Napoleon was academically gifted, particularly in maths, history, and geography. Allegedly, he was bullied for his thick Corsican accent. Napoleon’s first language was Corsican, only learning French at age nine when his family moved to the French mainland.
He was baptised a Catholic but religion was not particularly important to him – he was even married in a civil ceremony.
Napoleon was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in 1769 into a reasonably wealthy noble family on the island of Corsica, off the west coast of Italy.Ĭorsica had only been part of France since 1768, previously part of the Republic of Genoa. So, who exactly was this great Napoleon, how did he rise to such power, and what led to his eventual downfall? Napoleon Facts: Early Years
Fewer still have a whole series of pan-continental events named after them, as the Napoleonic Wars were. Few people are ever as successful in their endeavours as Napoleon Bonaparte was.
