After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal - Final Days of Napoleon

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Conspiracy theories swirl about the final days of Napoleon. Was he poisoned by a friend? By the British? By his wallpaper? Did he cologne himself to death? Was his penis taken away by a vengeful priest!? Anthony and Maddy sweep aside the myths to find the truth of the final days of Napoleon Bonaparte.Edited by Tim Arstall. Research by Phoebe Joyce. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Follow this link, and don’t forget to confirm the email. Thank you!You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Hello everyone, it's us, your hosts Maddie Pelling and Anthony Delaney. But before we begin the show, we want to ask for a few seconds of your time. If you're enjoying After Dark and we love you if you are, we would love you just a little bit more if you could vote for us in the Listener's Choice category at the British Podcast Awards. So go to the show notes now, click the link and just then search for After Dark. Fill in your name and your email and don't forget to confirm. They will send you an email. You need to confirm. The whole process probably takes about 30 seconds. If you've already voted, we are so, so grateful. If you haven't, stop what you are doing

right now. Vote for us before you enjoy this show. Hello and welcome to After Dark, the podcast where we explore the darker side of yesteryear. I'm Maddie. And I'm Anthony. And here on the pod, we love an episode in our final day series and to travel back to meet some of history's biggest names as they prepare to shuffle off this mortal coil to paraphrase Shakespeare. Today's is a biggie. Or should that be a shorty? I know, I know, it's just myth. It is, of course, Napoleon. Anthony's laughing already. Follow us now, as we journey towards a far-flung and forgotten spit of land in the middle of the ocean. The volcanic island of St Helena rises sheer from the Atlantic waves, more than a

thousand miles from the coast of Africa, the most remote spot on the whole of the vast British Empire. Warships bob around the island's rocky shores, while tropical trees climb up the steep cliffs above them. On an elevated plain, swept by clouds and fogs of the trade winds, is Longwood House, inside which Napoleon bone apart, the world's most famous man is having a bath. The whole island of Saint Helena is now essentially a prison for him, the most dangerous man in the world in the eyes of his captors. They would be pleased to know, therefore, that his doom is near.

Napoleon will soon be dead. But what is it that will actually end him? As Napoleon soaks deeper in his copper bathtub, his hands feel his stomach, a constant source of pain. Is it this that will kill him? His eyes look to the glass of wine by his side. Could death be lurking there? Is it the heavy green wallpaper that decorates this room, or the plots being concocted by the muffled voices he can't quite hear around the house? It would probably come as pleasant but not unexpected news to Napoleon to learn that

more than two hundred years later, people are still obsessed with him. Obsessed with his rise to power and military victories, obsessed by his exile and his death, as we are. And the corpse he left behind. Every scrap of his body will bear meaning beyond the grave. Even his penis will have an afterlife, all of its own. And there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say on this podcast. his penis will have an afterlife all of its own. And there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear myself say on this podcast.

So with Napoleon's willy firmly in the forefront of our minds, I'd like to welcome you to After Dark and the final days of Napoleon Bonaparte. You always set the tone so beautifully, Anthony. Don't I just? It's all those years in drama school, finally paying off, talking about Napoleon's Willy. Well, I'm so glad that someone's brought it up. Oh, pardon. Sorry. Sorry.

Wow. I'm better than that. This is now an episode of Carry On, Napoleon. Oh my god. Is that a real thing? I'd watch that. I mean, they did so many. Surely there's a Napoleon one. Okay, we are back in our final day series. Hooray! We have done the Romanovs, we've done Anastasia specifically, we've done Henry VIII, we've done Anne Boleyn, we've done Lady Jane. Great, that was a great one. I really enjoyed that. There's a big long list,

so go and listen to the back catalogue if you want to hear about more people dying in the past. But today we are doing the final days of Napoleon, as you might have guessed, and of course his member. If you want to actually find out about Napoleon's life before his final days, before the moment of his death, then go and check out Dan Snow's history here. He's covered the man from childhood onwards. We will be firmly discussing his final days and the myths that have built up around how this giant of history met his end. Okay, Anthony, give me a little bit of context. We're in 1821, so what is going on in the world in this moment? ALICE There's a lot happening in the world at this moment in time. Let's look at the French colonies specifically where slavery is still legal and of course the French empire played a huge part in the transatlantic slave trade. However, the slave trade itself has been

banned as of 1818 but still we have illegal trafficking continuing. So that's giving you a little bit of French context. In England then we have George IV on the throne. This is an extremely expensive coronation. It won't surprise anybody to hear given that it's George IV. And we've already established our absolute hatred of George IV in our previous George III episode. Yeah, can't even be bothered. And then of course we have poor Queen Caroline who's barred from the entry of that very

famous coronation and she dies of, of course, soon afterwards. So it's a very tragic tale for Queen Caroline. Further afield in England, we have the industrial revolution happening, which of course means there's this mass expansion, factories working poor and poor labor conditions are coming under more scrutiny. And this is the time, of course, which is very Maddy coded, which the time of the romantics in literature. So we have Keats.

