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.

Napoléon Bonaparte in Southern Victory
Napoleon I was an uncle of Napoleon III who, in turn, was Emperor of France in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

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

Napoléon Bonaparte in ''The Two Georges
On July 14, 1789, 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 Prison. Colonel Bonaparte prevented this by ordering troops under his command to open fire declaring "Ils ne passeront pas". Respectable society viewed Bonaparte as a great man who preserved peace and order although radical elements viewed it as a tragedy. One such was a young composer 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.

The act with which Colonel Bonaparte entered history gave birth to the well-known term "Bonapartism" - meaning extreme, unscrupulous or fanatic monarchism, and the willingness to go any ruthless length in order to protect a King's throne.

In Russia, though the country often had tensions and diplomatic conflicts (and occasional military clashes) with the French, Bonaparte was held up as example to be emulated, and officers in the Tsar's Army and Police were expected to be "Good Bonapartists". On the other hand, in the British Empire Bonapartism had a less good name. King Charles III went on record to declare: "I expect officers to be loyal, I certainly don't want them to become Boanapartists".