Napoleon I of France

In addition to this miscalculation, his nickname le petit caporal adds to the confusion, as non-francophones mistakenly take petit as meaning "small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers. It has not been ruled out that the bodies were cadavers when Franklin got them; Franklin had an avid interest in anatomy and the damages done to the bodies support that. This corresponds to 5 feet 6.5 inches in English feet, or 1.686 meters [4], making him slightly taller than an average Frenchman of the 19th century. The Times of London reported on February 11, 1998:. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet. In 1998, workmen restoring Franklin's London home dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. Contrary to popular belief (perpetuated by the above-mentioned caricatures), Napoleon was not especially short. It is one of the few National Memorials located on private property.

See the discussion in [3] about the significance of the theorem. The memorial is located in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute. The theorem states that if we construct equilateral triangles on the sides of any triangle (all outward or all inward), the centres of those equilateral triangles themselves form an equilateral triangle, as illustrated on the right. Many of Franklin's personal possessions are also on display there. In mathematics Napoleon is traditionally given credit for discovering and proving Napoleon's theorem, although there is no specific evidence that he did so. In 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial in Franklin's hometown of Philadelphia, including a 20-foot high marble statue. Langewiesche also credits Napoleon with reorganizing what had been the Holy Roman Empire made up of more than 1,000 entities into a more streamlined network of 40 states providing the basis for the German Confederation and the future unification of Germany under the Second Reich in 1871. Franklin also appears on the $1,000 Series EE Savings Bond (See Treasury security).

Professor Dieter Langewiesche of the University of Tübingen describes the code as a "revolutionary project" which spurred the development of bourgeois society in Germany by expanding the right to own property and breaking the back of feudalism. He has also appeared on a $50 bill in the past, as well as several varieties of the $100 bill from 1914 and 1918, and every $100 bill from 1928 to present. The Code Napoléon was adopted throughout much of Europe and remained after Napoleon's defeat. As a result, $100 bills are sometimes referred to in slang as "Benjamins" or "Franklins." From 1948 to 1964, Franklin's portrait was also on the half dollar. Nevertheless, Napoleon is also sometimes referred to as the "Armed Soldier of Democracy.". Franklin's likeness adorns the American $100 bill. 'Boney was a warrior') and poem, and as the grand enemy threatening the gates. In recent years a number of anti-Semitic groups have been promoting a fabricated quotation which has been debunked by historians: Neo-Nazi Theory (American founding fathers).

He is remembered in song (e.g. (excerpt from Philadelphia Inquirer article by Clark De Leon). However, he also had admirers in Britain (especially among the Whigs). Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time and eventually was used to establish a trade school that, over time, became the Franklin Institute of Boston. During his lifetime, he was often caricatured as a tyrannical (and diminutive) ogre, and these images have continued to colour the British memory of him. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. In Britain he is remembered as a despot. From 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans.

Furthermore, the Napoleonic Wars also exported the Revolution to the rest of Europe, and it is believed that the movements of national unification and the rise of the nation state, notably in Italy and Germany, were rooted in and precipitated—if not caused—by the Napoleonic rule of those areas. During the lifetime of the trust, Philadelphia used it for a variety of loan programs to local residents. He ended the lawlessness and disorder spawned by the Revolution; in modern terms, he was a "law and order" ruler. As of 1990 over $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust since his death. In France, Napoleon is also seen as having preserved the Revolution by creating and perpetuating its myth. Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote back to the Frenchman, thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia of 1,000 pounds to each on the condition that it be placed in a fund that would gather interest over a period of 200 years. Napoleon is credited with introducing the concept of the modern professional conscript army to Europe, an innovation which other states were forced to follow. The Frenchman wrote a piece about Fortunate Richard leaving a small sum of money in his will to be used only after it had collected interest for 500 years.

(See Above) Hundreds of millions have visited his tomb since that date. In it he mocked the unbearable spirit of American optimism represented by Franklin. This may have been due to arsenic poisoning. The origin of the trust began in 1785 when a French mathematician named Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour wrote a parody of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack called Fortunate Richard. Upon opening the tomb, they found that Napoleon's body was completely preserved, as if he had died yesterday. At his death Franklin bequeathed £1000 (about $4400 at the time) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust for 200 years. This final wish was not executed until 1840, when his remains were taken to France in the frigate Belle-Poule and entombed in Les Invalides, Paris. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the extremely advanced age (for that time) of 84, and was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Napoléon had asked in his will to be buried on the banks of the Seine, but when he died in 1821 he was buried on Saint Helena. Because of his involvement in abolition, its cause was greatly debated around the states, especially in the House of Representatives. Napoleon also formally adopted his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais and Joséphine's cousin, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, after assuming the Imperial throne, in order to arrange "dynastic" marriages for them. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pensylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin Franklin. Other information points to his having had further illegitimate children:. On February 11, 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition. He acknowledged at least two illegitimate children, both of whom had descendants:. These writings included:.

