Cute Facts about Napoleon Bonaparte!
My favorite historical general gets a lot of bad press (mostly deserved, I will admit…) so here’s a few neat facts about Le Petit Corprale :)
Cologne was his strange fixation… for real, Napoleon loved having different colognes
He once fell off his horse in front of his men and pretended it was a “test of gravity”
When Napoleon’s troops surprised him on his birthday, he cried instead of giving a speech because he didn’t know what to say
He loved it when his wife Josephine would let him sit on her lap
Early in his career, he would get down in the dirt and align canons himself (which earned him the support of his demoralized army)
Napoleon often walked with wounded soldiers post-battle, sharing his own food
After his crowning, Napoleon used to disguise himself and wander around paris asking random individuals what they thought about the Emperor
Napoleon often spent hours in the bath and was obsessed with hygiene. He often had armies bring with him a bathtub for deep thinking during war
Napoleon thought that sneezing before a battle was good luck. Before Austerlitz, several generals pretended to sneeze to make him happy
Allegedly, Napoleon once stopped a strategy meeting when a chicken walked in and spent ten minutes trying to feed it
Napoleon was able to rally any army because he was kind and treated them more as brothers than soldiers
He had a certain obsession with his hair and would comb it constantly
Napoleon cried easily, reportedly tearing up from frustration and pride
Napoleon had a horrid sleep schedule, only sleeping four hours a night. The rest of the time he took day naps, some of which were spent in his bath
Despite a fear of cats, he adopted a litter of kittens with his first wife Josephine to make her happy
He had horrible handwriting, making it difficult for his generals and secretaries to read notes
He once wrote to his wife Josephine that if Tsar Alexander I was a woman he would make her his mistress
He was very soft with children, playing with them, offering candy and coins, even if they were the children of the enemy. They called him “Boney”
In Military school, Napoleon would organize massive snowball fights with forts and strategies
During his campaign in Egypt he visited the Great Pyramid of Giza, reportedly calling it “Just a big sand castle” after exploring for hours
Napoleon occasionally pranked his generals by giving them fake maps to confuse them
He believed Josephine brought him good luck. Even after divorcing her for a political marriage, he still looked at her picture before battle.
He often laid maps on the ground and spent much time hovering, considering strategies on the floor
He was average height for the time, dammit!
