Perhaps surprisingly given the zeal with which he went on to lead the French Empire, Napoleon more readily identified as a Corsican and, in his early career, fought fervently for Corsican independence.

It was only after a falling out with Corsican resistance leader Pasquale Paoli that Napoleon made France his home and began to establish himself as the new republic’s rising star by masterminding a succession of vital military victories, including the resistance-breaking Siege of Toulon and, in 1785, the defeat of 20,000 royalists in Paris.

Identified by republican politicians as a natural leader, Napoleon’s ascent to the head of the government was meteoric, propelled by numerous battlefield victories in Italy and then Egypt. In 1799 he seized power of France and became first consul, quickly establishing himself as a hugely popular leader by overseeing continued military dominance and instituting influential legal reforms.

These legal reforms, enshrined in the Napoleonic Code, cemented the aims of the Revolution by replacing the outmoded inconsistencies of old feudal legislation.

Napoleon is perhaps more famous today for being short than for his military prowess and political talents.

Napoleon even succeeded in bringing about peace by defeating Austria and, for a time, quelling Britain’s efforts to stand against the French military. His irresistible ascent to power culminated in his coronation as the Emperor of France in 1804.

Peace in Europe did not last long, however, and the rest of Napoleon’s reign was defined by years of wars across Europe against various coalitions. During this time his reputation as a brilliant military leader was further enhanced, until the War of the Seventh Coalition and the French defeat at Waterloo led to his abdication on the 22 June 1815.

Napoleon saw out the rest of his days in exile on the remote island of Saint Helena.

Here are 10 facts you may not have known about the French emperor.

1. He wrote a romance novel

Behind the ruthless, battle-hardened facade, Napoleon was a bit of a softie, as both his embarrassingly soppy love letters and a recently unearthed romantic novella prove. Penned in 1795, when Napoleon was 26, Clisson et Eugénie is a brief (just 17 pages) exercise in sentimental self-mythologising that, according to most reviews, fails to establish him as a lost literary genius.

2. His first wife, Josephine Bonaparte, narrowly avoided the guillotine

Napoleon’s first wife nearly did not live to marry the French emperor.

Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, was previously married to Alexandre de Beauharnais (with whom she had three children), an aristocrat who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Josephine was also imprisoned and scheduled for execution before being released five days later when the Reign of Terror’s architect, Robespierre, was himself guillotined. 

3. He would disguise himself and walk the streets

At the height of his powers Napoleon developed the habit of dressing up as a lower-class bourgeoisie and wandering the streets of Paris. Seemingly, his aim was to find out what the man on the street really thought of him and he reportedly quizzed random passers-by about their Emperor’s merits. 

4. He was tone deaf

Apparently, one of Napoleon’s least endearing habits was his penchant for singing (or humming and mumbling) whenever he became agitated. Unfortunately, pained accounts suggest that his singing voice was distinctly unmusical.

5. He was afraid of cats (possibly)

Oddly, a whole host of historic tyrants — Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Mussolini, Hitler and our man Napoleon — are reputed to have suffered from Ailurophobia, the fear of cats. It turns out, however, that there is little in the way of evidence to support the common claim that Napoleon was terrified of cats, although the fact that it’s become such a well-worn rumour is interesting. It is even claimed that his alleged fear stemmed from a wildcat attack when he was an infant.

6. He discovered the Rosetta Stone

Now held in the British Museum in London, the Rosetta Stone is a granite slab carved in three scripts: hieroglyphic Egyptian, demotic Egyptian and ancient Greek. It played a vital part in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and has long been considered a hugely important artefact. Less well known is the fact that it was discovered by Napoleon’s soldiers during the Egyptian campaign in 1799.

7. He wore poison around his neck

It is said that Napoleon carried a vial of poison, attached to a cord he wore around his neck, that could be swiftly downed should he ever be captured. Apparently, he did eventually imbibe the poison in 1814, following his exile to Elba, but its potency was by then diminished and only succeeded in making him violently ill. 

8. A submarine escape plot was hatched to rescue him from exile in Saint Helena

An aerial view of the island where Napoleon lived out his final years.

Following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, a small island in the South Atlantic, 1,200 miles from the nearest land. Escape from such isolated incarceration was reckoned to be near-impossible. Even so, numerous plans were hatched to rescue the exiled Emperor, including an audacious plan involving two early submarines and a mechanical chair.

9. He wasn’t that short

Napoleon has become synonymous with shortness. Indeed, the term “Napoleon complex”, used to characterise short, overly aggressive people, is conceptually bound to his famously diminutive stature. But in fact, at the time of his death, Napoleon measured 5 feet 2 inches in French units — the equivalent of 5 feet 6.5 inches in modern measurement units — which was a distinctly average height at the time.

10. The cause of his death remains a mystery

Napoleon died, aged 51, on the island of Saint Helena after a long, unpleasant illness. The cause of this illness has never been conclusively established, however, and his death remains a subject surrounded by conspiracy theories and speculation. The official cause of death was recorded as stomach cancer, but some claim foul play was involved. Indeed, claims that he was in fact poisoned appear to be supported by analysis of hair samples that show a far higher than normal concentration of arsenic. Although it is also contended that arsenic was present in the wallpaper of his bedroom.

During this time the expanding membership has adopted many hundreds of different rules and regulations, designed to remove barriers to trade and impose uniformity and consistency in areas such as consumer and worker’s rights and civil freedoms.

To its supporters this represents a magnificent achievement, but despite the enormous transformation of Europe they represent, the organisation remains somewhat distant from the seamless union envisaged by its founding fathers.

In the context of state-building, this has been a rather slow, organic process, the decades since its foundation representing less than three new members a year, a pedestrian programme of expansion which would arguably have been anathema to the more impatient of history’s European expansionists.

Notable among these was Napoleon Bonaparte, whose breath-taking series of military campaigns united more states than have joined the EU, and in 1/3 of the time. Yet, despite this astonishing achievement, he also succeeded in bequeathing an equally enduring raft of financial, legal and political reforms, and even the blueprint for a nascent trading bloc. That he managed this with such lightning speed is perhaps worthy of further examination.

The Confederation of the Rhine

When, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain and its Austrian and Russian allies challenged Napoleon’s growing hegemony, they handed to him instead a loose, fracturing 1,000 year-old political union known as the Holy Roman Empire. In its stead he created what would be regarded by many as his pièce de résistance, the Confederation of the Rhine.

The Confederation of the Rhine in 1812. Image credit: Trajan 117 / Commons.

