How tall was Napoleon

[Gustav Kuriga]

Nice to see Aurvandil has been knocked down to proper size. I was seriously tired of these ridiculously-coordinated army stacks gangbanging everything in their path. Always suspected Mendi and a few others were cheaters, I just hope they stay gone for good. They'll probably pop in again sometime but after losing all their work its unlikely they'll bother playing in the long-term.

What's Aurvandil like these days? Still the arrogant French Empire or has that unassailable attitude shifted? I always visualized Mendicant as an ultra-cocky Napoleon, stature and all. I hope there are still some good RPers in Aurvandil. While some of the racist and offensive overtones seriously pissed me off, I really enjoyed the upper-tier writing quality.

Napoleon was rather tall for his time...

[Ehndras]

Quite tall? From what I was taught in Brazil and USA, he was very short. Comically-so.

[Vita`]

While I don't recall his actual height, I do recall that a lot of the basis for the Napoleon short jokes was from british propaganda during the napoleonic wars.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Quite tall? From what I was taught in Brazil and USA, he was very short. Comically-so.

Yeah... just going to say right now that America's track record on teaching objective history to students is rather... checkered, to say the least.

[Ehndras]

Huh. Apparently he was actually 5'7. Still shortish, but not that much.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Huh. Apparently he was actually 5'7. Still shortish, but not that much.

That's actually only short compared to modern day Europeans, it was actually tall for the time period.

[Feylonis]

That's tall by South-East Asian standards. I stand at a measly 5'6 myself!

[Arundel]

I stand at a measly 5'6 myself!

You and me both. I feel your pain.

[Jaden]

So does BM attract short people or what... I'm 5'6 also (tell people i am 5'7), Napoleon Complex ftw

[Wolfsong]

Both the English and French at the time of the Napoleonic War used different standards for an inch, I believe. It was something to do with that.

[Ehndras]

Oh damn. I'm 5'11 and I'm short compared to my father. My growth effectively halted after 15 due to anemia. I know South Americans tend to be short, my mother is 5'2, but Dutch/Germans like my father seem to generally be taller. I've met some pretty tall asians, actually.

[Chenier]

While I don't recall his actual height, I do recall that a lot of the basis for the Napoleon short jokes was from british propaganda during the napoleonic wars.

What what I read, this is the case. Another cause was the fact that french imperial units were longer than the british ones, so just saying his height in feet, without saying it was french feet, made him sound shorter than he actually was.

[Roran]

*secretly is 6'5*


I didn't know that about Napoleon yet though. Interesting. Can anyone delve deeper into the subject, or would wikipedia give me all I need?

[Buffalkill]

From Wikipedia:Napoleon's height was 5 ft 2 French inches according to Antommarchi at Napoleon's autopsy and British sources put his height at 5 foot and 7 British inches: both equivalent to 1.7 m.[188]Napoleon surrounded himself with tall bodyguards and had a nickname of le petit caporal which was an affectionate term that reflected his reported camaraderie with his soldiers rather than his height.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon#Image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_Napoleon#Napoleon.27s_height

[Foxglove]

I'm fairly sure I remember once reading that the idea of Napoleon being particularly short came from a British newspaper cartoon by a famous satirist of the era that pictured him being held in the hand of either Wellington or the British king. I can't remember the specific source of that detail, though.