Napoleon was twice married:. In his later years, as congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that attempted to convince his readers of the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of Africans into American society. A team of physicians from the University of Monterspertoli led by Professor Biondi recently confirmed this. Later, he finished his autobiography between 1771 and 1788, at first addressed to his son, then later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend. 91 kg (200 lb), confirming the autopsy result reported by Antommarchi. It is now called Franklin and Marshall College. 76 kg (168 lb) while a year earlier he weighed approx. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College, which would later merge with Marshall College in 1853.

From a multitude of forensic reports they derive that Napoleon at his death weighed approx. Also in 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania proposed the foundation of a new college to be named in Franklin's honor. In May, 2005 a team of Swiss physicians claimed that the reason for Napoleon's death was stomach cancer (which was also the cause of his father's death). He was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration, and 81 when he signed the Constitution. A group of Researchers from the San Francisco Medical Examiner's Department speculate that this treatment may have led to Napoleon's death by causing a serious potassium deficiency [2]. Franklin also has the distinction of being the oldest signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. The medical regime imposed on Napoleon by his doctors included treatment with antimony potassium tartrate, regular enemas and a 600 milligram dose of mercuric chloride to purge his intestines in the days immediately prior to his death. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all three of the major documents of the founding of the United States: The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution.

This has led to speculation that Napoleon might have suffered from that disease. While in retirement by 1787, he agreed to attend as a delegate the meetings that would produce the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, arsenic was also a widely used, but ineffective, treatment for syphilis. In addition, after his return from France in 1785, he became a slavery abolitionist who eventually became president of The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. The group suggested that the most likely source in this case was a hair tonic. When Franklin was recalled to America in 1785, Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The lead investigator, Ivan Ricordel (head of toxicology for the Paris Police), stated that if arsenic had been the cause, Napoléon would have died years earlier. He conducted the affairs of his country towards that nation with such success, which included securing a critical military alliance and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783), that when he finally returned, he received a place only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence.

More recent analysis on behalf of the magazine Science et Vie showed that similar concentrations of arsenic can be found in Napoleon's hair in samples taken from 1805, 1814 and 1821. Franklin was so popular that it became fashionable for wealthy French families to decorate their parlors with a painting of him. There, it could have reacted with calomel-and-mercury-based compounds—common medicines at the time—and thus been the immediate cause of his death. Ben Franklin remained in France until 1785, a favorite of French society. The arsenic severely weakened Napoléon and remained in his system. He lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont who would become a friend and the most important foreigner to help the United States win the war of independence. This analysis on hair from Napoléon suggests that large but non-lethal doses were absorbed at random intervals. In December of 1776 he was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States.

Cutting up hairs into short segments and analysing each segment individually provides a histogram of arsenic concentration in the body. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was chosen as a member of the Continental Congress and assisted in editing the Declaration of Independence. In 2001, Pascal Kintz, of the Strasbourg Forensic Institute in France, added credence to this claim with a study of arsenic levels found in a lock of Napoleon's hair preserved after his death: they were seven to thirty-eight times higher than normal. In 1767 he crossed to France, where he was received with honor; but before his return home in 1775 he lost his position as postmaster through his share in divulging to Massachusetts the famous letter of Hutchinson and Oliver. Arsenic was also used in some wallpaper, as a green pigment, and even in some patent medicines. This also led to an irreconcilable conflict with his son, who remained ardently loyal to the British Government. Arsenic was at the time sometimes used as a poison as it was undetectable when administered over a long period of time. Even his effective work in helping to obtain the repeal of the act did not regain his popularity, but he continued his efforts to present the case for the Colonies as the troubles thickened toward the crisis of the Revolution.

He describes Napoléon in the months leading up to his death, and led many, most notably Sten Forshufvud and Ben Weider, to conclude that he had been killed by arsenic poisoning. This perceived conflict of interest, and the resulting outcry, is widely regarded as a deciding factor in Franklin's never achieving higher elected office. In 1955, the diaries of Louis Marchand, Napoléon's valet, appeared in print. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but lost the credit for this and much of his popularity because he secured for a friend the office of stamp agent in America. Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon's personal physician, gave stomach cancer as a reason for Napoleon's death in his death certificate. On his return to America, he played an honorable part in the Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly, but in 1764 he was again dispatched to England as agent for the colony, this time to petition the King to resume the government from the hands of the proprietors. The cause of Napoleon's death has been disputed on numerous occasions, and the controversy remains to this day. In his letter “Cooling by Evaporation” Franklin noted that “one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day.”.

