Did Napoleon III want to be buried in France?

SIR – You report (March 1) that French historians are demanding the repatriation of the remains of Napoleon III, who died in exile in Britain.

There is no doubt that Napoleon III expected to be buried in the vault of the church of Saint-Leu in France. However, the French rejected him in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and, like previous French exiles, he preferred the free air of Britain to any other country as the place to live out his enforced retirement.

The emperor had a son, the Prince Imperial, who fought bravely for the British Army in the Zulu War, taking with him the sword carried by Napoleon I at Austerlitz. He was killed in South Africa in 1879 – but he, too, is buried in England.

His mother, the Empress Eugenie, lived on until 1920. Of Spanish birth, she died during a visit to Spain, but chose to be buried in the same imperial tomb within the grounds of the monastery she had constructed at Farnborough in 1888.

Clearly, consultation on this matter is difficult because the individuals concerned are dead. But has it occurred to the French that the imperial family might prefer to rest in the country that gave them succour and comfort?

If, however, they are able to prove otherwise, all three bodies should be returned to France, and the British should not stand in the way – any more than we did in 1840, when we permitted the return of the body of Napoleon I from his resting place in British soil at St Helena, where he had died in 1821. Nicholas Young London W13