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{{Short description|French general, Emperor of the French (r. 1804–1814, 1815)}}
{{Redirect|Napoleon Bonaparte|other uses|Napoleon (disambiguation)|and|Napoleon Bonaparte (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Napoleon I
| image        = Jacques-Louis David - The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries - Google Art Project.jpg
| alt          = Portrait of Napoleon in his late thirties, in high-ranking white and dark blue military dress uniform. In the original image he stands amid rich 18th-century furniture laden with papers, and gazes at the viewer. His hair is Brutus style, cropped close but with a short fringe in front, and his right hand is tucked in his waistcoat.
| caption      = ''[[The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries]]'', 1812
| succession   = [[Emperor of the French]]
| reign        = 18 May 1804 – {{nowrap|6 April 1814}}
| reign-type   = 1st reign
| cor-type     = 
| coronation   = 
| predecessor  = 
| successor    = [[Louis XVIII]]{{efn|name=louis reign|As [[King of France]]}}
| reign-type1  = [[Hundred Days|2nd reign]]
| reign1       = {{nowrap|20 March 1815{{snd}}22{{nbsp}}June 1815}}
| predecessor1 = 
| successor1   = Louis XVIII{{efn|name=louis reign|As [[King of France]]}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| embed        = yes
| office       = [[First Consul of France|First Consul of the French Republic]]
| term_start   = 13 December 1799
| term_end     = 18 May 1804
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Other offices held|titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey}}
| office2       = [[Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine]]
| term_start2   = 12 July 1806
| term_end2     = 19 October 1813
| office3       = [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|King of Italy]]
| term_start3   = 17 March 1805
| term_end3     = 6 April 1814
| office4       = [[Act of Mediation|Mediator of the Swiss Confederation]]
| term_start4   = 19 February 1803
| term_end4     = 19 October 1813
| office5       = [[Italian Republic (Napoleonic)|President of the Italian Republic]]
| term_start5   = 26 January 1802
| term_end5     = 17 March 1805
| office6       = [[French Consulate|Provisional Consul of the French Republic]]
| term_start6   = 10 November
| term_end6     = 12 December 1799
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
| birth_name   = Napoleone di Buonaparte
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1769|8|15|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[Ajaccio]], Corsica, France
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1821|5|5|1769|8|15|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Longwood, Saint Helena]]
| burial_date  = 15 December 1840
| burial_place = {{lang|fr|[[Les Invalides]]|italic=no}}, Paris
| spouses      = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Joséphine de Beauharnais]]|9 March 1796|10 January 1810|end={{abbr|ann.|annulled}}}}
* {{marriage|[[Marie Louise of Austria]]|11 March 1810|1814|end={{abbr|sep.|separated}}}}}}
| religion     = 
| regnal name  = 
| issue        = 
| issue-link   = #Children
| issue-pipe   = more...
| full name    = 
| house        = 
| father       = 
| mother       = 
| signature    = File:Firma Napoleón Bonaparte.svg
}}
{{OSM Location map|coord={{coord|45.3|13}}|zoom=3|float=right|width=306|height=330|title=[[Military career of Napoleon|Battles of Napoleon]]|caption=Rescale the fullscreen map to see Saint Helena|shapeD=n-circle|shape-colorD=navy|shape-outlineD=white|mark-sizeD=16|label-posD=bottom|ldxD=0|ldyD=-7|label-colorD=grey|label-sizeD=8|mark-coord1={{coord|43.13|5.92}}|mark-title1=[[Siege of Toulon (1793)]] from 29 August to 19 December 1793|mark-description1=[[Toulon]]|label1=Toulon|mark-coord2={{coord|48.86|2.35}}|mark-title2=[[13 Vendémiaire]] on 5 October 1795|mark-description2=Paris|label2=Paris|mark-coord3={{coord|45.36|11.28}}|mark-title3=[[Battle of Arcole]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Montenotte]] from 11 to 12 April 1796<br>[[Battle of Millesimo]] from 13 to 14 April 1796<br>[[Second Battle of Dego]] from 14 to 15 April 1796<br>[[Battle of Ceva]] on 16 April 1796<br>[[Battle of Mondovì]] from 20 to 22 April 1796<br>[[Battle of Fombio]] from 7 to 9 May 1796<br>[[Battle of Lodi]] on 10 May 1796<br>[[Battle of Borghetto]] on 30 May 1796<br>[[Battle of Lonato]] from 3 to 4 August 1796<br>[[Battle of Castiglione]] on 5 August 1796<br>[[Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)]] from 27 August 1796 to 2 February 1797<br>[[Battle of Rovereto]] on 4 September 1796<br>[[Battle of Bassano]] on 8 September 1796<br>[[Second Battle of Bassano]] on 6 November 1796<br>[[Battle of Caldiero (1796)]] on 12 November 1796<br>[[Battle of Arcole]] from 15 to 17 November 1796<br>[[Battle of Rivoli]] from 14 to 15 January 1797<br>[[Battle of Valvasone (1797)]] on 16 March 1797<br>[[Battle of Tagliamento]] on 16 March 1797<br>[[Battle of Tarvis (1797)]] from 21 to 23 March 1797|mark-description3=[[Arcole]]|label3=Arcole|ldx3=+15|ldy3=-10|mark-coord4={{coord|35.88|14.45}}|mark-title4=[[French invasion of Malta]] from 10 to 12 June 1798|mark-description4=[[Malta (island)]]|label4=Malta|ldx4=+7|mark-coord5={{coord|30.04|31.25}}|mark-title5=[[Revolt of Cairo]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Shubra Khit]] on 13 July 1798<br>[[Battle of the Pyramids]] on 21 July 1798<br>[[Battle of the Nile]] from 1 to 3 August 1798<br>[[Revolt of Cairo]] from 21 to 22 October 1798<br>[[Siege of El Arish]] from 8 to 20 February 1799<br>[[Siege of Jaffa]] from 3 to 7 March 1799<br>[[Siege of Acre (1799)]] from 20 March to 21 May 1799<br>[[Battle of Mount Tabor (1799)]] on 16 April 1799<br>[[Battle of Abukir (1799)]] on 25 July 1799|mark-description5=[[Cairo]]|label5=Cairo|label-pos5=left|ldx5=9|ldy5=-7|mark-coord6={{coord|44.88|8.68}}|mark-title6=[[Battle of Marengo]] on 14 June 1800|mark-description6=[[Spinetta Marengo]]|label6=Marengo|label-pos6=left|ldx6=5|ldy6=-7|mark-coord7={{coord|49.19|16.76}}|mark-title7=[[Battle of Austerlitz]] on 2 December 1805|mark-description7=[[Slavkov u Brna]]|label7=Austerlitz|label-pos7=right|ldx7=-5|ldy7=-10|mark-coord8={{coord|50.93|11.59}}|mark-title8=[[Battle of Jena–Auerstedt]] on 14 October 1806|mark-description8=[[Jena]]|label8=Jena|label-pos8=left|ldx8=8|ldy8=2|mark-coord9={{coord|54.43|21.03}}|mark-title9=[[Battle of Friedland]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Czarnowo]] on 23 December 1806<br>[[Battle of Eylau]] from 7 to 8 February 1807<br>[[Battle of Friedland]] on 14 June 1807|mark-description9=[[Pravdinsk]], Friedland|label9=Friedland|mark-coord10={{coord|41.15|-3.58}}|mark-title10=[[Battle of Somosierra]] on 30 November 1808|mark-description10=[[Somosierra]]|label10=Somosierra|label-pos10=top|ldx10=-15|ldy10=2|mark-coord11={{coord|48.18|16.52}}|mark-title11=[[Battle of Wagram]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Teugen-Hausen]] on 19 April 1809<br>[[Battle of Abensberg]] on 20 April 1809<br>[[Battle of Landshut (1809)]] on 21 April 1809<br>[[Battle of Eckmühl]] from 21 to 22 April 1809<br>[[Battle of Ratisbon]] on 23 April 1809<br>[[Battle of Aspern-Essling]] from 21 to 22 May 1809<br>[[Battle of Wagram]] from 5 to 6 July 1809<br>[[Battle of Znaim]] from 10 to 11 July 1809|mark-description11=[[Lobau]], Wagram|label11=Wagram|ldx11=-10|ldy11=-8|mark-coord12={{coord|55.53|35.82}}|mark-title12=[[Battle of Borodino]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Vitebsk (1812)|Battle of Vitebsk]] on 26 July 1812<br>[[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|Battle of Smolensk]] on 16 August 1812<br>[[Battle of Borodino]] on 7 September 1812|mark-description12=[[Borodino (village), Mozhaysky District, Moscow Oblast|Borodino (village)]]|label12=Borodino|ldx12=-10|mark-coord13={{coord|54.23|28.5}}|mark-title13=[[Battle of Berezina]] from 26 to 29 November 1812|mark-description13=[[Barysaw]]|label13=Berezina|label-pos13=bottom|ldx13=0|ldy13=-4|mark-coord14={{coord|51.33|12.38}}|mark-title14=[[Battle of Leipzig]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Lützen (1813)]] on 2 May 1813<br>[[Battle of Bautzen (1813)]] from 20 to 21 May 1813<br>[[Battle of Dresden]] from 26 to 27 August 1813<br>[[Battle of Leipzig]] from 16 to 19 October 1813<br>[[Battle of Hanau]] from 30 to 31 October 1813|mark-description14=[[Leipzig]]|label14=Leipzig|label-pos14=right|ldx14=-4|ldy14=-2|mark-coord15={{coord|48.64|4.95}}|mark-title15=[[Battle of Saint-Dizier]] is the primary link<br>---<br>[[Battle of Brienne]] on 29 January 1814<br>[[Battle of La Rothière]] on 1 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Champaubert]] on 10 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Montmirail]] on 11 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Château-Thierry (1814)]] on 12 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Vauchamps]] on 14 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Mormant]] on 17 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Montereau]] on 18 February 1814<br>[[Battle of Craonne]] on 7 March 1814<br>[[Battle of Laon]] from 9 to 10 March 1814<br>[[Battle of Reims (1814)]] from 12 to 13 March 1814<br>[[Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube]] from 20 to 21 March 1814<br>[[Battle of Saint-Dizier]] on 26 March 1814|mark-description15=[[Saint-Dizier]]|label15=Dizier|label-pos15=right|ldx15=-5|ldy15=-5|mark-coord16={{coord|42.78|10.29}}|mark-title16=[[Principality of Elba|Exile to Elba]] from 30 May 1814 to 26 February 1815|mark-description16=[[Elba]]|label16=Elba|label-pos16=bottom|ldx16=7|ldy16=-7|mark-coord17={{coord|50.72|4.4}}|mark-title17=[[Battle of Waterloo]] on 18 June 1815|mark-description17=[[Waterloo, Belgium]]|label17=Waterloo|label-pos17=left|ldx17=7|ldy17=-5|mark-coord18={{coord|45.94|-0.96}}|mark-title18=[[Frederick Lewis Maitland#Helenaincampaignwaterloo|Surrender of Napoleon]] on 15 July 1815|mark-description18=[[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime]]|label18=Rochefort|label-pos18=left|ldx18=7|ldy18=-5|mark-coord19={{coord|-15.97|-5.7}}|mark-title19=[[Briars, Saint Helena|Exile on Saint Helena]]|Napoleon died on 5 May 1821|mark-description19=[[Saint Helena]]|label19=Saint Helena}}
'''Napoleon Bonaparte'''{{efn|English: {{IPAc-en|n|ə|ˈ|p|oʊ|l|i|ə|n|_|ˈ|b|oʊ|n|ə|p|ɑːr|t}} {{respell|nə|POH|lee|ən|_|BOH|nə|part}}; {{langx|fr|link=no|Napoléon Bonaparte}} {{IPA|fr|napɔleɔ̃ bɔnapaʁt|}}.}} (born '''Napoleone di Buonaparte''';{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=xv}}{{efn|{{IPA|it|napoleˈoːne di ˌbwɔnaˈparte|lang|small=no}}; {{langx|co|Napulione Buonaparte}} {{IPA|co|napuliˈɔnɛ di ˌb(w)ɔnaˈbartɛ|}}.}}<!-- Do not change name. Please discuss on Talk. --> 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his [[regnal name]] '''Napoleon&nbsp;I''', was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the [[French Revolution]] and led [[Military career of Napoleon|a series of military campaigns]] across Europe during the [[French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars]] from 1796 to 1815. He led the [[French First Republic|French Republic]] as [[French Consulate|First Consul]] from 1799 to 1804, then ruled the [[First French Empire|French Empire]] as [[Emperor of the French]] from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815. He was [[King of Italy|King]] of [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Italy]] from 1805 to 1814, [[Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine|Protector]] of the [[Confederation of the Rhine]] from 1806 to 1813, and [[Act of Mediation|Mediator]] of the [[Switzerland in the Napoleonic era|Swiss Confederation]] from 1803 to 1813.

Born on the island of [[Corsica]] to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the [[French Royal Army]] in 1785. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 and promoted its cause in Corsica. He rose rapidly through the ranks after winning the [[Siege of Toulon (1793)|siege of Toulon]] in 1793 and defeating royalist insurgents in Paris on [[13 Vendémiaire]] in 1795. In 1796, he commanded [[Italian campaign of 1796–1797|a military campaign]] against the [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrians]] and their Italian allies in the [[War of the First Coalition]], scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. He led an [[French invasion of Egypt and Syria|invasion of Egypt and Syria]] in 1798, which served as a springboard to political power. In November 1799, Napoleon engineered the [[Coup of 18 Brumaire]] against the [[French Directory]] and became First Consul of the Republic. He won the [[Battle of Marengo]] in 1800, which secured France's victory in the [[War of the Second Coalition]], and in 1803, he [[Louisiana Purchase|sold the territory of Louisiana]] to the United States. In December 1804, Napoleon [[Coronation of Napoleon|crowned himself]] Emperor of the French, further expanding his power.

The breakdown of the [[Treaty of Amiens]] led to the [[War of the Third Coalition]] by 1805. Napoleon shattered the coalition with a decisive victory at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]], which led to the [[dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire]]. In the [[War of the Fourth Coalition]], Napoleon defeated [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] at the [[Battle of Jena–Auerstedt]] in 1806, marched his {{lang|fr|[[Grande Armée]]}} into Eastern Europe, and defeated the [[Russian Empire|Russians]] in 1807 at the [[Battle of Friedland]]. Seeking to extend his [[Continental System|trade embargo against Britain]], Napoleon invaded the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and installed his brother [[Joseph Bonaparte|Joseph]] as [[King of Spain]] in 1808, provoking the [[Peninsular War]]. In 1809, the Austrians again challenged France in the [[War of the Fifth Coalition]], in which Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after winning the [[Battle of Wagram]]. In the summer of 1812, he launched [[French invasion of Russia|an invasion of Russia]], briefly [[French occupation of Moscow|occupying Moscow]] before conducting a catastrophic retreat of his army that winter. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russia in the [[War of the Sixth Coalition]], in which Napoleon was decisively defeated at the [[Battle of Leipzig]]. The coalition [[Campaign in north-east France (1814)|invaded France]] and captured Paris, [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814)|forcing Napoleon to abdicate]] in April 1814. They exiled him to the Mediterranean island of [[Elba]] and restored the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbons to power]]. Ten months later, Napoleon escaped from Elba on a brig, landed in France with a thousand men, and marched on Paris, again taking control of the country. His opponents responded by forming a [[Seventh Coalition]], which defeated him at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] in June 1815. Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of [[Saint Helena]] in the South Atlantic, where he died of stomach cancer in 1821, aged 51.

Napoleon is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history, and [[Napoleonic tactics]] are still studied at military schools worldwide. [[Legacy of Napoleon|His legacy]] endures through the modernizing legal and administrative reforms he enacted in France and Western Europe, embodied in the [[Napoleonic Code]]. He established a system of public education,{{sfnp|Grab|2003|page=56}} abolished the vestiges of [[feudalism]],<ref name="Broers">{{Cite book |last1=Broers |first1=M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMgIBFA5AcUC&pg=PA230 |title=The Napoleonic Empire and the New European Political Culture |last2=Hicks |first2=P. |last3=Guimera |first3=A. |year= 2012 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-27139-6 |page=230 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040241/https://books.google.com/books?id=MMgIBFA5AcUC&pg=PA230 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Napoleon and the Jews|emancipated Jews]] and other religious minorities,{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=38–40}} abolished the [[Spanish Inquisition]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pérez |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Pérez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oL0js9g5kkC&pg=PA98 |title=The Spanish Inquisition: A History |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11982-4 |pages=98 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040241/https://books.google.com/books?id=9oL0js9g5kkC&pg=PA98 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> enacted the principle of [[equality before the law]] for an emerging middle class,{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=336}} and centralized state power at the expense of religious authorities.{{sfnp|Grab|2017|pp=204–11}} His conquests acted as a catalyst for political change and the development of [[nation state]]s. However, he is controversial because of his role in wars which devastated Europe, his [[Napoleonic looting of art|looting of conquered territories]], and his mixed record on civil rights. He abolished the free press, ended directly elected representative government, exiled and jailed critics of his regime, reinstated slavery in French colonies, banned the entry of [[black people]] and [[mulatto]]s into France, reduced the civil rights of women and children in France, reintroduced a hereditary monarchy and nobility,{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=574–76, 582–84}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=32–34, 50–51}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=52}} and violently repressed popular uprisings against his rule.<ref name="Repa222">{{cite news |last=Repa |first=Jan |date=2 December 2005 |title=Furore over Austerlitz ceremony |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420234710/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |archive-date=20 April 2010 |access-date=5 April 2010 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

==Early life==
Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a minor [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] noble family who emigrated to [[Corsica]] in the 16th century. His maternal ancestors, the Ramolinos, descended from a noble family from [[Lombardy (historical region)|Lombardy]].{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=2}} Napoleon's parents, [[Carlo Buonaparte|Carlo Maria Buonaparte]] and [[Letizia Bonaparte|Maria Letizia Ramolino]], lived in the [[Maison Bonaparte]] in [[Ajaccio]], where Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769. He had an elder brother, [[Joseph Bonaparte|Joseph]], and six younger siblings: [[Lucien Bonaparte|Lucien]], [[Elisa Bonaparte|Elisa]], [[Louis Bonaparte|Louis]], [[Pauline Bonaparte|Pauline]], [[Caroline Bonaparte|Caroline]], and [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jérôme]].{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=xiv, 14}} Five more siblings were stillborn or did not survive infancy.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=4}} Napoleon was baptized as a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] under the name ''Napoleone di Buonaparte''. In his youth, his name was also spelled as ''Nabulione'', ''Nabulio'', ''Napolionne'', and ''Napulione''.<ref name="dwyerxv2">{{harvp|Dwyer|2008a|p=xv}}</ref>

Napoleon was born one year after the [[Republic of Genoa]] ceded Corsica to France through the [[Treaty of Versailles (1768)|Treaty of Versailles]].<ref name="McLynn-1997b">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=6}}</ref>{{efn|Although the [[Treaty of Versailles (1768)|1768 Treaty of Versailles]] formally ceded Corsica's rights, it remained un-incorporated during 1769<ref name="McLynn-1997b" /> until it became one of the [[Provinces of France]] in 1770.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=20}} Corsica would be legally integrated as a [[Departments of France|département]] in 1789.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Corsica |title=Corsica |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128091618/https://www.britannica.com/place/Corsica |archive-date=28 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=142}}}} His father supported [[Pasquale Paoli]] during the [[French conquest of Corsica|Corsican war of independence]] against France. After the Corsican defeat at the [[Battle of Ponte Novu]] in 1769 and Paoli's exile to Britain, Carlo became friends with the French governor [[Charles Louis de Marbeuf]], who became his patron and a godfather to Napoleon.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=13–17}}<ref name="Ellis22">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QlzJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 | first=Geoffrey | last=Ellis |title=Napoleon |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |year=1997b |isbn=978-1317874690 |chapter=Chapter 2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822095518/https://books.google.com/books?id=QlzJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |archive-date=22 August 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> With Marbeuf's support, Carlo was named Corsican representative to the court of [[Louis XVI]], and Napoleon obtained a royal bursary to a military academy in mainland France.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|pp=20–21}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=16–20}}

[[File:Carlo Buonaparte.jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=Half-length portrait of a wigged middle-aged man with a well-to-do jacket. His left hand is tucked inside his waistcoat.|Napoleon's father, [[Carlo Buonaparte]], fought for [[Corsican Republic|Corsican independence]] under [[Pasquale Paoli]]. After their defeat, he eventually became the island's representative to [[Louis XVI]]'s court.]]

