Napoleon II

Birth

The March 20th 1811, the wishes of Napoleon are filled; Marie-Louise returns it father of a heir who it wished so much: because it is to obtain it that he divorced Joséphine de Beauharnais. Baptisé Napoleon, Francois, Joseph, Charles, Napoleon II are as, by the family of its mother, the great nephew of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI as his/her Napoleon father called “my uncle” .

The young prince receives, as of his birth, the title of King de Rome under the terms of the Sénatus-consulte of the February 17th 1810.

This title was intended to recall to the Pape Pie VII that Rome was nothing any more but the chief town of the one of the 130 French Départements. Moreover Napoleon collected thus the heritage of the Roman Empire Germanic: more precisely the Électeurs had the possibility of designating a successor of living of the emperor, this heir then receiving the title to King of the Romans .

The clergy and all the trades greeted the cradle of the newborn by speeches and harangues of which the flattery, though exaggerated, however nothing extraordinary in this circumstance had.

Heir to the Empire

The constitution of the 2 floréal An XII (May 18th 1804) grants the title of Prince Impérial the oldest son of the Emperor and that of French prince with the other princes dynastes.

1814, Fall of the Empire

After the countryside of France and the catch of Paris, Marie-Louise and her son resided at Rambouillet then with Blois and Napoleon with Fontainebleau. The April 4th 1814, Napoleon writes an act of abdication holding the rights of his/her son. The April 6th 1814, Napoleon must finally give up the crown for him and its descent. Napoleon bade his farewell with his troops the April 20th 1814 with Fontainebleau and left for the isle of Elba. A convoy taking along Marie-Louise and her son to Vienna left the April 23rd 1814. Its theoretical reign was 2 days in 1814, which justifies its title of Napoleon II - just as Jean Ier de France says the Posthumous one which him reigned only 5 days and which was only new-born.

It had also the title of prince de Parme , the Traité of Fontainebleau of the April 11th 1814 specifying in its article 5: “The duchies of Parma, Pleasure and Guastalla were given in any property and sovereignty to S. Mr. lira: Its Majesty the Marie-Louise empress. They passed to his/her son and his descent in hot line. The prince, his son, took as of this moment the title of prince de Parme, Plaisance and Guastalla. ” But the treaty of the June 10th 1817 withdrew definitively with the son of Marie-Louise and his title and its rights on Parma who already had been called into question by article 99 of the act of the Congrès of Vienna of the June 9th 1815.

Marie-Louise ends up leaving her son to Vienna to go itself from there to reign in Parma on a purely basis for life. It is true that one made the point to him that his son was a Bâtard with the reason that the marriage of Joséphine with Napoleon had not been cancelled by the Pape in person.

Hundred Days

Under the Hundred Days, the additional Acte with the constitutions of the empire of the April 22nd 1815 returned to the son Napoleon i restored the title of Prince Impérial , but not that of king de Rome . At the end of the Hundred Days, the abdication made with the Elys3ee palace the June 22nd 1815 indicates: “My political life is finished, and I proclaim my son, under the title of Napoleon II, emperor of the French. ” But Napoleon II lives then in Vienna with the hands of the “enemy”… A commission of government sets up itself and indicates it, in all its documents, like the emperor, before dissolving the July 7th 1815. Louis XVIII enters to Paris the July 8th 1815 to reign there again. Napoleon II will have been emperor the 15 days space.

In Austria

By the imperial Obvious of the July 22nd 1818 signed by his/her maternal grandfather François Ier of Austria, it was made Duc of Reichstadt . Reichstadt is a locality located in Bohemia and called Czech Zákupy. The incomes of the fields associated with this “duchy” were important.

During its stay in Vienna its entourage used nothing any more but François or more exactly Franz like usual first name.

He was the favorite grandson of his grandfather, François Ier of Austria. He was also cherished by all his Habsbourg family, archdukes and archduchesses of Austria, which had much evil to include/understand the attitude of their sister and aunt Marie-Louise, retained too often in his duchy of Parma in addition to his sovereign obligations by other children, born from his hasty marriage with the count of Neipperg, from where the branch from the Princes of Montenuovo is resulting.

