Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

NAPOLEON’S EXILE ON ST HELENA, 1815-21
Following the disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812, further
military setbacks, the hostile invasion of France by the forces of
the Sixth Coalition and a loss of support from the French people,
Napoleon abdicated for the first time on 6 April 1814. After a
frustrating period exiled as token head of the island state of Elba,
he returned to France, regaining power for what became known
as the Hundred Days before his armies were beaten at the
Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
Barely a month after Napoleon’s final defeat and second abdication,
he personally surrendered to British troops. Not wishing a repeat
of the Elba disaster, the victors in Vienna quickly determined to exile
him to St Helena, an isolated island in the South Atlantic Ocean
aptly described as a remote volcanic rock. It was home to a British
colony controlled by the East India Company, serving as a way
station on the Atlantic trade routes. The island has no harbour for
deep-draught ships and is virtually encircled by cliffs; thus, access
was easy to monitor and control. St Helena became Napoleon’s
final home, until his death in 1821.
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