WI: Napoleon dies at Waterloo

So what if in the heat of the battle in Waterloo, Napoleon dies while directing his troops? I'm assuming the French lines will fall into disarray and collapse faster than OTL. But what happens afterwards? How will this affect Napoleon's legacy?
 
If Nappy died,I bet people on this site will talk about how if Napoleon was alive,he'd have won the Battle of Waterloo!
 
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Well, he doesn't go out like a bitch on some random island in the middle of nowhere, and instead dies heroically trying to restore his Empire. I suppose that makes for a better story. :p Aside from that, little changes about history. Not like he did anything of any relevance on St. Helena.
 
Well, he doesn't go out like a bitch on some random island in the middle of nowhere, and instead dies heroically trying to restore his Empire. I suppose that makes for a better story. :p Aside from that, little changes about history. Not like he did anything of any relevance on St. Helena.

Basically this. His life-story comes to resemble that of Charles XII of Sweden, who fell at the Siege of Fredriksten in 1718.
 
I think he's remembered even better than he is IOTL. He won't be the man who died, sick, fat, and broken on a remote island, he'll be the valiant warrior who fought to his last breath for France and died the way he lived, at the head of an army.

His supporters will hold him up as a hero, martyred by the forces of reaction. In short, I think the Napoleonic legend is stronger in this timeline.
 
Actually, it is possible that his legend might be weaker. My understanding is that the memoirs he dictated on St. Helena significantly influenced the historiography surrounding his reign. If he dies without telling his side of the story to the world, he may be viewed a bit more negatively. Obviously there will still be nostalgic Frenchmen, but possibly less romanticism of Napoleon elsewhere.
 

Anaxagoras

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I think he's remembered even better than he is IOTL. He won't be the man who died, sick, fat, and broken on a remote island, he'll be the valiant warrior who fought to his last breath for France and died the way he lived, at the head of an army.

His supporters will hold him up as a hero, martyred by the forces of reaction. In short, I think the Napoleonic legend is stronger in this timeline.

I disagree. His exile and death far from France was the last act of an almost perfectly written Greek tragedy of the hero who rose from nothing to the grandest heights only to fall back into abjectness in the end. Could you have written a better ending for him? It's been said that his exile made him a Christ-like figure, with St. Helena being his Cross. Napoleon himself said, "If Christ hadn't been crucified, He would never have been God."
 
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