Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


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 rumors, not all untrue, [that he was romantically attached to Spanish infanta María del Pilar, daughter of Queen Isabella II of SpainInfanta Pilar died the same year as Napoléon Eugène.
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. (It was a constant feature of the whole campaign for the British to underestimate the capacity of the Zulus, particularly the skill of their light infantry in ambush).
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.
Wolseley stated 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 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.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Photo L.I.N.


Source:.wikipedia

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
DEATH OF A DYNASTY
The Prince Imperial of France

June 1st 2009, will mark the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the death of a dynasty. It died in the arms of its only heir, the Prince Imperial of France when he sacrificed his life in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.
The story of how the impetuous and handsome prince was transported from a world of wealth and glamour, to die on a lowly Zululand battlefield is but a single tragedy in a war of attrition, full of poignant personal histories.

Born Eugene Louis Napoleon, the prince was the only child of Emperor Napoleon 111 of France and his consort, the beautiful Empress EugLne. His bloodline was impressive - he was the nephew of the famed Napoleon Bonaparte 1; his paternal grandfather was, Louis Bonaparte, King of Spain, and his maternal grandfather, Count de Montijo, Grandee of Spain. As heir to the most powerful and luxurious court in Europe, his life of majesty had been preordained - or so it must have seemed!

The prince was born 16th March 1856, a year which saw the end of his country's involvement in the Crimean war; a war in which there were to be no victors, only victims. Of the countries involved (Great Britain and France as allies of the Turks, against Russia), many thousands were to die, beaten by disease and privation as much as by warfare. The war ended March 30th without advantage to either side.

The prince was barely fourteen when his father, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, took him on to the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War; a war destined to cause the collapse of the 2nd French Empire: an Empire that had been established by his father by means of a coup d'Ltat in 1851. A year later Bonaparte 111 had become Emperor of France.
Initially the Emperor had been unpopular, his foreign policies unsuccessful and, although he had gained glory for France with his participation in Crimean War, the Franco-Prussian War was to be his downfall. After being defeated at the Battle of Sedan, Napoleon 111 and his armies, surrendered and the Emperor was taken prisoner.
An emotionally spent Empress Eugêne and the young Prince Imperial fled to sanctity in England. The Emperor joined them later on his release from captivity.

The prince settled happily into the British way of life, living in Kent before moving to Farnborough in Hampshire. When the Prince Imperial was sixteen, his father, anxious his son should reflect his own qualities, sent him to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich where he spent the next three years being trained as a soldier.

The prince was crushed when, on January 9th 1873, just two months before his seventeenth birthday, his father died, aged sixty-five. He was to predecease the Prince Imperial by only three years.
During 1878, serious difficulties developed between Britain and the Zulu king, Cetshwayo. The British High Commissioner in Zululand, Sir Bartle Frere, viewed Zulu independence as a threat to his plans for confederation. The two countries sized each other up.

Cetshwayo, reluctant to go to war, stated he would not retaliate to British aggression unless his people were actually attacked but, in spite of Cetshwayo's assurances, Britain prepared for war. Appeals were made in Britain for volunteers and the impoverished working classes responded en masse, lured by the promise of easy money.

And so the stage was set for Britain, the most powerful military force in the world, to flex it's muscles against the most intimidating Kingdom in Africa. Forged together as a proud and formidable nation by the mighty warrior King Shaka, the Zulus were a fearsome fighting force.

British infantry, cavalry and artillery were stationed at three different locations on the Zululand border and, on 12th January 1879, the British invasion of independent Zululand began!

Two weeks later, after overwhelming British defeats at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, reinforcements were sent for. The Prince Imperial arrived in Pietermaritzburg, staying appropriately, at the Imperial Hotel. He had volunteered to join the British forces in Zululand not only as a token of gratitude to his adopted country, but also to win the respect of his French countrymen.
In February he joined Lord Chelmsford and the 2nd Division Command on the Buffalo river and made camp on Thelezi Hill.

On 1st June the young prince set out on a reconnaissance mission, accompanied by Lieutenant J.B.Carey, Commander of the Escort, and six European troopers. Their orders were to reconnoitre the area and select a camp site for the advancing troops. The party spent the afternoon resting by the Tombokala and Ityotosi rivers near Nqutu, confident that the area had already been surveyed for possible Zulu presence.