The François Emperor had given the order that he was not spoken to him about his father. But if the subject were to be approached, it was not to in no case to be known as about it evil, the Emperor and all the Family of Austria having preserved their admiration at the overcome enemy.

In 1830 one shouted “Vive Napoleon II” in the streets of Paris and one thought of him for a throne in Belgium or Poland.

Died

Died without alliance nor posterity in Austria of tuberculosis, it was buried in Vienna in the crypt of the Capuchins near the Archiduc S of Austria. Its “ashes” (although one uses this term which belongs to the noble style antiquisant, its body was never incinerated) were transferred the December 15th 1940 to the Invalides on order from Adolf Hitler, where it has a tomb close to that of his father and carrying the inscription “Napoleon II King de Rome”; the ceremony missed its effect (to promote the Collaboration) since it coincided with the ousting of Pierre Laval. The date was selected to take place 100 years, day for day, after the transfer of “ashes” of Napoleon i to the Invalides (December 15th 1840).

Its legend

The nickname of the Aiglon comes to him from poems of Victor Hugo written in 1852. To speak about the Sons of man mark an additional degree in the Napoleonean mystic.

It was the object of a certain popularity among the partisans of its father, and its death in Austria made it legendary. Example of this image, the play the Eaglet of Edmond Rostand painting a duke of seeking Reichstadt which was his/her father, with the great despair of its maternal family and of the official Austrians.

Two ways arranged under the Second Empire with Paris were dedicated to the memory of the son of Napoleon i: the which occurred of the King de Rome who became the which occurred Kléber in 1879 and the place of the King de Rome become the Place of Trocadéro in 1877.

Another legend relates to its possible descent: if it is officially deceased without descendant Napoleon II was closely related to her aunt the archduchess Sophie, born Sophie of Bavaria and wife of the archduke François-Charles. Sophie was already mother of the archduke François-Joseph, future emperor of Austria-Hungary. The Sophie archduchess assisted the duke of Reichstadt in the last months of her life. They had with the eyes of the Court and the Imperial Family a connection that all lets suppose platonic. The attribution of the possible paternity of the archduke Maximilien, future emperor of Mexico, in Napoleon II concerns the legend. Nothing makes it possible to believe that their relation was carnal. The conscience that the Sophie archduchess had of her row and her duties encourages to believe the opposite. The promiscuity in which the many Impériale family members also lived. A thing is certain: two young people knew during one year of romantic happiness, probably the only one which was given to Napoleon II. It should be noted that the Sophie archduchess, like her father King Maximilien Ier Joseph of Bavaria, which owed its throne with Napoleon i, was an enthusiastic Bonapartist. His/her older sister, the Auguste princess of Bavaria had married, on order of Napoleon, prince Eugene de Beauharnais. This marriage appeared happier. The Sophie archduchess, like her brothers and sisters, had a real affection for their brother-in-law. This bond had certainly to play in the emotional reports/ratios of the Sophie archduchess and the duke of Reichstadt.

Napoleon II and Louis XVII

Napoleon II is relative with the 6th (4+2) degree (civil) with Louis XVII:

Marie-Therese of Austria X 1736: François Ier of the Holy roman Empire │ ├──> Léopold II of the Holy roman Empire │ X 1765: Marie-Louise of Naples │ │ │ └──> François II of the Holy roman Empire = François Ier of Austria │ X 1790: Marie-Therese of Naples │ │ │ └──> Marie-Louise of Austria │ X 1810: Napoleon i │ │ │ └──> Napoleon II │ └──> Marie-Antoinette of Austria X 1770: Louis XVI of France │ └──> Louis XVII

With the screen

Napoleon II, the Eaglet (1961) of Claude Boissol according to Andre Castelot

See too

Historical of the governments of France
House of Napoleon

Internet site

Friendly of the Napoleonean Inheritance

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