Napoleon

In April 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, beaten after years of war and shifting alliances, bade farewell to his Old Guard in the courtyard of the Château de Fontainebleau before leaving for exile on Elba. Many accounts of his fall blame foreign powers bent on his destruction and treacherous officials at home, while others treat the collapse as unavoidable once his armies began to suffer defeat in 1812.

Munro Price challenges both views, arguing that the emperor's fall was not inevitable. He focuses on the neglected years from 1812 to 1814, covering the disastrous Russian campaign, the repeated Austrian attempts to arrange a peace, and the diplomatic maneuvering of Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister who wanted a balance of power in Europe, and of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. Price also considers how the violence of the French Revolution's Terror shaped Napoleon's choices after he took power.

At the center of the book is the question of why Napoleon refused a compromise peace that might have let him keep his throne. Price portrays an emperor who clung to war and to dominance over Europe, whose military abilities were fading, and who feared a dishonorable peace above nearly everything else. The book is intended for readers interested in the Napoleonic wars and in reassessing Napoleon's character and motives.