Born in 1769 to a poor but aristocratic Corsican patriot family, 6 year old Napolon Bonaparte is enrolled in a French academy, where his military career begins. His capabilities are amply demonstrated with a series of dazzling victories in Revolutionary France's Italian campaign. He becomes obsessed with and marries Josephine, a widow, and begins a meteoric rise to power. He gradually compromises his egalitarian ideals and crowns himself emperor in 1804. After he establishes himself as master of Europe with victories in battles like Austerlitz and diplomatic alliances, he embarks on a series of decisions that mark his decline and fall: an ill-advised occupation of Spain, his divorce of Josephine and marriage into the Hapsburg family, and his disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. After a failed attempt to return to power culminating in final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, he spends his remaining years defining his legacy with his memoirs.