Napoleon Bonaparte, Military General, First Consul and Emperor of France, and the man who most influenced the history of Europe during his age.

Born in August 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, the son of Charles-Marie Bonaparte and Marie Laetitia Ramolino, he entered the Royal Military school of Brienne at thee age of ten, graduating to the artillery school in Paris, from where he passed out in 1785. As a lieutenant in 1786, he was stationed in Corsica, fighting at first for , and then against Paoli, the leader of the faction demanding self government. In 1789, whilst garrisoned at Auxonne, he quelled a riot, but he first came to notice on the 10th of August 1792, when he took part in the storming of the Tuileries palace. At the siege of Toulon, held by the English, he was made commander of the artillery, and conceived a plan to recapture the town; it finally fell on the 17th of December 1793. Bonaparte was promoted to Brigadier General and made Artillery Commander of the Army in Italy. However as a close friend of Robespierre's brother Augustin, he was at first arrested after the 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), but subsequently released. Returning from Italy in March 1795 he refused to accept a command in Vendee and was reduced t the ranks.

The first coalition against France had been organized in 1792, but the Treaty of Basle in 1795, established a separate peace with Prussia and Spain; England, Austria and Piemont, continuing the was. On 2 March 1796, Bonaparte was named as general of the French forces in Italy, and proclaimed to hi men:"Soldiers you are badly clothed, badly fed... I will lead you to the most fertile plains in the world... There you will find honor, glory and riches." Between the 9th of April and the 10th of May 1796 Napoleon split the Austrians from the Piemontains by his victories at Monternotte and Milessimo. He defeated General Colli at Mondori, followed by the Austrians at Lodi, and entered Milan triumph, after which his soldiers nicknamed him Le Petite Caporal. On the 3rd and the 5th of August won the battles of Lonato an Castiglione against the Austrian General Wurmser, and in November of the same year, narrowly escaped death at the bridge of Arcole, his life being saved by Lannes ( later made Marshal) who was wounded, and Muirion, who was killed. January 1797 saw the victory at Rivoly, the capitulation of Wurmser at the siege of Mantoue, and the forces of the Archduke Charles forced to retreat.

Bonaparte now the protector of two Italian Republics, was virtually a sovereign ruler. In October, the Austrians sued for peace in Leoben, signing the Treaty of Campo Formio which ceeded Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine to France. Bonaparte returned to France in triumph in December 1797.

Having decided to attack England through Egypt with the intention of cutting off the trade route to the Indias, Napoleon embarked on his Egyptian campaign on 19th of May 1798, setting sail on board the Orient. He captured Malta en route and disembarked his army at Alexandria. On 21th of July, at the battle of the Pyramides, Bonaparte announced to his troops:"Soldiers, from the summit of the pyramides, forty centuries of history looks down on you". He went on to defeat the Mameluks, but the French fleet was destroyed by Nelson at Aboukir on 1st of August. In February 1799, already master of Egypt, Bonaparte pursued the Turkish army into Syria and was agin victorious at Mount Thabor, but the onset of plague amongst his troops forced him to lift the siege of Saint Jean d' Arce. His final victory was against mercenary troops at Aboukir an the 25th July, after which he decided to leave General Kleber in command and return to France. Disembarking at Frejus on the 9th of October 1799, Bonaparte was feted throughout his journey to Paris. 

The reminder of Napoleon Bonaparte's life as a Consul and Emperor is as well-documented as his early career as a soldier, but falls after the period when he bought this clock and was entered by Breguet in their sales book as General Bonaparte.