General, emperor and historical icon Napoleon Bonaparte goes down in history as being one of the few people who helped mould modern times. It's no surprise that many scholars and historians dedicate their lives to teaching, researching and discovering all that they can about the first emperor of France. However, there are a few things about Napoleon that are unlikely to be found in scholarly textbooks. Here are a few facts about his heritage, height, habits and more.
1. He’s not all that French
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, just off the coast of Italy. When he was sent to school in France, he was mocked for his Corsican accent. His family was more Italian than French, as the island came under the power of France a year after he was born. Napoleon even was a Corsican nationalist, longing to see his homeland overthrow the French rule. In the late 1780s and 1790s, he often returned to Corsica, but realised how provincial the island was and how much bigger the world seemed in comparison. Determined to make himself more French, Napoleon changed his name from Napoleon du Buonoparte to Napoleon Bonaparte when he was a young adult studying in Paris.
Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, just off the coast of Italy and changed his name to sound more French when he was studying in Paris
2. Age gap
Joséphine de Beauharnais was 32, widowed and highly established in French Society when she first met the shy, 26-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte. Within 6 months the two walked down the aisle and were officially declared husband and wife. Rumour has it that she dropped four years off her age on the marriage certificate and added 18 months to Napoleon's so the two were a more suitable match.
It's rumoured that Joséphine de Beauharnais altered her and Napoleon's ages on their marriage certificate to make them a more suitable match
3. He was a pincher
Apparently he had one habit not everybody could appreciate. Louis Constant Wairy, the emperor’s chief valet and general confidant, wrote about Napoleon’s dangerous hands in his memoirs claiming that when his master was in a good mood he would pinch his close friends by the tip of the ear. He was also known to pinch ladies’ noses, his friend’s cheeks until they turned blue and baby’s chins until their mothers had had enough.
4. Dog problems
Napoleon was very much infatuated with his wife Joséphine. There was just one problem: it appears Joséphine might have liked her pug, Fortune, more than she liked Napoleon. When Napoleon married Josephine, Fortune had already claimed a spot in her bed and Napoleon needed to either accept that or sleep elsewhere. When trying to be intimate with his wife on their wedding night, Fortune wouldn't stand for it and attacked Napoleon, drawing blood and leaving a scar on his legs.
Joséphine's dog, Fortune, attacked Napoleon on their wedding night
5. He wasn’t that short
As we all know, Napoleon was famously short. Or was he? Yes, for today’s standards, he may be considered short at 1.70 metres. But back in the day, this was actually considered average height. So how did this myth come about? It was most likely the fault of English propagandists, who depicted the general as comically diminutive in critical cartoons during the Napoleonic Wars.
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