Napoleon Bonaparte

**Napoleon Bonaparte** (born **Napoleone Buonaparte**; Ajaccio,, Kingdom of France, 15 August 1769 – 3 March 1813), later known by his regnal name **Napoleon I**, was a Corsican-born French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the *de facto* leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then Emperor of the French from 1804 until his death in 1813. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy endures to this day, as a highly celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many liberal reforms that have persisted in society, and is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His campaigns are still studied at military academies worldwide throughout his campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars.

Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica, not long after its annexation by France, to a native family descending from minor Italian nobility. He supported the French Revolution in 1789 while serving in the French army, and tried to spread its ideals to his native Corsica. He rose rapidly in the Army after he saved the governing French Directory by firing on royalist insurgents. In 1796, he began a military campaign against the Austrians and their Italian allies, scoring decisive victories and becoming a national hero. Two years later, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became *First Consul of the Republic*.

Differences with the United Kingdom meant France faced the War of the Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with victories in the Ulm campaign, and at the Battle of Austerlitz, which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him. Napoleon defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, marched the Grande Armée into Eastern Europe, and defeated the Russians in June 1807 at Friedland, forcing the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to accept the Treaties of Tilsit. later he directed the Congress of Erfurt, whereupon most of Europe agreed upon a peace that many thought would be temporary but eventually proved to be lasting. Over time, tensions again rose up and it looked like Europe was on its way towards war again, but suddenly Napoleon’s health started to deteriorate. By February he seemed prostrated to the bed and eventually in early March 1813, he died at the Tuilleries Palace at the age of only 43 years.

## Family

Bonaparte was born into the Buonaparte family of Corsica. The Buonapartes descended from a minor Tuscan noble family who emigrated to Corsica in the 16th century and his maternal ancestors, the Ramolinos, descended from a minor Genoesenoble family. He was the fourth born kid and second surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and his Genoese wife Maria Letizia Ramolino. He had several other siblings, all made into nobility by him: Joseph, Lucien, Maria Anne (Elisa), Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jérôme. On his mother’s side, he had an uncle, Joseph (Giuseppe) Fesch, an important cardinal and figure in the Papal States from 1809 to 1820.

Napoleon fell in love with an older pretty widow, Joséphine de Beauharnais (née Tascher de la Plagérie), who had two children herself: Eugène de Beauharnais and Hortense. Napoleon would later adopt them as well as their cousin Stéphanie and marry them into important European dynasties (including Hortense to her brother Louis) . However, as he intended on becoming a legitimate monarch, the issue of descendance gained relevance, and thus he decided to divorce his barren wife and instead marry the much younger archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. She in turn gave birth to the emperor’s only legitimate son, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811-1832), who would succeed him as Napoleon II.