Napoleon 1 Bonaparte, an outstanding French statesman, brilliant commander, emperor, was a native of Corsica. There he was born in 1769, on August 15, in the city of Ajaccio. Their noble family did not live well, raising eight children. When Napoleon was 10 years old, he was sent to the French Autun College, but already in the same year he ended up at the Brienne military school. In 1784 he became a student of the Paris Military Academy.

Having received the rank of lieutenant at the end of it, from 1785 he began to serve in the artillery troops.

The French Revolution was greeted by Napoleon Bonaparte with great enthusiasm, in 1792 he became a member of the Jacobin Club. For the capture of Toulon, occupied by the British, Bonaparte, who was appointed chief of artillery and carried out a brilliant operation, was awarded the rank of brigadier general in 1793. This event became a turning point in his biography, turning into a starting point for a brilliant military career. In 1795, Napoleon distinguished himself during the dispersal of the royalist rebellion in Paris, after which he was appointed commander of the Italian army. Undertaken under his leadership in 1796-1997. the Italian campaign demonstrated military talents in all their glory and glorified them throughout the continent.

The very first victories Napoleon considered sufficient reason to declare himself as an independent person. Therefore, the Directory willingly sent him on a military expedition to distant lands - Syria and Egypt (1798-1999). It ended in defeat, but it was not regarded as a personal failure of Napoleon, because. he left the army arbitrarily in order to fight in Italy with the army of Suvorov.

When Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris in October 1799, the Directory regime was at the peak of its crisis. It was not difficult for the general, who enjoyed great popularity, who had a loyal army, to carry out a coup d'état and proclaim the regime of the consulate. In 1802, Napoleon achieved that he was appointed consul for life, and in 1804, he was proclaimed emperor.

The domestic policy pursued by him was aimed at the comprehensive strengthening of personal power, which he called the guarantor of the preservation of revolutionary gains. He undertook a number of important reforms in the legal and administrative spheres. Many Napoleonic innovations formed the basis for the functioning of modern states and are valid to this day.

When Napoleon came to power, his country was at war with England and Austria. Heading into a new Italian campaign, his army victoriously eliminated the threat to the borders of France. Moreover, as a result of hostilities, almost all the countries of Western Europe were subordinated to it. In those territories that were not directly part of France, Napoleon created kingdoms subject to him, where the rulers were members of the imperial family. Austria, Prussia and Russia were forced to conclude an alliance with her.

The first years of being in power, Napoleon was perceived by the population as the savior of the motherland, a man born of the revolution; his entourage largely consisted of representatives of the lower social strata. The victories evoked a sense of pride in the country, a national upsurge. However, the war, which lasted about 20 years, pretty tired the population, moreover, in 1810 the economic crisis began again.

The bourgeoisie was dissatisfied with the need to spend money on wars, especially since external threats were long gone. It did not escape her attention that an important factor in foreign policy was Napoleon's desire to expand the scope of his power, to protect the interests of the dynasty. The emperor even divorced Josephine, his first wife (there were no children in their marriage), and in 1810 connected his fate with Marie-Louise, the daughter of the Austrian emperor, which caused discontent among many fellow citizens, although an heir was born from this union.

The collapse of the empire began in 1812 after the Russian troops defeated the Napoleonic army. Then the anti-French coalition, which, in addition to Russia, included Prussia, Sweden, Austria, defeated the imperial army in 1814 and, having entered Paris, forced Napoleon I to abdicate. Retaining the title of emperor, he ended up as an exile on a small island. Elba in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, French society and the army experienced dissatisfaction and fears due to the fact that the Bourbons and emigrated nobles returned to the country, hoping for the return of former privileges and property. Having escaped from Elba, on March 1, 1815, Bonaparte moved to Paris, where he was met with enthusiastic cries of the townspeople, and resumed hostilities. This period of his biography remained in history under the name "One Hundred Days". The Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815 led to the final and irrevocable defeat of Napoleon's troops.

