Napoleon the Great
Andrew Roberts · 2014
A monumental biography drawing on Napoleon’s 33,000 surviving letters, admiring but rigorous.
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1804 — 1815
Empire Napoleon
The world reference on the First French Empire
Battles decoded, biographies of marshals and sovereigns, campaign maps and chronology: everything to understand the Napoleonic epic.
70+
Battles commanded
60+
Victories
130
Departments at peak extent
11
Years of reign (1804–1815)
The Imperial Epic
Explore the many facets of this founding period.
01
Napoleon Bonaparte
From the Corsican child to master of Europe, discover the path of the man who reshaped the continent.
Explore 02Battles
Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram, Borodino… Every engagement deciphered with precision and context.
Explore 03Characters
Marshals, sovereigns, ministers: the figures who shaped the Empire and its destiny.
Explore 04The Grande Armée
Army corps, Imperial Guard, cavalry, artillery: the units that conquered Europe.
ExploreIconic Battles
The engagements that forged the Napoleonic legend.
2 December 1805
Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, fought on 2 December 1805 in Moravia, one year to the day after the coronation, is Napoleon's most famous victory. Known as the 'Battl…
Read the battle 18 June 1815
Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo, fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 south of Brussels, was Napoleon's last. Against Wellington's Anglo-allied army, entrenched on the Mont-Sai…
Read the battle 14 October 1806
Jena
The Battle of Jena, fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau above the Saale in Thuringia, pitted Napoleon against Prince Hohenlohe's Prussian and Saxon army. E…
Read the battleKey Characters
Marshals, empresses and the Emperor’s advisers.
Milestones of the Empire
The dates that marked the Napoleonic epic.
1769
Born in Ajaccio
Birth of Napoleone Buonaparte in Corsica, recently ceded by Genoa to France.
2 Dec. 1804Imperial coronation
Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame de Paris.
2 Dec. 1805Austerlitz
Victory of the Three Emperors, tactical zenith of the Grande Armée.
1812Russian campaign
The Berezina, Moscow in flames, and the Great Retreat.
18 June 1815Waterloo
End of the Hundred Days and of the Napoleonic epic.
Iconic Places
From Corsica to Saint Helena, the sites of the epic.
Napoleon's birthplace
Ajaccio
Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. The Bonaparte family home is now a national museum.…
Discover Palace and 1814 abdication
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau Palace was the scene of Napoleon's abdication on April 6, 1814. He signed the treaty granting him the island of Elba there.…
Discover Napoleon's final exile
Saint Helena
The British island of Saint Helena, lost in the South Atlantic, hosted Napoleon from October 15, 1815 until his death on May 5, 1821. Longwood House became his …
DiscoverArticles
In-depth analyses of the imperial period.
Campaigns
The Egyptian and Syrian campaign (1798-1799)
July 1798: Bonaparte crushes the Mamluks at the Pyramids, then loses his fleet at Aboukir. From Jaffa to the failed siege of Acre, the story of an expedition that failed militarily yet founded Egyptology and built the legend of the future Emperor.
11 min CampaignsThe Italian campaign (1796-1797)
March 1796: a twenty-six-year-old general takes command of a starving army. Nineteen months later, Montenotte, Lodi, Arcole and Rivoli have fallen, Mantua has surrendered, and Austria signs peace at Campo Formio: the campaign that launched Bonaparte's legend.
11 min MilitaryHow the Grande Armée was organised
Army corps, marshals, staff, the Guard, the three arms and the services: how the army that dominated Europe from 1805 to 1812 was organised, and why it wore out.
9 minRecommended Books
To deepen your knowledge of the Napoleonic period.
Napoléon ou le mythe du sauveur
Jean Tulard · 1977
The book that reshaped how the man is read: how France gave itself a saviour, and what it cost.
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Nouvelle histoire du Premier Empire
Thierry Lentz · 2002-2010
Four reference volumes on institutions, diplomacy and collapse: the scholarly synthesis of the subject.
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