Napoleon: Facial Reconstructions & History Documentary

hey everyone and welcome back to royalty now today we're talking about the brilliant yet controversial military leader napoleon bonaparte we'll talk about his incredible life and the path he took to become emperor of the french then of course we'll talk about what he really looked like and reveal some recreations we also have a bonus recreation of the love of his life empress josephine and special thanks to cleo for sponsoring today's episode let's go ahead and get started napoleon bonaparte was born on the 15th of august 1769 in ajaxia corsica his father carlo bonaparte was descended from a noble tuscan family that had moved to corsica in the 16th century his mother letizia was genevieve's nobility and although she was the main disciplinary force in napoleon's life their relationship was incredibly close the year before napoleon was born france conquered the island of corsica after 14 years of its independence both carlo and letizia had fought in the gorilla movement against the french even while letizia was pregnant with napoleon but after corsica fell to the french his father facing exile and the ruin of his family chose to acknowledge french rule in corsica betraying his countrymen but securing his family's future this decision alone completely changed the course of napoleon's life allowing him to become the man we all know today from a very early age napoleon was fascinated with the military the french presence in corsica offered the young napoleon the chance to see them march and patrol every day he would mimic the soldiers and at one point he even went as far as eating only stale bread as a child just to get used to it as he would one day be a soldier by the time napoleon was nine years old his father had gained favor with the french government he was invited to become the corsican representative in the court of louis xv as a prize for his early loyalty carla was given royal scholarships for his children to france's military academy napoleon would be granted his greatest wish and begin his career as a soldier in 1779 a ten-year-old napoleon moved alone from his home in corsica to attend the academy in france his new home was very different to what he had imagined like many corsican children napoleon was brought up to speak and read in corsican and italian he soon realized that he had foreign mannerisms a foreign name that no one could pronounce and an inability to speak french that would make life very difficult his new high society classmates bullied him from the outset and although he would eventually learn to speak fluently his distinct corsican accent never left him these years of bullying would lead young napoleon to become serious somber and a bit awkward he would spend hours by himself throwing himself into books in the library and moving quickly from topic to topic eventually he found himself reading about the great men of history hannibal alexander the great and julius caesar i think it was here that napoleon first began to think of who he could become what made these great men so different from him [Music] on a snowy morning in 1783 the boys at the military academy began a huge snowball fight they split into two forces napoleon now 14 years old took the lead of one of the groups and he took it very seriously he began to quickly yell out orders to his classmates flanking and outmaneuvering them finally putting the hours pouring over strategy books to good use his side crushed the other boys and for the first time his classmates no longer saw him as just the boy from corsica they saw him as a leader he would graduate from brienne chateau in 1785 and was quickly admitted to become an artillery officer in paris sadly only a few months after he began his father carlo bonaparte suddenly died of stomach cancer although napoleon wasn't the eldest son he immediately assumed the position as head of the bonaparte family and his priorities shifted no longer having the time or funding to finish his remaining two years of academy he would study relentlessly for the next seven months knowing that his family needed the officer pay though it usually took three years napoleon was able to pass his entrance exam and he became an officer in the french military at only 16 years old unfortunately for napoleon it would turn out that military life was nothing like he had dreamt of over the next few years he would find himself stuck in the politics of it all he quickly realized that his dreams of rising through the ranks would never come true there was always a man with ancient nobility cutting him in line he began to lose his passion for it all was he really destined to live a life of mediocrity fortunately for napoleon the french revolution began and everything changed napoleon quickly became an adamant supporter of the revolution he wanted nothing more than to be able to prove his talent and be rewarded for it this was his chance at the life he knew he deserved however after the executions of the king and queen louis xvi and marie antoinette tensions in the rest of europe began to rise the kings of europe began to see the revolution as a massive threat to their own rule would their own people also be inspired to rise up and overthrow them if this could happen in france it could happen to them and that was extremely dangerous several countries united against france in 1792 calling themselves the first coalition the country was surrounded and with the coalition's support civil war broke out in france the new french republic called on young men all over the country to lead its new army in defense of the revolution starting in 1793 napoleon began his meteoric rise through the ranks of the french republic's military he joined a corsican military unit and he was promoted to artillery commander even before his first battle he distinguished himself first at the siege of toulon french royalists had taken the city supported by british and spanish ships in the harbor after many failed attempts by