The Congress of Vienna met following Napoleon’s abdication. Attended by all the great European powers, including France, the Congress declared Napoleon an outlaw and worked to renegotiate the national borders that had been thrown into disarray by Napoleon’s military campaigns. This group portrait of the delegates shows the moment at which the Duke of Wellington (far left, in profile) arrived to take over the lead of the British delegation from Castlereagh (seated at centre, facing left). But by the time the Congress concluded in June 1815, Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was making his way back to Paris.