St Helena: Napoleon's Last Battlefield

They needed a prison for the most dangerous man in the world. Napoleon had seized supreme power in France. He'd marched his armies from Portugal to Moscow. He'd put the fear in the heart of every anointed king and emperor in Europe. But now he was a prisoner. His captors needed a prison from which escape was unthinkable. Their answer lay in the South Atlantic, a scrap of land a thousand miles from the African coast, Saint Helena. Napoleon and his staff crowded onto the quarterdeck to get a glimpse of their new home. They were military men. They knew there would be no possibility of rescue, no possibility of escape. They were here for good. Saint Helena's only real settlement was Jamestown. He spent his first night here in the same building that Arthur Wellesley, the man who would go on to defeat him at Waterloo, had stayed in over 10 years previously on his way back from India. Napoleon was not impressed. It is an unlovely place, he said bitterly. He was taken inland to a more secure but also more private and spacious house. This is Longwood. It was to be Napoleon's home for the rest of his life. I was shown around by the honorary French consul, Michel D'Ancoine Martineau. Michel, how are you? It's an honour to be here. Thank you very much. I can't wait to have a look around. So what about these trees? Some of them look quite old. Would Bonaparte have looked out on these trees? They were here on those two umbrella cypress were here because you can still see them on the pictures of the time. Did Napoleon live a kind of rustic life or did he keep the etiquette of the imperial court going? So definitely Napoleon was always fighting his case of being a prisoner of state and not a prisoner of war. He never cared more for food and etiquette than when he was on the island because he had a point to prove. Here you have the bathtub so that is where he spent a few hours a day. He spent a few hours a day in the bath? Yeah so he sat here but he carried on all his activities like reading or writing and so on. The life never stopped because of just taking baths. There are so many stories surrounding Napoleon's death and conspiracy theories. What did he what did he die of? His stomach was perforated, his intestine was in bad state, his liver was dangerously damaged so they were nothing. The most surprise was actually he lasted that long. Napoleon was buried here in a site chosen by himself. Europe's royal heads could rest easier on their shoulders but today it's empty. Napoleon's story was far from over. Great men can be as powerful dead as they are alive. In 1840 a resurgent French state asked that Napoleon's body be returned. 43 men dragged the one ton coffin down to the harbour. It was the start of a journey that would see him entombed in the heart of Paris. The grave site was picked clean by souvenir hunters, even the twigs from the trees and topsoil were stolen away. Uphold the French government bought both the grave site and Longwood for vast sums. Napoleon was one of the greatest soldiers and statesmen in the history of the world but his last years were spent on this wild remote and beautiful island only adds to the fascination of his story. His legend has ensured that this little island is famous the world over.