Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

A poor Corsican noble by birth, Napoleon Bonaparte spent many of his younger years studying in France on scholarship at Brienne and then the École Militaire in Paris. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the artillery in 1785, once the Revolution was in full swing in 1793 he rose to distinction when as a captain he was placed in command of the artillery during the Siege of Toulon. His plans to force the British out of the harbor were successful, and he was rewarded with a promotion to general de brigade for his contributions to the victory.

Two years later he had made the acquaintance of one of the Directors, Paul Barras. While he was in Paris, a royalist mob threatened to overthrow the Directory, and the Directory asked Napoleon to disperse the mob. Napoleon sent Captain Murat and his cavalry to fetch artillery, and with this artillery Napoleon fired a "whiff of grapeshot" into the mob and dispersed it, earning the gratitude of the government. Grateful for their continued existence, the Directory promoted him to general de division and gave him command of the Army of the Interior. Wanting to fight France's enemies, Napoleon instead convinced the Directory to give him command of the Army of Italy despite its poor condition.

Soon on his way to Italy, Napoleon had been married to Josephine de Beauharnais less than two weeks before he left to assume command of the poorly equipped army in March of 1796. His divisional commanders, Generals Masséna, Augereau, and Sérurier, considered him an upstart due to his young age and lack of combat experience in comparison to themselves. As Napoleon entered the room to meet them, each refused to take off their hats in the traditional sign of politeness and respect, so Napoleon took off his own to show his respect towards them. Returning the gesture, each of his generals removed their hats, and Napoleon immediately put his own back on to show them who was boss. As their eyes met, all three looked away from General Bonaparte's steel gaze. Once away from their new commander, Masséna remarked, "That little bastard almost frightened me!"

Despite having little tangible support in the form of supplies from the government, General Bonaparte quickly set out to inspire his men and take the offensive. A series of maneuvers and victories quickly knocked Piedmont out of the war in less than three weeks, even though it had been fighting France for four years. Continuing the offensive, a few weeks later at the Battle of Lodi, General Bonaparte sighted some of the guns, which was typically the job of an artillery corporal. For this action, his troops nicknamed him "the little corporal". Napoleon and his senior officers then led a charge across the bridge under heavy fire, and the momentum was enough to carry the bridge and win the battle.

Napoleon and the Army of Italy continued to earn success throughout 1796 across Italy. His strategic concepts of rapid marches and concentration of force at critical moments confused enemy generals used to the siege warfare and fixed battles of the earlier part of the century. The Austrians launched multiple attempts to crush his inferior numbers, all unsuccessful. At one such battle, the Battle of Arcola, Napoleon was anxious to force a victory quickly much as he had at Lodi by leading a charge across the bridge. Grabbing a flag and waving it as a rallying point, he and his officers began to charge across the bridge, but the Austrian fire was too much. Colonel Muiron, his friend and aide-de-camp, threw himself in front of Napoleon to save his life and died when struck by bullets. In the ensuing chaos, Napoleon was knocked into a muddy canal of the river where he was still vulnerable to enemy fire, and a number of soldiers including Daumesnil charged into the canal to rescue their general.

After Napoleon's Army of Italy defeated the Austrians throughout Italy and arrived in a position to threaten Austria itself, the Austrians finally asked for peace. By this time he had astounded both Austria and France by managing to lead his army to victory despite the odds against him. England still threatened France though, and he was appointed to command the Army of England. When it became clear that an invasion of England was not feasible at this time, it was decided that the army would attack British interests in Egypt, and he set sail with the army. After capturing Malta and evading Admiral Nelson's fleet, the French army landed in Egypt, but soon were cut off from France when Admiral Nelson destroyed most of their fleet at the Battle of the Nile.