The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|pp=20–21}} Later in life, Napoleon said, "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother."<ref>{{cite book |last=Chamberlain |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fcYZlz0ezQUC&q=%22The+future+destiny+of+the+child+is+always+the+work+of+the+mother%22&pg=PA385 |title=The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought: (The Child in Primitive Culture) |date=1896 |publisher=MacMillan |isbn=978-1-4219-8748-4 |page=385 |access-date=15 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227171711/https://books.google.com/books?id=fcYZlz0ezQUC&q=%22The+future+destiny+of+the+child+is+always+the+work+of+the+mother%22&pg=PA385#v=onepage&q=%22The%20future%20destiny%20of%20the%20child%20is%20always%20the%20work%20of%20the%20mother%22&f=false |archive-date=27 February 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|p=27}}

In January 1779, aged 9, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in [[Autun]] to improve his French,{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=19}} his mother tongues being [[Corsican language|Corsican]] and Italian.<ref name="Parker-1971">{{cite journal |last=Parker |first=Harold T. |date=1971 |title=The Formation of Napoleon's Personality: An Exploratory Essay |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/286104 |url-status=live |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=6–26 |doi=10.2307/286104 |jstor=286104 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225135113/https://www.jstor.org/stable/286104 |archive-date=25 February 2018 |access-date=2 December 2023|issn = 0016-1071 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=11}} Although he eventually became fluent in French, he spoke it with a Corsican accent, and his French spelling was poor.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=18}} In May, he transferred to the military academy at [[Brienne-le-Château]] where he was routinely bullied by his peers for his accent, birthplace, short stature, mannerisms, and poor French.<ref name="Parker-1971" /> He became reserved and melancholic, applying himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography&nbsp;... This boy would make an excellent sailor".{{efn|Aside from his name, there does not appear to be a connection between him and [[Napoleon's theorem]].{{sfnp|Wells|1992|p=74}}}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=21}}

One story of Napoleon at the school is that he led junior students to victory against senior students in a snowball fight, which allegedly showed his leadership abilities.{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|pp=12–14}} But the story was only told after Napoleon had become famous.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=22–23}} In his later years at Brienne, Napoleon became an outspoken [[Corsican nationalism|Corsican nationalist]] and admirer of Paoli.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=28}}

In September 1784 Napoleon was admitted to the ''[[École militaire]]'' in Paris where he trained to become an artillery officer. He excelled at mathematics and read widely in geography, history and literature. However, he was poor at French and German.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=26, 30–31}} His father's death in February 1785 cut the family income and forced him to complete the two-year course in one year. In September he was examined by the famed scientist [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] and became the first Corsican to graduate from the ''École militaire''.<ref name="dwyer422">{{harvp|Dwyer|2008a|pages=38–42}}</ref>{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=26}}

==Early career==

=== Return to Corsica ===
[[File:Napoleon - 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Bonaparte, aged 23, as lieutenant-colonel of a battalion of Corsican [[National Guard (France)|Republican volunteers]]. Portrait made in 1835 by [[Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux]].]]
Upon graduating in September 1785, Bonaparte was commissioned a [[second lieutenant]] in [[1st Artillery Regiment (France)|''La Fère'' artillery regiment]].<ref name="rxviii2">{{harvp|Roberts|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qLsxzVPGjFMC&pg=PA18 xviii]}}</ref> He served in [[Valence, Drôme|Valence]] and [[Auxonne]] until after the outbreak of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789 but spent long periods of leave in Corsica, which fed his Corsican nationalism.{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|loc=Chapter 1, pp. 3–28}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=36, 38}} In September 1789 he returned to Corsica and promoted the French revolutionary cause. Paoli returned to the island in July 1790, but he had no sympathy for Bonaparte, as he deemed his father a traitor for having deserted the cause of Corsican independence.{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|loc=Chapter 2, pp. 29–53}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=41–46}}

Bonaparte plunged into a complex three-way struggle among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. He became a supporter of the [[Jacobins]] and joined the pro-French Corsican Republicans who opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations to secede.<ref>{{cite book |author=David Nicholls |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonbiograph00nich |title=Napoleon: A Biographical Companion |date=1999 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-87436-957-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/napoleonbiograph00nich/page/131 131] |url-access=registration}}</ref> He was given command over a battalion of Corsican volunteers and promoted to captain in the regular army in 1792, despite exceeding his leave of absence and a dispute between his volunteers and the French garrison in [[Ajaccio]].{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pages=52–54}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=52–53}}

In February 1793, Bonaparte took part in the failed [[French expedition to Sardinia]]. Following allegations that Paoli had sabotaged the expedition and that his regime was corrupt and incompetent, the French [[National Convention]] outlawed him. In early June, Bonaparte and 400 French troops failed to capture Ajaccio from Corsican volunteers, and the island came under the control of Paoli's supporters. When Bonaparte learned that the Corsican assembly had condemned him and his family, the Buonapartes fled to [[Toulon]] on the French mainland.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=106–22}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pages=58–63}}

===Siege of Toulon===
{{main|Siege of Toulon (1793)}}

[[File:Napoleon à Toulon par Edouard Detaille.jpg|thumb|upright|''Bonaparte at the [[Siege of Toulon]], 1793'', by [[Édouard Detaille]]]]
Bonaparte returned to his regiment in [[Nice]] and was made captain of a coastal [[Artillery battery|battery]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=130}} In July 1793 he published a pamphlet, ''[[Le souper de Beaucaire]]'' (Supper at [[Beaucaire, Gard|Beaucaire]]), demonstrating his support for the National Convention which was heavily influenced by the Jacobins.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=131–32}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=65–66}}

In September, with the help of his fellow Corsican [[Antoine Christophe Saliceti]], Bonaparte was appointed artillery commander of the republican forces sent to recapture the port of Toulon, which was occupied by allied forces.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=132–35}} He quickly increased the available artillery and proposed a plan to capture a hill fort where republican guns could dominate the city's harbour and force the allies to evacuate. The successful assault on the position on 16–17 December led to the capture of the city.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=140–41}}

Toulon brought Bonaparte to the attention of powerful men including [[Augustin Robespierre]], the younger brother of [[Maximilien Robespierre]], a leading Jacobin. He was promoted to brigadier general and put in charge of defences on the Mediterranean coast. In February 1794, he was made artillery commander of the [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]] and devised plans to attack the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=245–47}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=76–79}}

The French army carried out Bonaparte's plan in the [[Second Battle of Saorgio]] in April 1794 and then advanced to seize [[Ormea]] in the mountains. From Ormea, it headed west to outflank the Austro-Sardinian positions around [[Saorge]]. After this campaign, Augustin Robespierre sent Bonaparte on a mission to the [[Republic of Genoa]] to determine the country's intentions towards France.{{sfnp|Gueniffey|2015|pp=137–59}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=147–52}}

===13 Vendémiaire===
{{Main|13 Vendémiaire}}[[File:13Vendémiaire.jpg|thumb|alt=Etching of a street, there are many pockets of smoke due to a group of republican artillery firing on royalists across the street at the entrance to a building|''Journée du [[13 Vendémiaire]]'', artillery fire in front of the ''[[Church of Saint-Roch, Paris]]'', ''[[Rue Saint-Honoré]]'']]

After the [[Fall of Maximilien Robespierre]] in July 1794, Bonaparte's association with leading Jacobins made him politically suspect to the new regime. He was arrested on 9 August but released two weeks later.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=154–55}}{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=55}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=79–80}} He was asked to draw up plans to attack Italian positions as part of France's war with Austria, and in March 1795 he took part in an expedition to take back Corsica from the British, but the French were repulsed by the [[Royal Navy]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pages=155–57}}

From 1794, Bonaparte was in a romantic relationship with [[Désirée Clary]], whose sister [[Julie Clary]] had married Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=76, 84}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=159–63}} In April 1795 Bonaparte was assigned to the [[Army of the West (France)|Army of the West]], which was engaged in the [[War in the Vendée]]—a civil war and royalist counter-revolution in the [[Vendée]] region. As an infantry command, it was a demotion from artillery general, and he pleaded poor health to avoid the posting.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=92}} During this period, he wrote the romantic novella ''[[Clisson et Eugénie]]'', about a soldier and his lover, in a clear parallel to Bonaparte's own relationship with Clary.<ref name="Dwyer 2008a">{{harvp|Dwyer|2008a|page=165–68}}</ref>

In August, he obtained a position with the Bureau of Topography, where he worked on military planning.<ref name="Dwyer 2008a" /> On 15 September, he was removed from the list of generals in regular service for refusing to serve in the Vendée campaign.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=93}} He sought a transfer to [[Constantinople]] to offer his services to Sultan [[Selim III]]. The request was eventually granted, but he never took up the post.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=169}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=92}}

On 3 October royalists in Paris declared a rebellion against the National Convention.<ref name="m962">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=96}}</ref> [[Paul Barras]], a leader of the [[Thermidorian Reaction]], knew of Bonaparte's military exploits at Toulon and made him second in command of the forces defending the convention in the [[Tuileries Palace]]. Bonaparte had seen the massacre of the king's [[Swiss Guards|Swiss Guard]] during the [[Insurrection of 10 August 1792]] there three years earlier and realized that artillery would be the key to its defence. He ordered a young cavalry officer, [[Joachim Murat]], to seize cannons, and Bonaparte deployed them in key positions. On 5 October 1795—''13 Vendémiaire An IV'' in the [[French Republican calendar]]—he fired on the rebels with canister rounds (described by [[Thomas Carlyle]] as "the whiff of [[grapeshot]]")<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carlyle |first1=Thomas |title=The French Revolution, Vol. III |date=1837 |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London |pages=391–97 |edition=1891 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheFrenchRevolutionVolIII/page/n385/mode/2up |access-date=29 July 2025}}</ref>. About 300 to 1,400 rebels died in the uprising.<ref name="m962" />{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=95–96}}{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|pp=65–66}} Bonaparte's role in defeating the rebellion earned him and his family the patronage of the new government, the [[French Directory]].{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|pp=67–68}} On 26 October, he was promoted to commander of the [[Army of the Interior]], and in January 1796, he was appointed head of the Army of Italy.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=97, 103–04}}

Within weeks of the ''Vendémiaire'' uprising'','' Bonaparte was romantically involved with [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]], the former mistress of Barras. Josephine had been born in the French colonies in the [[Lesser Antilles]], and her family owned slaves on [[Sugar plantations in the Caribbean|sugar plantations]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Knapton |first=Ernest John |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Josephine/KNAEJO/home.html |title=Empress Josephine |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |orig-date=1st pub. 1963|year= 1982|edition=3rd|isbn=978-0674252011 |location=New York |pages=15–16, 18, 20, 22–23 |language=en-US |chapter=Chapter 2: Bird of the Islands |doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674188761 |oclc=1740591 |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Josephine/KNAEJO/2*.html}}</ref> The couple married on 9 March 1796 in a civil ceremony.{{sfnp|Englund|2010|pp=92–94}} Bonaparte began to habitually style himself "Napoleon Bonaparte" rather than using the Italian form "Napoleone di Buonaparte."{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=3}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=xv}}{{sfnp|Broers|2015|p=109}}

===First Italian campaign===
{{Main|Italian Campaign of 1796–1797}}
[[File:1801 Antoine-Jean Gros - Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A three-quarter-length depiction of Bonaparte, with black tunic and leather gloves, holding a standard and sword, turning backwards to look at his troops|''[[Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole]]'', by Baron [[Antoine-Jean Gros]], ({{circa|1801}}), [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris]]
Two days after the marriage, Bonaparte left Paris to take command of the Army of Italy. He went on the offensive, hoping to defeat the Kingdom of Sardinia in [[Piedmont]] before their Austrian allies could intervene. In a series of victories during the [[Montenotte campaign]], he knocked the Piedmontese out of the war in two weeks.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=195, 204–06}} The French then focused on the Austrians, [[Siege of Mantua (1796–1797)|laying siege to Mantua]]. The Austrians launched offensives against the French to break the siege, but Bonaparte defeated every relief effort, winning the [[Battle of Castiglione]], the [[Battle of Bassano]], the [[Battle of Arcole]], and the [[Battle of Rivoli]]. The French triumph at Rivoli in January 1797 led to the collapse of the Austrian position in Italy. At Rivoli, Austria lost 43% of its soldiers dead, wounded or taken prisoner.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=29}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=245–50, 268–71}}

The French then invaded the heartlands of the [[House of Habsburg]]. French forces in southern Germany had been defeated by [[Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen]] in 1796, but Charles withdrew his forces to protect [[Vienna]] after learning of Bonaparte's assault. In their first encounter, Bonaparte pushed Charles back and advanced deep into Austrian territory after winning the [[Battle of Tarvis (1797)|Battle of Tarvis]] in March 1797. Alarmed by the French thrust that reached [[Leoben]], about 100&nbsp;km from Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=282–85}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=149–51}} The preliminary [[peace of Leoben]], signed on 18 April, gave France control of most of northern Italy and the [[Low Countries]] and promised to partition the [[Republic of Venice]] with Austria.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=285–86, 291}} Bonaparte marched on Venice and [[Fall of the Republic of Venice#12 May 1797: the Fall of the Venetian Republic|forced its surrender]], ending 1,100 years of Venetian independence. He authorized the French to loot treasures such as the [[Horses of Saint Mark]].{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=132}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=296}}

[[File:Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli.jpg|thumb|left|''Napoleon at the [[Battle of Rivoli]]'', by [[Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux]]]]

In this Italian campaign, Bonaparte's army captured 150,000 prisoners, 540 cannons, and 170 [[Flag|standards]]. The French army fought 67 actions and won 18 [[pitched battle]]s through superior artillery technology and Bonaparte's tactics.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=135}} Bonaparte extracted an estimated 45&nbsp;million French pounds from Italy during the campaign, another 12&nbsp;million pounds in precious metals and jewels, and more than 300 paintings and sculptures.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=30}}

During the campaign, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He founded two newspapers: one for the troops in his army and one for circulation in France.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=306}} The royalists attacked him for looting Italy and warned that he might become a dictator.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pages=304–05}} Bonaparte sent General [[Charles-Pierre Augereau]] to Paris to support a ''coup d'état'' that purged royalists from the legislative councils on 4 September—the [[Coup of 18 Fructidor]]. This left Barras and his republican allies in control again, but more dependent upon Bonaparte, who finalized peace terms with Austria by the [[Treaty of Campo Formio]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=311–16}} Bonaparte returned to Paris on 5 December 1797 as a hero.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=322}} He met [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand]], France's foreign minister, and took command of the [[Army of England]] for the planned invasion of Britain.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=327, 333–35}}

===Egyptian expedition===
{{Main|French campaign in Egypt and Syria}}
[[File:Bonaparte ante la Esfinge, por Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg|thumb|alt=Person on a horse looks towards a giant statue of a head in the desert, with a blue sky|''[[Bonaparte Before the Sphinx]]'' (c. 1886) by [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]], [[Hearst Castle]]]]

After two months of planning, Bonaparte decided that France's naval strength was not yet sufficient to confront the [[Royal Navy]]. He decided on a military expedition to seize [[Ottoman Egypt|Egypt]] and thereby undermine [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]]'s access to its [[Company rule in India#Trade|trade interests in India]].<ref name="rxviii2"/> Bonaparte wished to establish a French presence in the Middle East and join forces with [[Tipu Sultan]], the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Sultan of Mysore]], an enemy of the British.<ref name=Watson /> Bonaparte assured the Directory that "as soon as he had conquered Egypt, he will establish relations with the Indian princes and, together with them, attack the English in their possessions".{{sfnp|Amini|2000|p=12}} The Directory agreed in order to secure a trade route to the [[Indian subcontinent]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=342}}

In May 1798, Bonaparte was elected a member of the [[French Academy of Sciences]]. His Egyptian expedition included a group of 167 scientists, with mathematicians, naturalists, chemists, and [[geodesy|geodesists]] among them. Their discoveries included the [[Rosetta Stone]], and their work was published in the ''[[Description de l'Égypte]]'' in 1809.{{sfnp|Englund|2010|pp=127–28}} En route to Egypt, Bonaparte reached [[Hospitaller Malta]] on 9 June 1798, then controlled by the [[Knights Hospitaller]]. Grand Master [[Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim]] surrendered after token resistance, and Bonaparte captured an important naval base with the loss of only three men.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=175}}

[[File:Louis-François Baron Lejeune 001.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|alt=Cavalry battlescene with pyramids in background|''[[Battle of the Pyramids]] on 21 July 1798'' by [[Louis-François, Baron Lejeune]], 1808]]

Bonaparte and his expedition eluded pursuit by the Royal Navy and landed at [[Alexandria]] on 1 July.<ref name="rxviii2"/> He fought the [[Battle of Shubra Khit]] against the [[Mamluk]]s, Egypt's ruling military caste. This helped the French practise their defensive tactic for the [[Battle of the Pyramids]] on 21 July, about {{convert|24|km|0|abbr=on}} from the [[Egyptian pyramids|pyramids]]. Bonaparte's forces of 25,000 roughly equalled those of the Mamluks' Egyptian cavalry. Twenty-nine French{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=179}} and approximately 2,000 Egyptians were killed. The victory boosted the French army's morale.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=372}}