Founded on 12 July 1806 it produced almost overnight a union of 16 states, with its capital at Frankfurt am Main, and a Diet presided over by two Colleges, one of King’s and one of Princes. It made him, as he was later quoted as saying, the successor not of Louis XVI, ‘but of Charlemagne’. 

Within the brief space of 4 years it expanded to 39 members, admittedly almost exclusively consisting of very small principalities, but having expanded to cover a total area of 350,000 square kilometres with a population of 14,500,000.

Medal of the Rhine Confederation.

Wide-ranging reforms

Not all his victories however, were on such a grandiose scale, but they were complemented as much as possible by the introduction of reforms instigated by first the Revolutionary French regime, and later Napoleon himself.

So, wherever Napoleon’s armies conquered, they sought to leave an indelible mark, although some proved more popular and lasting than others. The new French civil and criminal law, income tax and uniform metric weights and measures were adopted in whole or in part across the continent, albeit with opt-outs of varying degrees.

When financial exigencies compelled wholesale financial reform, he founded the Banque de France in 1800. This institution would in its turn be instrumental in the creation of the Latin Monetary Union in 1865, with France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland as members. The basis of the organisation was the agreement to adopt the French gold franc, a currency introduced by none other than Napoleon himself in 1803.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, currently located in the Charlottenburg Palace, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1801.

The Code Napoleon

Arguably Napoleon’s most enduring legacy was the new French civil and criminal code, or Code Napoleon, a Europe-wide legal system which survives to this day in many countries. The revolutionary government of the National Assembly had originally sought to rationalise and standardise the myriad of laws which governed different parts of France from as early as 1791, but it was Napoleon who oversaw its realisation.

Whereas Roman Law dominated in the south of the country, Frankish and German elements applied in the north, alongside various other local customs and archaic usages. Napoleon abolished these entirely after 1804, with the adoption of the structure which bore his name.

The Code Napoleon reformed commercial and criminal law, and divided civil law into two categories, one for property and the other for family, giving greater equality in matters of inheritance – although denying rights to illegitimate heirs, women and reintroducing slavery. All men however were technically recognised as equal under the law, with inherited rights and titles abolished.

It was imposed upon or adopted by nearly every territory and state dominated by France, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Milan, parts of Germany and Italy, Switzerland and Monaco. Indeed, elements of this legal template were widely adopted during the course of the following century, by a unified Italy in 1865, Germany in 1900 and Switzerland in 1912, all of which passed statutes which echoed his original system.

And it was not only Europe which appreciated its merits; many of the newly independent states of South America also incorporated the Code into their constitutions.

Referenda

Napoleon was also adept at exploiting the principle of referenda to lend legitimacy to his reforms, as when he moved to consolidate power and establish a de facto dictatorship.

A referendum was held in 1800, and his brother Lucien, who he had conveniently appointed Minister of the Interior, claimed that 99.8% of those of the eligible electorate who voted had approved. Even though more than half of them had boycotted the vote, the margin of victory confirmed in Napoleon’s mind the legitimacy of his power grab, and there was never any question of a second, confirmatory people’s vote.

Andrew Hyde co-wrote the three-volume work The Blitz: Then and Now and is the author of First Blitz. He contributed to the BBC Timewatch programme of the same name and to the recent Channel 5 TV documentary on the Windsors. Europe: Unite, Fight, Repeat, will be published on 15 August 2019, by Amberley Publishing.

A revolution in decline

By the last year of the 18th century, the French Revolution had drifted a long way from the heady days of 1789. Though the King was dead and France’s external enemies mostly defeated, it had largely devolved into an orgy of violence, known afterwards as the Great Terror.

Between 1793 and 1794, Robespierre’s France guillotined and summarily executed thousands of potential political opponents before the orchestrator himself lost his head in July 1794.

The fall of Robespierre ushered in a new, more conservative form of government known as the Directory. The Directory purged the former leader’s radical supporters – the ‘Jacobins’ – and resorted to extreme repression to keep the country under Parisian control.

The Directory

Historians have not been kind to the Directory, calling it unrepresentative and repressive.

The Directory was made up of five directors. The voting system at the time denied almost all Frenchmen any real say in who these Directors were. The regime was not a popular one.

It clung onto power over the last years of the 1790s. But when the brilliant young General Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France in October 1799, many saw him as a potential saviour.

Napoleon may only have been thirty at the time of the coup but he was already a famous soldier and regarded by many as the greatest son of the revolution. The chaos generated by the revolution had granted this gifted young man opportunities that would have been denied to him under the old regime.

Run on the Tuileries on 10. Aug. 1792 during the French Revolution, as painted by Jean Duplessis-Bertaux in 1793. Image Credit: CC

Military career

Napoleon began his military career as an artillery officer. He played an integral role in defeating a British Royalist force at the battle of Toulon in 1793.

Promotions quickly followed. Despite having been imprisoned for his connections to Robespierre, and his descent from a very minor noble family on the remote Italian-speaking island of Corsica, Napoleon was given command of a ragtag army in Nice in 1796.

Over the next year, he lead this army on a stunning campaign, defeating the Italians and the Austrians and forcing both to sign humiliating peace treaties. His next step was to take his armies to Egypt in a roundabout attempt to menace the growing British Empire in India.

The glamour of this campaign, though it was less successful than the first, enhanced the growing fame of the young soldier.

In the Autumn of 1799 he sensed an opportunity and returned to France (leaving his loyal and devoted troops behind to be defeated and captured by the British).

An offer he couldn’t refuse

This opportunity came at the hands of Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès. Though a member of the government, Sieyès was as bitterly disappointed with it as everyone else and had been planning a coup for some time.

But a coup needed popular support. Sieyès noted the adulation with which Napoleon was greeted when he returned home. He realised that this was the man to legitimise and defend his new regime.

Napoleon had other ideas. Far from being Sieyès’ puppet, he began planning to seize power for himself.

The uprising

A series of recent uprisings meant thousands of troops were conveniently stationed around Paris. The plan was to use these men to intimidate the upper and lower chambers of the government into resigning and permit a new more centralised regime to replace it.

The Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houël. Image Credit: Public Domain

Sensing that something was wrong, the Directors resigned and their system collapsed. But the upper and lower chambers remained defiant.

On 9 November, with Sieyès occupied in Paris, Napoleon took matters into his own hands. He marched proudly into the upper chamber – the Council of Ancients – surrounded by battle-scarred grenadiers.

