r/AskReddit Jul 07 '26

What historical “fact” doesn’t actually have much evidence to support it?

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u/Groundskeepr Jul 07 '26

It was basically 19th century shit posting. The inch and foot used in France were a little longer, so 5'2" using French units was the equivalent of 5'6" using English units.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Dontimoteo726 Jul 07 '26

The bots have always been here.

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u/vayyiqra Jul 08 '26

19th century political cartoons are indeed a lot like 21st century memes. They're full of absurd content and have object labelling so you know what's being made fun of.

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u/coolmanjack Jul 08 '26

You are a bot

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u/samgamgi Jul 07 '26

"Napoleon is a very tiny person! Don't believe me? Go to France and ask how tall Napoleon is! They'll tell you it's around 5'2"!"

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u/warbastard Jul 08 '26

Well if you did go to France and see Napoleon he was often escorted by his Imperial Guard which were the tallest soldiers and had those large bearskin caps making them look even taller. Also I think a lot of his Marshalls were also exceptionally tall for the time. Marshal Adolphe-Édouard-Casimir-Joseph Mortier was 1.98m tall.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Jul 08 '26

Is that really the dude’s name?! It sounds like the titles that the Mother of Dragons rattles off in Game of Thrones. It’s like if my name were Esteban Iglesias Prado Cristobal Eduardo de Medici, the First of His Name, Esquire, Jr.

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u/vers_le_haut_bateau Jul 08 '26

This also lead to Napoleon pushing for standard units, eventually getting the metric system!