the army to take the city back they needed a new plan the freshly promoted napoleon knew exactly what needed to be done he quickly ordered his men and artillery to take control of a fort on the other side of the harbor once there they positioned themselves at the top of a hill and shelled the enemy ships forcing their evacuation without spanish and british support the city was taken back from the royalists in two days and napoleon was given credit for his first successful battle it was obvious to his superiors that napoleon was something special he was quickly promoted to colonel and just a week later he was promoted to brigadier general all before the age of 24. after the quelling of a massive royalist rebellion in paris napoleon was again promoted this time he was given command of an entire army the army of italy napoleon was already being seen as a hero of france he had begun to garner fame wealth and glory but he soon realized that he was still missing one huge piece love in 1795 napoleon met a woman named josephine and he was immediately enamored with her but it was said that josephine was not quite as taken with napoleon known by her birth name rose up until her relationship with him josephine was six years his elder and she'd previously been married with two children she also didn't have the best reputation it was common knowledge that she had been with several well-known political figures just recently but napoleon didn't care it wasn't long before napoleon proposed and they were married just a year later in 1796. now napoleon's family wasn't quite as thrilled as he was about the marriage they viewed josephine as a social climber that would break his heart and they weren't exactly wrong just two days after their marriage napoleon was called away to command his army of italy but when napoleon arrived he discovered that his troops were underfed undisciplined and unmotivated but he took it as a challenge he would dismiss soldiers and even entire regiments if they didn't hold up to a standard his unending belief in himself seemed to inspire them to fight two weeks after beginning his campaign his army of italy had defeated the kingdom of sardinia and napoleon's career of domination began the loyalty he earned from his soldiers did not come only from words he was known to be very physical literally in the trenches with his soldiers pointing and firing cannons himself and yelling out orders at the top of his lungs according to author david chandler he could rapidly dictate complex commands keeping in mind where major units were expected to be at each future point and like a chess master seeing the best play moves ahead over the next year on his campaign he would write to his wife josephine his letters are beautiful and very famous he constantly expresses his pain and stress commanding the army in italy writing often and expressing his desire to be near her in one letter he writes since i left you i have been constantly depressed my happiness is to be near you incessantly i live over in my memory your caresses your tears your affectionate solicitude the charms of the incomparable josephine kindle continually a burning and glowing flame in my heart however her indifference can be seen when he begs i write to you my beloved one very often and you write very little [Music] unfortunately napoleon's happiness would not last long back in paris josephine had begun a secret affair with a man named hippolyte a letter detailing josephine's affair reached napoleon and his heart was completely shattered but despite his sadness and maybe because of it his army was dominating by october of 1797 napoleon defeated austria and ended europe's war on france he would come back to paris seen as a hero his popularity amongst the people grew quickly and his political influence and ambition during this time grew even faster during his campaign he wrote new constitutions for republics that he had defeated he began two newspapers one for the troops and one for the people in france on top of being a master military strategist he also had become a master of propaganda although his next campaign in egypt would be a failure losing thousands of men to disease and british defeat his newspapers back in france were able to minimize anything that went wrong only reporting back that napoleon had found something called the rosetta stone in late 1799 napoleon would return to paris and with the help of influential politicians and his younger brother lucian he overthrew the unpopular government known as the directory a brand new constitution was created and napoleon was named first consul for the next 10 years now this effectively made him a dictator but he would go ahead and take it a step further when he made himself consul for life only a few years later although he's best known to us today as a military leader napoleon did introduce some very effective social reforms reforms that we still use today he went after corrupt politicians and improved higher education infrastructure and banking he is famous for what we now call the napoleonic code a set of civil laws that he developed with several leading political experts these laws forbade privileges based on birth and they allowed citizens to practice religion freely they also stated that government jobs must be given based on merit and not based on birthright [Music] unfortunately napoleon decided to also roll back some of the privileges of female citizens effectively handing women's rights back to their husbands just one of the stains on his legacy [Music] nevertheless napoleon was very popular with the french people because his rule brought stability to france for the first time since the breakout of the revolution and he loved perpetuating the message that the revolution was over all thanks to him in 1804 after a somewhat suspicious 99 popular vote in his favor the french senate proclaimed napoleon bonaparte the emperor of the french he was crowned on the 2nd of december 1804 in notre dame in front of the pope himself