| 21/9/1795 | Engagement of Napoleon Bonaparte and Désirée Clary. Napoleon's brother Joseph Married Julie Clary on 01/08/1794 and Napoleon was engaged to her sister Désirée. She moved to Genoa with her family to escape the French revolution and after Napoleon met Joséphine de Beauharnais he decided to end the engagement. |
| 5/10/1795 | Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses the uprising in Paris. The people had risen against the new constitution. Barras appointed Bonaparte as commander of the troops in Paris. With the uses of canons Napoleon managed to prevent that the people stormed the Tuileries. The National Convention honoured him as their saviour. |
| 9/2/1796 | The engagement of Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais is made public [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 2/3/1796 | Napoleon is appointed Command in chief of the Army of Italy by the Directoire. The directoire was dominated by Paul Barras at that time. [Barras, Paul, vicomte de] |
| 9/3/1796 | Napoleon Bonaparte marries Joséphine de Beauharnais [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 10/4/1796 | Start of Napoleon's successful campaign in Italy. He would defeat the Austrians several times, conquer Lombardia and force several favourable treaties in Italian states. |
| 10/5/1796 | Napoleon I defeats the Austrians at Lodi. After that he surrounded Milan. |
| 15/5/1796 | Napoleon I enters Milan |
| 19/6/1796 | Napoleon I enters Bologna |
| 5/8/1796 | Battle of Castiglione: Napoleon defeats Wurmser |
| 8/9/1796 | First Battle of Balsano: Napoleon defeats Wurmser. This was the last battle of Napoleon before he would be defeated for the first time during the Second Battle of Bassano. |
| 6/11/1796 | Second Battle of Bassano: Napoleon is defeated by József Alvinczi. It was the first tactical defeat for Napoleon. |
| 14/1/1797 | Battle of Rivoli: Napoleon defeats the Austrians. The French Army of Italy under Napoleon defeated the larger Austrian army under Jozsef Alvinczi. |
| 2/2/1797 | Mantua surrenders to Napoleon |
| 18/4/1797 | Peace of Leoben between France and Austria. It was a preliminary peace. For the Austrians it was signed by General Maximilian von Merveldt and the Marquis of Gallo on behalf of emperor Francis II. Napoleon Bonaparte signed it on behalf of the French directory. |
| 4/5/1798 | Napoleon leaves Paris for the Middle East. His wife Joséphine accompanied him. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 9/5/1798 | Napoleon embarks on the admiral's ship L'Orient. He embarked for Egypt. His wife Joséphine cried all the way to Toulon because she didn't want to go and finally Bonaparte decided to leave her in France. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 0/9/1798 | Napoleon sees Pauline Fourès and is impressed. He gave order to find out who she was and managed to make her his mistress. For this purpose he sent her husband to Paris without her. The affair comes at a good moment because his prestige has suffered from the infidelity of his own wife Joséphine. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de][Fourès, Pauline] |
| 9/11/1799 | Coup d'État by Napoleon I. He brought down the directoire government and became First Consul himself. |
| 14/7/1800 | La Grassini sings at the Église des Invalides. She was the lover of Napoleon and he had arranged her performance. |
| 26/5/1805 | Napoleon crowned to King of Italy at the Duomo di Milano. The archbishop Giovanni Battista Caprara blessed the Iron Crown of Lombardy before Napoleon placed it on his own head. |
| 2/12/1805 | Battle of Austerlitz. also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors. Napoleon beats Alexander I of Russia and Franz I of Austria. the battle was fought near the town of Austerlitz. Napoleon's win ended the War of the Third Coalition and resulted in the Treaty of Pressburg. [Lannes, Jean, Duc de Montebello] |
| 27/12/1805 | Napoleon declares the king of Naples to be deposed. At Schönbrunn he signed a decret that stated "The Bourbon dynasty in Naples had ceased to reign". |
| 0/4/1806 | A Dutch delegation talks to Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. The delegation was led by admiral Ver Huell and was instructed to aks Napoleon to maintain the Batavian Republic. But Napoleon wanted to make his brother Louis king of Holland. He refused to meet the delegation and ordered them to negotiate with his unwilling brother. The negotiations succeeded after Ver Huell, the leader of the delegation and a supporter of Napoleon, mediated succesfully. On 5 May 1806 Napoleon appointed his brother King of Holland. [Ver Huell, Carel Hendrik] |
| 14/10/1806 | Napoleon defeats Hohehlohe near Jena. General Tauentzien had evacuated the city on 13 October because the French were approaching. This allowed the French to take advantageous positions for their artillery. The next morning the French, aided by the fog, attacked. Tauenzien held out until half past eight, when the Prince of Hohenlohe recalled him, unaware that a battle was in progress. This allowed the French to advance further. Hohenlohe decided not to retreat and was defeated by the massively attacking French. His corps had to surrender at Breslau. [Lannes, Jean, Duc de Montebello][Lefebvre, François Joseph, Duc de Dantzig][Ney, Michel, Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa] |
