By Suzanne Desan, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? We all have the same popularized images in our mind: Napoleon on a dashing white horse—a stunning military leader. We envision him also as a political leader, standing in that trademark pose, with his hand reaching into his jacket, parked against his stomach.
Here, we’ll look at the younger Bonaparte—from his childhood to a military man.
Napoleon as a Child
Napoleone Buonaparte (later to be renamed as the more recognized, and more French “Napoleon Bonaparte“) came from a minor noble family; they weren’t wealthy. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, was a lawyer and a social scrambler. He tried out lots of different business ventures with varying success. He wound up dying early in 1785, in debt—he was a big spender, and his latest venture, a mulberry plantation to produce silkworms, failed.
As a father, he was apparently indulgent, but he was also often away. He wasn’t a strong presence in Bonaparte’s later memories of his childhood. But Napoleon paid attention to his father’s ambition and inventiveness. Much later, in 1804, when he crowned himself emperor, Bonaparte muttered an aside to his older brother: “Joseph! If only our father could see us now!”
This is a transcript from the video series Living the French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon. Watch it now, Wondrium.
His mother, Letizia, was a formidable woman. She was at the heart of the boy’s emotional world. She was spirited and energetic; she asked a lot of her children. Letizia passed these dynamic traits on to the young Napoleon. She needed her energy because she gave birth 12 times, and eight of those children survived to adulthood.
Little Napoleone grew up side by side mostly with his older brother, Giuseppe (or Joseph). He was a mild-mannered kid, very different from the lively and assertive Napoleon. It would be six years before the birth of the next surviving sibling, so Joseph and Napoleon were tight friends. We can imagine them tumbling across the Corsican hills together, rivals and playmates.
Learn more about Napoleon as a young man
A Military Education
The military strand within Napoleon’s life started early. Corsica was a part of France. If noble families, like the Buonaparte, were loyal to France, they could get a leg up by sending their sons to France for school and then a career. Carlo and Letizia wanted the best for their family. In December 1778, Carlo took the two boys to France so that Joseph could train for the priesthood and Napoleon for the military. He was nine years old and didn’t see Corsica again for almost eight years.
By all accounts, Napoleon had a hard time during his six years at a military academy at Brienne in Champagne. The lifestyle was spartan and they studied a lot. Napoleon was a scholarship student; he was an outsider. He spoke French with an accent. According to one story, his classmates teased him; they said his sallow, yellow skin color came from being “suckled on olive oil.” It’s hard to know exactly what to believe from accounts and stories written by his classmates much later on. What would you say about one of your grade-school friends if he had conquered Europe?
But the memoirs consistently paint a picture of a willful kid, a loner, stubborn, maybe a little gloomy, and rough around the edges. But in these accounts, he also has a feisty streak. In one story, Napoleon led his fellow students in throwing their mattresses out the window; anything to irritate the monks who were their teachers.
He was skilled at math and even earned a prize in that subject. About history, later on he wrote, “History I conquered rather than studied.” Maybe he said that to provoke and delight historians, because, in fact, he loved ancient history and geography.
Learn more about Bonaparte in Egypt
An Early Obsession With Reading and Politics
Napoleon studied next at the elite Military Academy in Paris. He was the first Corsican to graduate from there, and he was ranked 42nd out of the class of 58. He was given a position as an officer in the artillery in 1785.
As a young officer stationed in the south of France, he had plenty of practical training: How to fire a cannon and how to position a battery. But he also read avidly. Apparently, he would skimp on money for food to buy enough books. He read all kinds of things. The Enlightenment produced military theoreticians, and after France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War, the French military was working to reform itself. For example, Jean-Baptiste Gribeauval had figured out how to make artillery more mobile. The Comte de Guibert wrote on flexible and mobile tactics and the need for citizen armies. Bonaparte devoured authors like these.
But besides his fascination with military authors, his letters also reveal that he was frustrated about his career possibilities. In the late Old Regime, no one from such a low noble background could ever make it very far up the officer ranks. The Revolution would change all that.
At this early stage of his life, the young military man had another side: He was intrigued by politics. He wolfed down works by Enlightenment political thinkers. Napoleon thought about politics through the lens of his homeland, Corisca. To understand how he learned about politics, and how he became a French revolutionary, we have to take a detour back to Corsica.
Learn more: Napoleon Becomes Emperor
In 1769, just months before Napoleon was born, the French had annexed Corsica and crushed its independence movement. Napoleon’s father had fought in that independence movement, so Napoleon grew up hearing stories of Corsican heroism. As a student and young soldier, he was obsessed with Corsican politics. In his youthful writings, he waxed poetic and patriotic about his homeland. He ranted against despotic government in general, but especially in France: “Tyranny, oppression, and injustice are devastating the earth.”
Common Questions About Young Napoleon Bonaparte
Young Napoleon Bonaparte attended a military school, run by the Minimes religious order, in Brienne from May 1779 to October 1784.
Napoleon Bonaparte was actually not short and was of average height for his time. He would have measured around 5’6″ tall.
Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium.
Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by the combined forces of Britain and Prussia.
