(1769-1821), emperor of the French, was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, and was the son of Charles Bonaparte, an advocate, and of Letizia Ramolino. In his tenth year he was sent to the military school of Brienne, and after a short time spent at the military school of Paris he received his commission as lieutenant of artillery. In 1792 he became captain of artillery, and in 1793 he was sent to assist in the reduction of Toulon, then in the hands of the British. The place was captured almost entirely through his strategic genius; and in the following February he was made a brigadier general of artillery. In 1795, when the mob of Paris rose against the Convention, Napoleon was made commander of the five thousand troops provided for its defense. He had only a night to make arrangements, and next morning he cleared the streets with grape, disbanded the National Guard, disarmed the populace and ended the outbreak. Early in 1796 Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharnais, and soon after he had to depart to assume the command of the army of Italy against the forces of Austria and Sardinia. By a series of victories, culminating in that of Lodi, he forced Naples, Modena and Parma to conclude a peace; the pope was compelled to sign an armistice, and the whole of northern Italy was in the hands of the French. Army after army sent by Austria was defeated, and Napoleon carried the war into the enemy's country and by the Peace of Campo Formio, 1797, compelled Austria to cede the Netherlands and Lombardy in return for the Province of Venetia. The pope had previously been forced to cede part of his dominions. In December, 1797, Napoleon returned to Paris, where his favor with the people was great. The Directors, fearing him on account of his newly acquired influence, were anxious to get him out of France, and a plan soon presented itself. Realizing that, after Austria, England was the most dangerous enemy which France had, the Directors determined to strike a blow at her by invading Egypt, as a preliminary step to the conquest of British India. Napoleon was put in command of the expedition, and in July, 1798, he landed at Alexandria. This city fell after a short resistance, and Cairo was taken within the same month, after the sanguinary Battle of the Pyramids. In August the word reached the army in Egypt that Nelson had annihilated the French fleet in the Bay of Aboukir. All means of return to Europe for the French were thus cut off; but Napoleon, having suppressed with rigor a riot in Cairo, advanced to attack the Turkish forces assembling in Syria. He took El Arish and Gaza and stormed Jaffa; but after sixty days' siege he was compelled to abandon the attempt to capture Acre, which was defended by a Turkish garrison, assisted by Sir Sidney Smith and a small body of English sailors and marines. Bonaparte returned to Egypt in June, 1799, and in July attacked and almost annihilated a Turkish force which had landed at Aboukir. On August 22 he abandoned the command of the army to Kleber and sailed for France, having learned that the Directory was in danger through a royalist rising and that the people were longing for a return of some sort of order. He secured the cooperation of his brother Lucien, Talleyrand, Sieyes and others, and by a sudden stroke he abolished the Directory on the 18th and 19th Brumaire (November 9 and 10). A new constitution was then drawn up, chiefly by Sieyes, under which Napoleon was made first consul, with Cambaceres and Lebrun as second and third consuls. From this time Napoleon was virtually ruler of France. His government was marked by sagacity, activity and vigor in the administration of civil affairs, by the proclamation of complete freedom of religious worship, by the reconstruction of the school system and by the compilations of the famous body of laws known as the Code Napoleon. But war was his element, and in 1800 he resolved to strike a blow at Austria. Having executed a daring march into Italy across the Great Saint Bernard, he defeated the Austrians at Marengo, and after the decisive Battle of Hohenlinden forced Austria to conclude peace by the Treaty of Luneville. Treaties were subsequently concluded with Spain, Naples, the pope, Bavaria, Portugal, Russia and Turkey, and finally, the Treaty of Amiens was signed by England. In 1802 Napoleon was proclaimed by a decree of the senate consul for life, and in 1804 he had himself crowned as emperor, upward of three million votes of the people being given in favor of this measure. In 1803 war had again broken out with Great Britain, and Napoleon collected an army and flotilla which were to invade England. In 1805 Britain, Russia, Austria and Sweden united against Napoleon, who marched at once across Bavaria at the head of the army collected for the invasion of England and compelled the Austrian General Mack to capitulate at Ulm. This surrender occurred on the day before Nelson by his great victory at Trafalgar established the British supremacy on the sea. In November, Napoleon entered Vienna, and in the following month he completely routed the allied Russian and Austrian armies at Austerlitz. This was one of his greatest victories, and the Austrian emperor immediately sued for peace, giving up to France all his Italian and Adriatic territories. Napoleon now turned to the organization of the territory which had come into his power. Early in 1806, a French army occupied the continental part of the Neapolitan states, and Joseph Bonaparte was declared king, on