[1]. Another thermometer showed the room temperature to be constant at 65 °F (18 °C). Though not apparently enamoured of the language, he was a serious student under the tutelage of Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, even pondering how much money he might have saved had he not required translation of English documents. With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer read a lower temperature, eventually reaching 7 °F (-14 °C). He felt it important that he understand the mother tongue of his enemies, and he was particularly interested in what the British press wrote about him. On one warm day in Cambridge England in 1758, Franklin and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. A footnote to his legacy: it would appear that Napoleon made an effort to study the English language while living in exile during his last years. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted experiments.

When he died, on 5 May 1821, his last words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army, Joséphine.". Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. In the last half of April 1821, he wrote out his own will and several codicils (a total of 40-odd pages). In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he printed "Father Abraham's Sermon," one of the most famous pieces of literature produced in Colonial America. Whilst there, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors. At Oxford University Franklin was awarded an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments and from then on went by "Doctor Franklin." He also managed to secure a post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, as Colonial Governor of New Jersey. Napoleon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena (2,800 km off the Bight of Guinea) from 15 October 1815. In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn family in the government of Pennsylvania, and for five years he remained there, striving to enlighten the people and the ministry of the United Kingdom as to colonial conditions.

Off the port of Rochefort, Napoléon made his formal surrender while on board HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Napoléon's final defeat came at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815. Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Following a brief silence, the soldiers erupted into shouts of "Vive L'Empereur!" The soldiers sent to stop the former emperor instead joined the ranks behind him and marched with Napoléon to Paris. In 1754 he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress.

If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now". It was during this period that Franklin was involved in the creation of not only the aforementioned first volunteer fire department and free public library, but also many other civic enterprises. When he was within earshot of the men, he threw open his coat and shouted "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly on his diplomatic services in connection with the relations of the colonies with Great Britain, and later with France. Napoléon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse, and confidently walked up to the line of soldiers. In politics he proved very able both as an administrator and as a controversialist; as an office-holder, he made use of his position to advance his relatives, though doing so was all but expected in a world dominated by political patronage. When he returned to the mainland, King Louis XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment, led by Marshal Michel Ney who had formerly served under Napoléon in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.

Napoléon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned to the mainland on 1 March 1815. Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. The French government refused to pay the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and he heard rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic. In 1751 Franklin and Dr. On Elba, Napoléon became concerned about his wife and, more especially, his son, in the hands of the Austrians. This initiated the notion that some storms travel, eventually leading to the synoptic charts of dynamic meteorology, replacing sole dependence upon the charts of climatology. In France, the royalists had taken over and restored King Louis XVIII to power. One day Franklin inferred that reports of a storm elsewhere in Pennsylvania must be the storm that visited the Philadelphia area in recent days.

He told Caulaincourt "I shall live, since death is no more willing to take me on my bed than on the battlefield.". As a printer and a publisher of a newspaper, Franklin frequented the farmers' markets in Philadelphia to gather news. The very next day, however, the Emperor was back to his normal self. 46) refers to Franklin's inference that electric charge is not created by rubbing substances, but only transferred, so that "the total quantity in any insulated system is invariable." This assertion is known as the "principle of conservation of charge.". When Napoleon saw his doctor, he asked the doctor to end his suffering, which seems to confirm Caulaincourt's suspicions. In his classic work (A History of The Theories of Electricity & Aether), Sir Edmund Whittaker (p. There is no way of knowing, however, whether it was really poison, a sedative whose effects were being resisted by Napoleon's body, or simply an anxiety attack. Franklin established two major fields of physical science, electricity and meteorology.

He believed it to be, not illogically, attempted suicide. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb. General Caulaincourt, Napoleon's former foreign minister, witnessed Napoleon writhing, retching, and suffering from spasms of hysteria followed by moments of calm. In recognition of his work with electricity, Franklin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received its Copley Medal in 1753. While exiled in Elba, some claim Napoleon attempted to poison himself. See, for example, the 1805 painting by Benjamin West of Benjamin Franklin drawing electricity from the sky. They let him keep the title of "Emperor" but restricted his empire to that tiny island. Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled the Corsican to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean 20 km off the coast of Italy. If Franklin did perform this experiment, he did not do it in the way that is often described (as it would have been dramatic but fatal). The Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender and Napoléon abdicated again, unconditionally, on 11 April. Petersburg, Russia, were spectacularly electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment.) Franklin, in his writings, displays that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his invention of the lightning rod, an application of the use of electrical ground. His marshals asked Napoléon to abdicate, and he did so on 6 April in favour of his son. Georg Wilhelm Richmann of St. Paris was occupied on March 31, 1814. (Others, such as Prof.