The Ancients resisted, but a show of military muscle and an effective speech allowed Napoleon to escape unscathed. The lower chamber – the Council of the 500 – proved more difficult.

These men threatened Napoleon, many with daggers in their hands. According to some reports, Napoleon was paralysed with fear and came close to fainting.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, currently located in the Charlottenburg Palace, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1801. Image Credit: Public Domain

Fortunately for Napleon, his brother Lucien was President of the lower chamber. In the midst of the unrest, Lucien drew his sword and pointed it at his brother’s heart, roaring to the councillors that if his brother was a traitor he would kill him himself.

This ostentatious display gave control of the situation back to Napoleon, who then forced the 500 to sign a new constitution.

First Consul

Napoleon I as Emperor of France, c. 1805. Image Credit: Public Domain

With thousands of soldiers behind him, Napoleon intimidated Sieyès into changing the new constitution to give one man, “First Consul”, absolute power.

This man, of course, would be Napoleon. With this move, the French Revolution was over.

France had a new absolute ruler, and in 1804 he would dispense with the pretence of democracy by declaring himself Emperor.

Though the Corsican eventually met his match at Waterloo, he is still regarded as one of the most romantic glamorous and important figures in history. From a bony provincial youth to a Warrior-Emperor ruling from Portugal to Russia, Napoleon’s story is an extraordinary one, and two of its finest and most famous moments happened on this day.

From outsider to emperor

After seizing control of France in 1799 Napoleon had ruled as First Consul – which effectively amounted to being a dictator over his adopted nation. Born in Corsica, which had only become a French possession on the year of his birth in 1769, he was – like Stalin the Georgian and Hitler the Austrian – an outsider.

Nevertheless, his youth, glamour and almost immaculate record of military success ensured that he was the darling of the French people, and this knowledge caused the young general to consider creating a new office that would serve as a more concrete reminder of his power and prestige.

As in ancient Rome, the word King was a dirty one after the Revolution, and again taking inspiration from the Caesars (who he greatly admired) Napoleon began to toy with the idea of crowning himself Emperor.

Despite his obvious vanity, he was not a blind megalomaniac, however, and was aware that after bloody fighting and revolution in order to depose and behead a King, replacing one title of autocrat with another might not be the best idea.

Napoleon in his less ostentatious role as First Consul.

He knew that firstly, he would have to test public opinion, and secondly, the ceremony of being crowned Emperor would have to be different and distanced from those of the Bourbon Kings. In 1804 he held a constitutional referendum asking the people to approve the new title of Emperor, which came back with 99.93% in favour.

Slightly dubious though this “democratic” vote may have been, it was enough to reassure the First Consul that the people would support him.

The Revolution at its most radical had resulted in a bloody period known as “the Terror,” and the anti-monarchical fervour of a decade ago had long-since fizzled out as the revolution produced weak and incompetent leaders. France was enjoying strong rule under a figure of huge popularity, and if being lorded over by an “emperor” was the price they had to pay for their new-found success and prosperity, then so be it.

Following in the footsteps of Caesar and Charlemagne

Unlike the 20th century dictators to which Napoleon has often been compared, he was a genuinely effective ruler who cared for his people, and many of his reforms, such as the Bank of France, stand to this day.

Full of confidence and sure of his own popularity, Napoleon began to plan every stage and symbol of his coronation in meticulous detail. At 9 A.M on 2 December he set out in a great procession to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which he entered in his full Imperial finery of regal red and ermine.

Eager to disassociate himself with the hated Bourbon Kings, however, his Imperial symbol of the bee replaced the royal Fleur-de-Lis on all the regalia. The bee had been a symbol of the ancient Frankish King Childeric, and was a carefully managed attempt to associate Napoleon with the austere military values of France’s first monarchs rather than the effete and despised Bourbon dynasty.

In accordance with this, he had a new crown made, based on that of Charlemagne, the last master of Europe, a thousand years earlier. In a breathtaking and era-defining moment, Napoleon carefully took the crown off the Pope, eased the Roman-style laurel leaves off his head, and crowned himself.

The impact of this moment, at a time where Kings, Lords and even politicians came from aristocratic lineages, cannot be imagined today.

This was the ultimate moment of the self-made man, placed on his throne not by divine right but by his own brilliance, and by the love of his people. Napoleon then crowned his beloved wife Josephine as Empress and left the cathedral as the first Emperor of France, the latest in a line that stretched from Caesar to Charlemagne, and now to this upstart Corsican.

His new image. The Imperial robes and the carpet are decorated with the symbol of the bee.

The road to Austerlitz

He would not have long to enjoy his new position however. After a relatively quiet period on the foreign stage the British broke the Peace of Amiens in 1803, and over the next two years were busy creating a coalition of powers arrayed against France.

Anxious to defeat his most bitter enemy, Napoleon began training a powerful army on the Channel, intending to invade and subjugate England. He never got the chance however, for upon hearing that the Russians were heading to support their Austrian allies in Germany, he lead his troops east in a lightning march to defeat his nearest continental enemy before Tsar Alexander’s forces arrived.

Marching his army at an astonishing pace and in total secrecy, he was able to surprise General Mack’s Austrian army in what is known as the Ulm Manouvre, and surround his forces so completely that the Austrian was forced to surrender his entire army. Having lost just 2000 men, Napoleon was then able to march on and take Vienna unimpeded.

Having suffered this disaster, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and Tsar Alexander I of Russia wheeled their huge armies to face Napoleon. He met them at Austerlitz, in what is known as the Battle of the Three Emperors.

Napoleon’s tactics at Austerlitz are rightly regarded to be among the most masterful in the history of warfare. Deliberately leaving his right flank looking weak, the Emperor of France fooled his enemies into making a full-blooded attack there, not knowing that the excellent Marshal Davout’s corps were there to plug the gap.

With the enemy engaged on the French right their centre was weakened, allowing Napoleon’s crack troops to overwhelm it and then mop up the rest of the enemy army from their new commanding tactical position. Simple enough tactics, but unbelievably effective as the enemy army of 85,000 men was put to flight.

After Austerlitz, success followed success, with the defeat of Prussia in 1806 followed by victory over Russia again the following year. After the Russians sued for peace at the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon really was the master of Europe, ruling over lands far more extensive than Charlemagne ever had.

The Emperor surrounded by chaos at Austerlitz.

