The Island Of St. Helena

Some 1200 miles off the coast of Africa, is rarely visited, yet its name appears in countless volumes in nearly all languages because of one man’s reluctant stay there. The story begins with the French Revolution of 1789, one of the cataclysmic political events in human history. It caused such upheaval and disorder that the ground was laid for a dictatorship. Rising to the occasion was the 30 year old Napoleon Bonaparte, already world-famous for his genius and military exploits. In 1799, he seized absolute power in France and in short order extended that power over most of Europe by conquest. In 1804, in the middle of his coronation, Napoleon removed the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII, placed it upon his own head, and then proceeded to crown his wife, the Empress Josephine. He soon led France to heights of glory unsurpassed in her long history. Only Britain held on locked in a struggle with this most formidable adversary. In the midst of this, a ship bound for England stopped at St. Helena for provisions. Onboard, a British officer named Arthur Wellesley was impressed by the island’s almost eerie remoteness. Meanwhile, Napoleon’s failed Russian campaign, his downfall, his exile to Elba, his dramatic escape and triumphant return to Paris and the resumption of the war saw Napoleon defeated by that same British officer, now called the Duke of Wellington, at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Attempting to escape to the United States, Napoleon found himself blocked by British warships and surrendered. When the British government consulted Wellington as to a place to send Napoleon, he knew exactly to recommend. He reached St. Helena on October 19, 1815 where he remained until his death on May 5, 1821. He was buried on St. Helena until his remains were returned to Paris in 1840.