200th anniversary of the coronation of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Several exhibitions devoted to his memory have opened around Paris: at the Louvre, the Jacquemart museum and at Les Invalides, where he is buried. Yet there are no official celebrations because, even two centuries on, few in France know how to treat his legacy.

Should he be remembered as a military genius and great French leader who laid the foundations of modern Europe?
Or was he a tyrant and mass murderer, who killed millions during his campaigns of conquest?

The lock of black hair, which is contained in an envelope, together with a number of letters, is expected to fetch between �2,000 and �3,000.
It is believed the lock is one of several which were cut off when he died and given to his most ardent admirers.

news.bbc.co.uk...#

Today trascripts of him written in poor french while he was in exile after the waterloo war,too went to most likely Swizterland or France for a large sum not yet disclosed...He is still considered a military genius of his time even though some criticts might have accused him to be a murderous narcicist....

Originally posted by Horus_Re
Should he be remembered as a military genius and great French leader who laid the foundations of modern Europe?
Or was he a tyrant and mass murderer, who killed millions during his campaigns of conquest?

Mass murderer? Perhaps not, at least not in the modern sense of rounding up people and executing them. Certainly millions died at his orders. I don't think that there is much discussion on him being a military genius, I think its agreed that he more or less was. His special talent lay in knowing how to properly use the new types of artillery that the army had. He restored order to France, when it was bouncing between a dictatorial homocidal Directorate and outright mobocracy. He and the REvolutionary French Army systematically tore down the old order and instituted more republican governments across europe. Heck, Germany, as its understood today, wouldn't have existed without him. He practically created it himself. Of course, in Spain people thought he was the anti-christ.

Hmm, a controversial leader who sends the nations armies around the world spreading democracy and is reviled as the anti-christ by some, sounds vaguely familiar.