The “title” Le Petit Corporal was not an insult about his height, it was an affectionate way his soldiers called him during the revolutionary wars when he would often sight the cannon himself which was the position of an artillery corporal
I'd also say it was used in the sense of "young one" or "laddie". When he got this nickname he was 21, if I remember correctly. So he would have been younger than many if not most of his men and certainly than the NCOs and COs
I heard Napoleon lasted 2 seconds with a women.... usually takes more than 2 seconds to ...um finish assuming that's what they meant Anyone wanna correct me? I should delete this
@@everburn the English might have started a myth you could be right but it's a weird myth or so it's a long time ago Now a day's everyone has a filthy comment but 200 years ago the wrong ear and your excommunicated or hung
One of my favorite Napoleon facts was he was attacked by rabbits on a rabbit hunt once. Basically, after Tilsit (1807) Napoleon commissioned a rabbit hunt for him and his men. Instead of rounding up wild rabbits to hunt, his generals got domesticated rabbits instead. So when the rabbits were released, they ran towards the humans thinking they were going to get food. They overwhelmed Napoleon, and he fled from battle. Also, to your point about how sometimes the French did not deliberately start wars and cited the invasion by the allies in 1792, that's not entirely true. It was actually France who declared war on Austria first (April 20, 1792), and even attempted a small invasion into the Austrian Netherlands at the end of April but it went horribly.
You're 100% right about who started the war. In hindsight I think what I intended to say (but didn't) was that those early wars were not wars of conquest.
I would like to make a distinction though between France and France lead by Napoleon. He didn't come to power until at least 1798, and didn't become emperor until 1804. He would have fought in the wars, but he wasn't the one responsible for declaring them. If anything I say he was doomed to fight endless war no matter what. Once he took power wars were declared upon him more often than naught.
@@VloggingThroughHistory 1:36 yeah Waterloo is an amazing movie! I think i even mentioned it either earlier on the Discord Movie Recamondations or one of your more recent videos! I hope that I'll get that same experience of "Napoleon" with Joaquin Phoenix
The "canning" method described was very successful, it just was quickly superceded by metal cans as the glass jar method used big heavy wine bottles that had been sealed and essentially pasteurized, and which had to be broken open.
In my history of warfare class in college, my professor said that Napoleon is among the few men in history who could successfully combine the roles of general, statesman, and diplomat. Each have their own requirements and many have excelled in one, but fallen short in others.
General and statesman, definitely. Diplomat, not so sure about that, considering how many coalitions formed against him, and eventually did him in. His "diplomacy" more often than not consisted of battering others into submission with military might, or coercing through the threat of it. He thought that the other monarchs of Europe were always going to see him as a lowborn upstart, and that the only reason they respected him and took him seriously was his overwhelming power. He certainly had a point in thinking so, but acting accordingly, that whole premise became self-fulfilling.
7:04 they did invade France before he started invading other countries, though perhaps the treaty of Versailles after WWI and the subsequent hardships in Germany could be the "invasion", lol...perhaps not, though...I mean, a justifying motivating factor...but I guess it's true that Hitler had all these Aryan supremacy-things going on, Napoleon didn't...I did feel like there was some comparison, though, I have to say, lol, between Napoleon and Hitler...
Stanley Kubrick was going to do a Napoleon biopic and even had a filing cabinet of index cards, each with all the available information of what Napoleon did on each day of his life. Then Waterloo came out so he opted to make Barry Lyndon (which is great but no one has seen it)
Love seeing Napoleon content! I'd really like to see a reaction to Epic History TV's Marshals series and the new one that he's doing for Napoleon in Italy whenever you have the time. They're both really interesting and go into a lot of depth. I also love seeing how you break this stuff down to make it more understandable for everyone as well.
Greetings from Ohio :) Big fan for a year or so. Driving down to Columbus today, got a lot more to show and talk about with my girlfriend in-no-small-part thanks to you
Absolutely love your content im 19 from New Zealand and adore history I have good knowledge on many topics. Napoleon by far is one of my absolute favorites. One of my favorite periods of history ever. I feel like i could talk to you forever on many topics, keep up the great work I love your videos.
Great video Chris! I have recently acquired Richard Holmes' "The Napoleonic Wars" and it's a very interesting read delving into the entirety of Napoleon's career.
8:30 love the Studio C reference. They were a college comedy sketch group that made some phenomenal content beginning back in 2012. The original cast moved on around 2018, and the quality has really changed since then. But I highly recommend looking at their old videos (they have a lot of them on TH-cam). They did a wide variety of skits, but they had a few based on historical figures. Great humor and very family friendly.
How so? Corsica was a french territory when he was born, he was sent to the north of France at the age of 9 for his schooling, and his family was ultimately ousted from Corsica by the Paolist in 1793.
In 1794 a British Fleet under Lord Hood landed in Corsica. This was the Battle in which Nelson lost his eye. The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom was formed with the consent of Paoli the Corsican Leader who took against Revolutionary France and so requested British protection. This new entity was democratic and was in effect a union with Britain. Such that citizens of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom were considered British Subjects. In 1796 this political union between Corsica and Britain ended when France invaded. For two years Napoleone as a Corsican was entitled to British citizenship.
@@johnwilletts3984 Honestly your claim doesn't really hold water, Napoleon wasn't in Corsica during this period, he had been living in France for most of his life, even his family wasn't in Corsica anymore. In fact if the British fleet under Lord Hood landed in Corsica in 1794 it was because it had been repelled from Toulon, by Napoleon himself, and the British were seeking another Mediterranean base. Also when the British invaded Corsica they annexed the island and incorporated it into their dominion, the king of Great Britain became ruler of the Island, it wasn't a democratic at all. As a matter of fact the Corsicans ended up revolting against the British because the British were undoing the achievements of the revolution in favor of a functioning equal to that of the ancien regime. Revolutionary committees appeared in towns across the island, and began to negotiate terms with the French forces in Italy. Because of this the British evacuated in 1796.
