N & E
Napoleon & Empire

Napoleonic Timeline of 1814

January 1814

1st January 1814 – After having crosed the river Rhine, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher marched towards Nancy. In Paris, Napoleon apostrophed French deputies, during the reception of New Year's day: Are you people's representatives? I am, me... I have a title and you do not... Return to your departments!.

3rd January 1814 – Allies entered Montbéliard.

4 January 1814 – In Paris, free corps were created.

7 January 1814 – The allies entered Dole.

11 January 1814 – Betrayal of Joachim Murat: he promised, in a treaty with Austria, to provide thirty thousand men to drive the French out of Italy.

13 January 1814 – Napoleon reviewed troops at the Carrousel .

14 January 1814 – Marshal Michel Ney evacuated Nancy.

16 January 1814 – Langres was taken by Allies.

17 January 1814 – Denmark declared war on France.

19 January 1814 – Allies entered Dijon, Burgundy.

20 January 1814 – Allies entered Chambery, Savoy.

21 January 1814 – Napoleon ordered to bring back the Pope Pius VII to Italy.

23 January 1814 – Presentation of the King of Rome to the officers of the National Guard.

24 January 1814 – Joseph Bonaparte was appointed Lieutenant General of the Emperor. Empress Marie-Louise became regent.

25 January 1814 – Fall of Lleida, the last French place in Spain. Napoleon joined the army; he would never see his wife or his son  again.

26 January 1814 – Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier was ordered to distribute to the army two to three hundred thousand bottles of wine and distilled spirits taken in Vitry.

27 January 1814 – Napoleon defeated the vanguard of Blücher in Saint-Dizier.

29 January 1814 – The Marie-Louise (young soldiers battalions) defeated Blücher at Brienne.

February 1814

3rd February 1814 – A conference betwen French and Allies opened at Châtillon-sur-Seine.

4 February 1814 – Blücher resumed the offensive and entered La Fere-Champenoise. Marshal Etienne Macdonald retreated towards Chateau-Thierry.

6 February 1814 – The French retreated to Nogent. Napoleon planned the evacuation of Paris by the government.

7 February 1814 – Napoleon got informed that the allies would demand that France would found its limits prior to the Revolution.

8 February 1814 – He refused these conditions.

9 February 1814 – The Conference of Chatillon was suspended.

10 February 1814 – French victory at Champaubert.

Saint-Gond marshes, south of Champaubert
The marshes of Saint-Gond, south of Champaubert

11 February 1814 – New French victory near Montmirail.

12 February 1814 – Another victory at Château-Thierry. The Duke of Angoulême (nephew of Louis XVIII) addressed a proclamation to the French from Saint-Jean de Luz, Basque country.

17 February 1814 – Conference resumed at Chatillon.

18 February 1814 – French victory at Montereau.

19 February 1814 – Eliza, Napoleon's sister, declared that she was breaking all ties with the French Empire.

22 February 1814 – The Allies met in Troyes to hold a council of war. They decided to retire and offer Napoleon an armistice.

24 February 1814 – Napoleon entered Troyes, Champagne.

25 February 1814 – Negotiations began at Lusigny, for an armistice. However discussions at Chatillon continued.

28 February 1814 – The conference of Lusigny ended, with no results.

March 1814

1st March 1814 – The Allies proclaimed themselves associated for twenty years against France: this was the Treaty of Chaumont.

4 March 1814 – All French people were called to arms.

9 March 1814 – Battle of Laon.

10 March 1814 – Battle of Laon (end). Napoleon retreated towards Soissons. The Baron of Vitrolles, as emissary of Talleyrand, arrived at the Allies' headquarters.

12 March 1814 – The Duke of Angouleme entered Bordeaux . Louis XVIII was proclaimed King.

19 March 1814 – The negotiations of Chatillon got permanently discontinued. The Count of Artois (Louis XVIII's younger brother) arrived in Nancy.

20 March 1814 – Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. The imperial army had to retire behind the river Aube. The bridge at Arcis was shot.

23 March 1814 – The Allies crossed the river Aube and headed to Paris.

28 March 1814 – The Tsar Alexander I looked down at the French capital from the hills over the river Seine.

29 March 1814 – Empress Marie-Louise and her son left Paris for Rome.

30 March 1814 – The battle for Paris began at 6 AM. Marshal Bon-Adrien Jannot de Moncey and 15,000 men heroically defended the Clichy barrier . However Marshal Marmont offered to negotiate a cease-fire at 4 PM.

