Death on Mount Helena

After fleeing from Waterloo, Napoleon was again sent into exile on the Island of Mount Helena. Six miserable years passed before Napoleon’s tragic death. With nothing to do but watch the sun rise and set each day, Napoleon died on May 5, 1821 at 5:49 p.m.He died on mount St. Helena, the lonely island were he had been sent into exile on six years before. Napoleon’s death was said to be caused by many factors, such as liver problems or stomach ulcers, and even cancer. One doctor suspected Arsenic Poison as Napoleon’s cause of death. This certain type of poison was often found in the soil on the island were he died. The doctor, knowing Napoleon’s symptoms just before death matched those of Arsenic victims, knew that traces of the poison remain in the hair of victims. The determined doctor found snippets of Napoleon’s hair cut from his head in his last days for his loyal friends and admirers. The samples were tested, and the poison was discovered in apparently increasing amounts as napoleon neared death. Napoleon was five feet two inches tall at his autopsy. The Arc de Triomphe was built in memory to napoleon and his grand army. When Napoleon was sent to mount Helena in exile, all people, and easily the most despised person alive. But when his body returned in 1840, He was France’s greatest hero.