Template:FP-Briars, St Helena

The Briars Pavilion, St Helena

Briars, St Helena Briars is a small pavilion house on the island of St Helena. It was here that Napoleon Bonaparte, the deposed Emperor of the French, was lodged for the first few weeks of his captivity on the island. In 1959 it was sold to the Government of France, and is managed on their behalf by the St Helena National Trust. The pavilion was in the garden of William Balcombe, a merchant who became a purveyor to Napoleon. Because of his family's closeness to Napoleon, Balcombe attracted the suspicion of Governor Hudson Lowe, and in 1818 he was forced to leave the island and return to Britain. (Read more)