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Napoleon's height is sometimes described as being 5 foot 2 inches tall, which would definitely make him short for his era. However, there is a strong argument that this figure is wrong and that Napoleon was actually about 5 foot 6 inches tall, no shorter than the average Frenchman.
Napoleon Bonaparte [b] (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; [1] [c] 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military officer and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from ...
Though Napoleon's height was measured at 5'2" and he was derided as short, he was actually closer to 5'7" in modern inches.
In fact, he was probably of average height. According to pre–metric system French measures, he was a diminutive 5′2.” But the French inch (pouce) of the time was 2.7 cm, while the Imperial inch...
In reality, Napoleon was not so small. According to historians, he was actually above average height for a Frenchman in that era. But the legend of his diminutive size persists.
At the time of his death, he measured 5 feet, 2 inches, in French units, the equivalent of about 5 feet, 6 inches, (169 centimeters) in modern measurement units, notes the National Gallery of Victoria. For reference, the global mean height for men born in 1996 and measured at age 18 in 2014 was 171 centimeters, or 5 feet 7.3 inches.
The estimated average height of a French man in 1820 was 5 feet 4 inches (about 1.65 meters). At the time of his death in 1821, Napoleon measured about 5 feet 7 inches (roughly 1.68 meters) tall, meaning that he was actually of above-average height.
Although the range may seem short by 21st-century standards, it was typical in the 19th century, when most Frenchmen stood between 5’2” and 5’6” (1.58 and 1.68 meters) tall. Napoleon was thus average or taller, no matter the interpretation.
Explore the extraordinary life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte, the great military genius who took France to unprecedented heights of power, and then brought it to its knees when his ego spun...
The general consensus among historians is that Napoleon was approximately 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall, which was not significantly shorter than the average height of Frenchmen in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.