Dan Snow's History Hit - Napoleon: Captive on Saint Helena

Episode Date: March 21, 2021

Saint Helena is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Nearly a thousand mile from the nearest piece of land, this recently created volcanic effusion is a wonder of geography and biodiversity. But it's also got a remarkable history. Napoleon was sent there after Waterloo. It was the safest place the British government could think of to imprison the most dangerous man in the world. In this episode, Dan goes to Napoleon's house, meets the remarkable man who has restored it and finds out about the last painful years of the Emperor's life. You can watch the documentary Dan made over on History Hit TV and find out more about the sites of Saint Helena on our website.

Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History. 200 years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor Napoleon, died in captivity in St Helena, in Longwood House, St Helena. Last year, as some of you will remember, I was lucky enough to go to St Helena. I made the journey out to one of the most remote inhabited places on planet Earth. It's over a thousand miles from Africa, thousands of miles from South America. Ascension Island is the nearest speck of land and that's 800 miles away. This was the safest place that the British government could think to store the most dangerous man in the world, Napoleon Bonaparte, who threatened the entire social and political order in Europe.

Did not want that guy escaping again, no way. So I went there, I explored the island, it's an incredible place, and I went up to Longwood House. It's been lovingly restored by Michel Danquan Martineau, who's the honorary French consul out there, you're going to hear from him in this podcast. He showed me around Longwood House, explained how he's restored it and what it was like when Napoleon was there in exile. While I was in St. Helena, I made a film there for History Hit TV. That's available free on History Hit TV now. No subscription required, no nothing. Just go and watch it. You can see me destroy myself as I try to climb up Jacob's Ladder. It's exhausting. Go and see what I mean. And you can see the massive

fortifications that were built on St. Helena from the 17th to the 20th century as that vital island that sat astride the shipping lanes to Asia and South Africa that needed to be protected from Britain's enemies. It's a surprising and remarkable place. Please go and check out that documentary on History Hit TV.

It's totally free. And you can also see articles that I've written on the History Hit website. In the meantime, enjoy this trip around Longwood House. Michel, how are you? Okay. It's an honour to be here. Welcome to Longwood. Thank you very much. I can't wait to have a look round. Yes. And so this is the house here as it was? Yes. This is Napoleon's apartment here, and then his entourage, his generals on the back. You've meticulously reconstructed what it was like when Napoleon was here? Yes. So we have redesigned it. Yes, so we have redesigned it.

We use all the plans and all the descriptions and all the archaeological research for reshaping to as it was in 1821. The day he died? The day he died, because the garden has moved up to the end. The really last months, they were still adding on small Chinese pavilions. So it was always a few little items add on. Some of these trees look quite old would they have been here when Napoleon Bonaparte was here? Yes so they were here and those two umbrella cypress were here because you can still see them on the pictures of the time and also the green oak on the back. So the three trees, which are the living plants of the time.

I've read, you know, the French accounts, Napoleon's accounts. They made his captivity seem harsh. The British were barbaric. It was part of him trying to gain sympathy within Europe. But this feels quite nice. Yeah, but you can also read the other way around. The worst and the best has been said. On both sides, exaggeration,

depending on which side you were. But most of the dark presentation of Longwood are because of the writing of Lascaux, who were only here for the first years of Napoleon's exile. He was one of Napoleon's assistants, a degree. Yes, he was his PA, I would say. And then he went back to Europe, and his definite mission was to darken the condition of exile for the sovereign of Europe, to oblige the UK to change their mind for not exiling Napoleon on St Helena,

but to consider him as a prisoner of state because the problem of Napoleon on Sant'Ena, he was a prisoner of war. But Napoleon claimed his title, he had been legitimately emperor of the French. So then he wanted that to be recognized. Hence his title for prisoner of state. but the British and the Tsar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, the King of France and so on, they all denied that right, and then is when Napoleon starts the garden. But at the beginning, he had to darken the picture because he wanted the sovereign to change their mind. So are we going to have a look inside the house?

Yes, please. Let's do it. So you hang it on the 15th, landed on the... The 15th of October, 1815, and then he came ashore on the 17th evening. OK. And those two days were needed for sorting out... Paperwork, paperwork.

And he spent one night in Jamestown. When you think of the importance of the paperwork, two days is not bad. I know, I know, that's true, that's true. To do all the transfer of authority on a country. Wonderful. What a wonderful job you've done.

So this is a big room. He played billiards, did he? No, he never played. He didn't play? No, he didn't play. He used a billiard table for his maps because, of course, as I said to you, he used it for his own benefits to write his memoirs.