The deposed emperor was sent to the Atlantic Ocean to the island of St. Helena, where he was a prisoner of the British. There he spent the last 6 years of his life, filled with humiliation and suffering from cancer. It was from this disease, it was believed, that the 51-year-old Napoleon died on May 5, 1821. However, later French researchers came to the conclusion that arsenic poisoning was the true cause of his death.

Napoleon I Bonaparte went down in history as an outstanding, ambiguous personality, possessing brilliant military leadership, diplomatic, intellectual abilities, amazing performance and a phenomenal memory. The results of the revolution consolidated by this major statesman turned out to be beyond the power to destroy the restored Bourbon monarchy. An entire era was named after him; his fate was a real shock to contemporaries, including people of art; military operations carried out under his leadership became the pages of military textbooks. The civic norms of democracy in Western countries are still largely based on Napoleonic law.

The French statesman and commander, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. He came from a family of an obscure Corsican nobleman.

In 1784 he graduated from the Brienne military school, in 1785 - the Paris military school. He began professional military service in 1785 with the rank of second lieutenant of artillery in the royal army.

From the first days of the French Revolution of 1789-1799, Bonaparte joined the political struggle on the island of Corsica, joined the most radical wing of the Republicans. In 1792 he joined the Jacobin Club in Valence.

In 1793, the supporters of France in Corsica, where Bonaparte was at that time, were defeated. The conflict with the Corsican separatists forced him to flee the island to France. Bonaparte became commander of an artillery battery in Nice. He distinguished himself in the battle against the British at Toulon, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed chief of artillery of the Army of the Alps. After the counter-revolutionary coup in June 1794, Bonaparte was removed from office and arrested for ties with the Jacobins, but was soon released. He was listed in the reserve of the Ministry of War, in September 1795, after refusing the proposed position of commander of an infantry brigade, he was dismissed from the army.

In October 1795, a member of the Directory (the French government in 1795-1799), Paul Barras, who led the fight against the monarchist conspiracy, took Napoleon as an assistant. Bonaparte proved himself in the suppression of the royalist rebellion in October 1795, for which he was appointed commander of the troops of the Paris garrison. In February 1796 he was appointed commander of the Italian army, at the head of which he carried out the victorious Italian campaign (1796-1797).

In 1798-1801, he led the Egyptian expedition, which, despite the capture of Alexandria and Cairo and the defeat of the Mamelukes in the battle of the pyramids, was defeated.

In October 1799, Bonaparte arrived in Paris, where an acute political crisis reigned. Relying on the influential circles of the bourgeoisie, on November 9-10, 1799, he carried out a coup d'état. The government of the Directory was deposed, and the French Republic was headed by three consuls, the first of which was Napoleon.

The concordat (treaty) concluded with the Pope in 1801 provided Napoleon with the support of the Catholic Church.

In August 1802, he secured his appointment as consul for life.

In June 1804, Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor Napoleon I.

On December 2, 1804, during a magnificent ceremony held in Notre Dame Cathedral with the participation of the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.

In March 1805, he was crowned in Milan, after Italy recognized him as their king.

The foreign policy of Napoleon I was aimed at achieving political and economic hegemony in Europe. With his coming to power, France entered a period of almost continuous wars. Thanks to military successes, Napoleon significantly expanded the territory of the empire, made most of the states of Western and Central Europe dependent on France.

Napoleon was not only Emperor of France, which stretched to the left bank of the Rhine, but also King of Italy, mediator of the Swiss Confederation and protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. His brothers became kings: Joseph in Naples, Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia.

This empire was comparable in its territory to the empire of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire of Charles V.

In 1812, Napoleon undertook a campaign against Russia, which ended in his complete defeat and became the beginning of the collapse of the empire. The entry of troops of the anti-French coalition into Paris in March 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate (April 6, 1814). The victorious allies retained the title of emperor to Napoleon and gave him the possession of the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.

In 1815, Napoleon, taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the people with the policy of the Bourbons who replaced him in France and the disagreements between the victorious powers that arose at the Congress of Vienna, tried to regain the throne. In March 1815, at the head of a small detachment, he unexpectedly landed in the south of France and three weeks later entered Paris without firing a shot. The second reign of Napoleon I, which went down in history under the name "Hundred Days", did not last long. The emperor did not justify the hopes placed in him by the French people. All this, as well as the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo, led him to a second abdication and exile to St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died on May 5, 1821. In 1840, the ashes of Napoleon were transported to Paris, to the Les Invalides.

