The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was held hostage as a prisoner of the British on the island of St Helena after his defeat at Waterloo.
Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1821 and the bedroom key was taken by a British soldier who took it to a house in outside of Edinburgh.
The Scottish relatives of that British soldier have seen it fit to made the key available for auction.
Sotheby’s is the one auctioning the key. The buyer will also receive the notes and the envelope which came with the key and it is valued at £5,000.
The said British soldier, Charles Richard Fox, took the key from St Helena and provided it to his mother, Baroness Holland, who was a “super fan” of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Scottish relatives of the soldier and the baroness discovered the key while unpacking an old box.
The British soldier also wrote that he personally took the key out of the door lock himself on 6 September 1822 when he paid a visit after Napoleon’s death.
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