Napoleon arrived in St. Helena, a British protectorate, nearly 200 years ago aboard the puddle-filled planks of the HMS Northumberland, after having been captured by the allied powers. British authorities wrote Napoleon that he would be confined there to prevent him “from disturbing the repose of Europe.” His enemies had chosen well.Napoleon’s first home on the island was the Briars, where he spent a few brief weeks while his permanent residence at Longwood was being refurbished.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau saw Napoleon exiled to Elba.After losing the Battle of the Nations (or Leipzig) in October 1813, Napoleon Bonaparte was deposed; but by the Treaty of Fontainebleau of  April 11th 1814, he was made ruler of the island of Elba, with an administrative staff and a guard of 400 men. Why he was treated so lightly? After all, he had subjugated most parts of Continental Europe, threatened Britain with invasion, and burned Moscow. No effort was made either by the French or by the international community, to bring him to justice. Furthermore, Elba was only 40 miles from his native Corsica, 150 miles from mainland France and even closer to Italy, where his family continued to hold power. Napoleon Bonaparte was a clever general, and his reputation is that of a genius on the battlefield. The keen instinct he developed for finding an enemy’s weak points and exploiting every advantage was of little use during his exile on Elba, where he turned that instinct toward chronic cheating at card games he played with his companions. Great men rarely come without a bit of instability, and Napoleon was no exception to the rule.He had always been given to fits of rage, sometimes hurling heavy objects at his ministers and other subordinates. These rages got much worse after his fortunes turned and the nations of Europe started winning victories against him. The fear of defeat seems to have weighed on him.Throughout his time in power, Napoleon was never more than a few seconds away from suicide, thanks to a vial of opium he habitually wore around his neck. He seems to have started wearing the lethal dose in 1812, following a near-capture by Cossacks during the Russian campaign.After the crushing defeat in Russia, and the disastrous Battle of Nations that followed – as all the enemies he’d made pulled together and struck hard at his retreating army – Napoleon decided it was time to put an end to his misery and drank the opium. However, it had weakened over the years and he just got really sick.Later, on Elba, he would have shot himself, but his servant had emptied the powder from his pistol. Reloading guns must have been a real hassle back then, because Napoleon gave up on killing himself after that.When he was defeated in 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was given the Mediterranean island of Elba to rule with an army of 1,000 men. He escaped the next year, only to be defeated at Waterloo.This time, his enemies wanted to incarcerate him in a place from which he could definitely not escape. They chose St Helena. This island of 47 square miles lies in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,200 miles from the nearest land. It is one of the most remote places on Earth.In 1815, the British Royal Navy controlled the Atlantic, making escape from St Helena virtually impossible. Deciding that was not enough, the British put Napoleon under armed guard, stripped him of most of his companions and placed him a lonely, windswept house named Longwood.Despite such precautions there were plots to rescue Napoleon, including one hatched by a group of French ex-soldiers living in Texas (then a province of Mexico) who wanted to resurrect the Napoleonic Empire in North America. The plans came to nothing and Napoleon died on the island in 1821.As a child, Napoleon was baptized Catholic, but his own writings indicate that he began to question Catholicism—and, indeed, the existence of any god—early in his life. But while Napoleon lacked a strong personal faith, he admired the tactical power of organized religion. Following his initial ascent to power in France, he set about reestablishing the Catholic Church that had been all but dismantled during the Revolution. In doing so, however, he recognized Catholicism only as, “the religion of the vast majority of French citizens” and brought the Church under the authority of the state.As emperor, Napoleon emancipated the Jews in areas of Europe under his control, insisting that they be free to own property and worship freely (a proclamation which earned him condemnation as the "Antichrist and the Enemy of God" by the Russian Orthodox Church). Of course he did so not out of pure benevolence but because he believed religious freedom would attract Jewish populations to the French-controlled territories. Following his Egyptian expedition, some scholars believe that Napoleon was particularly fascinated by Muhammad and the Muslim religion. Although this, too, appears to be largely situational, as he once wrote, "I am nothing. In Egypt I was a Mussulman; here I