History books would have you believe that Napoleon was indeed a short man, but he was about the average height of a French man back in the 1800’s.
He was known to be five feet two inches tall in French feet and inches which are actually different from British measurements. (This was in the days before metric weights and measures came into being).
If Napoleon had been measured in British feet and inches he would have been five feet six inches tall. He also surrounded himself with guards who were some of the tallest men in the country, making his size even more apparant.
The English liked to think of Napoleon as a shortie, but he was indeed a great military leader with a huge army, and although he was known as ‘le petit corporal’ this had nothing to do with his height, but merely an endearment, due to the fact that he would just as easily muck in with his men as well as give orders to lead them into battle against England.