Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Napoleon Bonaparte (… 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French statesman and military leader of Italian descent who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history." [Wikipedia] "His greatest eirenic triumph, however, was making peace with the Catholic Church by the Concordat of 1802. . . . Although Bonaparte’s vaulting ambition eventually led to a new schism, in the short and medium term the Concordat greatly facilitated his hold not only on France but on all Catholic Europe. His other great positive achievement at home was the promulgation of six legal codes, the Civil Code of 1804 being both the first and the most important." [Blanning: Pursuit of Glory, p. 349]