Napoleon's First Abdication
By early April 1814, the Allied armies had crossed the Rhine and were advancing on Paris while Napoleon manoeuvred with a rump army in the east of France. On 30 March, Marmont's corps surrendered Paris after a day of fighting; on 31 March, Tsar Alexander I rode into the French capital. Napoleon's marshals, exhausted and unwilling to continue a war they believed lost, refused to march on Paris and effectively forced their emperor to negotiate. On 6 April 1814, at the Chateau de Fontainebleau, Napoleon signed the Act of Abdication — renouncing the thrones of France and Italy for himself and his heirs. The Treaty of Fontainebleau, negotiated by Talleyrand and the Allied powers, granted Napoleon sovereignty over the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, an annual pension of two million francs, and the right to retain his imperial title. Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne. The terms were notably lenient — too lenient, as events within a year would prove — reflecting Allied disagreement about the post-war order and a residual respect for Napoleon's stature. He departed for Elba on 20 April 1814, the soldiers of his Old Guard weeping as he embraced their standard.
- Year: 1814 CE
- Category: Political