I personally love Keats. And Percy Bacelli, of course, is exiled in Italy, but still very active. So this is the background to what's happening across Europe, particularly. Sidebar of how much I love John Keats, and how much I love the film Bright Star. I love it. Gorgeous expression of Keats' poetry and Fanny Braun's creativity when she makes all the clothes. Oh my god, we should do a whole episode on that. Yes. Okay, so that's the context. As you say, there's a lot going on, there's a lot of change. There's a huge cultural political shift across Britain and its empire, certainly happening in France. Who is Napoleon

then? I think most people will have heard of him. He is this huge looming figure in history, even though there's lots of mythology around him being very tiny, which is not correct. But give us a sense, just a little general overview, who is this person? GER The general in the French Revolution. His rise was very rapid and took place at a very young age. He's general by 26, emperor by 35. The Battle of Waterloo is 45, and he's 51 when he dies. So this is a, you know, for a man that's left so much legacy, he has a relatively contained amount of life.

LARERY There's a lot fitted into those short years. Yeah, totally. I mean, you mentioned the Battle of Waterloo there, which obviously, famously, did not go very well for him. But what are his other successful military campaigns up to that point? His main military campaigns come between 1796 and 1815. And we're talking about campaigns in Italy, Egypt, of course, Russia, and then Waterloo. Of course, Russia is somewhat marred as well. He does have this kind of aura about him, but actually a lot of his big military campaigns are not very successful. And that's one of the other things that I think we'll talk about as we come into this story a little bit more, where there's this mythology that's built up around him and we'll really see when that starts after his death in many ways.

Well, you say after his death, but I think so much of the mythology kind of starts in his really rapid rise, right? Like he goes through all these titles, like he's, yes, to begin with, he's just a French general in the army. And then he goes through being like, is it the first consul of the French Republic? Then he's the emperor of the French, then he's king of Italy, then he's the protector of confederation of the Rhine. Like he did just all of these things. He's so self aggrandizing, I think, which is maybe why he's endured so much that he sort of, he's one of these figures because he's not from the aristocracy and he steps out of line and rises right to the top. And he's like incredibly, seen as being sort of incredibly arrogant for doing that right, that

he kind of gives himself the crown, obsessed. And of course the legacy endures now. If you're in Paris, you'll see those ends on those bridges and in different forms of architecture where he is immortalized. So there's this continuance actually of myth building. I think it's absolutely true. But we're less concerned with that for the time being and more concerned with what's brought him to St. Helena, which essentially we need to look to March 1815, where he starts to regain control of the French army at this point. Then in June 1815, where he starts to regain control of the French army at this point, right? Then in June 1815, he fights the Duke of Wellington, as we all know, at Waterloo. Doesn't go well for him. He is defeated. And that's why he ends up on St. Helena, because he is

sent there in exile by the British government. Now, I find this fascinating because it's one of those what-ifs. He, Napoleon, requests to go to America. And if anybody embodies that kind of very early American dream, it's too early to say American dream in 1815, but if anybody embodies those elements, it's Napoleon. What is Napoleon in America? Like, what does that look like? Yeah, I'm obsessed. I actually finish my new book with Napoleon and someone else who goes to America, and they're in a conspiracy theory together, which I'm not going to share here because you'll have to buy the book, but I am obsessed with this idea of him going across the ocean to America. One thing that I absolutely love about this moment when he's captured after Waterloo and before he's

taken to St Helena is that he is taken on a boat and for, I don't know, maybe a day or two, a short period of time, the boat that he's on is anchored off the south coast of the West Country. And people are so excited that this famous man who's been captured and you know, it's this great sort of victory for Britain, that he's off the coast of Britain that people row out in little rowing boats in their hundreds to go and see him. And I just love this idea of like people from sort of Devon and Cornwall literally just rowing out with this huge excitement to see him on the deck and kind of catch a glimpse of him. So that's how much of a celebrity he is even in that final stretch before he gets to the island. Yeah, and I think it really speaks to the truth behind this idea that once he was exiled, he wasn't going to be able to disturb the peace of the world. And like, I know what you're saying, there is only a kind of a micro disturbance these people rowing out, but they're willing to row out for him nonetheless. It's like, this is somebody who people feel magnetized towards, or repelled by of course, but either way, they're very much drawn towards this figure and this person

and how he's managed to disrupt the whole world order for a certain period of time. But on Saint Helena then, his life is obviously drastically different. And we thought it would be a good idea to give you a bit of an idea of what his day would be like, having gone from this military general, the king of Italy and all of these very fancy titles, to just what his day-to- day life is like in exile. So he's at Longwood House, as we said, this is not a grand house, it's not a palace. And in fact, it started life as a barn, and then it was expanded, very easy to guard, which is why it was chosen to house him. So this is the place they're going

