Among Napoleon Bonaparte’s traits, as we’ve learned them from school and movies, is that the iconic French soldier and king was short.

His supposed short stature and fiery temper inspired the term Napoleon Complex, according to which short men tend to compensate for their lack of height through domineering behavior and aggression.

But was Napoleon really short?

In fact, he was 1.67, with a height of 1.70 – which by the standards of the early 19th century is considered above average.

According to History.com, Napoleon’s valet Constant, Gourgaud’s general, and his personal physician Francesco Antommarchi—had said that Napoleon’s height when he died was just over “five feet two inches.”

Applying the French measurements of the time, this equates to about 1.67 meters – slightly above average height for a Frenchman in the early 1800s.

Then how did the belief that he was short come about?

A popular English cartoonist-sketcher of the time, James Gillray, is responsible for everything, who – on behalf of English propaganda – satirized the French general as a short, nervous and inferior man.

For example, one of his most famous sketches, “Maniac-raving’s-or-Little Boney in a strong fit”, depicted Napoleon in a rage, stocky and nervous, like an elf.

The 1803 sketch depicted a diplomatic episode at the Tuileries Palace in Paris when, in front of hundreds of European officials, Napoleon vented his anger on Lord Whitworth, the British ambassador.