A brief romp through history

Some historical romances have been reviewed recently at the most popular review sites. And they include the usual Napoleonic smackdown. And it got me thinking. What is this huge romance (no pun intended) with English nobility that favours it above more Napoleonic egalitarianism? I mean, if you asked your average modern person which world they’d prefer, I think they’d actually like Napoleon’s a whole lot better than aristocratic England. Let’s go through the easiest (Wikipedia) references first:

The metric system. Napoleon.

(Margarine, btw, came at Napoleon III’s insistence, not the one we’re currently talking about.)

Granting Jews rights to property, worship and careers. Napoleon. (Sorry, were you thinking it was the House of Frickin’ Lords??????)

Meritocracy in jobs. Napoleon.

Decriminalisation of heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft and homosexuality. Napoleon.

Factor in the abolition of feudalism. Napoleon. This is where I get really confused with all these American authors thinking Napoleon is vile and the British are wonderful, when the British still laboured under a grossly inequitable feudal/aristocratic structure while Napoleon nurtured the very class that these American authors — and most of us — hail from.

Going further afield through various books we own, Napoleon streamlined government bureaucracy. The cantons in France are an example of this because Napoleon didn’t believe that anyone should be more than a two day horse ride from a seat of arbitration or governance.

Also, disgusted by the way his generals used to divorce their wives, take up with sweet young things and then die, leaving the trophy wives everything, Napoleon revamped inheritance law so that ex-spouses and their children also got a fair share of the deceased’s estate. This system is still in place in France.

He instigated the introduction of the Civil Code, which gave equal treatment of the law to all citizens. Up till that time, laws differed from town to town and even from day to day, depending on the whim of royalty.

He established the French secular school system that, for the first time, separated state from religion, something that USAians seem to bang on about all the time.

So, in light of all this (and I know I’m only scratching the surface), why is Napoleon painted as such an unmitigated tyrant? Given their ideologies (his versus the British), I know whose side I’d rather be on. And I’d warrant so would most Americans. Even the sympathetic French characters in historicals think Napoleon is an ass. I mean, excuse me? Do you have any idea what the man did to completely revamp the political landscape of Europe that was then mired in the kind of feudalist claptrap that we seem to be in danger of sinking into yet again? I’m not saying, of course, that he was a saint, but a little more balance would be a refreshing change. Wonder if anyone’s up for the challenge?