Apsley House in London - Robert Lefevre - Napoleon Bonaparte - 1769 - 1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte was born to a humble family on the poor island of Corsica. By 1804, he was Emperor of France, and came to control the greater part of Western Europe, bringing modernising reforms in the name of the ideals of the French Revolution - "liberty, fraternity, equality." In 1812 his failed invasion of Russia brought disaster. Enemies united against him, and by 1814 his Empire was destroyed. He died in exile - but his ideas lived on.