The French armies could only delay, not prevent, inevitable defeat. Franklin's experiment was not written up until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity; the evidence shows that Franklin was insulated (not in a conducting path, as he would have been in danger of electrocution in the event of a lightning strike). Although some historians consider the defensive campaigns of late 1813 and early 1814 to be among Napoleon's most brilliant, the French were now surrounded (with British armies pressing from the south in addition to the Coalition forces moving in from Germany) and vastly outnumbered. On June 15, Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment and also successfully extracted sparks from a cloud (unaware that d'Alibard had already done so, 36 days earlier). After this Napoléon withdrew in an orderly fashion back into France, but his army was now reduced to less than 100,000 against more than half a million Allied troops. On May 10, 1752, Thomas Francois d'Alibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment (using a 40-foot-tall iron rod instead of a kite) and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost both sides a combined total of over 120,000 casualties. In 1750 he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm.

Some of the German states switched sides in the midst of the battle, further undermining the French position. He is also often credited with labeling them as positive and negative respectively. Eventually the French army was caught by a force twice its size at the Battle of Nations (October 16-19) at Leipzig. Franklin proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of electrical fluid (as electricity was called then) but the same electrical fluid under different pressures (See electrical charge). However, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon as Sweden and Austria joined the Coalition. These include his investigations of electricity. It appeared the Napoleon of old was back and that the Coalition might be forced to conclude a peace treaty if this run continued. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with the learned throughout Europe and especially in France.

Napoleon assumed command in Germany and soon inflicted a series of defeats on the Allies culminating in the Battle of Dresden on August 26-27, 1813 causing almost 100,000 casualties to the Coalition forces (the French sustaining only around 30,000). He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hill, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. Heartened by Napoleon's losses in Russia, Prussia soon rejoined the Coalition that now included Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal. In 1748, he retired from printing and went into other businesses. This force continued to expand, with Napoleon aiming for a force of 400,000 French troops supported by a quarter of a million German troops. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life (in between bouts of politics and money-making). A small Russian army harassed the French in Poland and eventually 30,000 French troops there withdrew to Germany to rejoin the expanding force there - numbering 130,000 with the reinforcements from Poland. He founded an American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries.

Napoleon was determined not to lose hold of Germany and there was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 whilst both the Russians and the French recovered from their massive losses of around half a million soldiers each. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania, to become the University of Pennsylvania, today a member of the Ivy League. In total French losses in the campaign were 570,000 against about 400,000 Russian casualties and several hundred thousand civilian deaths. The Academy opened on August 13, 1751, and seven men graduated on May 17, 1757, at the first commencement; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat; the Army had begun as over 650,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River (November 1812) to escape. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for The Academy and College of Philadelphia, which he was appointed President of on November 13, 1749. Within the month, fearing loss of control in France, Napoleon left Moscow. Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs.

Moscow began to burn in accordance with orders of the city's military governor and commander-in-chief, Fyodor Rostopchin. In 1736 he created the Union Fire Company, the first volunteer firefighting company in America. The Russians retreated and Napoleon was able to enter Moscow, assuming that Alexander I would negotiate peace. The success of this library encouraged the opening of libraries in other American cities, and Franklin felt that this enlightenment partly contributed to the American colonies' struggle to maintain their privileges. It appeared both Barclay and Kutuzov had been correct in their assessments of the situation for, outside Moscow on 7 September, the Russian army was defeated after what may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history - the Battle of Borodino (see article for comparisons to the first day of the Battle of the Somme). The newly founded Library Company ordered its first books in 1732, mostly theological and educational tomes, but by 1741 the library also included works on history, geography, poetry, exploration and science. Kutuzov also soon came under criticism for this and finally offered battle. Franklin and several other members of a philosophical association joined their resources in 1731 and began the first public library in Philadelphia.

Realising the reality of the situation, Kutuzov continued Barclay's strategy. Adages from this almanac such as "A penny saved is twopence clear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") are now commonly quoted every day by people all over the world. Criticized over his tentative strategy of continual retreat, Barclay was replaced by Kutuzov. In 1732 he began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) on which a lot of his popular reputation is based. The Russians then repeatedly avoided battle with the Grande Armée, although in a few cases only because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity presented itself. His intelligence combined with a great deal of savvy about cultivating a positive image of an industrious and intellectual young man earned him a great deal of social respect. A brief attempt at resistance was offered at Smolensk (August 16-17), but the Russians were defeated in a series of battles in the area and Napoleon resumed the advance. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitating for a variety of local reforms.

