Napoleon Buonaparte was born into a noble family on Corsica.
His father Carlo Buonaparte was a lawyer. He was admitted to
the military academy in Brienne in 1779, but he was able to
spend much of his time on Corsica. He supported the Corsican
rebel Pasquale Paoli, but later they became opponents and when
the civil war broke out in 1793 the Buonapartes fled to France,
where they called themselves Bonaparte.
During the
French Revolution he distinguished himself by chasing the English
from Toulon. He became a favourite of Robespierre, was arrested
for treason, released and then became a favourite of Barras.
In 1795 he defended the government against anti-revolutionary
troops and he was rewarded by Barras with a high military position.
In 1796 he married Joséphine de Beauharnais, the widow of Alexandre
the Beauharnais, who had been executed because of his military
failure.
A few days after his marriage he was put in
command of the troops that fought the Austrians in Italy. The
Austrian army was considered to be stronger, but Bonaparte won
many battles and entered Milan on May 15th. He returned to Paris
as a celebrity. In 1798 he left for Egypt, but after a change
of government in France in 1799 he left his troops and returned
to France, where he took part in a coup in November 1799.
He
became a member of the Consulate and by February 1800 he was
First Consul and had effectively seized power in France. After
the battle of Marengo he was able to turn his attention to internal
matters and he reformed the legal system as well as the economy.
In 1802 he was elected Consul for life with three million votes
against a few thousand. On December 2, 1804 he crowned himself
as the emperor of France. Early in 1805 he was offered the Italian
crown and he was crowned as king of Italy on May 26th, 1805.
The
other European countries distrusted his ambitions and many years
of war followed. In 1805 he entered Vienna with his troops and
on February 12th, 1805 he won a battle against Alexander I of
Russia and Franz I of Austria. Later that month the king of
Naples was disposed. In 1806 he fought Prussia, defeating Hohenlohe
near Jena on October 14th, 1806.
He had no children
with Joséphine, although he treated her son Eugène and daughter
Hortense from her first marriage as his own children. When he
was in Poland he heard on December 31th, 1806 that his mistress
Eléonore Denuelle had bore him a son and thus found out that
he was able to have children himself. In 1807 he defeated the
Prussian and Russian armies. The kingdom of Westfalen and the
Duchy of Warsaw were created. He intervened in Spain as well,
but the Spanish didn´t to accept his brother Joseph as their
new king and started a guerilla against the French troops.
Napoleon
wanted a heir for his throne and in 1809 he divorced Joséphine
to marry Marie Louise of Austria in 1810. In the same year Maria
Walewska, who had become his mistress in 1807 to help her country
Poland, bore him a son, Alexandre Walewski.
Things
in Spain didn't go well, but disaster struck after he declared
war on Russia. With an enormous army he went to Russia, but
there they found that all local resources were destroyed before
they could get to them and even Moscow was set on fire. Winter
came and the French army was forced to retreat. Most of the
soldiers and their followers died and only a small part of the
army was able to return to France.
Napoleon returned
to Paris on December 19th, 1812. A few months later Prussia
declared war. He was able to bring a new army together, but
the French were massively defeated near Leipzig on October 16,
1813. Although he managed to win a battle against Blücher's
troops early in 1813, his troops were defeated again near Laon
on March 9, 1814. The allied troops marched up to Paris and
Napoleon was forced to abdicate. He was given Elba and was allowed
to keep the title of emperor. He wished Marie-Louise to follow
him, but Metternich wanted a divorce and Marie-Louise was already
involved in an affair with Count Neipperg.
In Februay
1815 he left Elba and returned to France. His friends thought
it was suicide, but after he had set foot on French ground regiments
of the French army took his side at Grenoble and then Lyon.
On March 20th 1815 he reached Paris, a few hours after Louis
XVIII had fled to Gent in Belgium and he regained power. The
allied nations immediately decided they couldn't allow this
and prepared for another battle. Napoleon was narrowly defeated
by Wellinton and Blücher at Waterloo near Brussels on June 18th,
1815. This time his enemies took no risk and sent him as a prisoner
to St. Helena. There he died after six years and he was buried
on the island. In 1840 the ship the Belle Poule was sent to
St. Helena to return his body to Paris. There it was placed
in the Dôme des Invalides.
Family
• Son: Napoleon II, Duke of Reichstadt
• Wife: Beauharnais, Joséphine de (1796-1809, Paris: Mairie of the 2nd Arrondissement) (divorce or separation)
• Wife: Marie Louise, Empress of France, Duchess of Parma (1810-1821, Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine)
Related persons
• corresponded with Ali Pasha
• was sculpted by Barye, Antoine Louis
• adopted Beauharnais, Eugène Rose de, Duke of Leuchtenberg
• adopted Beauharnais, Hortense de
• employed Bernard, Simon
• met Berry, Mary
• admired Bigottini, Émilie
• is brother/sister of Bonaparte, Elisa
• has a connection with Cambacérès, Jean Jacques Régis de, duc de Parma
• employed Caulaincourt, Armand Augustin Louis de, Duc de Vicenza
• employed Constant de Rebecque, Benjamin
• employed David, Jacques-Louis
• commanded Davout, Louis-Nicholas, Duke of Auerstädt
• employed Denon, Dominique Vivant, Baron de
• was the lover of Denuelle, Eléonore
• was the lover of Duchesnois, Joséphine
• was painted by Eastlake, Charles Lock
• was the lover of Fourès, Pauline
• admired Franul von Weißenthurn, Johanna
• was the lover of George, Marguerite Joséphine
• was painted by Gérard, François
• was painted by Giordano-Clerc, Sofia
• was painted by Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Anne Louis
• met Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
• met Grétry, André Ernest Modeste
• was painted by Gros, Antoine-Jean
• visited Helvétius, Anne-Catherine
• was admired by Hobhouse, John Cam, Lord Broughton
• met Hogendorp, Carel, Graaf van
• was painted by Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique
• was a friend of Isabey, Jean Baptiste
• met Jumel, Eliza
• was written about by Junot, Laure, Duchesse d'Abrantès
• has a connection with Kielmansegg, Auguste Charlotte, Gräfin von
• employed La Bédoyère, Charles, Comte de
• was a friend of Lannes, Jean, Duc de Montebello
• was written about by Las Cases, Emanuel Augustin Dieudonné, marquis de
• was supported by Lebrun, Charles François, 1st Duc de Piacenza
• was supported by Lefebvre, François Joseph, Duc de Dantzig
• was painted by Lefèvre, Robert
• employed Lemarois, Jean Léonor François, Comte
• met Louise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, königin von Preussen
• was written about by Ludwig, Emil
• was admired by Mars, Anne Françoise Hippolyte Boutet Monvel
• admired Milder-Hauptmann, Anna
• met Müller, Friedrich Theodor Adam Heinrich von
• employed Murat, Joachim, king of Naples
• is uncle/aunt of Napoleon III Bonaparte
• commanded Ney, Michel, Duc d’Elchingen, Prince de la Moskowa
• employed Oudinot, Charles, 2nd Duc de Reggio
• employed Prétet, Charles Marie Étienne
• has a connection with Rémusat, Claire-Élisabeth Gravier de Vergennes, comtesse de
• admired Talma, François Joseph
• has grave monument designed by Visconti, Ludovico Tullio Gioacchino
• was the lover of Walewska, Maria
• was defeated by Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
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