After a journey of nine weeks at sea, he arrived at the island of St Helena on 15 October 1815.

On 7 August, Napoleon embarked onto a new ship, Northumberland, and left British waters on 9 August, having never set foot on British soil. When he arrived at the port of Plymouth he learned on 31 July that he was to be exiled to St Helena, a small island under British rule in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He stayed there a few days, much to the amusement and curiosity of the British who congregated in small boats to get as close as possible in hope of a glimpse of the fallen Emperor, who was only known henceforth as “General Bonaparte”. On board Bellerophon, Napoleon was taken to the port of Torquay. The passport promised by the French provisional government was never granted, and so instead Napoleon landed on the small island of Aix, off Rochefort, and put himself in the hands of the British navy which was stationed there, “I have come to put myself under the protection of your prince and your laws”. After a short stint to get to Malmaison where he saw his mother for the last time, he arrived on 3 July at Rochefort where he planned to set sail for the United States. Instead it was Louis XVIII (the brother of Louis XVI who was guillotined during the French Revolution) who would become King of France.

The latter, who had been in hiding in Austria since May 1814 with his mother the Empress Marie-Louise would never become Emperor. Back in Paris, on 22 June he abdicated in favour of his only son aged four. On 18 June 1815 Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in Belgium by the British and Prussian Allied armies. To discover three paintings telling the story of Napoleon’s second and final exile click here.

Why was napoleon exiled