He was a French dictator—the original short king. Napoleon's supposedly short stature made him the mockery of Europe and inspired a stigma that persists today.

As Ridley Scott’s film “Napoleon” is released Wednesday, the myth of Bonaparte’s short stature prevails. It came from a British cartoonist with a bone to pick.

But while Napoleon himself wanted to be remembered as a benevolent ruler of men, one of the most remembered traits of the man is that he was of short stature. Which is weird because Napoleon was ...