Principality of Elba

The Principality of Elba was a small Mediterranean monarchy created for Napoleon Bonaparte after his first abdication. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau of 11 April 1814, the island of Elba, previously part of a French department, was granted to Napoleon as an independent principality held in full sovereignty and as personal property. He arrived in May and established his court at Portoferraio, where he lived in the Palazzina dei Mulini and the Villa San Martino. During his ten months on the island he reorganised its administration, improved roads and iron mines, created a small army and navy, and issued decrees on agriculture and education. The principality was never hereditary: the treaty provided that it would pass to Tuscany after Napoleon's death. On 26 February 1815 he escaped to France and launched the Hundred Days. After Waterloo the Congress of Vienna transferred Elba to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, ending the principality.