Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Napol̩on Bonaparte (15 August 1769 Р5 May
1821) was a general of the French Revolution, and
the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier
Consul) of the First French Republic|French
Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804,
then as 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
again briefly from 20 March to 22 June 1815.

Napoleon is considered to have been a military
genius, and is known for commanding many
successful campaigns, together with some
spectacular failures.

Over the course of little more than a decade, he
acquired control of most or all of the western and
central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance
until his defeat at the Battle of the Nations near
Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his
abdication several months later. He staged a
comeback known as the Hundred Days (les Cent
Jours), but was defeated decisively at the Battle
of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18 1815, followed
shortly afterwards by his surrender to the United
Kingdom|British and his exile to the island of
Saint Helena, where he died.

Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is
also remembered for the establishment of the
Napoleonic Code, and is considered by some to have
been one of the "enlightened
absolutism|enlightened monarchs". Others consider
him a tyrannical dictator whose wars and rule led
to the death of millions. Napoleon appointed
several members of the Bonaparte family as
monarchs. Although their reigns did not survive
his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III of
France|Napoleon III, ruled France later in the
nineteenth century.

== Early life ==
=== Family and childhood ===


Born Napoleone Buonaparte (in Corsican
language|Corsican, Nabolione or Nabulione) in the
city of Ajaccio on Corsica, Napoléone later
adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon
Bonaparte, the first known reference which appears
in an official report dated 28 March 1796.

His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His
father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named
Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI
in 1778, where he remained for a number of years.
The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was
his mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino. Ahead of her
time, she had her 8 children bathe every other
day—at a time when even those in the upper
classes took a bath perhaps once a month. Her firm
discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy,
nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or
"disrupter").

=== Education ===
Napoleon's noble, moderately well-off background
and family connections afforded him opportunities
to study which would not have been available to a
typical Corsican of the time. At age 10, Napoleon
was admitted to a French military school at
Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes, on
15 May 1779. He had to learn to speak French
before entering the school. He spoke French
Language|French with a marked Italian
Language|Italian accent throughout his life, and
was a poor speller. He earned high marks in
mathematics and geography, and passable grades in
other subjects. Upon graduation from Brienne in
1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École
Militaire|École Royale Militaire in Paris, where
he completed the two year course of study in only
one year. Although he had initially sought a naval
assignment, he studied artillery at the École
Militaire. Upon graduation in September, 1785, he
was commission|commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant of
artillery, and took up his new duties in January
1786, at the age of 16.

===Revolutionary officer===


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 played out
among 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 Antoine
Christophe Saliceti|Saliceti, he was appointed as
artillery commander in the French forces besieging
Toulon, which had risen in revolt against the
Reign of Terror|Terror and was occupied by United
Kingdom|British troops. He formulated a successful
plan: he placed guns at Point l'Eguillete in order
to force the British fleet from the harbour or
suffer certain destruction had they remained.   A
successful assault of the position, 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 following the fall of the elder
Robespierre in 1794, but was released within two
weeks.

==The victorious general==

=== The "whiff of grapeshot" ===
In 1795, Bonaparte was serving in Paris when
royalists and counter-revolutionaries organized an
armed protest against the National Convention on 3
October. Bonaparte was given command of the
improvised forces defending the Convention in the
Tuileries Palace. He seized artillery pieces with
the aid of a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat,
who would later become his brother-in-law.  He
utilized the artillery the following day to repel
the attackers. He later boasted that he had
cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot."
This triumph earned him sudden fame, wealth, and
the patronage of the new French
Directory|Directory, particularly that of its
leading member, Paul François Jean Nicolas
Barras|Barras. Within weeks he was romantically
attached to Barras' former mistress, Josephine de
Beauharnais, whom he married in 1796.

