Napoleon is declared Consul for Life

It went against everything the Revolution stood for, and yet, the majority of the French supported Napoleon’s Consulship for Life with the power to appoint his successor.

Although the result of the plebiscite was fixed, with 3,653,600 in favour to some 8,000 against, it was the first time in French history that over half of those eligible to vote had turned up. ‘You judged that I owed the people another sacrifice,’ said Napoleon on being told of the plebiscite results.

Sir Hudson Lowe is appointed as governor of St Helena and Napoleon’s jailer

Lowe arrived on St Helena in April 1816, four months after Napoleon had been exiled there. The arrival of Hudson Lowe made Napoleon’s confinement on the island very difficult. Although Napoleon presented the governor with a gold watch at their first meeting, their relationship deteriorated quickly.

Lowe was the worst possible choice the British government could have made for Napoleon’s jailer. He was petty, tactless, arrogant, small-minded, unimaginative, and obsessed with regulations. Comte de Montholon thus described Lowe: ‘An agent from heaven could not have pleased the governor of Saint Helena.’ Napoleon said to his face, ‘You are not a general, you’re only a clerk.’ Duke of Wellington called him ‘a man wanting in education and judgement, a stupid man’. He concluded that ‘he knew nothing at all of the world and like any man who knew nothing of the world, he was suspicious and jealous.’ ‘

Napoleon and Lowe would go on to fight an exceptionally petty war against each other that would last even after Napoleon’s death in 1821, when Lowe refused to put ‘Emperor Napoleon’ on his gravestone and saw that Napoleon was buried in an unmarked grave.

Among many petty actions of Hudson Lowe were: refusing to allow Napoleon’s piano to be tuned, reprimanding the Balcombes for being too friendly to Napoleon, riding Napoleon’s horse, complaining about the amount of kindling Longwood burned, stopping Napoleon from receiving history books or a bust of his son, and expelling from the island all those who were closest to Napoleon. The governor was so paranoid that his famous prisoner would escape, he stationed 120 men around Longwood during the day and 72 at night.

Hudson Lowe was partly responsible for Napoleon’s bad health on Saint Helena. Once their relationship had become toxic, Napoleon stopped riding and often refused to leave the house.

Napoleon finds out his fate

Admiral Lord Keith and Sir Henry Bunbury, the undersecretary of state for war, arrived on HMS Bellerophon to inform Napoleon, whom they addressed as General Bonaparte, of his impending exile to Saint Helena.

Although this decision didn’t come as a complete surprise to Napoleon, he didn’t take the news well, saying that his blood would rather stain the planks of Bellerophon than he should go to Saint Helena and that their despicable actions would throw a veil of darkness on future history of England. He added that the climate would kill him in three months. After they left, he told Captain Maitland: ‘I would prefer being delivered up to the Bourbons. Among other insults, they style me General. They may as well call me Arch-Bishop.’

The Congress of Prague meets following the Battle of Lutzen

Napoleon said at the time, ‘Prussia is entitled to an advantageous peace. Austria, on the contrary, doesn’t deserve anything. In a current situation I have no objection to a peace that might be glorious to Russia but I feel a true repugnance to seeing Austria, as a price for the crime she committed by violating our alliance, collect the fruits and honours of the pacification of Europe.’

Napoleon did not wish to see Francis and Metternich rewarded for betraying their erstwhile ally. Nor could the Emperor of France, the heir to Caesar and Alexander, bring himself to accept what he saw as a humiliating peace.

Napoleon enters Vitebsk

Just before the French entered the city, the Russians had left. ‘There appeared more order in their defeat than in our victory,’ noted Comte de Ségur. Napoleon spent 16 days in Vitebsk, seriously considering ending the year’s campaign there. He said to Marshal Murat, ‘The first Russian campaign is over. 1813 will see us in Moscow, 1814 in St. Petersburg. The Russian war is a war of three years.’ Had he stayed, he could have established ammunition magazines and hospitals, reorganised Lithuania politically and replenished his army, one third of which had been wiped out by the hardships of constant marching, typhus and dysentery. ‘Here I stop,’ Ségur heard him say. ‘Here I must look around me, refresh my army and reorganise Poland. The campaign of 1812 is finished, that of 1813 will do the rest.’