One funny fact was, as he was Corsican at the time French revolution had began he left his duty in army to start free Corsican country. His family rivals did run him out of there eventually, but this is a big what if moment. Man who ruled Europe, dreamed for ruling his own island first, what cruel joke it was in the end.
That's erroneous. Firstly Corsica became a french territory a bit more than a year before he was born, Napoleon was therefore born french. What's more Napoleon's father was a proponent of France and worked for the french state, that's why Napoleon was sent in school in the north of France in 1778 when he was 9 years old. When the revolution broke out Napoleon was 20 years old and had spent the majority of his life in continental France. At that time he didn't left his duty in the army to start free Corsica, he went a few times in corsica during his military leaves and became close to Pascal Paoli. Paoli had fought for Corsica's independence against Genoa and France between 1755 and 1769 but by the time the revolution broke out he wasn't hostile to France in fact he actually became a proponent of the revolution. However this didn't last, in 1793 he broke with the revolution, took control of half of Corsica and initiated a purge of the potential opponents to his authority, in particular the Bonaparte family whose house was ransacked and burned, forcing the Bonaparte to flee the island. Following that Napoleon said of Corsica "This country is not for us".
@@elouenmyas580 Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that as the Corsica suddenly changed ruler it made everything just change settings from a Italy to a France. And so his father was never against any of this, or hadn't ever crossed with Pablo. I'm glad we got that figured out, so as Napoleon didn't resent his father from turning his coat, or idolized Pablo as he saw himself a Frenchman. So when he was send to military school in age of 9, it wasn't like, "Yo' every so called a noblemen gets in.", it was more like: "Any supporters of France from this this weird island, will get in Military School. SO when we got in the time of the revolution, he only did his part and wasn't never charged form desert. That is only for his myth.
@@TheMrNezze Napoleon's father had been against France only before Napoleon was born, he adapted pretty quickly once France tookover. Napoleon never saw his father stand against France, he always saw him work for the french state. And when Napoleon became close to Paoli, Paoli was actually working for France as well, he had been appointed commander of Corscia by Louis XVI. So I doubt Napoleon had resentment towards his father for not fighting the french. In fact Napoleon soon joined the pro-French Corsican Republicans who opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations of secession when Paoli started to shift against France.
If you want a good video about Napoleon, chekcout Lindybeiges video about Napoleons arch enemy according to Napoleon. Prolly a video too long to react to, but recommend veryone to watch that one. Absolutely facinating. It also shows how much of an egotistical man he was, to the detriment of French victory and his own soldiers. That video certainly changed my opinion of the man, and I also learned A LOT about his nemesis, whose identity will surprise you. And no its not Wellington or Nelson, its another Brit.
Lindybeige is a british nationalist he is a bit biased to say the least regarding topics related to french history, what he says is to take with a grain of salt.
@@elouenmyas580 True, still worth watching though. I recognise his bias in the video Im referring to, the historical facts he talks about though are true, to the best of my knowledge. I looked up quite a few of them. He also has a brilliant video about a battle/siege between British Army and native New Zealanders, where the brits were humiliated. No bias in that one :).
I wouldn’t agree that Napoleon was more interested in Muhammad than Jesus, but moreso during his campaign in Egypt he was inclined to show himself more interested because he thought he could leverage religion to gain favour. France and secularism and the “idea” of meritocracy was on the rise post Revolution so religion was less influential card to play.
That Napoleon miniseries is a really good one. Funny thing about it, it was a joint French-English production, so they did the original filming speaking French, then dubbed it into English, with all actors doing the dubbing for their own character. Which results in the English version having every French character speaking English with a French accent, except for Talleyrand who is played by John Malkovich.
Not Napoleon, but recently went to Apsley House, London home of the Duke of Wellington. Brilliant. If you're ever in London again it's worth a visit, incredible artwork and history within
If you come back to Napoleon again I would really suggest Epic History’s *Napoleon’s Marshals*. It’s like 3hrs long but it’s top tier and especially the last two parts with the top 6 Marshals is prime. Lannes is an absolute titan. He is Richard Sharpe but real. “I’ll show you I was a grenadier before I was a marshal and still am” as he was took up a scaling ladder and was stopped by his aides at the siege of Marengo.
Fun fact and Oddly enough(considering I’m a history major), the first way that I ever actually heard of napoleon was through a chess game. After his first defeat and exile, many of his generals and men went with him and visited him often. He actually played exceptionally and looking back after learning about him you can actually feel his warfare style in the game.
Once while hunting, Napoleon was aiming a gun at an animal and accidentally shot marshal Massena. The shot hit the marshal in the eye. The emperor was not a good shot in his own right, and the rifles of the time were oblique. And, according to Marbot's memoirs, Massena, as an experienced man at court, understanding that there was no point in blaming the emperor for the eye, blamed Marshal Berthier, who had not even fired the shot. The loyal Berthier took the blame.
I think you should give History Buff’s video on the Waterloo movie a watch, he loves the movie too and goes over what happened and what the movie gets right. Good channel, good video
I’ve been reading up a lot on Napoleon, especially Waterloo, in recent months while I am trying to pin down the rumor that a 5th great granduncle fought at Waterloo. I have him being transferred from Canada to England in November 1814, but lose him at that point. I have found someone with his name in the 23rd Light Dragoons fighting in the battle, but I haven’t been able to definitively prove that he was my distant relative. I might have to pay someone to visit the National Archives in London to find the company’s paybook preceding the 1815-1817 one, which is available online. If the soldier’s name is in that earlier paybook, then I’ll know he is not my relative. The first entry in that online paybook has the soldier first located in Liverpool, which would have been a good place for incoming soldiers from North America to arrive.
@@ketongu Unfortunately, not yet. I think I will have to wait until I can pay someone to go to the National Archives in London to track down that 1813-1814 paybook for the regiment.
