Facts about Napoleon Bonaparte
- 11
Five of Napoleon's siblings were crowned monarchs across Europe between 1806 and 1815, with his brother Joseph ruling Spain and his brother Louis governing Holland.
- 10
Exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena in 1815, Napoleon spent his final six years under British guard, 4,000 miles from Europe in the South Atlantic Ocean.
- 09
Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife, was six years his senior and had been widowed during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror before their 1796 marriage.
- 08
Sold to the United States in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase doubled America's territory for 15 million dollars, a transaction negotiated by Napoleon's government to fund his European wars.
- 07
Between 1796 and 1797, Napoleon's Italian campaign defeated five separate Austrian armies in rapid succession across just one year, establishing his reputation as a military genius across Europe.
- 06
The Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, saw Napoleon's 73,000-strong Grande Armée decisively defeat a 90,000-strong Austro-Russian coalition in a single day, establishing French dominance over continental Europe.
- 05
Napoleon's civil code, established in 1804, standardized French law across his empire and remains the foundation for legal systems in over 70 countries today.
- 04
Over 400,000 soldiers perished during Napoleon's 1812 Russian invasion, representing catastrophic losses that crippled his Grande Armée beyond recovery.
- 03
In 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France at Notre-Dame Cathedral, a deliberate break from tradition that shocked European monarchies.
- 02
At 5 feet 7 inches tall, Napoleon was actually average height for a Frenchman in the 1800s, contradicting the myth of his extreme shortness.
- 01
During his 1812 Russian campaign, Napoleon commanded approximately 685,000 troops, the largest military force he ever assembled.