Database: Jean Bernadotte

The poor man's Bonaparte, Bernadotte started out as a stable boy nicknamed "Fanfan Belle-Jambe." He enrolled in the Revolutionary Army as a private aged 17. He quickly rose up the ranks, becoming brigadier general and, just six months after that, general of division. Of note is his marriage to Désirée Clary, a former sweetheart of Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Bernadotte served under at the thunderous success at Austerlitz. However, his revolutionary principles were jettisoned in the wake of an extraordinary turn of events: Having been adopted by the ailing Charles XIII of Sweden, he was called on to become crown prince and eventually Charles XIV, King of Sweden and Norway.