What Did Napoleon Do During Exile?

More than two hundred years after his death, Napoleon Bonaparte remains one of history’s most widely discussed figures. However, even very detailed looks at his story sometimes neglect one chapter, his last. Many discussions of Napoleon end by briefly mentioning the fact that after his defeat at the fateful Battle of Waterloo, he was exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he lived out his final days despondently staring off into the horizon, reflecting on his past and contemplating what could have been.

But Napoleon lived on Saint Helena for over five years, a tenth of his life. What exactly was his life like there? What kinds of things went on? The story of Napoleon’s final years is perhaps something of a tragic comedy. As a brief recap, Napoleon took power in France in 1799. He ruled France for nearly fifteen years. At the height of his rule, he held sway over most of Europe. However, he was defeated in 1814. He abdicated his throne and was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. But after nearly a year in exile, Napoleon escaped Elba, returned to France, and took power again. However, he was once more defeated only months later at the Battle of Waterloo on June eighteenth, 1815. Within the next few days, Napoleon conceded that it was over. On June twenty-second, he abdicated in favor of his son, Napoleon the Second, then aged four. The French government would reject this, however, and Louis the Eighteenth, the brother of Louis the Sixteenth, was later placed on the throne. Napoleon left Paris, made a four-day visit to the Malmaison Palace outside the city where he saw his mother a final time, and then proceeded to France’s western coast. Napoleon knew that his enemies were hunting him down and that once they had him, they would resort to even more extreme measures to ensure he did not return to power a third time. Fearing this, he attempted to escape to the neutral United States. However, before he could escape, he became surrounded and trapped in the port city of Rochefort. The British were blockading the port and the Prussians were pursuing him on land. It was proposed by his followers that he escape in a disguise or hiding amongst the cargo of a ship, but he felt this was beneath him. However, he knew the approaching Prussians would likely execute him. Under this pressure, he surrendered to the British, specifically Captain Frederick Maitland of the HMS Bellerophon on July fifteenth, 1815. Maitland escorted Napoleon to Britain. Napoleon was never permitted to step foot on English soil and therefore remained on the boat for many days.

Thousands of Englishmen would flock to the coast and even sail out on small boats to try to see the man who had been at the center of history for the past fifteen years. Napoleon would oblige them, emerging on the deck periodically to wave or tip his hat to the crowds. Napoleon hoped he would be able to live in exile in a residence in the English countryside. However, this was denied. Britain was reluctant to execute Napoleon for multiple reasons, namely making him a martyr in the eyes of his followers and triggering an uprising in France, but for Napoleon to escape from exile and return to power again would have been simply outrageous. It could not be risked. He had to be as secure and far away as possible. Thus, the British decided to send him into exile on the island of Saint Helena. Saint Helena is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands. It lies in the South Atlantic, well over a thousand miles or nearly two thousand kilometers from the coast of Africa. It is roughly forty-seven square miles or one hundred twenty-two square kilometers in size, roughly twice the size of Manhattan. In 1815, the island had a population of roughly four thousand. Saint Helena is surrounded by steep, impregnable cliffs and has no natural harbors. There are only a few areas of the island with viable access to the sea. These access points are easily guarded. Furthermore, the island had already been fortified by the British East India Company.