to keep him. That's it. Yeah. And this is a really important point, isn't it? That he is going there in exile. He is essentially a prisoner. You know, that's very much explicit and understood. And he's not just wiling away his days in this luxurious grand house on a tropical island enjoying himself like this is very much his world has literally been shrunk in terms of his freedoms, in terms of what luxury now looks like to him, and in terms of just his daily life and the actual boundaries of the island itself. GG Speaking of those boundaries, they were supposedly guarded. I don't buy this, but it's just interesting. Again, it's part of this mythology, right? That's supposedly guarded by about 3,000 people guarding the island and four ships watching the coast. I can imagine the four ships depending on their size, but 3,000 men seems excessive to just keep Napoleon on the island. Can you even fit 3000 men on Saint Helena? How big is it?

I know. As well, I think in terms of the Napoleon mythology, we think of him retiring to Saint Helena, and then we don't think of him after that. He just, he dies there, that's the end. But of course, he has been a prisoner before and has escaped before. And he is a really high value prize for people who want to see him reinstated and also for people who want to see him dead. Don't forget that he has caused, as you say, such disruption, such frustration, such terror, such violence across certainly the British Empire, for the British he's been a major problem, and certainly across the rest of Europe. I mean, look how things go in Russia. There's a huge amount of

people who don't think going to St Helena is the answer, that's not a fitting punishment, and they want to see him executed. So it's an interesting setup, I think, on the island because it's both keeping Napoleon in but also keeping threats out of the island. So those people who are guarding him kind of have a dual job there. And I think it must have been so strange to kind of live in that hypervigilance of keeping an eye on the horizon the whole time, but also keeping an eye on what's happening on the island itself. And he then goes about this kind of quasi-normal thing despite all of this that's going on around him. And he's treated quite well when he's in exile. He has an allowance of 12,000 a year. He has allowed companions. Well, I mean, to a certain extent. So one of his most famous companions is Charles Tristan, the Montalon and his wife,

Albin. And of course, this is inevitable where Napoleon's involved. But then rumors start that he is having an affair with Albin and that actually Charles has totally OK'd this. And it's this kind of weird three-way agreement thing, but you know again I think it's just one of those things where rumour kind of takes over from fact. But the truth of the matter is that he very rarely left the actual house, spending an awful lot of time just pacing the rooms, having baths, gardening, and then dictating his memoirs. So he is definitely not the man he was. And as a result, he's gaining weight.

He is making his life small because he's not just in the house. He's kind of bringing everything down to the living quarters, which are mainly for him at this point, the bedroom and the bathroom. So his world has become very, very small at this point. It's interesting, isn't it? That rumor about Albin. And there are so many subsequent reinventions of this story and descriptions of him having relationships with servants or falling in love with fictional

visitors to the island. I think so much of the mythology and the story making which gets blended with fact here is all about, as you said at the beginning of this, Anthony, his magnetism, the fact that he is so charismatic and people are drawn to him, both male and female, you know, it's not even necessarily a sexual thing, it's just that he has this power that people gravitate towards and that even in these reduced circumstances, in this island in the middle of the Atlantic, not near anybody else, he's still drawing people into him. I wonder if there was a sort of nervousness in the world, this idea that he is still drawing people in across the waves, across the ocean, that he had a kind of power and

a danger therefore. And I wonder, we think of him being sort of outside and out of mind, but I wonder how much that is true. And actually, if there was a feeling that he was still out there and a potential threat until the moment of his death, until he was definitely gone. I wonder how nervous people were about that. I think maybe for those on the island watching him, that nervousness might be starting to deteriorate slightly because as he stays there, his health starts to deteriorate too. And by July 1820, he really has come to a place where it's a cause for concern. He's speech is slurring. He has stomach pains, he has constipation, night sweats. He can't really stand being around bright lights. The people in Cornwall or the people in Paris are not necessarily

seeing this firsthand, but for the British that are watching over him, they must be thinking to themselves at this point, right? Things are starting to escalate. We don't necessarily need to worry too much about killing him, although we'll come back to that, because it looks like nature is taking its course. And it did, because on the 5th of May 1821, he dies and is buried in the valley of the tomb on St. Helena, which is a location Napoleon had liked to walk. So it's a very small end to a very big life to begin with. That all changes. Okay, so we have Napoleon dead. We have this dead body, this evidence that everything to

do in Napoleon now is finished. What happens to his body? You say that he's buried in the Valley of the Tomb on the island, but before we can get to that point, he does go through an autopsy, doesn't he? Yeah. And this is where a lot of the strange posthumous stuff starts to come from. You often find this with autopsies, particularly in the 18th and 19th century myth starts to really gather around this medical procedure. So we know that his autopsy was attended by 16 people, and it was agreed at the time that he died very probably of stomach cancer, which, interestingly, is the same thing that his father is supposed to have died from. And that autopsy