Suddenly an unexpected Zulu attack sent them scurrying for their horses! As the prince tried to mount, his horse shied and bolted. He tripped and fell at the feet of his voracious attackers, who incensed by the taste of an easy victory, viciously hacked him to death. His royal blood spurted from his mutilated body, flowing onto a ground copiously fertilised by a million dead warriors. The prince was barely twenty-three years old!

Lt Carey and four surviving troopers rode off, oblivious to the fate of their comrades; an action that was to bring him before a Court-Martial on a charge of; Misbehaviour Before The Enemy. A Not-Guilty verdict did little to save him the humiliation of being cashiered.

The Prince Imperial's body lay in state in the Roman Catholic church in Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg before being returned to England aboard HMS Boadicea.

On 4th July 1879, the Zulus were defeated at the Battle of Ulundi and King Cetshwayo was taken prisoner. By September, all British troops had left Zululand. Although a crude and vicious victory had been wrought, Lord Chelmsford's determined efforts to prove his superiority had failed.

On arrival in England, the prince's body was buried at the Roman Catholic church before being reburied next to his father at St Michael's Abbey Chapel, Farnborough.

In 1880, Queen Victoria arranged for Empress Eugêne to visit Zululand on a six month's pilgrimage of mourning. The carefully arranged tour allowed her to quietly grieve her son's loss without the intrusion of publicity. Later Queen Victoria erected a cross on the site of the Prince Imperial's death.

The Empress Eugêne died in Madrid, Spain on 11th July 1920, she was ninety-four. For over forty years she had lived with a tragedy she had accepted - the death of her beloved only child!

The Empress' body was interred in the family vault at Farnborough, in a country that had been her home and refuge for fifty years. A country to whom she had given the ultimate sacrifice - her son.

Susan Nind-Barrett
Posted with the kind permission of Susan Nind-Barrett

hi pete .
Looking at the photo , my guess is the prince"s marker is on the rise to the left , and the two sets of rocks in the centre and a
bit to the right are the graves of TROOPERS , W . ABEL and G. ROGERS .
cheers 90th.

90th In your opinon how long after his death do you think this photo was taken. The large item in the middle. I was thinking that might have be the remains of the fire they had going to make there tea.

hi pete.
You may be right about the rocks being used to boil their water for tea, you would think if they were graves
it would be stated as such in the caption . Not exactly sure what to think , but we do know that the 2 troopers
are buried next to each other , just behind the prince imp memorial stone in the little cemetary , which i think
is still in the middle of no-where !. As for how long after his death i cant really say, it seems there isnt an actual
memorial stone placed there, my best guess any where from a month to 10 months, i think WOOD'S party left
a memorial stone there in 1880 , when he took EUGENIE ( his mother ) and others through zululand. hope this helps.
cheers 90th.

90th I captured that section in a screen capture program. It certainly looks like the remains of a camp fire.

Was not qutue sure where to post this. Just a bit about the Prince and a Football club.

Unravelling the origins of the Footscray Football Club is no easy task. As long ago as the 1870s, various clubs bearing the Footscray name appeared, with one such being a founder member of the junior division of the VFA in 1877. Three years later, out of respect for Prince Louis Napoleon, the 'Prince Imperial' of France, who had heroically met his end in 1879 during the Zulu wars, this club changed its name to 'Prince Imperial Football Club'. The following season saw the emergence of another club in the district, Footscray Excelsior, which soon provided a home for many of the area's better players. In a bid to restore its position as Footscray's leading club, Prince Imperials reverted to its original name before the start of the 1883 season. This, coupled with the likely adoption the same year of the now famous red, white and blue colours, has led to the near universal nomination of 1883 as the inaugural year of the club which today bears the name of Western Bulldogs. However, an objective examination of the facts appears to make it clear that such a demarcation is both convenient and contrived; as with many football clubs originating during the 19th century, identifying a discrete and unambiguous starting point is notoriously difficult.