napoleon placed the crown on his own head and then bent to place the crown of empress on josephine now napoleon was very careful about what he called himself he chose the term emperor and not king as a way to demonstrate that he was not attempting to restore the monarchy but instead introduce a new political system entirely however many view this in hindsight as a treacherous power grab basically restoring another absolute ruler under a different name in place of the one that the revolution had just worked so hard to overthrow but now napoleon the bullied boy from corsica is now the emperor of the french in one of the most astonishing rises to power in history but even this wasn't enough to satisfy napoleon's ambition he wanted all of europe from 1805 through 1809 napoleon sets off on his conquest and begins his domination austria's repeated defeats to napoleon cause it to dissolve the holy roman empire the thousand-year-old empire created by charlemagne its official end was on august 6 1806. prussia was defeated shortly after and napoleon's biggest threat russia joined them in defeat in 1807. by 1809 napoleon had defeated the alliances of european powers five separate times he is already arguably the greatest military commander of all time his alliance with russia brings peace to europe he has also placed his brothers as rulers all over europe the bonaparte dynasty is now fully realized except for one small thing napoleon himself does not have an heir josephine's affair all those years ago had changed their marriage the loving napoleon had become cold to her starting countless affairs of his own fearing divorce josephine became useful to napoleon she caused no more scandals and began to work constantly for napoleon's public image and political connections he began to trust her again and soon enough his love for her was rekindled but sadly after many years of marriage it appeared that josephine was no longer able to bear children and napoleon would need an heir in order to continue his legacy he tells josephine that in the best interest of the empire he must find a new wife josephine agreed and their annulment took place in 1810 his next marriage would be a political alliance napoleon married the young marie louise of austria their child was born in 1811 and napoleon had his heir despite their separation napoleon insisted that josephine keep the title and rank of empress it is my will that she retained the rank and title of empress and especially that she never doubt my sentiments and that she ever hold me as her best and dearest friend in 1812 russia broke its treaty with france by trading with england and napoleon used this to declare war against them he gathered the largest army that europe has ever seen 612 000 men and he began his march to russia it would mark the beginning of the end [Music] russia would try a new tactic on napoleon scorched earth they would run from his army burning everything they could while doing so and leaving nothing for napoleon's enormous army to live off of brutal heat low supplies and disease would begin to kill napoleon's men by the thousands yet still napoleon's need for more his want to be the greatest his need for it it kept him moving forward when he should have turned back before he had even reached moscow he had lost 500 000 men to desertion and disease half a million lives the battle for moscow took 30 000 more as the russians once again flee they burned moscow behind them in his mind napoleon had defeated russia and was waiting for the russians to sue for peace but a month passed and he had received nothing as he watched over the ruins of the city the first snow of winter fell and napoleon realized that he had made a terrible mistake [Music] napoleon and his army began their 500-mile escape back to safety but the cold came more quickly than they could march russia began to perform this sort of hit-and-run warfare on napoleon's army they would capture and kill men at random men and horses also began to freeze to death napoleon even began to wear poison around his neck fearing an imminent capture the russians got so close to destroying his entire army but it said that about forty thousand men were able to escape with their lives after hearing of this horrible defeat europe again united for the sixth time against france only this time it would work the sixth coalition defeated napoleon at the battle of leipzig which only happened after napoleon refused peace terms the peace terms would have even let him continue on as emperor of france but his ego would not allow him to lose the terms after the defeat were much harsher france would lose all territories gained and napoleon was exiled to the isle of elba to make matters worse it was during this time that napoleon learned that his empress josephine had suddenly died it is said that her last months had been spent begging to join napoleon in exile he locked himself in his room for days when he emerged napoleon decided that he would escape exile and with his faithful army attempt to regain his empire but he just wasn't the same at the battle of waterloo 42 000 men died for napoleon in his final defeat he would again be exiled but this time to the even more remote island of saint helena he was guarded by 2 000 soldiers and two warships that constantly circled the island he would remain on this tiny humble island until his death on may 5th 1821 at the age of 51. his very last words are said to have been for the love of his life he called out for her josephine the napoleonic wars would cause the death of an estimated 3 to six million people all because of one man's insatiable and aggressive ego napoleon is a man of contradictions said to have been an absolute tyrant by some with others saying he was one of the greatest men of all time [Music] historian martin van crevel describes him as the most competent human being who ever lived his napoleonic code opened the door to opportunity for ordinary people and it's a pillar of the basic rights that we all expect