Napoleon I's first abdication
[1]To the south, on the Iberian front, the situation was not much better: the Pyrenees offensive, launched on July 25 under the command of Marshal Soult, ended on August 2 with the withdrawal of the French army from the region and the entry into France of the troops of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.
The Tsar was not opposed, but on learning of the defection of Marshal Marmont, who had been placed in the vanguard at Essonnes, he imposed unconditional abdication on Napoleon, who was now in the open.
[1] As the Tsar had promised a settlement outside France worthy of Emperor Napoleon, he proposed Corsica to Caulaincourt, who refused, as it was an integral part of the French nation, and asked for Sardinia.
The Treaty of Fontainebleau of April 11, 1814, stipulates that Napoleon retains his title of Emperor,[note 1] and receives full sovereignty over Elba along with an annuity of 2 million francs from the French government.
[1][2] Napoleon, who believed that the Allies would separate him from Empress Marie-Louise of Austria and their son, the King of Rome, took a dose of “Condorcet's poison” on the night of April 12/13, which he hoped would be the means of committing suicide.
When Dr Alexandre-Urbain Yvan arrived, Napoleon asked for an extra dose of poison, but the doctor refused, saying that he was not a murderer and would never do anything against his conscience.
As the Emperor's agony continued, Caulaincourt left the room to ask the chamber valet and the internal service to remain silent.
[8] On April 18, 1814, Count Pierre Dupont de l'Étang, Louis XVIII's Minister of War, sent a letter to General Jean-Baptiste Dalesme, who governed Elba on behalf of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Elisa Bonaparte, informing him that he must hand over the territory to Napoleon.
[1] Empress Marie-Louise initially offered to join her husband, but after meeting her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria, decided to travel to Vienna with her son.
It was made up of Marshals Ney, Augereau, and Macdonald, Minister Dupont, Generals Compans and Curial for the infantry, Latour-Maubourg and Préval for the cavalry, Sorbier and Évain for the artillery, Léry for the engineers, Kellermann for the guard, Commissary Marchand and revenue inspector Félix.
There, on Elba, the man who had dominated and ruled Europe behaved like a sovereign, meticulously regulating the government of a few square kilometers and a few thousand subjects.
Napoleon's plans were accelerated when it became clear that his former enemies and Louis XVIII's government were not fulfilling their commitments to him (particularly financial ones), and that there was talk of transferring him to a small island in the South Atlantic, St. Helena.
This marked the beginning of what history would remember as the “Hundred Days”, which led to the formation of the Seventh Coalition that eventually defeated Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, resulting in his final abdication and exile to the island of St. Helena, where he died in May 1821.
