Epilogue

After his final defeat, Napoleon was transported to the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena by the British, where he lived under permanent guard. Unlike the rest of his adult life, these years were ones of inaction and largely of immobility. Napoleon spent these years seeking control not over Europe, but over how history would remember him. It was the last chapter of his life but, more important, the first chapter of the longer, hugely contentious story of his historical significance. In 1820, Napoleon fell seriously ill, and on May 5, 1821, he died at fifty-one. The Epilogue explains how his legacy continued to shape European history in a massive and direct manner for decades.