Additional material about Napoleon. Interesting facts about Napoleon Bonaparte. Why are Napoleon's hands always shown hidden in his pockets?

Napoleon Bonaparte is the first French emperor and one of the most talented commanders of all time. He had high intelligence, a fantastic memory and was distinguished by an amazing capacity for work.

Napoleon personally developed combat strategies that allowed him to emerge victorious in most battles, both on land and at sea.

As a result, after 2 years of hostilities, the Russian army entered Paris in triumph, and Napoleon abdicated the throne and was exiled to the island of Elba, in.

Moscow fire

However, less than a year later he escapes and returns back to Paris.

By this time, the French were concerned that the monarchical Bourbon dynasty might once again take power. That is why they enthusiastically greeted the return of Emperor Napoleon.

Ultimately, Napoleon was overthrown and captured by the British. This time he was sent into exile on the island of St. Helena, in which he remained for about 6 years.

Personal life

From his youth, Napoleon had an increased interest in girls. It is generally accepted that he was short (168 cm), but at that time such height was considered quite normal.

In addition, he had good posture and strong-willed facial features. Thanks to this, he was very popular among women.

Napoleon's first love was 16-year-old Desiree Eugenia Clara. However, their relationship did not turn out to be strong. Once in the capital, the future emperor began many affairs with Parisian women, who were often older than him.

Napoleon and Josephine

7 years after the French Revolution, Napoleon first met Josephine Beauharnais. A whirlwind romance began between them, and in 1796 they began to live in a civil marriage.

It is interesting that at that time Josephine already had two children from a previous marriage. In addition, she even spent some time in prison.

The couple had a lot in common. They both grew up in the provinces, faced difficulties in life, and also had prison experience.

Napoleon and Josephine

When Napoleon participated in various military campaigns, his beloved remained in Paris. Josephine enjoyed life, and he languished with melancholy and jealousy towards her.

It was difficult to call the famous commander a monogamist, and even rather the opposite. His biographers suggest that he had about 40 favorites. From some of them he had children.

After living with Josephine for about 14 years, Napoleon decides to divorce her. One of the main reasons for the divorce was that the girl could not have children.

An interesting fact is that Bonaparte initially proposed marriage to Anna Pavlovna Romanova. He proposed to her through her brother.

However, the Russian emperor made it clear to the Frenchman that he did not want to become related to him. Some historians believe that this episode from Napoleon's biography influenced further relations between Russia and France.

Soon the commander married the daughter of the Austrian emperor, Maria Louise. In 1811 she gave birth to his long-awaited heir.

It is worth paying attention to one more interesting fact. Fate turned out in such a way that it was Josephine’s grandson, and not Bonaparte, who in the future became emperor. His descendants still successfully reign in several European countries.

But Napoleon's pedigree soon ceased to exist. Bonaparte's son died at a young age, leaving no offspring.

After the abdication at the Palace of Fontainebleau

However, the wife, who lived with her father at that time, did not even remember her husband. Not only did she not express a desire to see him, but she did not even write him a single letter in response.

Death

After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon lived last years on the island of St. Elena. He was in a state of deep depression and suffered from pain in his right side.

He himself thought that he had cancer, from which his father died.

There is still debate about the true cause of his death. Some believe that he died from cancer, while others are convinced that there was arsenic poisoning.

The latest version is explained by the fact that after the death of the emperor, arsenic was found in his hair.

In his will, Bonaparte asked to bury his remains in France, which was done in 1840. His grave is located in the Parisian Invalides on the territory of the cathedral.

Photo of Napoleon

At the end we offer you to look at the most famous photos Napoleon. Of course, all portraits of Bonaparte were made by artists, since cameras simply did not exist at that time.

Bonaparte - First Consul
Emperor Napoleon in his office in the Tuileries
Capitulation of Madrid on December 4, 1808
Napoleon crowned King of Italy on May 26, 1805 in Milan
Napoleon Bonaparte on the Arcole Bridge

Napoleon and Josephine

Napoleon at the Saint Bernard Pass

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The name of Napoleon Bonaparte became a household name not only due to his intelligence and leadership talent, but also due to the incredible ambitions, as well as the fast and dizzying career of its owner. Having started military service at the age of 16, after a series of brilliant victories, at the age of 24 he already became a general, and at 34, an emperor. Also among Bonaparte’s characteristics and skills there were many extraordinary ones. It is believed that he read at a tremendous speed - about two thousand words per minute, could sleep for a long time for two to three hours a day, and remembered thousands of soldiers by name.

Napoleon was very embarrassed by his short stature and loose, effeminate physique. As a result of such an inferiority complex on his headquarters, all the officers were short and well-fed, and the tall and slender fellows had no chance of making a career.

During Napoleon and Josephine's wedding night, the young couple got so carried away that Josephine's dog thought that her owner was being attacked, burst into the bedroom and bit Napoleon on the leg.

There is a known case when Napoleon caught a sleeping soldier at his post, and instead of bringing him to justice, he himself took the sleeping man’s weapon and replaced him at post. Such an act testifies not so much to kindness as to outstanding intelligence and sober calculation - actions of this kind help to quickly and for a long time gain popularity among soldiers.

During the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon completely unexpectedly abandons his army and hastily returns to Paris. He brings with him a giant statue of Set, which was believed to open the path to unlimited power for its owner. An interesting fact is that during the War of 1812, when the statue was transported along the Seine, an accident occurred and the statue drowned. Chronologically, it was after this event that a turning point in the war came and Napoleon began to rapidly lose his influence and power.

Another interesting fact is connected with the war in Russia in the life of Napoleon. Once, after watching the play “Oedipus” with Tsar Alexander I, Napoleon went to bed, but the night turned out to be terrible. He dreamed of a huge bear tearing his chest and devouring his entrails. Years later, I remembered the dream, and it became clear that the dream plot with Russia the Bear turned out to be prophetic.

It is a well-known fact that Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic. But was it poisoned? At that time, arsenic was used quite widely for both industrial and medical purposes. It is possible that Napoleon simply became a victim of charlatans or conscientiously misguided doctors who prescribed him drugs containing arsenic. Another theory suggests that Napoleon was afraid of being poisoned and, according to a popular theory of the time, voluntarily took small doses of arsenic to develop immunity to the poison. Naturally, such a procedure would inevitably end tragically.

There have been few rumors about Napoleon Bonaparte, some of them are fiction, others are true. Napoleon is a man of power. He tried to achieve his goals by any means, which is why he made many enemies. Even during Bonaparte’s lifetime, many legends were invented in order to spoil his personality. Back then it was not difficult to “get to” the truth, but in our time it is much more difficult to distinguish a “fairy tale” from reality.

Is Napoleon a writer?

There were rumors that the ruler had written his own novel. This is not entirely true.

Napoleon only wrote a story consisting of 9 pages. This work is called “Clissant and Eugénie”. Moreover, the emperor did not intend to advertise his work. He only shared the story with his close people, who subsequently spread his work to the masses. Historians claim that he dedicated this story to Lady Eugenie Desiree Clarn, 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.

Bonaparte could have become a writer; he had the makings of that. 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, the ruler once sent his work to the Lyon Academy competition. At first no one was interested in his work, but when Napoleon became a famous 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.

Emperor's water adventures

Together with his army, the emperor marched through Egypt to Syria in 1798. Passing near the wells of Moses, Napoleon decided to visit one of them, since it was low tide in the Red Sea and the weather was calm. When it was already getting dark and we had to go back, the sea began to rage. It was impossible to find the right road under the night light. The water covered any sign of the road by which the army had reached this place. Then Bonaparte came up with a cunning plan. The army surrounded him in such a way that practically no water fell on the emperor. The soldiers moved forward in a circle until the sea knocked them off their feet and forced them to swim. In general, no one was harmed as a result of this story. The soldiers escaped with only wet uniforms. Napoleon himself did not consider such a trip a mistake in his curiosity, and later he even joked that if the army and its ruler had not been able to get out of the Red Sea, the priests would have praised God for such a noble act.

Napoleon and the "attack" on the Sphinx

There was a legend that when the emperor's army was in Egypt and was practicing cannon fire, due to inattention, the shot hit the sphinx statue, as a result of which its nose was destroyed. Naturally, this legend is a pathetic fiction. In 1755, a certain Frederic Louis Norden had already provided a drawing indicating 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.

“We don’t take the wounded with us!”

