Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, prince imperial

Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph, Prince Imperial

Born: 16 March 1856, Paris, France

Cied: 1 June 1879, Zulu Kingdom

Father: Emperor Napoleon III of France

Mother: Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo

Spouse: Fiancée of Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom

Issue: None

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Eugene,_Prince_Imperial

Napoléon, Prince Imperial, was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo. His early death in Africa sent shock waves throughout Europe, as he was the last dynastic hope for the restoration of the Bonapartes to the throne of France.

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 arms, however, he had to flee from France with the Imperial Family and settled in England at Chislehurst, Kent. On his father's death, Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoleon IV. During the 1870s, there was some talk of a marriage between him and Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice. Toward the end of his life there were rumours, not all untrue, that he was romantically attached to the Spanish Infanta María del Pilar of Spain, daughter of Queen Isabella II of Spain; she died two months after Louis Napoléon.

With the demise of the Second French Empire, the Prince Imperial was exiled to the United Kingdom, where he first attended elementary lectures in physics at King's College London. He subsequently applied and was accepted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. After finishing 17th in his class, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in order to follow in the footsteps of his famous great-uncle. Finally, 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. He was only allowed to go to Africa by special pleading of his mother, the Empress Eugenie, and by 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, "...to avoid running unnecessary risks. I reminded him of the Empress at home and his political party in France."

Chelmsford, mindful of his duty, attached the Prince to 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 May 31, 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.

On the morning of June 1, 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 toward them screaming uSuthu! ("Kill!"). 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 could run faster.

The Prince was speared in the thigh but pulled the assegai from his wound. As he turned and fired on his pursuers, another assegai struck his left shoulder. 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. Two of his escort had been killed and another was missing. Lt. Carey and the four men remaining came together about fifty yards from where the Prince made his final stand—but not a single shot did they fire at the Zulus. Carey led his men back to camp, where he was greeted warmly for the last time in his career: after a court of inquiry, a court martial, intervention by the Empress Eugenie and Queen Victoria, he was to return to his regiment a pariah, shunned by his fellow officers for not standing and fighting. Carey endured several years of social and regimental turmoil before his death in Karachi, India, on February 22, 1883.

Louis Napoleon's death caused an international sensation, and in one slanderous account Queen Victoria was accused of deliberately arranging the whole thing. The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was. Zabanga, his chief assailant, met his death in July at the Battle of Ulundi. Eugénie was later to make a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son died. The Prince, who had begged to be allowed to go to war (taking the sword carried by the first Napoleon at Austerlitz with him) and who had worried his commanders by his dash and daring, was described by Wolseley as "a plucky young man, and he died a soldier's death. What on earth could he have done better?".

After death the Prince was ritually disemboweled by one Hlabanatunga, a common Zulu practice to prevent his spirit seeking revenge on his killers in the afterlife. His badly decomposed body was brought back to England on board the British troopship HMS Orontes and buried in Chislehurst. Later, it was transferred to a special mausoleum constructed by his mother as the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, England, next to his father. As his heir the Prince Imperial appointed Prince Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, thus omitting the genealogically senior heir, Victor's father, the rather detested Prince Napoléon (Plon-Plon).

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

In literature

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.

Legend

According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, after Louis Napoléon's death in Africa, his mother Eugénie saw his ghost in France. Louis' ghost asked his mother to find his body. She travelled to Africa herself and was strangely drawn to the spot where her son's body was located, under the plants and dirt.

Titles from birth to death

His Imperial Highness The Prince Imperial (1856–1870)

His Imperial Highness Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (1870–1873)

His Imperial Highness Prince Imperial Napoléon, Head of the Imperial House of France (1873–1879)

Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph, 16 March 1856 – 1 June 1879), Prince Imperial, Fils de France, was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo. His early death in Africa sent shock waves throughout Europe, as he was the last dynastic hope for the restoration of the Bonapartes to the throne of France.

Contents

1 Biography

2 Titles from birth to death

3 References

4 Further reading

5 External links

Biography

His mother, Eugénie, Empress of the FrenchAt 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 arms, however, he had to flee from France with the Imperial Family and settled in England at Chislehurst, Kent. On his father's death, Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoleon IV. During the 1870s, there was some talk of a marriage between him and Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice. Toward the end of his life there were rumours,[citation needed] not all untrue,[citation needed] that he was romantically attached to Spanish infanta María del Pilar, daughter of Queen Isabella II of Spain.[citation needed] Infanta Pilar died the same year as Louis Napoléon.

With the demise of the Second French Empire, the Prince Imperial was exiled to the United Kingdom, where he applied and was accepted to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. After finishing 17th in his class, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in order to follow in the footsteps of his famous great-uncle. Finally, 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. He was only allowed to go to Africa by special pleading of his mother, the Empress Eugenie, and by 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, "...to avoid running unnecessary risks. I reminded him of the Empress at home and his political party in France."

Chelmsford, mindful of his duty, attached the Prince to 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.

