When you hear the name Napoleon, you probably picture a brilliant general, an ambitious emperor, and a legacy that still sparks debate. Yet, behind the grand battles and political maneuvers lie ten wild stories that have survived wars, propaganda, and centuries of gossip. From secret romances to bizarre hair‑bracelet watches, these anecdotes reveal a side of the French icon that is as entertaining as it is enigmatic.
10. Wild Stories About Napoleon Bonaparte
1. Napoleon Wrote A Romance Novel
This tale blends truth with a dash of embellishment. In 1795, the future emperor penned a brief narrative—just nine pages—titled “Clissen et Eugenie.” Scholars agree the piece mirrors his fleeting affair with Eugenie Desiree Clary, a love that was already fraying as he wrote. Though never published during his lifetime, multiple copies survived, safeguarded by friends, relatives, and admirers, and were eventually reassembled from those fragments.
Napoleon’s literary ambitions didn’t stop there. He once claimed he was drafting a poem about Corsica, though the work either never reached completion or remained unpublished. At seventeen, he was encouraged to release a history of Corsica he had authored, but a sudden summons to the battlefield thwarted those plans.
Even his youthful zeal for writing had a critical edge. At seventeen, he submitted an essay to the Academy of Lyons titled “What Are the Principals and Institutions, By Application of Which Mankind Can Be Raised to the Highest Pitch of Happiness?” Decades later, the academy’s archives returned the manuscript; after skimming the opening pages, Napoleon tossed it into the nearest fire.
2. In The Footsteps Of Moses
Circa 1798, while traversing Egypt and briefly entering Syria, Napoleon and a contingent of cavalry seized a quiet afternoon to explore the ebb‑tide of the Red Sea. They marched across the exposed seabed to the opposite shore, where they visited the famed Wells of Moses. Satisfied, they turned back, only to find darkness descending as the tide surged.
Lost in the growing darkness and with water swallowing the path they’d just walked, Napoleon ordered his men to form a circle around him, radiating outward like spokes. Each rider pressed forward until his horse began to splash; then he turned to follow the nearest comrade whose mount still touched solid ground. One by one, the soldiers trailed the riders still on firm footing, ultimately escaping the rising waters—soaked, yet unharmed. Napoleon later quipped the episode would give preachers “a magnificent text against me!”
3. Did He Shoot Off The Sphinx’s Nose?
A popular legend claims that while Napoleon’s forces occupied Egypt (1798‑1801), they practiced cannon fire on the Great Sphinx, allegedly snipping off its nose. Yet this story unravels quickly: French explorer Frederic Louis Norden published an illustration in 1755—decades before Napoleon’s birth—showing the Sphinx already missing its nose.
The myth only emerged in the early 20th century. Historians now agree the nose was lost much earlier, around 1380, when a fanatical Muslim leader inflicted “deplorable injuries.” Mamluk warriors also used the monument for target practice, meaning the damage pre‑dated Napoleon by roughly five centuries.
4. Did Napoleon Poison His Wounded?
On 27 May 1799, Napoleon ordered a retreat from Jaffa, Egypt. While most of his wounded were escorted to safety, a small group—between seven and thirty men—suffered from bubonic plague and could not join the convoy for fear of spreading infection. Faced with the prospect of the Turks capturing these men (renowned for brutal torture), Napoleon suggested to his chief medical officer, Desgenettes, that a lethal dose of opium might spare them a harsher fate. Desgenettes refused.
Instead, Napoleon left a rear guard to protect the sick soldiers, some of whom were later rescued by the British. Nonetheless, British propaganda seized upon the episode, inflating it into a tale that Napoleon had personally ordered the mass poisoning of his own troops. The rumor persisted, with French officers repeating it when captured and the English press amplifying it.
To counter the scandal, Napoleon commissioned Antoine‑Jean Gros in 1804 to paint “Napoleon Visiting the Plague‑Stricken at Jaffa,” a work that became the inaugural masterpiece of Napoleonic art and helped cement the neoclassical movement.
5. Cleo Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
According to a fanciful tale, Paris museum workers in the 1940s dumped the contents of a mummy case into the city sewers during a cleaning. Later, they supposedly discovered the case once stored the remains of Cleopatra, allegedly brought back to France by Napoleon. The story appeared in Paul Kirchner’s 1996 compendium Oops! A Stupefying Survey of Goofs, Blunders & Botches, Great & Small.
The narrative collapses under scrutiny: Cleopatra’s burial site remains undiscovered, so no museum could have possessed her mummified remains. The myth exploits the widespread belief that Napoleon looted Egyptian treasures during his 1798‑1801 campaign. In truth, while his military venture failed, he did bring along 150 “savants”—scientists, engineers, and scholars—tasked with documenting Egypt’s monuments and artifacts. Their exhaustive studies sparked a Europe‑wide Egyptomania, inadvertently encouraging other nations to loot the ancient land.
