Utilisateur:ZaporojanGheorghe/sandbox
Departure from France[modifier | modifier le code]
The farewell at Fontainebleau[modifier | modifier le code]
"Soldiers of the Old Guard, I'm parting ways with you. For the past twenty years I have constantly seen you marching down the paths of honor and glory. In these last moments as in the times of our prosperity you have been nothing but examples of bravery and loyalty. With men like you our cause was not lost, but the war was endless: had there been a civil war, France would have become more sorrowful. I have, therefore, placed our homeland's interests above our own: I am leaving. You my friends keep serving France. I wanted nothing but our country's happiness; it will always be my dearest wish! Do not pity me: if I agreed to outlive myself it is for our country's glory. I want to write the great things that we achieved together! Goodbye my children! I would like to hold you all in my arms; let me salute your flag. Goodbye once again my dear companions. May this last kiss stay in your hearts!” - Baron Fain, Manuscrit de 1814
On 20 April the "Farewell at Fontainebleau" took place.
The road towards exile[modifier | modifier le code]
Before embarking for the island of Elba, Bonaparte's convoy from Fontainebleau to the Mediterranean Sea went through Provençal villages where he was booed. He had to disguise himself after almost being lynched in Orgon.[1] On 18 April 1814, Count Pierre Dupont de l'Etang, Minister of War to King Louis XVIII, sent a letter to General Jean-Baptiste Dalesme, governor of the island of Elba on behalf of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Elisa Bonaparte, saying that he must relinquish the territory to Napoleon. On 29 April 1814, Bonaparte left Saint-Raphaël on board of the English frigate Undaunted, reaching Portoferraio on 3 May 1814 and disembarking the next day. On that same day, King Louis XVIII arrived in Paris.
The Empress Marie-Louise initially wanted to join her husband, but after meeting her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria, she decided to go to Vienna with her son.
Military and Political consequences[modifier | modifier le code]
Military consequences[modifier | modifier le code]
After his reinstatement, Louis VIII decided to reorganise the army. He confirmed General Dupont as Minister of War. The royal ordinance of 6 May 1814 established a War Council tasked with reorganising the army. It was composed of Marshals Ney, Augereau and Macdonald, Minister Dupont, and Generals Compans and Curials for the infantry, Latour-Maubourd and Préval for the cavalry, Sorbier and Evain for the artillery, the engineer Léry, Kellerman for the guard, authorizing officer Marchand and muster inspector Félix.
The ordinance of 12 May reorganised the infantry, reducing the number of infantry line regiments to 90 and the number of light infantry regiments to 15.
Exile on the island of Elba and return to France (Hundred days)[modifier | modifier le code]
An "operetta kingdom"[modifier | modifier le code]
"For three hundred days, from May 1814 to February 1815, Napoleon reigned over 'an operetta kingdom' where the Allies had exiled him after the campaign in France. There, on the island of Elba, the man who had dominated and ruled Europe behaved like a sovereign, carefully regulating the government of a few square kilometers and a few thousand subjects. And he was very bored, so much so that, quickly, he planned to escape and return to France. Napoleon accelerated his plans when it appeared that his former enemies and the government of Louis XVIII did not respect their commitments (in particular financial) towards him, and that they began to speak of his transfer to a small island in the South Atlantic, Saint Helena. The emperor therefore decided to set out again to conquer his kingdom, with which he resumed contact for a hundred new days." - Guy Godlewski, Napoléon à l'île d'Elbe - 300 jours d'exil
On 1 March 1815, the former emperor landed at Vallauris at the head of the small troop that had followed him into exile. This started what History would remember as the "Hundred Days" which led to the formation of the seventh Coalition that finally defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. That defeat led him to his final abdication and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died in May 1821.
- Thierry Lentz, Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire: Les Cent-Jours, 1815, Fayard, 2002, p. 160.