For comparison Napoleon height was 169cm, Horatio Nelson was pretty short at 155cm, yet the interesting thing was who for example a grenadier was at that time average 168cm, and they were the "tall guys". Also you were quite surprised to find out that Napoleon second love and the previous one to Josephine, was the wife of Bernadotte, and is quite interesting because for what Napoleon said to the critics of Bernadotte, and the main reason of why he was a marshal, was because he was the husband of his former fiancee, Desiree had in fact being abandoned by Napoleon in favor of Josephine, and then when she fell in love with a second man, a friend of Napoleon, that one was killed by a catholic mob during the short lived "Roman Republic". So she searched for a more "conservative" man. Even if at the end Bernadotte "betrayed" Napoleon, he was pushed by Desiree to shelter all his former supporters who were fleeing France, being Sweden a refugee for many in the ensuing persecution of any enemy of the King during the so called "Second White Terror". It is also pretty interesting to remark when and why he was arrested for treason during the french revolution, you said "Everyone was arrested during the revolution", and well it may be the case of many that wasn't Napoleon case, it was actually after the "Terror", because Napoleon had been part of the government during the Terror, he was actually Robespierre representative on Italy when the Thermidorian reaction took place, he was released thought because the Thermidorians needed generals, the same went for Thurreau, Brunne, Jourdan etc. The Empire and the catholic church clashed a lot over the issue of the "holly inquisition", especially in Spain, also it is worth to mention, who the concordat was the acceptance by the pope of having his lands expropriated and do not supporting the Catholic revolts in France, in exchange of "recognition for the catholic people", however it was a secular state, and Napoleon put also the Judaism and Protestantism as recognized peoples, and in the end it was a state where you would be free of confess wherever faith you have if you follow the law, with the exception of Roman Catholicism, in that case you can profess your faith in battles, funerals or in private, but not in the civil area unless you have an authorization, like priests. Also it is kind of ridiculous who they insinuated who his medic take a "piece of him" and kept it, because it was supervised by many, even British, and at the end of the day he was reexamined back in 1840, and (to the surprise of many, his body remained like if he had been preserved, and have everything) and then he was cremated, it sounds a bit of a scam.
As someone who has walked the lower decks of the HMS Victory in Portsmouth, being short in the Royal Navy of that era was definitely an advantage. Especially for your head. 😆
Désirée Clary aka Drottning Desideria in swedish wasn't a huge fan of Sweden because it was to cold in winter, she never felt like she fit in and she loved Paris too much. However i grew up near her favourite place in Sweden called Rosersberg Slott where she apparently spent her life sleeping the days away and playing cards all night. When her husband died she chose that palace as her jointure.
I think why watch mojo reactions do well for you is because honestly the information and choices they make are not the best. And everyone viewing your channel knows you’ll break it down with the actual facts and then also your thoughts on if what they say is a top 10 thing really deserves to be in the top 10. It’s kind of like watching you politely give them a smack down lol.
Another interesting fact: the civil code he had drafted in 1804 is still used today as an essential part of French legislation, as well as in other countries such as Belgium.
To the Point with the canned food. Yes it was a pretty important invention. What got a bit downplayed in the video or in the historical records in general is how bad the food supply of Napoleon's army's was. For the first years of the conquerings, more of his soilders died of male nutrition and scorbut than through enemies bullets, so the canned food (which btw was pretty luxurious food, like fasan roast) was a pretty big deal. But because they were brought in Glass bottles, they broke pretty easily, so canned food didn't became that extremely relevant till the invention of the can.
Theres a series of 4 novels by Simon Scarrow, starting with Young Bloods, telling the parallel lives of Napoleon and Wellington, they were born in the same year, probably not 100% historically accurate, but a proper ripping yarn all the same 👍
The problems with canned food in glass jars are, weight and breakability, especially hauled in horse or mule drawn wagons over, sometimes nonexistent, roads.
About the Mechanical Turk that played chess, it was indeed a fake "machine" which contained a human operator hidden inside the cabinet. However in 1912 a machine called El Ajedrecista (meaning The Chess Player) was built in Spain which was a true chess-playing automaton. It was limited to playing a king+rook vs king endgame, but it did make the moves on its own and did deliver checkmate reliably.
Fun fact: the actor Rene Auberjonois, famous for his roles in _M.A.S.H._ and _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ among others was a great-great-great-grandson of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. He was a direct descendant of Joachim Murat, the famous Marshal of France who served under Napoleon, who married Caroline.
One quick thing to note: "Le petit caporal" wasn't his nickname for so much as to do with his height, but was rather a term of endearment or affection. Calling someone "petit" is often a cute pet name among lovers or close friends ("petit ami" is one way to say boyfriend), so this nickname refers more so to the love his soldiers had for him.
14:06 that’s John Wood, who played the Pope. I always remember him from WarGames but he’s been in a number of things as well, including Lady Jane Grey (he was Dudley), Ladyhawke (he played the Bishop…insanely good in that film) and Sabrina’s father in the remake of Sabrina, with Harrison Ford.
Rod Steiger was criminally underrated in Waterloo, I thought he was excellent. Arguably a much stronger performance than what he did in In The Heat Of The Night, which won him an Oscar (ahead of Sidney Poitier somehow 🤔🤔).
I believe the poison he carried was warranted of the time for leaders from France. He just went through the era of the terror and watched countless French leaders be paraded and executed. Aside from his own people a lot of monarchs in Europe flat out hated Napoleon.
When it comes to height in that era of history, the outliers aren't Napoleon for being short, but Washington and Jefferson for be incredibly tall, both in the 6'2 range i think.
Some random Napoleon facts. Napoleon attempted to use balloons to invade England. Napoleon indirectly helped create braille. Napoleon met with an inventor who proposed the idea of a boat powered by steam. But he rejected it because he thought it was dumb and counterintuitive. Napoleon swore that he had 7 mistresses. In reality he had close to 21. One time Napoleon scoffed and insulted a soldier who fell off his horse. He proceeded to fall off his horse a moment later.
Hmmm...there were french people in Louisiane....Creoles, Cajuns... (By the way, was Confederate Général Pierre Beauregard "ethically french"? Just teasing) Love your channel Mr Prof...!
