Asked who he considered to be the greatest military commander of the age the Duke replied: “In this age, in past ages, in any age: Napoleon. Andrew Roberts's Life of Napoleon is witty, humane and unapologetically admiring UK News Website of the Year The Telegraph logo News Coronation Sport Business Opinion Ukraine Money Life Style. He also ignored a tip-off from a waiter at the inn where Wellington had dined two days earlier.ĭespite the mismanagement of his troops at Waterloo his opponent was magnanimous in victory. On the advice of one of his generals, Napoleon delayed the attack on Wellington’s line by which time it had been reinforced by Prussian troops. While the Duke of Wellington was “everywhere on the battlefield” Roberts suggests that Napoleon’s mobility was restricted by piles and speculates his judgment was affected by a chronic lack of sleep. Napoleon eventually met his match at the Battle Of Waterloo in 1815. That said, all political careers end in failure and the same is often true of military ones. As Roberts observed: “During his 16 years in power many of the best ideas that underpin and actuate modern democratic politics – meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, secular education, sound finances, efficient administration and so on – were rescued from the revolutionary maelstrom and protected, codified and consolidated.” Hand-in-hand with this martial success he forged a country in line with his Enlightenment thinking. After his early years in the backwater of Corsica, Napoleon’s influential father sent him to France at the age of 9 to learn French and be educated in an elite military academy. Of the 60 battles and sieges he was involved in he lost just six and enjoyed famous victories at Austerlitz and Marengo. Entirely conventional and mostly admiring, it fills no great need, but few readers will complain.

On one occasion when a particular position was proving vulnerable to enemy fire and casualties were heavy Napoleon christened it Hommes sans peur – Men without fear – and the volunteers kept coming.īut it was his innovative approach to military strategy and battlefield tactics that made him an exceptional general. The “whiff of grapeshot” proved so potent a deterrent that the Paris mob remained subdued for the next 30 years.

Andrew roberts napoleon review