On This Day in Napoleonic History – 28 April 1814

Map_of_ElbaNapoleon leaves France for Elba

At Saint-Raphael, Napoleon embarked on the British frigate the Undaunted bound for Elba. Leaving from precisely the same jetty he had arrived at when returning from Egypt 15 years previously, Napoleon insisted upon and was given the sovereign’s twenty gun salute when he went on board, despite the Royal Navy’s convention not to fire salute after sunset.

Napoleon’s exile would be short-lived, however. He would be back 11 months later for a brief but triumphant return to power known as the Hundred Days.

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