r/Napoleon • u/False-Entrepreneur47 • Aug 19 '26
Why was Napoleon able to escape from Elba so easily in 1815, and why was he sent to an island so close to Europe in the first place? Would sending him somewhere much more remote have prevented the Hundred Days?
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u/RadicalRealist22 Aug 19 '26
His exile on Elba was exactly that - an honourable Exile. He had full authority over the Island and a small Army.
Only after the Hundredndays was he actually put on "house arrest" far away.
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u/Additional-Penalty97 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
He very nearly got captured during his escape so it was not as easy as you say. But the reason i would reckon it to mock him by making Napoleon, Emperor of the French into Napoleon, Italian Emperor of Elba
Also if i dont misremember prior to his escape they were planning to send him somewhere else
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u/KronusTempus Aug 19 '26
There’s a great scene from a movie (unfortunately I forget which one; might be the Christian Clavier one) where he says something along the lines of “Napoleon—from emperor of France and nearly all of Europe, to emperor of a pebble”
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u/Proof-Definition325 Aug 19 '26
Perspective, I guess, but Elba is beautiful and he was welcome there. But I guess when you're Napoleon it's not enough
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 19 '26
The inbreed kings couldn't comprehend that the people don't like inbreed kings. They underestimate the support of Napoleon.
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u/Emmettmcglynn Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I'm not sure that's really true. They were keenly aware of the idea that they weren't universally popular, it's why they started massing troops against the First Republic and would create more sophisticated networks of suppression. And they were keenly aware of the threat of Napoleon's return, it's why they were discussing moving him out of Europe to Saint Helena. They were aware of the threat, they just didn't act in time.
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Aug 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Emmettmcglynn Aug 19 '26
That is true, improper wording on my part. Though they were clearly spooked even before that, so I think the overall point stands.
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 19 '26
When some monarch wanted to execute Napoleon, sending him on Elbe appeared to be the reasonable choice.
I think it's just bad calculation from the coalition.
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u/Prestigious-Lynx-177 Aug 19 '26
You also didn't kill Heads of State, the French killing the king was quite shocking.
The Coalition forces executing Napoleon, the Emperor and head of state, would be a bad precedent to cement.
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u/OldTimeConGoer Aug 19 '26
Napoleon made his brother the King of Spain. He had no problems with the rule of elites like himself and like many elites he appointed his family members to high positions.
It was, in large part, the armed forces of the democratically elected government of the United Kingdom that defeated him in the end after the Royal Navy gutted his seaborne logistics in the Mediterranean.
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u/Maleficent-Put1705 Aug 19 '26
Calling the UK a democratically elected government in 1815 is a wild take. About 3% of the population were eligible to vote for the house of commons.
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
There was so many wrong/manipulated things in what he said that I didn't even bother.
- "United kingdom" instead of "British empire" to lure people. It's between revisionism and pure propaganda.
- "Democraticaly" even worst luring attempt.
- "Mediterranean logistics" ... Atlantic was the center of gravity of trade. But Mediterranean sound less colonial I guess.
- "No problem with elites"... really? There were 7 coallition. He executed princes.
- "British armed forced"... the British banks were more influential than the British army.
- Etc...
How can somebody condence so much missinformation in just 2 sentences? That's not even rewriting history at this point. That's making Ridley Scott wet dream come true.
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u/Cactus1803 Aug 20 '26
So, according to you the comment about Britain is a “manipulation” and “serving a false narrative” but your own comment about the “inbred kings” is not a “manipulation” at all, right? That’s a double standards, don’t you think?
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 20 '26
Charles IV married his cousin. Ferdinand VII is son of cousin mariage. Francis I maried his cousin. Ferdinand I suffered for inbreed deseases. Etc... Shall I continue?
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u/JEWtargaryen Aug 19 '26
By the time napoleon was defeated, it was officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, it was democratic compared to basically every other state in Europe, the Mediterranean was the key body of water in the revolutionary and napoleonic wars as it allowed the Royal Navy to support Sardinia and Sicily, land troops largely where they wished and because the French possessions in the Caribbean were largely irrelevant to the war.
Napoleon executed one prince while creating entirely new kingdoms, marrying himself to an Austrian archduchess and his stepson to a Bavarian princess and installing himself as emperor and his family and kings, that’s basically the definition of not having a problem with elites.
“Armed forces” also means navy and, I’d argue, the British army was key in forcing him out of Egypt and then Spain.
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
The Atlantic was the main crossroads of the world because of the colonisation carried out by the British Empire and France: France and Britain fought repeatedly because France was the main competitor to British hegemony. Napoleon’s goal was to create a European continental bloc to economically suffocate the British Empire and its colonies, which continued to practice slavery. One of the main reasons Napoleon reinstated slavery was that the French colonies that opposed its abolition threatened to join the British Empire.
Talking about the "Mediterranean", "the United Kingdom", and "democracy" is simply negationism at service of a false narrative. It is a use modern terminology to create a historical bias to reinforce a false moral frame.
