Hudson Lowe, born June 28, 1769 in Galway (Ireland) and died January 10, 1844 in London (United Kingdom), is a British general.
If the name of Hudson Lowe remained in the memories, it is because he was the jailer of the French Emperor Napoleon I on the island of Saint Helena (governor of the island from 1816 to 1821).
His name remained in the reproach of the English people.
Indeed, Napoleon, on his arrival on the island of Saint Helena in October 1815, resided for nearly two months in the Briars pavilion under the supervision of Admiral Cockburn, who had taken Napoleon and his entourage to Saint Helena, to edge of Northumberland, before reaching his final place of detention, a farm located on the plateau of Longwood. Napoleon was placed under the supervision of Sir Hudson Lowe from April 1816.
Lowe acquitted himself of this mission with a harshness which, in France, gave him an unflattering reputation. The emperor, who always suspected him of wanting to attempt his life, said of him:“He has the crime engraved on his face”. However, the Napoleonic Legend wrongly accused him of certain misdeeds such as the expulsion of Las Cases at the end of 1816.
Napoleon died on May 5, 1821. Standing before the inert body of the Emperor, Lowe declared:“Well, gentlemen, he was England's greatest enemy and mine too; but I forgive him everything. At the death of such a great man, one should feel only deep sorrow and deep regret. »
He left among his own people a memory of opprobrium for his treatment of the emperor. Very unpopular on his return to England in the fall of 1821, the Conservative government preferred to send him away, promising him a governorship at the end of the world, on the island of Ceylon. Frustrated by this wait on the spot, and annoyed to see his name smeared by the novelist Walter Scott in his monumental "History of Napoleon Bonaparte", published in 1827, Hudson Lowe decided to leave his post in Ceylon to defend himself publicly. But the poor political situation of the government, which followed the death of Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, meant that he was advised to return to his post. With the advent of a Liberal government in 1830, Lowe's chances of promotion dwindled and someone else was appointed governor of Ceylon. Having left his post of his own volition, Lowe remained unemployed throughout the period in power of the Liberal government.
He was somewhat rehabilitated after the return of a Tory government, but soon died in near poverty on January 10, 1844 in Chelsea. He was buried in the Church of North Audley Street in London.