By Bertram Mitford. Regarding the death of the Prince Imperial

"I was at some pains to get at the facts of the whole affair, which, according to the story of Sabuza and his followers, were these. The Zulus who surprised the Prince numbered sixty men belonging to the Ngobamakosi, Umbonambi, and Nokenke regiments — a scouting party, in fact. The presence of white men was reported by one of the number, who, from a peak overlooking the valley, directly opposite the scene of the catastrophe, had seen the Prince's party ofFsaddle at the kraal. Thereupon the whole body moved stealthily down a deep donga opening into the Ityotyozi ; gaining the river they crept along beneath its high banks, and advanced upon the unsuspecting group under cover of the standing corn. Those fatal ten minutes ! But for that disastrous delay the Prince would have been alive now. The savages were scarcely in position when the word was given to
mount, but fearing lest their prey should escape them after all, they made the attack. A hurried volley ; a wild shout ; and the rout was complete. One of the troopers was unable to mount his horse, that of the other was shot ; but the Prince still had hold of his — a large grey — which plunged and reared, becoming quite unmanageable. ' We fired again,' said my informant, ' and charged forward, shouting " Usutu." The big horse broke away, and ran after the other white men who were riding out as fast as they could, round the slope.

He fought hard when we came up to him ; the scuffle with the horse had brought him here (about 150 yards from where the attack was made). The first man to stab him was Xamanga ; he belonged to the Umbonambi regiment, and was afterwards killed in the battle of Nodwengu.^ We did not know at the time who the Prince really was, but
thought he was an English induna. His sword was taken to Cetywayo.'

The bones of the trooper's horse were still lying near where that of the Prince broke away, but other traces of the sad affair were there none".

Admin and 90th

The photo you refered to with the pile of rock wouldnt be a "tea fire" used by the patrol. That photo was the site of his death, the area they stopped in was around 150-200 metres away. The Kraal was totally destroyed bt Marshalls men and Bettingtons Horse. After the bodie was removed Marshall had a small rock cairn built to mark the spot. It could therefore be highly possible it is an fact that.

Pure tranquillity.

It seems interesting to reproduce the document in its entirety. It affords us an insight into the personal feelings of the Prince, his fortune, which was comparatively small, and
shows the influences wrought by one Eugene Rouher, the trusted adviser of the Empress, upon his mind and political opinions until his departure from Chislehurst.

" Camden Place,

" Chislehurst,

" 26th February, 1879.

" This is my last will and testament —

" 1. I die as I was born, in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman
Church.

" 2. I wish my remains to lie by the side of those of my father
until such time as both our bodies are transferred to the resting-
place of the founder of our dynasty — among the French people
that we loved so well.

" 3. My last thought will be devoted to my country, in whose
behalf I should like to die.

" 4. I hope that when I am no more my mother will still hold
me in remembrance as affectionate as I shall bestow upon her
until I die.

"5. I trust that my private friends, my retainers and my poli-
tical adherents may remain convinced, that my gratitude
towards them will never falter as long as I live.

11 6. I will die with feelings of deepest gratitude towards her
Majesty the Queen of England, all the members of the Royal
Family, and towards the country which for the past eight years
has shown me such hospitality.

" I hereby appoint my well-beloved mother my universal
legatee, subject to her discharging the following bequests —

" I bequeath : 200,000 francs (^8000) to my cousin Prince
J. N. Murat.

";£4°o° to M. G. Pietri, as a token of my gratitude for
services rendered by him.



THE LIFE OF AN EMPRESS 383

He felt that he could hardly meet her on a day
when his position towards her had become well-

"^£4000 to Baron de Corvisart, as a reward for his devotion.

";£*40oo to Mdlle. de Larminat who has been so devoted to
my mother.

" ^4000 to Mr. A. Filon, my late tutor.

",£4000 each to M. L. N. Conneau, M. Lespinasse, and
Captain A Bizot, three of my oldest friends.

" I request my darling mother to serve an annuity of ^400
to Prince J. J. Bonaparte, one of ^200 to M. Bachon, my
late equerry, one of ^"ioo each to Madame Thierry and to
Uhlman.

" I request that all my other servants may be paid their wages
during the remainder of their lifetime.

" I bequeath to M. Charles Bonaparte, to the Duke of Bas-
sano, and to Mr. Rouher, three of my most valuable works of
art, to be chosen for them by the executors of my will.

" I also bequeath to General Simmons, to M. Strode, and to
Monsignor Goddard, three souvenirs to be chosen by my
executors among my valuables.

