![]() ![]() ![]() The couple had a son, Napoleon II (a.k.a. Joséphine was unable to give him a son, so in 1810, Napoleon arranged for the annulment of their marriage so that he could wed Marie-Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the emperor of Austria. Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais, widow of General Alexandre de Beauharnais (guillotined during the Reign of Terror) and the mother of two children, on March 9, 1796, in a civil ceremony. All of these successes helped make Napoleon the military's brightest star. Under his direction, the reinvigorated army won numerous crucial victories against the Austrians, greatly expanded the French empire and squashed an internal threat by the royalists, who wished to return France to a monarchy. The army, just 30,000 strong, disgruntled and underfed, was soon turned around by the young military commander. In 1796, Napoleon took the helm of the Army of Italy, a post he'd been coveting. In addition, he was a trusted advisor to the Directory on military matters. Napoleon’s Rise to PowerĪfter falling out of favor with Robespierre, Napoleon came into the good graces of the Directory in 1795 after he saved the government from counter-revolutionary forces.įor his efforts, Napoleon was soon named commander of the Army of the Interior. In 1795, the Directory (the French Revolutionary government) took control of the country, a power it would it assume until 1799. ![]() Eventually the Jacobins fell from power and Robespierre was executed. The years of 17 came to be known as the Reign of Terror, in which many as 40,000 people were killed. Ultimately, these acts led to the rise of Maximilien de Robespierre and what became, essentially, the dictatorship of the Committee of Public Safety. In 1792, three years after the Revolution had begun, France was declared a republic the following year, King Louis XVI was executed. The young leader quickly showed his support for the Jacobins, a far-left political movement and the most well-known and popular political club from the French Revolution. The turmoil of the French Revolution created opportunities for ambitious military leaders like Napoleon. Some historians attribute the myths about Napoleon's height to British propaganda. Much has been made of Napoleon's height, and legends claim that he was unusually short, giving rise to the term "Napoleon complex," an inferiority complex sometimes associated with people of short stature. Napoleon stood about 5 feet and 7 inches tall, making him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. Napoleon’s return to France from Corsica began with a service with the French military, where he rejoined his regiment at Nice in June 1793. Graduating early from the military academy, Napoleon, now second lieutenant of artillery, returned to Corsica in 1786.īack home, Napoleon got behind the Corsican resistance to the French occupation, siding with his father's former ally, Pasquale Paoli.īut the two soon had a falling out, and when a civil war in Corsica began in April 1793, Napoleon, now an enemy of Paoli, and his family relocated to France, where they assumed the French version of their name: Bonaparte. This propelled Napoleon to take the reins as the head of the family. In 1785, while Napoleon was at the academy, his father died of stomach cancer. Military EducationĮventually, Napoleon ended up at the military college of Brienne, where he studied for five years, before moving on to the military academy in Paris. After doing so he was appointed assessor of the judicial district of Ajaccio in 1771, a plush job that eventually enabled him to enroll his two sons, Joseph and Napoleon, in France's College d'Autun. Carlo Buonaparte had at first supported the nationalists siding with their leader, Pasquale Paoli.īut after Paoli was forced to flee the island, Carlo switched his allegiance to the French. Napoleon was the fourth, and second surviving, child of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer, and his wife, Letizia Ramolino.Īround the time of Napoleon's birth, Corsica's occupation by the French had drawn considerable local resistance. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, on August 15, 1769. Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. ![]() Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military general, the first emperor of France and one of the world's greatest military leaders. ![]()
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