=== The Italian campaign of 1796–97===
Just days after his marriage, Bonaparte took
command of the French "Army of Italy", leading it
on a successful French Revolutionary Wars:
Campaigns of 1796#Italy|invasion of Italy. At the
Battle of Lodi|Lodi, he gained the nickname of
"The Little Corporal" (le petit caporal), a term
reflecting his camaraderie with the ordinary
soldiers. He drove the Austrian forces out of
Lombardy and defeated the army of the Papal
States.  Because Pope Pius VI had protested the
execution of Louis XVI, France retaliated by
annexing two small papal territories.  Bonaparte
ignored the French Directory|Directory's order to
march on Rome and dethrone the Pope. It was not
until the next year that General Berthier captured
Rome and took Pope Pius VI prisoner on February
20.  The pope later died of illness while in
captivity. In early 1797, he French Revolutionary
Wars: Campaigns of 1797|led his army into Austria
and forced that power to sue for peace.  The
resulting Treaty of Campo Formio gave France
control of most of northern Italy, along with the
Low Countries and Rhineland, but a secret clause
promised Republic of Venice|Venice to Austria.
Bonaparte then marched on Venice and forced its
surrender, ending over 1,000 years of
independence. Later in 1797, Bonaparte organized
many of the French dominated territories in Italy
into the Cisalpine Republic.

Bonaparte was a brilliant military strategist.  He
was able to absorb the substantial body of
military knowledge of his time and to apply it to
the real-world circumstances of his era. As a
battle field planner, he was known for his
creative use of mobile artillery tactics. 
However, he owed much of his great military
success not merely to innovation, but as well to
his encyclopedic knowledge and superior
application of conventional military thought.  As
he described it: "I have fought sixty battles and
I have learned nothing which I did not know at the
beginning." An artillery officer by training, he
devised new tactics and employed his artillery as
a mobile force to support infantry attacks,
benefiting from France's technological advantage
in this branch of armaments. He was known as an
aggressive commander who enjoyed the loyalty of
highly motivated soldiers. Contemporary paintings
of his headquarters during the Italian campaign
depict his use of the world's first
telecommunications system, the Claude
Chappe|Chappe semaphore (communication)|semaphore
line, first implemented in 1792. He was also a
master of both Espionage|intelligence and
deception.  He often won battles by concentrating
his forces on an unsuspecting enemy by using spies
to gather information about opposing forces and by
concealing his own troop deployments.

While campaigning in Italy, Bonaparte became
increasingly influential in French politics. He
published two newspapers, ostensibly for the
troops in his army, but widely circulated within
France as well. In May 1797 he founded a third
newspaper, published in Paris, entitled Le Journal
de Bonaparte et des hommes vertueux. Elections in
mid-1797 gave the royalist party increased power,
alarming Barras and his allies on the French
Directory|Directory.
The royalists, in turn, began attacking Bonaparte
for looting Italy and overstepping his authority
in dealings with the Austrians (not without
justification on both counts). Bonaparte soon sent
General Pierre François Charles Augereau|Augereau
to Paris to lead a coup d'etat and purge the
royalists on 4 September (French Directory#18
Fructidor|18 Fructidor).
This left Barras and his Republican allies in firm
control again, but dependent on Bonaparte's
"sword" to stay there. Bonaparte himself proceeded
to the peace negotiations with Austria, then
returned to Paris in December as the conquering
hero and the dominant force in government, far
more popular than any of the French
Directory|Directors.

===The Egyptian expedition of 1798–99===

In March 1798, Bonaparte proposed an French
Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1798|expedition
to colonize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman
Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests
and undermine Britain's access to India. French
Directory|The Directory, although troubled by the
scope and cost of the enterprise, readily agreed
to the plan in order to remove the popular general
from the centre of power.

An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was
the inclusion of a large group of scientists
assigned to the invading French force: among the
other discoveries that resulted, the Rosetta Stone
was found. This deployment of intellectual
resources is considered by some an indication of
Bonaparte's devotion to the principles of the
Enlightenment, and by others as a masterstroke of
propaganda obfuscating the true
Imperialism|imperialist motives of the invasion.
In a largely unsuccessful effort to gain the
support of the Egyptian populace, Bonaparte also
issued proclamations casting himself as a
liberator of the people from Ottoman oppression,
and praising the precepts of Islam.

