The
House of Bonaparte is an imperial and royal European
dynasty founded in 1804 by
Napoleon I, a French military leader who had risen to notability out of the
French Revolution and who in 1804 transformed the
First French Republic into the
First French Empire, five years after
his coup d'état of November 1799. Napoleon turned the
Grande Armée against every major European power and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories during the
Napoleonic Wars. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, extending the power of the dynasty.