Napoléon Bonaparte abdicated in Fontainebleau
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Napoléon Bonaparte abdicated in Fontainebleau [1] (1845) is a painting by Paul Delaroche in the collection of the Museum der bildenden Künste.
Background
Napoleon returned to Paris and found that both the legislature and the people had turned violently on him. Realizing that his position was untenable, he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son. He left Paris three days later and settled at Josephine's former home in Malmaison. Coalition forces swept into France soon afterward, intent on restoring Louis XVIII to the French throne.
When Napoleon got word that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to Rochefort, intending to escape to the United States. However, with British ships blocking every port to prevent his escape, Napoleon formally demanded political asylum from the British Captain Frederick Maitland on 15 July 1815.
See also
![[1]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DelarocheNapoleon.jpg){kind=link}