Bonaparte's expedition seized Malta from the
Knights of Saint John on June 9 and then landed
successfully at Alexandria on July 1, eluding
(temporarily) pursuit by the Royal Navy. Although
Bonaparte had massive success against the native
Mamluk army in the Battle of the Pyramids (his
25,000 man strong invading force defeated a
100,000 man army), his fleet was largely destroyed
by Horatio Nelson|Nelson at The Battle of the
Nile, so that Bonaparte became land-bound. His
goal of strengthening the French position in the
Mediterranean Sea was thus frustrated, but his
army nonetheless succeeded in consolidating power
in Egypt, although it faced repeated nationalist
uprisings.

In early 1799 he led the army into the Ottoman
province of Syria, now modern Israel, and defeated
numerically superior Ottoman forces in several
battles, but his army was weakened by disease and
poor supplies.
He was unable to reduce the fortress of Akko|Acre,
and was forced to retreat to Egypt in May. On 25
July, he defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion
at Battle of Abukir (1799)|Abukir. Eventually
Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Egypt in
1801, under constant British and Ottoman attacks.

==Ruler of France==
=== The coup of 18 Brumaire ===


While in Egypt, Bonaparte had kept a close eye on
European affairs, relying largely on newspapers
and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. On
23 August, 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 authorized by the French
Directory|Directory, which had suffered a series
of French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of
1799|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 thanks to several
French victories. The Republic was bankrupt,
however, and the corrupt and inefficient Directory
was more unpopular with the French public than
ever.

Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors,
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès|Sieyès, seeking his
support for a coup to overthrow the French
Constitution of 1795|constitution. The plot
included Bonaparte's brother Lucien
Bonaparte|Lucien, then serving as speaker of the
Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another
Director, and Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand|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 outmanoeuvred 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 Roman Catholic|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 Conseil d'État|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 favoring the
prosecution, when enacted they sought to preserve
personal freedoms and to remedy the prosecutorial
abuses commonplace in European courts. Although
Bonaparte was an authoritarian ruler, the same was
true of most continental European countries at the
time.  Bonaparte sought to restore law and order
after the excesses of the Revolution, and reform
the administration of the State.

===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). Although the campaign began badly, the
Austrians were routed in June at Battle of
Marengo|Marengo, leading to an armistice.
Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte|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 Jean Victor
Marie Moreau|Moreau to strike Austria once more.
Moreau led France to victory at Battle of
Hohenlinden (1800)|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 also committed themselves
to sign a peace treaty and finally signed the
Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, under which Malta
was to be handed over to France.

The peace between France and Britain was uneasy at
best.
The "legitimate" monarchies of Europe were
reluctant to recognize a republic, fearing that
the ideas of the revolution might be exported to
them.
In Britain, the Louis XVIII of France|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 Santo Domingo 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 Cent (currency)|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 ===
main|First French Empire

In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an
assassination plot against him, supposedly
sponsored by the Bourbons. In retaliation,
Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the
Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc
d'Enghien|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 (illustration, right) at Notre
Dame|Notre-Dame Cathedral. 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 Josephine de
Beauharnais|Joséphine as Empress. Then at Milan's
cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned
King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.



By 1805 the Third Coalition against Napoleon had
formed in Europe.  A plan by the French, along
with the Spain|Spanish, to defeat the Royal Navy
failed dramatically at the Battle of Trafalgar (21
October 1805), and British naval supremacy|Britain
gained lasting control of the seas.
Napoleon then finally abandoned all hope of
invading Britain, and turned his attention once
again to his Continental rivals. He secured a
major victory against Austria and Russia at Battle
of Austerlitz|Austerlitz (2 December), forcing
Austria yet again to sue for peace; and, in the
following year, humbled Prussia at the Battle of
Jena-Auerstedt (14 October 1806). Napoleon marched
on through Poland but was attacked by the Russians
at the bloody battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807.
After a major victory at Friedland he signed a
Treaties of Tilsit|treaty at Tilsit in East
Prussia with the Russian tsar Alexander I of
Russia|Alexander I, dividing Europe between the
two power (international)|powers. He placed puppet
rulers on the thrones of German states, including
his brother Jerome Bonaparte|Jerome as King of the
new state of Westphalia. In the French part of
Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with
the Saxony|Saxonian King as ruler. Between 1809
and 1813 he also served as Regent of the Grand
Duchy of Berg and Cleves for his brother Louis
Bonaparte.