(1769- 1821)

Despite the fact that the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte had almost no effect on the economic state of France, he was the greatest military genius, which allowed him to become Emperor of France. The “Little Corporal,” as he was called (Napoleon Bonaparte was only 157 cm tall), was one of the most famous “characters” of the 18th and 19th centuries. The biography of Napoleon Bonaparte is filled with both victories and defeats.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica on August 15, 1769. He often returned here to see his family during his military service. At the age of 16, Napoleon Bonaparte (he was in the service in France at that time) lost his father, who died of cancer. This moment became one of the turning points in the biography of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, as he became the breadwinner of the family. At this time, Pasquale Paoli, who had been the idol of Napoleon since childhood, became the ruler of Corsica and made the island independent from France. After that, Napoleon regarded this as a betrayal and renounced the ideas of Paoli.

Napoleon Bonaparte rapidly rose through the ranks of the military thanks to his unique military knowledge, which he gained from reading a huge amount of military literature. He also read a lot of works of art that were popular at that time, he was fond of the books of Voltaire, Goethe. Napoleon was not very interested in religion, but at the same time, he was a Catholic and sometimes thought about becoming a Muslim.

When a riot broke out in Paris, Napoleon took matters into his own hands. He quickly resolved the situation, after which he was soon appointed commander of the army. Under his leadership, the French aria won many military skirmishes in Austria, Italy, the French colonies and the Alps.

Napoleon was away from Paris for a long time due to numerous battles. In his absence, the royalists began to gain strength. To prevent them from taking over the government, Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed himself dictator of France, while having the full support of the army. When he first came to power, peace was restored for a time. However, in these times of peace, Napoleon led his attempts at imperialism, which made Britain uneasy. The war has begun...

In June 1807 The Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, concluded the Treaty of Tilsit with Napoleon. Under the terms of the treaty, Russia was to join the blockade of Great Britain. Over time, Napoleon demanded a tightening of the blockade, but Alexander I did not like it. As a result, Russia refused to comply with the continental blockade and imposed a duty on French goods. At one time, France also violated the Peace of Tilsit by sending troops into the territory of Prussia. Thus began the war between France and Russia. This campaign ended in 1813 almost complete annihilation of Bonaparte's troops.

Napoleon Bonaparte made many enemies because of his imperialist attitude. As a result, he was removed from power and sent on a mission to the island of Elba. Napoleon soon returned to France and gathered peasants and an army that remained loyal to his cause. But this did not lead to any result - Bonaparte was again sent on mission, this time to St. Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821. This was the end of a brief biography of Napoleon Bonaparte. This was an example of how a man with small stature (Napoleon Bonaparte's height was 157 cm) reached seemingly impossible heights.

Napoleon was the first who tried to unite Europe in a single commonwealth. The Great French Revolution elevated him to the pedestal of glory and handed over the fate of the country. But he was not a darling who got a lucky ticket. Napoleon was indeed a great statesman and had an amazing capacity for work. He opened the door to the nineteenth century and laid the foundations for a new Europe. The Civil Code of Napoleon is still in force in France, and his campaigns of conquest destroyed the fetters of feudalism in many countries.

Beggar Corsican

The inhabitants of the island of Corsica belong to the Etruscan tribe, who also dominated the north of Italy before the arrival of the Romans there. The Buonaparte family dates back to the 16th century and could argue with the Romanov dynasty in its antiquity, therefore, when in 1810 the French emperor invited the Russian emperor to intermarry, this was not a misalliance.

Pregnant Letizia Buonaparte galloped through the mountains, helping her husband fight for the independence of Corsica. Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on August 15, 1769, when everything was over. The boy's idol was Pasquale Paoli, the leader of the Corsican rebels. The petty aristocrat Carlo Buonaparte died early, but managed to attach his sons Joseph and Napoleon to the royal scholarship of the college in Autun.

