Napoleon Bonaparte may well have been one of the greatest military leaders in history, but he did have a teeny weeny it can be revealed.
The penis of the famously diminutive French emperor, who stood at 5ft 6in, has been carefully preserved since his death in 1821.
The 1.5in (3.8cm) organ now belongs to Evan Lattimer, who inherited it from her father, a renowned urologist who bought it at a Paris auction in 1977 for $3,000 (£1,800).
Napoleon Bonaparte is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders in history
Speaking to Dead Famous DNA host Mark Evans, Lattimer said: “He bought it, he never showed it to anyone, he never told anyone. He just took it, put it under the desk and there it was.
“It’s very small but it’s famous for being small. It’s perfect structurally, the university have done X-rays and examinations and it’s obviously what it is.”
The Channel 4 programme will be broadcast on Wednesday at 9pm, and sees an apparently unimpressed Evans remark: “I’ve seen a lot of penises, from a Chihuahua to a Sperm Whale. This is so withered.”
By the way, Urban Dictionary defines “Napoleon complex” as “a personality complex that consists of power trips and false machismo to make up for short height and feelings of inferiority”.
And findings from a 2008 study at the University of Groningen in Holland seem to confirm this makes evolutionary sense, with tall men and medium-height women achieving greater success with members of the opposite sex.
One more thing: In 2012, research published in the scientific journal Personality and Individual differences, declared the average penis size in France to be 5.3 inches, placing it below the UK’s mean of 5.5 inches. (Men in the Republic of Congo scored highest in case you’re interested, with South Korea coming in the bottom of the charts.)
Strangely these figures fly in the face of an earlier study in 2008 which saw French men claim an average penis size of 6.09 inches in a survey of condom size.
Dead Famous DNA will be shown on Channel 4 on Wednesday, 2 April at 9pm.