Napoleon’s legacy

Though it would all come tumbling down eventually, Europe’s old feudal regimes could never return after Napoleonic rule. The world had changed, and the events of 2 December were pivotal in that change. The French people always loved their Emperor, especially after the Bourbons were restored after his fall. It required yet another revolution to once again oust them from power, and in 1852, a new Emperor was crowned.

He was none other than Napoleon’s nephew, a man who owed his popularity and power to his uncle’s brilliance rather than any great ability himself. Napoleon III was crowned Emperor of France exactly 48 years after Napoleon I, on 2 December.

The new Napoleon.

Displayed in the window of Hannah Humphreys’ print shop, fights would break out to see the latest work. An émigré wrote in 1802,

‘The enthusiasm is indescribable, when the next drawing appears; it is veritable madness. You have to make your way through the crowd with your fists’.

James Gillray, painted by Charles Turner.

A powerful asset

Caricatures, once a social curiosity, had become powerful political tools. Some of the raunchier London images of French royalty played a major role in the downfall of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Pitt’s Tory government was also acutely aware of the power of satire, and secretly put Gillray on the payroll from 1797.

One of the primary victims of Gillray’s etching knife was Napoleon, who was in no doubt about the potential potency of vindictive cartoons. On exile in Elba, he admitted Gillray’s caricatures were more damaging than a dozen generals.

‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1805.

The Egyptian expedition

In 1798, Napoleon led a military expedition to Egypt, which served as a springboard to political power. It was at this point that Gillray began his shrewd attacks.

In ‘Buonaparte leaving Egypt’, Gillray depicted Napoleon’s escape from the Mediterranean campaign in 1799, which was considered a despicable act of betrayal. The campaign, which aimed to defend trade interests and weaken British connections to India, was in a state of hopelessness.

‘Buonaparte leaving Egypt’, published 8 March 1800.

The letters between French generals revealed the despair:

‘I could never have believed General Bonaparte would have abandoned us in the condition in which we were; without money, without powder, without ball . . . more than a third of the army destroyed … and the enemy but eight days march from us!’

In Gillray’s print, the figurehead of the tender is double-headed, signifying Napoleon’s duplicity. As he looks back sly and smug, a mob of emaciated French soldiers desperately hurry towards their leader, still faithful as they are unaware of the betrayal.

In another print, named ‘Buonaparte, hearing of Nelson’s victory, swears by his sword, to extirpate the English from the earth.’, Gillray depicts the moment Napoleon hears of Nelson’s great naval victory at the Nile in 1798.

In an enormous speech bubble, he declares

‘What? our Fleet captur’d & destroy’d by the Slaves of Britain?’, and announces his plans for an obelisk to be inscribed ‘To Buanoparte Conqueror of the World, & extirpater of the English Nation.’

This was a reference to an announcement Napoleon made in 1797:

‘[France] must destroy the English monarchy, or expect itself to be destroyed by these intriguing and enterprising islanders…Let us concentrate all our efforts on the navy and annihilate England. That done, Europe is at our feet.’

‘Buonaparte, hearing of Nelson’s victory, swears by his sword, to extirpate the English from the earth’, published 8 December 1798.

‘Little Boney’ is born

In 1803, Napoleon assembled over 100,000 invasion troops at Boulogne, announcing:

‘All my thoughts are directed towards England. I want only for a favourable wind to plant the Imperial Eagle on the Tower of London’

In light of this terrifying prospect, Gillray raised his game and created one of his greatest legacies – the myth of ‘Little Boney’.

‘Doctor Sangrado curing John Bull of repletion-with the kind offices of young Clysterpipe & little Boney- a hint from Gil Blas’, published 2 May 1803.

Despite never seeing Napoleon in the flesh, Gillray’s imagery of Napoleon was so powerful that it perpetuated a myth of an entire personality.

He became known as a spoilt little man who compensated for his lack of height by seeking power, war, and conquest. In reality, he stood at average height. As he was often surrounded by the Imperial Guard, who were generally tall, the perception of his small stature was consolidated.

Stereotypical attributes of Gillray’s Napoleon included a huge cocked hat with a tricolour plume, an a tricolour sash, a huge scabbard or immense spurs on Hessian boots. His oversized clothing makes mockery of him, too small for his worldly ambitions.

‘Evacuation of Malta.’ published 9 February 1803.

Ill-tempered

Later that year, Napoleon’s short temper had become notorious after an outburst during a meeting with the British Ambassador Lord Whitworth in March 1803. The British press reported he threatened an invasion of England with 400,000 or 500,000 men.

Gillray depicted the moment Napoleon read these newspaper reports in ‘Maniac Raving’s-or-Little Boney in a Strong Fit.’. Stamping in fury with fists clenched, his frantic gestures have overturned a table and left a terrestrial globe to loll on the floor – next to his oversized plumed cocked hat, of course.

‘Maniac Raving’s-or-Little Boney in a Strong Fit.’, published May 1803.

The subject of his raging tantrum is revealed in the explosive swirling text, reading,

‘English Newspapers- English Newspapers!!! Oh, English Newspapers!!! hated & Betray’d by the French! – Despised by the English! & Laughed at, by the whole World!!! Treason! Treason! Treason!’ … Invasion! Invasion! Four Hundred & Eighty Thousand Frenchmen British Slavery – & everlasting Chains!  everlasting Chains.’

‘Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing.’ published 26 July 1803.

As preparations were made on both sides of the channel for the anticipated invasion, Gillray produced images of unapologetic propaganda. In ‘Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing.’, published in July 1803, Napoleon’s head is proudly held on a pitchfork by John Bull, as one of the 615,000 armed yokels who stood ready to fight.

He exclaims,

‘Ha! my little Boney! – what do’st think of Johnny Bull now? – Plunder Old England! hayy?’

‘The Plumb-pudding in danger – or – State Epicures taking un Petit Souper’, published 26 February 1805.

The Plumb-pudding in danger

Gillray’s most famous image is undoubtedly ‘The Plumb-pudding in danger – or – State Epicures taking un Petit Souper’, published in 26 February 1805.

Martin Rowson described it as,

‘probably the most famous political cartoon of all time … stolen over and over and over again by cartoonists ever since’.

Carving up the world with British Prime Minister William Pitt, ‘Little Boney’ just about perches on the edge of his chair as he cuts a slice marked ‘Europe’ .

St. George and the Dragon

In a pastiche of history painting, Gillray created ‘St. George and the Dragon’ in 1805. Whilst George III acts out St George, and Britannia is the fair maiden, Napoleon plays a dragon.

