Treaty of Fontainebleau

After the unconditional abdication of 6 April, there remained the fate of a deposed emperor whom no one wished either to kill or to leave at liberty. Caulaincourt, Ney and Macdonald negotiated in Paris with the plenipotentiaries of the four powers; Alexander I, who refused the idea of a distant exile, pressed for an honourable solution.

The treaty was signed on 11 April 1814 and ratified by Napoleon two days later. Louis XVIII, who had not yet returned, was not a party to it: it was the victors who disposed.

Napoleon kept the title of emperor for life and received in full sovereignty the island of Elba, with a guard of four hundred men chosen from among his faithful. An annuity of two million francs, charged to the French Treasury, was to be paid to him — it never would be.

Marie-Louise received the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, with reversion to her son. The members of the Bonaparte family were pensioned and required to reside outside France. Joséphine, repudiated since 1809, kept her property; she would die at Malmaison six weeks later.

During the night after the signature, Napoleon swallowed the poison he had carried on him since the Russian campaign. Weakened by time, it caused only long hours of suffering; Doctor Yvan was called, the Emperor survived and would not try again.

The treaty contained the two seeds of 1815: an unpaid annuity that left the sovereign of Elba without resources, and an island a few hours' sail from the French and Italian coasts. Talleyrand, who had argued for the Azores, had seen clearly.