One of the most famous and notorious Frenchmen to have ever lived was Napoleon Bonaparte, a military leader, and politician. During his lifetime he waged multiple wars and changed the politics and culture of France forever. He was born Napoleon Buonaparte on August 15, 1769. Interestingly, Napoleon’s ancestral heritage is of Italian origins. On his paternal side, the Buonapartes were descendants of a Tuscan noble family. Sometime in the 16th century they emigrated to Corsica, an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, located southeast of the French mainland. On his maternal side, the Ramolinos came from Genoa, a small republic located north of Italy. Both sides of Napoleon’s family came from minor noble houses. As such, they were related to several influential families of Italian nobility from history. He was born at “Casa Buonaparte,” an ancestral home in Ajaccio maintained by his parents. Napoleon was the fourth child of Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino. He was their third son. Napoleon came from a large family. He had seven siblings. During his lifetime, his first and last names had different spellings. In his younger years, his first name would be spelled “Nabulione, Nabulio, Napolionne, and Napulione.” Though his last name was originally “Buonaparte” it was later changed to “Bonaparte.” This may have been done to minimize the fact of his Italian heritage as he rose to power in France. It could be said that Napoleon was conceived in war. Both of his parents joined the Corsican resistance when it was being ceded to France. His parents fought against the French, even as his mother was pregnant with him. Corsica was finally incorporated as a French province, four years after his birth. Shortly after that, Napoleon’s father, Carlo, became Corsica’s “representative to the court of Louis XVI.” As a member of the noble class, and coming from a family of moderate wealth, Napoleon had educational opportunities that exceeded what was available to most Corsican children at the time. His mother played a particularly influential role in molding him. In fact, Napoleon once said, “the future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother.” At nine years of age, Napoleon traveled to the French mainland and attended a religious school. A few months later he transferred to a military academy, Brienne-le-Chateau. Napoleon was multi-lingual. He spoke and read Corsican, Italian, and French. He eventually became fluent in French but was never able to spell correctly in the language. He spoke with a strong Corsican accent. Because of his physical appearance and strong accent, Napoleon was often the subject of discrimination by his classmates. He was frequently bullied for a host of reasons: his short stature, where he was born, his foreign mannerisms, and his slow mastery of the French language. He was a Corsican nationalist and spoke in favor of Corsica’s independence. The frequent bullying drove Napoleon to become quiet and reserved. He was melancholy at times. He applied himself to his studies, particularly reading. He was once noted as being “distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography.” While at school, Napoleon showed early signs of his leadership skills when he lead younger students in a snowball fight against the more senior students, and ultimately won the childhood skirmish. He completed his studies at Brienne-le-Chateau at 15 years of age. He was then admitted to Ecole Militaire in Paris, France. He began training as an artillery officer. He completed the two-year course in a single year after his father died and his income was reduced as a result. After graduating, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment. In the few years that followed, Napoleon’s sympathies turned from a Corsican nationalist to a pro-French Revolutionist. As the conflict continued, Napoleon was promoted to the rank of captain. Napoleon and his family were driven out of Corsica and forced to move to Toulon, France due to the shift in Napoleon’s allegiance away from Corsican independence and toward the pro-French revolution. It was at this time that he first abandoned the original spelling of his name and adopted the spelling of “Napoleon Bonaparte.” Again, likely to cover his ties with his Italian-Corsican heritage. By this time, Napoleon’s military career was well underway. He was already climbing the ranks of the French army when his family relocated to Toulon. In July 1793, Napoleon published a pro-republican pamphlet. The pamphlet found its way to Augustin Robespierre, the brother of the leader of the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre. He was given command of the artillery of the republican forces which had arrived at Toulon, in the buildup to the famous Siege of Toulon. During the siege, Napoleon’s forces captured a hill strategically located in such a way that his artillery could command control of the harbor. The British were forced to evacuate. During the assault to take the hill and capture the city, Napoleon was wounded in the leg. Because of his actions at the Siege of Toulon, and his growing leadership on the battlefield, Napoleon was placed over the artillery for France’s Army of Italy. An interesting bi-product of Napoleon’s military success during the revolution was that he was beginning to generate attention, which caused jealousy between The Army of the Alps and the Army of Italy (where he was second in command). For some time, Napoleon’s contemporaries alleged that he was placed under house arrest after the fall of the Robespierres for his association with them during the revolution. This was a very tumultuous time in the history of France, and as regimes changed hands, people involved in previous regimes were frequently maligned, or worse. This claim that Napoleon had been put under house arrest was later refuted by his secretary in his memoirs. In it, his secretary clarified the rumor, indicating that it was spread by those who were jealous of him in the Army of the Alps. His secretary indicated that Napoleon had written “an impassioned letter” to the commissioner, Saliceti, and was later acquitted of wrongdoing during the period of the French Revolution. In fact, Napoleon was asked to prepare a plan for the attack on Italian defenses in the Franco-Austrian war currently underway at the time. With his status in the military resecured, Napoleon continued his career. He was instrumental in ending an insurrection in Paris led by French royalists, in favor of the French monarchy. He used artillery to defend against the royalists, clearing the streets with a “whiff of grapeshot,” as one historian described it. Napoleon’s swift defeat of the royalist insurrection occurred in the fall of 1793. During this time, he became romantically involved with Josephine de Beauharnais, the mistress of a French pol