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Napoleon Bonaparte was about 1.69 metres tall, roughly average for a Frenchman of his day. The myth that he was tiny grew from confusion between French and English units of length and from British cartoons that mocked him as ‘Little Boney’.

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At his autopsy on St Helena in 1821, Napoleon's height was recorded in old French units as 5 pieds 2 pouces 4 lignes. French units were longer than English ones, so this comes to about 1.69 metres. Read as English feet and inches, ‘5 foot 2’ suggests about 1.57 metres, and the mistake stuck. British caricaturists, above all James Gillray, drew him as a tiny, bad-tempered figure called ‘Little Boney’, short for Bonaparte. His soldiers' nickname for him, le Petit Caporal (the Little Corporal), was a term of affection, traditionally dated to the Battle of Lodi in 1796, and had nothing to do with his height. The myth even gave its name to the ‘Napoleon complex’, the idea that short men are more aggressive, for which studies have found only mixed evidence.

Türkçe oku
Napolyon Bonapart yaklaşık 1,69 metre boyundaydı; bu, döneminin Fransız erkekleri için ortalama bir boydu. Kısa boylu olduğu efsanesi, Fransız ve İngiliz uzunluk birimlerinin karıştırılmasından ve onu “Küçük Boney” diye alaya alan İngiliz karikatürlerinden doğdu.

Napolyon 1821'de Saint Helena Adası'nda öldü; otopside boyu eski Fransız ölçüleriyle 5 pieds 2 pouces 4 lignes olarak kaydedildi. Eski Fransız birimleri İngiliz birimlerinden uzundu; bu ölçü bugünkü birimlerle yaklaşık 1,69 metre eder. Aynı rakamlar İngiliz ölçüsüyle okununca 1,57 metre gibi bir boy çıkıyordu ve yanlış böyle yerleşti. Başta James Gillray olmak üzere İngiliz karikatüristler onu, Bonaparte adından türetilen “Küçük Boney” lakabıyla ufacık ve huysuz bir adam olarak çizdi. Askerlerinin ona taktığı “le Petit Caporal” (Küçük Onbaşı) lakabının ise boyuyla ilgisi yoktu; sevgiyle söylenirdi ve geleneğe göre 1796'daki Lodi Muharebesi'nden kalmaydı. Kısa boylu erkeklerin daha saldırgan olduğu iddiası da adını bu efsaneden alır ve “Napolyon kompleksi” diye anılır; araştırmaların bu konudaki bulguları ise çelişkilidir.

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Background reading: Napoleon
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