Napoléon, Prince Imperial

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This article is about the son of Napoleon III. For the stepson of Napoleon I, see Eugène de Beauharnais.
Louis-Napoléon
Prince Imperial of France
Napoléon, Prince Imperial at age 22
Louis-Napoléon in 1878
Titular Emperor of the French
Period9 January 1873 – 1 June 1879 (1873-01-09 – 1879-06-01)
PredecessorNapoleon III
SuccessorNapoleon V
Born(1856-03-16)16 March 1856
Paris, French Empire
Died1 June 1879(1879-06-01) (aged 23)
near Ulundi, Zulu Kingdom
Burial
St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough
Names
Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte
HouseBonaparte
FatherNapoleon III
MotherEugénie de Montijo
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Napoléon, Prince Imperial (Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte; 16 March 1856 – 1 June 1879), also known as Louis-Napoléon, was the only child of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and Empress Eugénie. After his father was dethroned in 1870, he moved with his family to England. On his father's death in January 1873, he was proclaimed by the Bonapartist faction as Napoleon IV.

In England, he trained as a soldier. Keen to see action, he persuaded the British to allow him to participate in the Anglo-Zulu War. In 1879, serving with British forces, he was killed in a skirmish with a group of Zulus. His early death sent shockwaves throughout Europe, as he was the last serious dynastic hope for the restoration of the House of Bonaparte to the throne of France.

Biography[]

Napoléon at age 14, 1870

Born in Paris,[1] he was baptised on 14 June 1856 at Notre Dame Cathedral. His godfather was Pope Pius IX, whose representative, Cardinal Patrizi, officiated. His godmother was Eugène de Beauharnais's daughter, Josephine, the Queen of Sweden, who was represented by Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Baden.[2]

His education, after a false start under the academic historian Francis Monnier, was from 1867 supervised by General Frossard as governor, assisted by Augustin Filon as tutor. His English nurse, Miss Shaw, was recommended by Queen Victoria and taught the prince English from an early age. His valet Xavier Uhlmann[3] and his inseparable friend Louis Conneau[4] also figured prominently in his life. The young prince was known by the nickname "Loulou" in his family circle.[5]

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, he accompanied his father to the front and first came under fire at Saarbrücken. When the war began to go against the Imperial army, his father sent him to the border with Belgium. In September, he sent him a message to cross over into Belgium. He travelled from there to England, arriving on 6 September, where he was joined by his parents, the Second Empire having been abolished. The family settled in England at Camden Place in Chislehurst, Kent. On his father's death, Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoleon IV. On his 18th birthday, a large crowd gathered to cheer him at Camden Place.[5]

The Prince Imperial attended elementary lectures in physics at King's College London. In 1872, he applied and was accepted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He finished seventh in his class of thirty-four, and came top in riding and fencing.[6] He then served for a time with the Royal Artillery at Aldershot.[7]

During the 1870s, there was some talk of a marriage between him and Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice.[8] Victoria also reportedly believed that it would be best for "the peace of Europe" if the prince became Emperor of France.[8] The Prince remained a devout Catholic, and he retained hopes that the Bonapartist cause might eventually triumph if the secularising Third Republic failed. He supported the tactics of Eugène Rouher over those of Victor, Prince Napoléon, breaking with Victor in 1876.[6]

With the outbreak of the Zulu War in 1879, the Prince Imperial, with the rank of lieutenant, forced the hand of the British military to allow him to take part in the conflict, despite the objections of Rouher and other Bonapartists.[citation needed] He was only allowed to go to Africa by special pleading of his mother, the Empress Eugénie, and by intervention of Queen Victoria herself. He went as an observer, attached to the staff of Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, the commander in South Africa, who was admonished to take care of him. Louis accompanied Chelmsford on his march into Zululand. Keen to see action, and full of enthusiasm, he was warned by Lieutenant Arthur Brigge, a close friend, "not to do anything rash and to avoid running unnecessary risks. I reminded him of the Empress at home and his party in France."[9]

Chelmsford, mindful of his duty, attached the Prince to the staff of Colonel Richard Harrison of the Royal Engineers, where it was felt he could be active but safe. Harrison was responsible for the column's transport and for reconnaissance of the forward route on the way to Ulundi, the Zulu capital. While he welcomed the presence of Louis, he was told by Chelmsford that the Prince must be accompanied at all times by a strong escort. Lieutenant Jahleel Brenton Carey, a French speaker and British subject from Guernsey, was given particular charge of Louis. The Prince took part in several reconnaissance missions, though his eagerness for action almost led him into an early ambush, when he exceeded orders in a party led by Colonel Redvers Buller. Despite this, on the evening of 31 May 1879, Harrison agreed to allow Louis to scout in a forward party scheduled to leave in the morning, in the mistaken belief that the path ahead was free of Zulu skirmishers.