With a barbed fang and flames issuing from his mouth, a sword-cut has gashed his skull, and cut his crown in two. His large wings combined with the legs and talons of a beast of prey echo questions of his identity, mainly provoked by his dual loyalties to Corsica and France.

‘St. George and the Dragon.’, published 2 August 1805. Image source: Digital Bodleian / CC BY 4.0

Driven by revolutionary zeal and militaristic ingenuity, Napoleon oversaw a period of intense warfare against six coalitions, proving his leadership and strategic acumen time and time again, before finally succumbing to defeat, and abdication, in 1815. Here are 10 facts about the conflicts.

1. There’s a good reason they are known as the Napoleonic Wars

Unsurprisingly, Napoleon Bonaparte was the central, and defining, figure of the Napoleonic Wars. They are typically considered to have commenced in 1803, by which time Napoleon had been First Consul of the French Republic for four years. Napoleon’s leadership brought stability and military confidence to France in the aftermath of the revolution and his combative leadership style undoubtedly shaped the conflicts that came to constitute the Napoleonic Wars.

2. The Napoleonic Wars were prefigured by the French Revolution

Without the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars would never have happened. The ramifications of the revolt’s violent social upheaval extended far beyond France’s borders, triggering other conflicts across the globe that became known as the “Revolutionary Wars”.

Neighbouring powers viewed France’s revolution as a threat to established monarchies and, anticipating intervention, the new republic declared war on Austria and Prussia. Napoleon’s ascent through the French military was undoubtedly driven by the increasingly influential role he played in the Revolutionary Wars.

3. The Napoleonic Wars are usually considered to have started on 18 May 1803

This was the date that Britain declared war on France, ending the short-lived Treaty of Amiens (which had brought a year of peace to Europe) and sparking what became known as the War of the Third Coalition – the first Napoleonic War.

4. Napoleon had been planning to invade Britain when it declared war on France

The escalating agitation that prompted Britain to declare war on France in 1803 was entirely justified. Napoleon was already planning an invasion of Britain, a campaign he intended to fund with the 68 million Francs the United States had just paid France for the Louisiana Purchase.

5. France fought five coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars are typically separated out into five conflicts, each named after the alliance of nations that fought France: The Third Coalition (1803-06), the Fourth Coalition (1806-07), the Fifth Coalition (1809), the Sixth Coalition (1813) and the Seventh Coalition (1815). The members of each alliance were as follows:

• The Third Coalition was composed of the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, Britain, Sweden, Naples and Sicily.
• The Fourth included Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Saxony and Sicily.
• The Fifth was Austria, Britain, Tyrol, Hungary, Spain, Sicily and Sardinia.
• The Sixth originally included Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Sardinia and Sicily. They were lated joined by the Netherlands, Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden.
• The Seventh was formed of 16 members, including Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

6. Napoleon was a brilliant military tactician

Napoleon’s reputation as a brilliant and innovative battlefield strategist was already established when the Napoleonic Wars commenced, and his brutally effective tactics were showcased throughout the ensuing conflicts. He was undoubtedly one of the most effective and influential generals in history and most historians agree that his tactics changed warfare forever. 

7. The Battle of Austerlitz is widely regarded as Napoleon’s greatest victory

The Battle of Austerlitz saw outnumbered French forces take victory.

Fought near Austerlitz in Moravia (now the Czech Republic), the battle saw 68,000 French troops defeat nearly 90,000 Russians and Austrians. It is also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors.

8. Britain’s naval supremacy played a key part in the wars

For all Napoleon’s battlefield ingenuity, Britain consistently managed to present a sturdy opposition force during the Napoleonic Wars. This owed a lot to Britain’s formidable naval fleet, which was substantial enough to allow Britain to continue its international trade and empire building, pretty much untroubled by the threat of an invasion from across the Channel.

Britain’s command of the seas was most famously showcased at the Battle of Trafalgar, a decisive and historically vaunted British naval victory which saw the Franco-Spanish fleet decimated without a single British vessel being lost.

9. The Napoleonic Wars triggered global conflict

Inevitably, power struggles in Europe had an impact on the global stage. The War of 1812 is a good example. The simmering tensions that eventually sparked this conflict between the US and Britain were, to a large extent, caused by Britain’s ongoing war with France, a situation that began to seriously impact on America’s ability to trade with either France or Britain.

10. The Hundred Days period brought the Napoleonic Wars to a dramatic conclusion

Following his abdication in 1814, Napoleon was sent to the Mediterranean island of Elba. But his exile lasted less than a year. After escaping Elba, Napoleon led 1,500 men to Paris, arriving in the French capital on 20 March 1815. This began the so-called “Hundred Days”, a brief but dramatic period that saw Napoleon seize back power before entering into a series of battles with allied forces. The period concluded on 22 June when Napoleon abdicated for a second time following France’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The declaration of independence on 12 February 1818 marked a turning point in Chilean history, giving birth to a new nation.

The ripple effects of Chilean independence were felt throughout the region, inspiring other South American colonies to take up arms and fight for their own liberation. It ignited a wave of revolutionary fervour that swept across the continent, leading to the eventual downfall of Spanish and Portuguese rule.

The Spanish decline

Like with many a country in Europe, radical change to the status quo in Chile was brought about by the emergence of one man – Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the start of 1808 the relatively small and impoverished Spanish colony was one of the Empire’s most loyal and ably-governed, but Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and deposition of King Ferdinand later that year radically changed the situation.

Furthermore, Chile’s popular and experienced Captain-General Luis Muñoz de Guzmán died in February, giving the King no time to replace him before he ended up in a French jail.

King Ferdinand VII of Spain (cropped). Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Vicent López Portaña, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Carrasco creates further instability

The post was seized by the Guzmán’s most senior military commander, Francisco García Carrasco, who was a rough-mannered corrupt and incompetent leader who managed to insult and alienate all the local elites, massively increasing their levels of unease and uncertainty.

The situation did not improve, and by the summer of 1810 Carrasco and the office of Captain-General had lost the remnants of authority that they had left, with Spain now clinging on for its existence. Carrasco responded to his weakened position with brutality, arbitrary arrests and deportation to Peru, making him so unpopular that he was forced to resign in July 1810.

The next most senior commander, Count Toro Zambrano, was 82 years old, feeble, and even less suited to the office than his predecessor. All the while, whispers in favour of greater autonomy for Chile, which had barely existed two years earlier, began to grow louder and louder.

