Napoleon the Great?, Emmanuel Centre

How great was Napoleon? Intelligence Squared presents a debate chaired by Jeremy Paxman to find out if the French military and political leader deserves his formidable reputation.

In 2015 it will be 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo, and in anticipation of the anniversary, Intelligence Squared is holding a debate between two of Britain’s foremost historians, who have a difference of opinion when it comes to the French Leader.

Andrew Roberts is staunchly pro-Napoleon, attributing the former French Emperor with revolutionising warfare and transforming Europe through the defence of concepts like equality before the law, religious toleration and the end of feudalism. 

Roberts is the author of several books, including Napoleon and Wellington and Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble, and is currently writing a biography of Napoleon which will be accompanied by a BBC TV series. 

In opposition, Adam Zamoyski maintains that the erstwhile French leader was a bloated, overhyped fraud. Zamoyski is set to argue that Napoleon, far from being the influential leader he is often revered as, was nothing more than an ordinary man who benefitted from being erroneously credited with the work of others. 

Further still, Napoleon was responsible for some of the greatest blunders in military history including his disastrous Russian invasion. Zamoyski should know: the acclaimed historian is the author of 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow and its sequel Rites of Peace, The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna.

Legendary University Challenge and (until recently) Newsnight presenter and Journalist Jeremy Paxman will no doubt bring his renowned sardonic wit and interrogative interviewing techniques to proceedings as the chair of the debate.