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The coup of 18 Brumaire

While in Egypt, Bonaparte tried to keep a close eye on European affairs, relying largely on newspapers and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. On August 23, 1799, he abruptly set sail for France, taking advantage of the temporary departure of British ships blockading French coastal ports. Although he was later accused by political opponents of abandoning his troops, his departure actually had been ordered by the Directory, which had suffered a series of military defeats to the forces of...

An interlude of peace

In 1800 Bonaparte returned to Italy, which the Austrians had reconquered during his absence in Egypt. He and his troops crossed the Alps in spring (although he actually rode a mule, not the white charger on which Jacques-Louis Davidfamously depicted him). While the campaign began badly, the Austrians were eventually routed in June at Marengo, leading to an armistice. Napoleon's brother Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in Lunéville, reported that due to British backing for Austri...

Emperor of France

In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an assassinationplot against him, ostensibly sponsored by the House of Bourbon. In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien, in a violation of the sovereignty of Baden. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on March 21. Bonaparte then used this incident to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as emperor, on the theory that a House of Bourb...

Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena(2,800 kilometers off the Bight of Guinea in the South Atlantic Ocean) from October 15, 1815. While there, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors. Sick for much of his time on Saint Helena, Napoleon died on May 5, 1821. H...

Napoleon was married twice: 1. March 9, 1796, to Joséphine de Beauharnais. He formally adopted her son, Eugène de Beauharnais, and cousin, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, after assuming the throne to arrange "dynastic" marriages for them. He had her daughter, Hortense, marry his brother, Louis. Though their marriage was unconventional and both were known...

Napoleon is credited with introducing the concept of the modern professional conscript army to Europe, an innovation that other states eventually followed. He did not introduce many new concepts into the French military system, borrowing mostly from previous theorists and the implementations of preceding French governments, but he did expand or dev...

Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon was actually slightly taller than an average Frenchman of the nineteenth century. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as five feet two inches using French units, corresponding to five feet, 6.5 inches (1.69 meters) using Imperial units. A French inch was 2.71 centimeters while an Im...

All links retrieved October 14, 2022. 1. Treasures of Napoleon 2. Napoleon PBS 3. Napoleon.orgThe History Website of the Foundation Napoleon 4. The Napoleon Series The Waterloo Association