Hello everyone. We've been experimenting with a bit of a podcast (a few people were asking for audio versions so they can get Biographics while doing other things)! Fair warning: none of these are new biographies, but rather me having a bit more of a free form chat around the script. I'd love to know what you think, if these are useful, wanted etc :). Thanks, Simon. Links: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/biographics-history-one-life-at-a-time/id1450405839?mt=2 Sitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/biographics-history-one-life-at-a-time Website: biographics.blubrry.net/ RSS: biographics.blubrry.net/feed/podcast/ Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/6N9PS4QXF1D0OWPk0Sxtb4 Trolled people: open.spotify.com/show/0JzjzwJcRqFZ3BcACtahh8?si=MG5HSm1oT0GTNm_r8_HQcg
You should do a video on the Marquis de Lafayette. One of the richest and well connected men in France he gave up a life in the court of Louis XVI at 19 to come fight for the Americans during the revolution. He had been forbidden to go and bought his own boat and snuck out as a woman to go. During his first battle at Brandywine he was shot in the leg while leading the men in a retreat. He attracted attention from Washington and ended up becoming like a son to him. He went back to France and lobbied for the naval support which eventually won the war.
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
I'm glad you came in quickly with a correction, because I had a really embarrassing rebuttal for you www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/03/napolean-bonaparte-having-been-short-is-a-myth/
I thought everyone in this century knew that the shortness was a myth based on a deliberate misunderstanding. I can't believe your researchers missed this one, Simon. Off with their heads!
Napoleon Bonaparte. THE military genius. General at 24 years old. Fought 60 battles, lost only 8, mainly at the end of his career, against a wide european coalition...
So? The battle of Ealyu was a draw. The whole Spanish campaign was a disaster to which he didn’t even personally attend. Generalissimo Prince Alexander Suvorov brother. -63-0. -58 consecutive years of frontline military service. -5 times wounded in combat. -winner of every single award, medal and order Russia had to offer (with a significant part of his career still left to go).
Geert Matthys Kutuzov was an excellent leader and General until he got too old (55 at Australitz he read Napoleon like a book and was then over ruled by Alexander the first). By 63 at Borodino, 7 more years of palace intrigue and war with the Turk took its toll).
Geert Matthys Are u 5 years old or just a fool? Nelson was an admiral, Wellington didn’t win nothing, Wellington was saved by Blucher, the real hero (for the coalition) of Waterloo. Barclay de Tolly was one of the best. Which fool beat Napoleon?
Had Grouchy done his job and Blucher never made it to the battle, Napoleon would have won Waterloo as well... and this would have been with the inferior position on the field.
Correction: He didn't declare himself 'Emperor of France', he was declared 'Emperor of the French'. As in not an Emperor over a territory, but over a people
@@fahoodie1852 "...that's why it is said so in the coins. 'Napoleon, Emperor of the French' not 'Napoleon, Emperor of France'. The people doesn't belong to him, he belongs to his people..."
@@phantomechelon3628 Oh come on bro.. you just proved 2 things. 1. My point 2. That you didn't even read about the battle of waterloo Wellington is extremely overrated, he himself knew that he couldn't beat Napoleon, so his whole strategy was that Prussia will save his british ass, not to mention that Napoleon's army was far from its prime due to the fact that they didn't have the time to train.
not that badass actually lol . The Germans leaded themselves into the second world war after all , like the French, they lost everything , had nothing to lose and everything to gain .
OneOnOne1162 George Washington did the same after the Army mutinied because the continental congress defaulted on its IOUs and didn’t pay its soldiers (and especially the officers) the money it owed.
You conveniently forgot to mention that when he took power, he found a country in chaos at war with everyone and within 5 years, stabilized the economy, rewrote the laws, ended the chaotic revolution, brought back interior peace and unity in country where everyone hated each other, transformed a mob of untrained troops into the most formidable and effective military of his time. And that is even without mentioning the civil code, the french academy, the bank of France, and the support to science (e.g.metric system, Egyptology), and the comission of several public works, projects, general improve in living condition for his people. Plus he was not short. He had an average height for a man of his time. Plus he did defeat Russia before the russian campaign, during the prussian campaign
The metric system was originally developed under Napoleon's auspices to drastically simplify weights and measurements. An idea that was *WAY* ahead of its time.
Well said Anthony. Napoleon achieved all of the things you mention, which is why he was one of the greatest leaders of all time. It's a great pity there's no one around of his stature nowadays. As for his physical stature; as the old saying goes, "Many good things come in small packages"!! :]
@gipcambero When Napoleon took command for the first time, the french armies were losing everywhere. The British has seized control of Toulon, the Austrians were invading and french campaign in the low countries was going poorly. After the siege of Toulon, that he won, he was immediately given command of the army of Italy, because the republic was having setbacks after setbacks. Also by the time he invaded north Italy and beat the Austrians there, the army of the Rhine which had crossed into German territory was beaten. They were saved only because Napoleon was heading towards Vienna so they had to call their armies to stop them. And we know the rest, from this point on, the french army was better organized, better supplied, their morale was as high as ever due to the soldiers having complete faith in their leader, he increased the speed at which the army moved and instaured the Legion d'honneur to promote meritocracy, hence so many brilliant generals and marshalls of the Empire. So, yeah "he transformed a mob of untrained soldiers to the most formidable army of his generation"
His military genius was only 1/10th of his overall genius, he modernized nearly all things, industry and workers rights, military, etc to say he was an amazing man is underselling it, it was only by the desire of decadent monarchs that he was undone.
anthony elenga Thanks, Anthony! Fortunately today, the French are proud of his accomplishments! All of them. We still use some of those... and most don't even know it!
Fun fact: Napoleon was actually not short. His recorded height of 5'2" was measured in 19th-century French feet/inches, which used a different scale than English feet/inches did at the time. Napoleon's height was equivalent to approximately 5'6" in modern imperial feet/inches, which was the average height of a European male in his era. The enduring image of Napoleon as an insecure short man is almost entirely a product of English wartime propaganda. Cartoonists and pamphleteers in England and other countries fighting the French would draw Napoleon as a short, angry, almost-juvenile tyrant in order to ridicule him for political purposes. Napoleon was well-aware of these depictions and often lamented the damage it did to his reputation. Ironically, he was more insecure about the false perceptions of his height than he was about his actual height.
"Ironically, he was more insecure about the false perceptions of his height than he was about his actual height." So he was still insecure about his height.
I thought I was crazy too. When I saw he abdicated in 1840 I thought I was wrong because I could have sworn Waterloo was in 1815. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong and and it was just down to Napoleon’s superpowers 😆
When your enemies called you "the god of war" and they felt the need to elaborate a strategic protocol (the Trachenberg plan) saying: "if Napoleon is on the battlefield, avoid the fight; if he's not, try something", it means you achieved something in the art of war.
"Today I found out that Napoleon Bonaparte was not in fact especially short. The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches." Mar 23, 2010
Yes a myth and the painting(around 00:49) the vid uses to tell he is short is not his but in fact is his older brother:Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte(First King of Naples then later King of Spain).