Nevertheless, Napoleon asserted control over Egypt and began introducing some of the ideals of the French Revolution while respecting the culture and religion of the Egyptians. He had brought scientists and scholars from France with him, and their work became the basis of modern Egyptology, with their most notable contribution being the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

Unfortunately, Great Britain had pressured the Ottoman Empire to declare war on France and raise an army to attack Egypt. Anxious to keep the Turks from gaining a foothold in Egypt, Napoleon went on the offensive, leading his men in an expedition to Syria. After the French army took Jaffa, he was faced with a terrible decision. The French army had seized thousands of prisoners, prisoners that they did not have the supplies to feed. The destruction of the French fleet had severely limited the French army's supplies, and the French did not even have an adequate number of soldiers to detain the prisoners. Worse, the prisoners had already fought against the French in many battles, been captured, and then released because of the French army's inability to care for them. They had been released after a promise to not take arms against the French again in a set amount of time, and they had clearly broken this promise, killing more French soldiers in subsequent battles. Napoleon consulted with his generals for a few days about how to solve this problem, and then finally decided to order the execution of the prisoners.

At roughly the same time, many French soldiers at Jaffa were falling ill with the plague. As French morale plummeted, Napoleon personally went to visit the afflicted soldiers in the hospital. In defiance of the possibilities of contracting the plague himself, Napoleon spoke with the infected soldiers and even helped move a corpse.

The French army advanced as far as the fortress of Acre before they were stopped. The British reinforced Acre and after two months of unsuccessfully attempting to take the city, Napoleon knew that it would not fall with the forces available to him. His army marched back to Egypt, only to learn that France was in danger. Occasionally news broke through the blockade, and by all reports the fledgling French Republic was in danger of being destroyed. The Directory had continued to antagonize its enemies and fight costly wars in an effort to maintain its hold on power in France. Napoleon decided to return to France and left command of the Army of Egypt to General Kléber who cursed him for this action.

Napoleon departed Egypt, taking only his closest officers with him, and again successfully dodged Admiral Nelson's ships on the voyage across the Mediterranean. Upon arriving in France, he ignored quarantine rules, hurried to Paris, and was soon involved in a plot to overthrow the corrupt Directory. Two of the directors needed a general for support of the army for their plot, and General Bonaparte was the perfect candidate. With his men in place, Napoleon made a passionate speech to the Council of 500, who quickly grew angry with him. As he was physically roughed up, his soldiers moved in to protect him and the politicians fled. With power secure, he and the two directors involved in the plot wrote a new constitution and formed the Consulate.

Seeking to put an end to the wars, First Consul Bonaparte personally led the Army of the Reserve into Italy and defeated the Austrians at the close fought Battle of Marengo. After General Moreau's victory of Hohenlinden six months later, the Austrians again asked for peace.

On Christmas Eve of 1800, Napoleon and some of his friends and family traveled to the Opera to watch Hadyn's Creation for its first performance in France. As they were riding in their carriages, an explosion went off behind them, killing many innocent bystanders and wounding Napoleon's stepdaughter Hortense de Beauharnais. The conspirators had filled a horse drawn cart with a bomb and paid a fourteen year old girl to hold the horse for a few minutes. Napoleon had narrowly evaded the bomb due to the mistiming of the conspirators and the inebriated, speedy driving of his coachman driving the carriage. In all nine people were killed and twenty six wounded, and two of the conspirators were arrested, tried, and executed while a third escaped. The leader of the conspiracy to kill Napoleon, Georges Cadoudal, was caught a few years later and executed. However, much of the funding for the plot had come from the British government and French royalist exiles living in Britain, despite Napoleon's generous amnesty to all who had fled during the Revolution. Despite British involvement in the plot against his life, Napoleon negotiated with the British and soon the British had also agreed to the Peace of Amiens, ending the wars brought about by reactions to the French Revolution.

As First Consul, Napoleon sought to bring order, prosperity, and unity to France. Napoleon led the development of the Civil Code, which forbade privilege based on birth, granted freedom of religion, and established standardized laws and rights throughout France. In later years Napoleon would remark that the Civil Code was his greatest legacy. He also established the Legion of Honor, an order of honor that could be won for either civilian or military merit. Another of his Consular legacies was the establishment of the Bank of France and improvement of the economy. While the economic policies of the Directory had led to significant national debt, nearly worthless money due to inflation, and many government employees going unpaid, Napoleon's sound economic policy revived the French economy and improved the lives of many. He also invested heavily in public education for the French, a Revolutionary ideal that had so far gone unimplemented. After negotiating with the Pope, Napoleon brought Catholicism back as the official religion of France but ensured that religious freedom and separation of church and state would continue. Last but not least, he offered a general amnesty to all French citizens who had fled during the Revolution, hoping to heal the divide that the violence of the Revolution had produced.