On 1 August 1798 the British fleet under [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Sir Horatio Nelson]] captured or destroyed all but two vessels of the French fleet in the [[Battle of the Nile]], preventing Bonaparte from strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|page=188}} His army had succeeded in a temporary increase of French power in Egypt, though it faced repeated uprisings.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=392}} In early 1799 he moved an army into the [[Wilayah|Ottoman province]] of Damascus (Syria and [[Galilee]]). Bonaparte led these 13,000 French soldiers in the conquest of the coastal towns of [[Arish]], [[Gaza City|Gaza]], [[Jaffa]], and [[Haifa]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|pp=411–24}} The [[Siege of Jaffa|attack on Jaffa]] was particularly brutal. Bonaparte discovered that many of the defenders were former prisoners of war, ostensibly on parole, so he ordered the garrison and some 1,500–5,000 prisoners to be executed by bayonet or drowning.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|page=198}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=39–40}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=280}} Men, women, and children were robbed and murdered for three days.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=189}}

Bonaparte began with an army of 13,000 men. 1,500 were reported missing, 1,200 died in combat, and thousands perished from disease—mostly [[bubonic plague]]. He failed to [[Siege of Acre (1799)|reduce the fortress]] of [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], so he marched his army back to Egypt in May. Bonaparte was alleged to have ordered plague-stricken men to be poisoned with opium to speed the retreat.{{sfnp|Gueniffey|2015|pp=500–02}} Back in Egypt on 25 July, Bonaparte defeated an [[Battle of Abukir (1799)|Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=442}}

Bonaparte stayed informed of European affairs. He learned that France had suffered a [[Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars|series of defeats]] in the [[War of the Second Coalition]].{{sfnp|Connelly|2006|p=57}} On 24 August 1799, fearing that the Republic's future was in doubt, he took advantage of the temporary departure of British ships from French coastal ports and set sail for France, despite the fact that he had received no explicit orders from Paris.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pages=205–06}} The army was left in the charge of [[Jean-Baptiste Kléber]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=444}}

==Ruler of France==
{{main|Napoleonic era|l1=Napoleonic era}}
[[File:Bouchot - Le general Bonaparte au Conseil des Cinq-Cents.jpg|thumb|alt=Bonaparte in a simple general uniform in the middle of a scrum of red-robbed members of the Council of Five Hundred|''General Bonaparte surrounded by members of the Council of Five Hundred during the Coup of [[18 Brumaire]]'', by [[François Bouchot]]]]

=== ''18 Brumaire'' ===
{{main|Coup of 18 Brumaire|l1=18 Brumaire}}
Unknown to Bonaparte, the Directory had sent him orders to return from Egypt with his army to ward off a possible invasion of France, but these messages never arrived.{{sfnp|Connelly|2006|p=57}} By the time he reached Paris in October, France's situation had been improved by a series of victories. The republic, however, was bankrupt, and the ineffective Directory was unpopular.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008a|p=455}} Despite the failures in Egypt, Bonaparte returned to a hero's welcome. The Directory discussed Bonaparte's desertion but was too weak to punish him.{{sfnp|Connelly|2006|p=57}}

Bonaparte formed an alliance with Talleyrand and leading members of the [[Council of Five Hundred]] and Directory—Lucien Bonaparte, [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]], [[Roger Ducos]] and [[Joseph Fouché]]—to overthrow the government. On 9 November 1799 (''18 Brumaire'' according to the revolutionary calendar), the conspirators launched a coup and the following day, backed by grenadiers with fixed bayonets, forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory and appoint Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos provisional consuls.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=209–10, 219–23, 229–34}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Furet |first=François |author-link=François Furet |url=http://archive.org/details/frenchrevolution0000fure |title=The French Revolution, 1770–1814 |date=1996 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-20299-8 |page=212}}</ref>

===French Consulate===
{{main|French Consulate|War of the Second Coalition}}
[[File:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Portrait de Napoléon Bonaparte en premier consul.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Bonaparte, First Consul]]'', by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres]]. Posing [[Hand-in-waistcoat|the hand inside the waistcoat]] was often used in portraits of rulers to indicate calm and stable leadership.]]
On 13 December, Bonaparte introduced the [[Constitution of the Year VIII]], under which three consuls were appointed for 10 years.<ref>[[s:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789–1907/58|Constitution of 13 December 1799]]</ref> Real power lay with Bonaparte as first consul, and his preferred candidates [[Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès|Cambacérès]] and [[Charles-François Lebrun]] were appointed as second and third consuls who only had an advisory role. The constitution also established a [[Corps législatif|Legislative Body]] and [[Tribunat]]e which were selected from indirectly elected candidates, and a [[Sénat conservateur|Senate]] and [[Conseil d'État|Council of State]] which were effectively nominated by the executive.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=240–43}} The constitution was approved by plebiscite on 7 February 1800. The official count was over three million in favour and 1,562 against. Lucien, however, had doubled the count of the "yes" vote to give the false impression that a majority of those eligible to vote had approved the constitution.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=242}}<ref name="Lyons, Martyn 1994, p. 1112">{{harvp|Lyons|1994|p=111}}</ref>

Historians have variously described Bonaparte's regime as "dictatorship by plebiscite",<ref name="Lyons, Martyn 1994, p. 1112" /> "absolutist rule decked out in the spirit of the age",{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=243}} and "soft despotism".{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=43}} Local and regional administration was reformed to concentrate power in the central government,{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=265}} censorship was introduced, and most opposition newspapers were closed down to stifle dissent.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=246–47}} Royalist and regional revolts were dealt with by a combination of amnesties for those who lay down their arms and brutal repression of those who continued to resist.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=249–50}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|p=256}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=37}} Bonaparte also improved state finances by securing loans under a promise to defend private property, raising taxes on tobacco, alcohol and salt, and extracting levies from France's satellite republics.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=267}}

Bonaparte believed that the best way to secure his regime was by a victorious peace.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=268–70}} In May 1800, he led an army across the Swiss Alps into Italy, aiming to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula when Bonaparte was still in Egypt. After a difficult crossing over the Alps,{{efn|This is depicted in ''[[Bonaparte Crossing the Alps]]'' by [[Hippolyte Delaroche]] and in Jacques-Louis David's imperial ''Napoleon Crossing the Alps''. He is less realistically portrayed on a [[Horses in warfare|charger]] in the latter work.{{sfnp|Chandler|2002|p=51}}}} the French captured Milan on 2 June.<ref name="Chandler-1966a">{{harvp|Chandler|1966|pp=279–81}}</ref><ref name="Zamoyski-2018">{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=271–74}}</ref> The French confronted an Austrian army under [[Michael von Melas]] at the [[battle of Marengo]] on 14 June.<ref name="Chandler-1966a" /><ref name="Zamoyski-2018" /> The Austrians fielded about 30,000 soldiers while Bonaparte commanded 24,000 troops.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=292}} The Austrians' initial attack surprised the French who were gradually driven back.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=293}} Late in the afternoon, however, a full division under French General [[Louis Desaix]] arrived on the field and reversed the tide of the battle. The Austrian army fled leaving behind 14,000 casualties.<ref name="Chandler, David 1966, p. 2962">{{harvp|Chandler|1966|p=296}}</ref> The following day, the Austrians signed an armistice and agreed to abandon northern Italy.<ref name="Chandler, David 1966, p. 2962" /> 

When peace negotiations with Austria stalled, Bonaparte reopened hostilities in November. A French army under General [[Jean Victor Marie Moreau]] swept through Bavaria and scored an overwhelming victory over the Austrians at the [[battle of Hohenlinden]] in December. The Austrians capitulated and signed the [[Treaty of Lunéville]] in February 1801. The treaty reaffirmed and expanded earlier French gains at Campo Formio.<ref name="Schom 1997, p.3022">{{harvp|Schom|1997|p=302}}</ref> On 26 January 1802, following the [[Consulte de Lyon]], Napoleon was declared president of the [[Italian Republic (Napoleonic)|Italian Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kubben |first=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z76UjBOEU8cC&pg=PA276 |title=Franco-Batavian Relations in the Revolutionary Era, 1795-1803 |date=2011 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-18558-6 |page=276 (note 276)|access-date=30 November 2023 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040849/https://books.google.com/books?id=z76UjBOEU8cC&pg=PA276 }}</ref>

Bonaparte's triumph at Marengo increased his popularity and political authority. However, he still faced royalist plots and feared Jacobin influence, especially in the army. Several assassination plots, including the ''[[Conspiration des poignards]]'' (Dagger plot) in October 1800 and the [[Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise|Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise]] two months later, gave him a pretext to arrest about 100 suspected Jacobins and royalists, some of whom were shot and many others deported to penal colonies.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=283–84, 289, 294–96}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=243}}

====Temporary peace in Europe====
{{See also|Haitian Revolution}}
[[File:Louisiana_Purchase.png|thumb|222x222px|The 1803 [[Louisiana Purchase]] totalled {{convert|827,987|sqmi|km2|abbr=off|order=flip}}, doubling the size of the United States.]]
After a decade of war, France and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] signed the [[Treaty of Amiens]] in March 1802, bringing the [[French Revolutionary Wars|Revolutionary Wars]] to an end. Under the treaty, Britain agreed to withdraw from most of the colonies it had recently captured from France and her allies, and France agreed to evacuate Naples. In April, Bonaparte publicly celebrated the peace and his controversial [[Concordat of 1801]] with [[Pope Pius VII]] under which the pope recognized Bonaparte's regime and the regime recognized Catholicism as the majority religion of France. In a further step towards national reconciliation (known as "fusion"), Bonaparte offered an amnesty to most émigrés who wished to return to France.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=313–15}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=79–84}}

With Europe at peace and the economy recovering, Bonaparte became increasingly popular, both domestically and abroad.{{sfnp|Lyons|1994|pp=111–14}} In May 1802, the Council of State recommended a [[1802 French constitutional referendum|new plebiscite]] asking the French people to make "Napoleon Bonaparte" consul for life. (It was the first time his first name was officially used by the regime.){{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=319}} About 3.6 million voted "yes" and 8,374 "no." 40–60% of eligible Frenchmen voted, the highest turnout for a plebiscite since the revolution.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=319–20}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=100–02}}

France had regained her overseas colonies under Amiens but did not control them all. The French National Convention had voted to abolish slavery in February 1794, but in May 1802 Bonaparte reintroduced it in all the recovered colonies except [[Saint-Domingue]] and [[Guadeloupe]] which were under the control of rebel generals. A French military expedition under [[Antoine Richepance|Antoine Richepanse]] regained control of Guadeloupe, and slavery was reintroduced there on 16 July.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Regent |first=Frédéric |title=A Companion to the French Revolution |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4443-3564-4 |editor-last=McPhee |editor-first=Peter |pages=409–12 |chapter=Slavery and the Colonies}}</ref>

[[File:5f Bonabarte Premier consul - AN XI 1802.png|thumb|Silver 5 [[French franc|francs]] coin depicting Napoleon as [[French Consulate|First Consul]] from AN XI, 1802 |left]]

Saint-Domingue was the most profitable of the colonies {{En dash}} a major source of sugar, coffee and indigo {{En dash}} but was under the control of the former slave [[Toussaint Louverture]].{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=329}} Bonaparte sent the [[Saint-Domingue expedition]] under his brother-in-law General [[Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772)|Charles Leclerc]] to retake the colony, and they landed there in February 1802 with 29,000 men. Although Toussaint was captured and sent to France in July, the expedition ultimately failed due to high rates of disease and a string of defeats against rebel commander [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]]. In May 1803 Bonaparte acknowledged defeat, and the last 8,000 French troops left the island. The former slaves proclaimed the independent republic of [[Haiti]] in 1804.<ref>Christer Petley (2018), ''White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution'', Oxford University Press, p. 182.</ref>{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=303}}

As war with Britain again loomed in 1803, Bonaparte realized that his American [[Louisiana Territory|colony of Louisiana]] would be difficult to defend.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=337}} In need of funds, he agreed to the [[Louisiana Purchase]] with the United States, doubling the latter's size. The price was $15&nbsp;million.<ref name="Roberts, Andrew 201422">{{harvp|Roberts|2014|loc=Introduction}}</ref>{{sfnp|Connelly|2006|p=70}}{{sfnp|Broers|2015|pp=389–90}} The peace with Britain was uneasy. Britain did not evacuate [[Malta]] as promised and protested against Bonaparte's annexation of Piedmont and his [[Act of Mediation]] (19 February),<ref>[https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/009808/2009-12-08/ Acte de Médiation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040846/https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/009808/2009-12-08/ |date=2 December 2023}}; [https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/009798/2009-10-29/ Médiation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040847/https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/fr/articles/009798/2009-10-29/ |date=2 December 2023}}, ''[[Historical Dictionary of Switzerland]]''</ref> which established a [[Switzerland in the Napoleonic era|Swiss Confederation]]. Neither of these territories were covered by Amiens, but they inflamed tensions significantly, as did Bonaparte's occupation of Holland and apparent ambitions in India.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=265}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=110–13}} The dispute culminated in a declaration of war by Britain in May 1803. Bonaparte responded by reassembling the invasion camp at Boulogne and ordering the arrest of every British male between 18 and 60 years old in France and its dependencies as a [[prisoner of war]].{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pages=338–39}}

===French Empire===
{{main|First French Empire}}
[[File:Jacques-Louis David - The Coronation of Napoleon (1805-1807).jpg|thumb|alt=Colored painting depicting Napoleon crowning his wife inside of a cathedral |''[[The Coronation of Napoleon]]'' by [[Jacques-Louis David]] (1804)]]

==== Bonaparte becomes Napoleon I ====
In February 1804 Bonaparte's police made a series of arrests in relation to a royalist plot to kidnap or assassinate him that involved the British government, Moreau and an unnamed [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] prince. On the advice of his foreign minister, Talleyrand, Napoleon ordered the kidnapping of [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien|the Duke of Enghien]], violating the sovereignty of [[Baden]]. The duke was quickly executed after a secret military trial, even though there was no proof he had been involved in the plot. Enghien's kidnapping and execution infuriated royalists and monarchs throughout Europe and drew a formal protest from Russia.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=296}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=342–48}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=116–23}}

Following the royalist plot, Bonaparte's supporters convinced him that creating a hereditary regime would help to secure it in case of his death, make it more acceptable to constitutional monarchists, and put it on the same footing as other European monarchies.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=349–50}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=125, 129–31}}<ref name="m2973">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=297}}</ref> On 18 May the senate proclaimed Napoleon ''Emperor of the French'' and approved a new constitution.<ref>[[s:Constitution of the Year XII|Constitution of 18 May 1804]]</ref> The following day, Napoleon appointed 18 of his leading generals Marshals of the Empire.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=127–28}}[[File:La salle du Trône (Château de Fontainebleau).jpg|thumb|Napoleon's throne room at Fontainebleau]]The hereditary empire was confirmed by a plebiscite in June. The official result showed 3.5 million voted "yes" and 2,569 voted "no". The yes count, however, was falsely inflated by 300,000 to 500,000 votes. The turnout, at 35%, was below the figure for the previous plebiscite.{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|p=359}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=144–45}} Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire refused to recognize Napoleon's title. Austria, however, recognized Napoleon as Emperor of the French in return for his recognition of [[Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor|Francis I as Emperor of Austria]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=130–31}}

[[Coronation of Napoleon|Napoleon's coronation]], with the participation of [[Pope Pius VII]], took place at [[Notre-Dame de Paris|Notre Dame de Paris]] on 2 December 1804. After having been anointed by the pope, Napoleon crowned himself with a replica of [[Charlemagne]]'s crown. He then crowned Joséphine, who became the second woman in French history, after [[Marie de' Medici]], to be crowned and anointed. He then swore an oath to defend the territory of the republic; to respect the Concordat, freedom of worship, political and civil liberty and the sale of nationalized lands; to raise no taxes except by law; to maintain the [[Legion of Honour]]; and to govern in the interests, wellbeing and the glory of the French people.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=164–66}}

On 17 March 1805 Napoleon declared himself [[King of Italy]]<ref>[[s:fr:Statut constitutionnel du 17 mars 1805|Statut constitutionnel du 17 mars 1805]]</ref> and crowned himself with the [[Iron Crown of Lombardy]] at the [[Milan Cathedral|Cathedral of Milan]]. Austria saw this as a provocation because of its own territorial interests in Italy. When Napoleon incorporated [[Genoa]] and [[Ligurian Republic|Liguria]] into his empire, Austria formally protested against this violation of the Treaty of Lunéville.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=185–87}}

====War of the Third Coalition====
{{main|War of the Third Coalition}}
{{see also|French Imperial Army (1804–1815)}}
[[File:Napoleon in Coronation Robes by François Gérard.jpg|thumb|upright|''Napoleon in his coronation robes'' by [[François Gérard]], {{circa|1805}}]] By September 1805 Sweden, Russia, Austria, Naples and the Ottoman Empire had joined Britain in a coalition against France.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rosenberg |first=Chaim M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a34yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168 |title=Losing America, Conquering India: Lord Cornwallis and the Remaking of the British Empire |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-6812-3 |page=168 |access-date=18 October 2018 |archive-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227171737/https://books.google.com/books?id=a34yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=190}} In 1803 and 1804 Napoleon had assembled a force around [[Boulogne-sur-Mer|Boulogne]] for an invasion of Britain. They never invaded, but the force formed the core of Napoleon's ''[[Grande Armée]]'', created in August 1805.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=96}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=138}} At the start, this French army had about 200,000 men organized into seven [[corps]], artillery and cavalry reserves, and the élite Imperial Guard.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=332}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=138}} By August 1805 the {{lang|fr|Grande Armée}} had grown to a force of 350,000 men,{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=333}} who were well equipped, well trained, and led by competent officers.<ref>Michael J. Hughes, ''Forging Napoleon's Grande Armée: Motivation, Military Culture, and Masculinity in the French Army, 1800–1808'' (NYU Press, 2012).</ref>

To facilitate the invasion, Napoleon planned to lure the Royal Navy from the [[English Channel]] by a diversionary attack on the [[British West Indies]].{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=321}} However, the plan unravelled after the British victory at the [[Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805)|Battle of Cape Finisterre]] in July 1805. French Admiral [[Pierre-Charles Villeneuve]] retreated to [[Cádiz]] instead of linking up with French naval forces at [[Brest, France|Brest]] for an attack on the English Channel.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=332}} Facing a potential invasion from his continental enemies, Napoleon abandoned his invasion of England and sought to destroy the isolated Austrian armies in southern Germany before their Russian ally could arrive in force. On 25 September, 200,000 French troops began to cross the Rhine on a front of {{convert|260|km|mi|abbr=on}}.<ref>Richard Brooks (editor), ''Atlas of World Military History''. p. 108</ref><ref>Andrew Uffindell, ''Great Generals of the Napoleonic Wars''. p. 15</ref>

[[File:Ulm capitulation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|alt=Colored painting depicting Napoleon receiving the surrender of the Austrian generals, with the opposing armies and the city of Ulm in the background |Napoleon and the {{lang|fr|[[Grande Armée]]}} receive the surrender of [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] [[Karl Mack von Leiberich|General Mack]] after the [[Battle of Ulm]] in October 1805.]]

