Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St Helena on 5 May 1821. His body was dressed in the uniform of a colonel of the Imperial Guard horse hunters, which was his favourite. It is a hunter's green jacket, white breeches and waistcoat, the chest barred with the great cordon of the Legion of Honour. His boots were black. When, in 1840, his coffin was opened before repatriation to France, the remains were almost intact and only the boots were untied at the ends. The three coffins were re-welded and the whole was placed in two new lead and ebony casings, securely locked with an intricate padlock.