the deposition of their former sovereign. Another brother of the emperor, Louis, became king of Holland, and various districts in Germany and Italy were erected by the conqueror into dukedoms and bestowed upon his most successful generals. This brought him into collision with Prussia, and war was declared. Late in 1806 Napoleon defeated the enemy at Jena, while one of his generals on the same day gained the victory of Auerstadt. On October 25 Napoleon entered Berlin and issued the celebrated Berlin Decree, thus instituting the important Continental System. He then marched northward against the Russians, who were advancing to assist the Prussians. At Pultusk and at Eylau he met with severe checks; but in the summer of 1807 the Battle of Fried-land was fought, which was so disastrous to the Russians that Alexander was compelled to sue for an armistice. The result was the Peace of Tilsit, by which the king of Prussia received back half of his dominions and Russia undertook to close her ports against British vessels. The duchy of Warsaw was erected into a kingdom and given to the king of Saxony; the kingdom of Westphalia was formed and bestowed upon Jerome, Napoleon's youngest brother; Russia obtained a part of Prussian Poland, and by secret articles she was allowed to take Finland from Sweden. As Portugal had refused to respect the Berlin Decree, Napoleon now sent Junot to occupy Lisbon; and because the administrative affairs of Spain had fallen into confusion, he sent into that kingdom an army under Murat, which took possession of the capital. By the Treaty of Bayonne Charles IV was obliged to resign the Spanish crown, which was given to Joseph Bonaparte, Murat receiving the vacant sovereignty of Naples. The great body of the Spanish people rose against this summary disposal of the national crown, and Britain aided them in their resistance. Thus was begun the Peninsular War, which lasted seven years. In the meantime Austria again declared war and got together an army in splendid condition, under the Archduke Charles. Napoleon hurried into Bavaria, encountered the archduke at Eckmuhl, completely defeated him and entered Vienna. He was himself defeated at Aspern and Esslingen; but at Wagram (1809) the Austrians were completely crushed, and Napoleon was thus enabled to dictate his own terms of peace. On his return to Paris, Napoleon divorced Josephine, who had borne him no children, and soon afterward married the Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria, thus entering into closer relations with that country. The years 1810 and 1811 were the period of Napoleon's greatest power. But now the tide began to turn. Russia found it impossible to carry out the continental blockade and give due effect to the Berlin Decree; so in May, 1812, Napoleon declared war against that country and soon invaded it with an army of nearly six hundred thousand men. The Russians retired step by step, wasting the country, carrying off all supplies and avoiding as far as possible general engagements. The French pushed rapidly forward, defeated the Russians at Borodino and elsewhere and entered Moscow only to find the city on fire. It was impossible to pursue the Russians farther, and nothing remained but retreat. The winter was uncommonly severe, and swarms of mounted Cossacks incessantly harassed the French, now sadly demoralized by cold, famine, disease and fatigue. Of the invaders, only about twenty-five thousand left Russia. Napoleon immediately ordered a fresh conscription, but the spirit of Europe was now fairly roused. A coalition, consisting of Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, Sweden and Spain, was formed, which early in 1813 sent its forces toward the Elbe. Napoleon defeated the allies at Lutzen, at Bautzen and at Dresden; but the last was a dearly-bought victory for the French, who were now so outnumbered that their chief was compelled to fall back on Leipzig. There he was completely hemmed in, and in the great "Battle of the Nations," which was fought October 16, 18 and 19, he was completely defeated. He succeeded in raising a new army, and from January to March, 1814, he confronted the combined hosts of the allies. But numbers were against him; and Wellington rapidly advanced upon Paris from the south. The last of March the allies captured the fortifications of Paris and entered the city, and early in the following month Napoleon abdicated at Fontainebleau. He was allowed the sovereignty of the island of Elba, with the title of emperor and a revenue of six million francs. After a residence of ten months he made his escape from the island and landed at Frejus, March 1, 1815. Ney and a large part of the army joined him, and he made a triumphal march upon Paris, driving Louis XVIII from the throne. The allied armies once more marched toward the French frontier, and Napoleon advanced into Belgium to meet them. June 16 he defeated Blucher at Ligny, while Ney held the British in check at Quatre-Bras. Wellington fell back upon Waterloo, where he was attacked by Napoleon on the 18th, the result being the total defeat of the French. The allies marched without opposition upon Paris. Napoleon abdicated in favor of his son and tried to escape from France, but failing, he surrendered to the captain of a British man-of-war. With the approval of the allies he was conveyed to the island of Saint Helena, where he was confined for the rest of his life. He was buried in the island, but in 1840 his remains were transferred to the Hotel des Invalides at Paris.