Hundred Days

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HUNDRED DAYS

After being forced to unconditionally abdicate on 6 April 1814, deposed Emperor Napoleon I left France for exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. Restoration of the Bourbon regime followed when Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain placed the exiled Louis XVIII on the French throne. His subjects welcomed the time to recover from the bloody wars of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras that had cost millions of lives. The Bourbons offered the peace so desired by the French people, and the victorious powers believed that France's ancient ruling family would show its gratitude by being pliant in matters of foreign affairs. With France tired of war and a submissive ruler on its throne, the Allies believed that a peace based on sound principles could be concluded to restore the European balance.

Unfortunately for the well-intentioned but lackluster king, attempts to bolster his popularity by granting a liberal constitution failed because of deep-rooted popular suspicion of the Bourbons. Louis was despised. Among those groups most disaffected, the peasants feared the redistribution of land to compensate the nobles for land lost during the Revolution. Although the French government did not intend to comply with the resonant demands of this special interest group, the peasantry feared being betrayed by the Bourbons. Always a favorite among the peasants regardless of his crushing taxes and the wars that devoured their young, Napoleon became increasingly viewed as the guarantor of their land and thus of the Revolution.

Learning of the growing discontent in France, Napoleon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 in a great gamble to restore his empire. Escorted by one thousand soldiers, he landed in France near Antibes on 1 March. From Paris, Louis issued countless orders for Napoleon's arrest, but increasing numbers of soldiers joined their former emperor. Parisian mobs added to the king's discomfiture by rioting and posting placards calling for the death of the Bourbons. With Napoleon only one march away from the capital, the Bourbon court fled to Belgium. On the following evening, 20 March, Napoleon entered Paris, restored the empire, and began the Hundred Days: 20 March to 22 June 1815.

Napoleon found that the political climate had irrevocably changed, despite the popular support he received in Paris. In his absence, many former disciples had adopted the tenets of liberalism with its premium on constitutional government. Consequently, he failed to establish absolutist control over the government. In fact, a parliamentary system appeared to be the only means of establishing national unity. Yet the new era of political parties made it difficult to avoid alienating the various factions. Thus, when the new constitution formally established a parliamentary government on 23 April 1815, both leftists and conservatives felt slighted.

Napoleon's genius might well have enabled him to navigate these troubled waters had war not disturbed his work. By 1815 he was willing to accept being ruler of France rather than master of Europe. Despite his attempts to secure peace with the Allied powers, the Allies branded him "an Enemy and Disturber of the tranquility of the World." On 25 March, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain each agreed to furnish an army of 150,000 men and not lay down arms "until Bonaparte shall have been put absolutely beyond the possibility of exciting disturbances and of renewing his attempts to seize the supreme power in France."

Following his decisive defeat at Waterloo on 18 June, the French legislature demanded his abdication; Napoleon conceded on 22 June. He left the capital and retired to his home of Malmaison as the French legislature carried on the war. As Allied armies converged on Paris, the former emperor offered his services to the French government as a mere general, but was rebuffed. To speed Napoleon out of the country, the French government placed at his disposal a frigate in the port of Rochefort. Hoping to reach the United States, Napoleon arrived in Rochefort on 3 July—the same day that Paris capitulated—only to find the port blockaded by a British fleet. Learning that Louis had returned to Paris on 8 July and issued orders for his arrest, Napoleon sought amnesty with the British, and even thought they might allow him to settle in Great Britain. The British dashed this hope by imprisoning him on the rocky island of St. Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. By not executing the former emperor, as the Prussians desired, the British did not create a martyr for anti-Bourbonists to rally around. Far removed from Europe, Napoleon had no chance to repeat his escape from Elba. He died a prisoner on St. Helena on 5 May 1821.