Napoleon I of France
Napoleon I Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, King of Italy (
15 August 1769 –
5 May 1821) was a general of the
French Revolution; the ruler of
France as
First Consul (
Premier Consul) of the
French Republic from
11 November 1799 to
18 May 1804; then Emperor of the French (
Empereur des Français) and King of
Italy under the name
Napoleon I from
18 May 1804 to
6 April 1814; and briefly restored as Emperor from
March 20 to
June 22 1815.
Over the course of little more than a decade, the armies of France under his command fought almost every European power (often simultaneously) and acquired control of most of the western and central mainland of
Europe by conquest or alliance until his disastrous invasion of
Russia in 1812, followed by defeat at the
Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his
abdication several months later and his
exile to the island of
Elba. He staged a comeback known as the
Hundred Days (
les Cent Jours), but was again defeated decisively at the
Battle of Waterloo in present day
Belgium on
June 18 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his surrender to the
British and his exile to the island of
Saint Helena, where he died six years later.
Although Napoleon himself developed few military innovations, apart from the divisional
squares employed in
Egypt and the placement of
artillery into
batteries, he used the best tactics from a variety of sources, and the modernized French army, as reformed under the various revolutionary governments, to score several major victories. His campaigns are studied at military academies all over the world and he is generally regarded as one of the greatest commanders ever to have lived. Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the
Napoleonic Code. He is considered by some to have been one of the "
enlightened despots".
Napoleon appointed several members of the
Bonaparte family and close friends of his as monarchs of countries he conquered and as important government figures (his brother
Lucien became France's Minister of Finance). Although their reigns did not survive his downfall, a nephew,
Napoleon III, ruled France later in the nineteenth century.
 |
Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte |
He was born
Napoleone di Buonaparte (in
Corsican,
Nabolione or
Nabulione) in the town of
Ajaccio on
Corsica on
15 August 1769, only one year after the island was transferred to France by the
Republic of Genoa. He later adopted the more French-sounding
Napoléon Bonaparte.
His family was minor Italian
nobility living in Corsica. His father,
Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of
Louis XVI of France in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Maria
Letizia Ramolino.
[Cronin (1994), pp. 20-21; McLynn (1998), p.8.] Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious Napoleon, nicknamed
Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter").
 |
Napoleon Bonaparte as a young officer |
Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background and family connections afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time. On
15 May 1779, at age nine, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at
Brienne-le-Château, a small town near
Troyes. He had to learn French before entering the school, but he spoke with a marked Italian accent throughout his life and never learned to spell properly.
[McLynn (1998), p. 18.] Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite
École Royale Militaire in
Paris, where he completed the two-year course of study in only one year. An examiner judged him as "very applied [to the study of] abstract sciences, little curious as to the others; [having] a thorough knowledge of mathematics and geography[.]"
[Asprey (2000), p. 13.] Although he had initially sought a naval assignment, he studied
artillery at the École Militaire. Upon graduation in September 1785, he was
commissioned as a
second lieutenant of artillery and took up his new duties in January 1786 at the age of 16.
[McLynn (1998), p. 31.]On a side note, one naval assignment that he sought was on a voyage to explore the Pacific in the summer of 1785. That expedition was led by
Jean-François de Galaup, count de La Pérouse. Everyone involved disappeared in 1788, never to be seen again. Fortunately for Napoleon, he wasn't chosen and he remained behind in France.
Napoleon served on garrison duty in
Valence and
Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 (although he took nearly two years of leave in Corsica and Paris during this period). He spent most of the next several years on Corsica, where a complex three-way struggle was playing out between royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. Bonaparte supported the
Jacobin faction and gained the position of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers. After coming into conflict with the increasingly conservative nationalist leader,
Pasquale Paoli, Bonaparte and his family were forced to flee to France in June 1793.
