napoleon a appris anglais

Ego (coupled with avarice) as motivation: Napoleon, arguably the most uber-Frenchman of all time, tried to learn English while in exile.

Napoleon Bonaparte was keen to learn English while in exile, documents shown in Britain for the first time reveal.

The deposed French emperor apparently wanted to learn the language of his foes so he could read what the London papers were writing about him.

"In France people are amazed to find that he was learning English. But he didn't do it for pleasure. He wondered how much money he could have saved in translation if he could have learnt English."

Via BBC