Monarchs are always easy to spot. They arrive with fanfare and everyone seems to know exactly where and who they are. Elected leaders arrive in camouflage, hidden in the ashes of a country that might seem on its very last legs.
Before this new leader appears, they could be hidden away in a dusty office somewhere in the corridors of government, sitting behind a regular desk, taking lunchbreaks at Costa like the rest of us.
Then with alarming speed, they are endowed with credentials, credibility, convenient provenance, a make over, plenty of funding and, if they don't already have one, a spouse or partner.
A power vacuum, as we well know, will always be filled. Behind the scenes there is almost always a huge struggle going on between powerful factions, trying to install their leader first.
The chosen one will be presented as a great achiever, a great statesman or, when warmongering was in vogue, a fierce warrior. They declare loudly, this normal person from the dusty office, even before their first order is given, the ability to restore law and order and to increase the prosperity of the people.
Their country swells with pride under this figure, with a renewed sense of security, and often ambition.
How great was Napoleon really, and exactly how did he make it from a young Corsican child aged nine to Emperor of France?
How did he climb the ranks, declare himself the First Consul and draw Europe in to a series of wars that would see the end of the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia apparently on its knees?
Let's take a look.