Through the help of fellow Corsican
Saliceti, Napoleon was appointed as artillery commander in the French forces besieging
Toulon, which had risen in revolt against the
Reign of Terror and was occupied by
British troops. He formulated a successful plan: he placed guns at
Point l'Eguillete, threatening the British ships in the harbour, forcing them to evacuate. A successful assault, during which Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh, led to the recapture of the city and a promotion to brigadier-general. His actions brought him to the attention of the
Committee of Public Safety, and he became a close associate of
Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader
Maximilien Robespierre. As a result, he was briefly imprisoned in the
Chateau d'Antibes on 6 August 1794 following the fall of the elder Robespierre, but was released within two weeks.
The coup of 18 Brumaire
While in Egypt, Bonaparte tried to keep a close eye on European affairs, relying largely on newspapers and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. On
23 August 1799, he abruptly set sail for France, taking advantage of the temporary departure of British ships blockading French coastal ports.
Although he was later accused by political opponents of abandoning his troops, his departure actually had been ordered by the
Directory, which had suffered a series of
military defeats to the forces of the
Second Coalition, and feared an invasion.
By the time he returned to Paris in October, the military situation had improved due to several French victories. The
Republic was bankrupt, however, and the corrupt and inefficient Directory was unpopular with the French public more than ever.
Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors,
Sieyès, seeking his support for a
coup to overthrow the
constitution. The plot included Bonaparte's brother
Lucien, then serving as speaker of the
Council of Five Hundred,
Roger Ducos, another Director, and
Talleyrand. On
9 November (
18 Brumaire), and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control and dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a
rump to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government. Although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted the
Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as
First Consul. This made him the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the
Constitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life.
The First Consul
Main article: French Consulate
Bonaparte instituted several lasting reforms including centralized administration of the
départements, higher education, a tax system, a central bank, law codes, and road and sewer systems. He negotiated the
Concordat of 1801 with the
Catholic Church, seeking to reconcile the mostly Catholic population with his regime. His set of civil laws, the
Napoleonic Code or Civil Code, has importance to this day in many countries. The Code was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, who held the office
Second Consul from 1799 to 1804; Bonaparte, however, participated actively in the sessions of the
Council of State that revised the drafts. Other codes were commissioned by Bonaparte to codify criminal and commerce law. In 1808, a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted precise rules of judicial procedure. Although contemporary standards may consider these procedures as favouring the prosecution, when enacted they sought to preserve personal freedoms and to remedy the prosecutorial abuses commonplace in European courts.
An interlude of peace
In 1800, Bonaparte returned to Italy, which the Austrians had reconquered during his absence in Egypt. He and his troops crossed the Alps in spring (although he actually rode a mule, not the white charger on which
David famously depicted him). While the campaign began badly, the Austrians were eventually routed in June at
Marengo, leading to an armistice. Napoleon's brother
Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in
Lunéville, reported that due to British backing for Austria, Austria would not recognize France's newly gained territory.As negotiations became more and more fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general
Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at
Hohenlinden.As a result the
Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801, under which the French gains of the
Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased; the British signed the
Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, which set terms for peace, including the division of several colonial territories.
The peace between France and Britain was uneasy and short-lived. The monarchies of Europe were reluctant to recognize a republic, fearing that the ideas of the revolution might be exported to them. In Britain, the
brother of Louis XVI was welcomed as a state guest although officially Britain recognized France as a republic. Britain failed to evacuate Malta and Egypt as promised, and protested against France's
annexation of
Piedmont, and Napoleon's
Act of Mediation in
Switzerland (although neither of these areas was covered by the Treaty of Amiens).
In 1803, Bonaparte faced a major setback when an army he sent to reconquer
Haiti and establish a base was destroyed by a combination of
yellow fever and fierce resistance led by
Toussaint L'Ouverture. Recognizing that the French possessions on the mainland of
North America would now be indefensible, and facing imminent war with Britain, he sold them to the
United States —the
Louisiana Purchase—for less than three
cents per
acre ($7.40/km²). The dispute over
Malta provided the pretext for Britain to declare war on France in 1803 to support French royalists.