" I bequeath to M. Pietri a cat's-eye pin, to Baron de Cor-
visart a pink pearl, and to Mdlle. de Larminat, a locket
containing the portraits of my father and my mother.

" To Madame le Breton I leave my enamelled watch with my
initials in diamonds.

" To M. Conneaue, Espinasse, Bizot, Murât, A Fleury, P. de
Bourgoing, S. Corvisart, all my weapons and uniforms, save the
last one worn by me, which I bequeath to my beloved mother.

" I bequeath to Madame la Comtesse Clary my pearl pin,
and my Spanish swords to my cousin, the Duke of Huescar.

"The foregoing will is written by my own hand and bears
my seal.

"Napoleon.

" Codicil :

" I need not request of my mother to defend the memories
of my great-uncle and my father. I beg of her to remember
that as long as a Bonaparte is spared, the Imperial cause.

E.H

Jean-Claude Lachnitt - Imperial passion

General secretary for the Grands Prix and Research Grants of the Fondation Napoléon, honorary president of the Académie du Second Empire, Jean-Claude Lachnitt is the author of many articles and books on the reign of Napoleon III, notably Prince Impérial "Napoléon IV" published by Perrin in 1997 (new edition 1999). From the theatre to history


David Chanteranne : What path did you take to follow in the footsteps of the famous historians of the Second Empire? Jean-Claude Lachnitt : After a career in company management I became general secretary of the Jockey Club until retiring in 1989. But I have always been interested in history, especially during the summer of the Liberation of Paris. I was fifteen. As for books, all I had at the time was my local Paris library. I developed a keen interest in the theatre, especially the plays of Labiche, and in history, through Octave Aubry and his work on the two empires: the Roi de Rome (Napoleon II), Napoleon III and Eugénie. I soon realised that historians in general did not view this period very favourably (to say the least). The Mallet-Isaac secondary-school history textbooks were partly to blame for this. After reading other biographies (notably one by the English writer Robert Sencourt), I became convinced that the Emperor and Empress had been much maligned by the official historiography of the Third Republic, a regime which itself was highly controversial in its early days (the electoral victory was by only one vote). To gain a foothold, the Republic perceived it necessary to discredit both the regime and the monarchs, despite the fact that they had achieved great successes over the eighteen years of their reign. You only have to think of the railway network and the transformation of the major cities, among them of course Haussmann's Paris.


D.C. :What turned this sense of injustice into a passion? J.-C. L. : I was drawn to the personalities of the emperor and empress and through my research, and after reading memoirs and recollections of the period, and a great deal of correspondence, my interest spread to include the First Empire, without which, of course, the Second Empire would never have existed. I then read a great deal and went to see a great many plays, notably L'Aiglon, by Edmond Rostand, at the Châtelet theatre. Then things took their natural course. My character and my passionate nature drew me to the theatre, and I studied with Béatrice Dussane and Maurice Escande who encouraged me to take the entrance exam for the Conservatoire. This gave me experience in public speaking.

D.C. : Does your talent as a lecturer come from this combination of interests, your passion for history and for the theatre? J.-C. L. : You might say that, but I also collected a few souvenirs related to the Prince Impérial. First of all, five letters addressed to Ernest Pinard, former Ministre de l'Intérieur to Napoleon III and before that the imperial prosecutor who became rather unfortunately famous for his addresses in the proceedings against Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal, and these letters prompted me to take a closer interest in the life of the young prince. I then read the memoirs of Augustin Filon and began to collect books, manuscripts, photographs, medals and engravings concerning the prince.

D.C. : Do you view this collection as a source of study? J.-C. L. : Manuscripts and correspondence help you get to know a historical figure better, give you an insight into his personality. In the case of the Prince Impérial, certain texts written with a future government in mind radically transform the view unfortunately left for posterity by malicious historians. They lay to rest the much-peddled legend of a young man with no personality and no political opinions.

D.C. : Most of the studies you have carried out on major figures of the Second Empire also show the importance you attach to everyday objects, in a similar way to the writers of the Naturalist school at the turn of the century. J.-C. L. : This is something I feel strongly about. How can you understand the death of the Prince without taking an interest for example in his choice of kit as a soldier and knowing that this proved fatal to him? Not to do so would be to leave out something that played a significant part in the events.

