Napoleon's Last Surrender

On July 15, 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte boarded a British warship off the coast of France and placed himself in the hands of his enemies. Twenty-seven days after Waterloo, the emperor who had ruled most of Europe was a fugitive with no route left to the open ocean. He came, he wrote, like Themistocles, seeking the protection of British law. Britain read the gesture very differently. This is the story of the day Napoleon ran out of options, and of the question his surrender left behind: what does a victor owe a defeated enemy who asks for mercy?Send me a text!Support the show