"Why didn’t Napoleon escape to the United States?" Topic

"After his 1815 abdication from the French throne, Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to start a new life in the United States. Why didn't he?

After losing the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, Napoleon returned to Paris with the aim of shoring up his domestic support before continuing the war. When he arrived on June 21, the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Peers called for his abdication. (See Lucien Bonaparte's remarks to the Deputies and the Marquis de Lafayette's response.) On June 22, Napoleon relinquished the throne in favour of his son, Napoleon II, whom the provisional government soon deposed.

Napoleon knew he was in danger. If captured by the coalition, he would face either imprisonment (favoured by the British) or death (Prussian Field Marshal von Blücher's preferred way of dealing with him). That evening Napoleon asked naval minister Denis Decrès to place two French frigates at Rochefort at his disposal. Decrès said he would be happy to do so, as soon as he received orders from the provisional government, which was led by Napoleon's former police minister, Joseph Fouché. Unbeknownst to Napoleon, Fouché wanted to use him as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the coalition…"

More here

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Armand

Because the Royal Navy was in the way?

Yeah. That could explain it.

There's a silly tourist attraction (I almost wrote "Tourist Trap") in Bradford County called French Azilum. It was supposed to be a refuge for fleeing French aristocrats. Log cabins and everything!
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It even had "Marie Antoinette's Lookout". 🤷🙄
Taxpayer money was involved, even back in 1795. Pennsylvania politics haven't changed…

A very popular Country song is Bonaparte's Retreat.

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Some interesting hypothesis on this subject are presented by Walter Bosley in his book, The Esoteric Napoleon.

Simple, if he wanted to live he had to surrender to the British.

He surrended to the British… they send him to St. Helena…

Armand

The Napoleon House bar and restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans is reputed to have been purchased as a refuge for for the Emperor if he could escape from St. Helena. Don't know if the story is true but it did make a fine Sazerac cocktail and good diner. I haven't been there in 15 years but hope it still exists.

I don't think Napoleon wanted to "escape" to the United States. I think what he wanted was angling for was for himself and his entourage to be officially allowed to be transported from France to the U.S. The former was doable when Napoleon first arrived on France's Atlantic seaboard. However the message from Napoleon covertly slipping out of the country on a fast ship would have been different from him sailing away with the leave of the French (and ideally the British) government.

@ Shagnasty I had lunch at the Napoleon House a couple of years ago.

Thanks

Armand

Thanks Bill N. It is nice to know that some good things still exist.

From what I remember reading, Napoleon was indecisive and dawdled too long before deciding on a course of action and by the time he settled on an American escapade, it was too late, the seaports were all closed by the Royal Navy and he wasn't prepared to take any further risks.

So he *might* have done -- but hesitated too long.

No Bonnie Prince Charlie in the heather adventures for him!

Note: Must remember to seek out the Napoleon House in NOLA next trip there!

Thanks also…

Armand

I've been thinking of the mechanics of coming to the US in a French warship. 🤔
Would that be considered an invasion? Don't forget. No radio communications.

Napoleon has the chance to scape in a American Ship… very fast and with an skill crew… he doubt… and he lost…

Armand

This is probably as close as any one got!

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Or the Hollywood version, with Burt Lancaster.

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(smile)

Armand

The United States was at various times visited by or home to a number of Napoleon's close relatives including two of his brothers and three of his nephews, including the future Napoleon III. Napoleon wasn't the only one in his family to fail in an effort to escape to the U.S. After he had a falling out with his brother Lucien Napoleon attempted to escape to the U.S. only to be captured by the British. Jerome Bonaparte and Murat's two sons married American women. Jerome fathered a line of American Bonapartes and Murat's son Lucien was the ancestor of the actor who played Odo on Start Trek Deep Space Nine.

I've been thinking of the mechanics of coming to the US in a French warship. 🤔
Would that be considered an invasion? Don't forget. No radio communications.

it existed multiple channels of information, diplomatic, commercial, maritime, by merchants, travelers, seamen, political exiled, etc…and the coming of a warship in the national waters of another country doesn't mean ipso facto any DOW nor invasion

however it existed rumors and fake news as today, a royalist Parisian having lived in the US wrote after the fall of Napoleon that the French people, or at least in the streets of Paris, thought that the Coalition of invaders would oblige France to declare war to United States and to sent the French Army in America given the war between Great Britain and US since 1812

atfer the Quasi War and until 1917 there were enough French warships who came in the US waters and harbors and including during the ACW and French campain in Mexico as well as US warships in the french waters, all that doesn't mean at all any naval invasion, only the banality of everyday life on the seas and oceans for the merchant or military navies of the world

Interesting… thanks…

Armand