And, of course, his memoirs include a lot of military campaigns. So it's very useful to have this table for laying the maps and using the cues to keep them flat. And is it true that he used to look out here with his telescope and spy on the British? Mostly on the holes. He closed all the shutters and you could see he made some holes on the shutters and so like that he can have

his telescope and watching outside without being seen. So through that door, that's very much through the windows. You can see the holes. And so did he surround himself with this artwork of him in his prime as emperor of the French? So in this museum here, in this house, in this very room, that is where I said he dictated about his own life story.

And of course, most of the visitors passing by St Helena do not know who was Napoleon. So, of course, I had to educate them. So what I do is I put on the walls pictures of events of his life which he dictated in this room. So it's like flashbacks, but the pictures were not there then. Right, so lead me through. Let's just keep going. So he's doing his maps on here. So, for example,

for me, a resume of the exile is those two pieces. When Napoleon arrived on the island, nothing was ready. So Sir Coburn went to every house on the island and took some pieces of furniture. So he found that piece of furniture. So Sir Coburn went to every house on the island and took some pieces of furniture. So he found

that piece of furniture. So he placed it there and because this room has been added on and it's asymmetrical, it's not the same length here than here, so he made locally a copy of what was made in the UK and that

was made locally at the same time. Oh, I see. So you can see it's much rougher done. It doesn't have the nice veneer. Yeah, and so on. But that is how you adapt to the local needs. Speaking of adapting, 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, which was denied to him. So, of course, within his household, he put the protocol in a higher level than he'd ever been. He'd never been as gastronome as when he was on St Helena. Normally, when he was emperor center in that normally when he was

emperor food for him was something that goes very quick and it's not very protocol but here oh la la is the food had to be the best so he never care more for food and etiquette than when he was on the island because he had a point to prove. Lovely. What's the next room? Was this his bedroom? Yeah, you can put your head. Oh, yeah, thank you. Was this his bedroom? Yes, so it was not his bedroom at all.

It was the place where he has been placed when he started to be very, very agonizing. So the few weeks before he died, because his bedrooms, you will see later on, are very close and there is no air movement in it. So if you open the entrance door and that door, you have a draft. So it's much easier to keep the temperature down. And so they placed his bed between the two windows,

removing a sideboard which was here. Because here, that was a salon where he spent most of his nights reading and dictating or playing music. And so that was a social room. So that's what we call the salon. So he died in this salon. So he died in this really same space. This bed is actually the copy of the one which is at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris. So we have reconstructed the room exactly as it stood.

So you have so many details about this room. So here we are. Now, there are so many stories surrounding Napoleon's death and conspiracy theories. Why do you think he died? He died of a combination of symptoms. So the autopsy has been done by the British doctors and the French one. So it's quite an agreement. So they find that his stomach was perforated,

his intestine was in bad state, his liver was dangerously damaged. So the most surprise was actually he lasted that long. Because from what I understood, the liver actually was holding the hole of the stomach. So it was not a nice sight when they opened his body. But at least the autopsy was made. It's very, very difficult for anyone to counterbalance the fact that there was British and French observant on the same pathologies so it is a man whose time has come

dining room dining room so the bed where he died and that sideboard on the back was between the two windows. So they shifted there. As I said, we are replacing the layout of the room as it used to be on the 5th of May. So the furniture are in situ. So this room is the most significant of the exile. It's dark. It's always damp. And Napoleon always had fire even on a warm day like today.

Really? He always had fire, even on a warm day like today. Really? He always had fire burning. So it was a very, very unpleasant atmosphere here. And men were wearing their uniforms. Ladies were wearing all the things. So it's not very comfortable. So this way he was laid out in state? Yeah, so this room was how it used to be on the 6th of May, the following day of his death,

after the autopsy had been done in the billiard room. So after the autopsy, they put his uniform, the body was laid out on that couch, the head towards the dining room. So exactly like the death mask and plaster here orientation. The furniture was one of the sideboard with the white marble, which was also used as an altar on the Sunday service. The silverware for the church service and the furniture like the chair from the Chinese. the church service and the furniture like the chair from the Chinese and so this room was a display room for his body between the 6th of May 1821 to the 8th of May where the body was displayed

and then of course on the 9th of May the funeral. Hi everyone, this is Dan Snow's History Hit. I'm on St Helena, talking about Napoleon, who died in Longwood House 200 years ago. More after this. Okay, Tristan, you've got 50 seconds. Go. Right, so Dan's given me a few seconds to sell the Ancients podcast. What is the Ancients, I hear you say?

Well, it's like Dan's show, except just ancient history. We've got the groundbreaking new archaeological discoveries. This seems to be the oldest known dated depiction of the animal world, as far as we can tell, anywhere in the world. We've got the big names. It's one of those great things, Pompeii. It's kind of forever rising from the dead and from destruction. We've got the big topics.

