There is a general belief that Napoleon Bonaparte was
unusually short, and that he is therefore part of the common perception that
dictators tend to be short people who make up for it by being particularly
unpleasant to everybody else and conquering as many countries as they can. But,
in Napoleon’s case, is this true?
Short dictators
Dictators are short people, aren’t they? Joseph Stalin was 5
foot 5 inches, as was Vladimir Lenin. Mussolini was 5 foot 6, Adolf Hitler was
5 foot 8 (not particularly short, but only average for a German of his time)
and Kim Jong Il was a mere 5 foot 3 (perhaps an unfair comparison, given that
Koreans are not particularly tall people anyway).
By contrast, democratic western leaders are tall and
well-built, and thus so assured of their stature that they don’t have to get
nasty and start invading their neighbours just to get their own back on the
unfairness of life. Hence you have General de Gaulle at 6 foot 5, Abraham
Lincoln at 6 foot 4 and F D Roosevelt at 6 foot 2.
However, the many exceptions to these trends would seem to
cast a dampener on the general theory. There have been many tall dictators,
including Fidel Castro at 6 foot 3, Saddam Hussein at 6 foot 2 and Idi Amin at
6 foot 4. There have also been some notable short non-dictators, such as
Winston Churchill at 5 foot 6.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon has certainly been part of the “lack of height
equals dictatorial tendencies” myth. The story that has gained common currency
is that he was only 5 foot 2 inches tall, and that he wore thick-soled boots to
make himself look taller. But was this true?
The idea that Napoleon was on the small side derives from a
1910 French biography of Napoleon that contained the statement: “Napoleon was
of mediocre stature (about 5 foot 2 inches) and well built”. This implies that
he was short and tubby.
However, this statement does not agree with British accounts
that give his height as 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7. These include the opinions of
contemporaries who were in regular contact with Napoleon during his exile on St
Helena after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. That said, his official height at
his death in 1821 was given in French sources as being 5 foot 2.
A difference of measurement
There is every reason to believe that both the French and
British measurements of Napoleon’s height were correct. How was this possible?
The answer is that the French and British foot were not the same, with the
French foot being slightly longer than the British foot. A height of 5 foot 2
in France would be equivalent to 5 foot 6 in Britain.
The system of weights and measures in France was reformed in
1799 with the introduction of the metric system. Napoleon would have been 30
years old at the time, so it is not surprising that his early contemporaries
would have estimated his height in the old style.
There was also a hiatus from about 1812 to 1837 during which
the new system fell out of favour and people reverted to the old measurements.
When Napoleon died in 1821 it would therefore have been natural to give his
height in French feet and inches.
So there we have it. At a British height of 5 foot 6
Napoleon would not have appeared to be particularly short, especially as the
average height of a Frenchman at that time was around 5 foot 5.
He would, however, have fitted in well as a member of the
short dictators club as mentioned above. Had they been contemporaries, he would
have been able to look Lenin and Stalin in the eye and only been slightly
overshadowed by Hitler!
© John Welford
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