Austrian commander [[Karl Mack von Leiberich]] had gathered most of the Austrian army at the fortress of [[Ulm]] in [[Swabia]]. Napoleon's army, however, moved quickly and outflanked the Austrian positions. After some minor engagements that culminated in the [[Battle of Ulm]], Mack surrendered. With 2,000 French casualties, Napoleon had captured 60,000 Austrian soldiers through his army's rapid marching.<ref>Richard Brooks (editor), ''Atlas of World Military History''. p. 156.</ref> For the French, this spectacular victory on land was soured by the decisive victory that the Royal Navy attained at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]] on 21 October. After Trafalgar, the Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by Napoleon's fleet.{{sfnp|Glover|1967|pp=233–52}}

[[File:La bataille d'Austerlitz. 2 decembre 1805 (François Gérard).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|''Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz'', by [[François Gérard]], 1805]]

French forces occupied [[Vienna]] in November, capturing 100,000 muskets, 500 cannons, and the intact bridges across the Danube.{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=407}} Napoleon then sent his army north in pursuit of the allies. Tsar [[Alexander I of Russia]] and Francis I decided to engage Napoleon in battle, despite reservations from some of their subordinates.<ref name="Warfare">{{cite book |author=Adrian Gilbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZoO7SIwMVIC&pg=PA133 |title=The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Time to the Present Day |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-57958-216-6 |page=133 |access-date=11 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729052159/https://books.google.com/books?id=MZoO7SIwMVIC&pg=PA133 |archive-date=29 July 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> At the [[Battle of Austerlitz]] on 2 December, Napoleon deployed his army below the Pratzen Heights. He ordered his right wing to feign retreat, enticing the allies to descend from the heights in pursuit. The French centre and left wing then captured the heights and caught the allies in a [[pincer movement]]. Thousands of Russian troops fled across a frozen lake to escape the trap, and 100 to 2,000 of them drowned.<ref name=Warfare/>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=204–05}} About a third of the allied forces were killed, captured or wounded.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=18}}

The disaster at Austerlitz led Austria to seek an armistice. By the subsequent [[Peace of Pressburg (1805)|Treaty of Pressburg]], signed on 26 December, Austria left the coalition, lost substantial territory to the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]] and Bavaria, and was forced to pay an indemnity of 40&nbsp;million francs. Alexander's army was granted safe passage back to Russia.<ref name="Schom2">{{harvp|Schom|1997|p=414}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=209}} Napoleon went on to say, "The battle of Austerlitz is the finest of all I have fought".<ref name="Schom2" /> [[Frank McLynn]] suggests that Napoleon was so successful at Austerlitz that he lost touch with reality, and what used to be French foreign policy became a "personal Napoleonic one".{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=350}} [[Vincent Cronin]] disagrees, stating that Napoleon was not overly ambitious for himself, "he embodied the ambitions of thirty million Frenchmen".{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|p=344}}

====Middle-Eastern alliances====
{{Main|Franco-Ottoman alliance|Franco-Persian alliance}}
[[File:The Persian Envoy Mirza Mohammed Reza Qazvini Finkenstein Castle 27 Avril 1807 by Francois Mulard.jpg|thumb|The Iranian envoy Mirza Mohammad-Reza Qazvini meeting with Napoleon at the [[Finckenstein Palace]] in [[West Prussia]], 27 April 1807, to sign the [[Treaty of Finckenstein]].]]
Napoleon continued to entertain a grand scheme to establish a French presence in the Middle East in order to put pressure on Britain and Russia, possibly by forming an alliance with the Ottoman Empire.<ref name=Watson>{{harvp|Watson|2003|pp=13–14}}</ref> In February 1806, Ottoman Emperor [[Selim III]] recognized Napoleon as emperor. He also opted for an alliance with France, calling France "our sincere and natural ally".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karsh |first1=Efraim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1E_SATQRKjoC&pg=PA13 |title=Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789–1923 |last2=Karsh |first2=Inari |date=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00541-9 |page=12 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040239/https://books.google.com/books?id=1E_SATQRKjoC&pg=PA13 |url-status=live}}</ref> That decision brought the Ottoman Empire into a losing war against Russia and Britain. A Franco-Persian alliance was formed between Napoleon and the [[Qajar dynasty|Persian Empire]] of [[Fath-Ali Shah Qajar|Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar]]. It collapsed in 1807 when France and Russia formed an unexpected alliance.<ref name=Watson /> In the end, Napoleon made no effective alliances in the Middle East.{{sfnp|Sicker|2001|p=99}}

====War of the Fourth Coalition and Tilsit====
{{main|War of the Fourth Coalition}}
After Austerlitz, Napoleon increased his political power in Europe. In 1806, he deposed the [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies|Bourbon king of Naples]] and installed his elder brother, [[Joseph Bonaparte|Joseph]], on the throne. He then made his younger brother, [[Louis Bonaparte|Louis]], king of Holland.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=216–20}} On 12 July he established the [[Confederation of the Rhine]],<ref>[https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_rhine.html Treaty for Establishing the Confederation. July 12, 1806.] ''The Napoleon Series''</ref> a collection of German states intended to serve as a buffer zone between France and Central Europe. The creation of the confederation spelled the end of the [[Holy Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Michael V. Leggiere |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-gn5CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=Napoleon and Berlin: The Franco-Prussian War in North Germany, 1813 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8061-8017-5 |page=9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118001553/https://books.google.com/books?id=-gn5CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |archive-date=18 November 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Iena.jpg|thumb|left|Napoleon reviewing the [[French Imperial Guard|Imperial Guard]] before the [[Battle of Jena]], 14 October 1806]]

Napoleon's growing influence in Germany threatened the status of Prussia as a great power and in response [[Frederick William III of Prussia|Frederick William III]] decided on war with France. Prussia and Russia signed a military alliance creating the fourth coalition against France. Prussia, however, committed a strategic blunder by declaring war when French troops were still in southern Germany and months before sufficient Russian troops could reach the front.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=224–25}} Napoleon invaded Prussia with 180,000 troops, rapidly marching on the right bank of the River [[Saale]]. Upon learning the whereabouts of the Prussian army, the French swung westwards thus cutting the Prussians off from Berlin and the slowly approaching Russians. At the twin [[Battle of Jena–Auerstedt|battles of Jena and Auerstedt]], fought on 14 October, the French convincingly defeated the Prussians and inflicted heavy casualties. With several major commanders dead or incapacitated, the Prussian king proved incapable of effectively commanding the army, which quickly disintegrated.<ref name="Brooks-2000">Brooks 2000, p. 110</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=225–28}}

In the following month, the French captured 140,000 soldiers and over 2,000 cannon. Despite their overwhelming defeat, the Prussians refused to negotiate with the French until the Russians had an opportunity to enter the fight.<ref name="Brooks-2000" />{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|pp=467–68}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=233–34}} Following his triumph, Napoleon imposed the first elements of the [[Continental System]] through the [[Berlin Decree]] issued in November 1806. The Continental System, which prohibited European nations from trading with Britain, was widely violated throughout his reign.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=497}} In the next few months, Napoleon marched against the advancing Russian armies through Poland and fought a bloody stalemate at the [[Battle of Eylau]] in February 1807.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=370}} After a period of rest and consolidation on both sides, the war restarted in June with an initial struggle [[Battle of Heilsberg|at Heilsberg]] that proved indecisive.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=243}}

[[File:Tilsitz 1807.JPG|thumb|The [[Treaties of Tilsit]]: Napoleon meeting with [[Alexander I of Russia]] on a raft in the middle of the [[Neman River]], 7 July 1807.]]

On 14 June Napoleon obtained an overwhelming victory over the Russians at the [[Battle of Friedland]], inflicting casualties of up to 30% of the Russian army.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=244}} The scale of their defeat convinced the Russians to make peace with the French. The two emperors began peace negotiations on 25 June at the town of [[Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast|Tilsit]] during a meeting on a raft floating in the middle of the River [[Neman|Niemen]] which separated the French and Russian troops and their respective spheres of influence.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=245–47}} Napoleon offered Alexander relatively lenient terms—demanding that Russia join the Continental System, withdraw its forces from [[Wallachia]] and [[Moldavia]], and hand over the [[Ionian Islands]] to France. In contrast, Prussia was treated harshly. It lost half its territory and population and underwent a two-year occupation costing it about 1.4 billion francs. From former Prussian territory, Napoleon created the [[Kingdom of Westphalia]], ruled by his young brother Jérôme, and the [[Duchy of Warsaw]].{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|pp=458–61}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=247–50}} Prussia's humiliating treatment at Tilsit caused lasting resentment against France in that country. The treaty was also unpopular in Russia, putting pressure on Alexander to end the alliance with France. Nevertheless, the [[Treaties of Tilsit]] gave Napoleon a respite from war and allowed him to return to France, which he had not seen in over 300 days.{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|pp=458–61}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=251–53}}

====Peninsular War and Erfurt====
{{Main|Peninsular War}}
[[File:Joseph-Bonaparte.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Portrait of Joseph Bonaparte]]'' by [[François Gérard]], 1808, depicting Napoleon's elder brother as King of Spain]]

After Tilsit, Napoleon turned his attention to [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], which was reluctant to strictly enforce the blockade against its traditional ally Britain.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=261–62}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Horne |first=Alistair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dnI-yMnewzEC |title=How Far From Austerlitz? Napoleon 1805{{ndash}}1815 |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-74328-540-4 |page=238 |author-link=Alistair Horne |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225135113/https://books.google.com/books?id=dnI-yMnewzEC |archive-date=25 February 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 17 October 1807, 24,000 French troops under General [[Jean-Andoche Junot]] [[Invasion of Portugal (1807)|crossed the Pyrenees]] with Spanish consent and headed towards Portugal to enforce the blockade.{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=197}} Junot occupied [[Lisbon]] in November; the Portuguese royal family had already fled to Brazil with the Portuguese fleet.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=262–63}}

In March 1808 a [[Tumult of Aranjuez|palace coup]] led to the abdication of the Spanish king, [[Charles IV of Spain|Carlos IV]], in favour of his son [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Fernando VII]].{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|pp=198–99}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=264}} The following month, Napoleon summoned Carlos and Fernando to Bayonne, where in May he forced them both [[Abdications of Bayonne|to relinquish their claims]] to the Spanish throne. Napoleon then made his brother Joseph King of Spain.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=269–70}} By then, there were 120,000 French troops garrisoned in the peninsula{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=199}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=267}} and widespread Spanish opposition to the occupation and the overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons. [[Dos de Mayo Uprising|On 2 May an uprising]] against the French broke out in [[Madrid]] and spread throughout Spain in the following weeks. In the face of brutal French repression, the uprising developed into a sustained conflict.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=271–72, 275}} Joseph travelled to Madrid where he was proclaimed King of Spain on 24 July. However, following news of a French defeat by regular Spanish forces at the [[Battle of Bailén]], Joseph fled Madrid several days later.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=276–78}} The following month, a British force landed in Portugal and on 21 August they defeated the French at the [[Battle of Vimeiro|Battle of Vimiero]]. Under the [[Convention of Cintra]], the French evacuated Portugal.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=296}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=218}}

The defeats at Bailén and Vimiero convinced Napoleon that he had to take command of the Iberian campaign. Before leaving for Spain, he attempted to strengthen the alliance with Russia and obtain a commitment from Alexander that Russia would declare war on Austria if she attacked France. At the [[Congress of Erfurt]] in October 1808, Napoleon and Alexander reached an agreement that recognized the Russian conquest of [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finland]] and called upon Britain to cease its war against France.<ref>{{cite book |last=Engman |first=Max |title=Napoleon's Empire |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-349-56731-7 |editor-last=Planert |editor-first=Ute |pages=227–38 |chapter=Finland and the Napoleonic Empire |doi=10.1057/9781137455475_16 |via=Springer Link}}</ref> However, Alexander failed to provide a firm commitment to make war with Austria.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=286}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=118}}

[[File:Antoine-Jean Gros - Capitulation de Madrid, le 4 décembre 1808.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon Accepting the Surrender of Madrid]]'', 4 December 1808]]

On 6 November Napoleon was in [[Vitoria-Gasteiz|Vitoria]] and took command of 240,000 French-led troops. After a series of victories over Anglo-Spanish forces, they retook Madrid on 4 December.{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=205}}{{Sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=296}} Napoleon then pursued a retreating British army which was eventually evacuated [[Battle of Corunna|at Corunna]] in January 1809. He left for France on 17 January, leaving Joseph in command.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hope |first1=John |last2=Baird |first2=D. |date=28 January 1809 |title=Battle of Corunna |volume=15 |pages=91–94 |publisher=Cobbett's political register |issue=4 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/7d8a427252d63486 |url-status=live |access-date=23 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029223019/https://www.proquest.com/openview/7d8a427252d63486 |archive-date=29 October 2021}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=296–300}} Napoleon never returned to Spain after the 1808 campaign. In April, the British sent another army to the peninsula under [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]], the future [[Duke of Wellington (title)|Duke of Wellington]]. British, Portuguese and Spanish troops engaged the French in a protracted series of conflicts, while a brutal guerrilla war engulfed much of the Spanish countryside, a conflict in which atrocities were committed by both sides.<ref name="Chandler-1966b">{{harvp|Chandler|1966|pp=659–60}}</ref>{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=218}} Napoleon later called the Peninsular campaign, "the unlucky war [that] ruined me."{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=128}} It tied up some 300,000 French-led troops from 1808 to 1812. By 1814, the French had been driven from the peninsula, with over 150,000 casualties in the campaign.<ref name="Chandler-1966b" />{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=78–80}}

====War of the Fifth Coalition====
{{Main|War of the Fifth Coalition}}

[[File:Napoleon Wagram.jpg|thumb|''[[The Battle of Wagram]]'' by [[Horace Vernet]], 1836]]
The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons caused alarm in Austria over Napoleon's ambitions while France's military difficulties in the Peninsular encouraged Austria to go to war.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=304–05}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=John H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fQLoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27 |title=The Battle of Znaim: Napoleon, the Habsburgs and the end of the War of 1809 |date=2020 |publisher=Greenhill Books |others=Austria, February 1809: The Die is Cast for War |isbn=978-1-78438-451-7 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040239/https://books.google.com/books?id=fQLoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT27 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the early morning of 10 April 1809, the Austrian army crossed the [[Inn (river)|Inn River]] and invaded Bavaria. The Austrian advance was disorganized, and they were unable to defeat the Bavarian army before the French could concentrate their forces.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=306}} Napoleon arrived from Paris on 17 April to lead the French campaign. In the following [[Battle of Eckmühl]] he was slightly wounded in the heel, but the Austrians were forced to retreat across the [[Danube]]. The French occupied Vienna on 13 May, but most of the population had fled and the retreating army had destroyed all four bridges across the river.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=306–08}}

On 21 May, the French attempted to cross the Danube, precipitating the [[Battle of Aspern-Essling]]. Both sides inflicted about 23,000 casualties on each other, and the French were forced back.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=706}} The battle was reported in European capitals as a defeat for Napoleon and damaged his aura of invincibility.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|p=707}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=308–12}} After six weeks of preparations, Napoleon made another attempt at crossing the Danube.{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=708}} In the ensuing [[Battle of Wagram]] (5–6 July) the Austrians were forced to retreat, but the French and Austrians each suffered losses of 37,000 to 39,000 killed, wounded or captured.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=312–14}}{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=729}} The French caught up with the retreating Austrians at the [[Battle of Znaim]] on 10 July, and the latter signed an armistice on 12 July.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=314}} In August, a British force [[Walcheren Campaign|landed in Holland]] but lost 4,000 men, mainly to illness, before withdrawing in December.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|pp=285–86}}

The [[Treaty of Schönbrunn]] in October 1809 was harsh for Austria which lost substantial territory and over three million subjects.{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=732}} France received [[Carinthia (Slovenia)|Carinthia]], [[Carniola]], and the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] ports of [[Trieste]] and Fiume ([[Rijeka]]); the part of Poland annexed by Austria in the [[third partition of Poland|third partition]] in 1795, known at the time as [[West Galicia]], was given to the Polish-ruled [[Duchy of Warsaw]]; and the territory of the former Archbishopric of Salzburg went to Bavaria.{{sfnp|Fremont-Barnes|Fisher|2004|p=144}} Austria was required to pay an indemnity of 200 million francs, and its army was reduced to 150,000 men.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=316}}

==== Consolidation of the empire ====
[[File:Europe 1812 map en.png|thumb|260px|alt=Map of Europe. French Empire shown as bigger than present day France as it included parts of present-day Netherlands and Italy.|The [[First French Empire|French Empire]] at its greatest extent in 1812:{{Legend|#B284BE|French Empire}}{{Legend|#71A6D2|French [[satellite state]]s}}]]

Napoleon's union with Joséphine had not produced a child, and he decided to secure the dynasty and strengthen its position in Europe by a strategic marriage into one of Europe's major royal houses. In November 1809, he announced his decision to divorce Joséphine, and the marriage was annulled in January 1810.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=321–25}} Napoleon had already commenced negotiations for the marriage of Tsar Alexander's sister Anna, but the tsar responded that she was too young. Napoleon then turned to Austria, and a marriage to the Austrian emperor's daughter, Marie Louise, was quickly agreed.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=326–30}} The marriage was formalized in a civil ceremony on 1 April and a religious service at the Louvre on the following day. The marriage to Marie Louise was widely seen as a shift in French policy towards stronger ties with Austria and away from the already strained relationship with Russia.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=328–30}} On 20 March 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to the heir apparent, [[Napoleon II|François Charles Joseph Napoleon]], King of Rome.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=334–41}}

With the annexation of the [[Papal States]] (May 1809, February 1810), Holland (July 1810) and the northern coastal regions of Westphalia (August 1810), mainland France further increased its territory. Napoleon now ruled about 40% of the European population either directly or indirectly through his satellite kingdoms.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=350–53}}

====Invasion of Russia====
Tsar Alexander saw the creation of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Napoleon's marriage alliance with Austria, and the election of the French Marshal [[Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte]] as Crown Prince of Sweden as attempts to contain Russia. In December 1810 Napoleon annexed the [[Duchy of Oldenburg]], which Alexander considered an insult as his uncle was the duke. Alexander responded by allowing neutral shipping into Russian ports and banning most French imports. Russia feared that Napoleon intended to restore the Kingdom of Poland while Napoleon suspected Russia of seeking an alliance with Britain against France.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=353–55}}<ref name="McLynn-1997">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|pages=494–95}}</ref>

[[File:Napoleon in burning Moscow - Adam Albrecht (1841).jpg|thumb|''Napoleon watching the [[Fire of Moscow (1812)|fire of Moscow]] in September 1812'', by [[Albrecht Adam|Adam Albrecht]] (1841)]]

In late 1811 Napoleon began planning [[French invasion of Russia|an invasion of Russia]]. A Franco-Prussian alliance signed in February 1812 forced Prussia to provide 20,000 troops for the invasion, and in March Austria agreed to provide 30,000 men.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=358–61}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=501}} Napoleon's multinational ''grande armée'' comprised around 450,000 frontline troops of which about a third were native French speakers. Napoleon called the invasion the "Second Polish War," but he refused to guarantee an independent Poland for fear of alienating his Austrian and Prussian allies.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=361, 370–71}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=508}}{{sfnp|Esdaile|2007|pp=563–64}}