6. Spooky Marengo
Legend says that in June 1800, just before the Battle of Marengo, General Henri Christian Michel de Stengel rushed into Napoleon’s tent, pale and trembling. He handed the emperor an envelope containing his will, pleading that Napoleon act as executor. Earlier that night, Stengel claimed to have dreamed of charging into battle only to confront a towering Croatian warrior in armor, who then morphed into a grim specter of death. Convinced the vision foretold his demise, he shared the omen with his commander.
The following day, a report arrived stating Stengel had indeed fallen in combat, slain by a massive Croatian fighter. Supposedly, the episode haunted Napoleon, who allegedly whispered “Stengel, hurry, attack!” as his dying words on St. Helena.
Historians, however, debunk the tale: Stengel died at the Battle of Mondovi in 1796—four years before Marengo. Moreover, Napoleon’s actual last words remain contested, and no credible source records the quoted phrase. The earliest mention of this story dates to 1890, a full century after the alleged event, rendering the legend more myth than fact.
7. He Fathered His Own Grandchild
When Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais, he also became step‑father to her daughter Hortense. Josephine, eager to secure an heir, arranged for Hortense to wed Napoleon’s brother, Louis, hoping a Bonaparte‑blooded child would satisfy the emperor’s dynastic ambitions.
Rumors soon swirled that Napoleon himself was the biological father of Hortense’s unborn child—a claim allegedly encouraged by Josephine. The gossip originated from Napoleon’s siblings and in‑laws, who feared Louis’s progeny would enjoy special favor. The British press, ever eager for scandal, amplified the story, turning it into a sensational headline across Europe.
8. Did He Send A Lookalike To Exile?
After his 1815 defeat, Napoleon was officially exiled to the remote island of St. Helena, a thousand miles off Angola’s coast. Yet, in 1911, Frenchman M. Omersa claimed proof that the real Napoleon never set foot on the island. According to Omersa, a doppelgänger—Francois Eugene Robeaut, who bore an uncanny resemblance—was dispatched in the emperor’s stead.
Omersa alleged the genuine Napoleon grew a beard, relocated to Verona, Italy, and opened a modest spectacle shop catering to British travelers. He supposedly met his end in 1823 while attempting to infiltrate the Imperial Palace where his son reigned; refusing to identify himself, he was shot on the spot.
Scholars find the tale implausible: orchestrating such a massive deception would require the warden of St. Helena’s cooperation, and a mere look‑alike could not convincingly sustain the role for six years under constant British supervision.
9. The Supposed Chocolate Assassin
English propagandists, eager to tarnish Napoleon’s image, concocted a bizarre anecdote that resurfaced in 1905 via Lewis Goldsmith. Supposedly, while staying at his uncle’s palace in Lyons before an Italian campaign, Napoleon enjoyed a daily cup of chocolate. One morning, an anonymous note warned him not to drink the beverage.
When the chamberlain presented the cup, Napoleon demanded the cook be brought forward. The woman responsible for the chocolate gulped the remaining liquid, then convulsed violently, confessing she had once been seduced by Napoleon, bore his child, and was now seeking revenge. She claimed to have laced the chocolate with poison; the cook, having witnessed the act, warned the emperor. The grateful cook received a pension and induction into the Legion of Honour.
Although wholly fictitious, the story cemented the popular belief that Napoleon adored chocolate. It continues to be cited as a classic example of a spurned lover’s murderous vengeance.
10. A Timely Haircut
Surprisingly, a substantial amount of Napoleon’s hair survived his death. Four locks were gifted to the Balcombe family—friends he made during his St. Helena exile—while he also bequeathed gold bracelets containing hair to numerous relatives and confidants.
These relics sparked odd developments. A verified Balcombe lock was employed in scientific tests to examine the hypothesis that Napoleon suffered arsenic poisoning. Simultaneously, counterfeit hair strands have been fabricated for nearly two centuries, fetching thousands of dollars on the antique market when presented as genuine.
Perhaps the most astonishing outcome arrived in 2014, when a Swiss watchmaker acquired authentic locks at auction and announced a line of $10,000 timepieces, each housing a single strand of Napoleon’s hair. Two centuries after the emperor requested his hair be fashioned into bracelets, it now adorns luxury watches for the affluent and history‑enthused.
11. +How Did General Stengel Die?
History occasionally rewrites itself for no clear reason, and General Henri Christian Michel de Stengel’s demise exemplifies this phenomenon. Napoleon’s own letter dated 27 April 1796 recorded that Stengel fell in battle at Mondovi. This account stood unchallenged until 1896, when some historians began asserting that Stengel survived the clash only to succumb a week later—on 28 April 1796—after complications from an amputation of his left arm.
A century‑long review of Napoleonic campaign literature reveals two patterns: Stengel’s death is seldom mentioned, and when it is, roughly half the sources claim he died on the battlefield, while the other half support the amputation narrative. The latter story lacks documentary evidence and directly contradicts Napoleon’s own record, yet it has achieved equal notoriety.
Few scholars have examined why these divergent accounts coexist, likely because Stengel, a relatively minor figure, garners limited academic attention. As a result, the mystery endures, leaving his true fate shrouded in the fog of folklore.