| 20/11/1806 | Napoleon receives Johannes von Müller for an audience. Müller had been a proponent of military action against France, but he accepted the German defeat in 1806. On Napoleon's instigation Von Müller became Minister of State of the Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807. |
| 31/12/1806 | Napoleon hears of the birth of his son, Léon Denuelle. He was in Pulstick in Poland when he heard that his mistress Eléonore Denuelle had given birth to a son on 13 Dec. He was full of joy because now he realised that he was able to have children. [Denuelle, Eléonore] |
| 6/7/1807 | Queen Luise of Prussia meets Napoleon in Tilsit. Their meeting took place at the house of Justice Commisioner Ernst Ludwig Siehr in Tilsit, where Napoleon lived during the peace negotiations. Luise had expected to meet a monster but she met a highly intelligent man who chatted pleasantly. She asked him for a measured approach to the peace terms and he answered her vaguely. After he asked her how the Prussians could be so careless as to attack him she answered "The frame of Frederick the Great deceived us about our means". The interview ended former mutual insults but she did not obtain any consessions from Napoleon. [Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, königin von Preussen] |
| 21/11/1807 | Napoleon arrives in Milan. On the following day he was present at a Te Deum in the Duomo in Milan, later reviewing troops and visiting the Princess Augusta de Bavière, Vicereine of Italy and wife of Eugène.
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| 4/1/1808 | David presents to Napoleon the final version of his painting of Napoleon's coronation. Napoleon was very pleased with the result. [David, Jacques-Louis] |
| 2/10/1808 | Goethe on audience with Napoleon at the palace in Erfurt. It was the first meeting between the two and Christoph Wieland was with him. Talleyrand, Berthier and Savary were there as well. When he was first invited in 1806 Goethe had excused himself for health reasons and during Napoleon's second visit to Weimar, Goethe was in Karlsbad. Napoleon spoke to Goethe about "Die Leiden des jüngen Wethers" and Goethe observed that the emperor knew it very well. [Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von][Wieland, Christoph Martin] |
| 6/10/1808 | Goethe meets Napoleon during the Court Ball in Weimar. It was their second meeting, after Napoleon had received him and Wieland in Erfurt four days before. Wieland was also there on this occasion. Napoleon invited Goethe to come to Paris to write a Caesar tragedy. In his opinion there was no good work yet on this subject. On 14 Oct 1808 Goethe received the Légion d'Honneur. [Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von][Wieland, Christoph Martin] |
| 17/4/1809 | Napoleon suddeny appears at Donauworth. He came to take command of the army and he led an advancd to Landshut. |
| 13/5/1809 | French troops enter Vienna. They were under command of general Oudinot who would soon be promoted to marshall. It was the second time that French troops entered Vienna, Napoleon himself had been there in 1805. |
| 30/11/1809 | Napoleon tells Joséphine that he wants to divorce her. She had been unable to provide him with a son. After he told her she fainted and was carried to her chambers by Napoleon and Bausset. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 15/12/1809 | Napoleon divorces Joséphine de Beauharnais. On this date they both agreed to the dissolve their civil marriage. They signed the declaration in Napoleon's chambers at the Palais des Tuileries. Madame Mère, Louis, Jerome, Murat, Eugène, Julie, Hortense, Catherine, Pauline and Caroline were all present. The Roman Catholic marriage was annulled on 9 Jan 1810. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de] |
| 7/2/1810 | Marriage contract between Napoleon and Marie Louise signed in Paris [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma] |
| 27/2/1810 | Napoleon informs the Senate that he will marry Marie Louise of Austria [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma] |
| 11/3/1810 | Marriage ceremony Marie Louise in Vienna. Napoleon was not in Vienna and was represented by Archduke Karl. [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma] |
| 16/3/1810 | Louis Napoleon gives up Dutch territories to France. His brother Napoleon forced him to give up Brabant, Zeeland, the Land van Maas en Waal and the city of Mijmegen to France. |
| 25/5/1810 | Napoleon is crowned King of Italy in Milan |
| 10/7/1810 | The Kingdom of Holland becomes part of France immediately by an imperial decree [Beauharnais, Hortense de] |
| 5/11/1810 | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte is baptised at the Palace of Fontainebleau. Napoleon I served as his godfather and empress Marie Louise as his godmother. His father, who lived separated from his mother Hortense, stayed away. [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma][Napoleon III Bonaparte] |