On 24 June Napoleon's troops began crossing the Nieman river into [[Lithuania|Russian Lithuania]] with the aim of luring the Russians into one or two decisive battles.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=370}} The Russians retreated 320 kilometres east to the [[Daugava|Dvina]] river and implemented a [[Scorched earth|scorched earth policy]], making it increasingly difficult for the French to forage food for themselves and their horses.{{sfnp|Harvey|2007|p=773}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=371–72}} On 18 August, Napoleon captured [[Battle of Smolensk (1812)|captured Smolensk]] with the loss of 9,000 of his men, but the Russians were able to withdraw in good order.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=379–82}}

The Russians, commanded by Field Marshall [[Mikhail Kutuzov]], [[Battle of Borodino|made a stand at Borodino]], outside Moscow, on 7 September. The battle resulted in 44,000 Russian and 35,000 French dead, wounded or captured, in one of the bloodiest days of battle in Europe up to that time.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=518}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=385}} The Russians withdrew overnight, and Napoleon later stated, "The most terrible of all my battles was the one before Moscow. The French showed themselves worthy of victory, and the Russians worthy of being invincible".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Langer |first1=Philip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ya9hFI4h28C&pg=PA48 |title=Command Failure in War: Psychology and Leadership |last2=Pois |first2=Robert |date=2004 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-11093-0 |page=48 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040239/https://books.google.com/books?id=1ya9hFI4h28C&pg=PA48 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Napoleons retreat from Moscow by Adolph Northen.jpg|thumb|''Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia'', painting by [[Adolph Northen]]]]

The Russians retreated to [[Tarutino, Russia|Tarutino]], and [[French occupation of Moscow|Napoleon entered Moscow]] on 14 September. The following evening, the city [[Fire of Moscow (1812)|was set on fire]] on the orders of Governor [[Fyodor Rostopchin|Feodor Rostopchin]]. Alexander, in [[Saint Petersburg|St Petersburg]], refused to negotiate a peace, and after six weeks Napoleon's army evacuated Moscow.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=388–98}} After [[Battle of Maloyaroslavets|capturing Maloyaroslavets]] with the loss of 4,000 to 10,000 men, Napoleon retreated towards [[Smolensk]]. The French were attacked by [[Cossacks]] and peasants and suffered from the intense cold, disease and lack of food and water. Around 40,000 to 50,000 troops reached Smolensk on 9 November, a loss of about 60,000 in three weeks. Napoleon also heard that an [[Malet coup of 1812|attempted coup]] by General [[Claude François de Malet]] in Paris had only narrowly failed.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=400–07}}

From Smolensk, Napoleon's army headed for [[Vilnius]], where there was a French garrison of 20,000. In late November, under attack from all sides by Russian forces, the ''grande armée'' managed to [[Battle of Berezina|cross the Berezina]] river on pontoon bridges in temperatures reaching {{convert|-40|C|F|abbr=on|disp=b|sigfig=2}}. On 5 December, shortly before arriving in Vilnius, Napoleon left his disintegrating army for Paris.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=410–19}} In the following weeks, the remnants of the ''grande armée'', about 75,000 troops, crossed the Nieman into allied territory. Russian military losses in the campaign were up to 300,000, and total military deaths from both sides were up to one million.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=425}}

====War of the Sixth Coalition====
{{Main|War of the Sixth Coalition}}

[[File:Napoleon i Poniatowski Lipsk.jpg|thumb|Napoleon and Prince [[Józef Poniatowski]] at [[Battle of Leipzig|Leipzig]], painting by [[January Suchodolski]]]]

The French, pursued by the Russians, withdrew from most of Poland and Prussia over the winter of 1812–13 while both sides rebuilt their forces.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=280–84}} Sweden and Prussia declared war on France in March 1813. In April Napoleon assumed command of an army of 200,000 troops{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=550}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=445}} and defeated the coalition at the battles of [[Battle of Lützen (1813)|Lützen]] and [[Battle of Bautzen (1813)|Bautzen]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=445–46}} Britain formally joined the coalition in June followed by Austria in August,<ref>{{Harvard citation year brackets|Esdaile|2007|pp=600–02, 608}}</ref> but the allies were again defeated in the [[Battle of Dresden]] in August.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=565}} The coalition, however, had a growing advantage in infantry, cavalry, reserves and armaments. In the largest battle of the Napoleonic wars, the coalition was victorious at the [[Battle of Leipzig]] (19 October). Although coalition casualties were 54,000 men, the French lost 38,000 killed or wounded and 15,000 taken prisoner. Up to 50,000 more were lost to death, illness and desertion during the French retreat to the [[Rhine]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=453, 458–63}}{{sfnp|Chandler|1995|p=1020}}

[[File:DelarocheNapoleon.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Napoleon I at Fontainebleau on March 31, 1814|''Napoleon after his abdication in Fontainebleau, 4 April 1814'']], by [[Paul Delaroche]]|left]]

The [[Frankfurt proposals]] were peace terms offered by the coalition in November 1813 under which Napoleon would remain emperor but France would be reduced to its "natural frontiers." That meant that France would retain control of Belgium, Savoy and the west bank of the Rhine, while withdrawing from Spain, Holland, Italy and Germany. Napoleon did not accept the terms, and the allies crossed the Rhine into French territory on 1 January 1814.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=465–69}} Wellington's British forces had already crossed the Pyrenees [[Campaign in south-west France (1814)|into south-western France]].{{sfnp|Broers|2022|p=432–39}} [[Campaign in north-east France (1814)|In north-eastern France]], Napoleon led about 70,000 troops against a coalition army of 200,000. After a defeat at the [[Battle of La Rothière]], the French won a [[Six Days' Campaign|series of victories]] in February which induced the coalition to offer peace on the basis of France's 1791 frontiers. Napoleon, however, decided to fight on.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=475–78}}{{sfnp|Esdaile|2007|pp=626–67}}

After a series of battles in March, the allies forced Napoleon to retreat at the [[Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube]] (20–21 March). The coalition then [[Battle of Paris (1814)|moved towards Paris]], whose defence was under the command of Joseph Bonaparte.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=461–62, 487–88}} On 29 March, a coalition army of 200,000 began their attack on the Belleville and Montmartre heights. Empress Marie Louise fled Paris that evening with her son, the king of Rome. With an army of only 38,000 to defend the capital, Joseph authorized the French marshal [[Auguste de Marmont]] to capitulate on 31 March. The following day, the allies accepted [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord]] as head of a provisional government. On 2 April the French Senate passed the ''[[Acte de déchéance de l'Empereur]]'', which declared Napoleon deposed.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=479–84}} Meanwhile, Napoleon was in [[Fontainebleau]] with an army of 40,000 to 60,000. He contemplated a march on Paris, but on 4 April his senior commanders persuaded him to abdicate in favour of his son, with Marie Louise as regent.{{efn|There were actually three versions of the act written on 4 April 1814. The final signed version explicitly refers to "Napoleon II" as his successor.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Vial |first=Charles-Éloi |date=2014 |title=4, 6 et 11 avril 1814 : les trois actes d'abdication de Napoléon I er |journal=Napoleonica la Revue |language=fr |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=3 |doi=10.3917/napo.141.0003 |issn=2100-0123 |doi-access=free}}</ref>}} Tsar Alexander, however, demanded an unconditional abdication, and Napoleon reluctantly complied on 6 April.<ref>{{cite book |last=Prutsch |first=M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4QbOh5jK3IC&pg=PA15 |title=Making Sense of Constitutional Monarchism in Post-Napoleonic France and Germany |publisher=Springer |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-137-29165-3 |pages=10–15 |access-date=2 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102012205/https://books.google.com/books?id=L4QbOh5jK3IC&pg=PA15 |archive-date=2 November 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=484–86}}{{sfnp|Gates|2003|page=259}}<ref>{{cite web |date=July 1814 |title=Napoleon's act of abdication |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4861135.pleinepage.f57.langFR |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111222080420/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4861135.pleinepage.f57.langFR |archive-date=22 December 2011 |access-date=28 August 2009 |publisher=Bulletin des lois de la Republique Française }}</ref>

[[File:Montfort - Adieux de Napoleon a la Garde imperiale.jpg|thumb|''Napoleon's farewell to his Imperial Guard, 20 April 1814'', by [[Antoine-Alphonse Montfort]]]]

In his farewell address to the soldiers of the [[Old Guard (France)|Old Guard]] on 20 April, Napoleon said:{{blockquote|"Soldiers of my Old Guard, I have come to bid you farewell. For twenty years you have accompanied me faithfully on the paths of honor and glory. ...With men like you, our cause was [not] lost, but the war would have dragged on interminably, and it would have been a civil war. ... So I am sacrificing our interests to those of our country. ...Do not lament my fate; if I have agreed to live on, it is to serve our glory. I wish to write the history of the great deeds we have done together. Farewell, my children!"{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=97}}}}
{{clear}}

===Exile to Elba===
{{main|Principality of Elba}}

[[File:Beaume - Napoléon Ier quittant l'île d'Elbe - 1836.jpg|thumb|''Napoleon leaving Elba on 26 February 1815'', by [[Joseph Beaume]] (1836)]]

With the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814)|Treaty of Fontainebleau]] of 11 April 1814, the allies exiled Napoleon to [[Elba]], an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, {{convert|10|km|0|abbr=on}} off the Tuscan coast, where they made him [[Principality of Elba|sovereign]]. The following night, Napoleon attempted suicide with poison he had carried after nearly being captured by the Russians during the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, however, and he survived to be exiled, while his wife and son took refuge in Austria.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=593–594}} He was conveyed to the island on [[HMS Undaunted (1807)|HMS ''Undaunted'']] and disembarked at [[Portoferraio]] on 4 May. In the first few months on Elba, he drew up plans for administrative reforms, road and building works, and improvements to the island's mines and agriculture, but results were limited by lack of funds.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=597}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=500–03}}{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=513–15}} When Napoleon learned that Joséphine had died in France on 29 May, he was distraught and locked himself in his room for two days.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=507}}

Napoleon understood that French King [[Louis XVIII]] was unpopular. Realizing that his wife and son would not be joining him in exile, cut off from the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, aware of rumours he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, Napoleon escaped from Elba in the brig [[French brig Inconstant (1811)|''Inconstant'']] on 26 February 1815 with about 1,000 men and a flotilla of seven vessels.<ref name="Mclynn6042">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=604}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=514–16}}

===Hundred Days===
{{Main|Hundred Days}}
[[File:Retour de Napoleon d' Isle d'Elbe, by Charles de Steuben.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon's Return from Elba (painting)|Napoleon's Return from Elba]]'', by [[Charles de Steuben]], 1818]]On 1 March 1815 Napoleon and his followers landed on the French mainland at [[Golfe-Juan]] and headed for [[Grenoble]] through the foothills of the Alps, taking the route now known as [[Route Napoléon]].<ref name="Mclynn6042"/>{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=522–23}} The 5th Regiment intercepted him just south of Grenoble on 7 March. Napoleon approached the battalion alone and called to them, "Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you wish!" The soldiers responded with, "''Vive l'empereur!''" and joined Napoleon's men.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=605}}{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=525–26}} On 14 March [[Marshal of the Empire|Marshall of the Empire]] [[Michel Ney]]—who had boasted that he would bring Napoleon to Paris in an iron cage—joined Napoleon along with an army of 6,000.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=532–33}}

On 13 March the powers at the [[Congress of Vienna]] declared Napoleon an outlaw.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Congress of Vienna, the Hundred Days, and Napoleon's Exile on St. Helena |url=https://library.brown.edu/cds/napoleon/time7.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907033020/https://library.brown.edu/cds/napoleon/time7.html |archive-date=7 September 2023 |access-date=7 September 2023 |website=library.brown.edu}}</ref> Four days later, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia each pledged to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=607}} Louis XVIII, however, fled Paris for Belgium in the early hours of 20 March after realizing that he did not have enough reliable troops to oppose Napoleon. Napoleon entered Paris that evening.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=537–38}} Napoleon appointed a government and introduced constitutional changes which were approved by plebiscite in May. A [[Chamber of Representatives (France)|Chamber of Representatives]] was also indirectly elected that month on a highly restrictive property franchise.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=538–42}}{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=540–45, 562–64}} Napoleon's priority was to raise an army to face the coalition, but the law did not allow conscription and he was only able to raise about 300,000 men, mostly raw recruits and national guards.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=553–54}}

On 12 June Napoleon led about 124,000 men, known as the [[Army of the North (France)|Army of the North]], into Belgium, aiming to drive a wedge between Wellington's army of 112,000 British, German and Dutch troops and [[Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher]]'s force of 130,000 Prussians and Saxons.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=544–46}}{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=573–74}} After engagements at the [[Battle of Ligny]] and [[Battle of Quatre Bras]], Napoleon confronted Wellington at the [[Battle of Waterloo]] on 18 June. Wellington's army withstood repeated attacks by the French until, late in the afternoon, Blücher's Prussians arrived in force on Napoleon's right flank. The coalition forces broke through Napoleon's lines, inflicting a devastating defeat.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=546–47}}

Napoleon returned to Paris and found that the legislature had turned against him. Realizing that his position was untenable, [[Napoleon I's second abdication|he abdicated on 22 June in favour of his son]]. He left Paris three days later and settled at Joséphine's former palace in [[Château de Malmaison]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=551–56}} By 28 June, the Prussian army was at [[Senlis]], just north of Paris.{{sfnp|Broers|2022|pp=635}} When Napoleon heard that Prussian troops had orders to capture him dead or alive, he fled to [[Rochefort, Charente-Maritime]], considering an escape to the United States. However, when he found that British ships were blockading the port, he surrendered to [[Frederick Lewis Maitland]] on {{HMS|Bellerophon|1786|6}} on 15 July 1815.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=556–62}}{{sfnp|Cordingly|2004|p=254}}

==Exile on Saint Helena==
{{Main|Napoleon's exile to St. Helena}}
[[File:Napoleon sainthelene.jpg|thumb|''Napoleon on [[Saint Helena]]'', watercolour by Franz Josef Sandmann, {{circa|1820}}]]
[[File:Longwood House (16311222817).jpg|thumb|[[Longwood House]], Saint Helena, site of Napoleon's captivity]]
Napoleon was held in British custody and transferred to the island of [[Saint Helena]] in the Atlantic Ocean, {{convert|1870|km|nmi|0|abbr=on}} from the west coast of Africa. Napoleon and 27 followers arrived at [[Jamestown, Saint Helena|Jamestown]] in October 1815 on board [[HMS Northumberland (1798)|HMS ''Northumberland'']]. The prisoner was guarded by a garrison of 2,100 soldiers while a squadron of 10 ships continuously patrolled the waters to prevent escape.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=13–34}} In the following years, there were rumours of escape plots, but no serious attempts were made.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=71–74}}

Napoleon stayed for two months at a pavilion in [[Briars, Saint Helena|Briars]] before he was moved to [[Longwood House]], a 40-room wooden bungalow. The location and interior of the house were damp, windswept, rat-infested and unhealthy.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xa2qKbxgWAC&q=Longwood+House&pg=PA272  |last=Hibbert |first=Christopher |title=Napoleon's Women |date=2003 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-32499-0 |page=272 |archive-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227173032/https://books.google.com/books?id=9xa2qKbxgWAC&q=Longwood+House&pg=PA272#v=snippet&q=Longwood%20House&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=39–41, 90}} ''[[The Times]]'' published articles insinuating the [[Liverpool ministry|British government]] was trying to hasten his death. Napoleon often complained of his living conditions in letters to the island's governor [[Hudson Lowe]]{{sfnp|Schom|1997|pp=769–70}} while his attendants complained of "colds, [[catarrh]]s, damp floors and poor provisions".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2I-AQAAMAAJ&q=Longwood+House&pg=PA402  |title=Two Days at Saint Helena |journal=The Spirit of the English Magazines |publisher=[[Monroe and Francis]] |date=1832  |page=402 |archive-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227173224/https://books.google.com/books?id=i2I-AQAAMAAJ&q=Longwood+House&pg=PA402#v=snippet&q=Longwood%20House&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

Napoleon insisted on imperial formality. When he held a dinner party, men were expected to wear military dress and "women [appeared] in evening gowns and gems. It was an explicit denial of the circumstances of his captivity".<ref>{{cite web |title=A Journey to St. Helena, Home of Napoleon's Last Days |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/journey-st-helen-home-napoleon-last-days-180971638/ |access-date=18 March 2021 |archive-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303061019/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/journey-st-helen-home-napoleon-last-days-180971638/ |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=44–46, 64–67}} He formally received visitors, read, and dictated his memoirs and commentaries on military campaigns.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=43–44}} He studied English under [[Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases]], for a few months but gave up as he was poor at languages.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleons-english-lessons/ |last=Hicks |first=Peter |title=Napoleon's English Lessons  |website=Napoleon.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918214137/https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleons-english-lessons/ |archive-date=18 September 2016 | url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|p=41}}

Napoleon circulated reports of poor treatment in the hope that public opinion would force the allies to revoke his exile on Saint Helena.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=64–67}} Under instructions from the government, Lowe cut Napoleon's expenditure, refused to recognize him as a former emperor, and made his supporters sign a guarantee they would stay with him indefinitely.<ref name="Lowe2">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=642}}</ref>{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=64–67}} Accounts of Napoleon's treatment led in March 1817 to a debate in the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] where [[Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland]], made a call for a public inquiry.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|p=64}}

In mid-1817, Napoleon's health worsened. His physician, [[Barry O'Meara]], diagnosed chronic [[hepatitis]] and warned Lowe that he could die from the poor climate and lack of exercise. Lowe thought O'Meara was exaggerating and dismissed him in July 1818.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=93–97}} In November 1818, the allies announced that Napoleon would remain a prisoner on Saint Helena for life. When he learnt the news, he became depressed and more isolated, spending longer periods in his rooms, which further undermined his health.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=103–05}}{{sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pages=638–39}} Much of his entourage left Saint Helena, including Las Cases in December 1816, General Gaspard Gourgaud in March 1818 and [[Albine de Montholon]]—who was possibly Napoleon's lover—in July 1819.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=82–89, 90–93}} In September 1819, two priests and the physician [[François Carlo Antommarchi]] joined Napoleon's retinue.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|p=105}}

===Death===
{{main|Death of Napoleon}}
{{See also|Death mask of Napoleon|Retour des cendres|Napoleon's tomb|Bicentenary of the death of Napoleon}}
[[File:Napoleone Bonaparte's Tomb.jpg|thumb|[[Napoleon's tomb]] at {{lang|fr|[[Les Invalides]]|italic=no}} in Paris]]