On the morning of 1 June the troop set out, earlier than intended, and without the full escort, largely owing to Louis' 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 screaming uSuthu! ("kill") towards them. 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, trampling his right arm. He leapt up, drawing his revolver with his left hand, and started to run - but the Zulus could run faster.

The Prince was speared in the thigh, pulled the assegai from his wound, and turned and fired on his pursuers, another assegai struck his left shoulder. 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 18 assegai wounds. Two of his escort had been killed, and another was missing. Lt. Carey and the remaining four came together about 50 yards from where the Prince made his final stand - but not a single shot did they fire at the Zulus. Carey led his men back to camp, where he was greeted warmly for the last time in his career - after a court of inquiry, a court martial, intervention by the Empress Eugenie and Queen Victoria, he was to return to his regiment a pariah - shunned by his fellow officers for not standing and fighting. He endured six years of social hell before his death in Bombay.

Louis Napoleon's death caused an international sensation, and in one slanderous account Queen Victoria was accused of deliberately arranging the whole thing. The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was. Zabanga, his chief assailant, met his death in July at the Battle of Ulundi. Eugénie was later to make a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son died. The Prince, who had begged to be allowed to go to war, taking the sword carried by the first Napoleon at Austerlitz to war with him, and worried his commanders by his dash and daring, was described by Wolseley as "a plucky young man, and he died a soldier's death. What on earth could he have done better?".

Napoleon "IV" lying in state (Collage, about 1880)After death the Prince was ritually disemboweled by one Hlabanatunga, a common Zulu practice to prevent his spirit seeking revenge on his killers in the afterlife. His badly decomposed body was brought back to England and buried in Chislehurst. Later, it was transferred to a special mausoleum constructed by his mother as the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, England, next to his father. As his heir the Prince Imperial appointed Prince Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, thus omitting the genealogically senior heir, Victor's father, the rather detested Prince Napoléon (Plon-Plon).

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

Titles from birth to death

His Imperial Highness The Prince Imperial (1856–1870)

His Imperial Highness Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France (1870–1873)

His Imperial Highness Prince Imperial Napoléon, Head of the Imperial House of France (1873–1879)

The British Zulu War.

You may find this piece of South African 🇿🇦 history interesting:

Louis-Napoléon in 1878 at age 22

Titular Emperor of the French
Period
9 January 1873 – 1 June 1879
Predecessor
Napoleon III
Successor
Napoleon V
Born
16 March 1856
Paris, French Empire
Died
1 June 1879 (aged 23)
near Ulundi, Zulu Kingdom
Burial
St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough
Names
Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph
House
Bonaparte
Father
Napoleon III
Mother
Eugénie de Montijo
Religion
Roman Catholicism
In England, he trained as a soldier. Keen to see action, he successfully put pressure on 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.

• ******************

This young man is related to me / I’m related to him 😉

Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, prince imperial is your 14th cousin 6 times removed.
You

  →  Johan August Steyn, b1c3d4e11f3g4 

your father → Hendrina Petronella 'Hennie' Steyn nee Möller
his mother → Hermina Catharina Möller
her mother → Helena Catharina Susanna Du Toit e5f4g1
her mother → Hermina Catharina du Toit, b4c2d5e1f4
her mother → Helena Catharina Viljoen, b12c3d4
her mother → Maria Elizabeth Kok (Haumann)
her mother → Susanna Marais, b4c1d3 SM
her mother → Marie Elisabeth de Villiers, SV3b3
her mother → Jacques de Villiers, SV/PROG 3
her father → Pierre de Villiers
his father → Pierre Claude de Villiers, Ecuyer, Seigneur de Chantemerle, Conseiller de Roi et Juge, Magistrate
his father → Guy de Villiers
his father → Guillaume de Villiers
his father → Claude II de Villiers, Seigneur de Mascais, de la Chapelle
his father → Blanche de Villiers
his mother → Agnes de Mareuil
her mother → Baron Jean de Mareuïl, de Villebois-Montmoreau
her father → Anne de Mareuil-Villebois
his mother → Marguerite de Craon
her mother → Marie de Craon
her sister → Renaud Chabot, seigneur de Jarnac
her son → Robert Chabot
his son → Anne Landry
his daughter → Antoinette de Maillé
her daughter → François de La Trémoille
her son → Louis I de La Trémoïlle, marquis de Noirmoutier
his son → Louis II de La Trémoïlle, duc de Noirmoutier
his son → Louise Angélique Charlotte de la Trémouille
his daughter → Princesse Marie Anne Césarine Lante Montefeltro della Rovere
her daughter → Marie Anne Charlotte de Croÿ, dama de la princesa
her daughter → Felipe de Palafox y Croy de Havre
her son → Don Cipriano Guzman Palofox-Portocarrero, Count of Teba & Montijo
his son → Eugénie de Montijo, Empress consort of France
his daughter → Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, prince imperial
her son