| 7/9/1812 | Battle of Borodino: Napoleon defeats Kutusov. The armies consisted both of circa 130,000 men. The French army was slightly larger. Kutusov was assisted by Prince Pyotr Bagration and Barclay de Tolly. Napoleon brought Eugène de Beauharnais, Ney and Davout. The battle was intense and pieces of land changed hands several times. Eugène de Beauharnais managed to occupy Borodino. The French lost 30,000 men and the Russians probably even more. But the French victory wasn't decisive because the French failed to destroy the Russian army. [Beauharnais, Eugène Rose de, Duke of Leuchtenberg][Davout, Louis-Nicholas, Duke of Auerstädt][Murat, Joachim, king of Naples][Ney, Michel, Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa] |
| 15/12/1812 | Napoleon passes through Weimar on his way back from Russia. It happened during the night and he sent his greetings to Goethe. [Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von] |
| 20/5/1813 | Battle of Bautzen: Napoleon defeats Russia and Prussia. A Prusso-russian army was driven back by Napoleon but it escapted destruction. The battle took place from 20 to 21 May. It was not the decisive victory that Napoleon had hoped for. His friend General Geraud Duroc was wounded mortually on the day after the battle. [Ney, Michel, Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa] |
| 1/2/1814 | The Bourbons promise liberal policies in a proclamation. Louis XVIII and Charles X were still in England. But Napoleon's regime was close to collapsing and they tried to win the support of the French people. [Charles X, King of France] |
| 0/4/1814 | Metternich asks for a separation of Napoleon I and Marie Louise. He wanted to separate her from Napoleon who was banished to Elba, She was offered Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla by the Congress of Vienna. [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma] |
| 6/4/1814 | Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau. He received Elba as kingdom. On the same day it was determined that 'Louis de France, frère du dernier roi' would receive the throne of France. |
| 16/4/1814 | The Treaty of Fontainebleau is ratified. Napoleon was sent to Elba with a substantial pension and the throne of France would be returned to Louis XVIII. |
| 25/4/1814 | Napoleon is almost lynched at Orgon. He was on his way to Elba with a small escort and when he passed the village of Orgon near Avonon the crowds pressed against the windows of his carriage and abused him. He promptly used the Austrian commissioner's cloak to avoid recognition. When he returned to France in the spring of 1815 he avoided the Provence on his way to Paris. |
| 3/5/1814 | Napoleon embarks at Elba. He thought the island was a bit small. His wish that Marie-Louise would join him wasn't fulfilled and she would enter into an affair with count Neipperg later that year. He was visited by Maria Walewska and their son Alexandre. [Walewska, Maria ] |
| 24/9/1814 | Marie Louise and Count Neipperg become lovers. Count Adam Albert von Neipperg accompanied Marie Louise on a journey to Aix-les-Bains when Napoleon was at Elba. Forced by bad weather they had to spend the night at the inn "Die Goldene Sonne" at Küssnacht and during the night they became lovers. It is believed that Marie Louise had been after him for a while and Neipperg didn't resist. [Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma][Neipperg, Adam Albert, Count von] |
| 26/2/1815 | Napoleon embarks at Portoferraio and leaves Elba. He had decided to return to France. People around it called it an insane undertaing. But the eagle's flight was to be muraculous and later on St. Helena Napoleon would declare that the march from Cannes to Paris that would follow was the happiest time of his life. |
| 1/3/1815 | Napoleon lands back in France after his exile to Elba. He had said in 1814 that he would return 'with the violins' and he did so. He sailed into Golfe-Juan on the Southen Coast and late in the afternoon his small military force set foot in France. That night they stayed on the dunes of Cannes near what is now Croisette. |
| 2/3/1815 | Napoleon marches north from Cannes to Le Cannet. There were only five working muskets in the town and the mayor surrendered the town to Napoleon's small army. |
| 3/3/1815 | Napoleon reaches Castellane and then Barrême |
| 5/3/1815 | Napoleon makes a declaration to the French people from Gap. He blamed Auguereau for surrending Lyon without a fight, causing the fall of Paris. He stated that in his exile he had heard the complaints from the Frenchmen and had returned to reclaim his rights which were theirs. |
| 7/3/1815 | Napoleon encounters a battalion near Laffrey and reaches Grenoble afterwards. Napoleon immediately started talking to the troops that confronted him. There are different versions of the story, but he asked them if some of them wanted to kill him and the loudly denied this. He then inspected the troops and took posession of the regiment. Soon afterwards he was cheered by the people at Vizille and in the evening he reached Grenoble. He was immediately welcomed and was treated as a sovereign. He was offered to stay at the prefecture but he decided to stay at the hotel Les Trois Dauphins in the rue Montorge where he had stayed before in 1791. |
