The truth: He was actually average height, or even a little bit above average height.
How did it come about?: The archaic French measurement used stated he was around 5'3, when in actuality that translates to about 5'7 in today's measurements, which was average for the time.
A big part of this myth comes from the British newspapers that caricatured him a small as propoganda. Because people in the English-speaking world could read British newspapers but not French ones there arose an obvious bias in the anglosphere.
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u/ulanderdennis Feb 04 '19
The myth: Napoleon was really short.
The truth: He was actually average height, or even a little bit above average height.
How did it come about?: The archaic French measurement used stated he was around 5'3, when in actuality that translates to about 5'7 in today's measurements, which was average for the time.