The greatest Frenchman ever – or perhaps not

Did Napoleon do more harm than good? Yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the French leader’s death, but modern historians have deeply divided opinions about his legacy. Emmanuel Macron was treading on eggshells yesterday as he laid a wreath at Napoleon’s tomb in Les Invalides. The French president was taking part, his team insisted, in a “commemoration, not a celebration”. His speech for the occasion was designed to be “neither hagiographic, nor a denial, nor repentance”; he did not want to give “a retrospective judgment 10 generations later”. His caution was understandable. Napoleon may be the most famous Frenchman in history, but even within the country he ruled, he is a divisive figure. To his admirers, particularly on the right of the political spectrum, he is a national hero – not just as the winner of famous victories, but also a brilliant administrator who laid the foundations of modern French society. Through the Napoleonic Code, he defined civil law across large parts of the world. His reforms ranged from the introduction of higher education to improved road and sewer systems; he also encouraged science and the arts. According to his biographer Andrew Roberts, “The ideas that underpin our modern world – meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on – were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon.” His brilliant mind, Roberts adds, could concentrate on many different things at once. “He laid down the rules for a girls’ boarding school on the eve of the battle of Borodino, for example, and the regulations for Paris’s Comédie Française while camped in the Kremlin.” To his critics, however, Napoleon was a warmongering autocrat. Élisabeth Moreno, France’s equality minister, describes him as “one of the great misogynists”. He is particularly derided for reintroducing slavery – which had been abolished during the French Revolution – to France’s possessions in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. France’s greatest soldier actually came from an Italian family. Born on Corsica, he did not learn to speak French until he was sent to a military academy at the age of nine – and his 33,000 surviving letters show that he never mastered French spelling. In 1793, aged 24, he made his mark as an artillery officer with a brilliant plan which ended the British siege of Toulon. His reputation was cemented two years later when he foiled an attempt by royalist rebels to seize the Tuileries Palace. As a general he transformed France from a country in danger of being crushed by its European neighbours into a formidable military power. But in 1804 the man who had been hailed as a “son of the Revolution” shocked many admirers by declaring himself emperor. Always keen to promote his image, he had a portrait painted of himself crossing the Alps on a magnificent horse. In fact, he had made the journey on a mule. Finally defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, he was exiled to the remote island of St Helena, where he died in a rat-infested house at the age of 51. Did Napoleon do more harm than good? A Bonaparte apart Some say, no. France was in a parlous state after the Revolution, with different factions fighting for power, and could easily have been overrun by its enemies. Napoleon provided it with strong military and political leadership at a crucial moment. He also instituted reforms that have made it the powerful and respected country it is today, and have benefited other nations too. Others argue that Napoleon essentially reversed the French Revolution so that the sacrifice of the thousands who died during it was in vain. Liberals believed that he would champion a new democratic Europe, but by making himself emperor he reaffirmed the old autocratic order. The wars he waged caused death and destruction across the Continent and brought untold misery to its inhabitants. KeywordsCorsica - An island in the Mediterranean that has been part of France since the 18th Century.