Is it true that Napoleon was small in stature?

The low growth of Napoleon I Bonaparte became the same integral part of his pop cultural image, like a triangle hat or a pose with one hand on his chest inside the uniform. We found out whether the French emperor was really stunted.

In the novel "War and Peace" Leo Tolstoy repeatedly Describes Napoleon with the words "little man in a gray frock coat." Some sources writethat Napoleon was 157 cm tall that corresponds The height of the figure of the emperor in the expositions of various museums of wax figures. The stereotype of its low growth was so rooted in the mass consciousness that the concept even arose in psychology "Napoleon Complex" To describe the inferiority complex, in which a person compensates for his slight growth by an aggressive manner of behavior and a desire for power.

Napoleon’s growth of 5 feet 2 inches and 4 lines was Crossed After his death, his personal doctor Francois Carlo Antomarchi. When transferring English feet to the metric system, this would be 157 cm. The mistake was that before Introduction In France, the metric system of feet and inches there were not English, but French. It is in French inches that French doctor indicated Napoleon’s growth, actually 169 cm (French foot = 32.48 cm). Moreover, by the time of death in 51, after a long illness, the vertebrae could have been compressed. So it is quite reasonable assumethat in his youth Napoleon could be even higher than 170 centimeters.

Even by today's standards, such a man cannot be called stunted, and given that since the 19th century, average male growth increased About 11 cm, then in those days Napoleon was above two -thirds of his soldiers and most fellow citizens. For comparison, we can also recall that Churchill and Pushkin were 3 cm below Napoleon, Stalin - 7 cm, Napoleon’s main opponent at sea, Admiral Nelson, 10 cm, but they did not smile with shorties.

So where did the legend come from? A mistake in the conversion of quantities is clearly not the only reason for the misconception about Napoleon’s low growth, because this myth appeared during his lifetime. Perhaps the emperor looked stunted surrounded by his guards-grenadiers, whose growth, according to selection criteria, it was at least 178 cm. Extremely tall people were also found among Napoleon's close. For example, the growth of Marshal Murat composed 190 cm, Marshal Mortier - 195 cm, and the brigade general Suam was already 198 cm tall. Naturally, against their background, Napoleon seemed low.

Another reason could be the Parisian fashion for high hats. Napoleon Dressed their marshals and adjutants in hats with gold sewing and feathers, which visually increased growth. Himself preferred Wear the famous triangle, with which the uniform golden embroidery cut off, leaving only a three -color French cockade. Also physique Napoleon - with his disproportionately large head - visually could reduce his growth.

Nickname like "little corporal", which Napoleon received From his soldiers, commanding the troops in Italy, he contributed to the needlessness of his growth in the minds of contemporaries. Although the word “small” in this case indicated more likely to the age of the 26-year-old general, and not the size of the body, the opponents of Bonaparte Used Derogatory names such as “Little Corporal”, “Boy” and “Yun-Viska” for political purposes.

The propaganda of the opponents of Napoleon began with the work of the British cartoonist James Gilrey. The image of Bonaparte has become an important through motive in a string of caricature characters of the artist. One of him works The French emperor still They think Almost the most famous political caricature of all times and peoples: “Puding is in danger, or epicureans at dinner” in 1805. On it, British Prime Minister Pitt and Napoleon share the world: England cuts off the world ocean, and France-Europe.

The image of Napoleon Gilrey in the form of a shorty was so popular that he was picked up by other cartoonists. For example, a Russian artist Ivan Terebenev And the British illustrator George Kruksank They created many drawings that make fun of the shorty "Bonya".

On anonymous caricature 1811 “Boni's visions, or the nightly consolations of a great little man” depicts Napoleon's night fears, among which Gilrey’s caricatures also appear (in the lower left corner, the inscription on the poster in the hands of the demon).

Gilrey's drawings were so offensive that Napoleon more than once promised to hang an artist, and at the end of his life it seems to be even declared: "Gilry made more for my defeat than all the armies of Europe."

So the political satire of contemporaries rooted in the mass consciousness the image of Napoleon as a powerful shorty, having probably played even a greater role than a mistake in the interpretation of the posthumous measurement of its growth.

Legend

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that the nose of the Big Sphinx was repulsed by order of Napoleon?
2. Did Napoleon say: “The people who do not want to feed their army will soon feed someone else's”?
3. Is it true that in France it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon?
4. History. WAS Napoleon Short? Origins of the 'Napoleon Complex'
5. The British Museum: Ivan Terebenev
6. The British Museum: Political satire catalog