The Russians under Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly were unable to successfully defeat Napoleon's huge, well-organized army and retreated instead. On Denham's death Franklin returned to his former trade and by 1730 set up a printing house of his own from which he published The Pennsylvania Gazette to which he contributed many essays. Napoleon also rejected requests to free the Russian serfs, fearing this might provoke a conservative reaction in his rear. Following this he returned to Philadelphia with the help of a merchant named Thomas Denham, who gave him a position as a clerk, shopkeeper and bookkeeper in his shop. For political reasons this was unlikely to happen (principally because it would bring Prussia and Austria into the war against France). He was not satisfied, however, and after a few months was induced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London where, finding Keith's promises empty, he again worked as a compositor in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St Batholomew the Great, Smithfield. Polish nationalists wanted all of Russian Poland to be incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and a new Kingdom of Poland created. At age 17, he ran away to Philadelphia seeking a new start in a new city.

Napoleon, in an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists, termed the war the "Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being the liberation of Poland from Russia, Prussia and Austria). His brother was not impressed when he discovered his popular correspondent was his younger, precocious brother. Victor Hugo would write in his poem, "Russia 1812" (1873):. His brother and the Courant's readers did not initially know the real author. On June 23, 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia commenced. While a printing apprentice he wrote under the pseudonym of 'Silence Dogood' who was ostensibly a middle-aged widow. Napoleon ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the vast Russian heartland, and prepared his forces for an offensive campaign. He left his apprenticeship without permission and in so doing became a fugitive.

However Napoleon anticipated this and after the initial reports of Russian war preparations he began expanding his Grande Armée to a massive force of over 600,000 men (despite already having over 300,000 men deployed in Iberia). His schooling ended at ten and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who published the New England Courant. Large numbers of troops were deployed to the Polish borders (reaching over 300,000 out of the total Russian army strength of 410,000). Benjamin was the youngest son. By 1812, advisors to Alexander suggested that a vast revolution was brewing across Germany and that the time was right for an invasion of the French Empire (and the recapture of Poland). Between both of his father's marriages, he produced 17 children. This enraged Napoleon, who it seems had genuinely liked Alexander since their meeting and thus felt betrayed. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a maker of candles, who married twice.

The first signs that the alliance was deteriorating was the easing of the application of the Continental System in Russia. Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston. Despite being an avid admirer of Napoleon since first meeting him in 1807, Alexander had been under strong pressure from the Russian aristocracy to break off the alliance with France, as they considered it an insult to Russian pride. They had the following children: John (December 7, 1690), Peter (November 22, 1692), Mary (September 26, 1694), James (February 4, 1697), Sarah (July 9, 1699), Ebenezer (September 20, 1701), Thomas (December 7, 1703), Benjamin (January 6, 1706), Lydia (August 8, 1708), and Jane (March 27, 1712). Although the Congress of Erfurt had sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, by 1811 tensions were again increasing between the two nations. Samuel Willard. Main article: Napoleon's invasion of Russia.. He then remarried, to Abiah, on November 25, 1689 in the Old South Church of Boston by the Rev.

Following this a new peace was signed between Austria and France and in the following year the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise married Napoleon, following his divorce of Josephine. Josiah's first wife Anne died in Boston on July 9, 1689. After both sides had licked their wounds for two months the principal French and Austrian armies engaged again near Vienna resulting in a French victory at Battle of Wagram (6 July). (August 23, 1685), Ann (January 5, 1687), Joseph (February 5, 1688), and Joseph (June 30, 1689) (the first Joseph having died soon after birth). A bloody draw at Aspern-Essling (May 21-22, 1809) near Vienna was the closest Napoleon ever came to a defeat in a battle with more or less equal numbers on each side. Sometime during the second half of 1683, the Franklins left England for Boston, Massachusetts; and while in Boston, they had several more children, including: Josiah Jr. However at this time Austria broke its alliance with France without warning and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. They included: Elizabeth (March 2, 1678), Samuel (May 16, 1681), and Hannah (May 25, 1683).

The Spanish, inspired by nationalist and Catholic opposition to the French, rose in revolt. In around 1677, Josiah married Anne Child at Ecton; and over the next few years, this couple had three children, all of whom being half-siblings of Benjamin Franklin. He installed one of his marshals and brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as the King of Naples, his brother Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain . His mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on August 15, 1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife Mary Morrill. After mixed results were encountered by his generals Napoleon himself intervened and defeated the Spanish army, retook Madrid and then defeated a British army sent to support the Spanish, driving it to the coast and ignoble withdrawal from Iberia (in which its commander, Sir John Moore, was killed). Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and Jane White. When Spain refused Napoleon sent forces into Spain as well. .