Emperor of the French
In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an assassination plot against him, ostensibly sponsored by the
Bourbons. In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the
Duc d'Enghien, in a violation of the sovereignty of
Baden. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on
21 March. Bonaparte then used this incident to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as
Emperor, on the theory that a
Bourbon restoration would be impossible once the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the constitution.
Napoleon crowned himself
Emperor on
2 December 1804 at
Notre Dame de Paris. Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of
Pope Pius VII during the ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himself to the authority of the pontiff are
apocryphal; in fact, the coronation procedure had been agreed upon in advance. After the Imperial regalia had been blessed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself before crowning his wife
Joséphine as Empress (the moment depicted in David's famous painting, illustrated above). Then at
Milan's cathedral on
26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned
King of Italy with the
Iron Crown of Lombardy.
 |
Napoleon's Throne. Louvre Museum |
By 1805 Britain was reluctantly drawn into a
Third Coalition against Napoleon, after he made it clear that he wouldn't stop his wars of expansion on the continent. Napoleon knew the French fleet could not defeat the
Royal Navy and therefore tried to lure the British fleet away from the English Channel so that, in theory at least, a
Spanish and French fleet could take control of the Channel for twenty-four hours, which he erroneously thought long enough for French armies to cross to England. Napoleon was wholly ignorant of nautical matters, his orders to his admirals were often contradictory or useless, and the fleet of rafts he had prepared would have sunk in the Channel, or taken at least three days to transport his army, even if the crossing were unopposed. However, with
Austria and
Russia preparing an invasion of France and its allies, he had to change his plans and turn his attention to the continent. The newly formed
Grande Armee secretly marched to Germany. On
20 October 1805, it surprised the Austrians at
Ulm. The next day, however, with the
Battle of Trafalgar (
21 October 1805), the
British navy gained lasting control of the seas. A few weeks later, Napoleon defeated
Austria and
Russia at the
Austerlitz, a decisive victory he would be the most proud of in his military career. (
2 December / 1 year anniversary of his coronation), forcing Austria to yet again sue for peace.
The
Fourth Coalition was assembled the following year, and Napoleon defeated
Prussia at the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (
14 October 1806). He marched on against advancing Russian armies through
Poland, and was attacked at the bloody
Battle of Eylau on
6 February 1807. After a decisive victory at
Friedland, he signed a
treaty at
Tilsit in
East Prussia with Tsar
Alexander I of Russia, dividing Europe between the two
powers. He placed puppet rulers on the thrones of
German states, including his brother
Jerome as king of the new state of
Westphalia. In the French-controlled part of Poland, he established the
Duchy of Warsaw, with King
Frederick Augustus I of
Saxony as ruler. Between 1809 and 1813, Napoleon also served as Regent of the
Grand Duchy of Berg for his brother
Louis Bonaparte.
Ludwig van Beethoven initially dedicated his third symphony, the
Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon in the belief that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution, but in 1804, as Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, renamed the symphony as the "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il Sovvenire di un grand'Uomo", or in English, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man".
The Peninsular War and the War of the Fifth Coalition
Main articles: Peninsular War, Fifth CoalitionIn addition to military endeavors against Britain, Napoleon also waged economic war, attempting to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain called the "
Continental System". Although this action hurt the British economy, it also damaged the French economy and was not a decisive factor.
Portugal did not comply with this Continental System and in 1807 Napoleon sought
Spain's support for an invasion of Portugal. When Spain refused, Napoleon invaded Spain as well. After mixed results were produced by his generals, Napoleon himself took command and defeated the Spanish army, retook Madrid and then defeated a British army sent to support the Spanish, driving it to the coast and forcing withdrawal from
Iberia (in which its commander,
Sir John Moore, was killed). Napoleon installed one of his marshals and brother-in-law,
Joachim Murat, as the King of
Naples, and his brother
Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Spain.