was conducted by Napoleon's physician, who was appointed by the British, and his name was Francesco and Tomashe. And there was thought to be nothing unusual about this autopsy. But in the decades that follow, we start to get this myth that Napoleon's penis was removed during the autopsy and given to a priest. Now, it's a very, very strange thing, but I mean, you can imagine why that might be. There's an attack on his masculinity. Another story goes that it was this beef that was between the priest that apparently was given the penis and Napoleon and as a kind of a recompense for that he gets the penis. Personally, I don't believe the penis was removed at all. I just don't see it. But this is definitely a myth that starts to grow up very quickly. Yeah, I think you could kind of apply a lot of different meanings to this. I

mean, it's sort of, on the one hand, it is kind of inherently weird and a little bit funny. But I think also, like you say, it's kind of maybe an attack on his masculinity. And I suppose as well, Napoleon, even within his own lifetime, and certainly at the moment of his death, has already extended beyond his own manhood. And I don't mean, anatomically speaking, I mean that he is not just a person, he is an idea, he is a moment in history, even the context in which he was living and dying. Certainly at the end, you've described this kind of decline of health and decline into a lack of dignity, I suppose, after all this power, all this grandeur. I wonder if there's something about the tension between personhood, the physicality of a person and

the symbolism that they represent. And I wonder if this idea of removing his penis is something kind of tied to that, that he is more than just a person, more than just a man, and therefore his manhood is irrelevant or has to be sort of removed in some way. I don't know. It's a very strange idea and it's just humiliation. Is it a way of just degrading him? Right? I think so. I think it's a dick joke, essentially. Like, I think they're trying to reduce him to a penis joke. And it's interesting because it is initially the ownership of the supposed penis is very much a British thing. It's taken back with the priest to Corsica, and then it goes to a British private owner, apparently. But then by 1927, it's being displayed in New York. Crowds are turning

out to see it. And then it's bought by a private collector called John Latimer. And John had a very large and curious collection and it was then taken out of public circulation. But it's still owned apparently by that family. But a lot, and I think this is key, a lot of people doubt its authenticity. And for me, this is what it comes back to. We are concerned with the documents at the autopsy, right? Nobody of the 16 people there mentioned that his penis was removed. That to me is a huge red flag, right? It's a little bit like Rasputin's penis, which, you know, in that case, it kind of takes on the

symbolism of him as a great lover. And I suppose with Napoleon, of takes on the symbolism of him as a great lover. I suppose with Napoleon, it takes on the symbolism of him being like a great man and that he is reduced in life and then in death in terms of that manhood. I don't buy it. But equally, I think that Napoleon's penis, the fact that it has a history is in and of itself important and interesting. I don't think it's necessarily to be dismissed just as a dick joke, although I totally agree that in that moment, when these rumors first start to circulate, that's exactly what it is. I wonder how many penises of other famous men in history have circulated in private collections. There's that sort of joke that in the Middle Ages, there were like 15 different foreskins of Christ circulating around and things like that. So I wonder how many, there's a whole book to be written

here. Well, actually, this is a good time to plug Dr. Kate Lister's Dicking About with Kate Lister on HistoryHit because that is the camp genius that when I saw that ad, I went, oh my god, that is just thank you so much, Kate, that is brilliant history making. It's on HistoryHit TV. It's all about penises on classical statues and how they're removed, their sizes, all of this. You should go and check this out. If you're interested in historic penises, that's your place to start. I don't have anything else to say other than yes, let's watch that. Okay, tell me some more conspiracies about Napoleon now, because there's not just the penis conspiracy, is there? There are several about specifically how he died as well as how his body was treated afterwards.

I'll have to keep my voice down because right now I'm between the actual bedsheets of some of history's most famous figures. Want to know more about what Hitler might have been like in the sack, or Julius Caesar, or our very own Billy Shakespeare? You wouldn't believe the details I'm able to uncover here on Betwixt the Sheets, a podcast by History Hit, because sexuality explored through a historical lens can reveal a surprising amount about the human experience. What's and all, if you'll excuse the pun. And we don't just stop at sex. Expect outrageous scandals throughout the centuries, as well as probing into everyday issues, the nitty-gritty of human life that really connects us to all people throughout

history. Join me, Kate Lister, every Tuesday and Friday on Betwixt the Sheets to find out more. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Right, time to slide out here and avoid the bedpan. I find this really interesting, right? Certain people, Napoleon being one of them, can't just die. Because for somebody like Napoleon to just die of cancer, as the autopsy suggests, is not enough. It's not enough for people. They need more. So here are some of the conspiracy theories that grow up around him. We have arsenic poisoning, not the most original form of death in the early 19th century. We see it all throughout the 19th century.

