La Belle Poule (The Beautiful Hen)

Many visitors to Château Amboise miss a wonderful model of the frigate La Belle Poule (The Beautiful Hen) built in Cherbourg in 1834. This is a shame as the story of why it is there is enthralling.

Louis-Philippe was the last King of France to own Château Amboise.

His government minister thought it good PR to bring the body of Napoleon Bonaparte from Saint Helena to be re-interred in Les Invalides, Paris.

The King and Queen, no fans of Napoleon were hesitant but in the end agreed that the Prince de Joinville, their son, a naval man, would command the expedition. Joinville was not best pleased seeing it as beneath a man of his standing. He said while his two elder brothers were fighting in Algeria bringing glory to France he was to act as an undertaker. His mother, Marie-Amélie agreed saying it would be "fodder for hot-heads". His sister Louise also saw it as a bad idea saying it would be "pure theatre".

The government was also split but after receiving reluctant permission from Britain it agreed to fund the project.

La Belle Poule was adapted to receive Napoleon's coffin. A chapel, built in the steerage, draped in black velvet embroidered with Napoleon’s symbol of silver bees, had a catafalque guarded by four gilded wooden eagles.

The voyage lasted ninety-three days. Due to the youth of the crew on La Belle Poule it turned into a tourist trip. The Prince dropped anchor at Cadiz for four days, Madeira for two days, Tenerife for four days and fifteen days of festivities were held in Brazil.

La Belle Poule reached Saint Helena 8 October 1840.

When Napoleon died age 51 in 1821 the autopsy was watched by his own doctor, seven British doctors, six Frenchmen and three British officers. The doctors agreed that Napoleon died from stomach cancer. The British government forbade embalming Napoleon.

Napoleon left instructions his heart be sent to his wife Marie Louise (who, unknown to Napoleon, was in the middle of a torrid love affair) but the British insisted it be buried with the corpse.

He was dressed in his uniform of the mounted chasseurs of the Imperial Guard. His head was shaved and a death mask was taken before he was put in a hermetically sealed tin coffin lined with white quilted satin, inside a mahogany casket, inside a lead casket, inside another mahogany coffin.

Napoleon had asked he be buried “on the banks of the Seine”. Instead he was lowered into a brick lined grave, ten feet deep. Inside was a tomb sealed with an enormous stone covered with bricks, cement and clay. There he remained for almost twenty years until October 16 1840, when his grave was opened in the presence of witnesses who had been present at the burial.

British soldiers worked all night with torches. They removed the grille and the stones around the grave. The topsoil and flowers were shared among the French crew. The soldiers pulled up the slabs over the pit and broke through the masonry enclosing the coffin.

At 09.30 next morning the coffin was carried into a large tent. The bier was opened in silence. The first coffin of mahogany, had to be sawn both ends to get to the second coffin, made of lead. Holes were pierced to allow gases to escape.

The lead coffin was opened to reveal one of mahogany which itself contained one of tin and there he was. Napoleon Bonaparte.

There was a gasp. His features were so little changed his face was recognized by those who had known him. His eye balls were entire. His chin had five o’clock shadow from the beginnings of a beard which grew after death.

His green uniform with red facings (Colonel of the Chasseurs de la Garde) was perfectly preserved. His chest was crossed by the red ribbon of the Légion d’honneur. The facial expression was serene, the eyes fully closed with some eyelashes showing. A slightly receding gum showed three white teeth. His hands were perfectly preserved, with long white fingernails. Napoleon's hat was sideways across his thighs.

The spectators were in a state of shock, some wept, overcome with emotion.

The body was not exposed to the air longer than two minutes.

The lead coffin was re-soldered and the combination lock on an ebony coffin brought from Paris on La Belle Poule was sealed. The lid bore the sole inscription "Napoléon" in gold letters. Each of the four sides was decorated with the letter N in gilded bronze. It was placed in an oak coffin to protect the ebony.

It was hoisted by forty gunners on to a hearse draped in black with four plumes of black feathers at each corner, drawn with great difficulty by four horses caparisoned in black. The coffin was covered with a large black pall made of single piece of velvet sewn with gold bees and bearing eagles surmounted by imperial crowns at its corners as well as a large silver cross. The women of Saint Helena offered the French commissioner the tricolour and the imperial flag which they had made.

On October 18, La Belle Poule left St. Helena and docked at Cherbourg on November 30.

The casket was transferred to La Normandie, which took it to Rouen where it was taken on to La Dorade to be carried up the Seine.

On December 14, La Dorade moored near Paris. On December 15, Napoleon’s body was transferred to an enormous funeral carriage drawn by sixteen black horses. It proceeded in a funeral procession to the Arc de Triomphe, along the Champs-Élysées across the Pont de la Concorde to Les Invalides.

Louis-Philippe and France's leading statesmen were waiting in the royal chapel. The Prince of Joinville was meant to make a speech but nobody had told him. There was an awkward moment. Embarrassed, he gave a sabre salute. "Sire", he said lowering his sword to the ground, "I present to you the body of the Emperor Napoleon." "I receive it in the name of France", the king replied.

A General stepped forward, bearing on a cushion the sword that Napoleon wore at Austerlitz and Marengo, which he presented to Louis-Philippe. The king recoiled. Another awkward moment. Instead of accepting it he said "General, I charge you with placing the Emperor's glorious sword upon his coffin." The General was so overcome with emotion he faltered so another General rushed forward and completed the task.

Napoleon’s body remained in the Chapel of Saint-Jérôme at Les Invalides for over twenty years. His sarcophagus was completed in 1861. On April 2 of that year, Napoleon’s body was transferred to the new tomb in a private ceremony attended by Emperor Napoleon III (Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew), his immediate family, government ministers and senior officials.

Thousands queue every day to see the rather unlovely red porphyry sarcophagus. Les Invalides itself is magnificent.

We hope that next time you visit Château Amboise, you will take a longer look at the model of La Belle Poule.

You might also like to visit RUE BELLEPOULE, where if you walk up the hill a little, you will find a view of Château Amboise not often seen by visitors to the town.

Post by Pamela