The government acted under the nominal authority of Napoleon II, who had technically succeeded his father as Emperor after the abdication; however, this was a mere formality, since Napoleon II was a four-year-old child and was in Austria with his mother Marie Louise, and thus unable to actually exercise his powers.
On 12 June 1815 Napoleon left Paris for modern day Belgium, where the two Coalition armies, an allied one commanded by the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian one under Prince Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher were assembling. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.[1] He returned to Paris and abdicated for the second time on 22 June 1815.[2] That day the two chambers nominated the members of the Provisional Government, that would serve as government until the second Bourbon Restoration.[3][4][5]
Members
The members of the commission named on 22 June 1815 were:[3]
On 23 June 1815 Napoleon II was declared Emperor.[6] The two Coalition armies under Prince Blücher and the Duke of Wellington and advanced from the north and surrounded Paris. On 3 July 1815 the commissioners surrendered Paris under the terms of the Convention of St. Cloud.[7] With the capital and departments occupied by Coalition troops, the Executive Commission was unable to function and resigned on 7 July 1815.[8] The ministry of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord took office on 9 July 1815.[9]
Hobhouse, J., ed. (1817), The substance of some letters written from Paris during the last reign of the Emperor Napoleon, vol. 2 (2nd, in two volumes ed.), Piccadilly, London: Redgeways, pp. 98–105