===The Peninsular War and the War of the Fifth
Coalition===
Main articles:  Peninsular War, Fifth Coalition.

Since he failed at conquering the British
militarily, he decided to try to conquer them
economically, by banning all merchandise and ships
from continental Europe. Napoleon attempted to
enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of
Britain called the "Continental System". The
English economy did suffer to an extent from this
- but no more so than the French Empire's economy
and neither nation was in a position to challenge
the other.



Portugal did not comply with this Continental
System and in 1807 Napoleon sought Spain's support
in an invasion of Portugal. When Spain refused
Napoleon sent forces into Spain as well. After
mixed results were encountered by his generals
Napoleon himself intervened and defeated the
Spanish army, retook Madrid and then defeated a
British army sent to support the Spanish, driving
it to the coast and ignoble withdrawal from Iberia
(in which its commander, Sir John Moore, was
killed). He installed the King of Naples, his
brother Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain (making
one of his marshals and brother-in-law, Joachim
Murat King of Naples).

The Spanish, inspired by nationalism|nationalist
and Catholic Church|Catholic opposition to the
French, rose in revolt. However at this time
Austria broke its alliance with France without
warning and Napoleon was forced to assume command
of forces on the Danube and German fronts. A
bloody draw at Battle of
Aspern-Essling|Aspern-Essling (May 21-May 22|22,
1809) near Vienna was the closest Napoleon ever
came to a defeat in a battle with more or less
equal numbers on each side. After both sides had
licked their wounds for two months 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. Despite being an avid admirer of Napoleon
since first meeting him in 1807, Alexander had
been under strong pressure from the Russian
aristocracy to break off the alliance with France,
as they considered it an insult to Russian pride.

The first signs that the alliance was
deteriorating was the easing of the application of
the Continental System in Russia. This enraged
Napoleon, who it seems had genuinely liked
Alexander since their meeting and thus felt
betrayed. By 1812, advisors to Alexander suggested
that a vast revolution was brewing across Germany
and that the time was right for 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). However
Napoleon anticipated this and after the initial
reports of Russian war preparations he began
expanding his Grande Armée to a massive force of
over 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 23, 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia
commenced.


Victor Hugo would write in his poem, "Russia 1812"
(1873):
:The snow fell, and its power was multiplied.

:For the First time the Eagle bowed its head -
dark days!

:Slowly the Emperor returned - behind him
Moscow!

:Its onion domes still burned.

Napoleon, in an attempt to gain increased support
from Polish nationalists, termed the war the
"Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being
the liberation of Poland from Russia, Prussia and
Austria). Polish nationalists wanted all of
Russian Poland to be incorporated into the Duchy
of Warsaw|Grand Duchy of Warsaw and a new Kingdom
of Poland created. For political reasons this was
unlikely to happen (principally because 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.

The Russians under Michael Andreas Barclay de
Tolly|Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly were
unable to successfully defeat Napoleon's huge,
well-organized army and retreated instead. A brief
attempt at resistance was offered at Battle of
Smolensk|Smolensk (August 16-August 17|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.

Criticized over his tentative strategy of
continual retreat, Barclay was replaced by Mikhail
Illarionovich Kutuzov|Kutuzov. Realising the
reality of the situation, Kutuzov continued
Barclay's strategy. Kutuzov also soon came under
criticism for this and finally offered battle. It
appeared both Barclay and Kutuzov had been correct
in their assessments of the situation for, outside
Moscow on 7 September, the Russian army was
defeated 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).

The Russians retreated and Napoleon was able to
enter Moscow, assuming that Alexander I would
negotiate peace. Moscow began to burn in
accordance with orders of the city's military
governor and commander-in-chief, Fyodor
Rostopchin. Within the month, fearing loss of
control 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 (the Battle of
Nations, the Invasion of France)===
Napoleon was determined not to lose hold of
Germany and there was a lull in fighting over the
winter of 1812–1813|13 whilst both the
Russians and the French recovered from their
massive losses of around half a million soldiers
each. A small Russian army harassed the French in
Poland and eventually 30,000 French troops there
withdrew to Germany 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-August 27|27, 1813 causing almost 100,000
casualties to the Coalition forces (the French
sustaining only around 30,000). It appeared the
Napoleon of old was back and that the Coalition
might be forced to conclude a peace treaty if this
run continued.