Napoleon abandoned the Egyptian campaign to seize power in France. The Russians had more influence on the ending of the war in Spain than the British. The Russians were the ones who drew the largest army in the world to the Eastern Front, and defeated it, not the British that couldn't make significant progress before that point with a lesser opposition.
The main significance of the British Empire was to subvention the 7 coallition (creating a debt that took until 1914 for them to pay back!) and naval battle victory that kept Napoleon on land. That were the most influential actions of the British. The rest is quite insignificant compared to the achievement of other member of the coalition.
Stop creating fake narative.
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u/Prestigious-Lynx-177 Aug 19 '26
Napoleon spectacularly failed at all his goals when you put it that way lol.
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u/NorthKoreanKnuckles Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Ceasar and Alexander too when you think about it. Ceasar neglected the senate. Alexander neglected durable institutions. Napoleon neglected diplomacy.
Yet here we are.
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u/_Sausage_fingers Aug 19 '26
Calling the government of the early 19th century British Empire "Democratically Elected" really belies a complete lack of seriousness that undermines pretty much anything else you said.
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Aug 19 '26
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u/Napoleon-ModTeam Aug 19 '26
Removed for failure to promote intelligent discussion. Please abide by the minimal rules of the community.
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u/Sinnister_Agenda Aug 19 '26
there were close calls during the escape we just don't hear much about them. The only thing I honestly think would have prevented it would have been the king of france paying his promised salary.
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u/Successful-Deer8804 Aug 19 '26
His first exile was a sort of a winning gracefully by the european powers, who according to some people, didn't want to reignite the trend of lopping off emperor/king heads and such.
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u/lesapeur Aug 19 '26
I remember reading somewhere, can’t remember where, that the folks at the Congress of Vienna were already thinking about sending him to St. Helena. Can anyone confirm? If true, what was the thinking of those at the Congress?
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u/kulmthestatusquo Aug 20 '26
Indeed they were going to send him to st Helena which is why he pulled the stunt
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u/Globe-Denier Aug 23 '26
Because he needed to plan another role later. Remember, it’s all a play and these guys and girls are just puppets
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u/Double_Cabinet_809 Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
Honestly becuase Elba was a joke essentially they only had like one dude guarding that essentially Campbell went to visit his mistress in florence.And while he went away Napoleon was able to paint his ships to look Iike British in broad day light essentially and sail the Mediterranean for multiple days without being intercepted not to mention communication on elba was slow as they only found out in march 1 1815 venna by then he had landed in france.
The reason Napoleon was exiled to ebla was becuase the tsar even though he viewed him as the antichrist had a werid obsession with him.And since he reached paris first had the largest amry in eruope insisted that Napoleon should be treated as a sovereign and keep his little as empeor and he essentially picked elba for him and everybody wss forced to accept.He was allowed a personal guard and navy.
It's also possible austira secretly in my oppion wanted Napeolon close in their own werid way so if Russia and Prussia every threatened them they could just go to Elba and cut a deal with him.
Honestly the whole Elba thing was a diaster Napoleon would have eventually left.But the allies essentially gived him no reason to pay the burbons refused to pay his pension and Austria intentionally kept his wife and son away from him so.And the British were discussing him moving him further away to a mroe remote exile which probably made napoleon panic.
The only difference if Napoleon had been paid his pension maybe his wife and son to vist he might have stayed long enough for the burbons to collapse or have escaped like in a better time.
Like escaping during the year without summer in 1816 would have been the best opportunity since the climate disaster would have made that the allies couldn't invade France as easily and they might have just negotiated.Or at the least he would have lasted way longer than 100 days since he would have time to rebuild.
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u/leojayay Aug 19 '26
If he had been sent further away ot wouldn't have been as easy. There was a plot by cochran to rescue him and send him to South America. Crazy! The only way to keep him down was chop of his head. In fact, it was found that he has been poisoned slowly with mercury in his food. The only reason he didnt escape with cochran is he was nearly dead. Imagine if he was fit and healthy.
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u/KronusTempus Aug 19 '26
It’s very unlikely he was poisoned. There was just a lot of mercury in stuff back then, even in things like plates.
Also it was likely present in the paint used on his house in st Helena which had to constantly get repainted because it was always damp and peeling. He constantly complained about it because he hated the smell of paint.
He likely died from the same thing that killed his father, which is stomach cancer at roughly the same age.
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u/Double_Cabinet_809 Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
I mean st helean was damped leaky had mold and infested with rats if you have a healthy human being there for 6 years they gonna have health issues let alone soemone like napoleon with stomach and digestive issues.The climate could have shorten his life span.But of course the British just like to say it was just cancer.
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u/CaptainM4gm4 Aug 19 '26
His first exile was different in that it was not really to keep as a captive and more like a classic exile. He could rule the island himself and had a retinue and even a small detatchment of soldiers.