Charles Léon

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Charles, Count Léon (1806–1881) was an illegitimate son of Emperor Napoleon of France and Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne (1787–1868). Brought up in France, he began a military career in Saint-Denis.

Admirative of his father Napoleon, he tried to keep the memory of the First Empire alive by organizing several commemorations. After the fall of his cousin Napoleon III and of the Second Empire he retired in Pontoise, France and died very modestly.

Charles, Count Léon

Léon’s daughter Charlotte Mesnard, who was interviewed in 1921 at the age of 55, said her father had a striking resemblance to Napoleon. She also said that two of Léon's sons and her own son were killed in the First World War.^[1]

Biography[]

Napoleon thought for a long time that he was sterile because his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, who already had 2 children from a previous marriage, failed to get pregnant. His first son was born from his affair with his sister's maid, Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne: Charles Léon was born on December 13, 1806. Napoleon then divorced his wife and remarried on April 2, 1810 with Marie-Louise of Austria who gave him an heir on March 20, 1811: Napoleon II.

Count Léon – short for Napoleon – was raised away from the imperial court, but always under his father's protection. The Emperor even made him an heir in his will.

References[]

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