I was reading about Napoleon recently while creating posts for the Alternaticity Project Forum, and I unexpectedly came across some material of interest.
I was surprised to learn that after his final defeat, Napoleon had wanted to come and live in the UK. In exile, he even learned some ‘Englich’ in preparation for the life that he still hoped to have.
He pinned his hopes on various members of the royal family in turn, only to be disappointed. He may even have lost the will to live when he realised that he would never return to Europe.
I never thought that I would have anything at all in common with Napoleon, but there are some familiar elements in a few of his letters. I know what it is like to live for some years on crumbs of hope, clutching at straws and desperately casting around for possibilities in the form of anything or anyone that might help to provide a way out of an unacceptable situation.
Wishful thinking predominates, and ‘what if’ and ‘if only’ become major preoccupations.
Living in such suspense is very painful; it is even worse when the last crumb of hope disappears.
Hope, the loss of hope and the absence of hope are major unseen influences in some people’s lives.
The background story in summary
Emperor Napoleon was captured and forced to abdicate in April 1814. He was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba, from which he escaped in February 1815.
He returned to Paris and regained much of what he had lost, only to be defeated decisively at the Battle of Waterloo in June 2015. He was captured again, and this time the British were not taking any chances: despite his hope of going to America, he was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic.
Napoleon arrived in October 1815 after some weeks at sea; he died there in May 1821. He spent the intervening years hoping for something that never happened.
He was only 51 years old when he died. The official cause of death was given as stomach cancer, but he may have been poisoned by the arsenic in the wallpaper. The living conditions were not good and harsh treatment may have hastened his end.
Napoleon didn’t have much to live for out there in the back of beyond. None of his attempts to be recalled to Europe had succeeded, so the loss of all hope for the future may have been a contributory factor.
Napoleon’s plea to ‘Prinny’
To go back to the year of return and resumption of power, Napoleon did not go quietly after his defeat at Waterloo.
In July 1815 he wrote to the Prince Regent begging for mercy and requesting asylum in the UK:
“Signed by the emperor himself, the letter pleads for the ‘hospitality of the British people’ and calls on the prince as the ‘most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies’ for protection. Seeking refuge, the emperor compares himself to Themistocles, a Greek statesman who threw himself on the mercy of the Persian ruler Artaxerxes and was subsequently received with honour.
On receiving the letter, the prince reportedly declared: ‘Upon my word, a very proper letter: much more so, I must say, than any I ever received from Louis XVIII’.
Despite this, Napoleon’s request for protection was refused…”
https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/napoleons-surrender-letter-begging-prince-regent-for-mercy-after-waterloo-defeat-to-go-on-show-in-windsor/
I can imagine how devastated Napoleon would have been to get a negative response to his request and then be banished to St. Helena.
Part of Napoleon’s letter to the Prince Regent:
If only George III had been well
The Prince Regent had to deal with the problem of what to do about Napoleon because George III was ‘incapacitated’.
Prinny was not an admirer of the upstart Napoleon; he supported the Bourbon monarchy.
Would things have been different if King George III had been in his right mind at the time? Napoleon certainly thought so:
“For a while Napoleon continued to harbour illusions that Prinny had no particular dislike of him. He blamed his exile on those surrounding the Prince. He told British Admiral Pulteney Malcolm that ‘if old George [III] were well he would have been better treated, he was not so much in the hands of his ministers as the Regent; besides, he would have seen the bad consequences to royalty of debasing a person who had once worn a crown by the choice of a nation.‘”
Napoleon’s thoughts followed a very typical path. The less that people have in life, the more they cling to it.
It makes sense to me that, for a while at least, Napoleon blamed the Prince’s advisers rather than admit that Prinny was not his friend. Who could he turn to if he gave up on Prinny? All he could do was indulge in some wishful thinking about George III and what might have been.
Another anecdote from the Georgianera blog quoted above:
“Napoleon considered writing to Prince George from exile. When he learned that the letter would be opened and read by British officials before it was delivered, he decided not to, considering that inconsistent with both his and the Regent’s dignity.“
This may seem strange to some. Surely the more people who were aware of his request the better, and surely it was important to persist. Although it was understandable that he would prefer his correspondence with Prinny to remain private, Napoleon was not in a position to have any pride.
Perhaps he reconsidered sending a letter because he finally bit the bullet, faced up to reality, cut his losses and accepted the fact that Prinny was not going to reconsider sending him into exile. He must have realised that if Prinny had wanted to correspond with him or bring him back, he would have written or taken action.
Napoleon had already played his trump cards when he was still in Europe and his British supporters had done everything they could to save him from distant exile. Perhaps he could not cope with the thought of another rejection so came up with this pretext for not writing.
He would no longer advocate for himself; he would monitor events and wait for developments in his favour.
If only Princess Charlotte had lived
George III died in 1820. Any remaining hopes that Napoleon had of his help died with him.
Prinny became George IV. By then Napoleon had probably accepted that there was no hope of any help from that direction.
These two events could explain why he died the following year: he had nothing left to live for.
There had been another faint possibility or two that came to nothing; Napoleon saw Prinny’s daughter Princess Charlotte as another potential saviour. If Prinny died, his daughter Princess Charlotte would become the acting Queen and would undoubtedly send for him. In Napoleon’s own words:
“When Louis XVIII dies, great events may take place; and if Lord Holland should then be Prime Minister of England, they may bring me back to Europe. But what I most hope for is the death of the Prince Regent, which will place the young Princess Charlotte on the English throne. She will bring me back to Europe.”
Unfortunately, Louis XVIII didn’t die until 1824 and Lord Holland, who greatly admired Napoleon and protested against his exile to St. Helena in the House of Lords, never became Prime Minister.
Princess Charlotte would indeed have become Queen if she had not predeceased Prinny, who died in 1830. She was only 21 years old when she died in 1817.
The idea that she would have been sympathetic towards him sounds like more wishful thinking on Napoleon’s part.
It is very sad to see him invest his hope for the future in such faint chances, remote possibilities and events that he had no control over, but what else can people in his position do?
Details of Napoleon’s amusing attempts to learn ‘Englich’ are still to come.
How are the mighty fallen. In exile on St. Helena, dreaming of lost glories:
