Tango01  | 18 Nov 2020 8:54 p.m. PST |
… convinced everyone Napoleon was short "At about 5'7", Napoleon Bonaparte was taller than the average Frenchman, but a legendary British cartoonist ensured that no one would remember Nearly 200 years after his death, there are only two things that almost everyone uniformly knows about Napoleon Bonaparte: He was French, and he was short. Bonaparte was indeed French, but at about 5'7", he was taller than the average Frenchman of the time. Taller, in fact, than recent French president Nicolas Sarkozy…"
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| Au pas de Charge | 18 Nov 2020 10:18 p.m. PST |
It's enough to give a guy a complex. |
| rmaker | 18 Nov 2020 10:35 p.m. PST |
Napoleon aided and abetted this impression by surrounding himself with tall people. Virtually all the Marshals were taller than him, as were both of his wives. |
| 42flanker | 18 Nov 2020 11:21 p.m. PST |
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| Glengarry5 | 19 Nov 2020 12:07 a.m. PST |
Napoleon wasn't French, he was Corsican. :) |
 4th Cuirassier | 19 Nov 2020 2:36 a.m. PST |
When he was born he was French in exactly the same way and to the same extent that a contemporary American was British. |
| arthur1815 | 19 Nov 2020 4:43 a.m. PST |
But as a young man he seems to have thought of himself as Corsican, rather than French. Legally he may have been French; but he was Corsican in ethnic origin and culture. Later, as Emperor, it suited him to emphasise that he was French to appeal to the army and the French people. |
| Brechtel198 | 19 Nov 2020 5:16 a.m. PST |
Or, he believed himself to be French… |
 deadhead | 19 Nov 2020 7:48 a.m. PST |
Worth thinking where he chose to be entombed (and got there in the end). |
| 4th Cuirassier | 19 Nov 2020 7:51 a.m. PST |
Same reasoning can be used to dispose of arguments that Wellington was Irish, as well, of course. |
| Brechtel198 | 19 Nov 2020 8:38 a.m. PST |
Wasn't Wellington Anglo-Irish? There is a difference… |
| Au pas de Charge | 19 Nov 2020 9:40 a.m. PST |
Whatever his physical height, Napoleon was apparently considered by his contemporaries to be a giant among men and could send everyone into blind panic by his mere effigy. By contrast, Napoleon only feared a graphic novel illustrator. |
| Tango01 | 19 Nov 2020 12:04 p.m. PST |
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| arthur1815 | 19 Nov 2020 2:40 p.m. PST |
Ah, Perfidious Albion! They publish scurrilous cartoons about their wartime enemies – what a disgrace! And they have the effrontery to actually have an even shorter hero whose last battle was a glorious victory – Horatio, Lord Nelson! |
| 42flanker | 19 Nov 2020 5:13 p.m. PST |
And he's 9 feet high now, on top of a fairly tall pillar. |
| Tango01 | 20 Nov 2020 1:06 p.m. PST |
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receives a gift from his wife…