On the other hand Christopher Duffy has a great story of going to the reinactment of Boridino which did use Soviet soldiers who rarely had privately owned cars so the Soviets used military transports to move the soldiers and he said it was hilarius watching Soviet APCs and IFVs disgourging Imperial Russian troops.
One thing I never knew about Napoleon was that he was exiled not once, but twice. I was in Italy with my family. We were visiting family in Piombino. My dad points to a large mountain-like island in the distance and said, “that’s the island where Napoleon was forced to exile to.” Then I said, “But wasn’t he exiled near Africa?” My dad then said, “Yes, but that was after he was also exiled on this island, Elba. He was treated pretty well at Elba, too.” I guess the main takeaway is that when you have a big ego like Napoleon, taking everything away from someone and not giving them anything more to conquer is basically a fate worse than death.
Regarding Josephine's affair - she had the affair early in their marriage (I think shortly before or while he was in Egypt). The divorce was because she didn't have any kids but to say an affair that happened 13 or 14 years before played a role in the divorce, isn't exactly accurate. Napoleon still crowned her as his Empress AFTER the affair.
He was brought to power through a political coup...more than using the army. His brother actually was a major actor in helping him overtake the Directoire
In all fairness his piece was removed after his death which means any fluids or gases would have fled his body and everything would've shriveled up causing to appear shorter than it was before
It’s not that surprising that Napoleon wrote a novella since he had always wanted to be an author before he ended up in the military. Arguably he got to fulfil that dream anyway since his dispatches from Egypt and ability to propagandise himself in general were just as critical to his success as his actual skill on the battlefield.
It’s weird to think there are Stalin’s, Romanov’s, Bonaparte’s and Hitler’s (although I’ve heard the last descendant with that last name has decided not to procreate in order to end the family line and name) walking around the United States.
@@VloggingThroughHistory yep although their father renounced the name they’ve decided to take it a step further and wipe out the blood line voluntarily. Whether it be an incredible amount of self loathing, hatred of the Nazi’s and Adolf, or another reason I gotta respect their dedication to doing so.
@@aldbgbnkladg What is the movie called? I just went through Malkovich's entire acting history and i don't see any place where he played Talleyrand except the 2002 miniseries.
I don't know who you thought the Pope Pius VII actor might have been, but it was John Wood, perhaps best known as Professor Stephen Falken in War Games!
Chris, i know a lot of civil war books and love em' but man, can t find any books on napoleonic wars as frequently as on the civil war. What do you think we should do?
Napoleon was Corsican not italian , he himself wrote it ... " Five or six families share the thrones of Europe and they see with pain that a Corsican has come to sit on one of them . I can only maintain myself by force . » Napoleon Bonaparte « 1769 - 1821 » In 1804 .
The story with the rejected steamship comes to mind and should imho have been included. Imagine how a French navy with Steam powered ironclads and submarines takes revenge for Trafalgar...
This one would have been so much funnier and more realistic with Swedes. Anything in the English language about Sweden is a smash hit among Swedes! Edit: haha, this post was meant for a Monty Python sketch, dunno how I ended up here!
The “title” Le Petit Corporal was not an insult about his height, it was an affectionate way his soldiers called him during the revolutionary wars when he would often sight the cannon himself which was the position of an artillery corporal
Yeah, by the way in french we use "petit ami" or "petit copain" to say boyfriend or "petite copine" for girlfriend
I'd also say it was used in the sense of "young one" or "laddie". When he got this nickname he was 21, if I remember correctly. So he would have been younger than many if not most of his men and certainly than the NCOs and COs
Anything Napoleon is a MUST WATCH🙏
I heard Napoleon lasted 2 seconds with a women.... usually takes more than 2 seconds to ...um finish assuming that's what they meant
Anyone wanna correct me? I should delete this
@@RawnervzzAlso heard that. But it has to have been a myth right?😂
@@everburn the English might have started a myth you could be right but it's a weird myth or so it's a long time ago
Now a day's everyone has a filthy comment but 200 years ago the wrong ear and your excommunicated or hung
One of my favorite Napoleon facts was he was attacked by rabbits on a rabbit hunt once.
Basically, after Tilsit (1807) Napoleon commissioned a rabbit hunt for him and his men. Instead of rounding up wild rabbits to hunt, his generals got domesticated rabbits instead. So when the rabbits were released, they ran towards the humans thinking they were going to get food. They overwhelmed Napoleon, and he fled from battle.
Also, to your point about how sometimes the French did not deliberately start wars and cited the invasion by the allies in 1792, that's not entirely true. It was actually France who declared war on Austria first (April 20, 1792), and even attempted a small invasion into the Austrian Netherlands at the end of April but it went horribly.
You're 100% right about who started the war. In hindsight I think what I intended to say (but didn't) was that those early wars were not wars of conquest.
Wonder if Monty Python was inspired by that?
I would like to make a distinction though between France and France lead by Napoleon. He didn't come to power until at least 1798, and didn't become emperor until 1804. He would have fought in the wars, but he wasn't the one responsible for declaring them. If anything I say he was doomed to fight endless war no matter what. Once he took power wars were declared upon him more often than naught.
it was Berthier, a Marshal as opposed to a General, who sorted out the rabbits. But that’s an extreme nitpick
@@VloggingThroughHistory 1:36 yeah Waterloo is an amazing movie! I think i even mentioned it either earlier on the Discord Movie Recamondations or one of your more recent videos! I hope that I'll get that same experience of "Napoleon" with Joaquin Phoenix
The "canning" method described was very successful, it just was quickly superceded by metal cans as the glass jar method used big heavy wine bottles that had been sealed and essentially pasteurized, and which had to be broken open.
In my history of warfare class in college, my professor said that Napoleon is among the few men in history who could successfully combine the roles of general, statesman, and diplomat. Each have their own requirements and many have excelled in one, but fallen short in others.
in EU4 ruler stats, id give him a 6/4/15
General and statesman, definitely. Diplomat, not so sure about that, considering how many coalitions formed against him, and eventually did him in. His "diplomacy" more often than not consisted of battering others into submission with military might, or coercing through the threat of it. He thought that the other monarchs of Europe were always going to see him as a lowborn upstart, and that the only reason they respected him and took him seriously was his overwhelming power. He certainly had a point in thinking so, but acting accordingly, that whole premise became self-fulfilling.
