Mezzotint engraving, engraved by Charles Turner after the painting by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, 'Published June 26 1816 by Mr. Eastlake, Plymouth.'
Image size: 735 x 435mm. Mounted and framed (as seen). Framed size: 900 x 645mm.
A little time-toned and showing some authentic signs of wear, particularly to the title, but overall in generally good condition.
The full title reads: 'Napoleon Bonaparte as he presented himself at the gangway of his Majesty's Ship Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound in the month of August 1815'. Napoleon surrendered to Captain Maitland of HMS Bellerophon in Rochefort at daybreak on July 15th 1815. He was transported to Plymouth arriving on 26 July and remaining until 4 August while the government decided his fate. During his time in Plymouth immense crowds turned out to catch a glimpse of the conqueror of Europe in his captivity.
The print is dedicated to 'To his Royal Highness the Prince Regent', to whom Napoleon wrote this (forlorn) appeal just a couple of days before his surrender to Captain Maitland:
"Your Royal Highness, Exposed to the factions which distract my country and to the enmity of the greatest powers in Europe, I have ended my political career, and I come, like Themistocles to appeal to the hospitality of the British people. I put myself under the protection of their laws and beg your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, and most determined and the most generous of my enemies, to grant me this protection." NAPOLEON.
Forbidden by the Regent to set foot on English soil, Napoleon was subsequently transferred to HMS Northumberland and carried off into exile on the remote South Atlantic Island of St Helena where he died on 5 May 1821.