During the battles of Jaffa in Egypt, Napoleon's army suffered defeats, so the emperor decided to retreat. And what’s most interesting is that 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 he left the suffering soldiers now, they would soon be captured by the Turks. To prevent this from happening, the emperor turned to the doctor Janet to relieve them of their torment. But the doctor refused to “finish off” the soldiers. The ruler also did not want to leave the wounded soldiers, so he stayed with the rest of his army near 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 was never able to convince anyone that he had not poisoned any of his soldiers, even soldiers suffering from the plague.

“Where is the Egyptian ruler?”

According to legend, in 1940, cleaners at a museum in Paris, due to their illiteracy, simply dumped Cleopatra's ashes into the sewer. According to history, these ashes were owned by the Emperor of France himself. There’s just one catch in this story – Cleopatra’s grave. No museum has it, and yet it was not lost in any museum. It simply did not exist initially, so one cannot even boldly say that this moment does it exist at all, or did exist in 1940?

The legend is also connected with the fact that there were rumors about the plunder of Bonaparte’s army in Egypt. In reality, the emperor did not rob anything. He just sent a team of scientists to Egypt to study various artifacts and monuments. The French ruler, of course, failed to conquer this state, but after what happened, many other countries began to become interested in Egypt. Consequently, the robberies began around this period. True, France didn’t even have anything to do with them, but for some reason all the blame was placed on Bonaparte.

"Prophetic dream" of a soldier

Legend says that before the Battle of Marenco, General Henri Christian Michel de Stengel approached Napoleon. The general went to the ruler and told him about his terrible dream, in which tomorrow in a fierce battle he would die at the hands of a Croatian soldier. Stengel asked Napoleon to personally save him from the death of his enemy, that is, to kill him personally. The Emperor, of course, refused his request. The next day Bonaparte learned that the general had been killed by a Croatian soldier. Because of what happened, Napoleon could not forget the prophetic dream of his subject for the rest of his life, and this incident did not allow him to find peace until his death.

True, Stengel was killed four years before the battle of Marengo, in Mondovi. And this fact refutes the rest of the story. Moreover, they also said that last words Napoleon were associated with the deceased general. However, no, not a single historian can say with certainty what the emperor said before his death; there is still debate about this matter. It is possible that before his death the emperor turned to his other generals, and not specifically to Stengel. But even if he uttered words associated specifically with this general, then there is nothing surprising, because Bonaparte was delirious before his death.

"Family Misunderstandings"

The emperor's wife, Josephine Beauharnais, had a daughter, Hortense. For Napoleon, she became beloved and dear, but the Bonaparte family did not treat such an unexpected daughter of Napoleon very well. And in order to destroy this hostility, Beauharnais decided that Hortense should marry Louis, the native son of the French ruler. At first Bonaparte was against such actions, but later agreed. True, it was already too late, the love feelings between Louis and Hortense had faded, and no one was going to force them to marry. Josephine hoped that if Bonaparte's son and her daughter had a child, he could become Napoleon's heir.

As a result of such confusion around the emperor's family, many rumors began related to the fact that Hortense's child was Napoleon's. 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.

“The New Life of Napoleon”

In 1815, Napoleon was sent to St. Helena. And according to history, he did not leave this island until his death. But almost a century later, a man named M. Omersa began to claim that, with a high probability, it was not the French ruler who lived here at all, but a man who looked like Napoleon. According to him, Bonaparte grew a beard and went to Verona, where he lived quiet life. And one day, in an attempt to see his son, the guards shot the emperor, and, naturally, none of the guards could even imagine that they had killed the French ruler himself. It is impossible to refute this legend with certainty, 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 history 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 of time?

"The sweet death"

Many legends and rumors were spread by propagandists in order to inspire fierce hatred of Napoleon Bonaparte in society. Many of these legends perished before they even began to exist, while others are still believed in by some to this day.

The essence of one such legend is that one day the emperor’s subject prepared him poisoned coffee. However, Napoleon's cook noticed that the woman had mixed something in his drink, so he suggested that he give up coffee. The emperor himself decided to make sure of this in a cruel way. He invited his subject and ordered her to drink coffee. She drank, and before her death she admitted that she really tried to poison the emperor due to the fact that 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 few of them are true. And this story, of course, is fiction.