7:04 they did invade France before he started invading other countries, though perhaps the treaty of Versailles after WWI and the subsequent hardships in Germany could be the "invasion", lol...perhaps not, though...I mean, a justifying motivating factor...but I guess it's true that Hitler had all these Aryan supremacy-things going on, Napoleon didn't...I did feel like there was some comparison, though, I have to say, lol, between Napoleon and Hitler...
Stanley Kubrick was going to do a Napoleon biopic and even had a filing cabinet of index cards, each with all the available information of what Napoleon did on each day of his life. Then Waterloo came out so he opted to make Barry Lyndon (which is great but no one has seen it)
Love seeing Napoleon content! I'd really like to see a reaction to Epic History TV's Marshals series and the new one that he's doing for Napoleon in Italy whenever you have the time. They're both really interesting and go into a lot of depth. I also love seeing how you break this stuff down to make it more understandable for everyone as well.
Greetings from Ohio :) Big fan for a year or so.
Driving down to Columbus today, got a lot more to show and talk about with my girlfriend in-no-small-part thanks to you
Safe travels! Have fun in C-Bus. I’ll be headed there in a few weeks to watch the Crew.
What a stud. "You are no great beauty, but...". That would get me the couch for a week and an absurd amount of apologies.
Absolutely love your content im 19 from New Zealand and adore history I have good knowledge on many topics. Napoleon by far is one of my absolute favorites. One of my favorite periods of history ever. I feel like i could talk to you forever on many topics, keep up the great work I love your videos.
Great video Chris! I have recently acquired Richard Holmes' "The Napoleonic Wars" and it's a very interesting read delving into the entirety of Napoleon's career.
Holmes did several good books, and television shows. "War Walks" etc
6:46 Yes ! I prefer to say "the coalition wars" rather than the "Napoleonic wars", it makes a lot more sense
8:30 love the Studio C reference. They were a college comedy sketch group that made some phenomenal content beginning back in 2012. The original cast moved on around 2018, and the quality has really changed since then. But I highly recommend looking at their old videos (they have a lot of them on TH-cam). They did a wide variety of skits, but they had a few based on historical figures. Great humor and very family friendly.
Between 1794 and 1796 Corsica was British. So for a while and perhaps against his will, he became a British subject!
How so? Corsica was a french territory when he was born, he was sent to the north of France at the age of 9 for his schooling, and his family was ultimately ousted from Corsica by the Paolist in 1793.
In 1794 a British Fleet under Lord Hood landed in Corsica. This was the Battle in which Nelson lost his eye. The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom was formed with the consent of Paoli the Corsican Leader who took against Revolutionary France and so requested British protection. This new entity was democratic and was in effect a union with Britain. Such that citizens of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom were considered British Subjects. In 1796 this political union between Corsica and Britain ended when France invaded. For two years Napoleone as a Corsican was entitled to British citizenship.
@@johnwilletts3984 Honestly your claim doesn't really hold water, Napoleon wasn't in Corsica during this period, he had been living in France for most of his life, even his family wasn't in Corsica anymore. In fact if the British fleet under Lord Hood landed in Corsica in 1794 it was because it had been repelled from Toulon, by Napoleon himself, and the British were seeking another Mediterranean base. Also when the British invaded Corsica they annexed the island and incorporated it into their dominion, the king of Great Britain became ruler of the Island, it wasn't a democratic at all. As a matter of fact the Corsicans ended up revolting against the British because the British were undoing the achievements of the revolution in favor of a functioning equal to that of the ancien regime. Revolutionary committees appeared in towns across the island, and began to negotiate terms with the French forces in Italy. Because of this the British evacuated in 1796.
One funny fact was, as he was Corsican at the time French revolution had began he left his duty in army to start free Corsican country. His family rivals did run him out of there eventually, but this is a big what if moment. Man who ruled Europe, dreamed for ruling his own island first, what cruel joke it was in the end.
That's erroneous. Firstly Corsica became a french territory a bit more than a year before he was born, Napoleon was therefore born french. What's more Napoleon's father was a proponent of France and worked for the french state, that's why Napoleon was sent in school in the north of France in 1778 when he was 9 years old. When the revolution broke out Napoleon was 20 years old and had spent the majority of his life in continental France. At that time he didn't left his duty in the army to start free Corsica, he went a few times in corsica during his military leaves and became close to Pascal Paoli. Paoli had fought for Corsica's independence against Genoa and France between 1755 and 1769 but by the time the revolution broke out he wasn't hostile to France in fact he actually became a proponent of the revolution. However this didn't last, in 1793 he broke with the revolution, took control of half of Corsica and initiated a purge of the potential opponents to his authority, in particular the Bonaparte family whose house was ransacked and burned, forcing the Bonaparte to flee the island. Following that Napoleon said of Corsica "This country is not for us".
@@elouenmyas580 Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that as the Corsica suddenly changed ruler it made everything just change settings from a Italy to a France. And so his father was never against any of this, or hadn't ever crossed with Pablo. I'm glad we got that figured out, so as Napoleon didn't resent his father from turning his coat, or idolized Pablo as he saw himself a Frenchman. So when he was send to military school in age of 9, it wasn't like, "Yo' every so called a noblemen gets in.", it was more like: "Any supporters of France from this this weird island, will get in Military School. SO when we got in the time of the revolution, he only did his part and wasn't never charged form desert. That is only for his myth.
@@TheMrNezze Napoleon's father had been against France only before Napoleon was born, he adapted pretty quickly once France tookover. Napoleon never saw his father stand against France, he always saw him work for the french state. And when Napoleon became close to Paoli, Paoli was actually working for France as well, he had been appointed commander of Corscia by Louis XVI. So I doubt Napoleon had resentment towards his father for not fighting the french. In fact Napoleon soon joined the pro-French Corsican Republicans who opposed Paoli's policy and his aspirations of secession when Paoli started to shift against France.