The Spanish, inspired by
nationalism and the
Roman Catholic Church, and angry over atrocities committed by French troops, rose in revolt. At the same time, Austria unexpectedly broke its alliance with France and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. A bloody draw ensued at
Aspern-Essling (
May 21â€"22, 1809) near
Vienna, which was the closest Napoleon ever came to a defeat in a battle with more or less equal numbers on each side. After a two month interval, the principal French and Austrian armies engaged again near Vienna resulting in a French victory at
Battle of Wagram (
6 July).
Following this a new peace was signed between Austria and France and in the following year the Austrian Archduchess
Marie Louise married Napoleon, following his divorce of Josephine.
Invasion of Russia
Main article: Napoleon's invasion of Russia''
Although the Congress of Erfurt had sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, by 1811 tensions were again increasing between the two nations. Although Alexander and Napoleon had a friendly personal relationship since their first meeting in 1807, Alexander had been under strong pressure from the Russian aristocracy to break off the alliance with France. Had Russia withdrawn without France doing anything the other countries would have followed suit and revolted against Napoleon. Thus it was necessary to show that France would respond.
The first sign that the alliance was deteriorating was the easing of the application of the Continental System in Russia, angering Napoleon. By 1812, advisors to Alexander suggested the possibility of an invasion of the French Empire (and the recapture of Poland).
Large numbers of troops were deployed to the Polish borders (reaching over 300,000 out of the total Russian army strength of 410,000). After receiving the initial reports of Russian war preparations, Napoleon began expanding his Grande Armée to a massive force of over 450,000-600,000 men (despite already having over 300,000 men deployed in Iberia). Napoleon ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the vast Russian heartland, and prepared his forces for an offensive campaign.
On June 22, 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia commenced.
Napoleon, in an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists and patriots, termed the war the "Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being the liberation of Poland from Russia, Prussia and Austria). Polish patriots wanted the Russian part of partitioned Poland to be incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and a new Kingdom of Poland created, although this was rejected by Napoleon, who feared it would bring Prussia and Austria into the war against France. Napoleon also rejected requests to free the Russian serfs, fearing this might provoke a conservative reaction in his rear.
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Napoleon campaigning in Northern France in 1814, by E. Meissonier. |
The Russians under
Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly ingeniously avoided a decisive engagement which Napoleon longed for, preferring to retreat ever deeper into the heart of Russia. A brief attempt at resistance was offered at
Smolensk (
August 16-17), but the Russians were defeated in a series of battles in the area and Napoleon resumed the advance. The Russians then repeatedly avoided battle with the
Grande Armée, although in a few cases only because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity presented itself. The Russians during their strategic retreat, used the
scorched earth tactic. They burned crops and slaughtered livestock so the French would have nothing to eat. Along with the hunger, the French also had to face the harsh Russian winter. An American military study has concluded that the winter only had an effect when Napoleon was already in full retreat. "However, in regard to the claims of "General Winter," it should be noted that the main body of Napoleon's Grande Armée diminished by half during the first eight weeks of his invasion before the major battle of the campaign. This decrease was partly due to garrisoning supply centres, but disease, desertions, and casualties sustained in various minor actions caused thousands of losses. At Borodino on
7 September 1812 - the only major engagement fought in Russia - Napoleon could muster no more than 135,000 troops, and he lost at least 30,000 of them to gain a narrow and
Pyrrhic victory almost 600 miles deep in hostile territory. The sequels were his uncontested and self-defeating occupation of Moscow and his humiliating retreat, which began on
19 October, before the first severe frosts later that month and the first snow on
5 November."
Criticized over his tentative strategy of continual retreat, Barclay was replaced by
Kutuzov, although he continued Barclay's strategy. Kutuzov eventually offered battle outside
Moscow on
7 September. Losses were nearly even for both armies, with slightly more casualties on the Russian side, after what may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history - the
Battle of Borodino (see article for comparisons to the first day of the
Battle of the Somme). Although Napoleon was far from defeated, the Russian army had accepted, and withstood, the major battle the French hoped would be decisive. After the battle, the Russian army withdrew, and retreated past Moscow.
