2023-11-27 05:06:06
Napoleon Bonaparte was not happy during his exile on Saint Helena. As time passed, his health withered. It was of little use that the doctors tried to hide from him the state in which he was; The Little Corsican knew that the last grain of sand in his watch was about to fall. «In a little while I will have expired and I will find my brave men in the Elysian fields. Yes, Kleber, Desaix, Bessieres, Duroc, Ney, Murat, Massena, Berthier… They will all come to receive me, they will tell me about what we did together and we will talk about our wars with Scipio, Hannibal, Caesar, Frederick,” the Emperor pointed out. In the end, six years after beginning his captivity, the Sire died suffering from cancer.
This is how Sir Hudson Lowe, Governor of the Island of Saint Helena, reported his death to Lord Bathurst, Minister of Foreign Affairs:
“Milord. I must announce to you that Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5 at ten minutes to six in the afternoon, after an illness that has kept him in bed since March 17. Dr. Arnott assisted him at the moment of death, and saw him breathe his last. Captain Crokat, officer of the watch, and Drs Shorst and Mitchell immediately saw the body, and Dr Arnott remained over the body that night. “I will have the body buried with all the honors due to a higher-ranking general officer.”
The autopsies
After the Corsican’s death, several experts carried out his autopsy. There were two reports of it: the one prepared by a group in the service of Great Britain, and a second from his personal doctor, François Antommarchi, selected by the Emperor’s family to carry out such a delicate task. In both cases, the cause of death was determined to be stomach cancer.
«The inner surface of the stomach in almost its entire extension presented a mass of cancerous affections, or of the scaly parts that changed into cancer, which was observed more directly near the pylorus. […]», determined doctors Shorst, Arnott, Burton, Mithchell and Livingstone, as stated in the book ‘A Grenadier of the Imperial Guard on the Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte. History of the public and private life of the former emperor’, a work dated 1830. Once the cause of death had been established, the doctors proceeded to determine the measurements of Napoleon’s body. The most thorough in this task was Antommarchi:
«His total height from the top of his head to his heels was five feet, two inches and four lines. The span between his two arms taken from the tips of his middle fingers was five feet two inches. From the pubic symphysis to the top of the head there were two feet, seven inches and four lines. From the pubis to the heel, two feet seven inches. From the top of the head to the beard, seven inches and six lines. Sparse, light brown hair. “The abdomen is very swollen and voluminous.”
Thus, it was determined that the Corsican’s body measured five feet, two inches and four lines. The problem was that this measurement was taken in the so-called ‘pied métrique’, a metric system established by Bonaparte himself in 1812 that was equivalent to one third of a meter. According to this way of calculating his height, Napoleon stood 1.68 meters above the ground. However, when the data reached Great Britain, the English interpreted it under their own procedure, according to which a foot had a smaller extension. And, after doing the calculations, they incorrectly determined that the Emperor’s height was 1.57 meters.
Extended lie
Knowing the repercussion that this information would have, the British did not take long to make it known to the world to posthumously humiliate the Corsican. But… why did this hoax get bigger and bigger? Among the possibilities being considered, John Lloyd – author of ‘The Second Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is -Still- Wrong’ – believes that it could have been because, whenever Napoleon was seen on the battlefield, , was surrounded by his best soldiers: those who belonged to the Imperial Guard. Apparently, these could make any subject look like a dwarf next to them, since they had a gigantic wingspan for the time and, of course, with an immense ‘bearskin’ (or head covering) that made them, if possible, taller.
«The Imperial Guard was created by Napoleon on Floreal 28 of the year XII unofficially (May 18, 1804), and then by imperial decree of July 29. At that time it included two regiments, one of Grenadiers and the other of Hunters. The minimum regulatory sizes were 1 meter 73 for hunters and 1 meter 83 for grenadiers,” explains Jerry D. Morelock, Member of the Historical Committee of the Mexico-France Napoleonic Institute, in his dossier ‘The Infantry Men of the Old Guard. of Napoleon’.
Napoleon Bonaparte ABC
This stature is also corroborated by the popular French historian Paul Guichonett in his work ‘Les chastel’, where he emphasizes the great size that the mounted grenadiers of the Emperor’s army must have: «The admission conditions were extremely selective: at least 12 years of service, tried and true equestrian skills, exemplary conduct and a minimum height of 4 feet 5 inches (1.70 meters).” With similar sizes around him, it is not at all strange that Napoleon looked like a ‘stopper’ despite measuring 1.68 meters tall.
At the same time, it is false that Napoleon was short. In fact, he was much taller than the average Frenchman of the time. “To imagine the impact that soldiers such as grenadiers or hunters could have on society, it should be noted that at that time the average height of a French man was 1 meter 55,” explains Morelock. At the same time, the Corsican had a wingspan greater than that of his compatriots who enlisted in the horse scout regiments of his armies – which could not exceed, by regulations, 1.61 meters – and that a multitude of his enemies . And there is an example: Horatio Nelson, who was 1.62 meters tall.
On the other hand, this black legend about Napoleon was also increased due to the affectionate nickname that his soldiers gave him in Italy: the ‘little corporal’. However, and despite the fact that there is no data on this, this nickname can be attributed to how close he was to his colleagues at that time or even to the young age he was when he received that command. And the fact is that, although he led that campaign at the age of 27, he was promoted to Brigadier General when he had just turned 24. Meanwhile, other prominent French officers of a similar age to him as Michel Ney o Pierre-Antoine Dupont they had to wait until they were 27 and 28 years old to achieve the same rank.
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