Moving to France made a revolution in the soul of the Corsican youth. What did small-town patriotism mean with the greatness of this country! Vague thoughts about future glory finally got some shape. Not inclined to learn languages, the young Napoleon forces himself to learn French. All his life he would speak with a strong Italian accent, but his love letters and appeals to this day remain examples of eloquence.

Young Bonaparte is closed, reads a lot and dreams of becoming a commander. Studying at a cadet school and the beginning of a military career is overshadowed by poverty. He sends part of his modest salary to his mother, taking on the role of head of the family, instead of his older brother Joseph. The love of family ties will cause Napoleon many problems in the future. His brothers, who became kings by his grace, did not have even a hundredth of his talent, and the women he loved did not understand his greatness.

The collapse of the gallant age

Revolutions are detrimental to society, but one of their virtues is beyond doubt - they give a social lift to talented people from the bottom. Not only Napoleon had a dizzying career, becoming a general at the age of 23, but also many of his marshals. Let's just mention Bernadotte. This son of a Bearnes lawyer did not even have noble dignity. Napoleon made him a marshal, and then released him to reign in Sweden. Bernadotte's wife was a girl whom Napoleon himself once courted, and her sister married Joseph Bonaparte, who became king of Spain. What would be the surprise of a silk merchant from Marseille if he were told that both of his daughters would become queens? The courtiers were no less surprised by the tattoo on the body of the late King of Sweden, Charles XIV Johan - “Death to Kings”.

Anti-French coalitions are being formed one after another. Conspiracies are brewing inside the country and uprisings are breaking out. Revolutionary France needs talented generals. In 1892 Bonaparte was already a Lieutenant Colonel of the National Guard. He has not yet shown himself in any way, but he has already managed to form an opinion about the revolutionary people. Being present at the next outrage of the crowd in the royal palace, he bitterly told his comrade Burien that this bastard should simply be shot from a cannon. Four or five hundred would have been laid down on the spot, and the rest would have fled.

In September 1893, Bonaparte finds himself in the Republican army besieging Toulon. The head of the siege artillery, Dommarten, was seriously wounded, and General Karto knows nothing about military affairs. He is forced to use the services of a visiting artilleryman. Having carried out a brilliant operation to liberate the impregnable fortress, Bonaparte receives the rank of brigadier general and begins his path to glory.

On October 5, 1875, he puts down a royalist rebellion by doing a service to the Thermidorian government of Barras. Traders, who replaced the fanatics of the revolution, are trying to keep the loot in their hands. They are as little concerned about the position of the people as they are about the claims of the former aristocracy. The country is plunging into chaos and waiting for its deliverer.

Road to the throne

In this timeless time, Napoleon marries Josephine Beauharnais. The widow of the guillotined general is just trying to improve the plight by clinging to Bonaparte's uniform. But he truly loves her and does not notice the changes for a long time. Josephine is reckless. She will understand the meaning of her husband after she becomes the first man of the republic, but it will be too late. Returning from Egypt, he demands a divorce. She begs on her knees to stay. They will part in ten years, when it pleases the emperor to intermarry with the Habsburgs.

The leaders of the Directory begin to fear the talented commander. In 1797, he was entrusted with a miserable rabble called the Italian Army. Having dealt with corrupt quartermasters and suppressed anarchy, Napoleon defeats the Austrians and forces them out of Italy. He himself concludes peace treaties and collects indemnities. The riches of Italy help to create a dedicated and disciplined army, which has become the mainstay of his power.

Now he himself decides with whom he will fight. The shadow of Alexander the Great whispers to him about the country of the pyramids. Having deceived Admiral Nelson, he crosses the Mediterranean and lands in Alexandria. The Mameluke troops are defeated, but the one-eyed naval commander manages to sink the French fleet. The British blockade Napoleon in the Mediterranean and set Turkey off. But France is already ripe for the coming of the Messiah. Having abandoned the troops, General Bonaparte returns to his homeland.

