École Militaire, Napoléon Bonaparte’s Student Days

Certainly the ghost of Napoléon Bonaparte was floating around École Militaire this weekend, proud as a peacock for sure.  He was only 15 years old when he first entered École Militaire de Paris,  having been already designated as a “promising student” from his former military school in Champagne.

The sky was as blue and sunny yesterday, as some autumn days one might find in Corsica, the French island where Napoléon was born on august 15, 1769.  Born into a minor noble family, he had to prove his noble origines going back over 200 years in order to be admitted to such an elite military school.

Napoléon was one of the “king’s students” as his family, though noble was financially unable to fund his education there.  École Militaire was built under the reign of king Louis XV, thanks mainly to his mistress Madame de Pompadour, who was his closest and greatest counselor.

After being approached by the Marechal de Saxe, who wanted to further the glorify the French military by building a monumental military school for elites, it was she, with her strong feminine wiles,  who successfully pushed the king to bring it to fruition.

It was completed in 1756 and admitted 200 cadets.  The ambitious young Napoléon arrived in october, 1785, and was extremely impressed  about his whole experience. He later wrote raving memories  of his time there in that “we were wonderfully fed, treated as officers and enjoying more that most of our families could afford, more than what we were supposed to enjoy later on as officers”.

Indeed they were, as each student was housed in an individual room, a rarity at that time, with a trousseau of necessary grooming articles, and fancy blue uniforms with red collars and cuffs, replete with a moon shaped hat as seen in the sketch.

Meals were served on white table cloths with porcelain plates and silver forks and knives.  Crystal carafes served beverages and wine.   Napoléon raved about the cuisine, which was probably more refined than his family’s Corsican fare.

Meals were always multi courses, with lunch having soup, porridge, two side dishes and desserts.  At dinner there was roasted meats, two vegetables, salad and desserts.

A typical day for cadet Napoléon  started at 6 am with Mass, then classes from 7am to 7 pm. Classes were limited to no more than 25, where they were taught math, history and geography, French, German, art of fortification, drawing, fencing and finally dance.

The “cadets gentilshommes” as they were called had half days on Thursdays, where they participated in equitation, shooting classes and military drills.  Sundays after Mass, they had religious class and afternoons spent in writing letters to their families.

Napoléon was noted to have been brilliant in mathematics and good in history and geography but rather average in everything else.  Because of this he was first recommended to be a naval officer, but upon his mother’s lamentations, he instead  was sent into artillery.

He was said to be moody and kept to himself , avoiding playing “boyish” games during recreation.   Instead he was often seen  walking around with arms crossed as in deep reflection, sometimes making gestures with his arms and laughing as if orchestrating something in his thoughts.  If interrupted, he often appeared startled and dazed like he had just awakened.

He was noted to have been a fierce opponent in fencing, and given to bouts of anger if hit.  His professors said he had a Corsican nature and personality, like “a piece of granite heated by a volcano”.

As a student, Napoléon was only slightly shorter than his comrades.  He would later write that “without being tall, I was pretty strong.  I remember that at École Militaire, as a low rank noble, I use to fight a lot with sons of lords and I always ended up victorious.”

There is a myth that Napoléon was a very short adult male, and that was the reason he had an inferiority complex.  I do not believe that was the only, nor main reason of his need to prove and glorify himself.

Yes, he may have been shorter than his fellow student cadets, as he was only 5 feet one and half inches tall when he was admitted to École Militaire, but again he was only 15.   According to his own admission of being smaller than the rest, I feel that this did impinge upon his early self image as a male.  However, as an adult, he actually was taller than the average Frenchman at that time.

His height recorded during his autopsy was 170cm, or 5 feet,7 inches tall.  Between 1800 and 1820, the average height for a French male was only 5 feet four and half inches. No, it was something more ingrained in his self identity that made him initially feel “less than”.

You have to remember that he was born in Corsica, that had only been annexed to France in the year of his birth and Corsican was his maternal language!  The island formerly belonged to Republic of Genoa, now the Ligurian coast of Italy, and in general Corsicans longed for their independence against the tyranny of French control.

I suspect that the young Napoléon never felt really accepted, since he was sent to France  to study at the tender age of only 9, by his other classmates for two main reasons.  First, he was still considered the “foreigner” or less French,  and at Ecole Militaire he was the first Corsican ever admitted and maintained a very strong Corsican accent for which he was constantly teased.

Secondly, he was quite aware that he was considered a lower ranking noble, whose family could not afford the hefty tuition paid by the majority of the other students.  This was before the Revolution, when a family’s royal and noble pedigree determined not only their societal rank, but generally their financial status as well.