The man destroys seven legions in a day. No one in history has done that. Subscribe to The Ancients from History Hit wherever you get your podcasts from. Oh, and Russell Crowe, if you're listening, we would love to have you on The Ancients. Spread the word, people. Spread the word. Land a Viking longship on island shores, scramble over the dunes of ancient Egypt and avoid the Poisoner's Cup in Renaissance Florence. Each week on Echoes of History, we uncover the

epic stories that inspire Assassin's Creed. We're stepping into feudal Japan in our special series Chasing Shadows, where samurai warlords and shinobi spies teach us the tactics and skills needed not only to survive, but to conquer. Whether you're preparing for Assassin's Creed Shadows or fascinated by history and great stories, listen to Echoes of History, a Ubisoft podcast brought to you by History Hits. There are new episodes every week. And is this a bedroom through here? And is this a bedroom through here?

So, Napoleon had two bedrooms. Now, one was changed the day after his death as a chapel, but both were originally draped on the same white muslin fabric and with very basic furniture for his daily life. The only thing which is missing, because we could not have it for the people to walk through, there was a screen here leading to the bathroom to prevent the draft. So the black drapes in there were just for the funeral. Usually it was this white colour.

So the two rooms were on the white fabric. That is very important. The reason there was a white fabric on the wall, it's not because of the decoration desire of his valet. It's because the house, after three years, became in very bad condition. So you had the roof which was leaking all the time. So you had water falling down through the walls. Under the floor, there was a gap where the water settled with rats crawling all under so you could

hear the rats yes and the smell and the stagnant water so of course the wall were with wallpapers and the wallpaper every morning kept falling so that's why they decided to do some drapery so like that of course it took no more than three months to rot the cotton. So every three months, they could change it. So that's why it's very important for you to understand the context of that. This house was not supposed to be permanent. It was just on hold until the house, which the Prince Regent ordered to be built from Napoleon, a much more decent building, Longwood's new

house. Unfortunately, it was only complete a few weeks before Napoleon died, so he never used it. But this house was just a temporary place to place Napoleon, but it became his last. Let's check through here. Aha! The famous bath tub. Here you have the bath tub.

So that is where he spent a few hours a day. So they used to top the water with hot water warmed on the kitchen which was just on the back. So he spent a few hours a day in the bath? Yes, Napoleon spent a few hours a day on his bath? Yes, Napoleon spent a few hours a day on his bath because he had

a lot of rush on his skin and it was very soothing and Napoleon always liked baths anyway. But it was very comfortable. It looks a deep tub but it was comfortable because it was a wooden chair with a drapery and so on. So it was a comfortable seat.

Nice place for an office. Yeah, you can actually have your office in your bath. So here is the new house. So in this room, it was a room of his first valet called Marchand. He used that same cabinet here. This cabinet, for me, represents the most significant of his exile because it's his servant almost on a weekly basis, whenever Napoleon was a bit nostalgic or sad or gloomy,

he asked his servant to show his boxes. It's tiny little snuff boxes, and they were all hand-painted with events of his life Including his sons, different battles, the treaties that he signed Even Egypt campaign and so on So imagine the servant taking out trays of little boxes And bringing it to his master And the master getting

back into his souvenirs looking at the little boxes with those little images as a reminiscence of his greatness days. Like we look back through our Instagram photos. Yeah but here it's even the objects on the earth they are beautiful

so then if you look at the photos they're getting old, and the photos of your old life getting older as well as the material. But those hand-painting little boxes on save and so on, remain beautiful.

So themselves, by the craft, they are beautiful. They are edging. They are amazing. And that brings his fall even further down. And for me, that is the most evocative souvenir of the daily life of Napoleon's exile. How many people a year do you get proper pilgrims who love the memory of Napoleon? The ticket doesn't say.

That would be very subjective. No, of course. But the thing is, for me, I give as much importance to the one I want to educate as to the one who already knows the story. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That's why I try to do a compromise. So it's a balance which is not easy to find, but at least we're getting there. I think we're definitely getting there.

And what was this room during Napoleon's time? So this room was the centre of what they call the factory of writings because it was a real industry of book production.

At least for the first three years, the amount of books that Napoleon dictated, it's enormous. And of course, he did need a lot of documentation and maps and so on. So in the middle of that room, there was an octagonal table, which you could fill with maps and so on. And there were two cabots like that. And those two bookcases are the original one, which are just back on the island. They came from Switzerland, and they were on loan, and they were taken by the governor when Napoleon died.

