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Napoleon’s Capture, Exile, and Eventual Death
Most people forget about Napoleon after Waterloo
For most people, the story of Napoleon Bonaparte ends at Waterloo. Napoleon has a great run, he makes too many enemies, he invades Russia, and then falls in battle to the Duke of Wellington. Done. But what happened to Napoleon after his fateful defeat? How was he captured? Where did he end up? Most people move on after Napoleon’s final defeat. In fact, French history is oft-ignored following Waterloo until their renewed rise in the latter part of the century.
Napoleon was famously interred on the island of Elba. But he spent less than a year there before escaping. He returned to the mainland in the winter of 1815 and immediately gathered a large army to try and defeat France's many enemies. In 1815, the British had an army of 110,000 on the continent, and the Prussians had an army of 130,000. Napoleon hoped to divide these two armies, split them from one another, and defeat them one at a time before avenging the losses he suffered in Russia.
That didn’t happen.
Napoleon was unable to outmaneuver the enemy armies. Instead, he was pinned and defeated at Waterloo — as mentioned.
After Waterloo, Napoleon returned to Paris, hoping to find new support. Instead, he found a cold populace and a…