The Russians retreated and Napoleon was able to enter Moscow, assuming that the fall of Moscow would end the war and that Alexander I would negotiate peace. However, on orders of the city's military governor and commander-in-chief,
Fyodor Rostopchin, rather than capitulating, Moscow was
ordered burned. Within the month, fearing loss of control back in France, Napoleon left Moscow.
The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat; the Army had begun as over 650,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the
Berezina River (November 1812) to escape. In total French losses in the campaign were 570,000 against about 400,000 Russian casualties and several hundred thousand civilian deaths.
The War of the Sixth Coalition
There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 whilst both the Russians and the French recovered from their massive losses. A small Russian army harassed the French in Poland and eventually 30,000 French troops there withdrew to the German states to rejoin the expanding force there - numbering 130,000 with the reinforcements from Poland. This force continued to expand, with Napoleon aiming for a force of 400,000 French troops supported by a quarter of a million German troops.
Heartened by Napoleon's losses in Russia, Prussia soon rejoined the Coalition that now included Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and soon inflicted a series of defeats on the Allies culminating in the
Battle of Dresden on
August 26-27, 1813 causing almost 100,000 casualties to the Coalition forces (the French sustaining only around 30,000).
Despite these initial successes, however, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon as
Sweden and
Austria joined the Coalition. Eventually the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size at the
Battle of Nations (
October 16-19) at
Leipzig. Some of the German states switched sides in the midst of the battle, further undermining the French position. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost both sides a combined total of over 120,000 casualties.
After this Napoleon withdrew in an orderly fashion back into France, but his army was now reduced to less than 100,000 against more than half a million Allied troops. The French were now surrounded (with British armies pressing from the south in addition to the Coalition forces moving in from the German states) and vastly outnumbered. The French armies could only delay an inevitable defeat.
Exile in Elba, Les Cent-Jours (The Hundred Days) and Waterloo
Paris was occupied on
March 31 1814. At the urging of his
marshals, Napoleon abdicated on
April 6 in favour of his son. The Allies, however, demanded
unconditional surrender and Napoleon abdicated again, unconditionally, on
April 11. In the
Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled him to
Elba, a small island in the
Mediterranean 20 km off the coast of
Italy.
In France, the royalists had taken over and restored
King Louis XVIII to power. Separated from his wife and son (who had come under Austrian control), cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and aware of rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the
Atlantic, Napoleon escaped from Elba on
February 26 1815 and returned to the mainland on
March 1 1815.
King Louis XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment, led by Marshal
Michel Ney who had formerly served under Napoleon in Russia, to meet him at
Grenoble on
March 7 1815. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now". Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to
Paris. He arrived on
March 20, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a
Hundred Days.
Napoleon's final defeat came at the hands of the
Duke of Wellington and
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the
Battle of Waterloo in present-day
Belgium on
June 18 1815.
Off the port of
Rochefort, after unsuccessfully attempting to escape to the
United States, Napoléon made his formal surrender while on board
HMS Bellerophon on
July 15 1815.
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The Tomb at the Invalides |
Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of
Saint Helena (2,800 km off the Bight of Guinea in the South Atlantic Ocean) from
15 October 1815. Whilst there, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors. Sick for much of his time on Saint Helena, Napoleon died on
5 May 1821. His last words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army, Josephine". His heritage was distributed to his close followers like the General Marbot, whom he asked to continue his writings on the "Grandeur de la France".
Napoleon had asked in his will to be buried on the banks of the
Seine, but was buried on Saint Helena, in the "valley of the willows". In 1840, his remains were taken to France in the frigate
Belle-Poule and was to be entombed in a
porphyry sarcophagus at
Les Invalides, Paris.However, Egyptian porphyry (used for the tombs of Roman emperors) was unavailable, so red quartzite was obtained--but from Russian Finland, eliciting protests from those who still remembered the Russians as enemies.Hundreds of millions have visited his tomb since that date.A replica of his simple Saint Helena tomb is also found at Les Invalides.