Napoleon's health continued to worsen, and in March 1821 he was confined to bed. In April he wrote two wills declaring that he had been assassinated by the "English [[oligarchy]]", that the Bourbons would fall, and that his son would rule France. He left his fortune to 97 legatees and asked to be buried by the Seine.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=108–13}} On 3 May he was given the [[last rites]] but could not take communion due to his illness.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|p=115}} He died on 5 May 1821 at age 51. His last words, variously recorded by those present, were either ''France, l'armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine'' ("France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine"),<ref name="McLynn6552">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=655}}</ref><ref>Roberts, ''Napoleon'' (2014) 799–801</ref> or ''qui recule''...''à la tête d'armée'' ("who retreats... at the head of the army"){{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=115, 282n82}} or "France, my son, the Army."{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=115, 282n82}}

Antommarchi and the British wrote separate autopsy reports, each concluding that Napoleon had died of internal bleeding caused by [[stomach cancer]], the disease that had killed his father.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=120–23}}<ref name="Lugli-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Lugli |first1=Alessandro |last2=Carneiro |first2=Fatima |display-authors=1 |date=4 March 2021 |title=The gastric disease of Napoleon Bonaparte: brief report for the bicentenary of Napoleon's death on St. Helena in 1821 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03061-1 |journal=Virchows Archiv |volume=2021 |issue=479 |pages=1055–60 |doi=10.1007/s00428-021-03061-1 |pmid=33661330 |pmc=8572813 |via=Springer |access-date=28 November 2023 |archive-date=27 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227173042/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00428-021-03061-1 |url-status=live}}</ref> A later theory, based on high concentrations of [[arsenic]] found in samples of Napoleon's hair, held that Napoleon had died of [[arsenic poisoning]]. However, subsequent studies also found high concentrations of arsenic in hair samples from Napoleon's childhood and from his son and Joséphine. Arsenic was widely used in medicines and products such as hair creams in the 19th century.<ref name="cullen1562">{{cite book |last=Cullen |first=William |title=Is Arsenic an Aphrodisiac? |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-85404-363-7|pages=148–61}}</ref>{{sfnp|Hindmarsh|Savory|2008|p=2092}} A 2021 study by an international team of gastrointestinal pathologists once again concluded that Napoleon died of stomach cancer.<ref name="Lugli-2021" />

Napoleon was buried with military honours in the [[Valley of the Tomb|Valley of the Geraniums]].{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=126–27}}<ref name="McLynn6552" /> Napoleon's heart and intestines were removed and sealed inside his coffin. [[Napoleon's penis]] was allegedly removed during the autopsy and sold and exhibited. In 1840, the [[second Melbourne ministry|British government]] gave [[Louis Philippe I]] permission to return Napoleon's remains to France. Napoleon's body was exhumed and found to be well preserved as it had been sealed in four coffins (two of metal and two of mahogany) and placed in a masonry tomb.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=141, 195–99}} On 15 December 1840, a [[state funeral]] was held in Paris with 700,000 to 1,000,000 attendees who lined the route of the funeral procession to the chapel of [[Les Invalides]]. The coffin was later placed in the cupola in St Jérôme's Chapel, where it remained until [[Napoleon's tomb]], designed by [[Louis Visconti]], was completed.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|pp=216–19, 225}} In 1861, during the reign of [[Napoleon III]], his remains were entombed in a [[sarcophagus]] in the crypt under the dome at Les Invalides.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2018|p=235}}

==Religion==
{{Further|Napoleon and the Catholic Church}}
[[File:France dioceses 1801.svg|thumb|right|Reorganisation of the religious geography: France is divided into 59 [[diocese]]s and 10 [[ecclesiastical provinces]].]]

=== Religious beliefs ===
Napoleon was baptized in [[Ajaccio]] on 21 July 1771 and raised a Roman Catholic. He began to question his faith at age 13 while at Brienne.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=239–41}} Biographers have variously described him from that time as a [[Deism|deist]], a follower of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s "natural religion" or a believer in destiny. He consistently expressed his belief in a God or creator.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=236}}

He understood the power of organized religion in social and political affairs and later sought to use it to support his regime.<ref>{{cite web |title=L'Empire et le Saint-Siège |url=http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/Empire_Saint-Siege_Napoleon_religion.asp   |publisher=Napoleon.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919124850/http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/Empire_Saint-Siege_Napoleon_religion.asp |archive-date=19 September 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=236–37}} His attitude to religion is often described as utilitarian.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=235}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|p=84}} In 1800 he stated, "it was by making myself a Catholic that I won the war in the Vendée, by making myself a Moslem that I established myself in Egypt, by making myself an [[Ultramontanism|ultramontane]] that I turned men's hearts towards me in Italy. If I were to govern a nation of Jews I would rebuild the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple of Solomon]]."{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=235}}

Napoleon had a [[civil marriage]] with Joséphine in 1796 and, at the pope's insistence, a private religious ceremony with her the day before his coronation as emperor in 1804. This marriage was annulled by tribunals under Napoleon's control in January 1810.<ref>{{cite web |title=Napoleon's 'divorce' |url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/timelines/napoleons-divorce/ | website=Napoleon.org |archive-date=21 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071220/https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/timelines/napoleons-divorce/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In April 1810, Napoleon married Austrian princess Marie Louise in a Catholic ceremony. Napoleon was [[excommunicated]] by the pope through the bull ''[[Quum memoranda]]'' in 1809.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=248}} His will in 1821 stated, "I die in the Apostolical Roman religion, in the bosom of which I was born, more than fifty years since."{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=197}} Napoleon read the [[Quran]] in translation and had an interest in [[Islam]] and the [[Orient]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Youssef |first=Ahmed |title=Napoléon et l'islam, l'anti-croisade |url=https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/napoleon-et-lislam-lanti-croisade/  |website=Napoleon.org |date=January 2023 |language=fr |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202073213/https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/napoleon-et-lislam-lanti-croisade/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He also defended [[Muhammad]] ("a great man") against [[Voltaire]]'s ''[[Mahomet (play)|Mahomet]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cases |first=Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné comte de Las Cases |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XUuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA94 |title=Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon |date=1855 |publisher=Redfield |page=94 |volume=2}}</ref>

===Concordat===
[[File:FrenchChurchOathConcordat.jpg|thumb|Leaders of the Catholic Church taking the civil oath required by the [[Concordat of 1801]]]]
Seeking national reconciliation between revolutionaries and Catholics, Napoleon and [[Pope Pius VII]] agreed to the [[Concordat of 1801]]. The agreement recognized the Catholic Church as the majority church of France and in return the Church recognized Napoleon's regime, undercutting much of the ground from royalists. The Concordat confirmed the seizure of Church lands and endowments during the revolution, but reintroduced state salaries for the clergy. The government also controlled the nomination of bishops for investiture by the pope. Bishops and other clergy were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the regime.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=244–45}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=William |title=Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8132-2038-3 |editor-last=Coppa |editor-first=Frank J. |pages=34–38 |chapter=Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its  Consequences}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |url=http://archive.org/details/religionrevoluti0000asto_b5c4 |title=Religion and revolution in France, 1780–1804 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Catholic University of America Press]] |isbn=978-0-8132-0976-0 |pages=279–315}}</ref>

When the Concordat was published on 8 April 1802, Napoleon presented another set of laws called the [[Organic Articles]] which further increased state control over the French Church.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=244–45}} Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by Napoleon, especially in Italy and Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7yVDUMVITkC |title=Christianity and Revolutionary Europe, 1750–1830 |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-46592-2 |pages=261–262 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040240/https://books.google.com/books?id=r7yVDUMVITkC |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Arrest of Pope Pius VII===
Napoleon progressively occupied and annexed the Papal States from 1805. When he annexed Rome in May 1809, the pope excommunicated him the following month. In July, French officials arrested the pope in the Vatican and exiled him to [[Savona]]. In 1812 the pontiff was transferred to the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]] in France.<ref>{{cite web |title=Napoleon and the Pope: From the Concordat to the Excommunication |url=https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-and-the-pope-from-the-concordat-to-the-excommunication/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124005648/https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-and-the-pope-from-the-concordat-to-the-excommunication/ |archive-date=24 January 2018 |access-date=23 January 2018}}</ref> In January 1813, Napoleon pressured the pope to sign a new "Concordat of Fontainebleau" which was soon repudiated by the pontiff. The pope was not released until 1814.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|p=248}}

===Religious emancipation===
{{further|Napoleon and the Jews|Napoleon and Protestants}}
In February 1795, the National Convention proclaimed religious equality for France's [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches and other religions. In April 1802, Napoleon published laws increasing state control of [[Reformed Christianity|Calvinist]] congregations and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] directories, with their pastors to be paid by the state.{{sfnp|Ellis|1997a|pp=242, 245}} With Napoleon's military victories, formal religious equality and civil rights for religious minorities spread to the conquered territories and [[satellite state]]s, although their implementation varied with the local authorities.<ref name="McLynn-1997a">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|pages=435–36}}</ref>

[[Jews]] in France had been granted full civil rights in September 1791 and religious equality in 1795. The revolutionary and Napoleonic regimes abolished Jewish ghettoes in the territories they conquered.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|pp=160–61}} Napoleon wished to assimilate Jews into French society and convened an assembly of Jewish notables in 1806 to that end. In 1807, he summoned a [[Sanhedrin]] to adapt the [[law of Moses]] to those of the empire. An imperial decree of March 1808 organized Jewish worship into consistories, limited usury and encouraged Jews to adopt a family name, intermarriage, and civil marriage and divorce.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=38–40}}{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|pp=160–61}} Jews, however, were still subject to discrimination in many parts of the empire and satellite states.<ref name="McLynn-1997a" />

==Personality==
[[File:Napoleon visiting the Tribunat (Palais Royal) in 1807.jpg|thumb|Napoleon visiting the [[Tribunat]]]]
[[Pieter Geyl]] wrote in 1947, "It is impossible that two historians, especially two historians living in different periods, should see any historical personality in the same light."{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|p=15}} There is no dispute that Napoleon was ambitious, although commentators disagree on whether his ambition was mostly for his own power and glory or for the welfare of France.{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|pp=135–37, 198}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=18–19}}{{sfnp|Barnett|1997|pp=88–89}} Historians agree that Napoleon was highly intelligent with an excellent memory{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=26}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=18}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=280–83}} and was a superior organizer who could work efficiently for long hours.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=18}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=280–81}} In battle, he could rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to his subordinates, keeping in mind where major units were expected to be at each future point.{{sfnp|Chandler|1966|loc="Introduction", pp. 3–36}}

He was an inspiring leader who could obtain the best from his soldiers and subordinates.{{sfnp|Englund|2010|p=379ff}} Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, said his presence on the battlefield was worth 40,000 soldiers.<ref>{{cite book | first=Christopher | last=Hibbert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbQIAQAAMAAJ |title=Wellington: A Personal History |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7382-0148-1 |page=171}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jack Coggins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8qaEDqjkv0C&pg=PA187 |title=Soldiers And Warriors: An Illustrated History |publisher=[[Courier Dover Publications]] |page=187 |year=1966 |isbn=978-0-486-45257-9 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110504/https://books.google.com/books?id=V8qaEDqjkv0C&pg=PA187#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref> He could charm people when he needed to but could also publicly humiliate them and was known for his rages when his plans were frustrated.{{sfnp|Price|2014|p=8}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=18–19}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=279–80}}{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|pp=135-37}} The historian McLynn sees him as a [[misogynist]] with a cruel streak which he often inflicted on women, children and animals.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=277–79}}

There is debate over whether Napoleon was an outsider who never felt at home in France or with other people.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=287}} [[Hippolyte Taine]] said Napoleon saw others only as instruments and was cut off from feelings of admiration, sympathy or pity. Arthur Lévy replied that Napoleon genuinely loved Joséphine and often showed humanity and compassion to his enemies or those who had let him down. He had the normal middle class virtues and understood the common man.{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|pp=135–37, 175}}

Historians are divided over whether Napoleon was consistently ruthless when his power was threatened or surprisingly indulgent in some cases. Those arguing for a ruthless personality point to episodes such as his violent suppression of revolts in France and conquered territories,{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|p=198}} his execution of the [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien|Duc d'Enghien]] and plotters against his rule,{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=52}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=16–17}} and his massacre of Turkish prisoners of war in Syria in 1799.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=279–80}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=39–40}} Others point to his mild treatment of disloyal subordinates such as [[Charles XIV John|Bernadotte]], Talleyrand, and Fouché.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=279–80}}

Many historians see Napoleon as pragmatic and a realist, at least in the early years of his rule.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=12}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=286}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|p=573}} He was not driven by ideology and promoted capable men irrespective of their political and social background, as long as they were loyal.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=21}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=573, 575–76}} As an expert in military matters, he valued technical expertise and listened to the advice of experts in other fields.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=21}} However, there is a consensus that once he dominated Europe he became more intolerant of other views and surrounded himself with "[[Sycophancy|yes men]]".{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=56}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|p=582}} Towards the end of his reign he lost his realism and ability to compromise.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=19, 47}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=95–96}}

Some historians talk of Napoleon's dual nature: a rationalist with a strong romantic streak.{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|p=20}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=287–91}} He took a team of scholars, artists and engineers with him to Egypt in order to scientifically study the country's culture and history, but at the same time was struck by romantic "orientalism". "I was full of dreams," he stated. "I saw myself founding a religion, marching into Asia, riding an elephant, a turban on my head and in my hand a new Koran that I would have composed to suit my need."{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=37–38}}

Napoleon was superstitious. He believed in [[omen]]s, [[numerology]], fate and lucky stars, and always asked of his generals: "is he lucky?"{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=288–89}} Dwyer states that Napoleon's victories at Austerlitz and Jena in 1805–06 left him even more certain of his destiny and invincibility.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=175–176}} "I am of the race that founds empires", he once boasted, deeming himself an heir to the Ancient Romans.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ellis |first=Geoffrey |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-08847-8 |title=The Napoleonic Empire |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] | via=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4039-4401-6 |page=125|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-08847-8 }}</ref>

Various psychologists have attempted to explain Napoleon's personality. [[Alfred Adler]] cites Napoleon to describe an [[inferiority complex]] in which short people adopt over-aggressive behaviour to compensate for lack of height; this inspired the term ''[[Napoleon complex]]''.<ref>{{Cite web | last=Hall | first=H.K. | year=2006 | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260553327 | title=Perfectionism: A Hallmark Quality of World Class Performers, or a Psychological Impediment to Athletic Development? | pages=178–211 | publisher=Meyer & Meyer | location=[[Oxford]]}}</ref> Adler, [[Erich Fromm]] and [[Wilhelm Reich]] ascribe his nervous energy to [[sexual dysfunction]].{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=285}} Harold T. Parker speculated that rivalry with his older brother and bullying when he moved to France led him to develop an inferiority complex which made him domineering.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Parker |first=Harold T. |date=1971 |title=The Formation of Napoleon's Personality: An Exploratory Essay |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=6–26 |doi=10.2307/286104 |jstor=286104}}</ref>

==Appearance and image==
{{Further|Cultural depictions of Napoleon|Uniforms of Napoleon}}
[[File:Napoleon in 1806.PNG|thumb|upright|Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the [[Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale|Chasseur à Cheval of the Imperial Guard]], the regiment that often served as his personal escort, with a large [[bicorne]] and a [[hand-in-waistcoat]] gesture.]]In his youth, Bonaparte was consistently described as small and thin. Johann Ludwig Wurstemberger, who accompanied him in 1797 and 1798, notes "Bonaparte was rather slight and emaciated-looking; his face, too, was very thin, with a dark complexion... his black, unpowdered hair hung down evenly over both shoulders", but that, despite his slight and unkempt appearance, "his looks and expression were earnest and powerful."{{sfnp|Kircheisen|1932|p=129}}

The English painter [[Joseph Farington]], who met him in 1802, said Bonaparte's eyes were "lighter, and more of a grey, than I should have expected from his complexion", "his person is below middle size", and "his general aspect was milder than I had before thought it."<ref>The Fortnightly, Volume 114. Chapman and Hall, 1923. p. 836.</ref> In his later years Napoleon gained weight and had a sallow complexion. The novelist Paul de Kock, who saw him in 1811, called Napoleon "yellow, obese, and bloated".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Seward |first=Desmond |author-link=Desmond Seward |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonsfamily0000sewa/page/124 |title=Napoleon's family |date=1986 |publisher=[[Weidenfeld and Nicolson]] |isbn=978-0-297-78809-6 |page=124}}</ref> He is often portrayed wearing a large [[bicorne]] hat—sideways—with a [[hand-in-waistcoat]] gesture—a reference to the painting produced in 1812 by [[Jacques-Louis David]].{{sfnp|Bordes|2007|p=118}}

During the Napoleonic Wars, the British press depicted Napoleon as a dangerous [[tyrant]], poised to invade. A nursery rhyme warned children that he ate naughty people; the "[[bogeyman]]".{{sfnp|Roberts|2004|p=93}} He was mocked as a short-tempered small man and was nicknamed "Little Boney in a strong fit".<ref name="nationalpostBoney2">{{cite news |date=28 April 2016 |title=Greatest cartooning coup of all time: The Brit who convinced everyone Napoleon was short |newspaper=[[National Post]] |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/world/greatest-cartooning-coup-of-all-time-the-brit-who-convinced-everyone-napoleon-was-short |access-date=30 September 2017 |archive-date=3 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603212831/https://nationalpost.com/news/world/greatest-cartooning-coup-of-all-time-the-brit-who-convinced-everyone-napoleon-was-short |url-status=live}}</ref> In fact, at about 168&nbsp;cm (5&nbsp;ft 6 in), he was of average height.<ref>{{cite web |title=La taille de Napoléon |url=https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/la-taille-de-napoleon/ |access-date=15 July 2023 |website=napoleon.org |language=fr-FR |archive-date=4 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604091554/https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/la-taille-de-napoleon/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Was Napoleon Short? |first=Alicja |last=Zelazko |url=https://www.britannica.com/story/was-napoleon-short |access-date=20 August 2022 |website=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |date=30 November 2023 |archive-date=1 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901070919/https://www.britannica.com/story/was-napoleon-short |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Reforms==
[[File:Debret - Premiere distribution des decorations de la Legion d'honneur.jpg|thumb|right|''First remittance of the Legion of Honour, 15 July 1804, at [[Les Invalides|Saint-Louis des Invalides]]'', by [[Jean-Baptiste Debret]] (1812)]]Napoleon instituted numerous reforms, many of which had a lasting influence on France, Europe, and the world. He reformed the French administration, codified French law, implemented a new education system, and established the first French central bank, the [[Bank of France|Banque de France]].{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=53–56}} He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, which sought to reconcile the majority Catholic population to his regime. It was presented alongside the Organic Articles, which regulated public worship in France. He also implemented civil and religious equality for Protestants and Jews.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=37–40}} In May 1802 he instituted the [[Legion of Honour]] to encourage civilian and military achievements. The order is still the highest decoration in France.{{sfnp|Blaufarb|2008|pp=101–10}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=49–51}} He introduced three French constitutions culminating in the reintroduction of a hereditary monarchy and nobility.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=29–35, 51–53}}

