A LEADING British expert on Napoleon has given his backing to the theory that the deposed French Emperor was assassinated by his fellow countrymen.
Dr David Chandler, considered the foremost living authority on Napoleon, believes that history books should be re-written to include a final chapter on the conspiracy behind his death.
It has taken decades for Dr Chandler and other academics to accept that one of the greatest military commanders in history was assassinated. For more than a century, it had been accepted that Napoleon died from stomach cancer aged 52 on May 5, 1821. But Dr Chandler is now "99.9 per cent certain" that one of France's greatest heroes was poisoned by his campatriots on St Helena, the south Atlantic island to which he was exiled following defeat in 1815.
The historian claims that between his arrival and his death six years later, Napoleon was systematically poisoned with arsenic given to him by Count Charles de Montholon, a man he regarded as his closest friend on the island but who, in fact, was acting on the orders of French royalists. The monarchy was motivated by the fear that Napoleon would return to France and lead another revolution.
Earlier this month, hair belonging to Napoleon was found to contain excessive amounts of arsenic in tests commissioned by Ben Weider, a Canadian millionaire and historian who has championed the murder theory for the last 50 years.
Dr Chandler, whose works on the French-born Corsican include the Campaigns of Napoleon, has taken 30 years to accept his conclusions. He said: "After long checking, I am convinced 99.9 per cent that Napoleon was murdered. The only murderer must have been Count Charles-Tristan de Montholon. De Montholon was in the right place at the right time and had a sufficient motive to kill his emperor."
An army officer who had an undistinguished career during the Napoleonic wars, de Montholon had left himself open to bribery after he was caught stealing money from regimental funds. The Comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVIII, who had tried to assassinate Napoleon on several occasions, used the information to blackmail de Montholon to become the assassin.
For years de Montholon fed his leader wine laced with arsenic which made him ill but was not deadly. However, a mixture of an orange drink, bitter almonds and calomel created a lethal cocktail. Calomel added to arsenic produces strichnine which both kills and then removes all symptoms.
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Earl of Wessex at Winning funeral (UK Times)
THE Earl of Wessex will represent the Royal Family at the funeral of Cardinal Thomas Winning tomorrow. He will be joined by politicians, church leaders and dignitaries.
The Cardinal, 76, died on Sunday last week from a suspected heart attack at his home, two days after treatment for a previous attack.
Helen Liddell, the Scottish Secretary, will represent the Prime Minister. Henry McLeish, the First Minister, and Jack McConnell, Education Minister, will represent the Scottish Executive.
They will be joined by John Swinney, the SNP leader, Jim Wallace, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and deputy First Minister, and David McLetchie, the Scottish Conservative leader. The Presiding Officer, Sir David Steel, will be represented by Patricia Ferguson, his deputy.
John Reid, the Northern Ireland Secretary Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker and Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, will also be attending from Westminster.
Visiting cardinals will include Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the main celebrant of the funeral Mass. The Pope will be represented by His Excellency, Archbishop Pablo Puente, the Papal Nuncio to Great Britain.
The funeral will be held at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow at noon.
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Prince Harry shows his polo prowess(UK Times)
BY NAYAB CHOHAN
PRINCE HARRY showed off his polo skills yesterday with his father, the Prince of Wales, in the fine weather at Cirencester Park Royal Club, Gloucester.
He was watched by the Australian model Elle MacPherson, former King Constantine of Greece and his son Nikos.
Prince William, who celebrated his 19th birthday on Thursday, also turned up to support his father and brother. William returned from a holiday in Africa last Monday.
Temperatures in Britain today are expected to reach 30C (86F), making it the hottest day of the year so far.
Parts of the South East will be warmer than the French Riviera. Temperatures yesterday reached 27C (81F) in parts of the South East. Heathrow and Gatwick airports were the warmest parts of the country.
Cardiff and Birmingham are also expected today to experience their warmest weather of the year so far, with temperatures reaching 27C (81F); Manchester will not be far behind at 26C (79F).
Northern England and Scotland will be slightly cooler.
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MSPs' new building not out of kilter (UK Times)
BY A SCOTLAND CORRESPONDENT
THE controversial design for the Scottish Parliament fits in with its surroundings and will be “magnificent” when completed, a parliament spokesman said yesterday.
He spoke out after comments from an architectural source close to the Prince of Wales claimed that the Prince was unhappy with the design.
Last week MSPs backed proposals to complete the Parliament without setting a cost limit after an official report said that its spiralling cost could exceed £234 million.
The parliament spokesman yesterday defended the project, due to be completed by the end of December 2002, saying: “We believe that it will be a magnificent building and a building for the people of Scotland. Anybody who has taken the time to look at the design will see that Enric Miralles (the late architect) has used the whole geography of the area.”
But the source close to the Prince told The Sunday Times: “He thinks that it is going to be out of kilter with everything around, including the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It’s essentially about harmony.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Prince has not said anything publicly about the building and if he wanted to do so he would choose the appropriate arena.”
Only one in ten Scots believes Holyrood to be more important than Westminster in influencing how Scotland is governed, a survey has shown.
And only one third feel that devolution has the potential to improve the country’s economy, while 40 per cent are confident that it can raise educational standards.
The results, published in Scotland on Sunday, show that 45 per cent of the 1,663 people interviewed believe that Scots are having more say in how they are governed compared with the 80 per cent in 1997 who expected devolution to have a greater impact after Labour gained power. It was the first Scottish Social Attitudes Survey since the Parliament was formed in 1999.