to make it easier to billet and feed them. Napoleon’s troops were largely veterans, and he also had the even greater advantage that his opponents did not know when or where he would strike. He needed to hit the enemy hard before they could concentrate and, most of all, to prevent Wellington and Blücher joining together. How Napoleon was humbled was by his Russian campaign The Prussians guarded the frontier where the French invaded. Napoleon knew from experience that the old warrior was instinctively aggressive. On the other hand, Wellington was known to be cautious, and in the event misread the situation, for he was convinced that the French would swing around his right flank and try to cut him off from the shore – and his communications with Britain. It was not until late on 15 June that he realised his mistake, declaring “Napoleon has humbugged us, by God.” The realisation came at the Duchess of Richmond's ball, held in Brussels – much of London society had come to watch the war from a safe distance. Ligny and Quatre Bras The next day was hot and humid. Blücher had some two thirds of his army concentrated at Ligny. Wellington rode over to meet him, and promised to march to join him, but his army took too long to muster and part of it was attacked at the crossroads of Quatre Bras. Claims that Wellington duped his ally into fighting have often been made, but are unlikely to be true. Blücher was determined to fight and Napoleon readily obliged him. The battle of Ligny was an attritional pounding match, and the Prussians were ground down by the French artillery and driven from their positions by evening. 7 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Napoleonic Wars At Quatre Bras, the other wing of the French army was led by Marshal Ney. He had only arrived the afternoon before, after Napoleon’s original choice of general had fallen ill. Ney inflicted heavy losses on Wellington’s men, but was repulsed. Due to confusion over their orders, some 20,000 French infantry spent the day marching between the two battlefields and failed to intervene in either. On 17 June, Napoleon believed the Prussians were too badly damaged to pose an immediate threat, and detached some 35,000 men under Marshal Grouchy to follow Blücher and ensure that he did not join Wellington. Napoleon and Ney took the rest of the army, and followed Wellington. It took time for the French to marshal their forces, and so Wellington got his army away and retreated along the main road north to Brussels. During a day of downpours and thunderstorms, the British cavalry fought a series of delaying actions to keep the pursuers at bay. The rain continued through the night as the Anglo-Dutch army deployed along the ridge at Mont St Jean. Wellington had his headquarters in the village of Waterloo a little to the north, and kept his tradition of naming the battle after the place where he had slept the night before. What if Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo? Professor Alan Forrest considers whether Napoleon's victory at Waterloo would have been enough to secure a remarkable return to power – or if it would only have delayed the inevitable... <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2010/09/GettyImages-804444342-38a4fe0.jpg" width="600" height="413" alt="Napoleon watches on as the fighting at Waterloo unfolds in this 1843 painting" title="Napoleon watches on as the fighting at Waterloo unfolds: in real history, the clash would leave his army routed (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" /> The Sun came up in a clear sky on Sunday 18 June, with some of the French still marching to join the rest of the army facing the ridge. Napoleon expected the Anglo-Dutch to retreat again, and was pleased when they did not. Wellington was determined to fight, having received Blücher's promise to aid him with at least one of the four corps in his army. Napoleon trusted Grouchy to keep him away. He had never before faced the British in battle but, at least publicly, was dismissive. “Just because you have been beaten by Wellington,” he told his chief of staff, “you think he’s a good general. I tell you, Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast! The bitter end of the Hundred Days What followed was the battle of Waterloo. As his army collapsed into retreat, Napoleon took shelter in a solid square of Imperial Guardsmen before making his escape. The Prussians chased after the French. Wellington’s men sank down for an exhausted rest on the battlefield, surrounded by some 43,000 dead and wounded men and 12,000 fallen horses. Waterloo: what was the battle like for Wellington’s Redcoats? The war was not quite over. Grouchy fought a skilful delaying action on 19 June, and there was resistance to the allied advance in several fortified towns. Yet it was soon obvious that Napoleon could not recover from this defeat. The allies were at Paris by the beginning of July, and Napoleon surrendered to the British. This time, he was exiled to St Helena, a far-less accessible South Atlantic island. He died six years later. Dr Adrian Goldsworthy is an historian and novelist, and the author of several works of Napoleonic fiction This content first appeared in the April 2015 issue of BBC History Revealed