Cause of death
The cause of Napoleon's death has been disputed on numerous occasions, and the controversy remains to this day.
Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon's personal physician, gave
stomach cancer as a reason for Napoleon's death in his death certificate.
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The frigate Belle-Poule brings back the remains of Napoléon to France |
In 1955, the diaries of Louis Marchand, Napoléon's valet, appeared in print. He describes Napoléon in the months leading up to his death, and led many, most notably
Sten Forshufvud and
Ben Weider, to conclude that he had been killed by
arsenic poisoning. Arsenic was at the time sometimes used as a poison as it was undetectable when administered over a long period of time. Arsenic was also used in some wallpaper, as a green pigment, and even in some patent medicines. As Napoleon's body was found to be remarkably well-preserved when it was moved in 1840, it gives support to the arsenic theory, as arsenic is a strong preservative. In 2001, Pascal Kintz, of the Strasbourg Forensic Institute in France, added credence to this claim with a study of arsenic levels found in a lock of Napoleon's hair preserved after his death: they were seven to thirty-eight times higher than normal.
Cutting up hairs into short segments and analysing each segment individually provides a histogram of arsenic concentration in the body. This analysis on hair from Napoléon suggests that large but non-lethal doses were absorbed at random intervals. The arsenic severely weakened Napoléon and remained in his system.
More recent analysis on behalf of the magazine
Science et Vie showed that similar concentrations of arsenic can be found in Napoleon's hair in samples taken from 1805, 1814 and 1821. The lead investigator, Ivan Ricordel (head of toxicology for the
Paris Police), stated that if arsenic had been the cause, Napoléon would have died years earlier. The group suggested that the most likely source in this case was a hair tonic. Prior to the discovery of
antibiotics, arsenic was also a widely used treatment for
syphilis. This has led to speculation that Napoleon might have suffered from that disease.
The medical regime imposed on Napoleon by his doctors included treatment with antimony potassium tartrate, regular enemas and a 600 milligram dose of mercuric chloride to purge his intestines in the days immediately prior to his death. A group of researchers from the
San Francisco Medical Examiner's Department speculate that this treatment may have led to Napoleon's death by causing a serious potassium deficiency.
In May, 2005 a team of Swiss physicians claimed that the reason for Napoleon's death was stomach
cancer, which was also the cause of his father's death. From a multitude of forensic reports they derive that Napoleon at his death weighed approx. 76 kg (168 lb) while a year earlier he weighed approx. 91 kg (200 lb), confirming the autopsy result reported by Antommarchi. A team of physicians from the University of Monterspertoli led by Professor Biondi recently confirmed this.
In October, 2005, a document was unearthed in
Scotland that presented an account of the autopsy, which again seems to confirm Antommarchi's conclusion.
Napoleon was married twice:
*
March 9 1796 to
Joséphine de Beauharnais. He formally adopted her son
Eugène and cousin
Stéphanie after assuming the throne to arrange "dynastic" marriages for them. He had her daughter
Hortense marry his brother,
Louis. Though their marriage was unconventional, and both were known to have many affairs, they were ultimately devoted to each other and when Joséphine agreed to
divorce so he could remarry in the hopes of producing an heir, it was devastating for both. It was also the first under the Napoleonic Code.
*
March 11 1810 by
proxy to
Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, then in a ceremony on
April 1. They remained married until his death, although she did not join him in his exile.
**Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles (
March 20 1811 â€"
July 22 1832), King of Rome. Known as
Napoleon II of France although he never ruled. Was later known as the Duke of Reichstadt. He had no issue.
Acknowledged two illegitimate children, both of whom had issue:
*
Charles, Count Léon, (1806 â€" 1881), by Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne (1787 â€" 1868).
*
Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count Walewski, (
May 4 1810 â€"
October 27 1868), by
Marie, Countess Walewski (1789 â€" 1817).
May have had further illegitimate offspring:
*
Émilie Louise Marie Françoise Joséphine Pellapra, by Françoise-Marie LeRoy.