In 1804, by popular vote of the people of France, Napoleon was to be crowned Emperor of the French. This was seen by many as a necessary step to avert assassination attempts on his life, to show that France could not be brought down by the death of Napoleon. Napoleon's popularity in France was huge due to his accomplishments and the improved quality of life his leadership had brought about, especially when compared to the tumultuous years of the Revolution of the previous decade. On December 2nd, 1804, Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French, in a ceremony largely symbolic of Charlemagne being crowned as Holy Roman Emperor a millennium before. The Pope had been invited to crown Napoleon to complete this symbolism, however Napoleon took the crown from the Pope and crowned himself, indicating that he had risen on his own success. He then crowned his wife Josephine as Empress of the French.

Peace did not last long though. The British government ignored the agreements laid out in the Peace of Amiens and offered money to Austria, Russia, and Prussia to go to war with France. Enticed by British money and afraid of the Revolutionary ideals such as the removal of privilege by birth, the leaders of Austria and Russia declared war on France and the Third Coalition was born. Napoleon wasted no time and in response quickly moved La Grande Armée towards Germany. Napoleon's strategic genius successfully outmaneuvered much of the Austrian army under General Mack, forcing Mack to surrender 27,000 troops at Ulm with barely a shot being fired.

As the the Russian army and remains of the Austrian army successfully joined up and now outnumbered his troops, Napoleon's Grande Armée began to fall back. Napoleon sent General Savary to negotiate with the Allies, but moreso to convince them that Napoleon was not confident about the outcome of the war. Savary successfully did this, and brought back a Russian prince to Napoleon, who arrogantly lectured him and told him to surrender. Napoleon appeared to agree with the prince about his chances of success, and the prince dutifully reported back to Czar Alexander of Napoleon's weakness. On December 1st, 1805, Napoleon's men saw him inspecting their positions and began to cry out, "Vive l'Empereur!" since the next day was the anniversary of his coronation. The next day, Napoleon's trap at the Battle of Austerlitz worked exactly as he had planned, and the French crushed the combined Russian and Austrian armies. Austria sued for peace immediately.

The next year, Prussia began to prepare for war and predictably declared war on France. Napoleon's informants had told him of the warmongering attitude of the Prussian court, but he could scarcely believe they had kindly waited for him to defeat the Austrian army before declaring war. Knowing that the Prussian Queen Louise was one of the warmongers of the court, and admiring her beauty and defiant attitude, Napoleon called her "the only man in Prussia." Always quick to seize the initiative, Napoleon quickly maneuvered La Grande Armée into Prussia and crushed the Prussians at the twin battles of Jena-Auerstadt.

With the Prussians knocked out of the war, only the Russian army remained, and after the indecisive Battle of Eylau in February of 1807, in June the French army smashed the Russian army at Friedland. Czar Alexander asked for peace, and the landmark Treaty of Tilsit was signed between Napoleon and Alexander, forming an alliance between Russia and France.

The British still remained resolute in their opposition to France, and due to British naval supremacy after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon could not strike at them militarily. Instead he decided to bring them to the bargaining table through economic warfare. He established a trade embargo against the British and made it a cornerstone of his foreign policy, insisting his allies and defeated enemies also follow it. Most of Europe now complied with this policy which came to be known as the Continental System, however, Portugal did not, and Napoleon decided to move troops into Portugal and Spain to force them to comply. In response, the British landed an army in the Spanish Peninsula, and despite having to later evacuate it, they successfully occupied French troops who were never able to fully take Portugal. In the meantime, the foolish squabbles of the Spanish royal family caused Napoleon to demand their abdication and he placed his brother Joseph on the throne as King of Spain. Expecting to be treated as liberators for bringing the Civil Code and its natural rights to Spain, the French were surprised to find many of the zealous population rising against them. The Spanish clergy had seen the loss of power and separation of church and state that France's new laws established, and in response incited many of the population to a religious holy war against the French.

