Is Napoleon still buried on St. Helena?
“In 1830 the elder branch of the Bourbons fell, and Louis Philippe succeeded Charles X. The new monarchy professed to be liberal and national enough not to fear reviving the memories of the great Emperor. The tricolor once more waved over France, and at last it seemed impossible to let the body of the Emperor rest in its distant grave.” On 8 October 1840, with the permission of the British government, a French commission headed by the Prince de Joinville, Louis Philippe’s third son, landed at Jamestown, St. Helena. At one o’clock in the morning of 15 October, they began the procedure of exhuming Napoleon’s body. Seven hours later, at 8 o’clock, the coffin was finally reached and removed. The coffin was carried to a tent where it and the enclosed coffins were opened until the face of the Emperor was exposed. “The body had remained intact. ‘Some of the eyelashes still remained. The cheeks were a little swollen, the beard had grown after death, as had the nails of the fingers and toes. Th
