Napoleon I

Napoleon I (1769-1821), Emperor of France, b. Ajaccio, Corsica.

There was once a time when parents in England told naughty children, 'If you don't behave, "Boney" will get you.' The fearful 'Boney' was Napoleon Bonaparte.

He went to a military school in France at the age of ten, at sixteen was a lieutenant in the French Army, and at twenty-six a general.

Napoleon supported the French Revolution which had begun in 1789 and one day, in Paris, its leaders asked him to put down a riot by their enemies. He did so and, as a reward, he was sent to command the French forces in Italy. There he defeated the Austrians and returned to France a hero.

Next he invaded Egypt. He conquered the country but Nelson wiped out his fleet in the Battle of the Nile and Napoleon returned to France alone. Again he was welcomed as a hero and he was made First Consul - a post which made him head of the state.

He gradually took more power for himself and in 1804 he became Emperor. Then he set out to conquer all Europe. In the next ten years, he fought and defeated in turn, Austria, Prussia and other countries and states, and by 1810 France ruled most of Europe.

British armies kept the French fighting in Spain and Portugal from 1808-14 and in 1812 Napoleon had to retreat from Moscow after invading Russia. A year later, Russia, Prussia and Sweden defeated him in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig and his power came to an end.

He gave up his throne and retired to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean but returned to France in 1815. He was welcomed back and he led the French army once more, but at Waterloo, in Belgium, he was defeated by the English under the Duke of Wellington. He was exiled to the isle of St. Helena in the South Atlantic and there he died.

In twenty years he had fought more wars, gained more victories, conquered more land and killed more people than anybody else before him in history.

See Frank McLynn Napoleon: A Biography