Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris and abdicated for the second time on 22 June in favor of his son. With Allied armies advancing on the French capital and no realistic prospect of rebuilding his power, he fled to the Atlantic coast hoping to escape to the United States. The British Royal Navy, however, maintained a close blockade of the French ports, making any successful escape highly unlikely. Realizing that his options had run out, Napoleon decided to surrender to the British rather than risk capture by the Prussians or Austrians.

On 15 July 1815, Napoleon boarded the British warship *HMS Bellerophon* in the harbor of Rochefort and formally placed himself in the hands of Captain Frederick Maitland. He declared that he had come “like Themistocles, to sit by the hearth of the British people,” hoping that Britain would grant him asylum as a private citizen. Instead, the British government classified him as a dangerous political prisoner whose return to Europe could once again threaten the continent’s stability. While aboard the *Bellerophon*, Napoleon was treated with courtesy and became the focus of intense public interest. When the ship anchored off Torbay and later Plymouth, crowds gathered in boats to catch a glimpse of the former Emperor through a telescope.

The British government ultimately rejected Napoleon’s request to settle in Britain and instead chose to exile him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, where escape would be virtually impossible. On 7 August 1815 he was transferred from the *Bellerophon* to *HMS Northumberland* for the long voyage to his final place of exile. Napoleon arrived at Saint Helena in October and remained there under British supervision until his death on 5 May 1821. His surrender aboard *HMS Bellerophon* marked the definitive end of the Napoleonic Wars and closed one of the most remarkable military and political careers in European history.