But apparently there are, and I did not know this, 31 symptoms of arsenic poisoning, which have been agreed upon medically. And Napoleon, supposedly, had 28 of those. So there's something behind this, but it doesn't quite meet the 31 symptom threshold for arsenic poisoning. I mean, I would say if you had 28 symptoms of arsenic poisoning, you'd be worried. Not great. You wouldn't be like, well, it's not the whole 31, so I'm fine. You'd be like, I have 28 symptoms, help. Oh, I'm fine.

I only have 28. It was in the 1950s and 1960s. When I hear these time lapses, I'm also kind of going, oh God, that's an awful long time later, that a Swedish doctor believed he had found evidence in Napoleon's own writing of arsenic poisoning. And he asked for testing to be done on Napoleon's hair to try and determine whether or not he had been. And this Swedish doctor, along with, of course, this story would be totally incomplete without a Canadian bodybuilder. The two of them together took on this testing and they said that they had kind of cornered Montalong, his friend Charles, because of the affair with Albine. And this is kind of what I'm talking about. Like it's all a little bit Mills and Boon, right? Where it's just

like, oh, the cast out man poisons the other man. But I mean, you know, I don't see it personally. This is a theory coming from, okay, a Swedish doctor. And a Canadian bodybuilder. And a Canadian bodybuilder, hey. You're not buying it, Maddie. You're not buying it. I don't really know where to start with that one. You know what? I actually don't think it's worth starting anywhere with it because it's like,

yeah, whatever. I mean, knock yourselves out. Everyone needs a hobby, Maddie. Everybody needs a hobby. Yeah, everyone needs a hobby. But there is something to be said for 28 symptoms of arsenic poisoning is an awful lot. And, you know, arsenic was found in a lot of 19th century domestic products. But more specifically, it also was in that green wallpaper that we described at the start of the narrative, which was in the Longwood House bathroom. So, you know, he was surrounded by it and he did use it in his gardening for rat poisoning as well. So, you know, it was there.

Oh, I love the idea of Napoleon doing a bit of gardening. I know, right? If he was banished there now, he would become like a gardening influencer and he'd be releasing a book like Santolina Gardens with Napoleon. Hi guys, come gardening with me today. We're going to poison some rats, but don't worry, I haven't ingested any of this. Oh, you know what, nobody can ever watch this now. And you'll see it. If ever you're watching a TV show, specifically a period drama. How many times do we cough in a day? Loads, just clear our throat, whatever. You cannot cough in a TV drama without dying by the end of that episode. Oh, yeah, you're dead of TB.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, something's coming. Okay. As you say, we know that arsenic was in domestic products, you know, very famously in wallpaper. I think there's some statistics about like the death numbers of toddlers who went on licking wallpaper and things like that in Victorian homes was unusually high. I don't have the statistics to hand, but I'm sure I've read that before. So these environments were dangerous. If you were spending a lot of time in them. And we know that Napoleon spent a huge amount of time in that house confined to the bathroom and the bedroom. So he was being exposed to some level. Apparently they weren't high enough levels to kill him. But still, look, it's not good either way, but I still don't necessarily buy that it was arsenic that killed him.

Okay, so give me a different theory. Cologne killed him. Yes, you heard me correctly. Can I just say, it is absolutely in keeping with everything we think we know about Napoleon, that he would be drenched in aftershave. Oh no, but apparently two to three bottles a day he used. Yeah. So this is what they're saying, like it was too much. He was smothering himself in essential oils and other random components. And then this, according to Professor Parvez Harris of the University of Leicester, this contributed to his stomach cancer and the physical symptoms that he was experiencing.

He also drank orange blossom, which could also be in the cologne, by the way, and lots of citrus fruits, which, again, was often in the cologne. He liked a citrusy smell. I looked this up even separately to my briefing notes because like this is mad. What's going on? I was like, he apparently like citrusy smells more than the kind of heavy musky smells. Professor Harris believes that he was poisoning himself for decades and he was a huge fan of cologne, as I say, two to three bottles a day. Although in my own research, I have caveated this by saying, we don't know how big the bottles are. Like, you know, those Penhaligon little tester ones. Yeah.