shall be a Catholic." Whether or not Napoleon ever truly believed in Islam, he wrote tolerantly about even some of the more controversial practices, saying that polygamy was a way for different races to remain blended and equal.Following a disastrous campaign in Russia and pressures from the Sixth Coalition, Napoleon was forced to abdicate as part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau on April 11, 1814. Although he would at first be sentenced to live out a comfortable life as sovereign of the island of Elba, Napoleon’s first reaction to his exile was a suicide attempt while still at Fontainebleau. He had been carrying a poisonous pill with him ever since the failure in Russia and finally took it on April 12th. But the pill must have lost its potency with age; while it made Napoleon violently ill, it did not kill him. Following his escape from Elba and his brief return to power, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo and forced to surrender to the British captain of the HMS Bellerophon. Initially, he drafted a letter to the Prince Regent and future King George IV requesting asylum and "a small estate" outside of London—a bold request considering his years of plotting to conquer Britain. The letter was never delivered, but it likely wouldn’t have mattered. Parliament was concerned that Napoleon—a foreign dictator—would be so popular with the British common people that they refused to even let him disembark. Instead, he remained on board the anchored Bellerophon while crowds flocked to catch a glimpse of him until he was banished to St. Helena.The British took extreme caution in securing Napoleon’s final exile location. St. Helena is isolated, ringed with steep cliff faces, and was guarded by some 2800 men armed with 500 cannons. The seas around the tiny island were constantly patrolled by an entire Royal Navy squadron consisting of 11 ships and even a separate island—1200 miles further out in the Atlantic—was stocked with further garrisons to prevent a rescue attempt from South America. They were right to be concerned. During Napoleon’s last six years of life on St. Helena, escape plans included boats, balloons, and even a pair of primitive submarines. Notorious British smuggler Tom Johnson later claimed that in 1820 he was offered £40,000 to rescue the emperor. He hatched a scheme to do so that included a pair of ships with collapsible masts that could sneak up to the island fully submerged and a bosun’s chair to scale the cliffs. It’s unclear how far this plan ever got—or, indeed, if Johnson ever accepted such an assignment—but had it succeeded it would have made for one of the most fantastic prison breaks in all of history.

The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813, at Leipzig, Saxony. The coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, decisively defeated the French army of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops, as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine. The battle was the culmination of the German campaign of 1813 and involved 600,000 soldiers, 2,200 artillery pieces, the expenditure of 200,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and 127,000 casualties, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I.

The European powers exiled him to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean. Within eleven months, however, Napoleon was back on the European continent at the head of a hastily-raised army intent on restoring Napoleon to the throne of France. Napoleon's defeat came in June 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo.This time, the European powers were not going to take any chances on Napoleon's possible return. They exiled him to the island of St. Helena - a barren, wind-swept rock located in the South Atlantic Ocean.  Napoleon, who lately possessed such boundless power and disposed of so many crowns, now occupies a wretched hovel, a few feet square, which is perched upon a rock, unprovided with furniture, and without either shutters or curtains to the windows. This place must serve him for bedchamber, dressing room, dining room, study, and sitting room; and he is obliged to go out when it is necessary to have this one apartment cleaned. His meals, consisting of a few wretched dishes, are brought to him from a distance, as though he were a criminal in a dungeon. He is absolutely in want of the necessaries of life: the bread and wine are not only not such as he has been accustomed to, but are so bad that we loathe to touch them; water, coffee, butter, oil, and other articles are either not to be procured or are scarcely fit for use.Napoleon’s dismay when he realised he was not being banished to America as he anticipated, but to the remote island of St Helena in the mid-Atlantic instead. Located 1,200 miles from the nearest landmass off the west coast of Africa, St Helena was the ideal choice for Napeoleon’s exile  after all, the last thing the British wanted was a repeat of Elba!Elba Island is renowned, in Italy and worldwide, for both its beauty and its richness in