Before taking up the pen

D.C. : What event inclined you towards a career as an author, writer and historian? J.-C. L. : In the sixties, a friend, aware of my love of the theatre, introduced me to the Baronne de la Baume who directed the Revue de Paris. I was then asked to write reviews of books on the theatre for the Revue until it ceased publication. I was a member of the Syndicat des Journalistes de la Presse Périodique. Then I gave my first lecture on the Prince Impérial to the Napoleonic association, the Association Amis de Napoléon III. A member of the audience then mentioned me to the president of the Académie du Second Empire, Baron de Beauverger, who asked me, in 1979, to give another lecture on the tragic circumstances of the death of the Prince Impérial on the centenary of the event, a lecture which was subsequently published in the columns of the Revue du Souvenir Napoléonien. As a member of the board of governors of the Amis de Napoléon III, I had the great privilege of accompanying the Prince and Princess Napoleon on their trip to the scene of the tragedy in South Africa. We were received at the French Embassy in Pretoria and this trip finally convinced me, with the encouragement of several friends, to write a biography of the young prince who had been killed by Zulus a hundred years earlier. Thanks to Baron de Beauverger, a descendant of Comte Clary, I had access to unpublished documents and I gradually realised that these gave me greater insight into his character, and I was able to examine the details of his life, his passions and the friendships he developed in England.

D.C. : Tell me one of the most interesting discoveries you were fortunate enough to make? J.-C. L. : An unpublished letter sent by the Prince to the Duke of Cambridge, which I quote in my book and in which he requests permission to pursue his military training in the British army (his branch was artillery), at Aldershot. As my manuscript was already at the typesetting phase with my publisher, it was necessary to cut a passage from the corresponding page to insert the contents of this letter. Over nearly twenty years I had gathered a great many unpublished documents necessary for this publication, and yet surprises can still happen at just the right moment and when you least expect it.

The Prince Impérial's life
D.C. : Through your book, you have placed great emphasis on the stages of the Prince's "initiation". Is this an important aspect of his life? J.-C. L. : Of all the Bonapartes, the Prince Impérial was the only child brought up to occupy the throne. The Roi de Rome had left France at the age of three and was thus too young to have the same experience. The son of Napoleon III was born crown prince and was raised as such until the age of fourteen. The other peculiarity about him is that he was the only member of the Imperial family to die in combat.


D.C. : Does the proper explanation of this tragedy lie with his courage and character? J.-C. L. : It is clear that, from an early age, nothing frightened him. He was oblivious to danger. His attempt to climb the façade of the Tuileries is eloquent proof of his daring. His friend Espinasse also wrote of this rashness in his Mémoires. The weakness of Napoleon III towards his son also explains the strictness (as a reaction against that weakness) of the Empress… and not, as the malicious would have it, the coldness and authoritarianism of a mother who did not love her son.

D.C. : Was the presence at his side of Louis Conneau, the son of Napoleon III's doctor, a steadying influence on him? J.-C. L. : It is true that this near twin had a great influence on his character. When the young prince had become a little older and wiser, he shared his playmate's passion for the military. His education, entrusted without great success to the young student and Rousseauist Francis Monnier, was taken over by Augustin Filon, a private tutor, who helped the Prince make up the lost ground. Like his grandmother queen Hortense, he also had a great liking for the arts: he sang in tune, had a talent for drawing (especially caricatures), and following the example of his parents was a very good horseman.

D.C. : What is your opinion of the Prince Impérial's decision to go to join the army, firstly at the Châlons camp and then at war? J.-C. L. : If the Empress agreed to her son's leaving (he was only 14 in 1870), it was in response to the wishes of this young Bonaparte, who wanted above all to be a soldier. She also felt that he would be safer in an army environment, where he was well-known and well-liked, than in Paris, forever hostile to reigning families. Her views were reinforced by the plebiscite, and the republicanism of the capital was common knowledge. The Empress' acceptance of the war was the result of necessity not out of any liking for it.

D.C. : Considering the circumstances of the exile and then death of his father, can this be seen as another reason for Louis' enlistment in the British army? J.-C. L. : When he saw his father for the last time two days previously, his return on 9 January, 1873, must have been the most moving and difficult time of his life. His fate was sealed. This was the great drama of his life, much more so than the defeat of 1870. And his desire to be an officer was, as you rightly say, only to become stronger.

