Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrived with fewer than a thousand men, yet three weeks later he had displaced Louis XVIII and taken charge of an army as large as any that the Allied Powers could muster individually. He saw that his best chance was to pick the Allies off one by one, starting with the Prussian and then the British/Allied armies in what is now Belgium. He appeared to be on the point of victory at Waterloo yet somehow it eluded him, and his plans were soon in tatters. His escape to America thwarted, he surrendered on 15th July and was exiled again but this time to Saint Helena. There he wrote his memoirs to help shape his legacy, while back in Europe there were still fears of his return. With Michael Rowe Reader in European History at Kings College London Katherine Astbury Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick And Zack White Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production. Reading list: Katherine Astbury and Mark Philp (ed.), Napoleon's Hundred Days and the Politics of Legitimacy (Palgrave, 2018) Jeremy Black, The Battle of Waterloo: A New History (Icon Books, 2010) Michael Broers, Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire: 1811-1821 (Pegasus Books, 2022) Philip Dwyer, Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in power 1799-1815 (Bloomsbury, 2014) Charles J. Esdaile, Napoleon, France and Waterloo: The Eagle Rejected (Pen & Sword Military, 2016) Gareth Glover, Waterloo: Myth and Reality (Pen & Sword Military, 2014) Sudhir Hazareesingh, The Legend of Napoleon (Granta, 2014) John Hussey, Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815, Volume 1, From Elba to Ligny and Quatre Bras (Greenhill Books, 2017) Andrew Roberts, Napoleon the Great (Penguin Books, 2015) Brian Vick, The Congress of Vienna: Power and Politics after Napoleon (Harvard University Press, 2014) Zack White (ed.), The Sword and the Spirit: Proceedings of the first ‘War & Peace in the Age of Napoleon’ Conference (Helion and Company, 2021)
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On the 26 February 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on Elba, arriving in France with fewer than a thousand Mendez.
Three weeks later, he was in Paris and he raised an army of about 200,000 men, as large as any that the allied powers could muster individually, and his best chance was to pick them off one by one.
Somehow victory escaped him at Waterloo and his escape to America was thwarted too.
He surrendered on the 15 July and so was exiled again, but on St Helena, where he wrote his memoirs to help shape his legacy.
With me to discuss Napoleon's hundred days are Catherine Astabury, professor of french studies at the University of Warwick, Zach White Lieberhum, early career research fellow at the University of Portsmouth and Michael Rowe, reader in european history at King's College, London.
Michael Rowe, why was Napoleon on Alba?
Well, the hundred Days, the subject of today's programme, of course, is in the spring of 1815.
We need to go back a year.
We need to go back to March and April, 1840.
The once great napoleonic empire is crumbling.
It's being invaded from all sides.
It is in deep trouble.
Napoleon's put up a good fight in France in early 1814, but the end is now drawing to a close and the allies need to get him to abdicate.
And indeed his marshals around him, who see that the empire is essentially finished, they need to get him to abdicate.
He's still in a position to negotiate the terms of his abdication.