=== Administration ===
Napoleon introduced a series of centralizing administrative reforms soon after taking power. In 1800, he established prefects appointed to run France's regional departments, sub-prefects to run districts and mayors to run towns. Local representative bodies were retained, but their powers were reduced and indirect elections with a high property qualification replaced direct elections.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=75–76}} Real power in the regions was now in the hands of the prefects who were judged by how they met the main priorities of Napoleon's government: efficient administration, law and order, stimulating the local economy, gathering votes for plebiscites, conscripting soldiers and provisioning the army.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=24–25}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=76}}

An enduring reform was the foundation, in December 1799, of the [[Conseil d'État (France)|Council of State]], an advisory body of experts which could also draft laws for submission to the legislative body. Napoleon drew many of his ministers and ambassadors from the council. It was the council which undertook the codification of French law.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=21–23}}

After several attempts by revolutionary governments, Napoleon officially introduced the [[metric system]] in France in 1801, and it was spread through western Europe by his armies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan |title=An Encyclopaedia of Napoleon's Europe |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1984 |isbn=0-297-78394-7 |location=London |page=191}}</ref>{{sfnp|O'Connor|Robertson|2003}} The system was unpopular in some circles, so in 1812 he introduced a compromise system in the retail trade called the ''[[mesures usuelles]]'' (traditional units of measurement).<ref name="H&H2">{{cite web |last1=Hallock |first1=William |last2=Wade |first2=Herbert T |year=1906 |title=Outlines of the evolution of weights and measures and the metric system |url=https://archive.org/stream/outlinesofevolut00halluoft/outlinesofevolut00halluoft_djvu.txt |publisher=The Macmillan Company |pages=66–69 |location=London}}</ref> In December 1805, Napoleon abolished the revolutionary calendar, with its ten-day week, which had been introduced in 1793.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=234}}

===Napoleonic Code===
[[File:Code Civil 1804.png|thumb|upright|alt=Page of French writing|First page of the 1804 original edition of the [[civil code|Code Civil]]]]
Napoleon's [[Civil code|civil code of laws]], known from 1807 as the [[Napoleonic Code]], was implemented in March 1804. It was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of [[Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès|Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès]], the ''Second Consul''. Napoleon participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. The code introduced a clearly written and accessible set of national laws to replace the various regional and customary law systems that had operated in France.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=41}}

The civil code entrenched the principles of equality before the law, religious toleration, secure property rights, equal inheritance for all legitimate children, and the abolition of the vestiges of feudalism. However, it also reduced the rights of women and children and severely restricted the grounds for divorce.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=27–28}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=577–78}}

A criminal code was promulgated in 1808, and eventually seven codes of law were produced under Napoleon.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=43–44}} The Napoleonic Code was carried by Napoleon's armies across Europe and influenced the law in many parts of the world. [[Alfred Cobban]] describes it as, "the most effective agency for the propagation of the basic principles of the French Revolution."{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=28}}

===Warfare===
{{Further|Napoleonic weaponry and warfare|Military career of Napoleon}}
[[File:Napoleon a Cherbourg bordercropped.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Photo of a grey and phosphorous-coloured equestrian statue. Napoleon is seated on the horse, which is rearing up, he looks forward with his right hand raised and pointing forward; his left hand holds the reins.|Statue in [[Cherbourg-Octeville]] unveiled by [[Napoleon III]] in 1858. Napoleon I strengthened the town's defences to prevent British naval incursions.]]
In the field of [[military organization]], Napoleon borrowed from previous theorists such as [[Jacques Antoine Hippolyte, Comte de Guibert]], and from the reforms of preceding French governments, and then developed what was already in place. He continued the revolutionary policies of conscription and promotion based primarily on merit.<ref name="Archer">{{Cite book |last1=Archer |first1=Christon I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lfSwAEACAAJ |title=World History of Warfare |last2=Ferris |first2=John R. |last3=Herwig |first3=Holger H. |last4=Travers |first4=Timothy H. E. |date=2008 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-1941-0 |pages=380–404 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110506/https://books.google.com.pe/books?id=0lfSwAEACAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&hl=es&redir_esc=y |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Flynn|2001|p=16}}

[[Corps]] replaced divisions as the largest army units, [[Self-propelled artillery|mobile artillery]] was integrated into reserve batteries, the staff system became more fluid, and cavalry returned as an important formation in French military doctrine. These methods are now referred to as essential features of Napoleonic warfare.<ref name="Archer" />

Napoleon was regarded by the influential military theorist [[Carl von Clausewitz]] as a genius in the art of war, and many historians rank him as a great military commander.<ref name="Archer" /> Wellington considers him the greatest military commander of all time,{{sfnp|Roberts|2004|p=272}} and [[Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland|Henry Vassall-Fox]] calls him "the greatest statesman and the ablest general of ancient or modern times".{{sfnp|Roberts|2001|p=59}} Cobban states that he showed his genius in moving troops quickly and concentrating them on strategic points.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|pp=46–47}} His principles were to keep his forces united, keep no weak point unguarded, seize important points quickly, and seize his chance.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=90}} Owen Connelly, however, states, "Napoleon's personal tactics defy analysis." He used his intuition, engaged his troops, and reacted to what developed.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=93–94}}

Napoleon was an aggressive commander with a preference for the offensive.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rothenberg |first1=Gunther E. |title=The Napoleonic Wars |last2=Keegan |first2=John |date=2000 |publisher=Cassell |isbn=978-0-304-35267-8 |series=The Cassell history of warfare |location=London |page=35 |language=en}}</ref> Under Napoleon, the focus shifted towards destroying enemy armies rather than simply outmanoeuvering them. Wars became more costly and decisive as invasions of enemy territory occurred on larger fronts. The political cost of war also increased, as defeat for a European power meant more than just losing isolated territories. Peace terms were often punitive, sometimes involving regime change, which intensified the trend towards [[total war]] since the revolutionary era.<ref name="Archer" />{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=10–13}}

===Education===
Napoleon's educational reforms laid the foundation of a modern system of secondary and tertiary education in France and throughout much of Europe.<ref>{{cite book |author=Clive Emsley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L7sbBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |title=Napoleon: Conquest, Reform and Reorganisation |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-317-61028-1 |page=52 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018173545/https://books.google.com/books?id=L7sbBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 |archive-date=18 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> He synthesized academic elements from the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'', [[Age of Enlightenment|The Enlightenment]], and the French Revolution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=L. Pearce |year=1956 |title=Science, Education and Napoleon I |journal=Isis |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=369–82 |doi=10.1086/348507 |jstor=226629 |s2cid=144112149 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/226629 |access-date=5 September 2017 |archive-date=3 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203115348/https://www.jstor.org/stable/226629 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His education laws of 1802 left most primary education in the hands of religious or communal schools which taught basic literacy and numeracy for a minority of the population.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=34}} He abolished the revolutionary central schools and replaced them with secondary schools and elite lycées where the curriculum was based on reading, writing, mathematics, Latin, natural history, classics, and ancient history.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=58–59}}

He retained the revolutionary higher education system, with ''grandes écoles'' in professions including law, medicine, pharmacy, engineering and school teaching. He introduced ''grandes écoles'' in history and geography, but opposed one in literature because it was not vocational. He also founded the [[École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr|military academy of Saint Cyr]].{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=60}} He promoted the advanced centres, such as the [[École Polytechnique]], that provided both military expertise and advanced research in science.<ref>Margaret Bradley (1975), "[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00033797500200381 Scientific education versus military training: the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte on the École Polytechnique] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504023854/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00033797500200381 |date=4 May 2023}}". ''Annals of science'' (1975) 32#5 pp. 415–49.</ref>

In 1808, he founded the Imperial University, a supervisory body with control over curriculum and discipline. The following year he introduced the baccalaureate.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=59}} The system was designed to produce the efficient bureaucrats, technicians, professionals and military officers that the Napoleonic state required. It outperformed its European counterparts, many of which borrowed from the French system.{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|pp=278–81}} Female education, in contrast, was designed to be practical and religious, based on home science, the catechism, basic literacy and numeracy, and enough science to eradicate superstition.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=60–61}}

=== Nobility and honours ===
In May 1802, Bonaparte created the Legion of Honour whose members would be military personnel and civilians with distinguished service to the state. The institution was unpopular with republicans, and the measure passed by 14 votes to 10 in the Council of State.{{Sfnp|Conner|2004|p=49}} The Legion of Honour became an order of chivalry after the empire was proclaimed in 1804. In August 1806, Napoleon created an hereditary imperial nobility including princes, dukes, counts, barons and knights. Eventually the empire had over 3,000 nobles and more than 30,000 members of the Legion of Honour.{{Sfnp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=358, 398–99}}{{Sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=50–51}}

==Memory and evaluation==
{{Main|Legacy of Napoleon}}

===Criticism===
[[File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Third of May 1808]]'' by [[Francisco Goya]], showing Spanish resisters being executed by French troops]]
[[File:Plate L from 'An Historical Account of the Campaign in the Netherlands' by William Mudford (1817).jpg|thumb|A mass grave of soldiers killed at the [[Battle of Waterloo]]]]There is debate over whether Napoleon was "an [[Enlightened absolutism|enlightened despot]] who laid the foundations of modern Europe" or "a [[Narcissistic personality disorder|megalomaniac]] who wrought greater misery than any man before the coming of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hastings |first=Max |date=31 October 2014 |title=Everything is Owed to Glory |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-napoleon-a-life-by-andrew-roberts-1414788232 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113133508/http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-napoleon-a-life-by-andrew-roberts-1414788232 |archive-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> He was compared to Adolf Hitler by [[Pieter Geyl]] in 1947{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|pp=7–10}} and [[Claude Ribbe]] in 2005.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2008b}} Most modern critics of Napoleon, however, reject the Hitler comparison, arguing that Napoleon did not commit genocide and did not engage in the mass murder and imprisonment of his political opponents.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=666–67}}{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=xliii}} Nevertheless, [[David A. Bell]] and McLynn condemn his killing of 3,000–5,000 Turkish prisoners of war in Syria.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=39–40}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=280}}

Historians have argued that his expansionist foreign policy was a major factor in the Napoleonic wars,{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|p=574}}<ref>Charles Esdaile (2008), ''Napoleon's Wars: An International History 1803–1815'', p. 39</ref> which cost six million lives and caused economic disruption for a generation.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Little Tyrant, A review of ''Napoleon: A Penguin Life''|publisher=The Claremont Institute|author=Hanson, Victor Davis|author-link=Victor Davis Hanson|year=2003|url=https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-little-tyrant/|access-date=16 October 2018|archive-date=24 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824130449/https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-little-tyrant/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=666}} McLynn and [[Correlli Barnett]] suggest that Napoleon's reputation as a military genius is exaggerated.{{sfnp|Barnett|1997|pp=41, 53, 75, 103}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=665}} Cobban and Susan P. Conner argue that Napoleon had insufficient regard for the lives of his soldiers and that his battle tactics led to excessive casualties.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=19}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=62, 105–07}}

Critics also cite Napoleon's exploitation of conquered territories.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=665}} To finance his wars, Napoleon increased taxes and levies of troops from annexed territories and satellite states.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=81–82}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=29, 46}} He also introduced discriminatory tariff policies which promoted French trade at the expense of allies and satellite states.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=52}} He institutionalized plunder: French museums contain art stolen by Napoleon's forces from across Europe. Artefacts were brought to the [[Louvre|Musée du Louvre]] for a grand central museum; an example which would later be followed by others.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dodman |first=Benjamin |date=7 May 2021 |title='Glory of arms and art': Napoleonic plunder and the birth of national museums |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210507-glory-of-arms-and-art-napoleonic-plunder-and-the-birth-of-national-museums |access-date=5 December 2023 |website=[[France 24]] |archive-date=9 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109005739/https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210507-glory-of-arms-and-art-napoleonic-plunder-and-the-birth-of-national-museums |url-status=live}}</ref>

Many historians have criticized Napoleon's authoritarian rule, especially after 1807, which included censorship, the closure of independent newspapers, the bypassing of direct elections and representative government, the dismissal of judges showing independence, and the exile of critics of the regime.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=574–76, 582–84}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=32–34}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=52}} Historians also blame Napoleon for reducing the civil rights of women, children and people of colour, and reintroducing the legal penalties of [[civil death]] and confiscation of property.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=578, 584}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=32–34}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=27-28}} His reintroduction of an hereditary monarchy and nobility remains controversial.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=49}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=579–84}} His role in the Haitian Revolution and decision to reinstate slavery in France's colonies in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean adversely affect his reputation.<ref name="Repa22">{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |last=Repa |first=Jan |date=2 December 2005 |title=Furore over Austerlitz ceremony | work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420234710/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |archive-date=20 April 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56977769 | title=Napoleon's incendiary legacy divides France 200 years on | first=Lucy | last=Williamson | work=[[BBC News]] | date=4 May 2021}}</ref>

===Propaganda and memory===
{{Main|Bonapartism}}
[[File:Napoleon's exile to Elba3.jpg|thumb|1814 English caricature of Napoleon being exiled to [[Elba]]: the ex-emperor is riding a donkey backwards while holding a broken sword.]]

[[Napoleonic propaganda|Napoleon's use of propaganda]] contributed to his rise to power, legitimated his regime, and established his image for posterity. Strict censorship and control of the [[Mass media|press]], books, theatre, and art were part of his propaganda scheme, aimed at portraying him as bringing peace and stability to France. Propaganda focused on his role first as a general then as a civil leader and emperor. He fostered a relationship with artists, commissioning and controlling different forms of art to suit his propaganda goals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Forrest |first=A.  |title=Propaganda and the Legitimation of Power in Napoleonic France |url=https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fh/18.4.426 |journal=French History |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=426–45 |date=1 December 2004 |doi=10.1093/fh/18.4.426 |issn=0269-1191 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110509/https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-abstract/18/4/426/591574?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Napoleonic propaganda survived his exile to Saint Helena. Las Cases, who was with Napoleon in exile, published ''[[The Memorial of Saint Helena]]'' in 1822, creating a legend of Napoleon as a liberal, visionary proponent of European unification, deposed by reactionary elements of the ''[[ancien régime]]''.{{sfnp|Price|2014|p=262}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=106}}

Napoleon remained a central figure in the romantic art and literature of the 1820s and 1830s.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=107}} The Napoleonic legend played a key role in collective political defiance of the Bourbon restoration monarchy in 1815–1830. People from different walks of life and areas of France, particularly Napoleonic veterans, drew on the Napoleonic legacy and its connections with the ideals of the French Revolution.<ref name="Memory">{{Cite journal |last=Hazareesingh |first=Sudhir |author-link=Sudhir Hazareesingh  |title=Memory and Political Imagination: The Legend of Napoleon Revisited |url=https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fh/18.4.463 |journal=French History |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=463–83 |doi=10.1093/fh/18.4.463 |issn=0269-1191 |date=2004 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110510/https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-abstract/18/4/463/591569?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The defiance manifested itself in seditious materials, displaying the tricolour and rosettes. There were also subversive activities celebrating anniversaries of Napoleon's life and reign and disrupting royal celebrations.<ref name="Memory" />

Bell sees the return of Napoleon's remains to France in 1840 as an attempt by Louis-Phillipe to prop up his unpopular regime by associating it with Napoleon, and that the regime of Napoleon III was only possible with the continued resonance of the Napoleonic legend.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=107–09}} Venita Datta argues that following the collapse of militaristic [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|Boulangism]] in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Writers and critics of the ''[[Belle Époque]]'' exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/french-historical-studies/article/28/1/1/9475/L-appel-Au-Soldat-Visions-of-the-Napoleonic-Legend |last=Datta |first=Venita |title='L'appel Au Soldat': Visions of the Napoleonic Legend in Popular Culture of the Belle Epoque  |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1215/00161071-28-1-1 |issn=0016-1071 |date=2005 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104224/https://read.dukeupress.edu/french-historical-studies/article-abstract/28/1/1/9475/L-appel-Au-Soldat-Visions-of-the-Napoleonic-Legend?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the 21st century, Napoleon appears regularly in popular fiction, drama and advertising. Napoleon and his era remain major topics of historical research with a sharp increase in historical books, articles and symposia during the bicentenary years of 1999 to 2015.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=109-12}}<ref>{{cite web |title=H-Net announcements 2004-08-12 – 2004-08-17 | url=https://arthist.net/archive/26563 | website=Arthist.net}}</ref><gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Napoleon at the Great St. Bernard - Jacques-Louis David - Google Cultural Institute.jpg|''[[Napoleon Crossing the Alps]]'', [[Romanticism|romantic]] version by [[Jacques-Louis David]] in 1805
File:Paul Delaroche - Napoleon Crossing the Alps - Google Art Project 2.jpg|''[[Bonaparte Crossing the Alps]]'', [[Realism (art movement)|realist]] version by [[Paul Delaroche]] in 1848
File:Moscow (1812). Napoleon leaves the Kremlin.jpg|Moscow (1812). ''Napoleon leaves the Kremlin'', part of the [[French occupation of Moscow]], painting by [[Maurice Orange]].
</gallery>

===Long-term influence outside France===
{{Main|:Influence of the French Revolution}}
[[File:Flickr - USCapitol - Napoleon I (1769-1821).jpg|thumb|upright|[[commons:Bas-reliefs in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives|Bas-relief]] of Napoleon in the chamber of the [[United States House of Representatives]]]]Napoleon was responsible for spreading many of the values of the French Revolution to other countries, especially through the Napoleonic Code.{{sfnp|Grab|2017|pp=2016ff}} After the fall of Napoleon, it continued to influence the law in western Europe and other parts of the world including Latin America, the Dominican Republic, Louisiana and Quebec.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lobingier |first=Charles Sumner |date=December 1918 |title=Napoleon and His Code |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1327640 |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=114–34 |doi=10.2307/1327640 |issn=0017-811X |jstor=1327640 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210214854/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1327640 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Napoleon's regime abolished remnants of feudalism in the lands he conquered and in his satellite states. He liberalized [[property law]]s, ended [[manorialism]], abolished the [[guild]] of merchants and craftsmen to facilitate entrepreneurship, legalized divorce, closed the Jewish [[ghetto]]s and ended the [[Spanish Inquisition]]. The power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced and [[equality before the law]] was proclaimed for all men.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=R. R. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernw0000palm_l5v4/page/428 |title=A history of the modern world |date=1995 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-07-040826-5 |pages=428–29 |author-link=Robert Roswell Palmer}}</ref>

Napoleon reorganized what had been the [[Holy Roman Empire]], made up of about three hundred ''[[Kleinstaaten]]'', into a more streamlined forty-state [[Confederation of the Rhine]]; this helped promote the [[German Confederation]] and the [[unification of Germany]] in 1871, as it sparked a new wave of [[German nationalism]] that opposed the French intervention.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scheck |first=Raffael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWqtAwAAQBAJ |title=Germany, 1871–1945: A Concise History |date=2008 |publisher=Berg |isbn=978-1-84520-817-2 |pages=11–13 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104231/https://books.google.com/books?id=QWqtAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> The movement toward [[Italian unification]] was similarly sparked by Napoleonic rule.<ref>{{cite book |last=Astarita |first=Tommaso |url=https://archive.org/details/betweensaltwater00tomm |title=Between Salt Water And Holy Water: A History Of Southern Italy |date=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-05864-6 |pages=264ff}}</ref> These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the [[nation state]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Alter |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/unitydiversityin0000unse_f1p7 |title=Unity and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800 |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-726382-8 |editor1=T. C. W. Blanning |editor1-link=T. C. W. Blanning |pages=61–76 |editor2=Hagen Schulze |editor2-link=Hagen Schulze}}</ref>