So how big are these bottles, blah, blah, blah. That's a very good point. I think that's a very interesting theory. Certainly that would have made him unwell. It may not have killed him, but that can't be good for you. I think that's very fascinating because we know that cologne's perfumes become mass produced at the end of the 18th century. They're always part of French 18th century aristocratic culture as well. I think it's fascinating that Napoleon is performing that. We think about him and his legacy being military strategy and this great boldness, but he's also someone who is dressing himself in certain ways. He's very interested in his appearance and sort of tactility and in how people will experience him when they

come into contact with him in closer spaces. And of course, the perfume is kind of part of that. So I think that's interesting that it's sort of part of that bigger strategy that he has for positioning himself in the world and performing his place in the world. And that he's doing that even to the very last. And it might have been harming him. Maddie, are you a cologne whore? Do you like the smell of a musky male cologne? No, see, I collect organic perfume from Somerset. Oh, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

I like delicate fragrances. I'm not here for a musky cologne. Absolutely not. What about you? No, not really. I hate when it catches in the back of your throat kind of thing. That said, a good-looking man with a nice clean scent. Jesus, sure, I'd be anyone's. Oh, yeah. So another theory is that he was potentially poisoned by his captors. And the reason I feed into this a little bit more is because Napoleon himself thought that he was being poisoned by his

captors, according to his Irish doctor, Dr. Barry O'Mara, the most Irish name in the entire world. I feel like we don't go an episode on this without being like, oh yeah, and then there was an Irish person in the story. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was only like five million of us or six million. I thought you said there's only five of us. Well, there is. Me, Graham Norton and whoever else. So there is something there and you can also understand why Napoleon would be a little paranoid, right? Like he's essentially under guard, so, you know. You say there's something there. I mean, I need a bit more information. So he thinks he's being poisoned. Yeah.

We know this according to his Irish doctor. Yes. But what's happening to him that he thinks he's being poisoned other than the 28 symptoms of arstic he already has? Like, what's the evidence here? Nothing really. Okay. Just just him thinking and there's a lot of talk about like you said earlier, and this feeds into this about like, them going, surely we should be killing this man. Like, you know, that there was talk amongst British establishment of going, why are we keeping him alive? So we know that talk

existed. And here he finds himself, you know himself essentially exiled and surrounded by the enemy. And so everyone that's relatively close to him is appointed by the British to him. So I can see that it's paranoia, but at least it's contemporary to Napoleon. I think as well it might be propaganda, because I think we know that this is a rumour that particularly circulates in France and certainly in Paris. By the 1820s, this is absolutely circulating that the British have poisoned him, the British who were meant to be looking after him. I wonder if that's a dig at the British and look how dishonourable they are, that they have taken our leader, they have imprisoned him, and then they didn't have

the decency to execute him. They've sneakily done it on the quiet. And I wonder if having an Irish doctor confirm that rumour kind of plays into that, if it is kind of just anti-British propaganda. I mean, I'm not saying the British didn't poison him because they've done worse things in the world, but I wonder if there is an element of that, right? That it's an anti-British sentiment. It was very much thought at the time that Dr. O'Mara had been too won over by Napoleon, that he was too close to him, that they actually got on quite well despite the fact that he'd been placed there by the British.

So that certainly was one of the theories at the time. But I will say, having said all of that, it is worth noting that the FBI, Strasbourg Forensic Institute and the Paris police have all looked into Napoleon's death because what else are they going to do with their money? Not try to solve international terrorism, no, they're going to try and get to the bottom of a very male-centered conspiracy theory. But none have been able to confirm arsenic poisoning or anything that refutes stomach cancer as the cause of death. So here we are with an answer, probably Napoleon

died of stomach cancer. Okay, I did not know that this has been looked into so much. The FBI, I mean, guys, if anyone from the FBI is listening, like, surely do you not have other things to do? But you know, I mean, I think it's kind of an indication, I suppose, of the ongoing legacy of Napoleon or interest in him. I mean, to me, it doesn't seem that important a question to settle. I mean, I suppose it's a big deal if he was murdered, right? I suppose it's a big deal if Napoleon was murdered, but he wasn't. So it's fine. Like we can we can I think we can say that.

I do think this is interesting that we have in 1821 a quote from Napoleon when he's dictating his will. And he does say my death is premature. He's obviously dying at this point. I have been assassinated by the English. Dramacqueen. Wow. Yeah. I mean, total drama queen, self-obsessed. Like Napoleon, it's not all about you. Okay. Like, calm down. But it is though. It is all about him. Like, look at it now. It's all about Napoleon.

He's got nothing else to do on the island but self-obsessed. So I get it. But yeah, drama. Interesting. Why do you think he wrote this? Well, for all the reasons you just said, like, he is self-obsessed. He is self-aggrandizing. And, you know, I'm kind of here for it. But also, he has to point the finger, right? Like, if he knows he's dying, or if he feels he's dying, and he wants to really create this anti-English thing, and there's plenty of anti-French thing in England at the time, then yeah, why not? They're essentially at war, have been.

So like, yeah, do it. Like, whatever, it's just war propaganda and he's using even his death as a way to do that. And I don't know, that's just tit for tat, isn't it? Like, that's just kind of what happens. So it's understandable. It's not true by the looks of things. Stomach cancer killed him. And maybe that was really difficult for Napoleon to come to Grasps with as well, because he's

like, wait, a normal everyday thing is going to kill me? No, I'm Napoleon. Like, I don't just die. Yeah. And I think as well, this leads into this idea of self aggrandizement, that he's so sure of his own importance. So it's interesting to me and presumably horrifying to Napoleon when he realises that he's going to die on St Helena and this man who has conquered most of Europe and the world

completely changed the face of the French Empire and the British Empire through conflict, that he is going to not only die on this island, this remote island, removed from everyone, but he's also going to be buried there, that's going to be his resting place. And we know that that's not what he wanted. And eventually he does get his way in death, doesn't he? His body is moved off the island. Yeah. So he ends up just being placed in a pretty inconspicuous tomb on St. Helena, as you would imagine. But come 1840, the British agree with the French that they are going to repatriate the body. Layers of concrete are taken away, then layers of lead and tin and the wood is broken through of this is the coffin.

Now, holes are drilled into the coffin to release any gas that's been built up. And it's then very quickly moved into a sarcophagus and it's then taken on its final journey. But it's interesting. And I do find stuff like this quite interesting, because again, it feeds into the mythologizing where they expected to see this very badly decomposed version of Napoleon in the coffin, but that wasn't what they found at all, apparently. And the body had been very well preserved because of the lack of oxygen. The lower lip though apparently had receded which was showing then teeth and he had his eyelashes and fingernails were intact and the shrinking skin gave the appearance of nail and hair growth but that's you know kind of standard. So yeah it's that haunting thing isn't it?

Yeah and you know that's very standard for certainly the long 18th century and I definitely include Napoleon's death in the long 18th century, even though we are arguably several decades into the 19th by this point, but I'm stealing very, very long 18th century. My long 18th century goes up to like at least 1830, possibly 1840. It's still happening. We are still in the long 18th century. Yeah. I will take no questions at this time. time or be challenged. Thank you very much. Goodbye. Okay, but in the long 18th century, lots of very famous people are dug up. And this is, you know, this idea that they're found kind of intact. There's several tombs of members of the royal family that are dug up at the chapel in Windsor Castle, for example, by antiquaries, you know, looking for historic old kings of England. And they're all miraculously

preserved and completely, you know, you can shake the hand and have a chat with them in a cup of tea kind of thing. So this is very in keeping with this idea, I think. I know that some of his organs had been removed from his body. They had. And they were buried with him, weren't they, separately, which is odd. Yes, his heart and his stomach had been removed. And oh my god, this wasn't removed at the time of the autopsy. But as they were uncovering him, skin that had become attached to the veil that covered his face ended up detaching onto the veil. And that ended up in the Musée de l'Armée in 1936.

That's quite gruesome, right? That's like the Turin shroud, but the Napoleon version. Can I read your description? This is an account of the exclamation by a Mr. Lockwood who was there on the scene. And this is what he says. The old tin coffin, the last cover which shrouded the remains, became thus exposed to view. And at one o'clock, this was also cut through when a satin covering over the body appeared, which the surgeon of the bell pools, that's a ship, gently raised and thus displayed the body of the emperor. The eyes were fallen, the bridge of the nose a little sunk. But the lower part of the face, remarkable for its great breath and fullness, was perfect.

The body was more like what the emperor had been alive than at the time of its internment. His cocked hat lay across his thighs and the silver vase with the imperial eagle, which contains his heart, stood in the hollow below his calves. And there you go. Nonsense. Okay, I mean, he literally contradicts what we've already heard. I know. Saying that the

lower part of the face that you said has receded and the teeth have receded here. He's like, they're perfect, just as they are in life. Yeah, really interesting. I do find it fascinating that the heart is in this imperially coded, like decorative container and it's by his legs. That's very interesting. You mentioned that the ship, the bell pool and that the surgeon from the ship is one of the people involved in exhuming the body. Is it the bell pool that's then going to take the coffin on the journey? It is it is exactly that makes that journey then between the 18th of October to the 27th of November 1840. They actually arrived back in France sooner than they thought they would. And now we have this new decorative coffin that's been brought from France onto the bell pool.

There's a bit of pomp and ceremony which goes with this. It's all very solemn with music playing. Drums are beating. And there's this great kind of funerary tone. This is far more in keeping with what Napoleon would have wanted.

And actually, I have an image for you of this very moment, apparently, which I am obsessed with. This is a stunning, stunning image. Take a look at it, Maddie, and just give us a, really, it's more of a vibe than anything else, but describe the vibe. This is romanticism at its best. Oh, God, I love this. I know. I want to live in this picture. Yeah. Okay. So if this was like a POV video, we'd probably be on one of the little boats that is congregating

around the bell pool itself, which is an incredibly dark image. You can't really tell where the water ends and this stormy, clouded sky begins. The ship itself is shrouded in darkness, but you can make out lots of the masts and the rigging. The sails are all rolled up, don't know the technical term. Sorry to any nautical people out there. Yep, they're not down basically. So this is a ship that isn't going anywhere. As I say, there are these boats that are congregating towards the side of it. They've obviously stopped moving because the oarsmen are holding the oars up in the air and there are people packed into each of these boats. So this is the moment the coffin is being loaded onto the ship and it's kind of being hoisted up on this pulley system and it's draped

with what looks like some kind of flag or certainly some kind of very rich material in white and maybe black, maybe it's a kind of imperial purple, it's hard to tell, but we get a little sliver of the coffin itself just exposed kind of pointing straight at us. It's so atmospheric and it's that classic, you know, if you've done your GCSE English, you'll know about pathetic fallacy and this idea of the weather reflecting what's happening in the story. And this is exactly that moment. You know, the storms are gathering. This is a very somber beginning to this journey. This great kind of really enigmatic, charismatic man is being moved in this procession all the way to France. This this great, kind of really enigmatic, charismatic man is being

moved in this procession all the way to France. This is a huge moment of history. So camp, right? Like the only point of light in the whole painting is around the coffin and then in the cannon smoke that's behind it. Like this is Les Mis on steroids. I'm here for the drama., I absolutely love it. I'll have to keep my voice down because right now I'm between the actual bedsheets of some of history's most famous figures. Want to know more about what Hitler might have been like in the sack or Julius Caesar or our very own Billy Shakespeare? You wouldn't believe the details I'm able to uncover here on Betwixt the Sheets, a podcast by history hit.

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He does eventually arrive in France. The funeral plans, as I said, have to be kind of rushed because the voyage takes less time than they expected it to take. The carriage is draped in gold. It's 13 meters long and it weighs about 13 tons, apparently. Even the wheels are gilded gold and we have 14 gilded statues larger than life holding up models of the coffin. We have trophies and flags and laurels and banners commemorating Napoleonic military victories.

And this is in 1840, remember, because it's not until 1861, actually, when France is now ruled by Napoleon III, who was nephew of this Napoleon. I always get the Napoleons very confused. I just find that whole thing very confusing. But he wanted to really cement that bone apart legacy, which you can understand. And he then moves him again from a more simple chapel, the Chapel of Saint-Gérôme, into the Dome of the Invalide, where he remains to this day in a really iconic position. So he's reinterred in the 1840s, reinterred again in the 1860s. This is 20 years of a burial. And actually, talk about drama. This is exactly what Napoleon would have wanted and of course then helps to reinforce him as a cornerstone of French national identity and as this heroic mythological historical figure.

It's fascinating that it takes two decades after his death to have him moved back to France and that in that period, there are all these conspiracy theories beginning to swirl and these accusations being maybe levelled at the British. Have they poisoned him? Has he simply died of the arsenic in his environment? Has he cologne'd himself to death? There's all these different ideas, but it takes that long for France to get him back. When you think about the start of Napoleon's journey, and we know that he ends up as this great emperor with a golden, laurel crown and surrounded by huge amounts of grandeur, but of course his rise to power is only made possible because of the French Revolution, because of the absolute rejection

and execution of the royal family. And of course, one of the big criticisms of them is how explicitly wealthy they are and the disgusting shows of that wealth. And I think there's something ironic, but also inherent maybe, in French culture in this moment, that even when he's brought back into Europe, into France, that he is welcomed almost like the old kings of France would have been. And that they want him back at all is kind of amazing to me, really, considering the damage that he does to Europe and that he's still venerated. And so I mean, it's not a surprise when you think that it's his nephew on the throne. But yeah, interesting. It's actually not even that unique sometimes because you think about that's exactly what happened in England in the 1660s. It was like, we're fighting so hard to get rid of this king and all the corruption that comes along with kingship. And by the way, what we're going to replace it with eventually will just very much look like a king anyway. So

we don't really know what to do if that's what we've had. And you know, it does take France an awful long time to iron out that monarchical bent that it has. They're using the tools that they're used to, to commemorate, right? And they are very kingly, empiric tools. How do you think he died then? Stomach cancer. Yeah. What about you? Oh yeah, absolutely.

Well, I think he, um, you never know. I think he can't have been well from all the cologne and the arsenic in the wallpaper, but I don't think there was a conspiracy to kill him. I don't think it would have been in the British interest to assassinate him necessarily. He was already reduced in terms of circumstance, in terms of rank, in terms of power. His allies were thousands of miles away, he was isolated. I don't think they needed to kill him. I think there was probably a nervousness on the British part around him escaping around him being rescued. But I don't think it was enough that they would have done that.

Yeah, I just think yeah, stomach cancer. Right, sign us out Maddie. Thank you very much for listening to this episode of After Dark. If you have suggestions for other final days episodes, then you can get in touch with us at After Dark at historyhit.com. That's afterdark at historyhit.com. See you next time. I think we should do like a final days of Anthony Delaney because if this weather keeps up and I'm this warm for the rest of my life I am going to die.