The island was practically made for the role it had now been given. Napoleon and his entourage stepped foot on Saint Helena on October sixteenth, 1815. He was joined by about twenty others, these being some of his commanders and followers, servants, and their families. Namely, General Henri Gatien Bertrand, General Gaspard Gourgaud, General Charles Tristan de Montholon, the French scholar Emmanuel Comte de Las Cases, and a number of servants, his primary being Louis Marchand. Las Cases was the only one among them who spoke English fluently. For the first two months, Napoleon lived in a local pavilion, The Briars Pavilion. This pavilion was owned by William Balcombe, an East India Company administrator and merchant. William’s teenage daughters, Elizabeth, who went by Betsy, and Jane, were the only ones of the family who spoke enough French to communicate with Napoleon. And so his relationship with the Balcombs was mediated through them. Though the Balcombs were English, they would begin to develop a friendship with Napoleon. Meanwhile, the British were adapting a home specifically for Napoleon in an area which could be better monitored. This home, which became known as the Longwood House, was finished in December. Napoleon and most of his companions would then move to live in this house. Though constantly humid, the weather on Saint Helena is otherwise actually rather pleasant overall, rarely freezing or scorching at any point throughout the year. However, the Longwood House was located at a higher elevation, making the area uncomfortably cooler, foggier, and even more humid than the rest of the island. The Longwood home itself was drafty, damp, and would come to suffer from mold and rat infestations. Napoleon and his entourage would often complain of these uncomfortable conditions.

Joining Napoleon were roughly two thousand British soldiers who were stationed around the island and, as a precaution, even on the closest nearby islands. The number of soldiers would variably grow and decrease throughout the years. The Royal Navy also patrolled the surrounding waters with a handful of ships. This might seem like overkill to guard one man, but from the British point of view, Napoleon had instigated wars that completely destabilized Europe, threatened the existence of the British Empire, and killed a massive number of people now known to have been multiple millions. Furthermore, he was a proven escape risk. The coalition was fortunate to have stopped him relatively quickly after his escape from Elba, but even this cost thousands of lives. Many in France were still willing to follow Napoleon, and so theoretically, if he escaped, it could all begin again. Assigning a small army to guard Napoleon was a small price to pay to prevent this.

Napoleon and his entourage settled into their new lives on the island. They were under constant surveillance. All correspondence to and out of the island was heavily monitored. Everywhere Napoleon went, British soldiers accompanied him, and he was only allowed within certain parts of the island. That being said, Napoleon lived quite well for a prisoner. He lived a self-imposed, regimented, but relaxed life. He stayed up late and slept in. The portion of the island in which he was allowed to walk or even ride was appreciably large. He and his companions had access to a large library of books. They ate long dinners together, played games, played music, and talked late into the night. It was a far cry from the life he had once lived, but it was not a dungeon. Napoleon also spent much of his time dictating his memoirs to his companions. Napoleon very much wanted to shape his own legacy, explaining and justifying his actions, arguing that he took power in France out of necessity, not to conquer, but to defend France and the French Revolution, and to bring France and even all of Europe to what he saw as a new, better future. The crowns of Europe, he argued, bore the true blame for instigating the wars.

Six months into his stay, in April of 1816, the new governor of Saint Helena took charge: Sir Hudson Lowe. Lowe spoke French, but communicated with Napoleon in Italian, a language which Napoleon actually spoke more fluidly. The relationship between Lowe and Napoleon deteriorated almost immediately. It began over the issue of Napoleon’s title. Lowe was ordered by the British government to never address Napoleon by his imperial title, instead referring to him only as General Bonaparte. Napoleon and his entourage detested this and would even refuse to respond to the title. Napoleon would sometimes tell British officers who handed him mail addressed to General Bonaparte that he did not know anyone by that name and refused them. Lowe would rarely see Napoleon after his initial encounters with him, as Napoleon refused to see him. This dispute, it must be said, was about more than just pride. Refusing to recognize Napoleon as an exiled legitimate sovereign was a part of the coalition’s effort to delegitimize his rule, and in this case, allowed the British to legally detain him indefinitely without trial, thereby bypassing complicated legal situations that could have worked in Napoleon’s favor. For Napoleon to respond to the title of general would suggest acquiescence to the circumstances of his exile, as well as the destruction of his legacy and dynasty.