Portugal did not comply with this Continental System and in 1807 Napoleon sought Spain's support in an invasion of Portugal. Franklin's inventions include the Franklin stove, the medical catheter, the lightning rod, swimfins, improvements to the glass harmonica, and possibly bifocals. The English economy did suffer to an extent from this - but no more so than the French Empire's economy and neither nation was in a position to challenge the other. In 1775, Franklin became the first United States Postmaster General. Napoleon attempted to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain called the "Continental System". Franklin was a member of the Freemasons, corresponded with members of the Lunar Society, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Since he failed at conquering the British militarily, he decided to try to conquer them economically, by banning all merchandise and ships from continental Europe. One of the leaders of the American Revolution, he was well known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity.

Main articles: Peninsular War, Fifth Coalition.. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American printer, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat and inventor. Between 1809 and 1813 Napoleon also served as Regent of the Grand Duchy of Berg for his brother Louis Bonaparte. Dr. In the French part of Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony as ruler. The film version of 1776 features Howard da Silva, who originated the role of Franklin on Broadway. He placed puppet rulers on the thrones of German states, including his brother Jerome as king of the new state of Westphalia. A fictionalized but fairly accurate version of Franklin appears as a main character in the stage musical 1776.

After a major victory at Friedland he signed a treaty at Tilsit in East Prussia with the Russian tsar Alexander I, dividing Europe between the two powers. Benjamin Franklin is one of the main characters of Gregory Keyes' Age of Unreason trilogy. Napoleon marched on through Poland but was attacked by the Russians at the bloody Battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade (1790).. He secured a major victory against Austria and Russia at Austerlitz (2 December), forcing Austria yet again to sue for peace; and, in the following year, humbled Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (14 October 1806). Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789), and. Napoleon then finally abandoned all hope of invading Britain, and turned his attention once again to his Continental rivals. An Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, (1789).

A plan by the French, along with the Spanish, to defeat the Royal Navy failed dramatically at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805), and Britain gained lasting control of the seas. By 1805 the Third Coalition against Napoleon had formed in Europe. Then at Milan's cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. After the Imperial regalia had been blessed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself before crowning his wife Joséphine as Empress.

Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII during the ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himself to the authority of the pontiff are apocryphal; in fact, the coronation procedure had been agreed upon in advance. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor on 2 December 1804 (illustration, right) at Notre-Dame Cathedral. Bonaparte then used this incident to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as Emperor, on the theory that a Bourbon restoration would be impossible once the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the constitution. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on 21 March.

In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the Duc d'Enghien, in a violation of the sovereignty of Baden. In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an assassination plot against him, supposedly sponsored by the Bourbons. The dispute over Malta provided the pretext for Britain to declare war on France in 1803 to support French royalists. Recognizing that the French possessions on the mainland of North America would now be indefensible, and facing imminent war with Britain, he sold them to the United States—the Louisiana Purchase—for less than three cents per acre ($7.40/km²).

In 1803, Bonaparte faced a major setback when an army he sent to reconquer Santo Domingo and establish a base was destroyed by a combination of yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Britain failed to evacuate Malta and Egypt as promised, and protested against France's annexation of Piedmont, and Napoleon's Act of Mediation in Switzerland (although neither of these areas was covered by the Treaty of Amiens). In Britain, the brother of Louis XVI was welcomed as a state guest although officially Britain recognized France as a republic. The "legitimate" monarchies of Europe were reluctant to recognize a republic, fearing that the ideas of the revolution might be exported to them.

The peace between France and Britain was uneasy at best. As a result the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801, under which the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased; the British also committed themselves to sign a peace treaty and finally signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, under which Malta was to be handed over to France. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As negotiations became more and more fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more.

Napoleon's brother Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in Lunéville, reported that due to British backing for Austria, Austria would not recognize France's newly gained territory. Although the campaign began badly, the Austrians were routed in June at Marengo, leading to an armistice. He and his troops crossed the Alps in spring (although he actually rode a mule, not the white charger on which David famously depicted him). In 1800, Bonaparte returned to Italy, which the Austrians had reconquered during his absence in Egypt.

Bonaparte sought to restore law and order after the excesses of the Revolution, and reform the administration of the State. Although Bonaparte was an authoritarian ruler, the same was true of most continental European countries at the time. Although contemporary standards may consider these procedures as favoring the prosecution, when enacted they sought to preserve personal freedoms and to remedy the prosecutorial abuses commonplace in European courts. In 1808, a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which enacted precise rules of judicial procedure.

Other codes were commissioned by Bonaparte to codify criminal and commerce law. The Code was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, who held the office Second Consul from 1799 to 1804; Bonaparte, however, participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. His set of civil laws, the Napoleonic Code or Civil Code, has importance to this day in many countries. He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, seeking to reconcile the mostly Catholic population with his regime.

