Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII

Napoleon, in response to his excommunication, has pope Pius VII arrested and kept in captivity in northern Italy and then France

Napoleon enters Vienna and defeats the Austrians in a battle at nearby Wagram

Napoleon arranges to have his marriage to Josephine annulled so that he can marry the daughter of an emperor

John Moore dies at Corunna but his army escapes from Spain and gets back to England

Napoleon marries the Austrian archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of the emperor Francis I

The Spanish Cortes flees from the renewed French invasion and establishes itself in Cadiz

A French marshal, Jean Bernadotte, is offered the position of crown prince and heir to the Swedish throne

Marie Louise gives birth to a boy, Napoleon's longed-for heir, to be known as the King of Rome

Napoleon launches an attack on his ally, the Russian tsar Alexander I, with an army of more than 600,000 men

The French author Stendhal serves in the French army during the invasion of Russia

The Russian army under Marshal Kutuzov confronts the advancing French at Borodino, and though defeated makes a successful withdrawal

After victory at Borodino, Napoleon enters Moscow to find the city abandoned and burning

Napoleon begins the retreat from Moscow, in arctic conditions and harried by guerrilla attacks

Napoleon arrives back in Paris ahead of the remains of his army, after losing half a million men in the Russian campaign

The king of Prussia, Frederick William III, changes sides and declares war on France

Wellington defeats Napoleon's brother Joseph at Vitoria, and captures his valuable baggage train

In a treaty with Russia and Prussia at Reichenbach, Austria agrees to declare war on France

Wellington crosses the Bidassoa river in the north of Spain, bringing an enemy army on to French soil for the first time in twenty years

The allies inflict a heavy defeat on Napoleon at Leipzig, in the so-called Battle of the Nations

Napoleon's first empress, Josephine, dies near Paris

The Russian emperor and the Prussian king take a salute in the Champs Elysées after the allies capture Paris

Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau and the French senate invites Louis XVIII to return to reclaim his throne

Ferdinand VII, restored to Spain, imposes a reactionary regime and persecutes his liberal opponents

Napoleon goes into exile on the island of Elba, which he immediately treats as a miniature state in need of improvement