Hudson Lowe

Sir Hudson Lowe

Sir Hudson Lowe, with signature

Sir Hudson Lowe , GCMG KCB (born July 28, 1769 in Galway , County Galway , Ireland , † January 10, 1844 in London , England ) was a British general. He was governor of the island (1816-1821) during Napoleon's captivity on St. Helena .

Because of the strictness with which he was obliged by the British government to guard Napoleon and which made any attempt to escape impossible, Lowe, at least partly through no fault of his own, has become the subject of various hostilities and suspicions which have made him notorious .

Life

Hudson Lowe was the son of a British Army surgeon and an Irish woman. He spent his childhood in various garrison towns and before the age of twelve got a position as an ensign in the East Devon Militia. In 1785 he joined his father's regiment, the 50th Line Infantry Regiment, which was stationed on Gibraltar at the time.

He took part as a lieutenant in the expedition against Toulon and then served in Portugal , Menorca , Egypt and Malta . After the renewed outbreak of the war with France in 1803 he was promoted to major, in 1804 to lieutenant colonel and commander of the Corsican rangers he had set up and with whom he had already been to Egypt. He then served in Naples under Sir James Craig , defended the island of Capri against the overwhelming Muratists in 1808 and, when he finally had to surrender, was given free retreat to Sicily for his troops with weapons and luggage.

Later he was involved with the Corsican Rangers in the capture of Zakynthos and Kefalonia and served a few months as governor of Kefalonia and Ithaca , later of Santa Maura . In 1812 he returned to Great Britain, advanced to colonel, and in 1813 became British liaison officer at Blücher's headquarters , whom he followed to France in 1814.

In the campaigns of 1813/14 he participated in thirteen important battles and was chosen in April 1814 to bring news of Napoleon's first abdication to London. He was knighted and made major general; he also received numerous Prussian and Russian awards.

About to take part in the campaign in Belgium as Quartermaster General, Lowe received an offer to become Commander in Chief of the troops in Genoa . On the way there he was appointed governor of St. Helena and prison guard of Napoleon on August 1, 1815 in southern France , who had voluntarily embarked on July 15 on board the British liner HMS Bellerophon . Sir Hudson Lowe arrived at St. Helena with his family and several servants and secretaries on April 14, 1816, and officially took office the following day.

Lowe immediately proceeded to tighten security for his prisoner. He increased the number of guards, had the property around Longwood House , Napoleon's residence , fenced in with wire mesh and surrounded by guards at night. An officer had to see Napoleon's presence for himself twice a day and all correspondence had to be presented to Plantation House , the governor's residence.

The relationship between the two opponents Napoleon and Lowe was strained from day one due to the display and tactlessness on both sides. They didn't understand each other. Napoleon, who suffered greatly from the climate, the monotony of the days and the restriction of his freedom of movement, responded to Lowe's tentative attempts to make his life more bearable with deliberate snub and deliberate provocations. Lowe reacted - especially after rumors arose in October 1816 that an imminent liberation action might appear possible - with increasingly strict, sometimes absurd security precautions, until Napoleon hardly left the house. The governor also had some people from Napoleon's immediate environment, including the personal physician of the emperor Barry O'Meara (1818) and the Count de Las Cases and his son (November 1816), removed from the island. Both later published writings condemning Napoleon's treatment by Lowe. Las Cases' Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène , published in 1823, became a bestseller and damaged Lowe's reputation with the British public. On August 20, 1816, Lowe and his prisoner met for the last time in the garden of British Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm , from then on all contact was only through third parties.

After Napoleon's death (May 5, 1821) Lowe returned to Great Britain and received thanks from George IV. On October 22, 1822, Lowe was insulted by Emmanuel de Las Cases, the son of Count de Las Cases , on the public road and challenged to a duel , but refused the duel.

In 1823 he became governor of Bermuda and in 1825 Commander in Chief of the British Forces in Ceylon , but was not appointed governor when the post became vacant after the recall of Lieutenant General Sir Edward Baines (1830). Lowe was promoted to lieutenant general in 1830 and in 1842 owner of his old regiment, the 50th Line Infantry Regiment .

He died in Chelsea on January 10, 1844 .

Appreciation

General Sir Hudson Lowe was a brave, highly decorated, and for his time unusually educated soldier. He spoke fluent Italian and French and, as the commander of a Corsican unit fighting under the British flag, was familiar with the Corsican mentality. Both Blücher and Gneisenau praised his bravery and judgment. As a British liaison officer in Blucher's headquarters he was in dealing with high-ranking officers and statesmen, including the Russian tsar I. Alexander , tested. These qualities made him suitable as a guardian of an exiled emperor.

But his election as Napoleon's jailer was not without controversy. Many, including Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , thought he was a bad choice because he was considered dutiful and conscientious but lacking in imagination. Intellectually, he had nothing to counteract the many insidious challenges of his adversary, who from the outset rejected him as the former commander of Corsican deserters. Lowe carried out his assignment with excessive seriousness and petty pedantry, under the pressure of his instructions and the heavy responsibility that weighed on him.

This gave rise to the image that still prevails today of a narrow-minded, suspicious officer who - dominated by the constant fear that Napoleon might escape a second time - slavishly adhered to his regulations and made life hell for his prominent prisoner by petty and harassing regulations.

On the other hand, it should not be overlooked that Lowe's service on St. Helena was only six of about 40 years in the service of the British Army.

Quotes

• Napoleon himself, who had called Lowe an idiot and a shabby Italian sirren , whose look poisons the coffee, described the relationship between the two as follows: “We are not of the same kind, we cannot understand one another; our feelings do not speak the same language ”(Las Cases, vol. 2, p. 237; quoted from J. Blackburn: The Emperor's Last Island , 1993).

• "I've seen Tatars, Cossacks and Kalmyks, but never such a dark and repulsive face." ( Napoleon on Lowe)

Publications

• Hudson Lowe: Mémorial relatif à la captivité de Napoleon à Ste-Hélène . - Paris 1830, 2 volumes; German, Stuttgart 1830

literature

• Barry O'Meara : Exposition of the Transactions that have taken place at St Helena . - London 1819;
• ders .: Napoleon in exile, or A Voice From St. Helena - London 1822;
• Emmanuel de Las Cases : Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, ou journal ou se trouve consigné, jour par jour, ce qu'a dit et fait Napoléon durant dix-huit mois . - Paris: L'Auteur 1823, German Dresden : Arnold 1823;
• William Forsyth, Hudson Lowe: History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena, from the Letters and Journals of the late Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe . - London: J. Murray, 1853, 3 volumes;
• Desmond Gregory: Napoleon's Jailer: Lt. Gene. Sir Hudson Lowe: a Life . - Madison , New Jersey : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press , November 1996; ISBN 0-8386-3657-8

Web links

• Literature by and about Hudson Lowe in the catalog of the German National Library