Bonaparte instituted several lasting reforms including centralized administration of the départements, higher education, a tax system, a central bank, law codes, and road and sewer systems. This made him the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the Constitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life. Although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmanoeuvred by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. On 9 November (18 Brumaire), and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control and dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a rump to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government.

The plot included Bonaparte's brother Lucien, then serving as speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, and Talleyrand. Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors, Sieyès, seeking his support for a coup to overthrow the constitution. The Republic was bankrupt, however, and the corrupt and inefficient Directory was more unpopular with the French public than ever. By the time he returned to Paris in October, the military situation had improved thanks to several French victories.

Although he was later accused by political opponents of abandoning his troops, his departure actually had been authorized by the Directory, which had suffered a series of military defeats to the forces of the Second Coalition, and feared an invasion. On 23 August, he abruptly set sail for France, taking advantage of the temporary departure of British ships blockading French coastal ports. While in Egypt, Bonaparte had kept a close eye on European affairs, relying largely on newspapers and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. Eventually Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Egypt in 1801, under constant British and Ottoman attacks.

On 25 July, he defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir. He was unable to reduce the fortress of Acre, and was forced to retreat to Egypt in May. In early 1799 he led the army into the Ottoman province of Syria, now modern Israel, and defeated numerically superior Ottoman forces in several battles, but his army was weakened by disease and poor supplies. His goal of strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean Sea was thus frustrated, but his army nonetheless succeeded in consolidating power in Egypt, although it faced repeated nationalist uprisings.

Although Bonaparte had massive success against the native Mamluk army in the Battle of the Pyramids (his 25,000 man strong invading force defeated a 100,000 man army), his fleet was largely destroyed by Nelson at The Battle of the Nile, so that Bonaparte became land-bound. Bonaparte's expedition seized Malta from the Knights of Saint John on June 9 and then landed successfully at Alexandria on July 1, eluding (temporarily) pursuit by the Royal Navy. In a largely unsuccessful effort to gain the support of the Egyptian populace, Bonaparte also issued proclamations casting himself as a liberator of the people from Ottoman oppression, and praising the precepts of Islam. This deployment of intellectual resources is considered by some an indication of Bonaparte's devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment, and by others as a masterstroke of propaganda obfuscating the true imperialist motives of the invasion.

An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was the inclusion of a large group of scientists assigned to the invading French force: among the other discoveries that resulted, the Rosetta Stone was found. The Directory, although troubled by the scope and cost of the enterprise, readily agreed to the plan in order to remove the popular general from the centre of power. In March 1798, Bonaparte proposed an expedition to colonize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. Bonaparte himself proceeded to the peace negotiations with Austria, then returned to Paris in December as the conquering hero and the dominant force in government, far more popular than any of the Directors.

This left Barras and his Republican allies in firm control again, but dependent on Bonaparte's "sword" to stay there. Bonaparte soon sent General Augereau to Paris to lead a coup d'etat and purge the royalists on 4 September (18 Fructidor). The royalists, in turn, began attacking Bonaparte for looting Italy and overstepping his authority in dealings with the Austrians (not without justification on both counts). Elections in mid-1797 gave the royalist party increased power, alarming Barras and his allies on the Directory.

In May 1797 he founded a third newspaper, published in Paris, entitled Le Journal de Bonaparte et des hommes vertueux. He published two newspapers, ostensibly for the troops in his army, but widely circulated within France as well. While campaigning in Italy, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He often won battles by concentrating his forces on an unsuspecting enemy by using spies to gather information about opposing forces and by concealing his own troop deployments.

He was also a master of both intelligence and deception. Contemporary paintings of his headquarters during the Italian campaign depict his use of the world's first telecommunications system, the Chappe semaphore line, first implemented in 1792. He was known as an aggressive commander who enjoyed the loyalty of highly motivated soldiers. As he described it: "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning." An artillery officer by training, he devised new tactics and employed his artillery as a mobile force to support infantry attacks, benefiting from France's technological advantage in this branch of armaments.

However, he owed much of his great military success not merely to innovation, but as well to his encyclopedic knowledge and superior application of conventional military thought. As a battle field planner, he was known for his creative use of mobile artillery tactics. He was able to absorb the substantial body of military knowledge of his time and to apply it to the real-world circumstances of his era. Bonaparte was a brilliant military strategist.

Later in 1797, Bonaparte organized many of the French dominated territories in Italy into the Cisalpine Republic. Bonaparte then marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending over 1,000 years of independence. The resulting Treaty of Campo Formio gave France control of most of northern Italy, along with the Low Countries and Rhineland, but a secret clause promised Venice to Austria. In early 1797, he led his army into Austria and forced that power to sue for peace.

