Napoleon's Contemporaries Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maria Letizia Ramolino

Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769. His father was Carlo Buonaparte (1746-1785), a member of Tuscan nobility, and his mother was Maria Letizia Ramolino (1750-1836), who stemmed from Genoese nobility. Maria and Carlo married in 1763 and they soon started a large family. Eight of Maria's thirteen children survived childhood, but it was the second son Napoleone who would become the most famous of them.
In 1779 Napoleone was enrolled on a French school, and soon his name was gallicized to Napoléon Bonaparte.
Carlo Buonaparte died in 1785 and Maria moved in 1793 to Marseille, where most of her children lived.
After the exile of Napoleon to Saint Helena in 1815, Maria moved to Rome, where she led a very secluded life. She died in 1836.

Answer: Charles-François Lebrun

Lebrun (1739-1824) started his career as a lawyer and rose to the position of inspector-General of the Domains of the Crown in 1768 (a position similar to Minister of Finance). When the French Revolution took place, Lebrun became a member of the constituent assembly.

After having served a while as governor of the department Seine et Oise, Lebrun fell into disgrace during the Reign of Terror (1792-1794). Napoleon overthrew the government in 1798 and installed himself as one of the three consuls. In 1799 Napoleon chose as second consul Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacères and as third consul Charles-François Lebrun. Lebrun was responsible for the financial matters of the Consulate, and later would also for two years act as arch-treasurer of the French Empire.

Answer: Jean-Baptiste Kléber

Kléber (1753-1800) was born in Strasbourg, a city that has been swapped between France and Germany several times. Kléber at first completed his studies in architecture in Paris, but then entered military service in Germany (at that time the Holy Roman Empire). In 1792 he opted for the French army, and soon became a general. Kléber joined Napoleon on his Egyptian campaign, but was wounded in the first battle. After serving for a while as governor of Alexandria, Kléber received the general command of all French forces in the Middle East when Napoleon returned to France in 1799.
Because the British navy successfully blockaded the maritime access to Egypt, Kléber tried to negotiate an honourable retreat. When the negotiations did not reach their goal, Kléber subdued a large Turkish army near Heliopolis.
In June 1800, an Arab student attacked Kléber and stabbed him mortally in the chest and the head.

Answer: Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture was born as a slave on a plantation in Saint-Domengue, a French colony on the island of Hispaniola. Various dates of birth between 1739 and 1746 have been proposed, but maybe Toussaint even did not know his birthday himself. His first name seems to indicate a birth day on the First of November (All Saints' Day), but this is also conjecture.
Toussaint Louverture was emancipated in 1776 and started his own coffee plantation. When a revolt against the French arose in 1791, Toussaint joint the rebellion and soon became its iconic leader.
Toussaint did not live to see Haiti's independence in 1804. He was arrested by the French in 1802 and imprisoned in France. Toussaint Louverture died in prison in April 1803.

Answer: Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie

Marie Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie was born in Martinique in 1763. She married Alexandre de Beauharnais in 1779 and was during this marriage known as Rose de Beauharnais. In 1794 Alexandre died, and a few months later Rose met Napoleon, whom she married in 1796. Napoleon insisted on naming her Joséphine, and so she then used the name Joséphine Bonaparte. Only after both Joséphine and Napoleon died, historians started to use the name Josephine de Beauharnais. Josephine was at first the love of Napoleon's life.

But after she had an affair in Paris and Napoleon had a brief affair in Egypt, their relation was cooled off. Josephine had two children with her first husband, but she did not conceive a child of Napoleon's. In 1810 the couple divorced, and Napoleon sought a new wife who could produce an heir and successor. Josephine died of natural causes in 1814, when Napoleon was in exile on Elba.