Jim Fortune That’s right. Napoleon was not short. I’m kinda disappointed that this channel would say that, especially considering that every other piece on Napoleon these days has this as an attention grabber at the beginning, yet it missed the guys on this video completely
He also had a habit of surrounding himself with very tall aides de camp, which pointed up the "little general" nickname, which was really more about his youth, not his height. A great novel written from the point of view of Napoleon's first fiance is called Desiree. She was very young (14) and her older sister had already married the oldest brother, Joseph Bonaparte, who needed her dowry. Napoleon threw over Desiree for Josephine, needing political clout in Paris more than a large dowry. Getting the last laugh, Desiree married a Marachel of France, who was adopted by the old house of Vasa in Sweden, ultimately becoming king, and Desiree, Queen. Her descendants are still the royal family of Sweden today. Wow.
Abel J The great irony is that the quote is from "Today I Found Out" eight years ago. I only went looking for the quote because I thought I remembered Simon pointing this out. ;->
"Even when I'm gone I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes" Napoleon Bonaparte. The man's been dead for 200 years and still captures the fascination of the world ought to be the greatest man who's ever lived
@@deepyamandas1192 Welll.......Who controlled really Napoleon from behind the scenes? Real Truth in an Infinite Universe that this Earth is part of told in 1 sentence...
For some one who is so accurate I find 3 errors 1) At minute 12 a picture of Archduke Franz Ferdinand appears except he was born then. 2) Napoleon abdicated in 1840 yet he died in 1821 3) At minute 19 during the battle of Waterloo a picture is shown from the charge of the Light Brigade from the Crimean war. Really Simon I think there is an issue of quality control here Ashley
One of the greatest man that ever lived. His only fault was that at one point he stopped listening his aids and started to believe himself to be invincible.
usually that's what happens when you always win, one needs to remember his/her roots to keep him grounded. Pride (αλαζονία) in Greek histories (tales - historical or otherwise) is the number one sin any great man or person of a certain skill can commit and it will lead him/her with mathematical accuracy to his/her downfall. Pride was considered to have such a disastrous effect that would be considered akin to blasphemy and in mythology Gods would interfere to strike the sinner down - cautionary stories for children.
"5 coalitions made of nations to defeat one man and a nation" thats a proof of his power and greatness, he carved on pages of history that he's greatest hero for the french!!
So hes like Hitler Russia USA and the British empire finally made him shoot himself. napolean tried to commit suicide but failed just like he failed to make a French empire
You didnt mention one of the central reasons for his military success. He purged the french army of aristocratic leaders and promoted men of low birth based purely off of merit, making them extremely loyal to Napoleon. This was unheard of in Europe at the time and made his army the strongest and best led army on the continent. Still a great video!
It was the biggest army in numbers. Just like Hitlers. But he killed off so many Frenchmen that France never recovered again . Check the population statistics. We dont give credit to big armies winning battles, We give credit to the underdogs like Wellingtons thin red line at Waterloo who routed the Imperial Guard ,or old guard, or young guard, who cares they all died or ran away. le Gaurde Recule. Run away everyone the British will bayonet us and steal our hats.
@@rhammanuel4162 yes he technically was 5'2 but in a different measurement I read a comment a bit higher saying yes he was 5'2 in french feet/inches but in english feet/inches he was 5'6 idk I forgot what they said exactly
I also felt cheated because I watched this just so I could get insight into Napoleon's strategies. I mean I already knew Napoleon's history, but I did learn some things about him.
Ludwig van Beethoven's life is very much linked to Napoleon, with his composition of the E major 3rd Symphony which he initially titled "Bonaparte," but later called "Eroica" ("Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man"). He changed this title due to Napoleon's crowning himself Emperor, which completely changed his view of him as a true humanitarian reformer. At Napoleon's death in 1821, he remarked regarding the second movement (Marcia funebre - Adagio assai) "I have already composed the proper music for that catastrophe." The Eroica Symphony is one of the most written-about musical compositions ever, and it ought to be talked about in a future biography of Beethoven.
Thank you! These videos are great, but I find that really distracting - it’s called pronominal apposition, or ‘double subjects’ (e.g. “the French, they surrendered”).
@Nogent Yeah, and think that’s because of Napoleon. He was a great military leader that became a national hero for his work during the Revolution. He got power via a coup de ta of the consulate, which was very corrupt and unstable at that time. The French people didn’t know Napoleon wanted to be an emperor, but they also didn’t when he did
One thing you had wrong though was that most of the problems at his final battle were actually caused by the overconfidence of his generals, not tactical mistakes made by himself. (Like general Ney's charge with all the cavalry into British square formations which left Napoleon's flanks open.) Also the Old guard was purposefully held back because they were just as much morale support as actual high quality soldiers, as long as they remained in the field the army wouldn't surrender or retreat. This meant that if something went wrong while they where in the field the remainder of the army would almost certainly lose hope and break into a full retreat.
Nice video Simon, sorry for being pedantic, but Napoleon was 5”2 in French inches, which is about 5”7 in British inches, making him about average for the time.
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
he was "above average" in height for the time only because Europe had a much younger population back then, with a much greater proportion of the population consisting of children and young adolescents than today, hence the lower average height of a male compared to today. So he was still pretty short for a full grown adult man from France.
Im still learning the whole story, but an ancestor in my family was one of the army members that helped hide him during the war to survive and later knighted a Bartholomew for helping him so loyally.
@@halfofapicture I will need to go back into my ancestry account as my MIL helped me find it. I don’t speak to anyone on my mothers side so when MIL found this out we learnt more about where my side of the family came from. Unfortunately I don’t remember the last name so I will be happy to update when I know it for sure!
He changed the legal system by codifying the laws, and his system is still used today (not just in France). Also, I'm rather disappointed you didn't mention Josephine. Can we have an episode on her?
He was not a small man! He was 5 foot, 2 inches but the French inches at the time were longer than the English. Which would make him 1.70 meters today, average/ slightly above average at the time. Even rather large for a Corsican. Shame on you Simon...
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
@@ersturdevant2831 he was seen as short in paintings because he surrounded himself with the imperial guard, which were some of the tallest and best troops in Europe
Napoleon was 5' 7" in English measurements. The average Frenchman at the time was 5' 5" in English measurements. The "Napoleon was short myth" was from his height being measued in French Imperial units of 5' 2" which equalled the English 5' 7". He looked small next to his" Old Guard" who were 6' tall plus a tall bearskin hat.. The " Little Corporal" was a term of endearment by his bodyguard. The British took the bearskin hats and adopted them after Waterloo.
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
Biographics No confusion, people are more sensitive about Napoleons height than they are about the fact that their life goals have been pathetically reduced to griping at strangers about old, trivial facts that have no bearing on history anyway.
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
Emperor Vespasian would make a fascinating topic to discuss. He saved the Roman Empire from the brink of self distruction by being uniquely caring, open minded and strong. He was also born to mule hearding peasants and only gained his position by sheer merit. There are few rags to riches stories quite as huge in scale as his.
My family housed Leaticia (his mother) and his brothers and sisters in Marseille when they arrived from Corsica as refugees from the Paoli regime. We shared similar roots as both of our families were from Genoa. And Italians help each other out, especially those living abroad, even naturalized French as he was. They were poor (many sisters, minimal prospects) and we gave them shelter and clothes....he was a totally unknown artillery lieutenant with very limited career prospects. Lucien (or Luciano) became a very close friend of the family. We possessed love letters between Josephine and Napoleon but these were sold many, many years ago....
