The crowned heads of Europe and their representatives gather in Vienna to tidy up the post-Napoleonic continent

Napoleon slips away from Elba with a fleet of small vessels and lands on the coast of France

Napoleon reaches Paris, already accompanied by an enthusiastic regiment that has joined him on his journey north

The English and Prussian generals Wellington and Blücher defeat Napoleon in a closely fought battle at Waterloo

The first news of the victory at Waterloo is given to the British government by a private citizen, Nathan Mayer Rothschild

The rulers of Russia, Prussia and Austria form a Holy Alliance to preserve their concept of a Christian Europe

Napoleon, held on a British warship off Torquay and hoping now to live in Britain, becomes an instant tourist attraction

The congress of Vienna leaves the Cape of Good Hope in British hands

Wellington is presented with a twice-life-size nude marble statue, by Canova, of his vanquished enemy Napoleon

Jacques-Louis David, unmistakably identified as Napoleon's painter, is banished from France after the fall of the emperor and moves to Brussels

Napoleon is sent to a more secure place of exile, the rocky Atlantic island of St Helena

John Rennie's new bridge commemorates a recent victory, over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815

Napoleon dies on St Helena, after six years of captivity

Napoleon's son, known now as the Duke of Reichstadt, dies of tuberculosis in Vienna

Napoleon's remains are brought to Paris for burial in Les Invalides, as the Napoleonic legend grows

Napoleon's widow, the empress Marie Louise, now the duchess of Parma, dies in Parma

Louis Napoleon is elected the first president of France's new Second Republic

The president of France, Louis Napoleon, stages a coup d'état, rounding up his political opponents during a long December night

Louis Napoleon, asking the French people to approve his elevation to emperor as Napoleon III, receives a resounding yes in the plebiscite

Napoleon III and Cavour hatch a secret plan at Plombièes to tempt Austria into war in north Italy, and agree how to divide up the spoils

Napoleon III sends forces to capture the port of Da Nang, beginning the French colonization of Vietnam

Leo Tolstoy publishes the first volume of his epic novel War and Peace, following the lives of several aristocratic families during the Napoleonic wars

Napoleon III withdraws French troops from Mexico, leaving the emperor Maximilian in a dangerous situation

Napoleon III is among 83,000 French prisoners captured by the Germans at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian war

A French government of national defence deposes Napoleon III and proclaims the third French republic