If you want a good video about Napoleon, chekcout Lindybeiges video about Napoleons arch enemy according to Napoleon. Prolly a video too long to react to, but recommend veryone to watch that one. Absolutely facinating. It also shows how much of an egotistical man he was, to the detriment of French victory and his own soldiers. That video certainly changed my opinion of the man, and I also learned A LOT about his nemesis, whose identity will surprise you. And no its not Wellington or Nelson, its another Brit.
Lindybeige is a british nationalist he is a bit biased to say the least regarding topics related to french history, what he says is to take with a grain of salt.
@@elouenmyas580 True, still worth watching though. I recognise his bias in the video Im referring to, the historical facts he talks about though are true, to the best of my knowledge. I looked up quite a few of them.
He also has a brilliant video about a battle/siege between British Army and native New Zealanders, where the brits were humiliated. No bias in that one :).
I wouldn’t agree that Napoleon was more interested in Muhammad than Jesus, but moreso during his campaign in Egypt he was inclined to show himself more interested because he thought he could leverage religion to gain favour. France and secularism and the “idea” of meritocracy was on the rise post Revolution so religion was less influential card to play.
That Napoleon miniseries is a really good one. Funny thing about it, it was a joint French-English production, so they did the original filming speaking French, then dubbed it into English, with all actors doing the dubbing for their own character. Which results in the English version having every French character speaking English with a French accent, except for Talleyrand who is played by John Malkovich.
Problem with channels like watch mojo is the cover a bunch of different topics with (I think) daily output, quality control is not their priority
Not Napoleon, but recently went to Apsley House, London home of the Duke of Wellington. Brilliant. If you're ever in London again it's worth a visit, incredible artwork and history within
If you come back to Napoleon again I would really suggest Epic History’s *Napoleon’s Marshals*.
It’s like 3hrs long but it’s top tier and especially the last two parts with the top 6 Marshals is prime.
Lannes is an absolute titan. He is Richard Sharpe but real. “I’ll show you I was a grenadier before I was a marshal and still am” as he was took up a scaling ladder and was stopped by his aides at the siege of Marengo.
I hope Ridley Scott does the Napoleon story right with that movie coming up. Joaquin Phoenix is a solid looking casting choice.
Fun fact and Oddly enough(considering I’m a history major), the first way that I ever actually heard of napoleon was through a chess game.
After his first defeat and exile, many of his generals and men went with him and visited him often. He actually played exceptionally and looking back after learning about him you can actually feel his warfare style in the game.
Hi :D I'd really recommend watching the EH video on the translation/discovery of the rosetta stone, it's a brilliant video :D
So glad I stumbled on this wonderful channel. But there is so much back catalogue to get through!
Welcome! Glad you’re here.
Once while hunting, Napoleon was aiming a gun at an animal and accidentally shot marshal Massena. The shot hit the marshal in the eye. The emperor was not a good shot in his own right, and the rifles of the time were oblique. And, according to Marbot's memoirs, Massena, as an experienced man at court, understanding that there was no point in blaming the emperor for the eye, blamed Marshal Berthier, who had not even fired the shot. The loyal Berthier took the blame.
"He was definitely average height for the time"
(Cue the iconic Oversimplified retro Outro music jam)
I think you should give History Buff’s video on the Waterloo movie a watch, he loves the movie too and goes over what happened and what the movie gets right. Good channel, good video
Hey can you watch Napoleons marshalls? It's a nice long series that goes through the people that helped Napoleon become the greatest general
Eugene de Beauhernais was a good viceking of Italy
I’ve been reading up a lot on Napoleon, especially Waterloo, in recent months while I am trying to pin down the rumor that a 5th great granduncle fought at Waterloo. I have him being transferred from Canada to England in November 1814, but lose him at that point. I have found someone with his name in the 23rd Light Dragoons fighting in the battle, but I haven’t been able to definitively prove that he was my distant relative. I might have to pay someone to visit the National Archives in London to find the company’s paybook preceding the 1815-1817 one, which is available online. If the soldier’s name is in that earlier paybook, then I’ll know he is not my relative. The first entry in that online paybook has the soldier first located in Liverpool, which would have been a good place for incoming soldiers from North America to arrive.
that's cool as hell man, keep looking into it and do an update if you find anything
Hope your search goes well.
any updates?
@@ketongu Unfortunately, not yet. I think I will have to wait until I can pay someone to go to the National Archives in London to track down that 1813-1814 paybook for the regiment.
For comparison Napoleon height was 169cm, Horatio Nelson was pretty short at 155cm, yet the interesting thing was who for example a grenadier was at that time average 168cm, and they were the "tall guys". Also you were quite surprised to find out that Napoleon second love and the previous one to Josephine, was the wife of Bernadotte, and is quite interesting because for what Napoleon said to the critics of Bernadotte, and the main reason of why he was a marshal, was because he was the husband of his former fiancee, Desiree had in fact being abandoned by Napoleon in favor of Josephine, and then when she fell in love with a second man, a friend of Napoleon, that one was killed by a catholic mob during the short lived "Roman Republic". So she searched for a more "conservative" man. Even if at the end Bernadotte "betrayed" Napoleon, he was pushed by Desiree to shelter all his former supporters who were fleeing France, being Sweden a refugee for many in the ensuing persecution of any enemy of the King during the so called "Second White Terror". It is also pretty interesting to remark when and why he was arrested for treason during the french revolution, you said "Everyone was arrested during the revolution", and well it may be the case of many that wasn't Napoleon case, it was actually after the "Terror", because Napoleon had been part of the government during the Terror, he was actually Robespierre representative on Italy when the Thermidorian reaction took place, he was released thought because the Thermidorians needed generals, the same went for Thurreau, Brunne, Jourdan etc. The Empire and the catholic church clashed a lot over the issue of the "holly inquisition", especially in Spain, also it is worth to mention, who the concordat was the acceptance by the pope of having his lands expropriated and do not supporting the Catholic revolts in France, in exchange of "recognition for the catholic people", however it was a secular state, and Napoleon put also the Judaism and Protestantism as recognized peoples, and in the end it was a state where you would be free of confess wherever faith you have if you follow the law, with the exception of Roman Catholicism, in that case you can profess your faith in battles, funerals or in private, but not in the civil area unless you have an authorization, like priests. Also it is kind of ridiculous who they insinuated who his medic take a "piece of him" and kept it, because it was supervised by many, even British, and at the end of the day he was reexamined back in 1840, and (to the surprise of many, his body remained like if he had been preserved, and have everything) and then he was cremated, it sounds a bit of a scam.