Everyone expects decisive action from him. The leaders of the Directory help Napoleon carry out a coup d'état, hoping to rule from behind his back. In the struggle for power, he beats the merchants. Under the new Constitution, power is concentrated in the hands of the First Consul of the Republic. Bonaparte begins to reform.

During the ten years of the consulate, reforms were carried out that returned France to the status of a great power and restored her prestige. The system of taxes and public spending was completely restructured. The basis of financial stability was the gold and silver franc, which was in use until 1928. In foreign policy, the first consul sought the primacy of the French industrial and financial bourgeoisie in the European market. For this, he organizes a continental blockade against the main competitor - the British, drawing into it all the defeated countries, including Russia.

Russian campaign

In Russian historiography, Napoleon's invasion of Russia is considered without any connection with previous events. We are given to understand that it was a normal occupation. This is not so, because Russia has taken part in almost all anti-French coalitions and has almost always been defeated. The exception is Suvorov's passage through the Alps under Emperor Paul. By the way, under him, Russia made friends with France for a short time, but after the assassination of Paul with English money, she again entered into conflict to be defeated at Austerlitz, Preussisch-Eylau and Friedland. Napoleon was twice anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church, and in between received the highest award of the Russian Empire - the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called.

Having crossed the Neman in June 1812, Napoleon did not plan to go inland, much less conquer Moscow. Russia openly violated the trade blockade against England, provided for by the Tilsit Treaty. The Emperor of France only wanted to defeat the Russians once again and impose on them a new treaty against the British. He miscalculated, never understanding the Byzantine treachery and the noble arrogance of the Russians. Emperor Alexander was afraid not so much of Napoleon's victory as of shame, which would remain an indelible stain on his mediocre rule. On the advice of Bernadotte, the French are lured deep into the country, burning everything around, including Moscow, in order to tire and decompose the victorious army. It was a brilliant plan. It was not disciplined regiments that came out of Moscow, but crowds of marauders, who were finished off by severe frost, terrible roads and lack of food.

Dramaturgy of history

The last act of the play, which was the whole life of Napoleon Bonaparte, turned out to be the most brilliant. After his abdication in April 1814, he was given possession of the small island of Elba. He no longer has an army, no money, no power, but he knows about the mood in France. The state created by Napoleon works like clockwork, and the returned Bourbons envy the glory and talent of the "usurper", causing the increasing hatred of the people. With a handful of soldiers, Napoleon returns to the country and conquers it without firing a shot. Exhausted by wars, France can no longer fight. In the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), he almost defeats the Duke of Wellington, but the Prussian troops of General Blucher, who arrived in time, deal a crushing blow to the young and inexperienced French soldiers.

The British understood that by killing Napoleon, they would put a crown of thorns on him. The forsaken emperor is sent to Saint Helena, whose climate is detrimental to health. From here, Napoleon fires his last shot, the echo of which still rumbles. After his death on May 5, 1821, a will and memoirs written by the genius writer were sent to the continent. They contain all his thoughts, statements and exploits.

Indisputable is the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte as a military leader and politician, who made a lot of efforts to achieve success.

Napoleon Bonaparte became famous not only because of his intelligence and military talent, but also because of his incredible ambitions, as well as his fast and dizzying career. Having begun military service at the age of 16, after a series of brilliant victories, at the age of 24 he already becomes a general, and at 34 an emperor.

Briefly from the biography of Napoleon:

Napoleon was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769, a year after the conquest of this island by Royal France. The parents of the future French emperor were not very wealthy peasants, but they had a noble coat of arms. In the family of Bonaparte's parents, according to various sources, there were 8 or 12 children, but Napoleon was not the eldest.

Only Napoleon's brother Lucien can be considered gifted with talents in the large Bonaparte family. Napoleon's father was one of the active fighters against the French invaders of Corsica, and then an employee of the French governor. Napoleon took care of the members of his family and clan all his life, despite the constant betrayals on their part. Stomach cancer was a Bonaparte family disease - grandfather, father, one of the brothers and three sisters died from it.

