Napoleon III: the other Napoleon and his Empire - Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Magazine Antiques, Dec, 2002 by Christopher Forbes

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Pl. I) was proclaimed Napoleon III, emperor of the French, on December 2, 1852. Thirty-seven years after the Battle of Waterloo and thirty-one years after the death of Napoleon I (r. 1804-1815) in exile on the island of Saint Helena, his nephew succeeded against all probability in reestablishing the family on the imperial throne of France. Equally unexpectedly, after eighteen years of stability and unparalleled prosperity, Napoleon III's regime swiftly collapsed after reverses in an ill-conceived war with Prussia. The opprobrium and ridicule that have been heaped on "the other Napoleon" during the ensuing thirteen decades are particularly surprising considering that the achievements of his reign measure up rather well when compared to those of his ever-revered uncle.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Paris on April 20, 1808 (see Pl. II), the third son of the arranged marriage of Louis (Pl. III), one of Napoleon I's younger brothers, and Empress Josephine's daughter from her first marriage, Hortense de Beauharnais (Pl. IV). Ironically, the future Napoleon III was the first child of the new imperial dynasty to be born a prince, for his father had been made king of Holland in June 1806 by Napoleon I. Given the strained relationship of his parents at the time of his birth, and Hortense's delivery three years later of an illegitimate son, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph (the future duc de Morny; 1811-1865), there was some question about the future emperor's legitimacy. Legend has it that one of his uncles, Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome (1784- 1860), confronted Napoleon III, saying, "You have nothing of my brother the Emperor about you!" to which the sovereign dryly replied, "You are wrong, dear Uncle. I have his family about me." (1)

In any case, Louis Napoleon's father was emphatic about his son's paternity, and on his own death in 1846 left everything to his "only surviving son." (2) Louis Napoleon almost died of a fever while fighting for the unification of Italy in 1831, but was brought to safety by his mother, first to France then England and finally to the Chateau d'Arenenberg, Hortense's residence on Lake Constance in Salenstein, Switzerland. Their passage through Paris caused some awkwardness for Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848), who had been proclaimed king less than a year earlier, after a brief revolution in July 1830 drove his Bourbon cousin Charles X (r. 1824-1830) from the throne. It would not be the last time that Napoleon's most ambitious nephew would embarrass a king of France.

In pursuit of his destiny Louis Napoleon would eventually instigate two coup attempts to topple Louis Philippe. After the death of Napoleon I's only legitimate son, Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte, the duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II; 1811-1832), of consumption in Vienna, the twenty-four-year-old Louis Napoleon considered himself the heir to the imperial legacy, even though, technically, his sonless uncle Joseph (1768-1844), whom Napoleon I had created king of Spain in May 1808, and own semi-invalid father, Louis, had precedence. To establish his political savvy and military prowess, respectively, he published a pamphlet Reveries politiques (1832; published in English as Political Reflections) and, later Manuel d'artillerie (1836; published in English as Artillery Handbook).

On October 30, 1836, he launched his first coup attempt in Strasbourg. Aided by a local officer of the artillery, Colonel Nicolas Vaudrey(1784-1857), the prince hoped to win over the garrison and lead a triumphal march to Paris, somewhat along the lines of Napoleon's return from Elba in 1814. However, the whole affair was over in two hours. Louis was arrested and eventually exiled to the United States, where he remained only a few months, until news of his mother's declining health brought him back to Switzerland. He arrived at the Chateau d'Arenenberg on August 4, 1837, and Hortense died two months later.

The French government immediately began pressuring the Swiss government to oust Louis Napoleon from the Confederation. Rather than create difficulties for the nation that had given his mother a safe home for so many years, he voluntarily left for England, whence he continued his pamphleteering and plotting. On August 6, 1840, he landed near Boulogne with a small group of armed colleagues intent on winning the local garrison to the Bonapartist cause and precipitating the collapse of the July Monarchy This coup attempt was as unsuccessful as its predecessor, but the reaction of the government was, not surprisingly, more severe. Louis Napoleon was sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress of Ham on the Somme River about one hundred miles southeast of Boulogne. Not quite six years later, on May 25, 1846, disguised as a workman, he escaped and made his way to London, where he was received as something of a celebrity. He had already published a provocative essay entitled Extinction du pauperisme (Paris, 1844) (published in English as Extinction of Pauperism). Not long after his arrival in London, the first volume of his Histoire du canon dans les armees modernes [History of cannons in modem armies] was published in Paris in 1848. It was largely researched and written during his imprisonment.