Napoleon Bonaparte is chiefly remembered for two things in the English speaking world: being a conqueror of no small ability and for being short. He still inspires devotion and hate (not divided by the English and French language) for winning a series of titanic battles, expanding an empire across much of Europe, and then destroying it all by making the failed invasion of Russia which was bad at the time and became a history lesson Hitler completely failed to heed. He continued the reforms of the French Revolution (arguably not in the spirit of the revolution) and established a model which remains in some countries to this day. But, as someone who grew up in Britain, I can report that really the most famous thing about him is still that he was short. But there's a problem, and that's he wasn't short at all.
He’s sometimes cited as the chief example of supposed short man syndrome, whereby short people act more aggressively than their larger counterparts to make up for their lack of height, and you don't get much more aggressive than a man who defeated his rivals time after time across almost an entire continent, and only stopped when dragged to a very small, far away island.
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How short? Napoleon is sometimes described as being 5 foot 2 inches tall, which would definitely make him short for his era. However, there is a strong argument that this figure is wrong, and that Napoleon was actually 5 foot 5-7 inches tall, no shorter than the average Frenchman. Basically, Napoleon was average height, and the easy psychology doesn't work with him.
English or French Measurements?
Why is there such a discrepancy? He was one of the most famous men of his era, you'd be forgiven for expecting people would remember how tall he was. But problem may have been due to a difference in measurements between the English and French speaking worlds. The French inch was actually longer than the British inch, leading to any height appearing shorter to the English speaking world. In 1802 a doctor called Corvisart said Napoleon was 5 foot 2 inches by the French measurement, which equates to about 5 foot 6 in British. Intriguingly, in the same statement Corvisart said that Napoleon was of short stature, so it may be that people already assumed Napoleon was small by 1802, or that people assumed the average Frenchmen was much taller in height. The latter remains common.
Matters are confused by the autopsy, which was carried out by Napoleon’s doctor, Frenchman Francesco Antommarchi, and gave 5 foot 2 as his height. But was the autopsy, which was signed off by a number of British doctors and in a British owned area, in British or French measures? We don’t know for sure, with some people adamant the height was in British units and others French. When other sources are factored in, including another measurement after the autopsy in British measurements, people generally conclude with the height of 5 foot 5-7 inches British, or 5 foot 2 in French, but there is still some doubt.
"Le Petit Caporal"
If this is a myth, it may have been perpetuated by Napoleon’s army, because the emperor was often surrounded by much larger bodyguards and soldiers, giving the impression of him being smaller. This was especially true of the Imperial Guard units which had height requirements, leading to them all being taller than him. Napoleon was even named the ‘le petit caporal’, often translated as ‘little corporal’, even though it was a term of affection rather than a description of his height, further leading to people assuming he was short. The ‘myth’ was certainly perpetuated by the propaganda of his enemies, who portrayed him as short as a way of attacking and undermining him. The fact that Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was around 5 foot 4/5 and apparently asked not to wear heels so as not to appear taller probably didn’t help.