many former Pétainists who would have execrated de Gaulle at the Liberation. De Gaulle was ready to make some gestures to these voters by making public his unease at the fate of Pétain who, since his conviction in 1945, had been imprisoned in a fortress on the Ile d’Yeu off the coast of Britanny. Now in his nineties Pétain was often described in the press as the ‘oldest prisoner in the world’. De Gaulle declared on various occasions that it was wrong that this old man, now harmless and senile, who had once ‘rendered great service to France’ should die alone in prison