@@christopherpeery7436 I have very mixed feelings. Millions of people died because of him. Without the French revolution, he would have been nothing. And yet he remains adored in France and in the wider world....
@@Truthseeker1515 the story is a little more complicated .. that he is responsible for millions of deaths and without him the revolution would not have survived
@@michaelbrett3749 pretty sure Napoleon didnt actually say that, since its a quote from the trailer lf Napoleon Total War which is probably the most baddass Trailer weve ever got in the series in its speech alone
@@Freedmoon44 “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte He did call himself a genius . History shows otherwise.
@@SKa-tt9nm Why bother? I just want to be passively entertained. And YT does that. Sometimes I want to be informed and YT usually does that well enough.
"There is no immortality, only the memory that is left in the minds of men"- Napoleon Bonaparte, let us hope that we will never forget a military and political genius such as Napoleon.
16:56 damn, napoleon was so OP that even death couldn't keep him subdued for long. he came back from the grave 19 years later, just to abdicate and say "you didn't beat me. I quit"
Only to be followed by many generations of French wussies. "Please Adolf don't hurt Paris, we give up!" They need to stick to making salad dressing and wine cause the can't make soldiers.
Napoleon was not a short man for the time. As others have pointed out he was only measured at 5’2 because French and British measurements were different at the time. He would be measured at 5’7 today which was average height back then
This reminds me of people who refer to Hitler as a small man--he was 5'9 about average, the SS were exceptionally tall by design, I suppose that Hitler standing next to several SS officers would seem short, LOL, why shortness is being conflated with evil and authoritarianism is something we might ponder, LOL, although Stalin was only 5'4..
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
WOW I was just think this morning why hasn't Simon done a video on Napoleon??? Then I check my You Tube Feed... Boom.. Napoleon. Kind of creepy you read my mind. Good video too. Maybe when you get the time do Charles de Gaulle?
You forgot to talk about the peninsula war . And didn't talk enough about the 4th coalition and the battle of ffiedland in 1807 and created the duchy of warsaw. Plus you didn't show the map of the French empire
Napoleon Bonaparte raised from dirt to the throne of France, he was the natural successor of Alexander the Great and of Julius Caesar; then he did the unimaginable mistake of engaging in a two-front war attacking Spain and Portugal while invading Russia. Sent twice into exile, he got the brilliant idea of writing his memoirs: even in permanent defeat, he overcame the death of forgetfulness living through this day as a hero for the ages, something his enemies couldn't avoid!!
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
I'm a random guy. Who knks really few about history but i can tell you thqt you forgot a lot about Napoleon. After Napoleon won at toulon in 1794 he was promoted brigadier General right : right But after Robespierre fall the new government came to power which made Napoleon lost his title of brigadier General Then during the royalists protesting in Paris he had another opportunity so he took some guns cqll hiw Calvary General friend Murat and shoot on the people which made more than 200 casualties his cruelty and sympathy Less mqde him famous among tye government so he got to be General and in charge of the army in southern France to attack Italy
11:58 Um.......Franz Ferdinand II wasn't even alive in 1800. IDK why you chose a photo of a guy who didn't exist yet, plus photography wasn't invented yet!
It is an incorrect photograph but photography was first being experimented with in the early 1700's. The major trouble was capturing permanent images. But images in a liquid that would disappear if shaken or exposed to too much light where achieved by 1717. Through the rest of the 1700's and early 1800's people experimented with a variety of techniques until in the 1820's the first true permanent photographs where done that still exist today. The chemicals used in "modern" analog photography where discovered in the 1600's including their light-sensitive properties being observed. It's shame nobody put two and two together earlier or we could have had photographs as far back as the 1630's.
Napoleón was not a narcissist, just a rich dude that got close to strong powers and took over, then failed on his goal, he knew what war meant for his people and tried to take over Europe for his people.
Actually Napoelon wasn't that short. The ominous number of 5 foot 2 is due to the difference of measuerements in France and Britain in the Napoleonic age and due to british propaganda!
"The greatest man of action in 19th century Europe"--Winston Churchill He was extraordinary in more ways than one can wrap the mind around. All the miles from Europe to Africa to Russia without motor; enlightenment itself on horseback.
@steve hammond I understand why this argument sounds credible, but Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire built and remained a big part of his foundational thought process. And life happens. Ideas behind the enlightenment are mutually exclusive from real life only as written by philosophers of the enlightenment, or if you were royalty. I see his life's work inexorably driven by the "Enlightenment".
@steve hammond I understand why this argument sounds credible, but Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire built and remained a big part of his foundational thought process. And life happens. Ideas behind the enlightenment are mutually exclusive from real life only as written by philosophers of the enlightenment, or if you were royalty. I see his life's work inexorably driven by the "Enlightenment".
The first transition music was "the sugar fairy" ironic, since it was composed by Tchaikovski, a Russian. The conquest that was the begin of Napoleon's end...
The British are salty about Napoleon to this day. They wish they had a figure as amazing as him so they continue to smear him and devalue his importance to this day
The consistent quality of videos that Mr. Whistler and his team produce over their several channels is pretty remarkable. Even when they cover subjects I may not really have any interest in, the way they present the information, even given the broad overview and generalities that are their simply due to the short length of the videos, they make the subject interesting. Kind of like Fresh Air with Terri Gross or To the Best of Our Knowledge on NPR. That's a rare gift and I glad Simon and his team possess such a gift.
LOL I accidentally used "their" instead of "there" and some knucklehead thinks it was done out of ignorance even after correctly using "their" in the first sentence of my comment. Just because it aggravates you I'm not editing it because sometimes you just gotta let things go. I don't care if people think I'm stupid but I wonder if you care if people think you're a pedantic jerk-face.
Biographics aren’t they pro neo liberal agenda tho.. Napoleon was 5’7 , the video just try’s to downplay him. If this was Saladin or Zulu they would have tried their best to get history accurate. There were a lot of inaccuracies with the Aztecs too. There is no proof of their mass sacrifice compared to that of the Spanish Inquisitions and Crusades.
For anyone who's comparing Napoleon to Suvorov, here's my answer. I rather lose to a lion than win against a mouse. Napoleon faced capable generals , Suvorov faced dumb Kings who know little about military tactics.
His genius rested primarily on taking other people's ideas and running with them....about the only thing he did that was original was come up with a new way of marching, which increased his ground speed considerably. None of this is a put down; Alexander inherited the fine Macedonian army from his father; you work with what you have. But Napoleon's grasp of tactical greatness began to fade while he was still relatively young; once his armies became big enough, he was content to muster his artillery in one spot, blast away, and send in large numbers of troops.....not much tactical genius in that. Long before Waterloo, he was losing his touch.
Wild how a person could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for stealing bread, or death for striking a superior officer in anger, but Napoleon is simply exiled. Even in defeat the powerful are handled with kidskin gloves.
Um one confusing part. When you said he went into exile in 1840 you said he escaped ten months later in 1815. Im not sure how 35 years earlier is the same as 10 months later?
Wow, just found Biographics for the first time today. Thanks, Simon. I know it's a group, and not just you, but you are great on camera and really make the material pop off the screen. Thanks for you and your group working so hard.
Notification squad :D Simon, you and your team are easily one of the hardest working group of people on UA-cam. Your balance of quality and quantity is unmatched on the platform.
