Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, during his exile on the island of Saint Helena. The official and most widely accepted cause of death was stomach cancer, which was likely an advanced malignant gastric neoplasia associated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. This diagnosis was supported by autopsy reports from his personal physician Dr. Francesco Antommarchi and British doctors present at the autopsy, which noted a chronic perforated gastric ulcer evolving into cancer

. There has been some controversy and speculation about the cause of his death, with theories suggesting arsenic poisoning due to elevated arsenic levels found in hair samples. However, modern research proposes that the immediate cause of death may have been a cardiac arrhythmia called torsades de pointes, possibly triggered by a combination of chronic arsenic exposure and medical treatment errors, such as the administration of calomel (mercurous chloride), a toxic medication given shortly before his death

. Despite these alternative theories, historians and medical experts largely agree that Napoleon ultimately died from complications related to stomach cancer, aggravated by a gastric ulcer and possibly exacerbated by medical treatments he received in his final days