Conversely, when the Balcombe children jokingly referred to Napoleon by the nickname the English public had given him, Boney the Ogre, he was happy to oblige them and would begin howling and flailing his arms around, striking fear into any children unfamiliar with him, but never the Balcombe children. Napoleon’s friendship with the Balcombs persisted. According to the book Betsy Balcombe wrote years later detailing her encounters with Napoleon, in one incident, the emperor visited Betsy while she was supposed to be practicing her French. Napoleon would often do this to annoy her by making corrections, finding something to correct even if it were well done. However, in this incident, Napoleon entered the room to find Miss Betsy with a blank paper. Napoleon picked the paper up and ran out to tattletale, waving the paper in the air and yelling, “Oh, Mr. Balcombe, here is Miss Betsy’s translation. Look at all of her hard work.” Later that day, while Betsy was visiting Napoleon, she recalled the incident. Irked, she drew Napoleon’s sword and began swinging it at him. Napoleon raised his hands and backed into a corner. Betsy commanded him to say his prayers. However, she spared him when her sister began to scold her. Some of Napoleon’s entourage witnessed this and were dumbfounded.

Napoleon would attempt to learn English while on Saint Helena. He made fair progress, but his English would never be good. In 1816, he wrote: “Since six week, J learn the English, and J do not any progress. Six week do 40 and two day. If might have learn 50 word four day, I could can know it two thousands and two hundred. It is in the dictionary more of 40,000. Even he could must 20 about much of times for know it a hundred and 20 week, which do more two years. After this, you shall agree that to study one tongue is a great labor, who it must do into the young aged. Longwood, this morning, the 7th March, Thursday. 1,816 after nativity the years Jesus Christ.”

Many historians believe it is likely that almost immediately Napoleon began an affair with the wife of one of his entourage, Albine de Montholon, the wife of General de Montholon. Napoleon and Madame de Montholon were allegedly together a great deal in private. In June of 1816, she gave birth to a daughter, Helene Napoleon de Montholon, Napoleon being the one to give her the name Napoleon. Two years later, another daughter, Josephine Napoleon de Montholon, was born. Both are widely believed to have been Napoleon’s daughters, though this has never been proven. If so, General de Montholon appears to have tolerated the affair, and perhaps not by coincidence, often received Napoleon’s favor and a noticeably large portion of money in Napoleon’s will.

Napoleon was always anxious for news of his son, Napoleon the Second, but it was hard to come by. Napoleon the Second was four and living in Austria when his father was exiled in 1815. Contact between the two had already been cut off. Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise, never contacted him either, and had already begun a relationship with another man. Napoleon would come to accept that he would never leave Saint Helena, but he knew there was a chance his son could be placed on the French throne. Dictating his memoirs and ensuring his legacy was celebrated was part of a strategy to help pave the way for Napoleon the Second to take the throne. The British knew what Napoleon was doing, however, and so they and the Austrians intentionally prevented news of the boy from reaching the emperor.

Privately, Napoleon was in great pain. He had suffered from chronic indigestion and stomach pain since before he landed on the island, but as the years went by, it only seemed to intensify. By late 1817, the pain became difficult to cover up. He was noticeably ill, suffering from a myriad of symptoms. He began to spend more and more time indoors. However, it was not merely stomach pain that increasingly kept Napoleon indoors, but also protest of British policy. Governor Lowe restricted the area Napoleon was allowed to travel and required an even closer watch on him. When Napoleon protested by refusing to leave his home, Lowe responded by ordering guards to be placed around Napoleon’s home and required them to visually verify his presence twice a day. As Napoleon had closed off much of the house to the outside with shutters and locked doors, to fulfill Lowe’s orders, soldiers would have to walk around the home looking through keyholes or cracks to try to get a glimpse of him.