31 March 1814 – The capitulation of Paris was signed at 2 AM. The Allies entered Paris at 11 AM. Meanwhile, Napoleon was in Fontainebleau.

April 1814

1st April 1814 – The French Senate appointed a provisional government headed by Talleyrand.

2nd April 1814 – The Senate declared Napoleon Bonaparte and his family deprived of the throne, the French people and army freed from their oath of fidelity.

3rd April 1814 – The Corps Législatif voted the forfeiture, too.

4 April 1814 – Napoleon signed in Fontainebleau a form of conditional abdication, which was preserving the rights of his son and the Empress Regent.

5 April 1814 – He reviewed the debris of his guard.

6 April 1814 – Council with the Marshals. The Senate freely called Louis-Stanislas-Xavier (Louis XVIII) to the throne. Napoleon renounced for himself and his family to the thrones of France and Italy.

8 April 1814 – The provisional government declared invalid all acts of Napoleon since his disqualification by the Senate.

10 April 1814 – A ceremony of cleansing took place in Paris, Place de la Concorde, where King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette had been guillotined.

11 April 1814 – The allies offered to Napoleon the sovereignty of the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea.

12 April 1814 – Napoleon attempted suicide, late at night.

13 April 1814 – Napoleon accepted the offer of Allies.

14 April 1814 – The Count d'Artois received from the Senate the general lieutenancy of the kingdom.

15 April 1814 – He was solemnly received by the Senate.

19 April 1814 – Allied commissioners responsible to accompany Napoleon to Elba arrived at Fontainebleau.

20 April 1814 – The Emperor bade farewell to his Guard in the Cheval-Blanc courtyard of the of Fontainebleau Palace  ; he left in the company of Henri Gatien Bertrand, Antoine Drouot, Pierre Cambronne and six hundred men.

24 April 1814 – Louis XVIII landed at Calais, North France.

28 April 1814 – At Saint-Raphael, Napoleon embarked on the British frigate The Undaunted.

May 1814

3rd May 1814 – Napoleon arrived at the island of Elba. King Louis XVIII entered Paris.

24 May 1814 – Pope Pius VII returned to Rome.

29 May 1814 – Josephine died at Malmaison , following pneumonia contracted during a walk in the park in the company of Tsar Alexander I.

30 May 1814 – First Treaty of Paris: France was reduced to its 1792 borders.

31 May 1814 – Pauline Bonaparte joined her brother in the island of Elba.

June 1814

1st June 1814 – Proclamation of peace in Paris.

4 June 1814 – Louis XVIII gave the Charter. In Porto-Ferrajo , the capital of the island of Elba, a ball was given aboard a British ship for the birthday of King George, Napoleon Bonaparte attending.

August 1814

3rd August 1814 – Arrival of Napoleon's mother at the island of Elba.

15 August 1814 – Napoleon's birthday was celebrated in all his "kingdom".

24 August 1814 – In the United States of America, the English took the city of Washington and burned it down.

September 1814

1st September 1814 – Maria Walewska and her son arrived to the island of Elba.

12 September 1814 – The English were defeated before Baltimore.

16 September 1814 – Talleyrand left Paris for the Congress of Vienna [Wien].

October 1814

November 1814

1st November 1814 – Official opening of the Congress of Vienna, a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich.

4 November 1814 – In France, a law returned to emigrants unsold national property.

December 1814

16 December 1814 – New wave of half-pay for Bonapartist officers, under the pretext of economy.

17 December 1814 – The half-paid were assigned to residence in their place of birth.

24 December 1814 – A Peace Treaty between the United States and Great Britain was signed.

30 December 1814 – Were promoted Generals former émigrés, Vendéens or Chouans.

Photo credits

  Photos by Lionel A. Bouchon.
  Photos by Michèle Grau-Ghelardi.
  Photos by Marie-Albe Grau.
  Photos by Floriane Grau.
  Photos by Didier Grau.
  Photos by people outside the Napoleon & Empire association. Thanks to Mr. Cyril Maillet for the photo of Malmaison he provided to us.

Sources

This page has as its main source the Napoleonic chronology established by Gérard Walter for his edition of The Memorial of Saint Helena, in the French classics series La Pléiade, published by the Éditions Gallimard, Paris.