Vault dude You seem to be a bit thick, don't you? Most of the info they mention is wrong, the images are horribly incorrect. Put it this way, I wouldn't base my exams on anything in this 'content'. It's rushed out and poorly researched. You'd be better off checking wikipedia.
"Archduke Francis II" *shows photo of Franz Ferdinand* Also, Francis II was Holy Roman Emperor, not just a mere archduke. The rest of the clip is quite good though
Holy Roman Empire was a joke. It was an addition of small provinces leaded by small princes and dukes... As Voltaire said :"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire"
Hello everyone. We've been experimenting with a bit of a podcast (a few people were asking for audio versions so they can get Biographics while doing other things)! Fair warning: none of these are new biographies, but rather me having a bit more of a free form chat around the script. I'd love to know what you think, if these are useful, wanted etc :). Thanks, Simon.
Links:
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/biographics-history-one-life-at-a-time/id1450405839?mt=2
Sitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/biographics-history-one-life-at-a-time
Website: biographics.blubrry.net/
RSS: biographics.blubrry.net/feed/podcast/
Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/6N9PS4QXF1D0OWPk0Sxtb4
Trolled people: open.spotify.com/show/0JzjzwJcRqFZ3BcACtahh8?si=MG5HSm1oT0GTNm_r8_HQcg
Can you do a video of Ragnar lothbrok Vikings
Or anything Vikings
Your best video ever!
You should do a video on the Marquis de Lafayette. One of the richest and well connected men in France he gave up a life in the court of Louis XVI at 19 to come fight for the Americans during the revolution. He had been forbidden to go and bought his own boat and snuck out as a woman to go. During his first battle at Brandywine he was shot in the leg while leading the men in a retreat. He attracted attention from Washington and ended up becoming like a son to him. He went back to France and lobbied for the naval support which eventually won the war.
I've read he was a standard 5'7
"Never fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him your art of war."
-Napoleon Bonaprate
European counties
*Uses Napoleon tactic*
@@TropicalAsian-1000 hi Marshall
Kinda awkward cause France and British have been fighting for centuries
This is why majority of combat sport rematches go the other way in the second match
Awkwardly that's what he did
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
im 5"8 and im short...napoleon was a short arse too
i was about to say
he seemed short cause he was always surrounded by his tall ass guard
I'm glad you came in quickly with a correction, because I had a really embarrassing rebuttal for you www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/03/napolean-bonaparte-having-been-short-is-a-myth/
I thought everyone in this century knew that the shortness was a myth based on a deliberate misunderstanding. I can't believe your researchers missed this one, Simon. Off with their heads!
Napoleon Bonaparte. THE military genius. General at 24 years old. Fought 60 battles, lost only 8, mainly at the end of his career, against a wide european coalition...
So? The battle of Ealyu was a draw.
The whole Spanish campaign was a disaster to which he didn’t even personally attend.
Generalissimo Prince Alexander Suvorov brother.
-63-0.
-58 consecutive years of frontline military service.
-5 times wounded in combat.
-winner of every single award, medal and order Russia had to offer (with a significant part of his career still left to go).
Against shitty opponents sure, de Tolly, Nelson, Wellington, even lazy Kutuzov kicked his arse
Geert Matthys Kutuzov was an excellent leader and General until he got too old (55 at Australitz he read Napoleon like a book and was then over ruled by Alexander the first). By 63 at Borodino, 7 more years of palace intrigue and war with the Turk took its toll).
Geert Matthys Are u 5 years old or just a fool?
Nelson was an admiral,
Wellington didn’t win nothing, Wellington was saved by Blucher, the real hero (for the coalition) of Waterloo.
Barclay de Tolly was one of the best.
Which fool beat Napoleon?
Had Grouchy done his job and Blucher never made it to the battle, Napoleon would have won Waterloo as well... and this would have been with the inferior position on the field.
Correction: He didn't declare himself 'Emperor of France', he was declared 'Emperor of the French'. As in not an Emperor over a territory, but over a people
Arron Keegan
It doesn’t sound like much but it makes a big difference
Arron Keegan so he’s the French messiah?
@@fahoodie1852 "...that's why it is said so in the coins. 'Napoleon, Emperor of the French' not 'Napoleon, Emperor of France'. The people doesn't belong to him, he belongs to his people..."
I want to like this but the number is just perfect.
@@awesomelegion9950 Not anymore
"My enemies are many, My equals are none"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
*Arthur Wellesley has entered the chat*
@@phantomechelon3628Not even close to his equal
@@Themarch001 You might want to re-take history and find out who won the battle of Waterloo...
@@phantomechelon3628 Oh come on bro.. you just proved 2 things.
1. My point
2. That you didn't even read about the battle of waterloo
Wellington is extremely overrated, he himself knew that he couldn't beat Napoleon, so his whole strategy was that Prussia will save his british ass, not to mention that Napoleon's army was far from its prime due to the fact that they didn't have the time to train.
@@phantomechelon3628lmao you got absolutely wrecked son
The fact that Napoleon faced down armies and they just defected to him is still the most badass moment in history.
not that badass actually lol . The Germans leaded themselves into the second world war after all , like the French, they lost everything , had nothing to lose and everything to gain .
@almightyinferno Indeed I did.
Russia has entered the chat....
OneOnOne1162 George Washington did the same after the Army mutinied because the continental congress defaulted on its IOUs and didn’t pay its soldiers (and especially the officers) the money it owed.
If u need/want a hero, I know of no one more qualified. It's hard to destroy Hamilton.
You conveniently forgot to mention that when he took power, he found a country in chaos at war with everyone and within 5 years, stabilized the economy, rewrote the laws, ended the chaotic revolution, brought back interior peace and unity in country where everyone hated each other, transformed a mob of untrained troops into the most formidable and effective military of his time. And that is even without mentioning the civil code, the french academy, the bank of France, and the support to science (e.g.metric system, Egyptology), and the comission of several public works, projects, general improve in living condition for his people. Plus he was not short. He had an average height for a man of his time. Plus he did defeat Russia before the russian campaign, during the prussian campaign
The metric system was originally developed under Napoleon's auspices to drastically simplify weights and measurements. An idea that was *WAY* ahead of its time.
Well said Anthony. Napoleon achieved all of the things you mention, which is why he was one of the greatest leaders of all time. It's a great pity there's no one around of his stature nowadays. As for his physical stature; as the old saying goes, "Many good things come in small packages"!! :]
@gipcambero When Napoleon took command for the first time, the french armies were losing everywhere. The British has seized control of Toulon, the Austrians were invading and french campaign in the low countries was going poorly. After the siege of Toulon, that he won, he was immediately given command of the army of Italy, because the republic was having setbacks after setbacks. Also by the time he invaded north Italy and beat the Austrians there, the army of the Rhine which had crossed into German territory was beaten. They were saved only because Napoleon was heading towards Vienna so they had to call their armies to stop them. And we know the rest, from this point on, the french army was better organized, better supplied, their morale was as high as ever due to the soldiers having complete faith in their leader, he increased the speed at which the army moved and instaured the Legion d'honneur to promote meritocracy, hence so many brilliant generals and marshalls of the Empire. So, yeah "he transformed a mob of untrained soldiers to the most formidable army of his generation"
His military genius was only 1/10th of his overall genius, he modernized nearly all things, industry and workers rights, military, etc
to say he was an amazing man is underselling it, it was only by the desire of decadent monarchs that he was undone.
anthony elenga
Thanks, Anthony! Fortunately today, the French are proud of his accomplishments! All of them. We still use some of those... and most don't even know it!