minerals. Moreover, the fame of the island is also bound to a name in history, that of Napoleon Bonaparte. Elba has been for Napoleon a brief exile, although very important. He stayed and ruled for ten months, from May 3, 1814, to February 26, 1815, in which night he escaped from Elba during a masquerade carnival party. Napoleone, wishful to reconquer the throne of France (lasted only 100 days), met his definitive defeat with the destructive battle of Waterloo which granted him a second exile on the island of Saint Helena located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.Napoleon came to Elba after the disastrous Russian Campaign ended with his defeat in Leipzig. The Napoleonic period, though brief, left Elba important evidences as the two major Museums of Napoleonic Residences located in Portoferraio (Villa San Martino and Villa dei Mulini). The two buildings were his residences: Villa dei Mulini (located in the old town of Portoferraio) and Villa San Martino (large and surrounded by greenery, a few kilometers from Portoferraio towards Procchio - Marina di Campo). Napoleon left also important paintings and books, in addition to the splendid Vigilanti Theatre. On March 31, 1814 the united forces of England, Prussia, Russia and Austria broke into Paris and Napoleon was forced to sign the act of abdication. The Treaty of Fontainebleau of 11 April assigned him both the Princedom of Elba Island and an annual pension of two million francs. In 1814 the General Delesme became the governor of Elba with a garrison of less than 500 soldiers.In the same historical period, the mine of Rio was stalled for months due to the inability to transport the ore out of the village. After the Napoleonic wars, the return in Elba of few veterans together with a climate of uncertainty following the defeat and abdication of Napoleon, caused the confusion of the military garrisons, fomenting hostile sentiments against the French. In April 1814 was delivered a dispatch from the Minister of War Dupont informing Dalesme, General Commander of the Elba Island, that the events occurred in the French government were caused by the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte in favor of the Emperor of the French. The dispatch contained also the orders to leave the command of Portoferraio to the exiled Napoleon at his landing on Elba.General Dalesme worried about the reaction of the Elba islanders ordered disarmament; even Napoleon, who arrived in the harbor on May 3 aboard the frigate "Undaunted" under the command of Usher, was not sure about the islanders reaction.In fact, he first sent a proclaim to the attention of the population with the dispatch of a personally designed flag of Elba, white with a red stripe, inspired by the Grand Ducal merchant flag, to which were added three golden bees. Even the colors of the French cockade were later replaced with the new colors. At first Napoleon landed secretly in Magazzini for a quick inspection and only the following day (May 4, 1814 at 15:30) he landed in Portoferraio's harbor on Molo Elba.Against any concerns, the islanders welcomed him with enthusiasm. On his landing, which took place in front of the Porta a Mare, Napoleon received the keys of the town by Maire Traditi who, together with the authorities, accompanied him to the parish church celebrating the Te Deum by the general Vicar of the island, Monsignor Arrighi. Napoleon, after having stayed for eight nights in the uncomfortable rooms of the Biscotteria (headquarter of the administration), decided to renovate some administrative buildings for his accommodation; these were situated between Fort Stella and Fort Falcone, the current complex Villa dei Mulini. Bonaparte was living on the ground floor, while the top floor and the small theatre were often used to entertain the local bourgeoisie playing cards and enjoying a small orchestra in the evenings. Also, during the Napoleon's exile were organized some popular public events, such as the one that took place on August 16, which included a horse race, a public dance and fireworks. If he had been content to busy himself with improvements to the island and with writing his memoirs, Napoleon might have spent his remaining years in comfortable retirement; but he was only 45 in 1814 and, given the highly active life that he had led, it is hardly surprising that he was not so content. In fact, he stayed on Elba for only 300 days, before escaping.Though there are many who would still defend Napoleon as a great revolutionary, law-giver and polymath, there have always been others who have condemned him as a tyrant. He faced severe criticism, even within in France, from Chateaubriand and Mme de Staël, and would have faced more if he had not had an efficient police force and imposed strict censorship. It was hence conceivable that someone, or some group of powers, might have tried to bring Napoleon to justice, and many of his former servants were punished.Napoleon had been defeated in the field, but he still remained Emperor of France, recognised as such by many previous treaties. Moreover, he