Getty Images Portrait of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, painted in 1840.
“Napoleon,” director Ridley Scott’s epic film, has no shortage of pivotal moments in the life of the famous French emperor.
The film covers much of Bonaparte’s adult life, from the end of the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette – when he was merely an artillery captain – to his death during his second exile on St. Helena in 1821.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film confuses time. Entire campaigns go by in the blink of an eye.
They don’t know that Napoleon fought about 60 battles during his reign as emperor and that he faced five coalitions of allied powers.
This is not a faithful version of the Napoleonic Wars. This is a beautiful film about Napoleon, a magnificent spectacle about the man who brought Europe to its knees.
There are many unanswered questions and we will address some of them here.
Attention: This article contains spoiler.
Is Ridley Scott’s Napoleon a true story?
In general, yes. Napoleon and all of the film’s main characters are real historical figures and the original events unfolded only vaguely as reflected on the screen. But as always, the secret lies in the details.
Take one of the film’s promotional lines: “He came from nowhere. He conquered everything.” None of this is true, says historian Zack White.
“Napoleon came from a small nobility on the island of Corsica,” explains White.
“That means he had no influence on French society before the revolution.”
However, The nobility, however small, gave Napoleon a decisive advantage.
“It meant that he was someone and, most importantly, that his father could send him to a military academy to be trained in France,” White says.
“In practical terms it was an advantage for Napoleon. He had a career that he gave away as part of the French king’s efforts to integrate the small nobility and build a part of society that was beholden to the king.”
What happened during the Siege of Toulon?
Getty Images The Siege of Toulon demonstrated Napoleon Bonaparte’s great strategic abilities.
“The idea that Napoleon led the siege of Toulon is something that makes Scott play with the Napoleonic myth“But like all good myths, there is a very significant kernel of truth behind it,” says White.
Toulon, a port city on the French Riviera, had rebelled against the revolution on behalf of the monarchy and called on the British to take control of the French fleet based there.
“Napoleon always had an eye for the terrain and it wasn’t long before he was doing two important things. The first was to reorganize the artillery, which he did with the astonishing speed and energy that would so characterize his career. But he also managed to identify a key weak point in the British defense.
The weak point was a particular redoubt which, if captured, could dominate the inner harbor. Capturing the redoubt would make the British position untenable. And that’s exactly what Napoleon did.
“Napoleon was someone who tended to get down to business at the time, so he personally led one of the attacks on that redoubt and was wounded in the thigh. “If the bayonet had advanced a few inches in the opposite direction, Napoleon probably would have died.”
Did Napoleon fire on the masses during the Vintage Uprising?
When the Napoleon of the film agrees to suppress that Royalist uprising in the streets of Paris in October 1795, The prerequisite is that it happens in its own way.
What we then see is a crowd of people shuffling towards Napoleon’s artillery, which stands between them and the government buildings. With a stone-faced Napoleon instructs his men to shoot directly at them.
“The way the uprising is portrayed in the film is interesting,” White says. “You have to watch the actions [de Napoleón] and decide whether you really feel good about it or not.
Caution is advised here.
“It is often said that it was predominantly a group of women and children, and that is not entirely true. There were many armed royalists – if not trained professional soldiers, then certainly a well-armed militia – ready to take part in this fight. The nature of shrapnel makes it very effective as an anti-personnel weapon. He effectively cleans the streets and Napoleon is rewarded for it.”
White adds that this incident leads to Napoleon being appointed commander of the army in Italy This episode is considered key to Napoleon’s rise to power.
What was the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine?
Getty Images Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby play Napoleon and Josephine in the film.
Josephine du Beauharnais is an influential figure throughout the film, playing an important role for Napoleon, a brilliant strategist but socially inept.
But their relationship is bitter, a love story full of hardship, infidelity and manipulation.
They met in 1795. She was a widow, six years older than Napoleon and the mistress of the political leader Paul Barras at the time.
