The Dramatic Rise And Fall Of Emperor Napoleon | History of Warfare | Battlefields Of History

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] history proclaims Napoleon as one of the greatest Generals in the annals of warfare his strategic Vision timing and his consumate grasp of every one of the variables which influenced the behavior of a vast Army have made him a legendary figure to rank alongside Alexander the Great Caesar and Hannibal Napoleon was crowned emperor of France by his own hand in a ceremony of great Pomp and Circumstance on the 2nd of December [Music] 184 his moment of supreme Glory came from a rapid series of promotions which had seen him move from a little known captain of AR to Undisputed master of France in only 6 [Music] [Music] years Napoleon had an almost meteoric rise to fame I think we can understand this best um if we imagine uh the French Revolution giving young officers in the French army uh what we would now term a a real window of opportunity Napoleon was skilled and talented but beyond that he had great ambition and a sense of his own destiny Napoleon accepted that war would become an integral part of his life and that of his country without interruption for almost 20 years from the rise of Napoleon to his forced abdication the awful Spectre of War hovered Somewhere over the continent the French Revolution provided him with his first taste of action and it was to profoundly influence his outlook on life between old monarchs and a young Republic a spirit of hostility must always exist in the present State of Affairs every peace treaty means no more than a brief Armistice that I believe that my destiny will be to fight almost continuously with the French Revolution which Swept Away the onion regime with its very structured society and very structured military rank uh system Napoleon uh had immense opportunity which for an ambitious young officer uh if he was willing to take those opportunities and grab them make the most of them um a young officer could rise through the ranks very quickly this was the start of his his rise to fame throughout his long career Napoleon's impliable enemy was as always England a nation which Napoleon detested with a passion the English armies and navies had proved a constant thorn in the side of Napoleon and his most spectacular defeats were at the hands of the British a trend which began with Napoleon's ill-fated Egyptian campaign Egypt presented uh Napoleon bonapart with a romantic opportunity Napoleon pooped uh that by taking Egypt he would be able to hamper um British uh control of the Mediterranean and possibly deal uh the British Empire um a death blow as it turned out however although he was able to seize power um in Egypt after the battle of the pyramids in July 1798 uh at the Battle of abukir beay bay in August of that year Nelson was able to destroy the French Fleet and effectively uh imprison the French army in Egypt after after an abortive attempt to seize acre um during 1799 uh Napoleon realized that the Egyptian campaign was effectively doomed uh and he actually left the uh Army of Egypt to its fate returning to uh France and Paris uh in October 1798 memories of the disastrous naval battle of the nin and Alexandria on land haunted Napoleon his anger was kindled a new when Britain was instrumental in bringing together an International Coalition against him this new Coalition the third which had been created was formed from Austria Russia and Britain and was pledged to destroy forever the destabilizing influence which a young revolutionary Nation like France was thought to have on the old order the hopes of the third Coalition were further bolstered by the news that Prussia who had been vacillating between actively joining the Coalition and acting as a mediator for peace was now more than likely to join the other nations in arms against Napoleon this would bring a huge influx of men against the emperor and could well have made the situation untenable for him in the early months of 195 the Strategic situation therefore looked very promising indeed for the nations of the third Coalition but what With the Enemy the Allies couldn't have predicted the sheer quality of this new Napoleonic Army since 1800 France had been largely at peace and Napoleon had completely restructured his military machine Napoleon had divided his army down into a whole series of what we might call miniature armies these Army cores numbered in terms of strength from approximately 15,000 men up to as many as 30 or even 40,000 men but the advantage of this gay was that each Army Core was a balanced force what we now call a poer battle group it had its own Cavalry its own infantry its own artillery and above all it had its own staff and a marshal commanding one of these CES really had his own miniature Army under his command now what this meant of course was that if he ran into unexpected trouble even against an enemy Army of several times his own size he was capable by Napoleon's calculation of fighting for up to 24 hours on his own provided he was reinforced within 24 hours by neighboring cause he would not absolutely go under he'd suffer but he would not go under another advantage of the core system was the flexibility and speed it gave to the French staff instead all as with an 18th century Army uh Napoleon's Chief of Staff having to write out a separate set of orders for every regiment within the Army Napoleon could simply direct his core commanders on their mission or objective this made the French army far more responsive and flexible than the armies that Napoleon faced to defeat Napoleon in the campaign