*
Karl Eugin von Mühlfeld, by Victoria Kraus.
*
Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, by Countess
Montholon.
*
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire (
August 19 1805 â€"
November 24 1895) whose mother remains unknown.
*
Eugenie Meyer (1814-1904), by Fanny Meyer from Alsace.
Napoleon is credited with introducing the concept of the modern professional
conscript army to Europe, an innovation which other states eventually followed. He did not introduce many new concepts into the French military system, borrowing mostly from previous theorists and the implementations of preceding French governments, but he did expand or develop much of what was already in place.
Corps replaced divisions as the largest army units, artillery was integrated into reserve batteries, the staff system became more fluid, and cavalry once again became a crucial formation in French military doctrine.
Napoleon's biggest influence in the military sphere was in the conduct of warfare. Weapons and technology remained largely static through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, but 18th century operational strategy underwent massive restructuring. Sieges became infrequent to the point of near-irrelevance, a new emphasis towards the destruction, not just outmaneuvering, of enemy armies emerged. Invasions of enemy territory occurred over broader fronts, thus introducing a plethora of strategic opportunities that made wars costlier and, just as importantly, more decisive (this strategy has since become known as Napoleonic warfare, though he himself did not give it this name). Defeat for a European power now meant much more than losing isolated enclaves; near-
Carthaginian peaces intertwined whole national efforts, sociopolitical, economic, and militaristic, into gargantuan collisions that severely upset international conventions as understood at the time. It can be argued that Napoleon's initial success sowed the seeds for his downfall. Not used to such catastrophic defeats in the rigid power system of 18th century Europe, many nations found existence under the French yoke difficult, sparking revolts, wars, and general instability that plagued the continent until 1815.
In
France, Napoleon is seen by some as having ended lawlessness and disorder in France, and the wars he fought as having served to export the
Revolution to the rest of Europe. The movements of national unification and the rise of the
nation state, notably in
Italy and
Germany, may have been precipitated by the Napoleonic rule of those areas.
The
Napoleonic Code was adopted throughout much of Europe and remained in force after Napoleon's defeat. Professor Dieter Langewiesche of the
University of Tübingen describes the code as a "revolutionary project" which spurred the development of
bourgeois society in
Germany by expanding the right to own property and breaking the back of
feudalism. Langewiesche also credits Napoleon with reorganizing what had been the
Holy Roman Empire made up of more than 1,000 entities into a more streamlined network of 40 states providing the basis for the
German Confederation and the future unification of Germany under the
German Empire in 1871.
In
mathematics Napoleon is traditionally given credit for discovering and proving
Napoleon's theorem, although there is no specific evidence that he did so. The theorem states that if equilateral triangles are constructed on the sides of any triangle (all outward or all inward), the centres of those equilateral triangles themselves form an equilateral triangle.
Critics of Napoleon argue that his true legacy was a loss of status for France and many needless deaths:
After all, the military record is unquestionedâ€"17 years of wars, perhaps six million Europeans dead, France bankrupt, her overseas colonies lost. And it was all such a great waste, for when the self-proclaimed tête d'armée was done, France's "losses were permanent" and she "began to slip from her position as the leading power in Europe to second-class statusâ€"that was Bonaparte's true legacy."[ The quoted passages within this text are from Johnson.]
Napoleon was in many ways the direct inspiration for later autocrats: he never flinched when facing the prospect of war and destruction for thousands, friend or foe, and turned his search of undisputed rule into a continuous cycle of conflict throughout Europe, ignoring treaties and conventions alike. Even if other European powers continuously offered Napoleon terms that would have restored France's borders to situations only dreamt by the Bourbon kings, he always refused compromise, and only accepted surrender.
Nevertheless, many in the international community still admire the many accomplishments of the emperor as evidenced by the International Napoleonic Congress held in Dinard, France in July 2005 that included participation by members of the French and American military, French politicians, scholars from as far away as Israel and Russia, and a parade recreating the Grand Army.
