Napoleon's March from Elba to Paris: 1815
British cartoon depicting Napoleon at Elba
During Napoleon’s rise to power, in which time he crowned himself Emperor[1], various coalitions comprised of other nations fought against France, yet none were able to stop him. Napoleon continued to conquer Europe. However in 1812, Napoleon’s conquest began to deteriorate. After the French invasion of Russia that caused him to lose a large portion of his army, the War of the Sixth Coalition[2] broke out, and French forces were defeated in the Battle of Leizpig. After this the coalition vowed to rid Paris of Napoleon. Eventually Napoleon was forced to step down from the throne on April 6th 1814 following the Coalition’s entrance into Paris a week earlier. King Louis XVIII would replace him. Napoleon was exiled to Elba, a small island off the coast of Tuscany, Italy suffering from poverty and food shortages. He spent nine months and twenty-one days there, watching as the French people become dissatisfied due to the return to royalist nobility and the way that they treated the people.
Napoleon wagered that if he were to escape Elba and return to France, he would be treated as a hero and he would have no problem garnering the support of his former people to march straight to Paris and reclaim the throne as Emperor. On February 26, 1815, he left the island to avoid starvation aboard a brig called the “Inconstant” with somewhere between 400 to 500 men.[3] He landed at Cannes[4] on March 1st, intending to travel to the city of Grasse, however the road he wanted to travel did not exist for the Bourbons had given up on expensive works in order to have money. It was known that Grasse was in favour of Royalist cause at the time, yet Napoleon’s sudden appearance led to submission towards the Emperor. After this display of loyalty to the Emperor, Napoleon began to march confidently to Paris as the population were in favour of his cause. There was zero opposition until they reached a battalion on the road the fifth day after landing at Cannes. The commanding officer of said battalion refused to talk to Napoleon. Hearing this, The Emperor took matters into his own hands and walked straight at the battalion with his 100 soldiers treading behind slowly, ripped open his jacket, exposed his chest to the entire battalion and shouted “Let him that has the heart kill the Emperor”[5]. Upon seeing this, the soldiers threw down their arms, tears in their eyes, and shouted “Vive l’Empereur!”
The battalion then joined Napoleon and they continued to march on together. Two days later, on the night of March 7th Napoleon stood before the walls of Grenoble.[6] Colonel Labedoyere, who had originally been sent to oppose Napoleon’s passage, joined him a short distance from the city. At first his troops had been reluctant, however the first battalion became crowded by thousands of country people shouting “Vive l’Empereur!” making the decision easy. The gates of Grenoble were closed shut, the commanding officer refusing to speak to Napoleon. Labedoyere was unsure what the garrison of the city was like. Even though the officer in command refused to open the gates, the garrison shouted over the walls “Vive l’Empereur!” and shook hands with Napoleon’s followers through the wickets. When it was decided that the gate would have to be forced down ten pieces of artillery were loaded with grapeshot[7] and the gate was destroyed. The soldiers inside greeted him with love and joy. The inhabitants of the city even presented him with the broken pieces of the gate as they were unable to give him keys to the city.
After Grenoble, Napoleon found no further opposition. When Napoleon arrived at Lyons on the 10th and stayed there for four days, there was upwards of twenty-thousand people continuously at his window. Napoleon issued orders, signed decrees and reviewed troops, almost as if he had never left. Between Lyons and Fontainebleau, Napoleon would often travel several miles ahead of his army with nothing more for an escort than a few soldiers. Everywhere they marched, the tri colour flags of national pride resumed their place. On the night of March the 19th, Napoleon arrived in Fontainebleau and strolled through the galleries of the palace where, not a year before, he had allegedly tried to commit suicide. It was around the same time Napoleon entered the city, that Louis XVIII left the Palace of the Tuileries. Napoleon would later reach Paris in the late evening of March 20th, 1815. He rode in an open carriage straight to the gates of the Tuilieres.
[1] Napoleon’s military success led to the commander becoming a hero among the French
[2] Part of the Napoleonic Wars, a coalition comprised of nine countries fought against the French Empire led by Napoleon
[3] Fauvelet De Bourrienne, Louis. Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1891. Print. P. 1054
[4] Cannes was a small seaport in the Gulf of St. Juan
[5] Ibid. P.1057
[6] Grenoble is located in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps
[7] A type of artillery shell that is a mass of small metal balls or slugs in a canvas bag. The balls resemble a cluster of grapes. When fired the balls spread out with the same effect as a shotgun