| 7/3/1815 | News that Napoleon is missing reaches Vienna. Metternich received a letter from Neil Campbell, the commissioner on Elba, who stated that Napoleon was missing and was wondering if he was seen somewhere. Metternich immediately informed emperor Francis II who told him that he was ready to send the army to Paris again and asked him to inform Alexander I of Russia and Frederick IV of Prussia. Later that they the allies met but they had no idea of Napoleon's intentions. [Friedrich Wilhelm III, king of Prussia] |
| 9/3/1815 | Napoleon leaves Grenoble and arrives at Bourgoin. On the same day the Comte d'Artois tried to rally the French soldiers in Lyon but he failed to do so with his proclamation to the army. [Charles X, King of France] |
| 10/3/1815 | Napoleon arrives at Lyon. His entrance in the city was a triumph for him. On 11 March 1815 he inspected his troops at the Place Bellecour. |
| 13/3/1815 | The Congress of Vienna places Napoleon outside the law. They stated that by entering France with an armed force, he had cut himself off from the protection of the law and that he had incurred public vengeance. They also promised the King of France and the French Nation all assistance necessary to restore public tranquility. |
| 14/3/1815 | Marshal Ney defects to Napoleon. In 1814 he had put pressure on Napoleon to accept his abdication and after hearing of Napoleon's return, he organised a force to stop him. He wanted to return Napoleon in an iron cage to Paris. Napoleon was aware of Ney's plans and sent him a message in which he stated that he would receive him as he did after the Battle of the Moskawa. Ney changed his mind and he joined Napoleon with his army of 6,000 men at Lons-le-Saulnier, Jura. Zijn manschappen riepen "Vive l'Empereur!" en "Vive Napoleon!". This effectively ended the hopes of Louix XVIII to retain control of the Army. [Ney, Michel, Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa] |
| 16/3/1815 | Napoleon raches Avallon. He spent the night in Avallon at the hôtel Saint-Louis et de la Poste. |
| 17/3/1815 | Napoleon reaches Auxerre. Her spent two nights there at the Préfecture. |
| 19/3/1815 | Louis XVIII flees from Paris to Lille. After Napoleon's landing in France, he had tried to placate the people with liberal proclamations. However, the behavior of the old nobles and clergy, led by his brother Charles of Artois, had caused too much bad blood. He fled during the night of March 19 to 20 to Lille. It was not easy to lift him into his carriage given his weight and because he was gouty. Because the ganirson in Lille seemed hostile they continued to Ghent in Belgium. [Charles X, King of France] |
| 20/3/1815 | Napoleon arrives in Paris. He travelled from Pont-sur-Yonne and reached Fontaineblueau in the night from 19 to 20 March. A few hours he continued to the Tuileries, where he arrived in the morning. In the same night Louis XVIII fled from Lille to Ghent. |
| 23/3/1815 | Napoleon orders Bertrand to transport several items from Elba to Paris. He wanted his yellow carriage, a particular Corsican horse and his underwear. |
| 29/3/1815 | Wellington leaves the Congress of Vienna. During the Congress, Napoleon had returned to France. Napoleon promised a liberal rule and promised not to be a danger to Europe. But the Congress decided that he should be removed from power again. Wellington left for Brussels to take command of the allied army. [Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of] |
| 11/5/1815 | Napoleon appoints Marshall Soult chief of staff. Sould had resigned as Minister of War under the Bourbons after Napoleon returned to France and declared himself a Bonapartist. |
| 29/5/1815 | Belliard arrives in Toulon. During the 100 Days he had told Napoleon that he did not want a command unless war broke out. He had arrived in Naples on 9 May to assist Murat, but only a few eeeks later he was back in France to help Napoleon defend himself against the allied forces. [Murat, Joachim, king of Naples] |
| 18/6/1815 | Battle of Waterloo: Wellington and Blücher defeat Napoleon [Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of] |
| 22/6/1815 | Napoleon abdicates for the second time. He abdicated in favour of his son Napoleon II. A provisional government under Fouché took over power. |
| 30/7/1815 | Napoleon is told that he will be banished to St. Helena. Admiral Keith told him this. Everybody had expected that the former emperor would be treated with respect so this came as a surprise. |
| 25/7/1818 | Napoleon's physician O'Meara leaves St. Helena. He had become physician to Napoleon shortly after the Battle of Waterloo. After a conflict with Hudson Lowe he was forced to leave the island. |
| 17/2/1852 | President Louis Napoleon declares August 15 a national day for France. It was the birthday of Napoleon I and it became the only national day off in France. [Napoleon III Bonaparte] |
| 2/4/1861 | Napoleon I's remains are transferred to the crypt at the Dôme des Invalides in Paris. Before that he was buried at the chapel of Saint-Jérôme at Les Invalides after his remains were returned from St. Helena in 1840. Napoleon III and empress Eugénie looked over the balcony from above. [Napoleon III Bonaparte] |
| 15/5/1865 | Inauguration of the statue of Napoleon I in Ajaccio. Prince Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte gave a careless speech that was censured afterwards by Napoleon III on 23 May 1865. [Napoleon III Bonaparte] |