D.C. : Once he had left for South Africa, you remind us the Empress only learnt of his death three weeks after the event. This distance in space and time must have made a mother's pain even worse? J.-C. L. : Indeed, when the Duc de Bassano came to tell her of the death of her son on 21 June, she wanted to believe at first that it was just a wound: "He is wounded, I am leaving immediately". But when the duke convinced her that it was too late, the Empress fainted.. like a mother in a classical tragedy.


D.C. : You also describe the last moments of the Prince as those of a classical warrior, like a Homeric ode with Achilles as the central figure. Does this comparison help us to imagine the battle? J.-C. L. : The death of this twenty-three year old youth, abandoned by his escort whose only task was to protect him, and who died on a reconnaissance mission, is a hero's death. This is, in fact, how the fifty or so Zulus armed with assegais described it: his courage was recognised by his adversaries and they felt admiration for it. They compared him to a lion, an animal universally seen as valiant.

D.C. : Why did he set off with his father's equipment? J.-C. L. : Although spiteful legend has it that the Empress had refused to buy him new saddlery, the truth is that it was the Prince himself who insisted on taking with him this kit which his father had used in the war against Prussia. He wanted the saddle that had seen the defeat of Sedan to be marked with the seal of victory against the Zulus. His friend Espinasse had nevertheless pointed out to him the bad state of repair of the stitching on the surcingle (which was at risk of coming apart). But the Prince insisted on using it one more time for his first campaign. To claim that the Empress had refused to buy him anything new is as odious as it is false, given that she had opened an "unlimited" credit for him two years earlier with her banker Baring. And he had been in possession of the legacy of Princess Bacciochi since his coming of age.

D.C. : Why was it that the watch he was carrying at the time of his death did not reappear until much later? J.-C. L. : At his baptism, he had been given a chain and a medal which he always carried. Napoleon III had left him just one item in his will, a small seal bought for him by queen Hortense after the Egyptian campaign (and not brought back by Bonaparte). This was a souvenir both of his father and of his grandmother and he carried it with his medal. The Zulus did not dare touch them and they were found on his body on the day after his death. The watch he had in his pocket was stolen by a young Zulu who, intrigued by the noise, thought it was the cage of an unknown small animal. A short while later, not having been able to open it and believing the animal to be dead, he did not dare admit to his theft. It was only forty years later, just before he died, that he confided in a Protestant pastor who, as the Empress was dead, gave it to the Durban History Museum where it remains to this day.

D.C. : The prayer and will form a very fine historical pair. What were your reasons for including these in as an appendix to your book? J.-C. L. : Not only for the nobleness of spirit of the prayer and the great generosity that emerges from the will, but also because these two texts lay to rest another legend, that of the Prince's inconsistency and lack of interest in emotional, dynastic and political matters. And there is no better way to epitomise a life given over to commitment on behalf of others and to a cause that was close to his heart.

Historian of the Imperial family
D.C. : In the Dictionnaire du Second Empire, you give very full details on the Bonapartes: Jérôme, Prince Napoleon and his wife, Prince Victor and Prince Louis with the Duchesse d'Aoste. Where does this interest come from? J.-C. L. : Through my historical research, and thanks to a fairly complete library on the matter, I have been able to give portraits that are brief but as exhaustive as possible. I observed that Napoleon I, who had distributed crowns to his brothers and sisters, had never given personal titles to the members of his family. He made many Dukes and Princes, but he never conferred a title on any member of the Bonaparte family. And Napoleon III, after him, only wished to give the title of Duc de Sartène to the first son of Jérôme and Elisabeth Patterson, and this was refused. This observation led me to write an article in the Revue du Souvenir Napoléonien on the attributes and titles of the Bonaparte family.

D.C. : Does your fascination with the Imperial family also stem from your meeting in 1979 with Prince Napoleon (deceased)? J.-C. L. : The trip to South Africa undeniably changed my life and the kindliness shown me by the Prince and Princess reinforced my interest in the history of their family and Jérôme's descendants. The dynasts of the Imperial family are in any case of great interest to the historian and allow us to look at the events of the century which is coming to an end in an entirely different way.