“Will my life change soon?” Josefina jokes in the film. For Napoleon, certainly yes.
“While the young general was completely stunned and sent one love letter after another, Josephine remained ambivalent,” says historian Laura O’Brien of the real Napoleon.
“She eventually agreed to marry him, recognizing that he was on the rise and could provide her with security and protection.”
These love letters, White notes, were so intense and innocent that they “showed his immaturity when it came to love.”
Likewise, White adds in many ways: Josephine was Napoleon’s support.
“Because of all of this, there were problems in the relationship, and because of all the insecurity and frequent infidelity on both sides, there was an important role that Josefina could play,” says White.
“She was very intelligent, sensitive and beautiful. She was able to use her many charms to ingratiate herself with people by becoming Empress of France. She was able to move in certain circles and create subtle levels of influence.”
He also had a much more than ceremonial role that is not seen in the film.
“When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, basically he left Josefina in charge. “She was the one who had to sign the French government’s decrees,” White explains.
Even after the divorce, Josephine remained Napoleon’s confidante throughout her life.
Did Napoleon shoot at the pyramids?
In 1798, during the Egyptian campaign, the Battle of the Pyramids was such a blow to the Mamluks that they abandoned Cairo and allowed Napoleon to enter the city almost unhindered.
The film shows Bonaparte and his troops in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which he then shoots directly at, causing parts of the rocks to collapse.
That didn’t happen. The pyramids were in sight, but not close.
“The battle takes place about 15 kilometers from the pyramids, outside artillery range at the time,” says White.
The audience will also be disappointed to learn that Napoleon didn’t shoot the Sphinx’s nose either.
Was Napoleon small?
Getty Images The myth that Napoleon was small is somewhat reflected in the film.
After the Battle of the Pyramids, Napoleon’s men open a pharaoh’s sarcophagus and, wanting to see the mummy inside face to face, he has to stand on a box to look at her withered face.
You play along here the old cliché that the real Bonaparte was shorter than the average man.
“It exploits the myth that Napoleon was 5 feet 7 inches tall and therefore had what’s called a ‘Napoleon complex,'” says White.
“In terms of standard measurement, Napoleon stood at just over 1.68m, as different nations used different measurement lengths at the time” – just above the average height of the French infantryman during the Battle of Waterloo.”
Did Napoleon crown himself?
At his coronation as Emperor of France in December 1804, Scott’s Napoleon shows Bonaparte grasping the crown and placing it on his head, provoking awe from the watching crowd.
But did he really do it? Naturally.
“It’s portrayed as a controversial gesture because it was a very controversial gesture,” White says.
“Napoleon knew how to attract attention, and his coronation was the ultimate expression of this because the Pope was present. It’s almost like slapping the Pope in the face and saying, “You’re not the most important person in this room.” “My authority is greater because I represent the French people.”
Getty Images The moment Napoleon crowns Josephine, depicted by artist Jacques-Louis David.
Did Napoleon think he was the same as Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar?
Certainly Napoleon is compared to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar in the film, and that The real Napoleon insisted that the neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova create a nude of him as the Roman god Mars.
But figuring out how Napoleon thought about himself and his own place in history is complicated, White says, because Napoleon was a master propagandist.
“He certainly had a tendency to portray himself as someone who was the equal of Alexander the Great or Caesar,” White says.
And after his second exile on St. Helena, he was able to disguise himself as such a man and had the luxury of telling his own story.
“Although Napoleon was the loser, he represents the exception to the rule that history is written by the victors, because he was able to dictate his memoirs to reflect, blame and slander those who failed him. “
Getty Images Napoleon wanted to be immortalized in sculpture like the great Roman gods.
Was Napoleon forced into an affair by his mother?
A surprising presence in the film that is not made public in any way is Napoleon’s mother, Letizia Bonaparte.
In Ridley Scott’s film, it is concluded that Napoleon showed great respect for his mother even after he became emperor a slight Oedipus complexwhen he saw his mother in Josefina.