As someone who has walked the lower decks of the HMS Victory in Portsmouth, being short in the Royal Navy of that era was definitely an advantage. Especially for your head. 😆
Désirée Clary aka Drottning Desideria in swedish wasn't a huge fan of Sweden because it was to cold in winter, she never felt like she fit in and she loved Paris too much. However i grew up near her favourite place in Sweden called Rosersberg Slott where she apparently spent her life sleeping the days away and playing cards all night. When her husband died she chose that palace as her jointure.
I think why watch mojo reactions do well for you is because honestly the information and choices they make are not the best. And everyone viewing your channel knows you’ll break it down with the actual facts and then also your thoughts on if what they say is a top 10 thing really deserves to be in the top 10. It’s kind of like watching you politely give them a smack down lol.
You ever seen Sharpe? Would be interested in seeing your reaction to that
LOVE Sharpe.
Now that’s soldiering!
Another interesting fact: the civil code he had drafted in 1804 is still used today as an essential part of French legislation, as well as in other countries such as Belgium.
Also used in Netherland i think
All around the world..except in anglo-saxons countries
I didn't know you had no idea Marlon Brando portrayed Napoleon. This surprises me.
History Buffs broke down Waterloo (1970) better than anyone else I've ever seen.
To the Point with the canned food. Yes it was a pretty important invention. What got a bit downplayed in the video or in the historical records in general is how bad the food supply of Napoleon's army's was. For the first years of the conquerings, more of his soilders died of male nutrition and scorbut than through enemies bullets, so the canned food (which btw was pretty luxurious food, like fasan roast) was a pretty big deal. But because they were brought in Glass bottles, they broke pretty easily, so canned food didn't became that extremely relevant till the invention of the can.
Theres a series of 4 novels by Simon Scarrow, starting with Young Bloods, telling the parallel lives of Napoleon and Wellington, they were born in the same year, probably not 100% historically accurate, but a proper ripping yarn all the same 👍
ude, the preservation process shrinks material, as well as being in liquid in a jar. He's probably average for a 5'8 guy
I’ll be back. Imma go watch waterloo now.
IT WAS AMAZING!!!
Napoleon always loved josephine, even after her divorce
Napoleon Bonaparte is my favorite historical person to research! He had such a fascinating life and military career.
The problems with canned food in glass jars are, weight and breakability, especially hauled in horse or mule drawn wagons over, sometimes nonexistent, roads.
About the Mechanical Turk that played chess, it was indeed a fake "machine" which contained a human operator hidden inside the cabinet. However in 1912 a machine called El Ajedrecista (meaning The Chess Player) was built in Spain which was a true chess-playing automaton. It was limited to playing a king+rook vs king endgame, but it did make the moves on its own and did deliver checkmate reliably.
Napoleon's stepson Eugene's daughter married the only son of marshal bernadotte and thus a common ancestor to the current swedish royal family.
How is it a common ancestor if they aren't related fam?
@@Rommel12 I mentioned Josephine as the ancestor but not napoleon.
Fun fact: the actor Rene Auberjonois, famous for his roles in _M.A.S.H._ and _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ among others was a great-great-great-grandson of Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. He was a direct descendant of Joachim Murat, the famous Marshal of France who served under Napoleon, who married Caroline.
One quick thing to note:
"Le petit caporal" wasn't his nickname for so much as to do with his height, but was rather a term of endearment or affection. Calling someone "petit" is often a cute pet name among lovers or close friends ("petit ami" is one way to say boyfriend), so this nickname refers more so to the love his soldiers had for him.
tu es français ? parce que tu racontes des conneries la, if you are not French, you are wrong
@@privatesale211 je parle français. Je dois pas français de savoir la langue.
@@privatesale211you’re actually a spectrum child Frenchman
We both asked if that was Marlon Brando at the same time! I've never heard of that movie but will have to check it out.
14:06 that’s John Wood, who played the Pope. I always remember him from WarGames but he’s been in a number of things as well, including Lady Jane Grey (he was Dudley), Ladyhawke (he played the Bishop…insanely good in that film) and Sabrina’s father in the remake of Sabrina, with Harrison Ford.
Rod Steiger was criminally underrated in Waterloo, I thought he was excellent.
Arguably a much stronger performance than what he did in In The Heat Of The Night, which won him an Oscar (ahead of Sidney Poitier somehow 🤔🤔).
I believe the poison he carried was warranted of the time for leaders from France. He just went through the era of the terror and watched countless French leaders be paraded and executed. Aside from his own people a lot of monarchs in Europe flat out hated Napoleon.
When it comes to height in that era of history, the outliers aren't Napoleon for being short, but Washington and Jefferson for be incredibly tall, both in the 6'2 range i think.
I had no idea the front man for KISS played Napoleons love interest haha
I seem to remember 2 occasions where Napoleon was elected by popular vote. Once to be established as 1st consul for life and then elected Emperor.
Some random Napoleon facts.
Napoleon attempted to use balloons to invade England.
Napoleon indirectly helped create braille.
Napoleon met with an inventor who proposed the idea of a boat powered by steam. But he rejected it because he thought it was dumb and counterintuitive.
Napoleon swore that he had 7 mistresses. In reality he had close to 21.
One time Napoleon scoffed and insulted a soldier who fell off his horse. He proceeded to fall off his horse a moment later.
Hmmm...there were french people in Louisiane....Creoles, Cajuns...