In the meantime, Austria saw an opportunity for revenge against France since much of the French army was now occupied with events in Spain. Russia was allied with France and were supposed to come to France's aid if Austria attacked, but instead did nothing when the attack came. Austria invaded French allies in Germany in 1809, initially scoring successes until Napoleon arrived on the scene to take command. During this campaign, as Napoleon was holding sessions to address the issues of various people, a young German man named Friedrich Staps approached him. Just in the nick of time, Napoleon's aide General Rapp seized the young man, who had hidden a knife in his coat and was about to stab Napoleon. Napoleon attempted to pardon the man, but the man said defiantly that if he were let go, he would merely try and try again to kill Napoleon until either he himself or Napoleon was dead. At that point, Napoleon reluctantly ordered the man's execution.

Forcing a confrontation with the Austrians at Aspern-Essling, the French would lose this battle more to the current of the Danube River than to the Austrian skills. As the battle began to wind down, Marshal Lannes was critically wounded and brought back to safety by his men. Napoleon saw his wounded friend and rushed to him, deeply concerned that Lannes might die. Every day he visited the wounded marshal, but finally on the 31st of May Lannes died. Napoleon, upon arriving that day and learning of his friend's death, wept by his side for most of the day. Four years later, when Duroc was mortally wounded, Napoleon was similarly upset to lose one of his few close friends. Six weeks after his first major loss at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon had learned from the mistakes of Aspern-Essling and defeated the Austrians at Wagram, and they again sued for peace.

Fully aware that France needed allies to maintain a balance of power and peace in Europe, and disappointed that Czar Alexander had not assisted him as promised against the Austrians, Napoleon hoped to solidify an alliance through marriage. He first asked for the hand of Alexander's sister but was politely refused. Unable to form a bond with Russia, he then asked for Emperor Francis of Austria's daughter's hand. In 1810, Napoleon divorced the love of his life, Josephine, and married Marie Louise, the daughter of the Austrian Emperor, forming an alliance that he hoped would cement peace. From this union his son, Napoleon II, was born.

In 1812, Napoleon began to prepare for a confrontation with Russia. The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 had laid out the alliance between France and Russia, but while Napoleon followed through on his parts of the treaty, Czar Alexander had not fulfilled his side of the treaty. Russia was supposed to help defend France against Austria, but in 1809 when Austria launched their invasion of French allies, Russia made no move to help France, having secretly formed an alliance with Austria. Furthermore, Russia had not complied with the Continental System, and so England continued to thrive with its trade reaching Russian ports.

Expecting a quick battle with the Russians to bring Alexander back to the negotiating table, Napoleon's plans were solid but his subordinates failed to execute his plans well. Each time the French army almost caught the Russian army, a failure of one of the French generals resulted in the Russian army eluding the trap and falling back deeper into Russia. Finally the Russians made a stand near Moscow at the Battle of Borodino, and were defeated as expected, but by now the French army had traveled far deeper into Russia than Napoleon had ever intended.

Hoping for a negotiation with Czar Alexander, Napoleon occupied Moscow and attempted to contact Alexander, who refused to discuss anything. Realizing how over-extended his army was, Napoleon ordered a general retreat to French allied territories. During the retreat, the lack of food and supplies alongside the harsh Russian winter almost did what no army could do, nearly destroying the once great French army.

After the French retreat from Russia, the Allies smelled blood and formed a new coalition against France. Austria, despite the marriage alliance with Napoleon, quickly turned on him, and Sweden, led by former French Marshal Bernadotte, also joined in the new coalition against France. All uncomfortably experienced with Napoleon's excellent abilities as a general, the coalition devised a new plan for fighting the French. They would avoid engaging the French where Napoleon was present, and instead go after his subordinates. Despite Napoleon's best efforts, this plan along with the significantly superior numbers of Allied soldiers proved to be his undoing.