D.C. : What archive documents did you have access to? J.-C. L. : Since 1979, the Prince and Princess Napoleon have allowed researchers to have access to an extremely interesting collection, now referenced under classification mark 400 AP in the Archives Nationales. This is an incredibly rich collection, now available on microfilm, and I have been able to benefit from it during my various research projects. These Napoleon archives are now open to everyone.

CTSG. Thanks for your post. Forty years the Zulu live with that secret. I bet he was glad to get it of his chest after all those years. I would like to see a photo of that watch. So if anyone has a copy please post it.

The book CTSG is relating to.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Louis-Napoléon in 1863, in Compiègne. He's wearing the french hunting suit (the difference with the english hunting suit is in the hat ; the french hat is the three-cornered hat, the english is the riding hat, but today everybody even in France wears the riding hat for hunting).

Various
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The concept of the watch containing a small animal doesnt ring any bells.
The watch was given to a missionary in 1880 ( not after 40 years). It then found its way to the Museum. It was initially reported as being broken by the Zulu finder in his quest for snuff. The watch however unhinges, the glass and case are still intact, so this unhinging mechanism being operated could have lead to the reports of it being broken.

Regards

I have know idea who was supposed to have written this. (Some Angry Person) French I bet.!!!!

"I was in the army the time of the Zulu war. Great hardship we got in it and plenty of starvation. It was the Dutch called in the English to help them against the Zulus, that were tricky rogues, and would do no work but to be driving the cattle off the fields. A pound of raw flour we would be given out at seven o'clock in the morning, and some would try to make a cake, and some would put it in a pot with water and be stirring it, and it might be eleven o'clock before you would get what you could eat, and not a bit of meat maybe for two days."

"There was a young Napoleon there, the grandson of Napoleon the First, that was a great man indeed. I was in the island where he was interred; it is a grand place, and what is not natural in those parts, there are two blackthorn bushes growing in it where you go into the place he was buried. And as to that great Napoleon, the fear of him itself was enough to kill people. If he was living till now it is hard to say what way would the world be. It is likely there'd be no English left in it, and it would be all France. The young Napoleon was at the Zulu war was as fine a young man as you'd wish to lay an eye on; six feet four, and shaped to match. As to his death, there was things might have been brought to light, but the enquiry was stopped. There was seven of them went out together, and he was found after, lying dead in the ground, and his top coat spread over him. There came a shower of hailstones that were as large as the top of your finger, and as square as diamonds, and that would enter into your skull. They made out it was to save himself from them that he lay down. But why didn't they lift him in the saddle and bring him along with them? And the bullet was taken out of his head was the same every bit as our bullets; and where would a Zulu get a bullet like that? Very queer it was, and a great deal of talk about it, and in my opinion he was done away with because the English saw the grandfather in him, and thought he would do away with themselves in the time to come. Sure if he spoke to one of them, he would begin to shake before him, officers the same as men. We had often to be laughing seeing that."

Look what happen to his father. One down one to go end of line for the French monarchy.

The Emperor died during a multistage process to break up a bladder stone. The surgeon Sir Henry Thompson, sounded the emperor and detected a bladder stone. Lithotrity (a technique to fragment the stone so that it could be passed) was performed on 2 January and 6 January, under chloroform anaesthesia delivered by Joseph Thomas Clover. The cause of death was reportedly kidney failure and septicemia.Clover and Thompson signed the post-mortem report with four other physicians, however it has long been suspected that the operation was botched due to the arrogance of Thompson, resulting in The Emperor's untimely death

A nice set of photographs of the Prince's Family

Excellent Photo's Graves1879. Heres a few more.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Excellent work Littlehand, I do like the last one of the Prince

My favorite is the one above.

hi littlehand , 1879graves.
Good work , great photos . they are all good I dont have an actual favourite .
cheers 90th.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
In Royal Artillery Uniform.

Another Nice Photo of the Prince.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hi Everyone

I am very new to the Forum and am trying to catch up with all the interesting threads including this one.

Just to quickly say that Ian Knight's book, "With His Face To The Foe - The Life and Death of Louis Napoleon, The Prince Imperial Zululand 1879" does exactly what it says, "on the tin" and in great detail too. In my humble opinion it is Knight's finest work .

