Factoid #1

Well as promised, here is the first in the series of quite interesting facts.

HOW TALL WAS NAPOLEON??

Well it is quite widely believed that Napoleon was a short little man. Wrong, this believe comes from a combination of mistranslation and propaganda.
The autopsy, carried out in 1821 by his personal physician, Francesco Antommarchi, recorded his height as '5/2'. which is now believed that this represents the french measurement of '5 pieds 2 pouces', which converts to modern measurements as 5 feet and 6.5 inches (1.69 meters).

The average height of Frenchmen in that era was 5 feet and 4.5 inches anyway, so that means Napoleon was probably taller than most people he came in contact to anyway.
In fact he was taller than the average englishmen, who was 5 feet and 6 inches.

After Napoleon gained power, he imposed eight requirements on all french troops. In the elite imperial Guard, Grenadiers had to be at least 5 feet 10 inches tall, and his personal guard, the elite Mounted Chasseurs, had to be a minimum of 5 feet 7 inches. So most of the time the soldiers around him were taller than him, creating the illusion the he is in fact short.












The British caricaturist, James Gillray was responsible for the first damaging image of the "little" Napoleon, in "the King of Brobdingang and Gulliver", inspired by by Gulliver's Travels.

In the picture to the left, George III is pictured holding Napoleon in his hand, inspecting him with an eye-glass saying,  "I cannot but conclude you to be one of the most pernicious little odious reptiles that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earth.'















One of the reasons for the survival of this myth is by the wide used term, 'Napoleon Complex', used to describe short people who make up for their lack of stature by being overly aggressive. There isn't actually any scientific evidence to support for this commonly held theory, neither is it an officially recognised psychiatric syndrome, and doesn't seem to occur in the animal kingdom.


I hope you all found this to be of an interesting flavour, and this made your mouths water for more.
Adios for now folks, until next time.