OpenTube

What Did Napoleon Do During Exile?

Fire of Learning

314,773 views

In this video, we look at what Napoleon's life was like during his final years on St. Helena.

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Patreon: www.patreon.com/fireoflearning

Music

Sarabande - Performed by Joel Cummins
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
Bittersweet Waltz - Sir Cubworth
United States Marine Corps - Roast Beef of Old England
Dream Life - Sir Cubworth
Theme for a One-Handed Piano Concerto - Sir Cubworth
Colorless Aura - Kevin MacLeod
Melotone Recordings - La Victoire est a Nous
Credo III - Rabanus Flavus, Wikimedia Commons, This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Evening Fall - Harp - Kevin Macleod
For Originz - Kevin MacLeod

Sources

[1] Lases Cases, Emmanuel Auguste Dieudonné, Comte de. Memorial de Sainte Helene : journal of the private life and conversations of the Emperor Napoleon at Saint Helena. T. Smith, 1823. https://archive.org/details/memoriald...

[2] Abell, Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe. Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon at st. Helena. J. Murray, 1844. https://archive.org/details/recollect...

[3] https://sainthelenaisland.info/briefh...

[4] Hicks, Peter. “Napoleon's English Lessons.” Napoleon.org, https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-o...

[5] Benazet, Joanna and Irène Delage. “From Waterloo to the island of St Helena.” Napoleon.org, October 2015.
https://www.napoleon.org/en/young-his...

[6] Selin, Shannon. “Hudson Lowe Gets a Bad Rap.” Shannonselin.com, 2013. https://shannonselin.com/2013/12/huds...

[7] Jacobs, Lara. “Napoleon's Exile on St. Helena.” Historic UK, https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK...

[8] “Napoleon's Exile to St. Helena”. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleo...

Picture Attributions

By Alexander Altenhof - Own work., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By RaviC -, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Oona Räisänen - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Peter Neaum, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada - Briars Pavilion, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada - Longwood House, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Luke McKernan - Longwood House garden path, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

20 Comments

@TheEclecticAndroid 1 month ago

According to historical paintings he aura farmed for the last years of his life.

@Grabthembypussycat 1 month ago

Most people call this a vacation

@Edward135i 1 month ago

Napoleon living out the rest of his life in the United States would have been wild.

@willypro4949 1 month ago

Napoleon being a great gardener is a piece of trivia I didn’t expect to know

@Snaily 1 month ago

The fact that even Napoleon got into gardening convinces me that it's an inevitability, rather than choice, for men to dedicate their lives to plants at some point.

@EndingSimple 1 month ago

I like the sound of the speaker's voice. I am an old man, and the voice reminds me of when I was a young child and used to watch educational documentaries. It's the same kind of voice. I'd watch with milk and cookies after lunch and my mother would be in the background, content that I had something worthwhile to occupy me.

@flashgordon6670 1 month ago

They should’ve locked him in the Tower of London and charged people £100 a go, to play chess with him.

@GilesnaMagaleen 1 month ago

The Balcombe family moved to Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia, where they named their new house 'The Briars'. It still holds a fine collection of Napoleonic memorabilia.

@MohamedAli-xu3uw 1 month ago (edited)

If Napoleon had stayed in exile in Elba for just a few years longer he'd be Emperor of France again since the coalition would have turned on each other even to a point where one of them would've called on him to help out.

@EndOfSmallSanctuary97 1 month ago

Great video, very interesting. It really humanises Napoleon a lot to see how he lived as basically a "normal" man for a few years, without any semblance of military or political authority. Just doing regular mundane stuff like gardening, learning English, chatting with friends, going for long walks, etc. Also those anecdotes about him with the English family are both bizzare and wholesome.

@TheDeadmanTT 1 month ago

Sounds pretty nice, actually.

@Kerwin-Kendell 1 month ago

"Monsieur N" is a great film based on this period in Napoleon's life. If you can find it streaming or a DVD, it's a great watch. A French production, excellent score, cinematography, acting, etc.

@larryfisher7056 1 month ago

I visited St Helena in 2019 for a couple of weeks. A fascinating place with some of friendliest people as a whole that I've met. Visited Napoleon's gravesite , Longwood house and the Briars.

@bluenanamandan 1 month ago

Napoleon learning English from Google translate

@david_s5693 1 month ago

There were so many more people than I imagined. I always thought they just kinda dumped him on a rock with a lifetime supply of provisions

@fritznovak4482 1 month ago

I always thought a film about a few days in the life of Napoleon, during his exile would be really interesting. To have a small story about such an epic, larger than life figure.

Massive long shot, but if anyone reading this has the money to do it, feel free to steal it 😂

@HG_Fan 1 month ago

Live in a large manor, sleep in, stay up late, hang out with the boys, explore a large library, big dinners, this prisoner had it better than 95% of people alive in 2026

@robertthomson1587 1 month ago

I travelled to St Helena a few years ago. I visited Longwood House. Such a treat to be able to dine at the same table as Napoléon, and visit the site of his former grave.