From the age of 9, Napoleon studied hard in continental France. First he graduated from a religious school, then a military school. Napoleon was the first of the Corsicans to graduate externally (in one year instead of two) from the military academy in Paris. In all French educational institutions, Napoleon studied on a royal scholarship - a poor Corsican family could not provide for his son.

Bonaparte could have become a writer, he had the makings of it. At an early age, he already aspired to write his own works. And at the age of 17, he even took one of them to the publishing house. True, when the publishing house became interested in his talent, Napoleon was no longer interested in the career of a literary creator - he became an officer. Also, somehow the ruler sent his work to the competition of the Lyon Academy. At first, no one was interested in his work, but when Napoleon became an illustrious officer, the academy returned his copy of his work. Bonaparte, without thinking for a long time, threw it into the trash, believing that writing was just a mistake of the past.

In 1788, being an unclaimed lieutenant with great ambitions, Napoleon tries to join the Russian army for the war with Turkey. But, according to the terms of employment, he had to be lowered in military rank, the young lieutenant did not want to do this.

Napoleon - a French officer on leave from 1789 to 1793 - supported the Corsican revolutionaries in their struggle against the adherents of royalty. At that time, the young Napoleon did not want to return to the French service and the miserable existence of a junior officer at all. For refusing to fight the French Revolution in Corsica, he was imprisoned, and Corsican patriots burned down the Bonaparte family home.

At the age of 26, thanks to his personal services to the Revolution, Napoleon became a brigadier general and commander of the Paris garrison.

At the age of 27, Napoleon, having received command of the impoverished and ragged Italian army of the French Republic, wins several victories over the Austrian Empire, captures cities, establishes new states, and at the same time constantly sends millions of francs to France.

All the wars fought by Napoleon were devastating for the local population, as the commander believed that "the army must feed itself."

Usually, for the coronation, applicants for the imperial crown went to be crowned by the Pope. For the coronation of Napoleon, the Pope came to Paris. However, in the presence of the pope, Napoleon himself placed the crown on his own head. At this point, the first emperor of the French was 34 years old.

Having proclaimed himself emperor, Napoleon decided to conquer the whole world. Having won several major victories, he extended his power to Belgium, Holland, Spain, most of Germany and Poland. And Russia turned out to be too tough for Napoleon, in our country he, as you know, failed. The invincible army of Bonaparte in Russia came to an end.

In 1815, Napoleon was sent to Saint Helena. And according to history, he did not leave this island until his death. There are two main versions of the causes of death of Napoleon Bonaparte. According to the first, he died of arsenic poisoning, which was fought against rats on the island of St. Helena. According to the second, confirmed by an autopsy, death occurred as a result of stomach cancer.

Another version suggests that Napoleon was afraid that he would be poisoned, and, in accordance with the popular theory of the time, voluntarily took small doses of arsenic in order to develop immunity to the poison. Naturally, such a procedure would inevitably end tragically.

The burial place in 1821 of the emperor of France until 1840 was guarded by English sentries. 19 years after the death of the emperor, his sealed three-layer lead coffin was opened. The clothes of the deceased practically decayed, and the body almost did not rot. Maybe because arsenic is a good preservative.

During his military career, Bonaparte won about 60 battles, but he never neglected the popularity of his soldiers. There are many such examples - the officers and generals surrounding the emperor could bow to the cores, Napoleon could not afford this. But the emperor could calmly replace a sleeping sentry at the post or go to bed in the midst of the Austerlitz and Wagram battles.

There is a known case when Napoleon found a sleeping soldier at his post, and instead of putting him on trial, he himself took the sleeping weapon and replaced him at his post. Such an act testifies not so much to kindness as to an outstanding mind and sober calculation - acts of this kind help to quickly and permanently gain popularity among the soldiers.

Just before the Battle of Austerlitz, his glorious triumph, he fell into such a deep sleep that he was hardly awakened. At the very height of the battle near Wagram, at the most decisive moment, he ordered a bearskin to be spread on the ground, lay down on it, and in the midst of a flurry of fire fell into a dream. After waking up, after 20 minutes, he continued, as if nothing had happened, to give orders. + In one of the battles, a shell fell next to the soldiers, and they fled to the sides. Napoleon decided to teach them a lesson in fearlessness and rode up on his horse to the projectile, standing right above it. As a result, the shell exploded, and Napoleon remained intact, and only demanded a new horse.

