Soon after their victory at Leipzig the allies offered Napoleon peace under which France boundaries would be the Rhine and the Alps. Napoleon ignored the offer and the allies began a coordinated campaign that made its way through France. Napoleon was defeated in a series of battles each bringing the allies closer to Paris. On March 31, 1814 a victorious allied army entered Paris, and French foreign minister Talleyrand influenced the Senate to declare that Napoleon had forfeited the throne. On April 11th he abdicated the throne to the allies who gave him the island of Elba as his own sovereign principality with an annual income of 2,000,000 francs. |