of 185 the third Coalition planned a series of four great offensives each in a different part of Europe which were planned to be launched simultaneously in the north a British Force aided by Swedish and Russian elements would attack Napoleon's Ally the Kingdom of Denmark the Austrian General Mack with 85,000 Russian allies would seize olm and then strike against Strasburg Arch duuke Charles with one 100,000 of the best Austrian troops available to him was to strike into Northern Italy and expel the French from Lombardy before moving on to invade the south of France poised between Max's Force pressing onto ol and Archduke Charles's forces in Italy was the Austrian Arch duuk John with a further 25,000 austrians they were ready to support the armies in either Germany or Italy depending on how the situation developed the final arm of this great master plan was a combined Russian and British force from Malta who would strike northwards through Italy to join Arch dukee Charles in the invasion of Southern France if the plan was brilliant in its conception it was to prove disastrous in its execution unbeknown to the Austrian Chiefs of Staff the Russians were actually using the old style Russian calendar a different calendar from their allies in the early 19th century there were still two calendar systems operating in Europe and this was going to lead to a great deal of trouble Russia being a rather old-fashioned country still kept on to the old style dating system of the Julian calendar which was 12 days different though from the new style system adopted by almost all the rest of Europe which was called Gregorian calendar system it is amazing that the Austrian general staff in Vienna did not realize that there was this difference in the calendar system that say that Russian allies with whom they were negotiating for their part in the campaign were working on a different calendar so if a letter came from St Petersburg promising to be in the Daniel Valley by the 20th of October it really meant they would only be appearing on the 1st of November new style and that could make a big difference in the actual military events on on the ground as you might suppose despite the odds ranged against him Napoleon was never a man to be over AED or intimidated for him a swift action with a clear strategic purpose could unhinge even the greatest disadvantage in a masterpiece of surprise cunning and deception Napoleon was about to pull off his finest Master [Music] stroke General Mack of Austria had occupied olm in Bavaria on the 10th of September 185 due to the inconsistancy at the calendars his Russian allies and kutut were farther away than Mack imagined leaving the Austrian General isolated around ol Napoleon managed to fool the austrians into believing that the bulk of the French forces were still concentrated on the English Channel when in fact they were moving with lightning speed across the rine and could then encircle the austrians at ol on the Danube and attack them from the [Music] rear after some Fierce fighting around ol and a variety of minor actions it was becoming increasingly obvious the situation of General Mack was hopeless faced with Superior French forces he held out in vain for the arrival of the Russians under kutu kuto was still far beyond reach even before Mac really realized what had happened uh Napoleon had fixed his attention and maneuvered his cores so that Mack was surrounded the only uh alternative for Mack was then to surrender Napoleon is seen here accepting the surrender of the general who referred to himself as the unfortunate General Mack the odds against the EMP emperor in the campaign overall were now considerably shorter he now turned to deal with the remaining Russian and Austrian [Music] armies the conclusive proof of his military genius was furnished for all time on the slopes of the Frozen Heights of aitz on the 2nd of December [Music] 185 as the famous Blood Red Son of aitz Rose through the Mist on the morning of this his greatest battle Napoleon was confident of Victory but even he could not AFF forast just how complete his Triumph would be Napoleon not only fooled the enemy as to the strength of numbers of troops he could put onto that Battlefield he also dictated to them the way they were to fight their battle the area of his lines which they were to attack on the battlefield of of austerlitz he actually surrendered uh the dominating and Heights this again gave the uh the Allies the impression that Napoleon was weak um that his force would not stand against their much larger formations but the austrians thought they were being given the ideal chance to cut the main road running from Bruno to Vienna Napoleon's line of advance and also therefore his line of retreat or of communications and then roll him up to the north and have him completely at their Mercy Napoleon had arranged that his one of his best core commanders D Vu was within uh marching distance of the battlefield uh and U in 24 hours before the actual battle uh on the 1st of December 1805 Napoleon had managed to concentrate far more troops than the Allies uh believed he had under his command aets is one of the completest victories that Napoleon ever achieved there is no doubt that this battle left Napoleon the master of Southern Central Europe the emperor had deceived the Allies completely and they had rushed headlong into his carefully laid traps the enormity of the defeat on the field however was as nothing compared to its consequences the following day December the 3D Austria sued for peace while the beaten battered Russians limped away to the safety of Poland and Hungary