A unique opportunity

Over the course of that year, a party known as the Juntistas – who wanted Chile to have its own Junta (ruling council), became more and more popular. By September they had hassled Zambrano so much that he agreed to hold a meeting to discuss their demands in the capital of Santiago.

They exploited this opportunity to grow even more forceful with him, until the old man slammed his ceremonial baton on the table and shouted “take it and rule.”

Portrait of Francisco García Carrasco (cropped). Image credit: Chilean National History Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Radical though this must have seemed at the time, the new Junta were careful to swear loyalty to the deposed King Ferdinand, and elect Zambrano as President to avoid the appearance of a coup.

In truth however, he had precious little power, and the Junta introduced nationalistic policies for Chile such as a national militia and new trade laws and tariffs.  Three parties began to develop as the new body matured, including the Exaltados, who wanted the highest degree of autonomy for Chile.

Their leader was the real power behind the throne in the country – Juan Martínez de Rozas. De Rozas was not seen as bold enough by the most radical Exaltados who were enjoying their taste of real power, however, and these men appointed José Miguel Carrera, a war veteran recently returned from Spain as their leader.

In 1811 Carrera decided to act, and after two attempted coups managed to depose De Rozas and begin a dictatorial regime.

Once he was firmly lodged in power, Carrera – supported by his deputy Bernardo O’Higgins- published a highly radical provisional constitution in 1812 which tellingly banned the taking of “any order that emanates from outside the territory of Chile.”

The Spanish Reconquista

Unfortunately for him, this was at a time where Spanish fortunes were beginning to revive. The country was no longer in danger of ultimate defeat by 1813, and its government was able to turn its eyes back to the wavering empire.

With rebellions in both Chile and Argentina, José Fernando de Abascal – the Viceroy of Peru – was ordered to restore imperial control.

He sent an amphibious force to the former, and Carrera’s incompetent leadership ended with O’Higgins engaging the enemy on his own with a fraction of the Chilean forces and suffering a spectacular defeat.

Utterly ruined, the rebel leader was forced to retreat to independent Argentina with the remnants of his army.

Resurgence

Chile at this point was still very politically divided, and if the Spanish had treated those on the fence with grace then they might well have retained control of the colony. However, their treatment of potential rebels and political dissidents was extremely heavy-handed, and alienated many important figures who had not been pro-independence until this point.

O’Higgins, meanwhile, had formed an alliance with José de San Martín, the leader of the Argentinian rebels, and they were planning an exhibition to reconquer Santiago.

While they raised the men and arms they charged a patriotic lawyer, Manuel Rodríguez, with mounting a guerrilla campaign to tie down and harass the Spanish troops.

He did this with considerable success and became the romantic hero of the revolution, famously dressing up as a beggar and getting money off the Spanish governor himself, who failed to recognise the man with an enormous price on his head. By 1817, O’Higgins’ Army of the Andes was ready for a Reconquista. 

Bernardo O’Higgins, ‘libertador’ of Chile. Image credit: José Gil de Castro, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Chacabuco and a British helping hand

After successfully crossing the formidable mountain range, the rebels achieved a significant triumph over the Spanish forces at the Battle of Chacabuco in February, signaling the potential realization of Chilean independence.

In the following year, the rebels solidified their control over Santiago, and José de San Martín, the Argentine general, was offered the position of Supreme Director of the newly emerging nation. However, he graciously declined and instead recommended his friend O’Higgins for the role, which O’Higgins held until 1823.

On the anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco, O’Higgins presented a meticulously prepared declaration affirming Chile’s independence as a sovereign nation.

Furthermore, the arrival of Captain Cochrane, a renowned British naval commander, significantly tipped the scales in favour of the rebels. Cochrane’s leadership bolstered the rebel forces, and in 1820, he audaciously captured the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia with a small number of men, effectively eliminating any remaining resistance. By 1826, the liberation of Chile was complete, marking a remarkable achievement after years of struggle.

At a terrible cost in combatants and civilians, Napoleon was able to escape across the river and save his surviving men after a vicious three-day battle.

The French invasion of Russia

In June 1812 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and Master of Europe, invaded Russia. He was confident, having crushed Tsar Alexander’s armies and forced him into a humiliating deal at Tilsit five years earlier.

Since that victory, however, relations between him and the Tsar had broken down, largely over his insistence that Russia uphold the continental blockade – a ban on trading with Britain. As a result, he decided to invade the Tsar’s vast country with what was the largest army ever seen in history.

‘Grande Armée’ crossing a river

Image Credit: Unknown artist, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Napoleon’s mastery of Europe was such that he could call upon men from Portugal, Poland and everywhere in between alongside his crack French troops, widely considered to be the best in Europe. Numbering 554,000 men, the Grand Armée – as this force came to be known – was a formidable host. On paper.

Historians have argued since that its great size and multi-ethnic nature was actually a disadvantage. In the past, Napoleon’s great victories had been won with loyal and mostly French armies which had been experienced, well-trained, and often smaller than those of his foes. The problems with large multi-national forces had been seen during his wars with the Austrian Empire, and the famous ésprit de corps was thought to be lacking on the eve of the 1812 campaign.

Furthermore, the problems of keeping this vast body of men supplied in a country as vast and barren as Russia were obvious to the Emperor’s anxious commanders. The campaign, however, was far from disastrous in its early stages.

The road to Moscow

A little known fact about the campaign is that Napoleon’s army actually lost more men on the way to Moscow than on the way back. The heat, disease, battle and desertion meant that by the time the Russian capital was seen on the horizon he had lost half his men. Nevertheless, what was important to the Corsican General was that he had reached the city.

Battles at Smolensk and Borodino along the way had been costly and hard-fought, but nothing Tsar Alexander had done had been able to halt the Imperial juggernaut in its tracks – though he had managed to extricate most of the Russian army intact from the fighting.

In September the exhausted and bloodied Grand Armée reached Moscow with its promise of food and shelter, but it was not to be. So determined were the Russians to resist the invader that they burned their own old and beautiful capital in order to deny its uses to the French. Camped in a burned and empty shell, Napoleon dithered about whether to remain over the bitter winter or claim victory and march home.

He was mindful of earlier campaigns into Russia – such as that of Charles XII of Sweden a century earlier – and made the fateful decision to return to friendly territory rather than face the snows without adequate shelter.

Winter: Russia’s secret weapon

When it became clear that the Russians would not accept a favourable peace, Napoleon marched his troops out of the city in October. It was already too late. As the once-great army trudged across the empty vastness of Russia, the cold set in, as early as the French generals could possibly have feared. And that was the least of their worries.

