On July 17, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to British Captain Frederick Maitland aboard the HMS Bellerophon at Rochefort, a port on the Atlantic coast of France. Following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon had fled to Rochefort in the hope of escaping to the United States, but the British naval blockade prevented his departure. His surrender marked the definitive end of his political and military career, as he was subsequently exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he would remain until his death in 1821. The surrender brought the Napoleonic Wars to a final close.

Napoleon's surrender at Rochefort became the stuff of legend, inspiring countless poems, ballads, and historical narratives that portrayed him as a tragic hero or a fallen tyrant. Poets such as Lord Byron and Victor Hugo wrote about Napoleon's fate, using his exile as a symbol of the transience of power and the vanity of ambition. The surrender also marked the end of an era that had profoundly shaped Romantic literature, providing a wealth of material for writers who explored themes of war, revolution, and the individual's struggle against fate.