Napoleone Bonaparte morì il 5 maggio 1821, sull’isola di Santa Helena nell’Atlantico, dove fu esiliato dopo la sua fuga dall’isola di Elba, regno di cento giorni e la sua completa sconfitta.

Cinco de Mayo!!!

Some countries, wanted him executed, after the war, but the UK did not, for several reasons. Indeed, many amired him. Lord Byron and others in the Romantic movement admired him as a heroic but tragic figure, a man of imense genious and ambition brought low by fate, and saw him as a modernising influence who introduced reforms that replaced medieval influence with equality before the law, meritocracy and secular governance. Admiration did not mean affection however as the French thought of him, but he was seen as a fair opponent fairly defeated in a just war. Some British officers acting as his jailers on St Helena respected his baring and intellect, even if they found him politically dangerous. I think even today in Britain we are generally in awe of him and the things he was able to achieve. I was brought watching the ‘Sharpe’ tv series starring Sean Bean and in contrast to WW2 shows where the Nazis are portrayed as pure evil, the enemy in Sharpe are are seen as worthy adversaries. Napolean is seen as a complex figure in British literature, part villain, part hero, sometimes portrayed with admiration for his brilliance, other times as a warning against ambition gone too far. I certainly do not demonize Napoleon, and would love to visit St Helena one day where he was exiled to. The house which was his last residence was allowed to be purchased by the French government in 1858 so it is now French property on British soil, like an embassy, and is a museum.

Rest in piss