The horses died first, for there was no food for them. Then after the men ate them they started dying too, for all the supplies in Moscow had been burned a month earlier. All the time, hordes of cossacks harassed the increasingly bedraggled rearguard, picking off stragglers and making the survivor’s lives a constant misery.

Meanwhile, Alexander – advised by his experienced generals – refused to meet Napoleon’s military genius head-on, and wisely let his army dribble away in the Russian snows. Astonishingly, by the time the remnants of the Grand Armeé reached the Berezina river in late November it numbered just 27,000 effective men. 100,000 had given up and surrendered to the enemy, while 380,000 lay dead on the Russian steppes.

The Battle of Berezina

At the river, with the Russians – who now finally scented blood – closing in on him, Napoleon met with mixed news. Firstly, it seemed like the constant bad luck that had dogged this campaign had struck again, for a recent rise in temperatures meant that the ice on the river was not strong enough for him to march his whole army and its artillery across.

‘Crossing the Berezina River on 29 November 1812’, Peter von Hess

Image Credit: Peter von Hess, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

However, some troops he had left behind in the area now rejoined his forces, taking the number of fit fighting men up to 40,000. He now had a chance.

Creating a bridge strong enough to take his army across the sub-zero water seemed an impossible task, but the extraordinary courage of his Dutch engineers made the escape of the army possible.

Wading through waters that would kill them in just thirty minutes of exposure, they were able to construct a sturdy pontoon bridge, while on the opposite bank the arriving and outnumbering forces were heroically held off by four Swiss regiments who formed the ultimate rearguard. Only 40 out of 400 engineers survived.

Napoleon and his Imperial Guard managed to cross on 27 November, while the Swiss and other weakened French divisions fought a terrible battle on the far side as more and more Russian troops arrived.

The next days were desperate. With most of the Swiss now dead Marshal Victor’s corps stayed on the far side of the bridge fighting off the Russians, but soon troops had to be sent back over to prevent them from being annihilated.

When Victor’s exhausted troops threatened to break Napoleon ordered a massive artillery barrage across the river which stunned his pursuers and stopped them in their tracks. Taking advantage of this lull, Victor’s remaining men escaped. Now, to stop the enemy’s chase the bridge had to be fired, and Napoleon ordered the thousands of servants wives and children following the army to come over as quick as possible.

His orders were ignored however, and many of these desperate civilians only tried to cross once the bridge was actually aflame. It soon collapsed, and thousands were killed by the river, the fire, the cold or the Russians. The French army had escaped, but at a terrible cost. Tens of thousands of men that he simply couldn’t spare were dead, as were a similar number of those men’s wives and children.

The precursor to Waterloo

Astonishingly, 10,000 men did reach friendly territory in December and lived to tell the tale even after the worst disaster in military history. Napoleon himself went on ahead immediately after Berezina and reached Paris by sledge, leaving his suffering army behind.

He would live to fight another day, and the actions of the Dutch engineers had enabled the Emperor to defend France to the last, and preserved his life so that three years later he could return for the final act of his great drama – Waterloo.

The road to Waterloo

Napoleon had been restored as Emperor of France after escaping exile, but the Seventh Coalition of European powers had declared him an outlaw and mobilised a 150,000-strong army to force him out of power. But Napoleon sensed an opportunity to destroy the Allies in a lightning strike on their forces in Belgium.

In June 1815 Napoleon marched north. He crossed into Belgium on 15 June, brilliantly driving a wedge between Wellington’s British and allied army based around Brussels, and a Prussian army at Namur.

As the allies scrambled to respond, Napoleon lunged at the Prussians first, driving them back at Ligny. Napoleon had his first victory of the campaign. It would be his last.

Coalition in retreat

The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras – (at approximately 17:00) – Elizabeth Thompson – (1875).

British troops halted a detachment of Napoleon’s army at Quatre-Bras, but as the Prussians retreated, Wellington gave the order to pull back. Lashed by torrential rain, Wellington’s men trudged north. He ordered them to take up position on a defensive ridge he had identified just south of Brussels.

It was a hard night. The men slept in canvas tents that let the water in. Thousands of feet and hooves churned the ground into a sea of mud.

We were up to our knees in mud and stinking water…. We had no choice, we had to settle down in the mud and filth as best we could….. Men and horses shaking with cold.

But on the morning of 18 June, the storms had passed.

Napoleon planned an assault on the British and allied army, hoping to rout it before the Prussians could come to its aid and capture Brussels. In his way was Wellington’s polyglot, untested allied army. Wellington strengthened his position by turning three great farm complexes into fortresses.

18 June 1815: The Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon outnumbered Wellington and his troops were seasoned veterans. He planned a massive artillery barrage, followed by massed infantry and cavalry assaults.

His guns were slow to get in position because of the mud, but he brushed off concerns, telling his staff that Wellington was a poor general and it would be nothing more than eating breakfast.

His first assault would be against Wellington’s western flank, to distract his attention before launching a French attack right at his centre. The target was the farm buildings of Hougoumont.

At around 1130 Napoleon’s guns opened up, 80 guns sending iron cannonballs hurtling into allied lines. An eyewitness described them as being like a volcano. Then the French infantry assault began.

The allied line was pushed back. Wellington had to act fast and he deployed his cavalry in one of the most famous charges in British history.

The charge of the Scots Grey during the Battle of Waterloo.

The cavalry crashed into the French infantry; 2,000 horsemen, some of the most illustrious units of the army, elite Life Guards as well as dragoons from England, Ireland and Scotland. The French scattered. A mass of fleeing men surged back to their own lines. The British cavalry, in high excitement, followed them and ended up among the French cannon.

Another counterattack, this time by Napoleon, who sent his legendary lancers and armour-clad cuirassiers to drive off the exhausted allied men and horses. This hectic see-sawing ended with both sides back where they had begun. The French infantry and allied cavalry both suffered terrible losses and corpses of men and horses littered the battlefield.

Marshal Ney orders the charge

At around 4 pm Napoleon’s deputy, Marshal Ney, the ‘bravest of the brave’, thought he saw an allied withdrawal and launched the mighty French cavalry to try and swamp the allied centre which he hoped might be wavering. 9,000 men and horses rushed allied lines.

Wellington’s infantry immediately formed squares. A hollow square with every man pointing his weapon outwards, allowing for all round defence.