a thoroughly demoralized Army poon had indelibly stamped his mark on the Affairs and fortunes of Europe offering an ominous portent of the Bloodshed which would blight the continent for the next 10 years above all it established the reputation of the grand arm as the most effective fighting force of its [Music] age in many respects aitz represented the Zenith of Napoleon's Fame the seeds of Napoleon's great misadventure of 1812 were sown in the uneasy treaty concluded in the wake of that Victory between Prussia Russia and France in July 187 peace had been reached after two years of struggle between France and the combined armies of Austria Prussia and Russia during which Napoleon had gained some of his most famous victories in a career of famous [Music] victories with the signing of the treaty the emperor was finally able to coers the Russians into joining his Continental System along with the equally reluctant prussians Napoleon as Emperor uh was not just a soldier he was uh Emperor and therefore uh the the the main representative of the the government of France and just as Napoleon exerted huge energy uh in his military campaigns he also turned much of his attention as Emperor uh to the administration and running of France the continental system was designed to stimulate trade within Europe and to carry on war with England by economic [Music] means England as Napoleon's implacable foe was to be excluded from all trade within Continental Europe not surprisingly the Russian SAR Alexander I was a less than willing partner in a system which soon proved ruinous for many influential merchants and which Drew him into an unlooked for war with Great Britain leading to a series of major devaluations of the rubal tension soon grew between the two countries and finally led to a declaration of war French forces crossed the river Neiman into Russia in June 1812 and the long expected war was finally begun that year was 1812 the setting for what was to become one of the most spectacular military disasters in the history of warfare the virtual destruction of the largest military machine the world had yet seen [Music] in order to achieve the rapid subjugation of the Russians Napoleon had assembled more than 650,000 men from every nation then under the sway of the French Empire but Napoleon did not anticipate going Beyond 50 miles into Russian Poland because he felt that he would be able to force a decisive battle early in the campaign which was always his objective but he certainly was not prepared for a winter campaign or one which stretched him all the way to Moscow Napoleon's original objectives were very limited in 1812 in fact when he actually made his proclamation to the Army he said that they were about to launch the second polish campaign so what Napoleon was actually trying to do was not invade Russia and certainly not go as far as Moscow what he intended to do was to trap a large number of Russian soldiers if possible wipe out their whole armies in the west and remove Russia's military power so that he could actually lay down the terms at a peace treaty which would once and for all establish him himself as the leader of Europe and remove the Zar Alexander and the Russian army as a as a threat for the foreseeable future in a dispatch to davu Napoleon summed up his strategy with the words the aim of all my moves will be to concentrate 400,000 men at a single point the Russian gr strategy was always to draw the French armies deeper into Russia and further away from their supply bases where hunger cold and disease would Gore away at the bones of the great Army when Napoleon's armies crossed the Neiman River on the 24th of June 1812 Napoleon uh believed and hoped that he would be able to trap and capture uh the main Russian armies very close to the frontier however in a series of battles uh starting with the the action around VNA in June then around the deina river uh in July and finally uh around smolin uh in August Napoleon was unable to trap the now retreating Russian armies this meant that Napoleon was drawn further and further into Russia without achieving the decisive battle which he sought the Russian withdrawal continued until finally at a village 60 mil from the gates of Moscow they turned to fight what was to become the bloodiest pitched Battle of the Napoleonic era borodino borino Compares rather unfavorably with most of Napoleon's other battles it was very much a Soldiers battle and it was a slogging match of 12 hours both Napoleon and kusov actually played very small parts in the battle it was noted that Napoleon was lethargic all day and he really just seems to have launched his armies in a frontal attack against the Russians and to have left them to get on with it he wanted to fight the Russians he wanted to destroy their army and he wasn't interested in any interesting Maneuvers it was just going to be a fight a battle of attrition to destroy the Army once and for all it was left to core commanders divisional commanders Brigade commanders to actually get in there and fight a solders battle and it was a terrible killing match [Music] 75,000 casualties lay on the field and the French had gained a mere half mile or so of ground nonetheless the Superhuman effort of resistance and the appalling casualties which they had suffered caused the Russians to begin to withdraw under cover of Darkness the road to Moscow was finally open if Victory it was the victory at badino was to prove a pic success ironically Napoleon now found himself the almost reluctant possessor of his enemy's religious Capital he had never intended to March this far from France his Supply