10 Things You Didn't Know About Napoleon

10. Napoleon Wasn't Actually That Short

This is perhaps the most commonly misused ‘fact’ regarding Napoleon. Rumours suggest that Napoleon was a midget with small man syndrome, hence his fiery and direct military tactics, but this is completely false. Napoleon actually stood at 168cm tall or 5'5", which was actually slightly above average for a Frenchman in the early 1800's.

Napoleon earned the nickname of ‘Little Corporal’ thanks to his first major military victory in 1793 aged just 24. The port town of Toulon had rebelled against the Revolutionary rule and encouraged British ships to reclaim the town. Napoleon was drafted in as the leader of the defence on behalf of the Revolution and used his mathematical and tactical knowledge to fend off the British fleet with a huge artillery barrage of 200 cannons.

His troops began referring to him as the ‘Little Corporal’ following this victory, which British newspapers caught wind of and used against Napoleon, turning it into a way to question his masculinity. This rumour wasn't helped as his height was miscalculated at 5'2" during his autopsy, due to the doctor having a French yard stick instead of a metric one. However, this wasn’t the worst thing British newspapers held against Napoleon…