Before Napoleon died in 1821, the British government had instructed Governor Hudson Lowe that the emperor’s body was to stay on St Helena. A burial site was chosen about a mile from Longwood House on land owned by the merchant Richard Torbett. Initially, Torbett received £650 as an indemnity plus an annual subsidy of £50, …
At the Napoleon birthday celebration at Fort Myer, Napoleon Historical Society member Vince Hawkins displayed his plaster death mask of the Emperor. It’s been authenticated as one of only a hundred struck from the original that the attending doctor, Dr Antommarchi, created two days after Napoleon’s death in 1821. Napoleonic death masks appear in …
A BOOK REVIEW: To Befriend an Emperor: Betsy Balcombe’s Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena, edits and introduction by J. David Markham, Ravenhall Books, 2005. (Originally published in 1844 as Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon on the Island of St Helena, by Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe Abell.) As I covered in my last blog, Napoleon’s …
A BOOK REVIEW: To Befriend an Emperor, Betsy Balcombe’s Memoirs Read More »
In 1815, a few days before Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on St Helena, a fast sloop brought the governor news that the island had been chosen for the defeated emperor’s exile. The surprised authorities scrambled to find a secure residence for their illustrious prisoner, but the remote South Atlantic island offered few choices. They settled on …
The Briars, Napoleon’s First St Helena Residence Read More »
In 1796, Napoleon married Josephine Beauharnais, the widow of an aristocrat who had been guillotined. On their wedding day, Napoleon was twenty-six and Josephine thirty-two. His future looked promising; she was bankrupt. He married for love, she for convenience. They had a tumultuous life together until 1809 when it became clear she could never provide …
At the far end of Longwood’s reception hall, the room in which Napoleon died, a door opens into the dining room. Here his companions-in-exile and his occasional guests gathered in the evening to eat a brief supper—for meals with Napoleon were only twenty-minute affairs. Afterward, they dissected battles or the emperor read aloud from Corneille, …
In 1819, the French general and grand marshal, Henri-Gratien Bertrand, who had accompanied Napoleon into exile, designed a large birdcage for Longwood House’s gardens. Chinese carpenters, who otherwise spent their time repairing the poorly-constructed house, built the cage and stocked it with doves and pheasants. At first, Napoleon admired it, but he was known to …
When Napoleon arrived on St Helena in October, 1815, there was only one building worthy of a sovereign: Plantation House, the governor’s country residence. Situated in a sheltered, charmingly bucolic setting, it provided a perfect location for Napoleon and his retinue. The military could easily defend its boundaries from invasion or escape. The governor’s family …
There was a serious suggestion in yesterday’s Washington Post to exile Gaddafi to St Helena: A St Helena Home for Gaddafi by William C. Goodfellow of the Center for International Policy. While that may be a fine solution to the Libyan crisis, some of the writer’s statements about Napoleon are wrong. For example, Napoleon’s young …
Beyond the Billiard Room lies the Reception Room. Here, Napoleon, standing by the fireplace, one arm resting on the black stone mantel, greeted his visitors. Here, he argued with the British governor, Hudson Lowe, whom both Napoleon and Lowe himself, viewed as his jailer. Here, on May 5, 1821, Napoleon died. This is Longwood’s hallowed …
