The three properties are owned by the Government of France via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and are administered by non-profit company, Saint Helena Napoleonic Heritage Ltd, which undertakes their management and maintenance.

[citation needed] From 2004, the French estate in Saint Helena was administratively under the representation of the consulate of France in Cape Town.

Furthermore, the British, being afraid of a landing of French sailors to free the prisoner as at Elba, claimed Ascension Island - up to then uninhabited - to establish a naval garrison there.

The next day, the governor of the island, Sir Hudson Lowe, although in perpetual conflict with his former prisoner, personally came to make sure of his death and declared then to his circle of acquaintances: He was England’s greatest enemy, and mine too, but I forgive him everything.

Nineteen years after Napoleon's death, King Louis-Philippe was able to obtain from the United Kingdom the return of remains of the ex-emperor.