Napoleon was not short

Napoleon's height was about 1.68 to 1.70 metres — short by some standards now, ordinary for a Frenchman of his time.

French records give him 5 pieds 2 pouces. The French pied was longer than the British foot. Converted, 5 foot 2 in French measure is about 5 foot 6 or 5 foot 7 in British measure, around 1.69 metres. British caricature, Gillray in particular, preferred a tiny tyrant. The nickname travelled better than the conversion.

Conscription records show French soldiers of the era averaging in that same range. Napoleon was not tall. He was not the outlier the cartoons required. Modern populations are taller, which makes the converted figure look shorter to us than it looked to his own quartermasters.