Death[]

Death of the Prince Imperial (1882) by Paul Jamin

On the morning of 1 June 1879, the troop set out, earlier than intended and without the full escort, largely owing to Louis's impatience. Led by Carey, the scouts rode deeper into Zululand. Without Harrison or Buller present to restrain him, the Prince took command from Carey, even though the latter had seniority. At noon, the troop was halted at a temporarily deserted kraal while Louis and Carey made some sketches of the terrain, and used part of the thatch to make a fire. No lookout was posted. As they were preparing to leave, about 40 Zulus fired upon them and rushed towards them screaming. The Prince's horse dashed off before he could mount, the Prince clinging to a holster on the saddle. After about a hundred yards a strap broke, and the Prince fell beneath his horse and his right arm was trampled. He leapt up, drawing his revolver with his left hand, and started to run, but the Zulus outpaced him.[10]

The Prince was speared in the thigh but pulled the assegai from his wound. As he turned and fired on his pursuers, another assegai, thrown by a Zulu named Zabanga, struck his left shoulder.[11] The Prince tried to fight on, using the assegai he had pulled from his leg, but, weakened by his wounds, he sank to the ground and was overwhelmed. When recovered, his body had eighteen assegai wounds; one stabbing had burst his right eye and penetrated his brain. The Zulus stripped the body away from everything, except for a few medals. They did not dismember his body because of the courage he had shown in battle, but they did slit his chest open, a common Zulu practice to release the deceased's spirit.

Louis Napoléon in South Africa

Two of his escort were killed and another was missing. Carey and the four men remaining came together about 50 yards (50 m) from where the Prince made his final stand, but did not fire at the Zulus. Carey led his men back to camp. The Prince's body was recovered the next day. After a court of inquiry, a court martial, intervention by the Empress Eugénie and Queen Victoria, he returned to his regiment. Carey died in Bombay, on 22 February 1883.

Louis Napoléon's death caused an international sensation. Rumours spread in France that the prince had been intentionally "disposed of" by the British.[8] Alternatively, the French republicans or the Freemasons were blamed.[12] In one account, Queen Victoria was accused of arranging the whole thing, a theory that was later dramatised by Maurice Rostand in his play Napoleon IV.[12] The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was. Langalabalele, his chief assailant, met his death in July at the Battle of Ulundi.[12] Eugénie later made a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son had died. The Prince, who had begged to be allowed to go to war—taking the sword carried by Napoleon I at Austerlitz with him—and who had worried his commanders by his dash and daring, was described by Garnet Wolseley as "a plucky young man, and he died a soldier's death. What on earth could he have done better?"[13]

His decomposed body was brought back to Spithead on board the British troopship HMS Orontes, and thence transferred onto HMS Enchantress for sailing on to Woolwich Arsenal;[14] overnight, he lay in state in the western octagonal guardhouse by the riverfront. The funeral procession, including Queen Victoria, went from there to Chislehurst, where he was buried. On 9 January 1888, his body was transferred to a special mausoleum constructed by his mother as the Imperial Crypt at St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, next to his father.

The Prince Imperial had appointed Prince Napoléon Victor Bonaparte as his heir, thus skipping the genealogically senior heir, Victor's father, Prince Napoléon.

Legacy[]

The asteroid moon Petit-Prince was named after the Prince Imperial in 1998, because it orbits an asteroid named after his mother (45 Eugenia).[15]

In literature[]

The death is presented in some detail in G. A. Henty's The Young Colonists: A Tale of The Zulu and Boer Wars (1885).[16]

In the R. F. Delderfield novel Long Summer Day (the first of the A Horseman Riding By trilogy), Boer War veteran Paul Craddock buys a farm in 1900 or 1901. The middle-aged estate manager, Rudd, is somewhat embittered at having been one of the soldiers who had failed to rescue the Prince Imperial in 1879. Craddock is aware of the events, because by coincidence he had been born that very day.

Emma Lazarus wrote sonnets, under the common title of "Destiny", commemorating the prince's birth and death.

In the play Napoleon IV by Maurice Rostand, the Prince is killed in a carefully planned ambush arranged with the connivance of Queen Victoria.[17]

In a 1943 Southern Daily Echo article, former Sapper George Harding (2nd Company Royal Engineers) recalled being ordered to take a horse ambulance and find the Prince's body and bring it back to the column. The Prince Imperial had been out on reconnaissance mission with a party of the 17th Lancers. Describing the mission, he said

We advanced to a dried up river bed and had to cut away the banks to get the ambulance across. Eventually, we reached a kraal beside a large mealie field where we found the bodies of the Prince and some of his party. They had been surprised by Zulus as they rested in the kraal. The Zulus broke out of the mealie field and killed them before they could remount their horses. The Prince had been stabbed 16 times with assegais. We made a rough coffin and put his body in the ambulance. After burying the other bodies where they were found, we went back to the column. The Prince's body was taken back to England for burial.[18]

The Prince Imperial is a minor character in Donald Serrell Thomas's Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel Death on a Pale Horse (2013).[19]


Titles, styles, honours and arms[]

Styles of
Napoléon, Prince Imperial
Coat of Arms Second French Empire (1852–1870)-2.svg
Reference styleHis Imperial Highness
Spoken styleYour Imperial Highness

He was styled Prince Imperial of France from birth.

French honours[]

Foreign honours[]

Arms[]

  • Coat of arms of the Prince Imperial
  • Imperial Standard
  • Monogram of the Prince Imperial

See also[]

References[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Filon 1913, pp. 1–2.
  2. ^ Filon 1913, p. 7.
  3. ^ Filon 1920, p. 292.
  4. ^ Filon 1920, pp. 56–57, 84, 238, 272.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Echard 1985, p. 512.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Echard 1985, p. 513.
  7. ^ Filon 1913, pp. 135–138.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c Markham 1975, p. 210.
  9. ^ Kurtz 1964, p. 299.
  10. ^ Morris 1994, p. 529.
  11. ^ Morris 1994, p. 530.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c Morris 1994, p. 537.
  13. ^ Wolseley 1922, p. 44.
  14. ^ "Funeral of the Late Prince Louis Napoleon: The Arrival of the Remains at Woolwich". The Graphic. 19 July 1879. Retrieved 24 December 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Solar System Exploration: Asteroids – Moons". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2011. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  16. ^ Arnold, Guy (1980). "Preface". Held Fast for England: G. A. Henty, Imperialist Boys Writer. London: Hamish Hamilton.
  17. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ "Southampton Survivor of the Zulu War: Vivid Story of Final Battle At Ulundi". Southern Daily Echo. Southampton, UK. 30 December 1943.
  19. ^ Death on a Pale Horse: Sherlock Holmes on Her Majesty's Secret Service (Pegasus, March 2013) ISBN 1-60598-394-2
  20. ^ "A Szent István Rend tagjai" Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Jørgen Pedersen (2009). Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009 (in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 273. ISBN 978-87-7674-434-2.
  22. ^ "Seccion IV: Ordenes del Imperio", Almanaque imperial para el año 1866 (in Spanish), 1866, pp. 243–244, retrieved 29 April 2020
  23. ^ "Condecorações de Napoleão III" [Decorations of Napoleon III]. Academia Falerística de Portugal (in Portuguese). 3 February 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  24. ^ Cibrario, Luigi (1869). Notizia storica del nobilissimo ordine supremo della santissima Annunziata. Sunto degli statuti, catalogo dei cavalieri [History of the Most Noble Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation. Summary of the statutes, catalog of knights] (in Italian). Eredi Botta. p. 116. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  25. ^ Staatshandbuch für den Freistaat Sachsen (1867) (in German), "Königliche Ritter-Orden", p. 4
  26. ^ "Caballeros de la insigne orden del toisón de oro", Guóa Oficial de España (in Spanish): 102, 1875, retrieved 4 March 2019
  27. ^ Sveriges och Norges statskalender. Liberförlag. 1874. p. 468.

Bibliography[]

  • Balansó, Juan (mayo de 1999). "Capítulo VI. Las hijas de Isabel", Las perlas de la corona, 2ª edición, Plaza Janés, p. 126. ISBN 84-01-54071-2.
  • David, Saul Zulu. Penguin/Viking, 2004, pp 311–336.
  • Echard, William (1985). Historical Dictionary of the French Second Empire, 1852–1870. London: Greenwood Press.
  • Filon, Augustin (1913). Memoirs of the Prince imperial (1856-1879) from the French of Augustin Filon. London: W. Heinemann. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t4fn15x3g.
  • Filon, Augustin (1920). Recollections of the Empress Eugénie. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  • Kurtz, Harold (1964). The Empress Eugénie, 1826–1920. London: H. Hamilton.
  • Markham, Felix (1975). The Bonapartes. London: Taplinger Publishing Company.
  • Morris, Donald R. The Washing of the Spears. Simon & Schuster, 1965, pp 511–545.
  • Morris, Donald R. (1994). The Washing of the Spears: A History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation Under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879. London: Random House.
  • Wolseley, Garnet (1922). The Letters of Lord and Lady Wolseley, 1870–1911. London: Doubleday, Page, & Company.

Further reading[]

  • Ellen Barlee, Life of Napoleon, Prince Imperial of France, (London, 1889)
  • M. d'Hérrison, Le prince impérial, (Paris, 1890)
  • André Martinet, Le prince impérial, (Paris, 1895)
  • R. Minon, Les derniers jours du prince impérial sur le continent, (Paris, 1900)
  • Ernest Barthez, Empress Eugenie and her Circle, (New York, 1913)

External links[]

Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France
Born: 16 March 1856 Died: 1 June 1879
Titles in pretence
Vacant
Title last held by
Napoleon III 		— TITULAR —
Emperor of the French
Bonapartist claimant
9 January 1873 – 1 June 1879
Reason for succession failure:
Empire abolished in 1870 		Succeeded by
Victor Napoléon Bonaparte
French royalty
Preceded by
Jérôme Bonaparte 		Heir to the French throne
16 March 1856 – 4 September 1870 		Empire abolished
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