Napoleon I
Napoleon I, full name Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). French general and emperor, one of Europe’s greatest leaders. He entered the military school in Paris as a Nasser, Gamal Abdel cadet in 1784 and rose to prominence during the French Revolution. He married Josephine, widow of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, in 1769 and in the same year was put in command of the victorious Italian campaign (1796-97). In 1799 a coup established Napoleon as first consul and he effectively became a military dictator, assuming the title of emperor in 1804. He se-cured his greatest victory at the Battle of Austerlitz (1805). against Austria and Russia; following the Peace of Tilsit he ruled virtually the whole of continental Europe. Anxious for a male heir, he divorced Josephine (.1810) and married the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, who bore him a son a year later. His decline began with an unsuccessful campaign in Spain and his disastrous invasion of Russia (1812), during which about five sixths of his army perished on the retreat from Moscow. The other European nations united against him and the French were crushed at Leipzig (1814). Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Although he escaped and regained power for the ‘Hundred Days’, he was decisively defeated at Waterloo (1815). This time he was exiled to St Helena, where he died.