Wave after wave of cavalry charged. An eyewitness wrote,

“Not a man present who survived could have forgotten in after life the awful grandeur of that charge. You discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming, long moving line, which, ever advancing, glittered like a stormy wave of the sea when it catches the sunlight.

On they came until they got near enough, whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate beneath the thundering tramp of the mounted host. One might suppose that nothing could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass.”

But the British and allied line just held.

The charge of the French Lancers and Carbineers at Waterloo.

“Night or the Prussians must come”

By the late afternoon, Napoleon’s plan had stalled and he now faced a terrible threat. Against the odds, Wellington’s army had held firm. And now, from the east, the Prussians were arriving. Defeated two days before at Ligny, the Prussians still had fight in them, and now they threatened to trap Napoleon.

Napoleon redeployed men to slow them down and redoubled his efforts to smash through Wellington’s lines. The farm of La Haye Sainte was captured by the French. They pushed artillery and sharpshooters into it and blasted the allied centre at close range.

Under terrible pressure Wellington said,

“Night or the Prussians must come.”

The Prussian attack on Plancenoit by Adolph Northen.

Committing the Old Guard

The Prussians were coming. More and more troops fell upon Napoleon’s flank. The emperor was under assault almost from three sides. In desperation, he played his final card. He ordered his last reserve, his finest troops to advance. The imperial guard, veterans of dozens of his battles, marched up the slope.

Dutch artillery pounded the guardsmen, and a Dutch bayonet charge put one battalion to flight; others trudged towards the crest of the ridge. When they arrived they found it strangely quiet. 1,500 British foot guards were lying down, waiting for the command to jump up and fire.

When the French army saw the Guard recoil, a shout went up and the entire army disintegrated. Napoleon’s mighty force was instantly transformed into a rabble of fleeing men. It was over.

“A spectacle I shall never forget”

As the sun set on 18 June 1815, bodies of men and horses littered the battlefield.

Something like 50,000 men had been killed or wounded.

One eyewitness visited a few days later:

The sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return. The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the Anglo-allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget.

It was a bloody victory, but a decisive one. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate a week later. Trapped by the Royal Navy, he surrendered to the captain of HMS Bellerophon and was taken into captivity.

1. Battle of the Pyramids (21 July 1798)

This battle actually took place five years before the Napoleonic Wars are generally considered to have started but it was one of the fights that would set the stage for Napoleon’s confrontations against various coalitions of nations between 1803 and 1815.

Battle of the Pyramids by Antoine-Jean Gros

Image Credit: Antoine-Jean Gros, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Also known as the Battle of Embabeh, this significant military engagement saw Napoleon — then a general in the French military — and his troops claim Cairo, a major victory in the invasion of Egypt. Napoleon’s implementation of the divisional square, one of his great military innovations, proved decisive in the battle and the Egyptian expedition would help to propel him to political power.

2. Battle of Marengo (14 June 1800)

A narrow and hard fought victory, the Battle of Marengo occurred during the War of the Second Coalition — a precursor to the coalitions that France would fight in the later Napoleonic Wars.

It pitted 28,000 of Napoleon’s men against 31,000 Austrian troops and was considered by Napoleon — by now the head of the French government — to be one of his finest triumphs. Victory helped to secure both his military and civilian authority in Paris.

3. Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805)

This famous naval battle took place at Cape Trafalgar off the south-western coast of Spain, between the British Royal Navy, led by Admiral Lord Nelson, and the fleets of France and Spain. The Royal’s Navy’s resounding victory established Britain’s naval domination but came at the cost of Lord Nelson’s life.

4. Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805)

This confrontation was also known as the “Battle of the Three Emperors”

Image Credit: Bogdan Willewalde, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps the most significant and decisive battle of the Napoleonic Wars, Austerlitz ranks as one of Napoleon’s greatest victories. Fought near Austerlitz in Moravia (now the Czech Republic) and also known as the “Battle of the Three Emperors”, this confrontation saw 68,000 French troops defeat nearly 90,000 Russians and Austrians.

Victory for France led to the Treaty of Pressburg, which aimed to establish “peace and amity” and secured Austria’s withdrawal from the Third Coalition of countries fighting France.

5. Battle of Jena-Auerstädt (14 October 1806)

An important French victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt was fought between 122,000 French troops and 114,000 Prussians and Saxons at Jena and Auerstädt in Saxony. Napoleon’s troops decimated the Prussian army at Jena as France’s Marshal Davout defeated the main Prussian force further north at Auerstädt.

6. Battle of Rolica (17 August 1808)

Although not a particularly big battle, Rolica is noteworthy as the first major action of the British Peninsular War, which saw Britain challenge Napoleon’s French forces for control of the Iberian peninsular.

Rolica became the setting for the conflict’s opening clash when Sir Arthur Wellesley’s Anglo-Portuguese troops met 4,000 rear-guard French forces en route to Lisbon. Wellesley’s army outnumbered the French three to one and eventually forced them into a withdrawal.

7. Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812)

An especially bloody fight between 130,000 French troops with more than 500 guns and 120,000 Russians with more than 600 guns, the Battle of Borodino saw General Kutuzov’s Russian troops attempt to block Napoleon’s advance on Moscow. A fierce, attritional battle ensued before Kutuzov eventually retreated. A week later, Napoleon occupied Moscow unopposed.

8. Battle of Leipzig (16–19 October 1813)

Undoubtedly one of Napoleon’s most significant defeats, this battle inflicted brutally severe losses on the French army and more or less concluded France’s presence in Germany and Poland. Also known as the “Battle of the Nations”, this bloody engagement was fought at the city of Leipzig in Saxony.

Battle of Leipzig by Vladimir Moshkov

Image Credit: Vladimir Moshkov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Napoleon’s forces were effectively surrounded by 300,000 allied soldiers (including Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish forces) who converged on the city’s perimeter. It was a crushing defeat for Napoleon who would be forced to abdicate six months later following Paris’ capitulation to the allies.

9. Battle of Ligny (16 June 1815)

The last victory of Napoleon’s military career, Ligny could nonetheless be considered a strategic failure. Though Napoleon’s troops defeated Field Marshal Prince Blucher’s Prussian army, many of the Prussian soldiers survived and joined the Duke of Wellington’s British troops at Waterloo.

10. Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815)

The battle that changed the face of Europe. An Anglo-Allied army under the Duke of Wellington faced Napoleon’s forces in Belgium. With Prussian reinforcements, the allies defeated the French — though Wellington proclaimed it was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”.