Every time someone wants to conquer the world:
"Let's go for Russia next!"
"Damn it!"
Genghis Khan: Hold my Airag!
Prussians: hold my mustache
Mongols:We're the Exception!
Page 1 chapter 1 first paragraph of the book .."how to do war" states.....don't invade Russia.
Yes, yet the Soviet Union collapsed by itself. Puff
Fun fact: Napoleon was actually not short. His recorded height of 5'2" was measured in 19th-century French feet/inches, which used a different scale than English feet/inches did at the time. Napoleon's height was equivalent to approximately 5'6" in modern imperial feet/inches, which was the average height of a European male in his era.
The enduring image of Napoleon as an insecure short man is almost entirely a product of English wartime propaganda. Cartoonists and pamphleteers in England and other countries fighting the French would draw Napoleon as a short, angry, almost-juvenile tyrant in order to ridicule him for political purposes. Napoleon was well-aware of these depictions and often lamented the damage it did to his reputation. Ironically, he was more insecure about the false perceptions of his height than he was about his actual height.
I’m still taller than him, what a small little Manlet
"Ironically, he was more insecure about the false perceptions of his height than he was about his actual height." So he was still insecure about his height.
Damm true
@@0lyge0 😂😂😂😂😂
Thank you! Thought of this as soon as it was mentioned!
Yes Napoleon, the man abdicated in 1840 and died 1821. Truly a man like no other.
How did they not catch that
He meant 1814 - eighteen FOURTEEN!
I thought I was crazy too. When I saw he abdicated in 1840 I thought I was wrong because I could have sworn Waterloo was in 1815. I’m glad I wasn’t wrong and and it was just down to Napoleon’s superpowers 😆
@Kasper Boney was a retro vintage future call back time traveler. 19th Century Bitch! JoM
He was like I rather die first than Abdicate😂😂
Thanks for your compliments
Haha! You guys are so dumb. Lol. Funny though
@Drunknapoleon, General I mean Emperor, shall I prepare the men for the invasion in the east?
Lol
I loo napoleon i
I love u ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
"I loved democracy" emperor paplatine
When your enemies called you "the god of war" and they felt the need to elaborate a strategic protocol (the Trachenberg plan) saying: "if Napoleon is on the battlefield, avoid the fight; if he's not, try something", it means you achieved something in the art of war.
“Napoleon is a torrent. Moscow will act as a sponge to soak him up”
"Today I found out that Napoleon Bonaparte was not in fact especially short. The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches." Mar 23, 2010
Yes a myth and the painting(around 00:49) the vid uses to tell he is short is not his but in fact is his older brother:Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte(First King of Naples then later King of Spain).
Jim Fortune
That’s right. Napoleon was not short. I’m kinda disappointed that this channel would say that, especially considering that every other piece on Napoleon these days has this as an attention grabber at the beginning, yet it missed the guys on this video completely
He also had a habit of surrounding himself with very tall aides de camp, which pointed up the "little general" nickname, which was really more about his youth, not his height.
A great novel written from the point of view of Napoleon's first fiance is called Desiree. She was very young (14) and her older sister had already married the oldest brother, Joseph Bonaparte, who needed her dowry. Napoleon threw over Desiree for Josephine, needing political clout in Paris more than a large dowry.
Getting the last laugh, Desiree married a Marachel of France, who was adopted by the old house of Vasa in Sweden, ultimately becoming king, and Desiree, Queen. Her descendants are still the royal family of Sweden today.
Wow.
Abel J
The great irony is that the quote is from "Today I Found Out" eight years ago. I only went looking for the quote because I thought I remembered Simon pointing this out. ;->
Jim Fortune quantity not quality
If there was one historical figure I would want to talk to, it would be him.
really
no others
@@Artaee There’s tons of others. Napoleon is just at the top of the list.
Same. I always wanted to talk with a Military genius.
Like Julius Caesar and Frederick the Great
@@wheelman1324 Alexander the great
Outskirts of Infinity no doubt , no other man in history has achieved so much glory by himself
"Even when I'm gone I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes" Napoleon Bonaparte. The man's been dead for 200 years and still captures the fascination of the world ought to be the greatest man who's ever lived
Julius Caesar is the greater man
Alexander the Great might have him beat
He doesn't capture my fascination. He was just a freaking loser. No better than Putin
Napoleon idolized Caesar and Alexander, he is great, but not the greatest.
I think he surpassed them
"History is a set of Lies agreed upon". Napoleon Bonaparte.
His height rumour told in 1 sentence
@@deepyamandas1192 Welll.......Who controlled really Napoleon from behind the scenes? Real Truth in an Infinite Universe that this Earth is part of told in 1 sentence...
@@bregjejabra25 FREEMASONRY controlled him!! They rose him to power and destroyed him !!! He was a stupid minion!
Reading this quote in history class
@@davido3026
wtf are you blabbering about? are you one of those lunatics with theories with no backup information?
For some one who is so accurate I find 3 errors
1) At minute 12 a picture of Archduke Franz Ferdinand appears except he was born then.
2) Napoleon abdicated in 1840 yet he died in 1821
3) At minute 19 during the battle of Waterloo a picture is shown from the charge of the Light Brigade from the Crimean war.
Really Simon I think there is an issue of quality control here
Ashley
I thought how come he got a photograph and not Napoleon ?!
I don’t think pictures mature too much...
don't forget that the British combined with the Spanish to fight the Royal Navy, which resulted in the French losing their navy
And he wasn't 5'2", but closer to 5'7"/5'8"
@@BH-2023 5’2” is in French unit, he commented clarifying that
Well yes I am a great man. Britain didn’t declare war in France, they declared war on ME
hey sire!
Same energy as: I'm not trapped in here wth you, you're trapped in here with ME!
"I am not the emperor of france, I am the emperor of the french"
Oui Monsieur! And don't worry, you are definitely average height!!! For the time...😉
British Propaganda: Hold my Fish and Chips...
🤣
One of the greatest man that ever lived. His only fault was that at one point he stopped listening his aids and started to believe himself to be invincible.
he might've still kept his position as emperor if he has kept talleyrand
usually that's what happens when you always win, one needs to remember his/her roots to keep him grounded. Pride (αλαζονία) in Greek histories (tales - historical or otherwise) is the number one sin any great man or person of a certain skill can commit and it will lead him/her with mathematical accuracy to his/her downfall. Pride was considered to have such a disastrous effect that would be considered akin to blasphemy and in mythology Gods would interfere to strike the sinner down - cautionary stories for children.
Tends to happen when you take on the world 🤣
@Divalvaro I meant before that
As they all do…
"5 coalitions made of nations to defeat one man and a nation" thats a proof of his power and greatness, he carved on pages of history that he's greatest hero for the french!!
So hes like Hitler Russia USA and the British empire finally made him shoot himself. napolean tried to commit suicide but failed just like he failed to make a French empire
12:09 that's the wrong picture, the person in the picture is Archduke Franz Ferdinand, not Francis II
Kevin Gonzalez im glad you noticed too. i was about to point that out.
It should have been obvious even to them that it's not the correct image because IT'S A FUCKING PHOTOGRAPH!