The Napoleonic invasion of Spain and ousting of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy had a significant effect on [[Hispanic America|Spanish America]]. Many local elites sought to rule in the name of [[Ferdinand VII]], whom they considered the legitimate monarch. Napoleon indirectly began the process of [[Spanish American wars of independence|Latin American independence]] when the power vacuum was filled by local political leaders such as [[Simón Bolívar]] and [[José de San Martín]]. Such leaders embraced nationalistic sentiments influenced by French nationalism and led successful independence movements in Latin America.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Crisis of 1808 |url=https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/spanishsetting/pages/crisis.html |access-date=6 May 2021 |website=www.brown.edu |publisher=Brown University |archive-date=31 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731113614/https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/spanishsetting/pages/crisis.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[John Lynch (historian)|John Lynch]], ''Caudillos in Spanish America 1800–1850''. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1992, pp. 402–03.</ref> Napoleon's reputation is generally favourable in Poland, which is the only country in the world to evoke him in its national anthem, [[Poland Is Not Yet Lost]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/napoleon-and-polish-identity |last=Nieuwazny |first=Andrzej |title=Napoleon and Polish Identity |website=www.historytoday.com |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104311/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/napoleon-and-polish-identity |url-status=live}}</ref>

== Children ==
[[File:François_Pascal_Simon_Gérard_004b.jpg|thumb|Empress [[Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma|Marie Louise]] and her [[Napoleon II|son Napoleon]], by [[François Gérard]], 1813|upright=.85]]
Napoleon married Joséphine in 1796, but the marriage produced no children.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=320–21}} In 1806 he adopted his step-son [[Eugène de Beauharnais]] and his second cousin [[Stéphanie de Beauharnais]], and he arranged dynastic marriages for them.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=318–19}}

Napoleon's marriage to Marie Louise produced one child, Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles ([[Napoleon II]]), known from birth as the [[King of the Romans|King of Rome]]. When Napoleon abdicated in 1815 he named his son his successor as "Napoleon II", but the allies refused to recognize him. He was awarded the title of the Duke of Reichstadt in 1818 and died of [[tuberculosis]] aged 21, with no children.{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=203}}<ref name="McLynn 1997, p.6632">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=663}}</ref>

Napoleon acknowledged one illegitimate son: [[Charles Léon]] by [[Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne]].{{sfnp|Palmer|1984|p=105}}<ref name="m6302">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=630}}</ref> [[Alexandre Colonna-Walewski]], the son of his Polish mistress [[Maria Walewska]], was also widely known to be his child,{{sfnp|Dwyer|2013|pp=320–21}} as DNA evidence has confirmed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lucotte |first1=Gérard |last2=Macé |first2=Jacques |last3=Hrechdakian |first3=Peter |name-list-style=amp |date=September 2013 |title=Reconstruction of the Lineage Y Chromosome Haplotype of Napoléon the First |url=http://www.ijsciences.com/pub/pdf/V220130935.pdf |url-status=live |journal=International Journal of Sciences |volume=2 |pages=127–1"39 |issn=2305-3925 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140406223823/http://www.ijsciences.com/pub/pdf/V220130935.pdf |archive-date=6 April 2014 |number=9}}</ref> He may have had further illegitimate offspring.<ref name="McLynn4232">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=423}}</ref>

== Arms ==
{{see also|Armorial of the First French Empire}}

On becoming emperor, Napoleon adopted the [[French Imperial Eagle]] as his arms.<ref>{{cite book |last=Boureau |first=Alain |title=L'aigle : chronique politique d'un emblème. |publisher=Éditions du Cerf |year=1985 |location=Paris|pages=204|chapter=Chp.VI "Un signe de ralliement : l'aigle étatique des États-Unis et de l'Empire français (1776–1804) L'aigle d'Amérique L'aigle de l'Empire français"}}</ref>
{{multiple image
| align             = center
| direction         = horizontal
| total_width       = 300
| background color  = white
| header_background = White
| header            = Imperial arms of Napoleon
| image1            = Arms of the French Empire.svg
| alt1              = Arms of Napoleon
| caption1          = Arms: ''Azure, an Eagle Or, head facing to the sinister, clutching in its talons a Thunderbolt Or.''
| website           =
| image2            = Imperial Coat of Arms of France (1804-1815).svg
| alt2              =
| caption2          = [[Achievement (heraldry)|Achievement]] of Napoleon
| footer_background = White
| footer            = '''Arms and achievement of Napoleon'''<ref name="Neubecker">{{cite book | title = Heraldry: Sources, Symbols and Meanings | author = Ottfried Neubecker & J P Brooke-Little | year = 1980 | publisher = The Book Service Ltd | isbn = 978-0354044936 | page = 98 }}</ref>{{,}}<ref name="Louda">{{cite book |title = Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe |author = Jirí Louda & Michael MacLagan |year = 1999 |publisher = Little, Brown |isbn = 978-1856054690 | page = 125 }}</ref>{{,}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Normand|first=Charles|title=Armes et sceau de l'Empire français|location=Paris|year=1804|quote=*The Arms depicts a shield with a golden eagle in front of a blue background, within its talons clutching a thunderbolt. The shield is surrounded by Napoleon's red Imperial mantle, filled with golden bees. The shield is topped by the Imperial crown, which sits atop a golden Imperial helmet. Surrounding the shield is the chain and pendant of the Legion d'honneur. Crossed behind the shield are the Scepters of justice and mercy.|url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8413215d/f1.zoom}}</ref>{{,}}
 <ref name="Lamarque21">{{Cite web |url=http://ameliefr.club.fr/armorial.html |title=Armorial du Premier Empire, Par Philippe Lamarque, Index armorum : Michel Popoff, Iconographie : Gregor Jakubowski  – Barthel  de Weydenthal, Éditions du Gui |page =21 |access-date=8 October 2024 |archive-date=2 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202114805/http://ameliefr.club.fr/armorial.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{,}}<ref>[http://www.napoleon.org/fr/essentiels/symbolique/index.asp Symbolique des armes impériales sur www.napoleon.org]</ref>{{,}}<ref>[https://books.google.fr/books?id=8HYxAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA213&dq=Maurice+Gabriel+Joseph+de+Riquet&lr=#PRA1-PA210,M1 Bulletin des lois – France – Google Livres]  , Publié par Imprimerie impériale, 1809</ref>{{,}}<ref name="Roret1854">{{cite book
|first=Nicolas
|last=Roret
|title=Nouveau manuel complet du blason ou code héraldique, archéologique et historique; avec un armorial de l'Empire, une généalogie de la dynastie impériale des Bonaparte jusqu'à nos jours, etc...
|year=1854
|page=340
|isbn=
}}</ref> {{,}} <ref>{{cite book|first=Alain|last= Boureau|title=L'aigle : chronique politique d'un emblème.|location= Paris|publisher= Éditions du Cerf|year=1985}}</ref>
}}

== References ==

=== Notes ===
{{notelist|32em}}

=== Citations ===
{{reflist|22em}}

==Works cited==
{{Main|Bibliography of Napoleon}}

=== Biographical studies ===
{{Refbegin|32em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |last=Barnett |first=Correlli | author-link = Correlli Barnett |title=Bonaparte |publisher=Wordsworth |date=1997 |isbn=1-8532-6678-7 |location=Ware |orig-date=1978}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bell |first=David A. |author-link=David A. Bell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oNeeCgAAQBAJ |title=Napoleon: A Concise Biography |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-1902-6271-6 |location=Oxford and New York |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110510/https://books.google.com/books?id=oNeeCgAAQBAJ |archive-date=7 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Rafe |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonsymbolfo0000blau/page/100 |title=Napoleon: Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents |publisher=Bedford |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-3124-3110-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Broers |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Broers |title=Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-5712-7345-4 |location=London |oclc=898153545 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Broers |first=Michael |title=Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire, 1811–1821 |publisher=Pegasus books |date=2022 |isbn=978-1-6393-6177-9 |location=New York}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandler |first=David |title=Napoleon |publisher=Leo Cooper |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-8505-2750-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kircheisen |first=Friedrich |author-link=Friedrich Kirchner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cp4fAAAAMAAJ&q=%22earnest+and+powerful%22 |title=Napoleon |date=1932 |publisher=Harcourt Brace, & Co. |isbn=978-0-8369-6981-8 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040239/https://books.google.com/books?id=cp4fAAAAMAAJ&q=%22earnest+and+powerful%22 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cronin |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Cronin |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleon0000cron_y3x1 |title=Napoleon |publisher=HarperCollins |date=1994 |isbn=978-0-0063-7521-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Philip |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonpathtopo0000dwye |title=Napoleon: The Path to Power |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2008a |isbn=978-0-3001-3754-5 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Philip |title=Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799–1815 |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-3002-1253-2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Phillip |title=Napoleon: Passion, Death and Resurrection, 1815–1840 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-4088-9175-9 |location=Oxford}}
* {{Cite book |last=Englund |first=Steven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7_q6b24_hXAC |title=Napoleon: A Political Life |publisher=Scribner |date=2010 |isbn=978-0-6740-1803-7 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040244/https://books.google.com/books?id=7_q6b24_hXAC |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gueniffey |first=Patrice |author-link=Patrice Gueniffey |url=http://archive.org/details/bonaparte17691800000guen |title=Bonaparte: 1769–1802 |date=2015 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-6743-6835-4 |orig-date=2013}}; 1008 pp.; vol 1 [https://www.amazon.com/Bonaparte-1769-1802-Patrice-Gueniffey/dp/0674368355/ excerpt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019132636/https://www.amazon.com/Bonaparte-1769-1802-Patrice-Gueniffey/dp/0674368355 |date=19 October 2016}}; also [https://networks.h-net.org/node/12840/reviews/128469/reynolds-gueniffey-bonaparte-1769-1802 online review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323030605/https://networks.h-net.org/node/12840/reviews/128469/reynolds-gueniffey-bonaparte-1769-1802 |date=23 March 2018}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=Martyn |author-link=Martyn Lyons |title=Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution |publisher=St. Martin's Press |date=1994}}
* {{Cite book |last=McLynn |first=Frank |title=Napoleon: a Biography |publisher=Jonathan Cape |date=1997 |isbn=0-2240-4072-3 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Price |first=Munro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRaSBAAAQBAJ |title=Napoleon: The End of Glory |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-1996-6080-3 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205215834/https://books.google.com/books/about/Napoleon.html?id=LRaSBAAAQBAJ |archive-date=5 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Andrew |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonlife0000robe |title=Napoleon: A Life |publisher=Penguin Group |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-6700-2532-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zamoyski |first=Adam |title=Napoleon: The Man Behind The Myth |date=2018 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0-0081-1607-1 |location=Great Britain}}
{{Refend}}

=== Historiography and memory ===
{{Refbegin|32em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Dwyer |first=Philip |date=2008b |title=Remembering and Forgetting in Contemporary France: Napoleon, Slavery, and the French History Wars |journal=French Politics, Culture & Society |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=110–22 |doi=10.3167/fpcs.2008.260306}}
* {{Cite book |last=Geyl |first=Pieter |title=Napoleon: For and Against |publisher=Jonathan Cape |date=1949 |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Andrew |url=http://archive.org/details/napoleonwellingt00robe |title=Napoleon and Wellington: the Battle of Waterloo and the Great commanders who fought it |date=2001 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-2832-9}}
{{Refend}}

=== Specialty studies ===
{{Refbegin|32em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |last=Amini |first=Iradj |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n5IOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA12 |title=Napoleon and Persia |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2000 |isbn=978-0-9342-1158-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Bordes |first=Philippe |url=https://archive.org/details/jacqueslouisdavi0000bord |title=Jacques-Louis David |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-3001-2346-3 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandler |first=David |author-link=David G. Chandler |url=https://archive.org/details/campaignsofnapol00chan |title=The Campaigns of Napoleon |publisher=Scribner |date=1966 |isbn=978-0-0252-3660-8 |location=New York |oclc=740560411}}
* {{cite book|last=Chandler|first=David G.|author-link=David G. Chandler|title=The Campaigns of Napoleon|location=New York|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|date=1995 |orig-year=1966 |isbn=0-02-523660-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/campaignsofnapol00chan}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandler |first=David |author-link=David G. Chandler |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleon0000chan |title=Napoleon |publisher=Saturday Review Press |date=1973 |isbn=978-0-8415-0254-3 |orig-date=1966 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cobban |first=Alfred | author-link = Alfred Cobban |title=A History of Modern France, Volume 2: 1799–1871 |publisher=Penguin Books |date=1963 |isbn=0-1402-0525-X |edition=2nd |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Connelly |first=Owen |url=https://archive.org/details/blunderingtoglor00conn_0 |title=Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-7425-5318-7 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Conner |first=Susan P. |url=https://archive.org/details/ageofnapoleon0000conn |title=The Age of Napoleon |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2004 |isbn=0-3133-2014-4 |location=Westport, Connecticut}}
* {{Cite book |last=Cordingly |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/billyruffianbell0000cord |title=The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-5823-4468-3 |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Dwyer |first=Phillip |title=The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2015a |isbn=978-0-1996-3974-8 |editor-last=Andress |editor-first=David |location=Oxford |chapter=Napoleon, the Revolution and the Empire}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Geoffrey |title=Religious change in Europe, 1650–1914: essays for John McManners |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1997a |isbn=0-1982-0596-1 |editor-last=Aston |editor-first=Nigel |location=Oxford |chapter=Religion according to Napoleon}}
* {{Cite book |last=Esdaile |first=Charles J. |url=https://archive.org/details/peninsularwarnew00esda |title=The Peninsular War: A New History |publisher=Macmillan |date=2003 |isbn=978-1-4039-6231-7 |publication-date=2003 |ref=Esdaile |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Esdaile |first=Charles |title=Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803–1815 |publisher=Allen Lane |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-1419-0946-2 |location=London}}
* {{cite book|isbn=978-0-313-31912-9|title=Conscription and democracy: The Draft in France, Great Britain, and the United States|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2001|first=George Q.|last=Flynn}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Fremont-Barnes |first1=Gregory |url=http://archive.org/details/napoleonicwarsri0000frem |title=The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise and Fall of an Empire |last2=Fisher |first2=Todd |publisher=Osprey |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-8417-6831-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gates |first=David |title=The Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815 |publisher=Pimlico |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-7126-0719-3}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Glover |first=Richard |date=1967 |title=The French Fleet, 1807–1814; Britain's Problem; and Madison's Opportunity |journal=[[The Journal of Modern History]] |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=233–52 |doi=10.1086/240080 |s2cid=143376566}}
* {{Cite book |last=Grab |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJJKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe |date=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4039-3757-5 |access-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202040240/https://books.google.com/books?id=YJJKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |archive-date=2 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Grab |first=Alexander |title=Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-0-3336-8275-3}}
* {{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxhOPgAACAAJ |title=The War of Wars: The Epic Struggle Between Britain and France, 1789–1815 |date=2007 |publisher=Robinson |isbn=978-1-8452-9635-3}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Hindmarsh |first1=J. Thomas |last2=Savory |first2=John |date=2008 |title=The Death of Napoleon, Cancer or Arsenic? |journal=Clinical Chemistry |volume=54 |issue=12 |page=2092 |doi=10.1373/clinchem.2008.117358 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Measurement.html|title=The history of measurement|publisher=St Andrew's University|access-date=18 July 2008|year=2003|last1=O'Connor|first1=J|first2=E F|last2= Robertson}}
* {{Cite book |last=Roberts |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MdMZqhMzfpYC&pg=PR9 |title=Heavy Words Lightly Thrown |publisher=Granta |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-8620-7765-2 |access-date=28 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207105851/https://books.google.com/books?id=MdMZqhMzfpYC&pg=PR9 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schom |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Schom |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonbonapart00scho |title=Napoleon Bonaparte |publisher=HarperCollins |date=1997 |isbn=978-0-0601-7214-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Watson |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o4vrUbMK5eEC&pg=PA13 |title=Tricolor and crescent |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-2759-7470-1 |access-date=12 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207105804/https://books.google.com/books?id=o4vrUbMK5eEC&pg=PA13 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sicker |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzMJys65u9wC&pg=PA99 |title=The Islamic World in Decline: From the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire |publisher=Greenwood |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-2759-6891-5 |page=99}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wells |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/penguindictionar0000well |title=The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry |publisher=Penguin Books |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-1401-1813-1 |url-access=registration}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last=Chesney |first=Charles |title=Waterloo Lectures: A Study of The Campaign of 1815 |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |date=2006 |isbn=978-1-4286-4988-0}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Dwyer |first=Philip |date=2015b |title='Citizen Emperor': Political Ritual, Popular Sovereignty and the Coronation of Napoleon I |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-229X.12089 |url-status=live |journal=History |volume=100 |issue=339 |pages=40–57 |doi=10.1111/1468-229X.12089 |issn=1468-229X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515151911/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-229X.12089 |archive-date=15 May 2021 |access-date=25 September 2020|url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Paul |title=Napoleon: A life |publisher=Penguin Books |date=2002 |isbn=978-0-6700-3078-1}}
* Jourquin, Jacques. 2021. ''La dernière passion de Napoléon : la bibliothèque de Sainte-Hélène'' Paris: Passés-composés.
* {{Cite book |last=Lefebvre |first=Georges |author-link=Georges Lefebvre |url=http://archive.org/details/napoleonfrom18br00lefe |title=Napoleon, from 18 Brumaire to Tilsit, 1799–1807 |date=1969 |publisher=Columbia University Press}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schroeder |first=Paul W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BS2z3iGPCigC |title=The Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 |publisher=Oxford U.P. |date=1996 |isbn=978-0-1982-0654-5 |pages=177–560 |access-date=1 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207105853/https://books.google.com/books?id=BS2z3iGPCigC |archive-date=7 December 2023 |url-status=live}} advanced diplomatic history of Napoleon and his era
* {{Cite book |last=Talleyrand |first=Chares-Maurice de |author-link=Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28427/pg28427-images.html |title=Mémoires du Prince de Talleyrand |publisher=Henri Javal |date=1891 |volume=2 |location=Paris |pages=10–12 |language=fr |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110527/https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28427/pg28427-images.html |archive-date=7 December 2023 |url-status=live}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|auto=yes|b=European History/Napoleon Bonaparte and the Rise of Nationalism|d=yes}}
* [http://www.napoleonguide.com/index.htm The Napoleonic Guide]
* [http://www.napoleon-series.org/ Napoleon Series]
* [http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/ International Napoleonic Society]
* [https://www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/home.html Biography] by the US [[Public Broadcasting Service]]
* [https://www.napoleon-empire.net/en/napoleon-itinerary.php Daily tracking of Napoleon's location]
* {{Gutenberg author|id=4267}}
{{Napoleon|state=expanded}}
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