The retour des cendres (literally "return of the ashes", though "ashes" is used here as a metaphor for his mortal remains, as he was not cremated) was the return of the mortal remains of Napoleon I of France from the island of Saint Helena to France and the burial in Hôtel des Invalides in Paris in 1840, on the initiative of Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers and King Louis Philippe I.
Background
After his defeat in the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1814, Napoleon abdicated as Emperor of the French, and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. The following year he returned to France and took up the throne once more, beginning the Hundred Days. The Coalition powers which had prevailed against him the previous year mobilised against him, and defeated the French in the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon returned to Paris and abdicated on 22 June 1815. Foiled in his attempt to sail to the United States, he gave himself up to the British, who exiled him to the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic. He died and was buried there in 1821.
Previous attempts
In a codicil to his will, written in exile at Longwood House on St Helena on 16 April 1821, Napoleon had expressed a wish to be buried "on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people [whom I] loved so much". On the emperor's death, General Henri Bertrand unsuccessfully petitioned the British government to let Napoleon's wish be granted. He then petitioned the ministers of the newly restored King Louis XVIII of France, from whom he did not receive an absolute refusal. Instead, the explanation given was that the arrival of the remains in France would undoubtedly be the cause or pretext for political unrest that the government would be wise to prevent or avoid, but that his request would be granted as soon as the situation had calmed and it was safe enough to do so.
Course
Political discussions
Early days
After the July Revolution, a petition demanding the remains' reburial in the base of the Colonne Vendôme (on the model of Trajan's ashes, buried in the base of his column in Rome) was refused by the Chamber of Deputies on 2 October 1830. Ten years later, Adolphe Thiers, the new President of the Council (prime minister) under King Louis Philippe I and a historian of the French Consulate and First French Empire, dreamed of the return of the remains as a grand political coup de théâtre which would definitively achieve the rehabilitation of the Revolutionary and Imperial periods on which he was engaged in his Histoire de la Révolution française and Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire. He also hoped to flatter the left's dreams of glory and restore the reputation of the July Monarchy (whose diplomatic relations with the rest of Europe were then under threat from its problems in Egypt, arising from its support for Muhammad Ali).
It was, nonetheless, Louis Philippe's policy to try to regain "all the glories of France", to which he had dedicated the Château de Versailles, turning it into a museum of French history. Yet he was still reluctant and had to be convinced to support the project against his own doubts. Among the rest of the royal family, the Prince de Joinville did not want to be employed on a job suitable for a "carter" or an "undertaker"; Queen Maria Amalia adjudged that such an operation would be "fodder for hot-heads"; and their daughter Louise saw it as "pure theatre". In early 1840, the government led by Thiers appointed a twelve-member committee (Commission des douze) to decide on the location and outline of the funerary monument and select its architect. The committee was chaired by politician Charles de Rémusat and included writers and artists such as Théophile Gautier, David d'Angers, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
On 10 May 1840, François Guizot, then French ambassador in London, against his own will submitted an official request to the British government, which was immediately approved according to the promise made in 1822. For his part, the British Foreign Secretary (later Prime Minister) Lord Palmerston privately found the idea nonsensical and wrote about it to his brother, presenting it in the following terms: "Here's a really French idea".
12 May
On 12 May, during discussion of a bill on sugars, French Interior Minister Charles de Rémusat mounted the rostrum at the Chamber of Deputies and said:
Gentlemen, the King has commanded His Royal Highness the Prince of Joinville [at which point there was a hubbub of attention and curiosity] to take a frigate to the island of Saint Helena [new hubbub] to receive the mortal remains of the Emperor Napoleon [explosion of applause on all sides of the Assembly]. We come to ask you for the means to receive them onto French soil in a dignified fashion and to raise a final resting place for Napoleon [acclamations, applause]. [...] The frigate charged with [bringing] the mortal remains is ready to return to the mouth of the Seine, another ship to bring them as far as Paris. They will be deposited at Les Invalides. A solemn ceremony, a major religious and military procession will inaugurate the tomb which must hold him forever. [...] He was Emperor and King, he was our country's legitimate sovereign. Thus he could be buried at Saint-Denis, but Napoleon must not receive the ordinary burial of Kings. He must still reign and command in the fortress where soldiers of the fatherland will always rest, and where they will always be inspired by those who have been called to defend her. [...] Art shall elevate a worthy tomb under the dome, in the middle of the temple consecrated to the God of armies, if any tomb can be worthy of the name that will be engraved thereon. [...] We do not doubt, Gentlemen, that the Chamber shares with patriotic emotion the royal idea that we have now expressed before it. Henceforth France, and France alone, shall possess all that remains of Napoleon. His tomb, like his memory, shall belong to no one but his country. The monarchy of 1830 is, indeed, the sole and legitimate heir of all the sovereigns of which France can be proud. Without doubt, it belonged to this monarchy to first rally all the powers and reconcile all the vows of the French Revolution, to fearlessly elevate and honour the statue and the tomb of a hero of the people, for there is one thing, and one only, which does not fear comparison with glory – and that is liberty! [triple round of applause, acclamations from the left and centre, long hubbub].