Finally someone else noticed. I thought I was going crazy.
yeh
Okay good, I'm still having my coffee in the morning but seeing Franz Ferdinand and then "the Spring of 1800" threw me off entirely.
You mistakenly say that Napoleon abdicated in April of 1840, which was long after his death in 1821.
I know he said it correctly but the text displayed at the bottom of the screen showed the year as 1840.
Yep, i saw that too :-)) it's at 17.00 and i think it must be 1814.
saw that too, good catch sir
That's because he died in 1940 at the hands of German soldiers.
I saw him with Elvis in McDonald's just 2 days ago
You didnt mention one of the central reasons for his military success. He purged the french army of aristocratic leaders and promoted men of low birth based purely off of merit, making them extremely loyal to Napoleon. This was unheard of in Europe at the time and made his army the strongest and best led army on the continent. Still a great video!
It was the biggest army in numbers. Just like Hitlers. But he killed off so many Frenchmen that France never recovered again . Check the population statistics. We dont give credit to big armies winning battles, We give credit to the underdogs like Wellingtons thin red line at Waterloo who routed the Imperial Guard ,or old guard, or young guard, who cares they all died or ran away. le Gaurde Recule. Run away everyone the British will bayonet us and steal our hats.
Well he preached that but many times he handed out positions to nobility and close family. He only used merit based promotion as a propaganad a tool
1:30 - Chapter 1 - Early life
3:05 - Chapter 2 - Military academy
4:50 - Chapter 3 - Paris in flames
6:40 - Chapter 4 - Taking control
8:50 - Chapter 5 - Victory after victory
11:40 - Chapter 6 - Absolute power
14:30 - Chapter 7 - Austerlitz
15:40 - Chapter 8 - The russian campaign
16:50 - Chapter 9 - Exile & return
18:20 - Chapter 10 - Downfall
While it is informative of Bonaparte's story, the video offers no insights into Napoleon's 'strategic genius'.
Well that’s the point, it’s a biography after all.
Napoleon is 5'6 but this idiot said he's just 5'2
@@rhammanuel4162 yes he technically was 5'2 but in a different measurement I read a comment a bit higher saying yes he was 5'2 in french feet/inches but in english feet/inches he was 5'6 idk I forgot what they said exactly
@@falseprofit2569 Read the same comment.
I also felt cheated because I watched this just so I could get insight into Napoleon's strategies. I mean I already knew Napoleon's history, but I did learn some things about him.
“ The Royal Navy smashed the combined Spanish British Fleet” lmao ok
That's the power of rum for you!
@@JA-eq5um It wasn't that the French navy was bad, it was simply the British navy that was too good.
Vespelian literally made me lol 😆
I was confused too and rewind it multiple times.
tell mr president how can i become a president?
Ludwig van Beethoven's life is very much linked to Napoleon, with his composition of the E major 3rd Symphony which he initially titled "Bonaparte," but later called "Eroica" ("Heroic Symphony, Composed to celebrate the memory of a great man"). He changed this title due to Napoleon's crowning himself Emperor, which completely changed his view of him as a true humanitarian reformer.
At Napoleon's death in 1821, he remarked regarding the second movement (Marcia funebre - Adagio assai) "I have already composed the proper music for that catastrophe."
The Eroica Symphony is one of the most written-about musical compositions ever, and it ought to be talked about in a future biography of Beethoven.
The devil it had been unchained... the soldiers they loved him..... Who wrote your script? An Italian?
An Australian with creative license by an Englishman.
Thank you! These videos are great, but I find that really distracting - it’s called pronominal apposition, or ‘double subjects’ (e.g. “the French, they surrendered”).
I think English is not his first language, the accent is flawless but he has weird syntax sometimes.
It's done for dramatic effect. He's trying to keep these interesting and not just lectures
@@MsJubjubbird Doing it once is dramatic effect. Doing it repeatedly is annoyingly distracting.
France in 1799: “Yay! We are no longer a monarchy!”
Napoleón: “Yeah, Imma ‘bout to do what they call a ‘pro gamer move’...”
@Nogent
Yeah, and think that’s because of Napoleon. He was a great military leader that became a national hero for his work during the Revolution. He got power via a coup de ta of the consulate, which was very corrupt and unstable at that time. The French people didn’t know Napoleon wanted to be an emperor, but they also didn’t when he did
He was 5'7" in English inches.
One thing you had wrong though was that most of the problems at his final battle were actually caused by the overconfidence of his generals, not tactical mistakes made by himself. (Like general Ney's charge with all the cavalry into British square formations which left Napoleon's flanks open.) Also the Old guard was purposefully held back because they were just as much morale support as actual high quality soldiers, as long as they remained in the field the army wouldn't surrender or retreat. This meant that if something went wrong while they where in the field the remainder of the army would almost certainly lose hope and break into a full retreat.
Nice video Simon, sorry for being pedantic, but Napoleon was 5”2 in French inches, which is about 5”7 in British inches, making him about average for the time.
Daniel Gardner
WE KNOW!!!!
As soon as I heard that I'm like "triggered!"
He was above the average height for that time.
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
he was "above average" in height for the time only because Europe had a much younger population back then, with a much greater proportion of the population consisting of children and young adolescents than today, hence the lower average height of a male compared to today. So he was still pretty short for a full grown adult man from France.
History lesson 101: DONT INVADE RUSSIA!
Tyson these guys all end up in russia sooner or later
Everybody fucks that part up tho
There is a way to invade Russia. Just don't get so ahead of yourself while doing it
@@tylerfleming1662 except for the mongols
@@jagpalsukhraj hahahahaha you got me
Im still learning the whole story, but an ancestor in my family was one of the army members that helped hide him during the war to survive and later knighted a Bartholomew for helping him so loyally.
Nobody cares.
That’s epic. What was the ancestor’s name?
@@halfofapicture I will need to go back into my ancestry account as my MIL helped me find it. I don’t speak to anyone on my mothers side so when MIL found this out we learnt more about where my side of the family came from. Unfortunately I don’t remember the last name so I will be happy to update when I know it for sure!
@@GustavoRodriguez-cv5qw then isnt it a good thing you can get back into living your miserable life of not caring? Magic huh? 😂
@@melissacorrigan84 Magic would be if you had a brain that works 🤣😂🤣😂🤣
He changed the legal system by codifying the laws, and his system is still used today (not just in France). Also, I'm rather disappointed you didn't mention Josephine. Can we have an episode on her?
What did you expect; the video is made by a Brit
The video maker is an id-iot who doesn't even know that Napoleon was actually 2cm taller than the average man at the time lol.
What did you expect?
No feminists please get out
He was not a small man! He was 5 foot, 2 inches but the French inches at the time were longer than the English. Which would make him 1.70 meters today, average/ slightly above average at the time. Even rather large for a Corsican.
Shame on you Simon...
James TheCat
It's not much of a crime you know, Simon was only talking about his height, not his....
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
Ego cope. He was short, look at the historical paintings. Deal with it, heightists!
@@ersturdevant2831 he was seen as short in paintings because he surrounded himself with the imperial guard, which were some of the tallest and best troops in Europe
@@SaintJust1214 The fact that imperial guards are tall doesn't disprove that Napoleon was short.
It should also be mentioned that he is one of the 2 people in history to have spent the night in the egyptian pyramid and come out alive and sane
space chowkidar who is the second?