Answer: Horatio Nelson

Nelson was born in Norfolk in 1758. In 1771 he enlisted in the Navy as ordinary seaman. He soon rose to the rank of an officer and served in both the West-Indies (the Caribbean) as in the East-Indies (near Madras). When the French revolutionary government declared war on Great-Britain in February 1793, Nelson had just received his first command. Nelson fought the French navy and their allies in several sea battles, including the Battle of the Nile (1798), the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) and the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).

In the Battle of the Nile, Nelson defeated the French admiral by not following the traditional strategy but advancing at nightfall. In the Battle of Copenhagen, the British rear admiral Parker had ordered a strategic retreat, but Nelson famously "turned a blind eye" and went on, crushing the Danish-Norwegian fleet.

In Trafalgar, Nelson once more pounded a superior French-Spanish fleet, but was fatally wounded in action. Nelson died a few hours after the victory.

Answer: Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wesley (sic) was born in Dublin in 1769. In 1787 he enlisted in the British army as an ensign. His first combat experience against the French was in 1794 during the Flanders Campaign. In 1796 he "corrected" the orthography of his surname, to the name Wellesley that went down in history.
Wellesley fought in India form 1797 until 1804, and was promoted to general on returning. In 1808 Wellesley engaged the French troops in the Peninsular War, fought on Portuguese and Spanish battlegrounds. An important victory in the Battle of Salamanca (1812) gained him the title of Earl of Wellington, which was later upgraded to Duke of Wellington after several more victories.
When Napoleon fled his exile on Elba and retook the French Empire, Wellington was one of the British generals assigned to halt the French armies and to deal them a final blow. Wellington decided on a small ridge near Waterloo (south of Brussels) as a fine spot to deliver battle. Napoleon's armies attacked on 18 June 1815, but they could not defeat the British army in time before the arrival of the Prussian army led by General von Blucher.
Wellington pursued a political career after the Napoleonic Wars and died in 1852 in Kent of natural causes.

Answer: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and studied theology. In 1789 he was consecrated Bishop of Autun. When the French Revolution started, Talleyrand supported the Third Estate (the bourgeoisie) even in their anti-clerical projects. Later Talleyrand supported Napoleon and served for several years as his Foreign Minister.

But when Napoleon abdicated in 1814 and was exiled to Elba, Talleyrand changed sides once more, engaging in negotiations at the Congress of Vienna in favour of the Bourbon line of French kings.

In 1815 Talleyrand was named Prime Minister of France, a post he held for fifteen years. From 1830 to 1834, he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Talleyrand died in 1838. Although he was infamous for serving various governments (some of them having deposed the previous one in a coup), at least one historian is convinced Talleyrand was always loyal to France - whoever was the French head of state.

Answer: Jacques-Louis David

David (1748-1825) studied painting at the Académie Royale and tried for four consecutive years to win the Prix de Rome - a scholarship to study fine art in Italy. David went on to produce classical paintings. During the French Revolution, he supported the Jacobins and voted for the execution of King Louis XVI.
David was appointed by Napoleon to make a few well-known paintings: "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" (1801) and "The Coronation of Napoleon" (1806). In the 1801 painting, David embellished the scene by portraying Napoleon on a prancing horse, while in real history Napoleon was seated on a mere mule.
David died in Brussels in 1825. 

Answer: Germaine de Staël

Madame de Staël, as she would become famous, was born as Anne Louise Germaine Necker in 1766, the daughter of the Swiss banker Jacques Necker. Her father was appointed by Louis XVI to restore the public finance of France.
Germaine married the Swedish baron Erik Staël von Holstein in 1786. Germaine started her literary career in 1788 with a pamphlet on the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. During the French Revolution, she organised many dinner parties on literary themes. She also left us first-hand notes on some important revolutionary events, such as the public reading of the "Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme" ("Declaration of Man's Rights").
When Napoleon as a First Consul seemed determined to seize absolute power, Madame de Staël was one of the first to oppose his plans. But Napoleon exiled her for ten years, and pressed on with his plans to become the French Emperor.