Napoleon was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica, and was given the
name Napoleone Buonaperte. He was the second of eight children of Carlo and
Letizia Buonaperte, both of the Corsican-Italian gentry. Before Napoleone, no
Buonaparte had ever been a professional soldier. His father Carlo, was a lawyer
who had fought for Corsican independence, but after the French occupied the island
in 1768, he served as a prosecutor and a judge and entered the French aristocracy
as a count. Through his father's influence, Napoleone was educated at the expense
of King Louis XVI, at Brienn…