It was far too early in the year to think of winter quarters, however. ‘We are having unbearable heat, 27 degrees. This is as hot as in the Midi,’ Napoleon wrote to Marie-Louise. Besides, he had not yet forced the decisive battle he so longed for. ‘Alexander can only negotiate after a great battle,’ Napoleon said. He chose to advance after the Russian Army, believing that the Tsar would sue for peace before he saw any more Russian land ravaged. He had no way of knowing that Alexander swore he would never make peace, saying, ‘I would sooner let my beard grow to my waist and eat potatoes in Siberia.’

Napoleon returns to St Cloud following the Treaty of Tilsit

Napoleon traveled non-stop for 100 hours, arriving so fast that his escort didn’t have time to remove the barrier in front of the triumphal arch that was being built for the Emperor. Napoleon didn’t stop but ordered his coachman to swerve around the barrier and proceed at the same speed.

Napoleon had been away from France for 306 days, the longest absence of his career. ‘We saw Napoleon return from the depths of Poland without stopping,’ recalled Jean-Antoine Chaptal, ‘convene the Conseil when he arrived and show the same presence of mind, the same continuity and the same strength of ideas as if he had spent the night in his bedroom.’

Battle of Ostrovno

A skirmish at Ostrovno took place at the beginning of Napoleon’s Russian campaign between French forces under the command of King of Naples Joachim Murat and Russian forces under General Ostermann-Tolstoy. The military engagement ended with the Russian forces retreating from the battlefield.

As always, Napoleon widely exaggerated the numbers in his bulletin, claiming that the Russians had suffered 7,000 casualties against the true figure of 2,200 and that Murat fought against 15,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry when in reality he only faced 14,000.

Napoleon leaves France never to see it again

Napoleon saw the shores of his beloved country that he made so great for the last time before he sailed to Saint Helena. A day later, HMS Bellerophon with Napoleon on board anchored at the English coast and the deposed Emperor immediately became an object of curiosity. People from all over England traveled to catch a glimpse of Napoleon, who enjoyed his popularity, appearing on deck often and waving to the public. Captain Maitland reported that whenever Napoleon noticed a well-dressed woman, he would pull his hat off and bow. It had been estimated that as many as 1000 pleasure boats had once assembled around the ship, averaging 8 people each.

General Bonaparte enters Cairo

Napoleon was impressed by the city of 600,000 inhabitants that was as big as Paris and the largest in Africa. As usual, he was a whirlwind of activity during his short stay in Cairo. In every district of Cairo, of which there were 16, Napoleon created a divan, or council, consisting of local dignitaries. Local divans would send a representative to the Grand Divan. Napoleon wanted to introduce the Egyptians to the progressive ideas of assembly and government. He therefore gave the divans some powers over justice and administration.

The general himself participated in the meetings of the Grand Divan and appeared to the onlookers jolly and full of ideas. Napoleon established a postal system, street lighting and cleaning services, a coach service between Cairo and Alexandria, a mint and a rational tax system that, in contrast to the Mamluks’ government, didn’t bleed the Egyptian peasants to death. He also abolished feudalism, replacing it with the rule by the divans, set up a new French trading company, built modern plague hospitals and produced Egypt’s first printed books. These reforms were undertaken through Napoleon’s own initiative without any involvement from the Directory.

Battle of the Pyramids

The Battle of The Pyramids was fought by the French army during the Egyptian campaign against 6000 Mamluks under the command of Murad Bey on the left bank of the Nile. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the tallest building in the world until the 20th century, was clearly visible from the battlefield.

In his order of the day, Napoleon said: ‘Soldiers, you came to this country to save the inhabitants from barbarism, to bring civilisation to the Orient and subtract this beautiful part of the world from the domination of England. From the top of those pyramids 40 centuries are contemplating you.’

The battle ended in a decisive French victory. After a number of failed attacks, the Mamluks escaped and everything was over in two hours. Following the Battle of the Pyramids, Napoleon became known as the Lord of Fire among the Egyptians.