Myths and legends about Napoleon:

Many legends, gossip and speculation are associated with the life of most famous people. Especially many myths and legends were invented about Napoleon Bonaparte, and among them it is already difficult to distinguish truth from lies.

1. The fear of cats attributed to Napoleon I actually suffered from his nephew Emperor Napoleon III.

2.Napoleon believed that China was beyond the Urals. What country did he consider China, because the emperor was one of the most educated people of his time?

3. It is believed that the performance and endurance of this person were fantastic - he could sleep no more than 2 - 3 hours for many days. However, according to the memoirs of one of his personal secretaries, the emperor's sleep lasted 6-7 hours a day.

4. Artists often depict Emperor Napoleon on a white horse, but Bonaparte did not like white - the color of the Bourbons and royalists. In fact, he preferred gray Arabian horses.

5. There was a legend that when the emperor's army was in Egypt and practiced firing from cannons, due to inattention, the shot hit the statue of the sphinx, as a result of which it destroyed its nose. Naturally, this legend is a miserable fiction. In 1755, a certain Frederick Louis Norden had already provided a drawing that the statue had no nose. And such a journey of the emperor with his army took place at the end of the 17th century. Moreover, this legend "spread" relatively recently - in the twentieth century, but historians and researchers quickly refuted it.

6. In fact, Bonaparte's height was 169 - 172 cm, which at that time exceeded the average height of Europeans. The legend of Napoleon's dwarf growth was invented by the British for slanderous purposes. The troops who loved him called their commander "little" because of the young age at which Napoleon began his military career.

Josephine and Napoleon

8. There were rumors that the ruler wrote his novel. This is not entirely true. Napoleon wrote only a story, consisting of 9 pages. This work is called Clissant and Eugenie. Moreover, the emperor was not going to advertise his work. He only shared his story with his close people, who subsequently smashed his work to the masses. Historians claim that he dedicated this story to Dame Eugenie Desiree Klarn, with whom he was in love. True, the emperor did not have a long relationship with this lady, as a result of which everything resulted in such a literary work.

9. It is believed that the science of Egyptology began during the capture of Egypt (1798 - 1799) by General Bonaparte. The winged expression of the future emperor belongs to the same period: “An army in a square. Donkeys and scientists in the middle. In this way, the most valuable thing that the expedition had was saved.

10. During the battles on Jaffa in Egypt, Napoleon's army was defeated, so the emperor decided to retreat. And what is most interesting, he sent all the wounded forward. Some of the wounded were infected with the plague, so there was no chance of their salvation, moreover, they could infect other soldiers. Bonaparte understood that if the tormented soldiers were left now, they would soon be captured by the Turks. To prevent this from happening, the emperor turned to the doctor Janet, so that he would save them from torment. But the doctor refused to "finish off" the soldiers. The ruler also did not want to leave the wounded soldiers, so he remained along with his rest of the army next to Jaffa. Who would have thought that because of what happened, Bonaparte would seriously damage his reputation. There were a lot of rumors about how cruelly the emperor treated his soldiers. Moreover, even many French residents believed in this myth. No matter how hard the emperor tried, he never managed to convince anyone that he had not poisoned any of his soldiers, even those who had the plague.

11. There is also a legend about the looting by the army of Bonaparte in Egypt. In reality, the emperor did not rob anything. He only sent a team of scientists to Egypt in order for them to study various artifacts and monuments. Of course, the French ruler failed to conquer this state, but, after what happened, many other countries began to be interested in Egypt. Consequently, the robberies began around this period. True, France did not even have anything to do with them, but for some reason all the blame was laid on Bonaparte.

12. The essence of one legend is that once a subject of the emperor prepared him poisoned coffee. However, Napoleon's cook noticed that the woman had mixed something into his drink, so he suggested that he give up coffee. The emperor himself decided to verify this in a cruel way. He invited a subject and ordered her to drink coffee. She drank, and before her death admitted that she really tried to poison the emperor because when she was still young, Napoleon “took advantage” of her. There are a lot of stories about the women rejected by Napoleon and how they tried to take revenge on him. But a few of them are true. This story is, of course, fiction.