By 1819, several of Napoleon’s counterparts and friends had or were leaving the island. Las Cases had been expelled in 1816 for trying to smuggle letters out of the island. General Gourgaud left in 1818 because of his conflicts with others, namely General de Montholon. Governor Lowe distrusted Napoleon’s relationship with Mr. Balcombe, believing Mr. Balcombe was assisting him in countering British restrictions, a suspicion that does not appear to have been unfounded. The Balcombs were forced off the island in 1818. Albine de Montholon and her daughters left in 1819, partly at Napoleon’s request, as she had begun an affair with a British officer, whom Napoleon suspected was a spy for Lowe. Longwood became a quiet, dark cave, which Napoleon rarely left. His health and mood were worsened by the lack of exercise and stimulation that accompanied this lifestyle.

Lowe is often remembered as Napoleon’s cruel jailer, but in truth, while he did not like or trust Napoleon, he does not appear to have enjoyed their conflict. Lowe was paranoid and somewhat tactless, but not unreasonable, and was, for the most part, merely closely following strict orders from London to fulfill a task of immense importance. Meanwhile, Napoleon and his subordinates strategically waged a propaganda campaign to make their treatment at the hands of the British appear as poor as possible, sometimes exaggerating their circumstances in an effort to gain sympathy in Europe. Lowe became London’s scapegoat for any public criticism of Napoleon’s treatment. The times when Lowe advocated for better treatment of Napoleon than the British government was willing to grant received little attention until recently.

Eventually, General Bertrand suggested to Napoleon that he begin gardening. Napoleon accepted this idea and in fact very much took to gardening. It seemed to awaken his old self. He approached it like building a military fortification, commanding his subordinates in the construction of a garden which blocked out British eyes and produced fresh food. Everyone present seemed to enjoy it, and even Governor Lowe helped provide Napoleon with tools and plants. This seemed to improve his condition for a time.

Meanwhile, in his final years, Napoleon gained an increased interest in religion. Napoleon was nominally Catholic throughout his life, but to say that he was unenthusiastic about it would be an understatement. The truth is that Napoleon was really a kind of agnostic throughout most of his life, going back and forth with Catholic, deist, atheist, and other ideas about God and the universe, seemingly never coming to any firm conclusions. However, Napoleon did believe that religion was necessary for society, and therefore upheld and took part in the common religion of France for political reasons. However, even so, Napoleon was never on good terms with the church during his reign, to say the least, often quarreling with it in an effort to make the Pope his subordinate. In one period, he had even kidnapped and imprisoned Pope Pius the Seventh. Encouraged by Napoleon’s mother and his uncle, a cardinal named Joseph Fesch, Pope Pius sent two Corsican priests, Father Giacomo Bonavita and Father Agne Vignali, to Saint Helena in 1819. An altar was set up in Longwood. Napoleon began to attend private masses, receive the Catholic sacraments, and read the Bible on a regular basis. It is not certain whether this was sincere or a final strategic performance for the sake of his legacy, but he was committed to it either way.

The following year, in late 1820, Napoleon’s health began to collapse. The pain, vomiting, weakness, and other symptoms became overwhelming. He rarely left his home, and then could barely walk. By the spring of 1821, Napoleon had only worsened. In March, he became bedridden. In April, he wrote his final will. On May first, he tried to get out of bed a final time, but failed. On May third, Father Vignali administered Napoleon’s last rites. In the early morning of May fifth, Napoleon deliriously muttered something along the lines of: “France, armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine.” Which translates to: France, army, head of the army, Joséphine. He was pronounced dead at 5:49 p.m. that day at the age of fifty-one.

The cause of death remains debated to this day. It has been proposed that Napoleon was poisoned intentionally by the British or even one of his counterparts or unintentionally by the arsenic-laden green paint in Longwood. However, the available evidence suggests that Napoleon likely developed stomach cancer around 1818. Once more, Napoleon and the British would clash. Debate over Napoleon’s title emerged when it came to the question of what his gravestone should say. Napoleon’s entourage demanded it should say simply Napoleon to denote his imperial status. The British would not permit this and required it to say Napoleon Bonaparte or General Bonaparte. Neither side would yield, and so the gravestone was left blank. However, Napoleon’s remains were brought back to Paris in 1840, where they remain to this day.