(By the way, was Confederate Général Pierre Beauregard "ethically french"? Just teasing)
Love your channel Mr Prof...!
On the other hand Christopher Duffy has a great story of going to the reinactment of Boridino which did use Soviet soldiers who rarely had privately owned cars so the Soviets used military transports to move the soldiers and he said it was hilarius watching Soviet APCs and IFVs disgourging Imperial Russian troops.
I appreciate Chris sticking up for Napoleon's manhood 🤣
One thing I never knew about Napoleon was that he was exiled not once, but twice.
I was in Italy with my family. We were visiting family in Piombino. My dad points to a large mountain-like island in the distance and said, “that’s the island where Napoleon was forced to exile to.” Then I said, “But wasn’t he exiled near Africa?” My dad then said, “Yes, but that was after he was also exiled on this island, Elba. He was treated pretty well at Elba, too.”
I guess the main takeaway is that when you have a big ego like Napoleon, taking everything away from someone and not giving them anything more to conquer is basically a fate worse than death.
Welp I learned something new today. Neopleans man hood is in a basement in New Jersey. I don't think any museum would want that in a glass case XD
Good to see this video after the extra history series on Napoleon
Waterloo is a Historians wet dream - absolutely fantastic movie
19:15 VTH being a bro.
Regarding Josephine's affair - she had the affair early in their marriage (I think shortly before or while he was in Egypt). The divorce was because she didn't have any kids but to say an affair that happened 13 or 14 years before played a role in the divorce, isn't exactly accurate. Napoleon still crowned her as his Empress AFTER the affair.
He was brought to power through a political coup...more than using the army.
His brother actually was a major actor in helping him overtake the Directoire
In all fairness his piece was removed after his death which means any fluids or gases would have fled his body and everything would've shriveled up causing to appear shorter than it was before
Waterloo is Amazing as war movies go, red army came in clutch as extras, and yes it is indeed on TH-cam
There are a ton of history related watch mojo vids you should rip apart. But I’m a consistent daily viewer here so I come no matter the content
It’s not that surprising that Napoleon wrote a novella since he had always wanted to be an author before he ended up in the military. Arguably he got to fulfil that dream anyway since his dispatches from Egypt and ability to propagandise himself in general were just as critical to his success as his actual skill on the battlefield.
If I recall correctly, he actually was running a competition to encourage people to figure out how to can items so he could better provision his army.
Lots of Napoleon content these days. All right with me😁
It’s weird to think there are Stalin’s, Romanov’s, Bonaparte’s and Hitler’s (although I’ve heard the last descendant with that last name has decided not to procreate in order to end the family line and name) walking around the United States.
Yes, Hitler's grandnephews in New York changed their name to Stuart-Houston and as far as I am aware have no children.
@@VloggingThroughHistory yep although their father renounced the name they’ve decided to take it a step further and wipe out the blood line voluntarily. Whether it be an incredible amount of self loathing, hatred of the Nazi’s and Adolf, or another reason I gotta respect their dedication to doing so.
Love your videos man! Specially the napoleon ones🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Waterloo the movie is one of the most accurate war movies filmed. It is up there with Das Boot and Master and Commander
Funny that John Malcovich is playing Talleyrand, he's also playing it in the series Napoleon staring Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu
refering to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napol%C3%A9on_(miniseries)
What do you mean also? That's what is shown here. Did he play Talleyrand in something else as well?
@@VloggingThroughHistoryI think they may be referring to the upcoming napoleon series by Spielberg.
@@VloggingThroughHistory both the movie we see in the beginning and the miniseries starring Christian Clavier, yes
@@aldbgbnkladg What is the movie called? I just went through Malkovich's entire acting history and i don't see any place where he played Talleyrand except the 2002 miniseries.
Some of us are growers, some of us are show-ers, but very few of us are severed-in-a-box-200-years-later-ers. You can't knock Napoleon for that one.
Fun little riddle:Can you name the nationality of Napoleons parents? A)Cors-I-can.
I don't know who you thought the Pope Pius VII actor might have been, but it was John Wood, perhaps best known as Professor Stephen Falken in War Games!
Yep that's exactly who I was thinking of
Hi, Chris, fascinating, I must learn more about the novel and the chess game.
Chris, i know a lot of civil war books and love em' but man, can t find any books on napoleonic wars as frequently as on the civil war. What do you think we should do?
You teach me so much you are awesome you are very smart so I thank you for making quality content so thank you
I love the Studio C clip, hilarious!
Napoleon was Corsican not italian , he himself wrote it ...
" Five or six families share the thrones of Europe and they see with pain that a Corsican has come to sit on one of them .
I can only maintain myself
by force . »
Napoleon Bonaparte
« 1769 - 1821 »
In 1804 .
John Malkovich as Talleyrand 😂 brilliant casting
and here i thought we were gonna roast this watch mojo video and it turns out to actually have good info in it for once.
The story with the rejected steamship comes to mind and should imho have been included. Imagine how a French navy with Steam powered ironclads and submarines takes revenge for Trafalgar...
It would be highly amusing if Mimsi Studios would do a top 10 bad things about Napoleon.
It's completely drained of blood and has been dead and shriveled for over 200 years. What do you expect?
I don't like watch mojo that much, but they did a good with this video
As far as their history videos go, I agree. This was better than most of them.
@@VloggingThroughHistory my man. I also love your videos too. I am currently watching your 80s video now lol. Be safe brother.
What is the most shocking fact you learned about Napoleon?
He didnt ride a stallion over the alps, he rode a mule.
Thats a good one imo
From what I've read napoleon become really religous towards his last years.
Out of the 8 wars Napoleon fought as a head of state, Napoleon only started 2.
The Concordat is still in force in Alsace.
I think one of the more fascinating facts was that he was in correspondence with Robespierre's brother.
This one would have been so much funnier and more realistic with Swedes. Anything in the English language about Sweden is a smash hit among Swedes!
Edit: haha, this post was meant for a Monty Python sketch, dunno how I ended up here!
6:48 Austria's most famous painter.
Great video, as always.