Editing Napoleon (section)

==Early life==
Napoleon's family was of Italian origin. His paternal ancestors, the Buonapartes, descended from a minor [[Tuscany|Tuscan]] noble family who emigrated to [[Corsica]] in the 16th century. His maternal ancestors, the Ramolinos, descended from a noble family from [[Lombardy (historical region)|Lombardy]].<ref>{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=2}}</ref> Napoleon's parents, [[Carlo Buonaparte|Carlo Maria Buonaparte]] and [[Letizia Bonaparte|Maria Letizia Ramolino]], lived in the [[Maison Bonaparte]] home in [[Ajaccio]], where Napoleon was born on 15 August 1769. He had an elder brother [[Joseph Bonaparte|Joseph]] and six younger siblings: [[Lucien Bonaparte|Lucien]], [[Elisa Bonaparte|Elisa]], [[Louis Bonaparte|Louis]], [[Pauline Bonaparte|Pauline]], [[Caroline Bonaparte|Caroline]], and [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jérôme]].<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=xiv, 14}}</ref> Five more siblings were stillborn or did not survive infancy.<ref>{{Harvp|McLynn|1997|p=4}}</ref> Napoleon was baptized as a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] under the name ''Napoleone di Buonaparte''. In his youth, his name was also spelled as ''Nabulione'', ''Nabulio'', ''Napolionne'', and ''Napulione''.<ref name="dwyerxv2">{{harvp|Dwyer|2008a|p=xv}}</ref>

Napoleon was born one year after the [[Republic of Genoa]] ceded Corsica to France.<ref name="McLynn-1997b">{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=6}}</ref>{{efn|Although the [[Treaty of Versailles (1768)|1768 Treaty of Versailles]] formally ceded Corsica's rights, it remained un-incorporated during 1769<ref name="McLynn-1997b" /> until it became one of the [[Provinces of France]] in 1770.<ref>{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=20}}</ref> Corsica would be legally integrated as a [[Departments of France|département]] in 1789.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Corsica |title=Corsica |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128091618/https://www.britannica.com/place/Corsica |archive-date=28 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=142}}}} His father supported [[Pasquale Paoli]] during the [[French conquest of Corsica|Corsican war of independence]] against France. After the Corsican defeat at the [[Battle of Ponte Novu]] in 1769 and Paoli's exile to Britain, Carlo became friends with the French governor [[Charles Louis de Marbeuf]], who became his patron and a godfather to Napoleon.<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=13-17}}</ref><ref name="Ellis22">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QlzJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 | first=Geoffrey | last=Ellis |title=Napoleon |publisher=Pearson Education Limited |year=1997b |isbn=978-1317874690 |chapter=Chapter 2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822095518/https://books.google.com/books?id=QlzJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |archive-date=22 August 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> With Mabeuf's support, Carlo was named Corsican representative to the court of [[Louis XVI]], and Napoleon obtained a royal bursary to a military academy in mainland France.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|pp=20–21}}<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=16-20}}</ref>

[[File:Carlo Buonaparte.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=Half-length portrait of a wigged middle-aged man with a well-to-do jacket. His left hand is tucked inside his waistcoat.|Napoleon's father, [[Carlo Buonaparte]], fought for [[Corsican Republic|Corsican independence]] under [[Pasquale Paoli]]. After their defeat, he eventually became the island's representative to [[Louis XVI]]'s court.]]The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, whose firm discipline restrained a rambunctious child.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|pp=20–21}} Later in life, Napoleon said, "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother."<ref>{{cite book |last=Chamberlain |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fcYZlz0ezQUC&q=%22The+future+destiny+of+the+child+is+always+the+work+of+the+mother%22&pg=PA385 |title=The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought: (The Child in Primitive Culture) |date=1896 |publisher=MacMillan |isbn=978-1-4219-8748-4 |page=385 |access-date=15 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227171711/https://books.google.com/books?id=fcYZlz0ezQUC&q=%22The+future+destiny+of+the+child+is+always+the+work+of+the+mother%22&pg=PA385#v=onepage&q=%22The%20future%20destiny%20of%20the%20child%20is%20always%20the%20work%20of%20the%20mother%22&f=false |archive-date=27 February 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> Napoleon's noble, moderately affluent background afforded him greater opportunities to study than were available to a typical Corsican of the time.{{sfnp|Cronin|1994|p=27}}

In January 1779, aged 9, Napoleon moved to the French mainland and enrolled at a religious school in [[Autun]] to improve his French,<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|p=19}}</ref> his mother tongues being [[Corsican language|Corsican]] and Italian.<ref name="Parker-1971">{{cite journal |last=Parker |first=Harold T. |date=1971 |title=The Formation of Napoleon's Personality: An Exploratory Essay |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/286104 |url-status=live |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=6–26 |doi=10.2307/286104 |jstor=286104 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225135113/https://www.jstor.org/stable/286104 |archive-date=25 February 2018 |access-date=2 December 2023|issn = 0016-1071 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfnp|Roberts|2014|p=11}} Although he eventually became fluent in French, he spoke it with a Corsican accent, and his French spelling was poor.<ref>{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=18}}</ref> In May, he transferred to the military academy at [[Brienne-le-Château]] where he was routinely bullied by his peers for his accent, birthplace, short stature, mannerisms, and poor French.<ref name="Parker-1971" /> He became reserved and melancholic, applying himself to reading. An examiner observed that Napoleon "has always been distinguished for his application in mathematics. He is fairly well acquainted with history and geography&nbsp;... This boy would make an excellent sailor".{{efn|Aside from his name, there does not appear to be a connection between him and [[Napoleon's theorem]].{{sfnp|Wells|1992|p=74}}}}<ref>{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=21}}</ref>

One story of Napoleon at the school is that he led junior students to victory against senior students in a snowball fight, which allegedly showed his leadership abilities.{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|pp=12–14}} But the story was only told after Napoleon had become famous.<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=22-23}}</ref> In his later years at Brienne, Napoleon became an outspoken Corsican nationalist and admirer of Paoli.<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|p=28}}</ref>

In September 1784, Napoleon was admitted to the ''[[École militaire]]'' in Paris where he trained to become an artillery officer. He excelled at mathematics and read widely in geography, history and literature. However, he was poor at French and German.<ref>{{Harvp|Zamoyski|2018|pp=26, 30-31}}</ref> His father's death in February 1785 cut the family income and forced him to complete the two-year course in one year. In September he was examined by the famed scientist [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] and became the first Corsican to graduate from the ''École militaire''.<ref name="dwyer422">{{harvp|Dwyer|2008a|pages=38-42}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|McLynn|1997|p=26}}</ref>