What (I thought) I knew: Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader and had an inferiority complex about his height which led him to overcompensate.
I also recognized the name "the Battle of Waterloo" but didn't really know anything about it.
What I learned: Napoleon's shortness is a myth. He was 5'2 in French feet, which equals about 5'6 to 5'7 in British feet, equivalent to just under 1.7m. He was a bit taller than the average Frenchman around his time. Additionally, he commonly surrounded himself with soldiers including his elite guard who were 6 feet or taller.
He also had a nickname - "le petit caporal" which many non-French people assumed meant he was small, but actually it's more like a term of endearment.
Napoleon's final defeat came at Waterloo in 1815 in Belgium.
This material is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses some information from the Wikipedia article "Napoleon I of France". The list of authors can be found here.
I also recognized the name "the Battle of Waterloo" but didn't really know anything about it.
What I learned: Napoleon's shortness is a myth. He was 5'2 in French feet, which equals about 5'6 to 5'7 in British feet, equivalent to just under 1.7m. He was a bit taller than the average Frenchman around his time. Additionally, he commonly surrounded himself with soldiers including his elite guard who were 6 feet or taller.
He also had a nickname - "le petit caporal" which many non-French people assumed meant he was small, but actually it's more like a term of endearment.
Napoleon's final defeat came at Waterloo in 1815 in Belgium.
This material is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses some information from the Wikipedia article "Napoleon I of France". The list of authors can be found here.
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