Did Napoleon really play Solitaire?

Countless books and online sources happily parrot the story that Napoleon Bonaparte was a keen player of Solitaire, whiling away the hours during his exile on St. Helena with a pack of cards in hand. This belief no doubt led to the naming of the patience games: Patience Napoleon, and St. Helena.

What are far less common, are primary sources attesting to the truth of this narrative.

Napoleon’s stay at Briar’s House

When Napoleon arrived on St. Helena in October 1815, he was initially housed in Jamestown (the capital), where it was planned that he would remain until work on his permanent residence (Longwood) could be completed, several weeks later.

Dissatisfied with his lodgings, and their location (he complained of the heat in Jamestown), Napoleon requested that he instead be allowed to reside in the Pavillion, a detached residence forming part of Briar’s House, until his permanent home was ready.

Briar’s House was the residence of the Balcome family, who had been posted to St. Helena by the East India Company in 1804. Napoleon came upon the house during a horse ride with Admiral Cockburn (his guide and jailor) on the morning after his arrival, and made the request on the spot.

His request was apparently welcomed by the Balcome family, and was quickly granted by the Governor, thus beginning his three-month stay there.*

* The friendly association ended abruptly in March 1818 when Balcombe was dismissed from the island on suspicion of acting as an intermediary in clandestine French correspondence with Paris and of negotiating bills drawn by Napoleon¹.

A lone source

Captain Edmund Denman, English Navy Captain of the Redpole sloop, which formed part of Napoleon’s escort to St. Helena, was a friend of William Balcome, and had the opportunity to spend an evening with Bonaparte and the Balcome family.

He later reported his experiences to John Wilson Crocker (First Secretary to the Admiralty).

The Redpole formed part of Napoleon’s escort to St. Helena, from whence she returned home with Sir George Cockburn’s despatches, announcing the safe custody of his ex-majesty. While there, Captain Denman was invited by his old naval friend Mr. Balcombe, to spend an evening in the society of Buonaparte; on which occasion he was seated at the same whist table with that celebrated personage, and enabled to possess himself of some highly interesting anecdotes which he related, of distinguished public characters who had figured in political life during his extraordinary career.

Marshall, John (1825) Royal Naval Biography

And from Crocker himself, several months prior to the card incident:

Admiralty, Mar. 29th. 1815.

Sir,– I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 27th, and beg you will accept my thanks for the information it conveys. I shall be obliged by your continuing to keep me informed by your private letters of any intelligence which may reach you unofficially. I have the honor to be. Sir, your most obliged humble servant,

W. Croker

Marshall, John (1825) Royal Naval Biography

It appears that reporting of intelligence to Crocker by Denamn was a normal part of his role, although it’s less clear if conduct overseen at dinner parties qualifies.

A secondhand account

Crocker subsequently conveyed Denman’s account in an article he wrote for the 1816 Quarterly Review. In his article, he describes a card game being played by Napoleon, Count Las Cases and the Balcombe family. During Napoleon’s deal, he commits two errors in a row, and becomes furious:

if I had not seen it, I could not have conceived that so trifling an accident could have affected any human creature so seriously - his whole countenance was lighted up with fury, and he made a violent contortion of his features, and drew his mouth down on one side, like one suffering an inward pang.²

Blaming the cards for his errors, Napoleon suggests finding an older pack of cards, and orders the Count to play alone with the offending cards until they run smoothly. In the author’s words:

He [Napoleon] however recovered himself enough to ask to have the house searched for some old cards, and to send Las Cassas to sit at a table in the corner, to play alone with the offending cards, till he should make then run smoothly; and at this solitary game of patience, the count obsequiously played the rest of the evening.²

The Quarterly Review - 1816

Patience and the Game of Patience are not the same

Crocker’s use of the term “game of patience” is ambiguous, and could be taken as referring to the game known as Patience, or perhaps to an individual patiently trying to improve the cards deal-ability. Ross and Healey³ argue the latter case rather convincingly.

“Betsy” Abell (Balcome), who was 12-years old at the time and present during the exchange, later recounted in her memoirs:

The emperor usually played cards every evening, and when we were tired of looking at the miniatures, &c., he said, “Now we will go to the cottage and play whist.” We all walked down together. Our little whist table was soon formed, but the cards did not run smoothly, and Napoleon desired Las Cases to seat himself at a side table, and deal them until they dealt easily.

Abell, Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe (1871), Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon, during the first three years of his captivity on the island of St. Helena

The obvious conclusion is that sources, relying on earlier sources, relying on even earlier sources, mistook the patience reference, combined it with more accurate stories of Napoleon’s enjoyment of cards, and produced a fable, which endures to this day.