situation was desperate and he both expected and needed the Russians to daily sue for the peace which would allow him to return to France With Honor before the onset of winter on the morning of September the 14th the French army at last arrived at Moscow to find an eerie deserted City forsaken by its whole [Music] population 100 of criminals were released their job was to set fire to the whole of the city in the face of a determined enemy the Russian arsonists did their job with great thoroughness and soon the city was Ablaze Napoleon's Army then uh occupied a deserted uh smoldering City and although Napoleon expected the SAR to come uh to to to make peace terms uh he waited in Moscow uh in vain for over a month the real disaster for Napoleon was that in burning the city the Russians had furnished final proof that they would not surrender and that the war would therefore drag on to be fought in a hostile winter 1,500 miles from France as this awful realization dawned upon Napoleon it was all too obvious that his position was untenable he could not hope to feed or reinforce his depleted ranks and the only solution was to turn for home by the 18th of October um when Napoleon decided to uh leave Moscow and begin his Retreat um he had been denied the decisive battle which would have ended the campaign and thear uh stubbornly refused to make terms it was on the retreat from Moscow that Napoleon's Army disintegrated from a tired but disciplined force uh into an exhausted rabble as often happens when Misfortune compounds Misfortune when winter arrived it was abnormally cold and early added to the extremes of cold were the NeverEnding attentions of the Russian army and The Irregular cacs who harried The Columns and and killed French stragglers in their unremitting attacks on one occasion even the emperor himself was under threat as the Army slowly made its way eastwards the awful conditions of the Russian roads began to take its toll on men and transport already the signs were ominous day after day the March dragged on to a deepening winter with the hardpressed French constantly under attack by cacs and the main Russian army never far away ready to pounce as the French strength in Russia dwindled they were unable to hold onto the bridges across the mighty Bina and the shattered remains of the army now a pushing shoving mob of humanity had to attempt a Crossing on hastily constructed pontoon bridges and Fierce fire from an attacking Russian [Music] Force however what had initially been a relatively orderly Crossing soon degenerated into a route as the arrival of fresh Russian forces spread panic amongst the massive stragglers and fugitives awaiting to cross the river with the remains of the army as thousands clambered to cross the bridges over the icy Rivers many stragglers were pushed into the river to die instantly ly in the freezing Waters as Panic spread one of the two Bridges collapsed and a scene of the utmost horror unfolded while the living trampled the dead into the lethal Waters and trapped men screamed for Mercy as they froze to [Music] death with superhuman effort the French were able to pass 40,000 troops and uh an unknown number of stragglers across the berzen leaving thousands of French soldiers uh and camp followers to their fate at Russian hands as the struggling mob of fugitives finally dragged itself away from the banks of the B towards France the promise of safety it was now finally obvious that as a fighting force the grand arm had effectively been annihilated by December there were apparently only 13,000 troops still around the colors the remainder were a mass of dying stragglers spread out in a pathetic Trail stretching for miles behind the [Music] Army Napoleon at last decided that there was little point in remaining with the crumbling remnants he ordered the Eagles of the various core to be burned and he took his leave of them on December the 6th traveling under an assumed name he fled to Paris for him the ill fated russan Adventure was finally over out of a total force of 600,000 men Napoleon returned uh From Russia with perhaps only 990,000 the Russian campaign then in many respects sealed uh Napoleon's fate it proved uh the limits of his ambition H and it proved to uh the rest of Europe that not only could Napoleon uh be defeated but that his Grand Army was no longer the formidable force that it once had been following his disastrous foray into Russia in 1812 Napoleon's fortunes had declined rapidly until surrounded by armies from Britain Austria Russia and Prussia the emperor was finally forced into unconditional abdication in 1814 Napoleon's defeat at the hands of the Allies signaled the apparent end of the Tyrant and the nations of Europe settled down to enjoy a well-earned interlude of peace and prosperity but it was to prove shortlived Allowed by his enemies to retain the title of Emperor he became Prince of the small Mediterranean island of Elba from a proud Army of 500,000 men Napoleon was allowed to take with him only 600 trusted soldiers from his Old Guard he personally selected these men as an emotional farewell after choosing the men who were to be his bodyguard the emperor called for an eagle of the old God to be brought forward racked with emotion which he could scarcely disguise Napoleon grasped it to his breast and gave it a kiss of farewell with the words with this kiss I embrace you all many of the grizzled veterans of Ila Moscow and aitz unable to Bear the emotion also broke down in tears shortly afterwards the emperor took his leave of them and on April the 28th 1814 he boarded a British warship which was to take him