was married to Marie-Louise, daughter of the Austrian Emperor and an empress herself since 1810. The victorious Allies wanted to restrain Napoleon’s ‘ambition’, but not to crush him entirely, let alone punish him. From a legal perspective, there was then no  machinery, for bringing a defeated head of state to trial. Accordingly, the discussion of Napoleon’s ‘guilt’, as summarised and analysed in Pieter Geyl’s great book, Napoleon For and Against, had to be conducted in terms of politics and morality, rather than the law. Napoleon was brought to the island in October 1815. His first comment, on sighting St Helena from the sea, was it will not be a pleasant abode. Large crowds turned out to watch him land and he later remarked that he found it objectionable to be stared at comme un bête feroçe. In his first two months here he lived in the Briars Pavilion, just up the valley from Jamestown, where he formed a deep friendship with owners the Balcombe family, and in particular their daughter, Betsy. He moved to Longwood House on 10th December 1815.The Emperor was closely guarded, despite the apparent inaccessibility of St Helena. It was a requirement of Governor Lowe that every visitor to Longwood House should be issued with a pass, signed by himself. One day while out riding, Napoleon escaped from his escort and headed off in the direction of Powell’s Valley, causing Governor Lowe to realise that the valley was unguarded and might have provided an avenue for a rescue attempt. It was promptly fortified.The Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century were, in many ways, a precursor to the World Wars of the 20th century that would rock first almost the entire Western world with WWI, and then almost the whole world with WWII. Like the World Wars, the Napoleonic Wars involved many nations, had repercussions that were felt across the globe in an increasingly interconnected world, and changed world history in major ways.The largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars was the Battle of Leipzig – also called The Battle of the Nations , which was fought from the 16th to the 19th of October 1813. It involved close to 600,000 men, many of whom were part of a huge multinational coalition force.The French Army under Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig consisted of around 225,000 troops. In addition to French soldiers, it included troops from Italy, Poland and Germany. They all fought against the combined armies of the Sixth Coalition, which at this particular battle consisted of Russian, Swedish, Austrian and Prussian forces, and a British rocket brigade, altogether numbering approximately 380,000 troops.

Alexander I of Russia, Francis II of Austria and Frederick William III of Prussia meet after the battle.Battle of Leipzig.Part of the War of the Sixth Coalition.Russian, Austrian, and Prussian troops in Leipzig.Painting by Alexander Sauerweid.Many other troops drowned while attempting to swim across the Elster River after the bridge was destroyed. Even those who survived the swim were not safe – many were killed by Coalition sharpshooters, for whom the stragglers, struggling up the muddy banks, were easy targets.The remnants of the French force retreated toward the Rhine, having suffered a decisive and demoralizing defeat.

The Times published articles insinuating the British government was trying to hasten his death, and he often complained of the living conditions in letters to Governor Hudson Lowe. Although Governor Lowe was partly responsible for the ending of slavery on St Helena, his treatment of Napoleon is regarded by historians as poor, imposing inter alia a rule that no gifts could be delivered to Napoleon if they mentioned his imperial status.Before the arrival of Napoleon, St Helena was a restful island owned by The East India Company, and used almost entirely as a ‘half-way’ stopping-place between England and India, where ships could obtain stores and water. The Company expected little or no profit from their occupation of the Island, and consequently the officials quartered there led an undisturbed if somewhat monotonous existence. The Governorship of St Helena was generally a reward for important services rendered in India, and the other offices in the administration were sometimes filled by those whose health had become impaired by prolonged residence in the East. When, however, the captivity began, a vast change came over the quiet scene. The population of St Helena received at once an influx of about 1,500 Europeans, and the fact that the Island was the prison home of the great Napoleon rendered it perhaps the most talked-of place outside Europe.In February 1821, Napoleon’s health began to deteriorate rapidly, and on 3rd May two physicians attended on him but could only recommend palliatives.He died two days later, on 5th May 1821 at 17:49h, his last words being, La France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine (France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine). He was 51 years old.Napoleon was initially buried at the SaneValley, his