Figurine Napoleon on Marengo

On 6 April 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated his throne. After some 15 years of armed conflict, the Emperor of France - and conquerer of a large portion of Europe - was exiled to the tiny island of Elba. He spent only 9 months and 21 days there. With the aid of a meager partisan fleet of seven ships and 1,000 men, Napoleon escaped his island prison on 26 February 1815. He landed again on French soil to a warm reception. The royalist nobility had resumed their mistreatment of the proletariat in general and the veterans of the Grande Armée in particular. These were a few of the factors that helped swell the number of Napoleon's troops until they became an army. And then even more men followed.