Moreover, some probably wish Napoleon had achieved his unrealized goal
‘to make it a law that only those lawyers and attorneys should receive fees who had won their cases. How much litigation would have been prevented by such a measure! For it is quite obvious that there is not a lawyer who, after a first look at the case, would not turn it down if it seemed doubtful. It need not be feared that a man who earns his living from his work might take on a case for the simple pleasure of hearing himself talk; yet even if he did, he would harm no one but himself. . . . I am convinced to this day that the idea is brilliant.'
Napoleon was hated by his many enemies, but respected by them at the same time. The Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley, when asked who he thought was the greatest general that ever lived, answered "In this age, in past ages, in any age, Napoleon."
Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon was actually slightly taller than an average Frenchman of the 19th century
. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 ft 2 in
French units, corresponding to 5 ft 6.5 in (1.69 m) using
Imperial units. A French inch was 2.71 centimetres
while an Imperial inch is 2.54 centimetres. The
metric system was introduced during the
French First Republic, but was not in widespread use until after Napoleon's death.
In addition to this miscalculation, his nickname
le petit caporal adds to the confusion, as non-francophones mistakenly take
petit as literally meaning "small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers (for example,
petit(e) ami(e) means "boyfriend" (without 'e's) and "girlfriend" (with 'e's) in French). He also surrounded himself with the soldiers of his elite guard, who were always six feet tall or taller.
*
Napoleon complex*
Napoleonic Code*
Napoleonic Era*
Napoleonic medal*
Napoleonic Wars*
Marshal of France, for a list of Napoleon's Marshals
*
Napoleon and the Jews*
Napoleon in popular culture (esp. as a by-word for mental ill health)
*
Monsieur N. a film about the last years of Napoleon and the mystery of his death (French-English co-production)
*
Napoleon's theorem*
Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, an assassination attempt
*
Napoleon's Holocaust*
Description de l'Egypte (1809)* (Now a dead link; comparable material is at [
1].)
*
* A. Gautier,
Un drogman à Sainte-Hélène, le baron Barthélémi de Stürmer (1787-1863), Le Bulletin, Association des anciens élèves, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO)(National Institute of Languages and Oriental Civilizations), October 2003, pp. 39-48.
* Full texts of
**
The constitution of the Consulate (in
French)
**
The Imperial Constitution (in French)
**
Free ebook of Memoirs of Napoleon at
Project Gutenberg**
Free ebook of The Life of Napoleon I at
Project Gutenberg**
Free ebook of The History of Napoleon Buonaparte at
Project Gutenberg*
Napoleon 101 - a podcast about Napoleon by award-winning author J. David Markham*
Napoleon - An Intimate Portrait Traveling Exhibit*
Napoleon I Chronology in World History Database
*
Napoleonic Satires A Brown University Library Digital Collection
*
"The Strange Story of Napoleon's Wallpaper" - discussing the possibility of arsenic poisoning
*
Guide to the William Henry Hoffman Collection on Napoleon (Brown University Library)*
Napoleon, His Armies and Tactics*
PBS Napoleon - Detailed biography of Napoleon
*
Napoleon*
Napoleon I the Great - Concise history of the French Empire
*
The Napoleon Series - Acknowledging the extraordinary talents of the man who defined an age (1789-1821) and the remarkable men and women who peopled and shaped it, the Napoleon Series seeks to promote the continued, scholarly exploration of that age.
*
Napoleonic Association Napoleonic Reenactment and Living History, UK
*
The Louverture Project:
Napoléon Bonaparte - Napoléon in relation to Saint-Domingue, the colony that became Haiti after the revolution during his reign.
*
Napoleão Bonaparte - A concise biography*
The Napoleonic Alliance *
The Napoleonic Society of America - Society founded in 1983 to inform and provide its members with the means to share its knowledge and views about Napoleon and the Napoleonic Empire.
*
International Napoleonic Society - "The purpose of the International Napoleonic Society is to promote the study of the Napoleonic Era in accordance with proper academic standards."
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