Napoleonic Timeline of 1840

May 1840

12 May 1840 – Charles de Rémusat, Minister of the Interior of the King of the French Louis-Philippe I, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a bill opening a credit of one million francs for the transfer of the ashes of Napoleon I to the Church of the Invalides and for the construction of his tomb.

Saint-Louis des Invalides Cathedral, seen from the Montparnasse Tower

25 May 1840 – The bill was discussed in the Chamber. The rapporteur of the committee was Marshal Bertrand Clauzel, Count of the Empire.

26 May 1840 – The bill was adopted by 280 votes to 65.

July 1840

7 July 1840 – The frigate La Belle Poule set sail from Toulon, bound for Saint Helena. She was placed under the command of Prince de Joinville, youngest son of Louis-Philippe I, and escorted by the corvette La Favorite. Among the members of the expedition were:

1. Philippe de Rohan-Chabot, embassy attaché in London and commissioner responsible for presiding over exhumation operations
2. Generals Henri-Gatien Bertrand  and Gaspard Gourgaud
3. Count Louis-Joseph Marchand, former First valet of the Emperor
4. Count Emmanuel de Las Cases (son of the author of the Memorial of Saint Helena)
5. the faithful servants Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis known as Mamluk Ali, Jean-Abram Noverraz , Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Pierron , Achille-Thomas-L'Union Archambault and Jacques Coursot.

October 1840

8 October 1840 – La Belle Poule landed at St. Helena.

15 October 1840 – Exhumation of Napoleon I by British soldiers under the orders of General George Middlemore, Governor of the island, in the presence of twenty-eight official witnesses including Bertrand, Gourgaud, Marchand and Ali , then funeral procession across the island to the port of Jamestown and transfer of the coffin aboard the Belle Poule.

18 October 1840 – The Belle Poule set sail for France.

November 1840

30 November 1840 – The Belle Poule anchored in the harbor of Cherbourg.

December 1840

2nd December 1840 – The Belle Poule docked in the military port of Cherbourg.

8 December 1840 – The imperial coffin was transferred to the steamship Normandie , then in the port of Le Havre on the steamer La Dorade #3, which began her journey up the river Seine towards Paris.

14 December 1840 – La Dorade docked at the Neuilly bridge in Courbevoie, which was decorated with a 45-meter high column topped with a globe and an imperial eagle.

15 December 1840 – The imperial sarcophagus was transferred to a chariot thirty meters long, ten meters high and five meters wide, decorated with fourteen statues representing the most brilliant victories of the Empire, drawn by sixteen horses caparisoned with the arms of the Empire. The procession passed under the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile , went down the Champs-Elysées, crossed the Place de la Concorde and then headed towards Les Invalides . An impressive crowd gathered along the route. In the presence of King Louis-Philippe I, the Eglise du Dôme  received in the afternoon the coffin  containing the ashes of the Emperor. Napoleon Bonaparte, according to his wishes, could rest forever on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people he loved so much. Marshal Bon-Adrien Jannot de Moncey, Governor of the Invalides, who had begged his doctors to let him live long enough to receive the Emperor, could now return to die.