But you rescued them? So not rescued them, but tracked them, and a bit of convincing power for them to get back here. Thank you for showing me the house. It's extraordinary given that actually after Napoleon's time, it was almost derelict, wasn't it? So you and your predecessors have brought it back. So this house has no purpose for staying up as a house because it's badly exposed. So it cannot stand. So the only reason it's still up is because of what

happens there as a historical fact, which is the death of Napoleon and his last years of exile. So, of course, that is where we're fighting for. And that is actually the subject that we always bring up to the attention of the public at the end of the visit, because of the importance of the British

to the fact that this house still stands up, because it's actually after the royal visit in 1947. King George VI and his daughters, the current queen. The current queen and Princess Margaret, and they actually were repaired of the condition of their house. And so then the queen mother called the ambassador in her office and complained officially. And of course, then it helps for the budget to be allocated to restore the house by the French Parliament

because it's still a French property. And so this today is French territory? It's a French territory. Theoretically, it's nothing more than less than just any embassy in the world. So it's French property overseas overseas which has some diplomatic advantages. So the British imprisoned Napoleon here but they've also been instrumental in helping to protect

the house. Yeah, but the problem is don't forget that the island when Napoleon died reverted to the East India Company. So then they were allowed to do what they wanted to do with the house and then they converted the house into a farm. So that it's only through Napoleon III that the French were allowed to purchase the house

through a tricky exercise. The governor of the island had to buy it privately. Then he was allowed to sell it to the Queen Victoria privately. And the Queen Victoria was allowed to sell it to the Queen Victoria privately and the Queen Victoria was allowed to sell it to Napoleon III officially. It's complicated. But it was the only way to turn down the British laws, rule, which they never sell property to a foreign nation.

That was a twist. So Napoleon had access to books, to maps. He wasn't restricted by his British jailers. So officially, yes, he had to be censored of whatever he received. And then it's very important that on those days, opposition of the Lord Liverpool, the Prime Minister of the time, was Lord Holland. So he was on the weak party,

and he was officially against the idea of sending Napoleon on St Holland. So he was on the weak party and he was officially against the idea of sending Napoleon on Santillana. Because he's more, you'd say now, liberal or progressive. Yes, progressive. And he was also totally following the idea of Napoleon being a prisoner of state. So then, of course, his wife, Lady Holland, kept sending Napoleon's books. And of course, you would not deny that right to the opposition leader. So then Napoleon received a lot of books, but from the British people, but through the opposition. And then he put everything into perspective, that the jailers were British, but the best supporters were British. It's impossible to generalize. You can't say the

British was a bad one, the French was a bad one, or vice versa. It's impossible because it wasn't that clear. He is the best supporter of Napoleon, and that is why this room is very important. So Napoleon is writing here, he's studying. Is there any restrictions on his library, his books, his maps? So, yes, there is a restriction. He could not receive what he wanted and so on. But on the British side, there was an amazing lady, the wife of the leader of the opposition back then, the Whig, Lady Holland. So she kept sending on a regular basis, every six months,

boxes of books, novelties and so on, including newspapers, because Napoleon was kept in the dark with what happened in the world. So then she kept sending books and so on. And of course, being the wife of the leader of the opposition and with the support of her husband, Lord Bathurst and Lord Liverpool, Bére could not be seen as opening the boxes of books that his opposition was sending to Napoleon. So, of course, Napoleon had that.

So he had almost 5,000 volumes at the end. So it was all in two bookcases and so on here. This was his working material. So Napoleon had sympathizers within the British ruling elite. Not only sympathizing, he was capitalizing on it. He'd never been more the son of the revolution, the French revolution, than when he actually came on the island, because of what he brought to Europe as a more liberal approach

and to cut down the monarchy by the divine right. So for him, sovereign had to get this legitimacy by the people, not by God. So he emphasised that a bit. So the Brits were jailers, but also... Yes, so that is what makes the whole exile of Napoleon impossible. You can be as critical as you want. You can be so pressful as you want. You're always right, because you only pick a piece of it

because both sides, the best supporters of Napoleon were British and the worst enemy of Napoleon were British. So you can decide which side you want to be and you will be right. Well, it's good to hear, Michel. The more you study history of course, the more nuanced things appear.

So thank you very much for taking me on the house. I've always wanted to come here. It's honor to be here it's a pleasure thank you hi everyone thanks for reaching the end of this podcast. Most of you are probably asleep, so I'm talking to your snoring forms, but anyone who's awake, it would be great if you could do me a quick favour, head over to wherever

you get your podcasts and rate it five stars and then leave a nice glowing review. It makes a huge difference for some reason to how these podcasts do. Madness, I know, but them's the rules.

Then we go further up the charts, more people listen to us and everything will be awesome. So thank you so much. Now sleep well.