The minister then introduced a bill to authorise "funding of 1 million [francs] for translation of the Emperor Napoleon's mortal remains to the Église des Invalides and for construction of his tomb". This announcement caused a sensation. A heated discussion began in the press, raising all sorts of objections as to the theory and to the practicalities. The town of Saint-Denis petitioned on 17 May that he instead be buried at their basilica, the traditional burial place of French kings.
25–26 May
On 25 and 26 May, the bill was discussed in the Chamber. It was proposed by Bertrand Clauzel, an old soldier of the First French Empire who had been recalled by the July Monarchy and promoted to Marshal of France. In the name of the Commission des douze he endorsed the choice of Les Invalides as the burial site, not without discussing the other suggested solutions (besides Saint-Denis, the Arc de Triomphe, the Colonne Vendôme, the Panthéon de Paris, and even the Madeleine had been suggested to him). He proposed that the funding be raised to 2 million, that the ship bringing the remains back be escorted by a whole naval squadron and that Napoleon would be the last person to be buried in the Invalides. Speeches were made by republican critic of the Empire Glais-Bizoin, who stated that "Bonapartist ideas are one of the open wounds of our time; they represent that which is most disastrous for the emancipation of peoples, the most contrary to the independence of the human spirit." The proposal was defended by Odilon Barrot (the future president of Napoleon III's council in 1848), whilst the hottest opponent of it was Alphonse de Lamartine, who found the measure dangerous. Lamartine stated before the debate that "Napoleon's ashes are not yet extinguished, and we're breathing in their sparks". Before the sitting, Thiers tried to dissuade Lamartine from intervening but received the reply "No, Napoleon's imitators must be discouraged." Thiers replied "Oh! But who could think to imitate him today?", only to receive Lamartine's reply that then spread right round Paris – "I do beg your pardon, I meant to say Napoleon's parodists." During the debate Lamartine stated:
Although I am an admirer of this great man, I am not enthusiastic about him with neither recollection nor foresight. I do not prostrate myself before this memory; I am not a follower of this Napoleonic religion, of the cult of force that for a time some have wished to substitute in the Nation's spirit for the serious religion of liberty. I also do not think it will be good ceaselessly to deify war, to encourage these over-impetuous bubblings in the French blood, that make us appear impatient to wreck ourselves after a truce of 25 years – as if peace, which is the good fortune and glory of the world, could be the shame of nations. [...] Let us, who take liberty seriously, make our views known in a measured way. Let us not appeal to the opinion of a people who better understand what dazzles them than what serves them. Let us not wholly efface, or so much decrease, our monarchy of reason, our new, representative and peace-loving monarchy. It would end up disappearing from the people's eyes. [...] it is good, Gentlemen; I do not oppose this, I applaud it: but pay attention to these encouragements to genius at any price. I am doubtful for the future. I do not like these men who have liberty, legality and progress as their official doctrine, and as their symbol a sabre and despotism.
In conclusion, Lamartine invited France to show that "she [did not wish] to create out of this ash war, tyranny, legitimate monarchs, pretenders, or even imitators". Hearing this peroration, which was implicitly directed against him, Thiers looked devastated on his bench. Even so, the Chamber was largely favourable and voted through the measures requested, although by 280 votes to 65 it did refuse to raise the funding from 1 to 2 million. The Napoleonic myth was already fully developed and only needed to be crowned. The July Monarchy's official poet Casimir Delavigne wrote:
4–6 June
On 4 or 6 June, Bertrand was received by Louis Philippe, who gave him the Emperor's arms, which were placed in the treasury. Bertrand stated on this occasion:
It is to Your Majesty, to Your solemn and patriotic outlook, that we owe the fulfilment of the Emperor's last wishes, wishes that he particularly expressed to me on his deathbed in circumstances that can never fade from my memory.
Sire, paying homage to the memorable act of national justice which you have generously undertaken, animated by a sense of gratitude and confidence, I come to deposit in Your Majesty's hands these glorious arms, which for long I have been reduced to hiding from the light, and which I hope soon to place upon the coffin of the great Captain, on the illustrious tomb destined to hold the gaze of the Universe.
May the hero's sword become the palladium of the fatherland.
Louis Philippe replied, with studied formality:
In the name of France, I receive the arms of the Emperor Napoleon, which his last wishes gave to you in precious trust; they shall be guarded faithfully until the moment when I can place them on the mausoleum that national munificence is preparing for him.
I count myself happy that it has been reserved for me to return to the soil of France the mortal remains of him who added so much glory to our pomp and to pay the debt of our common Fatherland by surrounding his coffin with all the honours due to him.
I am very touched by all the sentiments you have just expressed to me.
This ceremony angered Joseph and Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the latter writing in The Times: