There were several factors that contributed to Napoleon's ultimate defeat: British sea power, the fact that a large French army was tied down in the Iberian peninsula for the best part of six years, the fatal decision to invade Russia. One tat is often forgotten is the resistance he met from Pope Pius VII to his demands on the Church. Napoleon's empire, as he was fond of repeating, was predominantly Catholic; yet as a result of his armies or of the civilian population in central Europe when he set out on his Russian campaign. This book will appeal to the general reader as a story of human endurance and integrity, as well as to the historian interested in the politics of the time.