The pope later died of illness while in captivity. It was not until the next year that General Berthier captured Rome and took Pope Pius VI prisoner on February 20. Bonaparte ignored the Directory's order to march on Rome and dethrone the Pope. Because Pope Pius VI had protested the execution of Louis XVI, France retaliated by annexing two small papal territories.

He drove the Austrian forces out of Lombardy and defeated the army of the Papal States. At the Lodi, he gained the nickname of "The Little Corporal" (le petit caporal), a term reflecting his camaraderie with the ordinary soldiers. Just days after his marriage, Bonaparte took command of the French "Army of Italy", leading it on a successful invasion of Italy. Within weeks he was romantically attached to Barras' former mistress, Josephine de Beauharnais, whom he married in 1796.

He later boasted that he had cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot." This triumph earned him sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new Directory, particularly that of its leading member, Barras. He utilized the artillery the following day to repel the attackers. He seized artillery pieces with the aid of a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, who would later become his brother-in-law. Bonaparte was given command of the improvised forces defending the Convention in the Tuileries Palace.

In 1795, Bonaparte was serving in Paris when royalists and counter-revolutionaries organized an armed protest against the National Convention on 3 October. As a result, he was briefly imprisoned following the fall of the elder Robespierre in 1794, but was released within two weeks. His actions brought him to the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, and he became a close associate of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. A successful assault of the position, during which Bonaparte was wounded in the thigh, led to the recapture of the city and a promotion to brigadier-general.

He formulated a successful plan: he placed guns at Point l'Eguillete in order to force the British fleet from the harbour or suffer certain destruction had they remained. Through the help of fellow Corsican Saliceti, he was appointed as artillery commander in the French forces besieging Toulon, which had risen in revolt against the Terror and was occupied by British troops. After coming into conflict with the increasingly conservative nationalist leader, Pasquale Paoli, Bonaparte and his family were forced to flee to France in June 1793. Bonaparte supported the Jacobin faction, and gained the position of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers.

He spent most of the next several years on Corsica, where a complex three-way struggle was played out among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. Napoleon served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 (although he took nearly two years of leave in Corsica and Paris during this period). Upon graduation in September, 1785, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant of artillery, and took up his new duties in January 1786, at the age of 16. Although he had initially sought a naval assignment, he studied artillery at the École Militaire.

Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the two year course of study in only one year. He earned high marks in mathematics and geography, and passable grades in other subjects. He spoke French with a marked Italian accent throughout his life, and was a poor speller. He had to learn to speak French before entering the school.

At age 10, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes, on 15 May 1779. Napoleon's noble, moderately well-off background and family connections afforded him opportunities to study which would not have been available to a typical Corsican of the time. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter"). Ahead of her time, she had her 8 children bathe every other day—at a time when even those in the upper classes took a bath perhaps once a month.

The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, Maria Letizia Ramolino. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI of France in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. His family was of minor Corsican nobility. Born Napoleone Buonaparte (in Corsican, Nabolione or Nabulione) in the city of Ajaccio on Corsica, Napoléone later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte, the first known reference which appears in an official report dated 28 March 1796.

. Although their reigns did not survive his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III, ruled France later in the nineteenth century. Napoleon appointed several members of the Bonaparte family as monarchs. Others consider him a tyrannical dictator whose wars and rule led to the death of millions.

Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code, and is considered by some to have been one of the "enlightened monarchs". He staged a comeback known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), but was defeated decisively at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1815, followed shortly afterwards by his surrender to the British and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died. Over the course of little more than a decade, he acquired control of most or all of the western and central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance until his defeat at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his abdication several months later. Napoleon is considered to have been a military genius, and is known for commanding many successful campaigns, together with some spectacular failures.

Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution, and the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from 11 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) and King of Italy under the name Napoleon I from 18 May 1804 to 6 April 1814, and again briefly from 20 March to 22 June 1815. Barthélemy St Hilaire (August 19, 1805 - November 24, 1895) whose mother remains unknown. Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, daughter by Countess Montholon. Karl Eugin von Mühlfeld, son by Victoria Kraus.

Émilie Louise Marie Françoise Joséphine Pellapra, daughter by Françoise-Marie LeRoy. Alexandre Joseph Colonna, Count Walewski, (May 4, 1810 - October 27, 1868), son of Marie, Countess Walewski (1789 - 1817). Charles, Count Léon, (1806 - 1881), son by Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne (1787 - 1868). In his later life he was known as the Duke of Reichstadt.

He is known as Napoléon II of France although he never ruled. Napoléon Francis Joseph Charles Bonaparte (March 20, 1811- July 22, 1832), King of Rome. They had one child.