St Helena
Question: Who is buried in Napoleon's Tomb on St Helena? Answer: No-one. Not since 1840, that is, when the Prince de Joinville succeeded in obtaining permission from the British, colonial masters of the island, to exhume the former emperor and transport his body to France. The Emperor arrived home, at Le Havre, to considerable pomp and ceremony and was taken to Les Invalides in Paris to his current resting-place. This was in accordance with his wishes. His current tomb is splendid, a walnut sarcophagus under a classical dome amidst marble inscriptions that provide a litany of his services to humanity. The empty tomb, also charming in its way, like Longwood House, Napoleon's residence on the island, now belongs to France. A French tricolour, the first such flag in the world, flies proudly, if nostalgically, at both sites.
Napoleon disliked Longwood House. He had first been accommodated at The Briars, on the dry and sunny side of the island. Ironically, the Duke of Wellington had stayed in the same villa in 1805, the year of Trafalgar. When Napoleon was moved to Longwood House, atop the island to windward, he immediately complained of the damp. Above all, he could not abide his nemesis, Hudson Lowe, the man set to keep watch over him. It was the worst possible match. A man who had come closer than anyone since Charlemagne to uniting Europe, supervised by a petty bureaucrat who had missed his vocation as school librarian. To cap it all, Lowe refused to address Napoleon as Emperor, referring to him goadingly as General. Napoleon reacted by closing the doors and shutters at Longwood and avoiding going out unless absolutely necessary. He had holes drilled in the shutters so that he could see out and Lowe not look in. He lowered the level of the garden paths so that he could exercise without Lowe gawping at him. He also devoted himself to writing his memoirs.
The memoirs are self-glorifying and hyperbolic, but they made a wonderful impression on the next generation of Frenchmen who yearned for gloire. By 1840, the cult of Napoleon was in full spate and the former emperor's nephew was ruling France - and had set about conquering Algeria - in what was known as the Second Empire. This was the moment when his tomb on St Helena fell empty.
In a quiet corner of the garden at Longwood is a plaque, in French, an extract from Napoleon's memoirs. It predicts that, after his passing, the Anglo-Saxons would flock to St Helena to visit his house and garden. A glance at the Visitor book proves him to have been correct in his prophesy, more British than French by a long margin, not to mention, the north Americans and Australians who also pass by on cruise ships. When the British adopted decimal currency a generation ago, The Times newspaper thundered: "Napoloen has won!" That does seem to be the verdict of history on a number of fronts.
Question: Who is buried in Napoleon's Tomb on St Helena? Answer: No-one. Not since 1840, that is, when the Prince de Joinville succeeded in obtaining permission from the British, colonial masters of the island, to exhume the former emperor and transport his body to France. The Emperor arrived home, at Le Havre, to considerable pomp and ceremony and was taken to Les Invalides in Paris to his current resting-place. This was in accordance with his wishes. His current tomb is splendid, a walnut sarcophagus under a classical dome amidst marble inscriptions that provide a litany of his services to humanity. The empty tomb, also charming in its way, like Longwood House, Napoleon's residence on the island, now belongs to France. A French tricolour, the first such flag in the world, flies proudly, if nostalgically, at both sites.
Napoleon disliked Longwood House. He had first been accommodated at The Briars, on the dry and sunny side of the island. Ironically, the Duke of Wellington had stayed in the same villa in 1805, the year of Trafalgar. When Napoleon was moved to Longwood House, atop the island to windward, he immediately complained of the damp. Above all, he could not abide his nemesis, Hudson Lowe, the man set to keep watch over him. It was the worst possible match. A man who had come closer than anyone since Charlemagne to uniting Europe, supervised by a petty bureaucrat who had missed his vocation as school librarian. To cap it all, Lowe refused to address Napoleon as Emperor, referring to him goadingly as General. Napoleon reacted by closing the doors and shutters at Longwood and avoiding going out unless absolutely necessary. He had holes drilled in the shutters so that he could see out and Lowe not look in. He lowered the level of the garden paths so that he could exercise without Lowe gawping at him. He also devoted himself to writing his memoirs.
The memoirs are self-glorifying and hyperbolic, but they made a wonderful impression on the next generation of Frenchmen who yearned for gloire. By 1840, the cult of Napoleon was in full spate and the former emperor's nephew was ruling France - and had set about conquering Algeria - in what was known as the Second Empire. This was the moment when his tomb on St Helena fell empty.
In a quiet corner of the garden at Longwood is a plaque, in French, an extract from Napoleon's memoirs. It predicts that, after his passing, the Anglo-Saxons would flock to St Helena to visit his house and garden. A glance at the Visitor book proves him to have been correct in his prophesy, more British than French by a long margin, not to mention, the north Americans and Australians who also pass by on cruise ships. When the British adopted decimal currency a generation ago, The Times newspaper thundered: "Napoloen has won!" That does seem to be the verdict of history on a number of fronts.