After a series of campaigns in Germany in 1813, the French were forced to fall back and defend France on their own soil in 1814. The army had taken too many casualties in Russia and Spain, and the combined armies of England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Sweden were proving to be too much. By now France was only supported by Poland and Italy, as most of the German allies had also turned against Napoleon during the previous year. While fighting an amazing campaign in France, the French simply did not have the numbers necessary to seal their victories and hold back the Allied advance.

Finally, convinced by some of his marshals that continued fighting was futile, Napoleon abdicated his throne in favor of his son, who then did not gain the position. Napoleon was exiled to the tiny island of Elba in the Mediterranean, where he governed and tried to keep himself busy. The Bourbon aristocrats who had fled France during the Revolution finally returned to power through the Allied armies. Unfortunately, they quickly abused their powers, treating the people and especially the army of France very badly, as if France was still in the pre-Revolution days.

Before long, dissent with the Bourbon rule was widespread, and Napoleon seized on this to escape from Elba. He landed in France and began a march to Paris, picking up supporters along the way. At Laffrey, a battalion stood ready to kill or capture him, blocking his way. Napoleon boldly walked out to meet these soldiers drawn up in battle formation. An officer gave the order to fire on Napoleon, but no one fired. Napoleon shouted out, "Soldiers! I am your Emperor. Do you recognize me? If there is one among you would kill his general, here I am!" Not a soldier fired, and most joined Napoleon's entourage. He marched back into Paris with an army, and the king was forced to flee France. Napoleon had regained power without a shot being fired.

Given that the French populace welcomed him back and wanted the Bourbons gone, Napoleon hoped that the other governments of Europe would avoid interfering with a weakened France's government. He sent messages of peace to the other governments of Europe, but many of these were returned unopened as they refused to negotiate with France's leader. Throughout his years as a leader he had realized that the only thing that brought many of these governments to negotiations was military victories. France was still badly outnumbered as the Allied armies began to prepare their armies for another campaign, and so Napoleon decided to strike first, aiming to remove the nearby British and Prussian armies before the Austrian and Russian armies could arrive at France's borders. Marvelously outmaneuvering the Allied army, he split the British and Prussian armies, badly beating the Prussians at Ligny. But shortly thereafter, due to a multitude of mistakes and the failures of Marshals Ney and Grouchy, the French lost the Battle of Waterloo against the combined forces of the British and Prussians.

Despite the loss of the Battle of Waterloo, the French army retreated in good order and was largely intact and a capable fighting force. French politicians panicked from the loss of the battle, trying to realign themselves with the Bourbon king in the hopes of salvaging the situation. Lucien Bonaparte, Marshal Davout, and Carnot all told Napoleon that he should temporarily use force to reassert his will over the government, as regardless of what the politicians said the people preferred him over the Bourbons, but he would have none of it.

Napoleon abdicated again, and decided to turn himself over to the mercy of the British, hoping that they would treat him well since he was a former head of state. Expecting them to hold him on a country estate in England or send him to the United States, he was surprised and regretted his decision when they did not do this, instead deciding to send him to the remote island of St. Helena and allowing him little contact with the outside world. He died there six years later, plagued by sickness, but not before befriending those who gave him a chance, including the young Betsy Balcombe, daughter of a British businessman.

There is some controversy surrounding Napoleon's death. While the official cause is generally that stomach cancer killed him, there are questions surrounding the validity of this cause of death. A notable theory has been put forward that suggests Napoleon was poisoned by a member of his staff, Montholon, on the order of the Bourbons, who feared him making a return to France as he did after his first exile. A considerable amount of evidence has been found supporting this theory, with the most notable evidence being a strong correlation between dates of his sickness and high levels of arsensic in his hair.

Most of the individuals on the island kept diaries of events, and Napoleon's valet Louis Marchand recorded Napoleon's symptoms and dates of sickness. In the 20th century, toxicity scientists analyzed locks of hair cut from Napoleon's head on recorded dates and compared the dates of Napoleon's sickness to the corresponding position down the length of his hair. A correlation was found between extremely high levels of arsenic in his hair on the dates of his worst symptoms. While a variety of theories aim to account for suspicions about his death such as other ways in which arsenic could enter his hair, those theories have yet to disprove the correlation.