The Queen said to President Sarkozy "M. le President, You will always remind us of your illustrious Napoleon!"

Question

Prince Philip nodded in agreement and said:

"Yeah, You short-a*sed litte B*stard!"

Answer 1

Wrong tack !

Her Majesty  just had a flash memory of "the nation of shopkeepers"....and remembered Ronnie and Dell Boy !

Answer 2

It is far from proven that he was short or for that matter tall (  5ft.2 or 5ft.7 according to the yardstick used – French or  British). In all paintings he seemed of average height. I’ll check my copy of  ÃƒÂ¢Ã‚€ÂœIl Memoriale di Saint Helena” (by Conte de Las Cases – Italian Edition 1842 - 2 volumes in my private Library) – for relevant clues and let you know.

Our Philip might have “thought”, but would never have “said” it, the Queen would not have been amused.  He could have invited him to get off his knees, though, in a very diplomatic aside.

ps that's the idea Vince, my old school pal Barry, who coined the phrase decades ago, would be proud of you.

pps in the "Memoriale", the nearest I got to his size,  was  that Old Boney  loved to "stand under shady trees and peer at a distant horizon", which means, I trust, that he wasn't all that big, otherwise he'd have "sat" under them. I'd go for a good 5 ft. 6.in, not bad for the time and nutritional value they had.

Misty Blue - could have shrunk though, judging by all the rain and snow he got  during the Russian campaign.

Answer 3

I was in a museum in Paris that had two of Napoleon's uniforms on display and going by them,if genuine, he certainly was a diminutive man.

Answer 4

Strange how you make out Napoleon was short, He was taller in fact than the British, Prussian, Russian monarchs that he met. Strange then that British think he is short.

Answer 5

Sarkozy is short like Napoleon. But Sarkozy don't want to conquer Europe. Sarkozy want sincere friendship with UK and USA.

It's a rumor that Prince Philip said that. If it was true, it would be in all the newspapers. Probably you thought that yourself and you take your desires for reality.

Answer 6

That sounds about par for Prince Philip, such a paragon of diplomacy and an outstanding role model for royals AND men, to boot.

Answer 7

France will always side with Germany over the states or the UK even though the Germans have a habit of trying to take their country over!

Anyway heres a wiki moment

British propaganda of the time depicted Napoleon as of smaller than average height (see contemporary caricature right) and the image of him as a small man persists in modern Britain in a way that does not exist in France. Uncertainty arises, however, because the French inch of the time equalled 2.71 centimetres, while the Imperial inch is 2.54 centimeters.[44] Napoleon's height was put at around 5 ft 2 ins by three French sources (his valet Constant, General Gourgaud,[7] and Francesco Antommarchi at Napoleon's autopsy) which on the French scale equals around 1.68 meters. By contrast, two English sources (Andrew Darling and John Foster[8]) put his height at around 5 ft 7 ins, equivalent, on the Imperial scale, to about 1.70 meters. This would have made him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of the time.[45]

Nonetheless, some historians have claimed that Napoleon would have been measured with a British measure at his autopsy, since he was under British control at St Helena, implying that the 5 ft 2 ins is an Imperial measure, equal to about 1.57 meters.[46] On the other hand, it might be countered that Francesco Antommarchi, Napoleon's personal physician, despised the English, considered their touch "polluting," [47] and would never have used their yardstick to measure his emperor. No evidence on which scale was used for this official measurement has come to light and, nearly 200 years after the event, the chances of definitive proof one way or the other are remote.

Napoleon's nickname of le petit caporal may add to the confusion, as non-Francophones may mistakenly interpret petit by its literal meaning of "small"; in fact, it is an affectionate term reflecting on his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers (for example, petit ami means "boyfriend" in French, petite amie means "girlfriend," and mon petit chou ["my little cabbage"] is a term of affection). He also surrounded himself with the soldiers of his elite guard, who were usually six feet or taller.

Whether truly short or not, Napoleon lent his name to the Napoleon complex, a colloquial term describing an alleged type of inferiority complex which is said to affect some people who are physically short. The term is used more generally to describe people who are driven by a perceived handicap to overcompensate in other aspects of their lives - Napoleon in his case supposedly compelled because of his short stature to acts of conquest and megalomania.

Answer 8

Oh dear ph'lip strikes again!

Answer 9

Did he really say this? You know, if he did I wouldn't be the least bit surprised!!

Answer 10

Well, after all we must not let these obnoxious foreigners forget the lesson that our forbears taught them at Waterloo !