Thomas Hartwell Horne (1780–1862)
An illustrated record of important events in the annals of Europe, during the last four years: comprising a series of views of the principal places, battles, etc. etc. etc. connected with those events…
London: printed by T. Bensley and Son, for R. Bowyer, 1816
Harley-Mason.bb.84, ‘Grand entry of the Allied sovereigns into Paris’

By late March 1814 the armies of the Sixth Coalition had reached Paris. After a day’s fighting on 30 March the city capitulated, and on 31 March Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia entered Paris, together with general officers of other Allied nations. It was barely eighteen months since Napoleon had entered Moscow in September 1812. The French Senate was convened to appoint a provisional government, and charged Napoleon with breaking the compact which in a constitutional monarchy exists between the sovereign and the people. The Senate set out the specific actions through which the breach had been made: these included the suppression of the legislature, annulment of ministerial responsibilities, and destruction of judicial independence; the waging of wars in violation of constitutional procedure; and the arbitrary control of the press. Under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau signed on 11 April Napoleon renounced sovereignty and dominion in the French Empire, Italy, and elsewhere, but the Mediterranean island of Elba was adopted as his place of residence, to ‘form, during his life, a separate principality, which shall be possessed by him in full sovereignty and property’.