Napoleonic Wars

  • 1809: First prisoners arrive at Dartmoor Prison

    On 24 May 1809, around 2,500 French prisoners of war arrived at Dartmoor Prison. The prison had been built during the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain needed secure places to hold men captured in the long war with France. Dartmoor did not begin as the civilian prison it later became. Its first purpose was military: large-scale…

  • 1815: Napoleon Surrenders Aboard HMS Bellerophon

    On 15 July 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte boarded HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort and placed himself in the hands of Captain Frederick Maitland. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo on 18 June. He returned to Paris, abdicated for a second time and travelled towards the French Atlantic coast. He hoped to sail to the United States, beyond…