Napoleon

Robert Gildea examines the enduring and divisive debate surrounding the reputation of the French emperor who anticipated the best and the worst of the 20th century.

Few who met Napoleon Bonaparte failed to find him fascinating as well as formidable. Felix Markham portrays the Emperor as his Marshals, Ministers, servants and family saw him at the height of his power. 

Roger L. Williams assesses exactly how enlightened a despot was Louis-Napoléon, in light of later European events.

Gemma Betros asks what kind of person Napoleon really was.

When Napoleon surrendered himself to a British naval captain after his defeat at Waterloo, the victors were faced with a judicial headache. Norman MacKenzie asks: was St Helena Britain’s Guantanamo Bay?

Graham Goodlad examines the controverisal reputation of Napoleon Bonaparte as a military commander.

The Emperor divorced his first wife on December 14th, 1809.

Matthew MacLachlan asks how far Napoleon defeated himself.

Serving general and military historian Jonathon Riley uses his personal knowledge of command to assess Napoleon’s qualities as a strategist, operational commander and battlefield tactician.

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at the work of the man who invented the art of political cartooning, and asks what effect his drawings had on one of their targets.