However, the numbers continued to mount against
Napoleon as Sweden and Austria joined the
Coalition. Eventually the French army was caught
by a force twice its size at the Battle of
Leipzig|Battle of Nations (October 16-October
19|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 Napoléon 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. Although some
historians consider the defensive campaigns of
late 1813 and early 1814 to be among Napoleon's
most brilliant, the French were now surrounded
(with British armies pressing from the south in
addition to the Coalition forces moving in from
Germany) and vastly outnumbered. The French armies
could only delay, not prevent, inevitable defeat.

===Exile in Elba, return and Waterloo ===

Paris was occupied on March 31 1814. His Marshal
of France|marshals asked Napoléon to abdicate,
and he did so on 6 April in favour of his son. The
Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender
and Napoléon abdicated again, unconditionally, on
11 April. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the
victors exiled the Corsican to Elba, a small
island in the Mediterranean 20 km off the coast of
Italy. They let him keep the title of "Emperor"
but restricted his empire to that tiny island.

While exiled in Elba, some claim Napoleon
attempted to poison himself. General Caulaincourt,
Napoleon's former foreign minister, witnessed
Napoleon writhing, retching, and suffering from
spasms of hysteria followed by moments of calm. He
believed it to be, not illogically, attempted
suicide. There is no way of knowing, however,
whether it was really poison, a sedative whose
effects were being resisted by Napoleon's body, or
simply an anxiety attack. When Napoleon saw his
doctor, he asked the doctor to end his suffering,
which seems to confirm Caulaincourt's suspicions.
The very next day, however, the Emperor was back
to his normal self. He told Caulaincourt "I shall
live, since death is no more willing to take me on
my bed than on the battlefield."

In France, the royalists had taken over and
restored Louis XVIII of France|King Louis XVIII to
power. On Elba, Napoléon became concerned about
his wife and, more especially, his son, in the
hands of the Austrians. The French government
refused to pay the allowance guaranteed to him by
the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and he heard rumours
that he was about to be banished to a remote
island in the Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic. Napoléon
escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned
to the mainland on 1 March 1815. When he returned
to the mainland, Louis XVIII of France|King Louis
XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment, led by Marshal
Michel Ney who had formerly served under Napoléon
in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble. Napoléon
approached the regiment alone, dismounted his
horse, and confidently walked up to the line of
soldiers. When he was within earshot of the men,
he threw open his coat and 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 erupted into shouts of
"Vive L'Empereur!" The soldiers sent to stop the
former emperor instead joined the ranks behind him
and marched with Napoléon to Paris. He arrived on
20 March, quickly raising a regular army of
140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000
and governed for a Hundred Days.

Napoléon's final defeat came at the hands of the
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of
Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at
the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium on
18 June 1815.

Off the port of Rochefort,
Charente-Maritime|Rochefort, Napoléon made his
formal surrender while on board HMS Bellerophon
(1786)|HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.

==Exile in Saint Helena and death==



Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the
British to the island of Saint Helena (2,800 km
off the Bight of Guinea) from 15 October 1815.
Whilst there, with a small cadre of followers, he
dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors.
In the last half of April 1821, he wrote out his
own will and several codicils (a total of 40-odd
pages). When he died, on 5 May 1821, his last
words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army,
Joséphine."

A footnote to his legacy: it would appear that
Napoleon made an effort to study the English
language while living in exile during his last
years. He felt it important that he understand the
mother tongue of his enemies, and he was
particularly interested in what the British press
wrote about him. Though not apparently enamoured
of the language, he was a serious student under
the tutelage of Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, even
pondering how much money he might have saved had
he not required translation of English documents.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4645865.stm

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.

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.
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. There, it could have
reacted with calomel-and-mercury
(element)|mercury-based compounds—common
medicines at the time—and thus been the
immediate cause of his death.

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 Prefecture of Police|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, but ineffective,
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
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3913213.stm.

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.

