Hello, I'm Peter Frankopan and I'm quickly dropping in to tell you about a new podcast I'm hosting with AFWA Hirsch called Legacy. Everyone leaves a legacy. For some, it lives on for decades, for centuries. But a legacy can also change. Reputations are re examined by new generations who may not like what they find. Legacy explores the lives of some of the biggest characters in history, from Napoleon to Picasso to Nina Simone, and finds out more about what their pasts tell us about our present. I'm about to play you a clip from our first season exploring the legacy of Napoleon. If you like what you hear, search and follow Legacy to listen to the full episode.

Napoleon. Famous guy, big name, huge in France, all over the world. What do you think when you hear about the name Napoleon?

I used to be a lawyer, and.

When I think of Napoleon, I think of Napoleonic code. When countries became independent from Europe, they often adopted the Napoleonic codes.

Right.

I thought when you said you'd been.

A lawyer, you thought maybe you'd sue him.

But it's about the legacy of Napoleon.

As a lawmaker and administrator. No battle of Waterloo.

Nope.

For me, he was this slightly vague.

Figure with his arm tucked into his.

Jacket and weird jokes about his height.

And the size of various other body parts that I never really understood their origin.

Gosh in the English education system. Well, you have Battle of Hastings and then the Battle of Waterloo. You can do that for months.

Well, he's clearly a character that is still very much in our popular culture. And now, Peter, we have a new Ridley Scott movie starring Joachim Phoenix and it said more books written about him than anyone else.

Yeah, I heard. 300,000 books.

Wow.

More than about Jesus Christ or Muhammad.

But look, either he's an enlightened despot.

Or he's a great modernizer. He's a codifier of laws, he's a military hero, he's an enslaver lot of baggage and maybe you could argue, paved the way for all sorts of things.

That are slightly unexpected that we're going.

To talk about too.

But let's try to figure this out. And for this, we're going to take.

You back in time to a crucial moment in Napoleon's life.

The year is 1815. It's the 7 March, just after six in the morning. We're in the Alps in the southeast of France. In the morning sun, snow capped peaks loom over a column of men and horses as it moves along a narrow mountain path. Hooves and boots damp a steady rhythm, punctuated with the clatter of kits and arms and carts and bats. Napoleon's collar is turned up against the Alpine chill. He breathes in the pine centered air. There's nowhere he'd rather be. He's with his men. They are marching towards their destiny. They are few in number. Napoleon has commanded much greater forces, but they are his. He senses a change in pitch, in the voices ahead and the steady stamping of the men's feet, slowing, then stopping as word travels back through the ranks. Royalists. Some spit the word out with distaste, but there's fear, too. Napoleon can always sense it. He breathes out slowly, straightens his back, and pushes through his men to the front of the column. No one says a word. He can hear a stream, no heavy branches creaking and his own boots crunching on the path. Otherwise, silence. The Royalist soldiers have formed a defensive position, some kneeling, some standing.

Their muskets are raised and they are pointing at him. He thinks he sees some of them smile or snarl. He throws back his head, stretches out.

His arms and roars.

If you want to kill your Emperor, here I am and wait for the shots.

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