Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, Duke of Reichstadt (March 20, 1811 – July 22, 1832) was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria. Known from birth as the King of Rome, he was styled as His Majesty the King of Rome, which Napoleon I declared was the courtesy title of the heir-apparent. He was briefly the second Emperor of the French.
Life
Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte was born in Paris to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria in 1811. Styled "His Majesty the King of Rome," Napoleon I declared him his heir-apparent. Three years later, the First French Empire — to which he was heir — collapsed, and Napoleon abdicated the throne in favour of his infant son, who was taken by the empress to Château de Blois in April 1814. In 1815, after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon again abdicated in favour of his son whom he had not seen since his exile to Elba.
Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, Emperor of France, the King of Rome, and Duke of Reichstadt
The Chamber of Representatives and Chamber of Peers recognized him as Emperor from the moment of his father's abdication (June 22, 1815), but the entrance of the Allies into Paris on July 7 brought a rapid end to his fictive rule. The next Bonaparte to come to the throne of France (in 1851) took the name Napoleon III in deference to his cousin's theoretical reign.
After 1815, the young prince, now known as "Franz," after his maternal grandfather, rather than as "Napoleon," was a virtual captive in Austria. He was awarded the title of Duke of Reichstadt in 1818. He died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna on July 22, 1832. Upon the death of his stepfather, Neipperg, and the revelation that his mother had borne two illegitimate children to him prior to their marriage, Franz said to his friend, Prokesch von Osten, "If Josephine had been my mother, my father would not have been buried at Saint Helena, and I should not be at Vienna. My mother is kind but weak; she was not the wife my father deserved".[1] It has been suggested that his death was the result of deliberate lead or arsenic poisoning at the hands of agents of Metternich's police state.[2]
He was very close to Princess Sophie of Bavaria and it has been further suggested that he was the father to her son, the future ill-fated Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.[3]
Remains and legacy
In 1940, the remains of Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte were transferred from Vienna to the dome of Les Invalides in Paris. This was done as a gift to France from German dictator Adolf Hitler. The remains of Napoleon I were moved there in 1840. For some time, the young prince rested beside his father. Later the remains of Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte were moved to the lower church. While most of his remains were transferred to Paris, his heart and intestines remained in Vienna. They are in Urn 42 in the "Heart Crypt" (Herzgruft) and his viscera are in Urn 76 of the Ducal Crypt.
Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte was also known as "The Eaglet" (L'Aiglon). Edmond Rostand wrote a play, L'Aiglon, about his life. Serbian composer Petar Stojanović composed an operetta "Napoleon II: Herzog von Reichstadt", which premiered in Vienna in the 1920s.
Sources
- Welschinger, Le roi de Rome, 1811-32, (Paris, 1897)
- Wertheimer, The Duke of Reichstadt, (London, 1905)
References
- ^ Markham, Felix, Napoleon, p.249
- ^ Altman, Gail S. Fatal Links: The Curious Deaths of Beethoven and the Two Napoleons (Paperback). Anubian Press (September 1999). ISBN 1-888071-02-8
- ^ Maximilian and Carlota by Gene Smith, ISBN-10: 0245524185, ISBN-13: 978-0245524189
Ancestry
French Monarchy -
Bonaparte Dynasty
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