Napoleon wasn't short — the 'Napoleon complex' comes from a unit conversion error

At his death Napoleon was recorded as 5'2", but that's in French inches, which were longer than English ones — in modern units he stood about 5'6" to 5'7", roughly average or slightly above average for a Frenchman of his era. The 'short Napoleon' caricature was largely British wartime propaganda, popularised by cartoonist James Gillray's 'Little Boney' drawings.

— Andrew Roberts, Napoleon: A Life — Penguin, 2014
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