Napoleon I of France

Napoleon I (born Napoleone di Buonaparte, later Napoléon Bonaparte) (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who had significant impact on modern European history. He was a general during the French Revolution, the ruler of France as Premier Consul of the French Republic, Empereur des Français, King of Italy, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine.

During his reign, Napoleon systematically, either by conquest or alliance, asserted hegemony over almost the entirety of the continent of Europe at its peak. This series of military engagements have come to be known as the Napoleonic Wars. In 1812, Napoleon staged an invasion of Russia, which ultimately proved a disaster for France. By 1813, Napoleon was in retreat after his defeat at Leipzig. In 1814, France's enemies invaded, and Napoleon was forced into exile. He returned in 1815, but was finally defeated famously at Waterloo. Napoleon was exiled again, this time to the British-controlled island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he remained for the remaining 6 years of his life.

Literary comment
Harry Turtledove has never written Napoleonic AH, although he has written essays about the attractiveness of this emperor as a POD linchpin, and edited such stories by other authors in the Alternate Generals series.

Napoleon I in The War That Came Early
In 1940, Aristide Demange declared that his own countryman, Napoleon I, was the Hitler of his day. His troops followed him blindly on campaigns of conquest, ultimately to their own ruination.

Meanwhile in Russia, which France had invaded under Napoleon's direction and was preparing to attack again, Red Air Force pilot Sergei Yaroslavsky was gleefully remembering that, while Napoleon had taken Moscow, it was a pyrrhic victory, and Napoleon was unable to extract most of his army safely from Russia. Yaroslavsky was confident that Germany and its new allies would never make it that far.

Joseph Stalin broadcast a radio speech to the Soviet people, promising that the invaders would be driven out just as Napoleon was.

Napoleon I in Southern Victory
Napoleon I had been a military genius, achieving an almost mythological stature in the eyes of the world. All those who were masters on the battlefield were often compared to him. He was also an uncle of Napoleon III who, in turn, was Emperor of France in the mid 19th century.

In his youth, United States President Theodore Roosevelt counted Napoleon as one of his personal heroes, along with George Washington and Zachary Taylor.

In 1881, Alfred von Schlieffen incorrectly stated that Kaiser Wilhelm I was one of the last surviving men to have fought under Napoleon in the early 19th Century. In fact, the young Wilhelm fought against Napoleon, not under him.

Napoleon I in The Two Georges
During the reign of King Louis XVI, Lieutenant Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte made a name for himself that lived on in either history or infamy. On that day, a Parisian crowd attempted to storm the Bastille. Colonel Bonaparte prevented this by ordering troops under his command to open fire, declaring "Ils ne passeront pas" ("they shall not pass"). Respectable society viewed Bonaparte as a great man who preserved peace and order, although radical elements viewed it as a tragedy. One such radical was a young composer named Ludwig van Beethoven who dedicated a symphony to "The Massacred Innocents."

Philippe Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoléon, was the French ambassador to the North American Union in the mid 1990s.

Literary Note
In 1795 in OTL, Napoleon ordered troops under his command to open fire on a Parisian crowd, but in that case the crowd was composed of Royalists, and Napoleon was defending the Republic against them.