Napoleon's Second Funeral

<p>Napoleon was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Helena. But, 19 years later, on 15th December, 1840, he got buried again: this time at Les Invalides, Paris.</p><br><p>It was an ornate state occasion, involving multiple caskets, 500 sailors, 14 semi-naked female statues... and a lot of lardy cakes. </p><br><p>In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly reveal what Napoleon’s cadaver looked like; explain why a previous petition to relocate his remains had failed; and discover an unexpectedly culinary description of the day from The Sunday Times… </p><br><p><strong>Further Reading:</strong></p><p>• ‘Bring Him Home: How Napoleon Bonaparte’s delayed funeral came to be’ (Lapham’s Quarterly, 2020): <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/bring-him-home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/bring-him-home</a></p><p>• ‘Napoleon’s legacy: ashes, tombs and DNA’ (National Geographic, 2010): <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/napoleons-legacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/napoleons-legacy</a></p><p>• ‘Secrets of Les Invalides: Home to war veterans and Napoleon’ (France 24, 2016): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4uvmiPVUQ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA4uvmiPVUQ</a></p><br><p><strong>For bonus material and to support the show, visit</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/Patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Patreon.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><p><strong>We'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>podfollow.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><br><p><em>The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.</em></p><p><em>Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.</em></p><p><em>Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.</em></p><br><p><em>#1800s #Person #War #Politics #Macabre #France</em></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Today In History with The Retrospectors