today he is undoubtedly one of the greatest if not the greatest military commander the world has ever seen winning 67 out of 76 battles a nearly 90 win rate his love letters to josephine were purchased by bill gates for a million dollars and show an incredibly soft side to the man like all of us he was an incredibly complex individual who lived in my opinion one of the most outstanding lives ever lived [Music] before we talk about the recreations let's talk about today's sponsor cleo named after the ancient greek muse of history cleo recreates the fragrances that your favorite historical figures would have encountered in their daily lives my favorite thing about clio is that they use actual historical sources to recreate the aromas of the past so in a way you can travel back in time using one of your most powerful senses we worked with cleo recently to create a candle based on eleanor of aquitaine in eleanor's time she would have had flowers like violets and roses in her room and the castle she lived in would have had woven rush grass mats sprinkled with lavender and rosemary the candle recreates eleanor's medieval world and it's one of my favorites to have in the house it's a really transportive experience visit cleo.global to explore the latest collection which features more than 3 000 years of olfactive history and just for royalty now subscribers clio is offering you 15 off your first order use the code royalty now at checkout link is in the description below now let's get back to our subjects so let's talk about what napoleon and josephine really looked like now you may be thinking well of course we know what they both look like there are dozens of portraits available that depict them throughout their lives but there's this interesting repeated sentiment from napoleon's contemporaries that portraits of him never seemed to capture his true likeness a friend of napoleon's brother joseph once wrote that probably no one that ever lived had so many likenesses which generally bear some resemblance of feature or form but it was extremely difficult to portray or delineate napoleon's look luckily we do have a ton of descriptions of the emperor throughout his life it was said that he was very thin in his youth to the point of looking almost emaciated but that he gained weight throughout his life some people remarked that he always had kind of an odd haircut the descriptions also agreed that he had somewhat delicate features and piercing gray or blue eyes and of course although napoleon is often mocked for being a small man he stood around 5'7 which was an average height for the time shannon selen wrote a great summary of why it's hard to know what napoleon really looked like first of all many portraits of napoleon were made by artists who didn't have him there as a model so their paintings were based on other works or even just a description of the man even in the famous image by jacque louis david of napoleon crossing the alps napoleon wasn't there to model so the artist had to revise the painting several times [Music] as we mentioned earlier napoleon was a master of propaganda and so he was very careful about which images of himself were released his main concern was not portraying a true likeness but rather portraying his power for one of my recreations i've used the bust of napoleon by antoine denisha day this bus was created as the official sculpted likeness of napoleon so his original plaster model was recreated over 1200 times and disseminated throughout the empire as the official likeness and while napoleon's ballot said that this was the most faithful image he'd seen of napoleon i do suspect that there has been a bit of beautification but i really like this image of him i've also created a version based off of the famous napoleon in his study image by jacques louis david while napoleon himself really liked this image the valet that said the chadebus was the most accurate also said that this painting had something heavy about it that the emperor didn't have we also have a death mask of napoleon which i really like but it's clear that he wasted away from his illness at the end of his life and his features are without a doubt much sharper and thinner here than when he would have been in good health josephine's appearance is almost as mysterious with many portraits of her looking a bit different from each other what they do share in common is a woman with delicate features deep set eyes with visible lids a medium length sharp nose and a small mouth with a pointed chin the portrait that looks the most different to me is the portrait of josefina's empress which might be the most famous depiction of her and i'm not sure the reason behind this or if it was at her own personal request which is definitely possible but it definitely shows a more blunt chin and it's just a different appearance overall i quite like this version of her by robert lefeve painted in 1805 and for some reason this one looks just the most real and natural to me so that's what i've used for my depiction [Music] so let's go ahead and take a look at the recreations of napoleon and josephine now [Music] do [Music] thank you all so much for watching please leave a comment with your future suggestions down below and of course check out the etsy store for prints and bookmarks of your favorite recreations and we'll see you all for the next video [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

Views: 723,689

Keywords: empress josephine, empress josephine documentary, empress josephine real face, french history, great loves of history, josephine, napoleon, napoleon and josephine, napoleon bonaparte, napoleon bonaparte documentary, napoleon facts, napoleon real face, real face of, real face of napoleon, real faces of historical figures, royalty now, roylaty now, true face of, true face of napoleon, true faces of, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like

Id: UGbR4HGGl-k

Length: 28min 21sec (1701 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022