==Marriages and children==
Napoleon was twice married:

*Firstly, on 9 March 1796 to Joséphine de
Beauharnais. He later crowned her as Empress
Joséphine. She produced no heirs for him, leading
to a divorce.
*Secondly, on 11 March 1810 (by proxy) to
Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, who became
his second empress. They had one child.
**Napoléon Francis Joseph Charles Bonaparte
(March 20, 1811- July 22, 1832), King of Rome. He
is known as Napoleon II of France|Napoléon II of
France although he never ruled. In his later life
he was known as the Duke of Reichstadt.

He acknowledged at least two illegitimate
children, both of whom had descendants:
*Charles, Count Léon, (1806 - 1881), son by
Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne
(1787 - 1868).
*Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count Walewski, (May 4,
1810 - October 27, 1868), son of Marie, Countess
Walewski (1789 - 1817).

Other information points to his having had further
illegitimate children:
* Émilie Louise Marie Françoise Joséphine
Pellapra, daughter by Françoise-Marie LeRoy.
* Karl Eugin von Mühlfeld, son by Victoria Kraus.
* Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, daughter by
Countess Charles Tristan, marquis de
Montholon|Montholon.
* Barthélemy St Hilaire (August 19, 1805 -
November 24, 1895) whose mother remains unknown.

Napoleon also formally adopted his stepson Eugene
de Beauharnais and Josephine's cousin, Stephanie
de Beauharnais, after assuming the Imperial
throne, in order to arrange "dynastic" marriages
for them.

==Burial==

Napoléon had asked in his will to be buried on
the banks of the Seine, but when he died in 1821
he was buried on Saint Helena. This final wish was
not executed until 1840, when his remains were
taken to France in the frigate French ship Belle
Poule (1828)|Belle-Poule and entombed in Les
Invalides, Paris. Upon opening the tomb, they
found that Napoleon's body was completely
preserved, as if he had died yesterday. This may
have been due to arsenic poisoning. (See Above)
Hundreds of millions have visited his tomb since
that date.

==Legacy==
Napoleon is credited with introducing the concept
of the modern professional conscript army to
Europe, an innovation which other states were
forced to follow.

In France, Napoleon is also seen as having
preserved the Revolution by creating and
perpetuating its myth. He ended the lawlessness
and disorder spawned by the Revolution; in modern
terms, he was a "law and order" ruler.
Furthermore, the Napoleonic Wars also exported the
French Revolution|Revolution to the rest of
Europe, and it is believed that the movements of
national unification and the rise of the nation
state, notably in Italy and Germany, were rooted
in and precipitated—if not caused—by
the Napoleonic rule of those areas.



In Britain he is remembered as a despot. During
his lifetime, he was often caricatured as a
tyrannical (and diminutive) ogre, and these images
have continued to colour the British memory of
him. However, he also had admirers in Britain
(especially among the Whigs). He is remembered in
song (e.g. 'Boney was a warrior') and poem, and as
the grand enemy threatening the gates.
Nevertheless, Napoleon is also sometimes referred
to as the "Armed Soldier of Democracy."

The Code Napoleon|Code Napoléon was adopted
throughout much of Europe and remained after
Napoleon's defeat. Professor Dieter Langewiesche
of the Eberhard Karls University of
Tübingen|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
Second Reich 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 we
construct equilateral triangles on the sides of
any triangle (all outward or all inward), the
centres of those equilateral triangles themselves
form an equilateral triangle, as illustrated on
the right. See the discussion in
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath270/kmath270.ht
m about the significance of the theorem.

==Misconceptions about Napoleon's height==
Contrary to popular belief (perpetuated by the
above-mentioned caricatures), Napoleon was not
especially short.  
After his death in 1821, the French emperor's
height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in
French feet.  
This corresponds to 5 feet 6.5 inches in
English feet, or 1.686 meters
http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/faq/
index.asp, making him slightly taller than an
average Frenchman of the 19th century.  
In addition to this miscalculation, his nickname
le petit caporal adds to the confusion, as
non-francophones mistakenly take petit as meaning
"small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term
reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary
soldiers.

