Q&A
Was Napoleon defeated by rabbits?
• SHORT ANSWER
If only the other European powers had thought to attack Napoleon with bunny soldiers
• LONG ANSWER
The year was 1807 and no man in Europe was as powerful as Napoleon Bonaparte: as emperor of France, he had swatted aside coalitions formed against him with monumental victories at Austerlitz, Jena and Auerstedt. Crushing human soldiers was one thing, though. His tactics proved less effective against an army of rabbits.
That July, after signing the Treaties of Tilsit and ending the War of the Fourth Coalition, Napoleon wanted to celebrate with a good old fashioned bunny hunt. The organisation was left to his chief of staff, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, who got between a few hundred and a few thousand rabbits and set them loose in a field with the emperor’s gun-and club-wielding party.
That’s when it went wrong. Thinking the humans were bringing food, the long-eared warriors swarmed Napoleon and wouldn’t leave him alone until he was forced into retreat in his carriage. Perhaps the Duke of Wellington learned of this humiliation and took some pointers for Waterloo…