Around 1799 he crowned himself king of France taking Louis XVII place. Napoleon led several successful campaigns and attacks over the 16 years he ruled France, but if he had great attacks and led France why wasn't he a hero? Napoleon in my eyes was a power hungry leader, he started by crowning himself, then to start leading troops to war and battle after battle keep conquering his enemies. However; France's population did like Napoleon because of his success and courage to keep fighting. So what made him a tyrant? One small thing I found was that he was married to Josephine Beauharnais, once he found out she couldn't have any more kids he divorced her and moved on to his new wife Marie Louise who was the Duchess of Austria. The big thing that made him a tyrant was the invasion of 1812 against Russia. He was not nearly ready at all to go to Russia but did, over 500,000 of his men