13. Napoleon was sent to Saint Helena in 1815. And from history it is known that until his death he did not leave this island. But after almost a century, a man named M. Omersa began to assert that with a high probability, it was not a French ruler who lived on this island at all, but a man who looked like Napoleon. According to him, Bonaparte grew a beard and went to Verona, where he lived a quiet life. And once, in an attempt to see his son, the guards shot the emperor, and, of course, none of the guards could even imagine that he had killed the French ruler himself. It is impossible to refute this legend with accuracy, because there are no facts that would definitely confirm the presence of the emperor on the island of St. Helena. But the doubt lies in the fact that the story says that Napoleon stayed on the island for six whole years. Is it really possible, even for a talented "actor", to play the role of Napoleon for such a period?

14. It is believed that Napoleon remembered thousands of soldiers by name.

15. The emperor's wife, Josephine Beauharnais, had a daughter, Hortense. For Napoleon, she became beloved and dear, only the Bonaparte family did not treat such an unexpected daughter of Napoleon very well. And Josephine decided that Hortense should marry Louis, the son of the French ruler. Beauharnais hoped that if the son of Bonaparte and her daughter had a child, then he could become Napoleon's heir. True, it was already too late, the love feelings of Louis and Hortense faded away, and no one was going to force them to marry. As a result of such confusion around the emperor's family, at least a lot of rumors began that the child of Hortense was from Napoleon. And that Bonaparte's wife herself advocated such a relationship. Moreover, even some people from the emperor's family sought to bring these rumors to the masses.

20 interesting facts from the life of Napoleon:

1. Napoleon's native language was the Corsican dialect of Italian.

2. Napoleon Bonaparte had a lot in common with Adolf Hitler, namely: They both came to power at the age of 44, they both attacked Russia at the age of 52, and also lost their wars at the age of 56.

3.Napoleon Bonaparte was a talented mathematician. He invented a theorem that bears his name, and a ruler for constructing a square. For these and other scientific achievements, the Emperor was awarded the title of Academician of the French Academy of Sciences.

4. One of Napoleon's many drinking bowls was made from the skull of the famous Italian adventurer Cagliostro.

5. The appearance of buttons on the sleeves of the jacket is attributed to Napoleon. He did this in order to wean his soldiers from wiping their noses with the edge of outerwear - the emperor was extremely annoyed.

6. In honor of Napoleon, the famous cake and cognac were named.

7. The first French emperor loved cats, but out of superstition he avoided meeting black cats.

8. Opponents of Napoleon contemptuously called him "the little Corsican."

9. Napoleon was very fond of various hats. For all the time he demolished about 200 hats.

10. In the most responsible and fatal minutes, Napoleon suddenly fell into a dream, as if he had gone somewhere for some reason. Very often he repeated: “Tomorrow. The night brings advice."

11. After six years of imprisonment, Napoleon died of a protracted illness.

12. It was known that Napoleon liked Italian operas, especially Romeo and Juliet.

13. Napoleon almost never got sick.

14. Napoleon's wife, Josephine, was 6 years older than her lover.

15. Contemporaries were amazed at the efficiency of Napoleon Bonaparte.

16.Napoleon was considered a fearless person.

17.Napoleon Bonaparte is the author of the modern Italian flag, which he invented for the Kingdom of Italy. In 1805, he proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy instead of the Cisalpine Republic, declared himself King of Italy, and officially adopted the green-white-red Italian flag.

18. The foundations for the development of modern industry and the economy of France were laid by Napoleon, especially during the period of the Continental Blockade of Great Britain

19. The Civil Code (Napoleon Code) did not dare to cancel even the Bourbons who came to power. With various changes, this set of documents is valid in France today.

20. The Legion of Honor, which was invented and introduced by Napoleon, still exists, and the awarding of the Order of the Legion of Honor is considered prestigious all over the world.