@@yankees29 not sure but if i remember correctly it is edgar cayce.
@@politicaljustice2136 Not True I am the second
He was not sane.
“Napoleon was 5’2”
*Also than proceeds to show a picture of Louis Bonaparte*
that really hurt
8 Honey
That was Joseph
Napoleon was 5' 7" in English measurements. The average Frenchman at the time was 5' 5" in English measurements. The "Napoleon was short myth" was from his height being measued in French Imperial units of 5' 2" which equalled the English 5' 7". He looked small next to his" Old Guard" who were 6' tall plus a tall bearskin hat.. The " Little Corporal" was a term of endearment by his bodyguard. The British took the bearskin hats and adopted them after Waterloo.
I proudly made a research paper about Napoleon Bonaparte my freshman year of high school. The topic was "Your hero". I got an A+
Napoleon was five feet seven inches tall.
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
Biographics
No confusion, people are more sensitive about Napoleons height than they are about the fact that their life goals have been pathetically reduced to griping at strangers about old, trivial facts that have no bearing on history anyway.
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
Dante Froghst
stalin was a hobbit as well, 5 feet 6 inches lol
13:47 I think you mean, the royal navy smashed the combined Spanish ***French*** fleet?
Not exactly. The Spanish French destroyed many British navy and even killed the admiral Nelson who led the British navy
@Eliot Thexton ah
Emperor Vespasian would make a fascinating topic to discuss. He saved the Roman Empire from the brink of self distruction by being uniquely caring, open minded and strong. He was also born to mule hearding peasants and only gained his position by sheer merit. There are few rags to riches stories quite as huge in scale as his.
“If you put a quote under my name, people will believe it.”
-napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon was the epitome of what people want in a leader, but rarely do people know what they want or what's actually good for them.
People know what they want in a leader, they simply don't know what it costs.
@@jarhead21100 think of all the people that voted Joe Biden into office...lol...do people really know what they want in a leader?
@@Godsglory777 they wanted a guy who wasn't Trump. They didn't know what it would cost.
16:58 He died 1821 He abdicated 1814
2:06 Why is there a picture of Archduke Ferdinand when you're talking about Francis II?
Prins van Oranje yeah wtf
My family housed Leaticia (his mother) and his brothers and sisters in Marseille when they arrived from Corsica as refugees from the Paoli regime. We shared similar roots as both of our families were from Genoa. And Italians help each other out, especially those living abroad, even naturalized French as he was. They were poor (many sisters, minimal prospects) and we gave them shelter and clothes....he was a totally unknown artillery lieutenant with very limited career prospects. Lucien (or Luciano) became a very close friend of the family. We possessed love letters between Josephine and Napoleon but these were sold many, many years ago....
What an honor!
Really?
a small price to pay for salvation
@@christopherpeery7436 I have very mixed feelings. Millions of people died because of him. Without the French revolution, he would have been nothing. And yet he remains adored in France and in the wider world....
@@Truthseeker1515 the story is a little more complicated .. that he is responsible for millions of deaths and without him the revolution would not have survived
"My enemies are many but my equal are none." -Napoleon Bonaparte
So you can quote Boney; whats your point
@@michaelbrett3749 pretty sure Napoleon didnt actually say that, since its a quote from the trailer lf Napoleon Total War which is probably the most baddass Trailer weve ever got in the series in its speech alone
@@Freedmoon44 “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte He did call himself a genius . History shows otherwise.
You failed to mention that he challenged 40 other boys when being bullied. After beating the best of them they soon left him alone afterward.
His father was smart.He fought,he lost,made peace and did well with the French.
Quite a few silly mistakes. Surprised that you aren't more careful. There are incorrect illustrations, dates, other images, dialog, etc.
Surprised you haven’t created your own video yet. Im sure it’ll be vastly superior.
@@SKa-tt9nm Why bother? I just want to be passively entertained. And YT does that.
Sometimes I want to be informed and YT usually does that well enough.
wholeNwon Judging by the amount of comments saying his information is incorrect, I’d trust his word sooner than I trust yours.
"There is no immortality, only the memory that is left in the minds of men"- Napoleon Bonaparte, let us hope that we will never forget a military and political genius such as Napoleon.
16:56 damn, napoleon was so OP that even death couldn't keep him subdued for long. he came back from the grave 19 years later, just to abdicate and say "you didn't beat me. I quit"
Only to be followed by many generations of French wussies. "Please Adolf don't hurt Paris, we give up!" They need to stick to making salad dressing and wine cause the can't make soldiers.
Napoleon was not a short man for the time. As others have pointed out he was only measured at 5’2 because French and British measurements were different at the time. He would be measured at 5’7 today which was average height back then
Martin Fawkes yea that was an obvious mistake that really annoyed me.
This reminds me of people who refer to Hitler as a small man--he was 5'9 about average, the SS were exceptionally tall by design, I suppose that Hitler standing next to several SS officers would seem short, LOL, why shortness is being conflated with evil and authoritarianism is something we might ponder, LOL, although Stalin was only 5'4..
Owen Connelly addresses this common argument in a footnote in his book BLUNDERING TO GLORY. At his death, N's entourage measured him & recorded that he was 5' 2". The argument that " 5 feet 2 inches in French units" equals "5 feet 7 inches" in British Imperial units. But as Connelly points out that would assume they had in their possession a pre-revolutionary yardstick! N introduced the metric
Martin ...the women who met him described him as short not average alo his clothes show he was 5-2
17:00 I'm pretty sure Napoleon was long since dead by 1840. I'm also pretty sure that he abdicated in 1814.
WOW I was just think this morning why hasn't Simon done a video on Napoleon??? Then I check my You Tube Feed... Boom.. Napoleon. Kind of creepy you read my mind. Good video too. Maybe when you get the time do Charles de Gaulle?
We did a video on our sister channel a few years ago about Napoleon as well. ua-cam.com/video/UbkQ9ZFR6nM/v-deo.html - Shell
Well going to watch it now
He was about 5’7”
You forgot to talk about the peninsula war . And didn't talk enough about the 4th coalition and the battle of ffiedland in 1807 and created the duchy of warsaw. Plus you didn't show the map of the French empire
Napoleon Bonaparte raised from dirt to the throne of France, he was the natural successor of Alexander the Great and of Julius Caesar; then he did the unimaginable mistake of engaging in a two-front war attacking Spain and Portugal while invading Russia. Sent twice into exile, he got the brilliant idea of writing his memoirs: even in permanent defeat, he overcame the death of forgetfulness living through this day as a hero for the ages, something his enemies couldn't avoid!!
He was 5'7"...
The Liberal Teen taller then me forever alone ..... Lol
The myth that he was short stems primarily from the fact that he is listed as 5 feet 2 inches tall at the time of his death. However, this is 5 feet 2 inches in French units. In modern international units, he was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches. - Sorry for the confusion.
Biographics oooooooo
Why did you still say he was short then?...........
Jimbobjim jim yeah thats still short
Napoleon last words:
"In Russia, land conquers you".
and now, you may drop the mike
*drops mike wasowsky*
I'm a random guy. Who knks really few about history but i can tell you thqt you forgot a lot about Napoleon.
