On this day in 1815, the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte lost the Battle of Waterloo—crushing any hope he had of staying in power. What came before that is fascinating: a tale of ambition, reinvention, self-aggrandizement and the effective cultivation of a cult following.
Napoleon di Buonaparte was born to an Italian family on the Italian island of Corsica (which the French had just taken-by-force from Genoa less than 100 days before his birth). At nine years of age, Napoleon left Corsica for French military school. In time, he distinguished himself as a bold military leader and tactician, which he parlayed into crowning himself the Emperor of France in 1804.
Napoleon's disastrous decision to invade Russia in 1812 was the beginning of his downfall. Though he and his troops did make it to Moscow during the Summer of 1812, they discovered that the Russians had preemptively burned their city to the ground before Napoleon's arrival. His Grande Armée, deprived of food and supplies, was forced to evacuate empty-handed—during the bitter Russian Winter of 1813. An estimated half-million French soldiers were killed or wounded during this misadventure (not to mention countless civilians). Suddenly, Napoleon's veneer of invincibility had worn thin. Shortly after his return to France, a coalition including Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and (yes) Russia allied to invade the much-weakened France. The British arrested him and sent him to the Mediterranean island of Elba (six miles from the Italian coast). The Brits considered executing him but did not want to create a martyr. So they allowed Napoleon to retain his title of Emperor, receive a pension from France, and rule his little island fiefdom. Back in Paris, the Bourbon monarchy was restored.
Within ten months, Napoleon (and 1,000 followers) had escaped Elba. He returned to Paris, seized power from Louis XVIII and resuscitated his emperorship. He was now ready for his next big military loss: Waterloo. Napoleon's return to power would last for little more than one hundred days. After Waterloo, Napoleon attempted to flee to America on a French ship. The Brits caught him and, apparently, they had learned their lesson. They were not about to retire him to some cozy Mediterranean resort island (again). No, this time they sent him to St. Helena—a little dot in the middle of the Atlantic. He was effectively deserted, 1,200 miles from mainland Africa and 2,500 miles from South America. His title was stripped. He had no authority. And he spent his days gardening and writing a book criticizing the military strategy of Julius Caesar. He died on the desert island on 5 May 1821, at the age of 51, and was buried on the island (in obscurity). "But the cat came back..." In 1861, Napoleon's remains were interred in the grandest possible tomb in Paris, L'Hôtel des Invalides. The man relentlessly pursued self-glorification—in life and even after death (but that's a whole other story).
The little brass lion sculpture, shown above, is an English centennial commemorative of the British win, made in 1915. The lion was inspired by a sculpture erected at Waterloo—on the spot where Prince William of Orange (the son of King William I of Netherlands) had been injured in battle. The original cast iron monument was sculpted by Jean-Louis Geel (1787-1852) and was hoisted atop a stone-block plinth (which stands upon a 141 foot high mound). It's interesting to note that this commemorative souvenir was made to mark the 100th anniversary of the British defeat of France at Waterloo. However, in 1915 (when this piece was made), England was locked arm-in-arm with France—now as allies—in another bloody European battle, World War One. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
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