Hello all,
Just a random example of some for thought:
http://www.rankopedia.com/ZID=3/157...Person-of-All-Time..........?/Step1/13607.htm
1. Napoleon
2. Jean d'Arc
3. Louis Pasteur
4. Voltaire - Francois Marie Arouet
5. Rene Descarts
6. Victor Hugo
7. Charles de Gaulle
8. Emile Zola
9. Zinedine Zidane (Now that's FUNNY!)
Wouldn't William be Norse, Normans being decended from Vikings, and 1066 not being that far removed from when they took over Normandy.
Like every other country what is "French" came out of a mix of many distinct peoples...Gauls, Celts, Bretons, Aquitanians (Basques), Iberians, Ligurians, Greeks in southern France, Italic people (Romans); Germanic peoples like the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians (Bourgogne); Moors or Saracens; Vikings known as Normans (who were largely Danish and less Norwegian or Swedish). So William of Normandy is as legitimate as anyone.
Napoleon Bonaparte was from Corsica. He wasn't French.
Yes, real name Napoleone Buonaparte was Italian originally, "of minor Corsican nobility". The phrasing of the poll question would seem to eliminate him. But how one eliminates a person inseparable from French history and so inextricably connected to France shows the fault of the premise. It's like saying 300 years of English kings and queens don't count as English because they weren't English originally; they are actually German from the House of Hanover and Saxe-Coburg Gotha. I guess in Napoleon's case there is a minor difference between saying French ancestry and French history.
For me one would have to go back to those who started to make France and what became French. I look to Clovis first king to unify France, Charles Martel and Pepin the Short, and Charlemagne. But I'll settle for Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, and Pepe le Pew...and don't tell me Pepe isn't French or I'll just cry.
If we are going to kiss the butt of an agency owner I'll take Miss Jessy XXX. I happen to know her cheeks are sweet...as well as...
Luv you anyway Martin bro. Thumbs up!
Ummmmm,
Merlot
BTW...greatest Americans: George Washington and Bugs Bunny.
PS
I voted for Pasteur.