Although he finished the entire curriculum within one year, instead of two, in part because of the untimely death of his father, he graduated only 42 out of 58! Another small, but probable dent in his self esteem.

Upon learning of his father death, he totally refused to go to the infirmary for emotional support.  Instead he told the priest who had the task of telling him in a very stoic manner that ” I am mentally strong enough to carry this pain without being consoled”.

Another instance of his assertiveness, was when he was being confirmed in the Saint Louis Chapelle. Catholics traditionally are named after a saint or take one at this time, so when the archbishop remarked that he had never heard of a saint called Napoléon; the young Napoléon  staunchly rebounded  “that was not a reasonable argument, because with all the saints, there were only 365 days alloted to naming them.”

Naopléon graduated at a mere 16 years old, receiving his second lieutenant commission.  In his memories, he recounted it being one of his happiest days of his life. “I have never been prouder to receive a title.  At that time, my highest ambition was to wear epaulettes with bullion fringes on my shoulders: for me, an artillery colonel was the very best of human greatness”.

Throughout his student days in France, he often talked of his native Corsica and felt an impeding need to help liberate his island from the French.  Between 17 and 22, he wrote much about his own personal contempt for the French, from which he had suffered narcissistic wounds, that forged his overwhelming desire to surmount and conquer their devotion, perhaps more out of spite and retribution for the sins they had committed against him personally and his beloved island.

By the age of 26, he was commissioned a General and begin his first military campaign against the Austrians and Italian allies.    String of future military victories won him much fame as a hero and by 1795, he returned to École Militaire where he set up his office in the sumptuous Marshall Drawing room, where one can see a bullet in one of  the mirrors.

École Militaire did a wonderful job of celebrating their most illustrious student yesterday.  I was absolutely fascinated by the stories of being a soldier under is campaigns as  explained by a handsome young man dressed in a really resplendent Napoléonic uniform.

I have never seen such a wonderfully tailored peacock perfect uniform in all my life! I loved the snug white cotton pants that had knee length shin covers with a multitude of white buttons to fasten up the side. The magnificent blue, white and red jacket with loads of brass buttons is impressive over the cute vest. The helmet was made out of bear fur as it had the propensity to thickly stick out.

He had a table full of the soldiers trousseau and explained each little article that was necessary for a soldier’s uniform upkeep, hygiene, and  survival.  It all looked quite impressive to me and very practical in design.  Apparently they spent a lot of time  keeping all those buttons sewed on, as besides needles and threads, there was a gadget to enable sewing them on with ease.

He also explained that soldiers carried two swords, one a long sabre, and the other, used mostly to carve up meats.  The gun loading with powder and then bullets looked tedious, and the bayonet he said was used more for psychological menacing the opponent, rather than stabbing.

There was also a reenactment of Napoléon’s bivouac field tents from which he led his campaigns on site.  I was initially surprised to learn that women were welcome to follow the soldiers along, but then again not really, given the French male mentality in need of constant pursuit of female companionship, even at war!

Napoléon is considered one of the world’s best military strategists.  His military genius has influenced war strategists throughout the world and provided a basis for military education to come.

By 1804, at the age of  35, he was self acclaimed and crowned Emperor of France and his legendary empire,  endured up until he was forced to abdicate his throne in April, 1814, and was exiled for the first time to an island.

He managed to escape and eventually did return to Paris to govern for 100 more days before he was forced to abdicate again in June 1815, after his forces had lost the battle of Waterloo.   He was exiled again to Saint Helena, an island off the western coast of Africa where he died in May 1821.

Throughout the afternoon, there were reenactments of Napoleon’s fife and drum corps who always led his armies onto the battlefield, using different beats to signifie different commands.  The rhythmic drum beats was very captivating to my ears and I found my eyes glued to watching them parade around in those very colourful uniforms.

I also enjoyed visiting the horse stables where 95 horses are lovingly cared for.  I found it very touching to see one of the horses constantly trying to nibble on his care taker’s cheek.  She explained that he is always very affectionate with her, and I could feel the love was mutual between the two.

I find it unbelievable though that there was over 4000 horses kept in the stables and on the grounds during World War I!  Nowadays they are highly trained in dressage and used in formal military parades.  Some of the horses are used to provide wounded war veterans equitherapy, which I find a marvelous soothing gift to mankind.

Today the school still is a center of superior military studies, training senior officers in the War School. There are also various Schools of Superior Studies of National Defense, Strategic Military Tactics for the Army and Navy and Aerospace commands.

There is one thing though that Napoléon never had the pleasure of seeing hovering high above the school, that today makes for a marvelous picturesque background, the Eiffel Tower!  If he had, it would have certainly symbolised his sky high dreams and ambition that he fully realised in his lifetime!