Brontë fans and regular readers of this blog will be in no doubt as to Charlotte Brontë’s esteem for Constantin Heger – first her teacher and then her colleague in Brussels he cast a huge shadow on Charlotte’s life and work. There can be no doubt that Charlotte Brontë fell in love with Monsieur Heger nor that this was an unrequited love. The pain and misery this caused Charlotte Brontë was exquisite, yet it led to the creation of the immortal literary protagonists Edward Rochester of Jane Eyre and Paul Emanuel of Villette. In today’s post we are going to look at a gift which Heger gave to Charlotte on 4th August 1843 – a gift among the strangest of any item connected to the Brontës: a piece of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coffin.
Before we look at the gift let’s pause to reflect on the influence Napoleon had on Charlotte’s childhood. At the time he was growing up Napoleon’s campaigns across Europe, and his final defeat at Waterloo, were still relatively modern news. He was still the ogre, the arch enemy implanted deep in the British consciousness. Charlotte has as her great childhood hero the nemesis of Napoleon: the Duke of Wellington. Her brother Branwell Brontë, showing a rebellious streak from an early age, had a different hero, as a young Charlotte explained when talking about the a gift of toy soldiers shared between the Brontë siblings in 1836:
“Papa bought Branwell some wooden soldiers at Leeds. When Papa came home it was night, and we were in bed, so next morning Branwell came to our door with a box of soldiers. Emily and I jumped out of bed, and I snatched up one and exclaimed: ‘This is the Duke of Wellington! This shall be the Duke!’ when I had said this Emily likewise took one up and said it should be hers; when Anne came down, she said one should be hers. Mine was the prettiest of the whole, and the tallest, and the most perfect in every part. Emily’s was a grave-looking fellow, and we called him ‘Gravey’. Anne’s was a queer little thing, much like herself, and we called him ‘Waiting-boy’. Branwell chose his, and called him Buonaparte.”
The Italianisation of Napoleon’s surname was a common slight on the Corsican-born Frenchman at the time, and it’s fair to say that Charlotte had little love for Napoleon in her childhood, youth or adulthood. She was, however, fascinated by him because of his connection to Wellington, and it is perhaps this that led to Constantin Heger presenting Charlotte with a fascinating fragment in 1843.
This gift has long fascinated me, and I’m indebted to an article Helen MacEwan of the Brussels Brontë Group wrote for The Brussels Times for further information on the fragment and its provenance. This tiny piece of wood, around four inches long by an inch wide, has a faded inscription upon it: “morceau du cercueil de Ste. Hélène”. Translated from French this reads: “Piece of the coffin of St. Helene.” St. Helena was the remote South Atlantic island upon which Napoleon died in exile in 1821, and this wood came from the coffin in which Napoleon’s body was transported after his death.
The wood also came wrapped in a piece of paper upon which was written, in Charlotte Brontë’s handwriting: “August 4th 1843 – Brussels – Belgium – 1 o’clock pm. Monsieur Heger has just been into the 1st Class and given me this relic – he brought it from his intimate friend Mr Lebel. Mr Lebel was the Secretary of Prince Achille Murat; the Prince de Joinville, son of King Louis Philippe, brought over the remains of Bonaparte from St Helena.”
As well as working at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels which was owned by his wife, Constantin also worked at the neighbouring boy’s school, the Athenee Royale. The director of the Athenee was Joachim Lebel – a very colourful character with a very colourful history.
Lebel was a Frenchman who had been allied to Napoleon and his family, and was a firm friend of Achille Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew once removed. Styled Prince Achille, he gathered an army of French mercenaries who took part in intrigues across Europe. Lebel was one of this band, and he became a secretary of sorts to Murat.
Napoleon’s body was brought from St Helena in a series of coffins by a group under the leadership of Francois d’Orleans, the Prince of Joinville whose father later became King Louis Philippe I of France. It is assumed that fragments of the transport coffins were shared amongst relatives of Napoleon, including his nephew Achille Murat who then passed this fragment to his son Prince Achille.
Achille passed the fragment to his friend Lebel, who after settling down as a respectable teacher passed it to his friend Constantin Heger. Heger, knowing of Charlotte Brontë’s fascination with the Napoleonic wars then gifted it to Charlotte.
So that is how a piece of Napoleon’s coffin comes to be among the exhibits in the Brontë Parsonage Museum. It would have been treasured by Charlotte for its connection to Constantin Heger, but alas it seems that in character he may have been closer to Napoleon than to Wellington.
The great generals of history like Napoleon and Wellington fall, just as the great writers like Charlotte Brontë have their time and then pass on – but as long as we read their magnificent Brontë novels those three sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, will always be among us. I hope you can join me next Sunday for another new Brontë blog post.