The attempt at revenge ended in a crushing defeat at Waterloo, the final overthrow of the French Emperor from the throne and subsequent exile british isle Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where Bonaparte died of illness after six years of imprisonment.

We offer you ten amazing facts about this, without a doubt, extraordinary and very significant personality for European history, who in 52 years of his life literally turned the whole of Europe upside down, forever changing its appearance and having a colossal influence not only on France, but also on all other countries of the continent.

1. As probably every person who has ever heard of Napoleon knows, he is traditionally considered short. Although in fact his height, which was 168 cm, was even slightly higher than the average height of men of that time.

2. The most likely version of the origin of this misconception stems from the fact that in public Bonaparte almost always found himself surrounded by members of the personal imperial guard, who, as a rule, had very impressive growth.

3. By the way, today one of the French coins, a type of shoe, a type of cherry and even a pistol are named after “Napoleon”!

4. When the future ruler of France was a child, among his family he had the nickname Nabulio.

5. Surprisingly, Napoleon was very afraid of cats!

6. Despite the huge number of statements that in France it is legally prohibited to call pigs Napoleon, there has never been and is no such law.

7. In 1996, a lock of Napoleon's hair sold for £3,680 at an auction in London. By comparison, the Duke of Wellington's hair sold for "only" £598.

8. It was believed that Napoleon’s personal surgeon, Baron Dominique Larre, could amputate a person’s leg in just 14 seconds.

9. Bonaparte's first wife was Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, but Napoleon simply called her Josephine.

10. In 1795, Napoleon wrote a romantic novella, Clisson et Eugenie, which remained unpublished for 125 years, only seeing the light in 1920!

Outstanding statesman, a talented commander and diplomat - this is how he entered world history Napoleon Bonaparte. He gained his fame not only thanks to his extraordinary mind and all-consuming ambitions, but also to that dizzying career that delighted his contemporaries and impresses his descendants. Here are some pretty interesting facts about Napoleon Bonaparte.

• Napoleon began his military career at the age of 16, it turned out to be so successful and rapid that he became a general at 24 years old, and a great emperor at 34 years old. When he was still with the rank of lieutenant, in 1788 he made an attempt to enter military service Russian Empire. Historians believe that by refusing to admit Napoleon, Russia did not receive a great commander.
• It is widely believed that Napoleon was allegedly ashamed of his short height of 157 cm. But this is a misconception associated with the incorrect translation of his height from French pounds. If translated correctly, his height is 170 cm, which is quite normal for that era. It is worth noting that contemporaries did not consider Napoleon a short man.

• Nature endowed the emperor with many talents, for example, he read at an amazing speed of 2 thousand words per minute. Napoleon not only revered mathematics, but also made a personal contribution to its development - there is even a theorem bearing his name.
• For his research, Napoleon not only became a master of mathematics, but was also elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

• Contemporaries were amazed by Napoleon's efficiency, who slept only in the late evenings, spending 3-4 hours on sleep, but at night he was awake. The emperor had iron self-control - he effortlessly fell asleep even at the most important and decisive moments of his life. This was the case on the eve of the battles of Wagram and Austerlitz.
• As a curiosity, we note one of the interesting facts about Napoleon - he, undoubtedly, was a decisive and courageous person, but at the same time he was terribly afraid of cats.

• The emperor's fascination with hats is also funny. He demolished 170 unique hats during his reign. Napoleon personally came up with a model for his small felt hat, he decorated it with a tricolor cockade, the colors of which, ironically, were similar to the colors of the flag of modern Russia.
• Once, while walking around a military camp, Napoleon discovered a soldier sleeping at his post. But instead of bringing the offender to justice, the emperor, taking the soldier’s weapon, replaced him in his post. There is no doubt that such an act, testifying to Napoleon’s intelligence and sober calculation, gained him popularity and respect among the military.

• The opinion that the emperor was poisoned with arsenic is well known. But researchers of the life of this great man doubt this, since Napoleon could systematically take medications containing arsenic. This substance was widely used at that time for medical purposes.
• This is only part of the facts and legends associated with Napoleon Bonaparte.
• The Emperor was aware of his great role in world history and put it this way: his name will live forever, like the name of God.

Interesting video about Napoleon Bonaparte: