No, Napoleon was not unusually small. That’s mostly a myth.
He was recorded as about 5 feet 2 inches in old French units, but French inches were longer than British/American inches. Converted to modern measurements, he was roughly 5’6″ to 5’7″, or about 168–169 cm. That made him average or slightly above average for a French man of his era.
The “short Napoleon” idea likely came from a mix of things: British political cartoons mocked him as tiny, his nickname “Le Petit Caporal” meant “the Little Corporal” but was more affectionate than literal, and he often stood near tall elite guards, making him look smaller by comparison.
So the better answer is: Napoleon wasn’t tiny; the myth was basically old-school propaganda plus measurement confusion.