But their most notable interaction comes when Letizia convinces a shy Napoleon to have a one-night stand to “settle” the question of whether the lack of an heir is his or Josefina’s fault once and for all.
Did it really happen? The incident in bed is certainly a work of fiction and even in the film Napoleon admits to having had affairs long before. In real life, these adventures had already led to illegitimate offspring.
What is true, says historian Laura O’Brien, is that the Bonapartes “loathed the old woman (as they call Josephine) because they felt she had stolen him from the clan” and actively sought to catch Napoleon’s eye to direct other candidates. possible, although these were usually the machinations of his sisters, not his mother.
Did thousands of soldiers drown in the Battle of Austerlitz?
One of Napoleon’s great victories is also the setting for one of his great myths.
The Battle of Auterlitz, fought in 1805 against an agreement between the forces of Russian Tsar Alexander I and Austrian Emperor Francis I, cemented Napoleon’s reputation as a military genius.
The film clings to the popular myth that Napoleon led the Austro-Russian army onto a frozen lake, which they only realize when cannonballs start raining down. Thousands of people drown in a gruesome death.
The problem is, that There was no big lakeonly a handful of ponds for fishing.
“Napoleon knew how many men had died this way because he himself ordered them dried up,” White says.
“The French found many carts and many horses in these lakes, and they found only two bodies.”
The real Napoleon never intended to trap the Austrian and Russian armies in a lake, but here the propagandist reappears.
“He took the opportunity to give the impression that this had always been part of the plan,” White adds.
“He wanted to give the impression that he had tricked the enemy into being in exactly the position he wanted them in so he could kill them all in a particularly cruel way.”
Did Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington meet?
Getty Images The Battle of Waterloo sealed Napoleon’s final defeat.
The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 is one of the defining moments of the Napoleonic Wars, marking the final defeat of Napoleon and the final confrontations between the French Emperor and his British nemesis, the Duke of Wellington.
Both are often depicted as perfect enemiesand here they meet in person aboard HMS Bellerophon, shortly after Napoleon was sent to St. Helena.
But that meeting never took place.
“The reality is that Wellington was a minor figure until long after the Napoleonic Wars. It was only with his successes in Spain and Portugal that he achieved a respected position in Europe,” says White.
“They were never close to meeting. The closest they came to battle, and the only time they fought, was the Battle of Waterloo. “At the final stage they were about 800 meters apart.”
What happened to Napoleon’s second wife, Marie Louise of Austria?
In the film, Josephine preoccupies Napoleon’s thoughts even after he annuls his marriage, and he turns to her as he dies.
What then happens to the woman he leaves Josephine for, the Habsburg Archduchess Maria Luisa?
Both in the film and in reality, Napoleon’s search for an heir leads to him finding another woman.
“There was no more desirable marriage candidate,” says historian Deborah Jay about Maria Luisa.
“She was related to virtually every ruling dynasty in Europe.”
Marie Louise gave Napoleon the son he longed for and became his loyal supporter, siding with France even after her father allied with Russia against her husband.
“After a hard campaign, Maria Luisa was finally awarded the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, which had been promised to her by the Allies to ensure her husband’s first abdication.”
She traveled to Parma in 1816, although her time as duchess would be precarious.
How did Napoleon die?
In the film, Napoleon gently collapses in his exile on St. Helena after making a final remark about who burned Moscow in 1812 after the Battle of Borodino (it wasn’t Napoleon; the Russians did it themselves).
“The day after his death in British custody, on May 5, 1821, 16 observers attended the autopsy, including seven doctors,” writes Siân Rees, author of “The Many Deaths of Napoleon Bonaparte.”
“They agreed in their conclusion: Napoleon died of stomach cancer“.
That hasn’t stopped theories that the French emperor met an untimely end – whether at the behest of the British or his French rivals – or that Napoleon actually never reached St. Helena.
BBC
This article was originally published in BBC History Extra magazine. You can read it in English here.
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