After Napoleon won at toulon in 1794 he was promoted brigadier General right : right
But after Robespierre fall the new government came to power which made Napoleon lost his title of brigadier General
Then during the royalists protesting in Paris he had another opportunity so he took some guns cqll hiw Calvary General friend Murat and shoot on the people which made more than 200 casualties his cruelty and sympathy Less mqde him famous among tye government so he got to be General and in charge of the army in southern France to attack Italy
OG role call!!!where you at?
Europe: Let me get this straight, you think that conquering those countries is funny?
Bonaparte: *I do. And I'm tired of pretending it's not*
11:58 Um.......Franz Ferdinand II wasn't even alive in 1800. IDK why you chose a photo of a guy who didn't exist yet, plus photography wasn't invented yet!
It is an incorrect photograph but photography was first being experimented with in the early 1700's. The major trouble was capturing permanent images. But images in a liquid that would disappear if shaken or exposed to too much light where achieved by 1717. Through the rest of the 1700's and early 1800's people experimented with a variety of techniques until in the 1820's the first true permanent photographs where done that still exist today. The chemicals used in "modern" analog photography where discovered in the 1600's including their light-sensitive properties being observed. It's shame nobody put two and two together earlier or we could have had photographs as far back as the 1630's.
Napoleón was not a narcissist, just a rich dude that got close to strong powers and took over, then failed on his goal, he knew what war meant for his people and tried to take over Europe for his people.
I don't think the royal navy smashed the Spanish British fleet
Actually Napoelon wasn't that short.
The ominous number of 5 foot 2 is due to the difference of measuerements in France and Britain in the Napoleonic age and due to british propaganda!
0:46 That was Napoleon's brother Joseph, who became King of Naples and Spain.
"The greatest man of action in 19th century Europe"--Winston Churchill
He was extraordinary in more ways than one can wrap the mind around. All the miles from Europe to Africa to Russia without motor; enlightenment itself on horseback.
@steve hammond I understand why this argument sounds credible, but Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire built and remained a big part of his foundational thought process. And life happens.
Ideas behind the enlightenment are mutually exclusive from real life only as written by philosophers of the enlightenment, or if you were royalty.
I see his life's work inexorably driven by the "Enlightenment".
@steve hammond I understand why this argument sounds credible, but Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire built and remained a big part of his foundational thought process. And life happens.
Ideas behind the enlightenment are mutually exclusive from real life only as written by philosophers of the enlightenment, or if you were royalty.
I see his life's work inexorably driven by the "Enlightenment".
The first transition music was "the sugar fairy" ironic, since it was composed by Tchaikovski, a Russian. The conquest that was the begin of Napoleon's end...
Can you do Jerry Garcia
The British are salty about Napoleon to this day. They wish they had a figure as amazing as him so they continue to smear him and devalue his importance to this day
Vive l’Empeurer!
TRoL MaRz Empereur*
scared of the British
Trolling is a hobby. Even for me.
Its my first view and I really liked your channel. And was kind of loved it at the beginning when I heard "Dance of the sugar plum fairies". ❤
13:50 - Why would the Royal Navy have smashed "the combined Spanish-British fleet"???
Hahahahhaha I just can't but yeah mistakes happen
Admiral nelson was too good for navy battle tactics
how about beerhoven
Notice how they never brought up the Haitian revolution.
The consistent quality of videos that Mr. Whistler and his team produce over their several channels is pretty remarkable. Even when they cover subjects I may not really have any interest in, the way they present the information, even given the broad overview and generalities that are their simply due to the short length of the videos, they make the subject interesting. Kind of like Fresh Air with Terri Gross or To the Best of Our Knowledge on NPR. That's a rare gift and I glad Simon and his team possess such a gift.
Fresh Air? That is high praise indeed. - Shell
Generalities that are their... Really? They're, their, and there. Learn the difference. Not that hard.
LOL I accidentally used "their" instead of "there" and some knucklehead thinks it was done out of ignorance even after correctly using "their" in the first sentence of my comment. Just because it aggravates you I'm not editing it because sometimes you just gotta let things go. I don't care if people think I'm stupid but I wonder if you care if people think you're a pedantic jerk-face.
Biographics aren’t they pro neo liberal agenda tho.. Napoleon was 5’7 , the video just try’s to downplay him. If this was Saladin or Zulu they would have tried their best to get history accurate. There were a lot of inaccuracies with the Aztecs too. There is no proof of their mass sacrifice compared to that of the Spanish Inquisitions and Crusades.
Can't wait to see 1 million subscriptions! ❤ Love love Biographics.
For anyone who's comparing Napoleon to Suvorov, here's my answer.
I rather lose to a lion than win against a mouse.
Napoleon faced capable generals , Suvorov faced dumb Kings who know little about military tactics.
His genius rested primarily on taking other people's ideas and running with them....about the only thing he did that was original was come up with a new way of marching, which increased his ground speed considerably. None of this is a put down; Alexander inherited the fine Macedonian army from his father; you work with what you have. But Napoleon's grasp of tactical greatness began to fade while he was still relatively young; once his armies became big enough, he was content to muster his artillery in one spot, blast away, and send in large numbers of troops.....not much tactical genius in that. Long before Waterloo, he was losing his touch.
Wow, it took 27 years for the coalition to defeat Napoleon after the victory at Leipzig?! That was a long time.......
Wild how a person could be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for stealing bread, or death for striking a superior officer in anger, but Napoleon is simply exiled. Even in defeat the powerful are handled with kidskin gloves.
Um one confusing part. When you said he went into exile in 1840 you said he escaped ten months later in 1815. Im not sure how 35 years earlier is the same as 10 months later?
Ben Craighead he means 1814 since he died in 1821
Ben Craighead rewriting history..
He said 1814, if you listen instead of reading what it said.
Wow, just found Biographics for the first time today. Thanks, Simon. I know it's a group, and not just you, but you are great on camera and really make the material pop off the screen. Thanks for you and your group working so hard.
Simon is just the disappointing, unattractive face who still hasn't been taught to talk in a normal and pleasant way
No mention of the ass whooping that he and French army to in Haiti huh?
Get your facts right, he was 5’6
Notification squad :D
Simon, you and your team are easily one of the hardest working group of people on UA-cam. Your balance of quality and quantity is unmatched on the platform.
Vault Dude agreed
funny to see you here lol
Vault Dude I'll second that!! Great job!! ;)
Would be better if it was accurate.
Vault dude
You seem to be a bit thick, don't you? Most of the info they mention is wrong, the images are horribly incorrect.
Put it this way, I wouldn't base my exams on anything in this 'content'. It's rushed out and poorly researched.
You'd be better off checking wikipedia.
"Archduke Francis II" *shows photo of Franz Ferdinand*
Also, Francis II was Holy Roman Emperor, not just a mere archduke.
The rest of the clip is quite good though
Holy Roman Empire was a joke. It was an addition of small provinces leaded by small princes and dukes... As Voltaire said :"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire"
No mention of Lo’hopital?
He was 5’6
He was an even greater tactical genius. He was too well balanced to defeat without the overwhelming power that eventually happened with Waterloo.
You need a new picture editor. She or he is making some absolute howlers.
Jolyon Wagg then maybe you should do it........
Jolyon Wagg p
people laugh at me for being short but then when they see how much taller I am then they are when laying down they stop laughing real fast
1:22 oh it's David Mitchell
Was I hearing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in between chapters?