to Elba and Exile he was not to be gone for long however Napoleon um as the new ruler of Elba very quickly tired of his new regime and his new um Empire on this tiny island in the Mediterranean and planned to recover power in France he was aware of the unpopularity of the new born regime and on the 1st of March 1815 not even a year after his previous abdication uh he landed on the soil of France near khah Napoleon's reappearance in France and his triumphal progress from nce to Paris has become a modern Legend always the opportunist Napoleon had made a legendary career from his ability to to react instantly to events and opportunities so on February the 26th 1815 Napoleon set sail from Elba to France for a final throw of the dice and one last chance to restore his fortunes as Napoleon marched in land he met a regiment which had been sent to intercept him led by Marshall nay who was now the commanderin-chief of the Bourbons but the soldiers refused to fire on him this is one of the famous moments when he went forward from his 1,000 members of the Old Guard which he had with him on the island of Elba and opened his coat and said fire if you wish it was a tremendous Act of theater the soldiers threw down their muskets and started to cheer VI L the old magic it seemed was too strong and from that moment his bandwagon was beginning to grow and continued to grow as he moved further north towards Paris but if support for Napoleon had gained a new resilience the response of his enemies was equally Resolute in an uncharacteristic show of solidarity Britain Russia Prussia and Austria swiftly reached agreement and signed a new treaty against Napoleon no country was to negotiate independently with him Napoleon was not to be trusted and above all he was not to be allowed time to rebuild his military machine he was to be crushed by force as soon as possible but there could be no lasting peace until Napoleon had been decisively beaten upon the field of battle while Napoleon uh offered peace to uh all of the powers of Europe they were not going to be bluffed uh by these peace fers and essentially all of the main powers of Europe declared war not on France but on Napoleon himself they believed that it was it was time to rid Europe of what they turned the monster faced with this Coalition bent on his immediate destruction Napoleon had no alternative but to fight The Campaign which was to become known as the 100 days culminating in the Battle of water [Music] lud Wellington with an Allied Army of British Dutch and Belgian troops 110,000 strong was to attack Paris from the direction of Brussels his Left Flank was to be protected by Marshall bla with 110,000 prussians advancing on namura from the direction of Li Napoleon's strategy for the campaign of the 100 days as it was always referred to was sound strategically realizing the difficulty in fighting a defensive campaign in France yet again Napoleon decided to launch a lightning strike against the two Allied armies in Belgium Wellington's uh Coalition of uh British and Dutch Belgian troops and bler Prussian Army Wellington was an enormously able General highly popular with his men above all he had not been beaten by the French throughout the long years of war in Spain at 46 he was the same age as Napoleon but suffered from none of the effects of the physical decline which troubled the emperor although he had a reputation for aloofness he had a genuine concern for his men who knew that he would not carelessly squander a single life on occasions he had shed very real tears over casualty reports nonetheless Napoleon felt confident that he would defeat Wellington and bl here and his plans were further shaped by the intelligence which confirmed that due to the political differences each of the Allied armies had a separate line of communication Wellington's army Drew supplies from England via ostend while blus prussians Drew supplies from [Music] Germany by striking at the hinge where the two armies joined Napoleon hoped that when threatened his opponents would Retreat away from each other towards their supplies making it easier for him to encircle the separate armies and defeat them in detail one after the other on equal [Music] terms he would do this by concentrating his single Army against each Army in turn giving him a local superiority of numbers at the point of decision thus surmounting his overall numerical weakness it was this vital need to force the Allies to retreat away from each other which was to form the focal point of all the events of the next few days after a promising start to the campaign crucially Napoleon's intelligence had broken down down and he did not reestablish contact with either of his opponents until late on June the 17th attempting the strategy of the central position uh in an attempt to uh divide and defeat uh Wellington and bler separately on the 16th of June 1815 Napoleon fought the double battles of Katra and lingy but while blooker's Prussian Army was badly handled at leny it was not decisively defeated and while Napoleon uh believed that uh the Prussian Army was retreating uh back to Li and back towards uh the Rin bler kept his promise to Wellington and actually marched on wava thus maintaining contact with Wellington's formations by then Wellington had taken the Fatal decision to stand and fight at watero on June the 18th he did so in the knowledge that the Prussian forces only 8 mil away at waver would be able to come to his Aid that same day Napoleon unaware that the prussians were so close was confident that they were continuing to retreat pursued by Gushi who had confidently assured the