==See also==
wikiquotepar|Napoleon Bonaparte
commons|Napoleon
* 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)

==References==
*Web reference | title=Bonaparte (Napoléon Ier) |
work=Insecula: L'encyclopedie des artes et de
l'architecture |
URL=http://www.insecula.com/contact/A003985.html/
| date = 25 September | year=2003
*Web reference
| title=Napoleon | work=Napoleon Series |
URL=http://www.napoleonseries.org/index.cfm | date
= 10 February | year=2004 (Now a dead link;
comparable material is at
http://www.napoleon-series.org.)
*Web reference | title=Napoleon I of France |
work=France.com |
URL=http://www.france.com/docs/364.html | date =
20 February | year=2005
*Book reference | Author= Asprey, Robert |
Title=The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte | Publisher=
New York: Basic Books| Year= 2000| ID=ISBN
0-465-04879-X
*Book reference | Author= Cronin, Vincent |
Title=Napoleon | Publisher= London: HarperCollins
| Year=1994 | ID=ISBN 0-00-637521-9
*Book reference | Author= Durant, will and Durant,
Ariel | Title=The Age of Napoleon | Publisher= New
York: Simon and Schuster | Year = 1975 | ID=ISBN
0-671-21988-X (PT. 11)
*Book reference | Author= McLynn, Frank |
Title=Napoleon | Publisher=London: Pimlico |
Year=1998 | ID=ISBN 0-7126-6247-2
* Book reference | Author= Pope, Stephen |
Title=The Cassel Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars
| Publisher= Cassel | Year=1999 | ID=ISBN
0-304-35229-2
* Book reference | Author= Schom, Alan | Title=
Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life | Year= 1998 |
Publisher= Perennial | ID=ISBN 0-06-092958-8
* Book reference | Author= Zamoyski, Adam | Title=
1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow | Year=
2004 | Publisher= HarperCollins | ID=ISBN
0-00-718489-1
* Full texts of
**http://wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_du_13_d%
C3%A9cembre_1799 The constitution of the Consulate
(in French language|French)
**http://wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_du_18_ma
i_1804 The Imperial Constitution (in French)
**gutenberg|no=3567|name=Memoirs of Napoleon
**gutenberg|no=14300|name=The Life of Napoleon I

== External links ==
* gutenberg
author|id=Napoleon_Bonaparte|name=Napoleon
Bonaparte
*
http://www.grand-illusions.com/napoleon/napol1.htm
"The Strange Story of Napoleon's Wallpaper" -
discussing the possibility of arsenic poisoning
*
http://www.geocities.com/superstorelink/napoleon.h
tml Napoleon - Portraits and Paintings
*
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath270/kmath270.ht
m| Napoleon's theorem
* http://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/home.html
PBS Napoleon - Detailed biography of Napoleon

{| align="center" cellpadding="2" border="2"
|-
| width="20%" align="center" rowspan="2" |
Preceded by:
College of 5 directors:
Paul
François Jean Nicolas Barras|Paul BARRAS
Roger
Ducos|Roger DUCOS
Louis-Jérôme
Gohier|Louis-Jérôme GOHIER
Jean-François
Moulin|Jean-François MOULIN
Emmanuel Joseph
Sieyès|Joseph SIEYÈS
| width="60%" align="center" colspan="3"| Head of
State of France
(1st time)
| width="20%" align="center" rowspan="2"|
Succeeded by:
Louis XVIII of France|Louis
XVIII
(King of France)
|-
| width="22%" align="center" | Provisional
Consul
along with:
Roger Ducos|Roger
DUCOS
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès|Joseph
SIEYÈS
(November 11 - December 12, 1799)
| width="22%" align="center" | First
Consul
along with:
Jean Jacques
Régis de Cambacérès|Jean-Jacques
CAMBACÉRÈS
(Second
Consul)
Charles-François
Lebrun|Charles-François LEBRUN
(Third
Consul)
(December 12, 1799 - May 18, 1804)
| width="22%" align="center" | Emperor of the
French
(May 18, 1804 - April 6, 1814)
|}
{| align="center" cellpadding="2" border="2"
|-
| width="30%" align="center" | Preceded
by:
Louis XVIII of France|Louis
XVIII
(King of France)
| width="40%" align="center" | Head of State of
France
(2nd time)
(Emperor of the
French)
(March 20 - June 22, 1815)
| width="30%" align="center" | Succeeded
by:
Napoleon II of France
(Emperor of
the French)
|}