French face monks' chagrin in quest for Napoleon III's remains

Paris France yesterday requested the return to French soil of the remains of its last emperor and first president, Napoleon III.

After lying ignored in a crypt in an English abbey for 120 years, the exiled emperor's ashes are suddenly the subject of a French ministerial delegation intent on repatriating them to the republic he helped bring about.

Christian Estrosi, the French secretary of state for overseas territories, had said: "This trip will be for me an occasion to send a clear message to the British, to thank them for all they did for the imperial couple in exile, but also to remind them that we have some rights over them."

But Estrosi, who was to visit St Michael's Abbey, Hampshire, to request the return of the ashes, likely received a frosty reception from the abbey's Benedictine monks. In a statement to the French people, Abbot Cuthbert Brogan, who runs the abbey, said: "Unlike the English, who are very interested in the memory of your last emperor, not a single French person comes and meditates at the crypt where his remains lie."

Commenting on Estrosi's intention to spend 10 minutes in silent reverence by the tomb, the abbot went on: "Ten minutes for a silence of 120 years!"

Born in Paris in 1808, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and lived just as colourful a life.

After a number of foreign adventures, his forces were roundly defeated in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, prompting him to flee with his wife, Empress Eugenie, to Chislehurst, Kent, where he remained in exile until his death in 1873.

Despite the ignominy of his later years - especially the crushing defeat by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan - France owes much to Napoleon III.

He had a huge hand in replacing Paris's unhygienic medieval streets with wide boulevards, creating sewage systems and building parks and impressive apartment blocks for the masses.