emperor that he would keep the Prussian Army on the move from Wellington accordingly Napoleon took the decision to switched the emphasis of his attack to Wellington's undefeated Army and he personally supervised the disposition of his army on the morning of June the 18th convinced that all he had to do was to defeat Wellington's army and he would have time to destroy the fleeing prussians at his leisure on the night of the 17th of June then uh Wellington arranged his troops to fight H and die on the ridge of mosan at near the village of waterl waiting for blooker's Army to reinforce him only with blooker's army could Wellington hope to save off defeat as the early stages of the struggle for hugar raged and Del long prepared his core for the main French attack upon the British Center daunting news reached the emperor for the first time he learned that the prussians were not in fact retreating towards Germany and that they had managed to elude grui worse still they were on their way and would come to the aid of the British by attacking the exposed French right flank Napoleon was therefore forced to draw off a large portion of his reserves to guard his flank before the battle had really started and he would then have to fight with one eye over his shoulder the battle of Woo is famous for a number of episodes including the famous charge of a Scots graze immortalized by Lady Butler equally famous is the repulse of the massed French Cavalry Charges by the Resolute British squares which was to prove the decisive moment of the battle conditions in these squares have become almost unbearable choked by by clouds of smoke piled high with dead and wounded they could not hold out much longer but by 4:00 the leading elements of the Prussian Army had at last reached the battlefield and by 5:00 they had captured the village of plas Noir on the French right they were now threatening to outflank the whole French position the Battle of watero could still very EAS have been won by Napoleon Marshall nay had at last managed to organize a series of concerted attacks utilizing Cavalry artillery and infantry and together they were causing huge losses in the British Center which warn down during a day's dogged resistance was at last beginning to show signs of wavering throughout the day Napoleon launched a series of massive infantry and cavalry attacks in an attempt to wear down and break through Wellington's lines Napoleon uh on the morning of waterl had declared that the battle would be a picnic that Wellington was a bad General and that the English were bad troops uh in fact he had underestimated both Wellington and the nature and temper of Wellington's Coalition Army at this desperate juncture nay begged Napoleon for fresh troops he knew that one last Supreme effort would carry the day still wary of the volatile situation around plas Noir Napoleon delayed for a crucial half an hour making full use of this merciful respite Wellington was able to shore up his hard pressed Center it was not until 7:00 in the evening that Napoleon relented the battalions of the Imperial Guard rolled forward the Old Guard the oldest of the old remained in square as a rallying point while the second and third battalions of the Guard regiments the so-called middle guard assaulted the British positions they were met by a Resolute resistance by the British Brigade of guards who poured forth such a hail of fire that the unthinkable happened the Imperial Guard never before defeated halted and began to give ground sensing that the decisive moment had come Wellington himself urged their commander on now matland now's your time he cried at that moment the whole British line sprang forward almost as one man the French will to resist seemed to crumble as the Imperial Guard retreated the news spread rapidly through the French ranks Lugar the guard is retreating was the astonished cry which carried through the ranks but it was soon replaced with SW ker every man for himself in an instant French morale disintegrated and by one of those sudden strange shifts of mass Consciousness Napoleon's Army was transformed from an aggressive fighting machine to a struggling mob of fugitives as Panic spread throughout the Army and any semblance of military discipline evaporated the Allied Pursuit was merciless and thousands of Frenchmen were cut down adding to the already horrendous toll of dead and wounded the emperor himself retreated to the safety of the rallying Square formed by the old guard then unable to force his Carriage through the mob of fugitives he was forced to take up his horse and flee the field with a small escort just one more panic-stricken figure in the total route Napoleon's last attempt to regain uh the Throne of France and to reestablish his Empire had failed he left behind 47,000 dead and wound wounded men of both [Music] sides the Victorious allies wanted no mistake a second time and the emperor was collected by a British warship and sent once more into Exile this time to the inhospitable Atlantic island of St Helena there he SP spent his last remaining days reflecting on his former glories and turning over and over in his mind what might have been had nay taken Katra had Gushi arrived had blushia retreated East these were the issues to which the Fallen Emperor returned again and again as his physical health and spirit declined he was no longer the proud Emperor but already the myths were beginning to grow around him as his old Soldiers Slipped Away one by one but in his heart he was still the man of great Destiny whose very name lent itself to a whole era the age of [Music] Napoleon [Music] [Applause]