The Surrender of Napoléon Bonaparte to the British in 1815
At around 7:30 in the evening of Sunday, 18 June 1815, Napoléon ordered his army to launch one final, desperate assault on the Anglo-Allied troops who stood between him and the town of Waterloo. His objective was to break through Wellington's defences before the growing pressure from the Prussian troops arriving on the battlefield on his right flank grew too much to bear.
The Emperor personally rode alongside his Imperial Guard as its band played patriotic tunes until he was some 500 metres away from the British lines. He then sent them on their way and rode back south to await the results of his attack.
It was an utter failure.
The French troops, including the previously-unbeatable Guard, were hurled back in disarray. Their retreat spread panic among the rest of the army, and soon almost all of them (with the famous exception of the unit commanded by Marshal Cambronne) were fleeing headlong from the battle.
Napoléon himself made a hasty exit, accompanied by a handful of companions and twelve mounted lancers as an escort. He rode south to Quatre-Bras where he hoped to find more troops who might be rallied, but they had also made themselves scarce. The Emperor and his escort therefore rode south through the night, reaching Philippeville by 9:00 am the following morning, having travelled 60 km in twelve hours.
Two days later on 21 June Napoléon was back in Paris. He hoped to assemble yet another army by collecting together whatever troops remained anywhere in France: but he soon saw it was futile. The Chamber of Deputies was hostile to him; his previously most loyal supporters including Ney and Davout turned against him. On 23 June Napóleon abdicated his throne and Joseph Fouché, the Police Minister, became head of a new provisional government.
Napoléon left Paris again on 29 June, just four days before Allied troops under Wellington and Blücher occupied the city. He made for the port of Rochefort in western France, and two frigates of the French navy were put on alert to help him flee the country. However, the British blockade squadron patrolling outside the port would make this problematic.
Napoléon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, the onetime King of Spain, arrived in Rochefort as well, and plans were made for the two of them to escape to the United States. Various schemes were hatched by Napoléon's companions to get the ex-Emperor past the British patrols, including hiding him inside a barrel. Joseph also loyally offered to disguise himself as his brother and make public appearances to draw people's attention while Napoléon escaped wearing a disguise of his own.
Napoléon, however, was not interested in these escape plans, and turned every idea down. He maintained that he would prefer to surrender honourably and place himself under the protection of his captors, rather than try to sneak away and risk getting caught and hauled out of his hiding place in disgrace. He did, however, give his blessing to Joseph to try to escape.
Accordingly, Joseph Bonaparte boarded the ship Commerce under the false name of Bouchard. The ship was stopped and searched no fewer than three times by British patrols, but they failed to detect the fugitive ex-king; and he arrived in New York City on 15 July. He lived in the United States for the next 17 years, initially supporting himself by selling the Spanish crown jewels, and he became a popular figure in American high society.
As for Napoléon, however, he carried out his decision to surrender to the Allies. He seems to have decided to give himself up to the British specifically, because he believed that they would treat him better than the Prussians or Austrians would.
On 10 July, a small French vessel flying a flag of truce approached the British ship-of-the-line HMS Bellerophon (74), the main ship of the Rochefort blockade squadron. It had two high-ranking envoys from the ex-Emperor aboard, and they informed Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon that Napoléon was considering surrender, and wished to discuss terms. They did ask if the British would be willing to let him go openly to the USA, but Maitland informed them that he had orders from his government not to allow this. He would, however, take the Emperor to Britain.
Napoléon thought it over, and eventually agreed to these terms. At 7.00 pm on 14 July his envoy, the Comte de las Casas, returned to the Bellerophon with a letter stating that Napoléon would give himself up to the British the following morning.
At dawn on 15 July Napoléon therefore boarded the brig Épervier and sailed to meet the British blockade squadron. Captain Maitland despatched one of his own own ship's boats to meet the French ship and collect the former Emperor. Napoléon boarded the British battleship at around 6:30 am, and was met by the Royal Marine sentries. He was escorted to the ship's quarterdeck where he took off his hat to the Captain and told him,
Je viens me mettre sous la protection de votre prince et de vos lois
(I come to put myself under the protection of your prince and your laws)
Maitland bowed in response. Just under a month after the Battle of Waterloo, Napoléon had surrendered himself to the British Royal Navy.
Maitland gave up his own captain’s cabin to the ex-Emperor, and invited him to dine with his officers that night. The following day he set sail back to England, a 8-day voyage.
However, when the Bellerophon reached port, Maitland was ordered by the Admiralty not to let Napoléon go ashore, and also not to let anyone else on board the ship, until the government had decided what to do with him. At the end of July, after two weeks in limbo, the decision came down: Napoléon was to be sent into exile in St Helena. This bitterly disappointed him; St Helena was even worse than Elba, and he had expected to be allowed to live as an exile in Britain.
On 7 August Napoléon transferred from the Bellerophon to another ship, HMS Northumberland, for the long voyage to the South Atlantic. He set foot on St Helena on 15 October, exactly three months after he had last walked on dry land, back in France.
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