second choice of burial site, until the French were given permission to have his corpse returned to France, nineteen years after his death. Napoleon’s remains are now buried in Les Invalides in Paris, however visitors to St Helena can visit his empty tomb, which is enclosed with a fence and surrounded by an abundance of flowers and pines.During Napoleon’s time on the island, Sir Hudson Lowe was appointed Governor of St Helena. Lowe’s main duty was to ensure that he didn’t escape but also to provide supplies for Napoleon and his entourage. While they only met six times, their relationship is well documented as being tense and acrimonious. Their main point of contention was that Lowe refused to address Napoleon as Emperor of the French. However five years later Napoleon finally won Lowe over, and persuaded him to build a new Longwood House. However he died just before it was completed, after six years in exile on the island. After World War II the new Longwood House was demolished to make room for a dairy.Napoleon spent his first two months of exile on St Helena, from October to December 1815, in this one-roomed summerhouse pavilion on the estate of William Balcombe, a purveyor of the East India Company.After leaving Briars Pavilion, Napoleon spent the rest of his time on St Helena under house arrest at Longwood House, until his death on May 5th 1821 at the age of 51. It has been maintained by the French government ever since 1858, when the house and surrounding land was gifted to France by Queen Victoria. – Located on an exposed plateau 1800 feet above sea level, Longwood House has a significantly worse climate than Jamestown, open to the trade winds, and was often damp and blanketed with mist, which depressed Napoleon.Theories that Napoleon was betrayed, poisoned, or a victim of inappropriate medical treatment have been undermined by new research based on the emperor's trouser collection. The research has shown that his weight loss in his final year is consistent with a severe progressive illness. It lends credence to the idea that Napoleon died of stomach cancer, which was the cause of death specified in the original autopsy.Napoleon died in exile on the island of St Helena and almost since the day of his death in 1821 there have been conspiracy theories about the cause. There have also been suggestions that chronic exposure to arsenic and medication errors were involved, while the theories that he had been poisoned was given a considerable boost in 1961, when a raised arsenic concentration was found in his hair.“This finding elicited numerous theories of conspiracy, treachery, and poisoning. Most recent reports even suggested inappropriate medical treatment may have contributed to the exiled emperor's death,” say researchers in Human Pathology (2005;36:320-4).Suggestions that Napoleon had indeed died of stomach cancer were confounded by reports of apparent obesity at the time of his demise. But, say the researchers, the weight changes over the course of his life, noticeable from contemporary iconography, have never before been systematically analysed.To test the hypothesis that Napoleon's weight at death could be compatible with a diagnosis of terminal gastric cancer, the researchers, from the University Hospital of Basel and the University of Zurich, did a series of studies to determine Napoleon's weight at death and to see what changes in his weight occurred in the last two decades of his life.For the necessary measurements, the researchers used a collection of 12 different pairs of trousers worn by Napoleon between 1800 and 1821, the year of his death in exile.Modelling trouser sizes with control data suggested that his weight did increase over part of the period, as contemporary reports had suggested. It went up from a low of 67 kg to reach 90 kg by 1820. But measurements of the trousers worn at the time of death suggested a subsequent weight loss of 11 kg during the last year of his life, reducing his weight to 79 kg.The weight found from the trouser tests were then confirmed by the results of a second approach to weight measurement, using the subcutaneous fat measurement that was done at Napoleon's autopsy. The measurement—1.5 inches (3.8 cm)—was then compared with a control group of 270 men dying from various causes.

Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, at the age of 51, while still in exile on St. Helena. At the time, his personal physician reported on the death certificate that the emperor had died of stomach cancer, consistent with reports that he suffered from abdominal pain and nausea in the last weeks of his life. But his body remained remarkably well preserved, a common side effect of arsenic poisoning, inspiring centuries of suspicion about foul play. In 1961, elevated levels of arsenic were detected in surviving samples of Napoleon’s hair, fueling these rumors further. Even if he wasn’t assassinated in that way, some theories suggested, perhaps he was accidentally poisoned by the fumes created by the arsenic in his bedroom wallpaper and the damp humidity on St. Helena.