Napoleon was exiled to Elba after his forced abdication following the Treaty of Fontainebleau and arrived at Portoferraio on 30 May 1814. He was allowed to keep a personal guard of 600 men and was nominally sovereign of Elba, although the nearby sea was patrolled by the French and British navies, but after staying on for almost ten months he escaped to France on 26 February 1815.