Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler was inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte when he diagnosed a syndrome in the last century in which men overcompensate for their short stature through aggressive behaviour. He would never have applied the Napoleon Complex to the man portrayed in a previously-unpublished letter, which describes the future Emperor of France as charm personified.

An Irish nobleman wrote of meeting Napoleon at the Tuileries Palace on January 8 1803. Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry – who, as a soldier in the British army, was to fight in the Napoleonic Wars - painted a portrait of a friendly, charismatic Frenchman who was then Consul, and soon to become Emperor.

In an 11-page letter to his father, he wrote of being presented to Napoleon: “I was excessively struck with Bonaparte’s countenance and manners. He is very different from the idea I had formed of him. His face is broad and his forehead vast, cheek bones rather high and chin long. He has the fiercest eyes and most fascinating smile I ever witnessed. He seems to have been borne for the honours of a Court. He has something new to say to everyone who is presented to him and there is always something pertinent and original in his remarks.”