Marengo Biography

Marengo is the most famous of the many horses owned and ridden by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Marengo was said to have been purchased in Egypt in 1799, and was named for Napoleon’s success at the Battle of Marengo in 1800. The horse carried Napoleon in several subsequent battles and is often thought to be the horse portrayed in Jacques-Louis David‘s famous 1801 painting titled Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps.

Marengo was captured by the British after the Battle of Waterloo and proudly displayed in England. After the horse’s death its skeleton was put on display in the National Army Museum. In 2000 Marengo was the topic of a book, Jill Hamilton’s Marengo: the Myth of Napoleon’s Horse.