U

Umbiki. I have this book for sometime, but never had the time to read it. To be perfectly honest i forgot i had it, you reminded me with your post. So I will make sometime to read it.

Old Historian2

That's good. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

U

Hi All

I came across this little article.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Prince Imperials Fathers Death Certificate.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I wonder how long this photo was taken after his death. Does anyone know if the prince was bury in his uniform as worn in the photo.

Old H. I'm sure there is a photo on the form of the prince in his casket, wearing a dark suit. So i don't think he was buried in his uniform. Plus he wasn't in the British army so to say.

that photo of the prince is im afraid to say a fake, it was created by his supporters as an image that the prince died nobily. the jacket for one is incorrect , he was wearing an undress patrol jacket of the royal artillery and if you closely hes holding a sword... during the run from the kraal his sword belt snapped and the sword was picked up by a zulu whos name i forget.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Prince Imperial, who was killed on 1 June 1879 while serving in the British army during the Zulu War. The Prince Imperial was the only child of Emperor Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie and with him died any realistic hopes of a Bonaparte restoration. The picture shows his uniform and other clothes he worn when he fell, together with some of the spears which killed him – the items are all in the Second Empire Museum at Compiègne Palace.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Description: Illustration of the funeral of Prince Louis Napoleon at the time of debarkation of the body at Woolwich. Crowds form behind the coffin and along the landing platform.
Creator: William Lionel Wyllie
Date: 1879
Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London

Just out of Interest...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This aluminum & gold baby rattle ordered by Napoleon III for son Prince Louis Napoleon in 1856,

Death of the Prince Imperial

This article was originally one of a set of memoranda available only on paper in The National Archives' reading rooms. It acted as a signpost to records of interest on a particular historical subject. It may have been compiled many years ago and could be out of date.

Catalogue Reference Description
WO 29/1 Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Prince Imperial of France. Identification of his body. Notarial Act. Pietermaritzburg. 2 Seals. 8 June 1879.
Letter from John William Turnball, Notary Public to Major General Hugh Clifford, Pietermaritzburg, with the War Office letter, dated 27 April 1880, transmitting these two documents.

WO 32/7735 (Code OAU)Data Diary of operations by 2nd Division under Major General E Newdigate 26 April to 24 May, with reconnaissance reports, including one by Prince Imperial L Napoleon, 1879.
WO 32/7796 (Code OAU Reports relating to erection of cross as memorial to mark spot where Prince Imperial Louis Napoleon was killed. 1980.
WO 32/5028 (Code 37 B Prince Imperial Louis Napoleon: confirmation of death of the Prince in action by Lord Chelmsford and the institution of an enquiry, 1879.
WO 32/5029 (Code 37 B Report of the suspected death of the Prince and of the condition of animal transport, 1879.
WO 32/5030 (Code 37 B An account of the action in which the Prince was killed, 1879.
WO 32/5031 (Code 37 B Papers relating to court of enquiry and court martial, involving Lieut. Carey, into circumstances of death of Prince.
WO 32/5032 (Code 37 B Operations against Zulus and movement of the Prince's body, 1879.
WO 32/5033 (Code 37 B) General Clifford forwarding copies of papers relating to death of the Prince and arrangements for his body to be shipped to England, 1879.
WO 32/5034 (Code 37 B) Letter of thanks on behalf of the French Empress for honour paid to the Prince at his funeral, French, 1879.
WO 32/5035 (Code 37 B) Papers relating to identification of body, One in French, 1879.
WO 32/5036 (Code 37 B) Condition of body on arrival in England, 1879.
WO 32/5037 (Code 37 B) Acknowledgement of receipt at Public Record Office of Notarial instrument relating to identification of body, 1880. See also WO 29/1.
WO 90/4 Folios 78-79 Court Martial.
WO 71/343 Court martial of J B Carey, 1879.
WO 91/48 Submission to the Queen of Court Martial verdict.
ZPER 34/75 Illustrated London News, July-December 1879.
FO 27/2370 Lord Lyons despatches particularly despatches dated 4 and 10 July 1879.
CO 48/490 Cape of Good Hope despatches, May-August 1879.
CO 879/15/29 Despatches relating to the death of the Prince Imperial, confidential print, Africa.
HO 45/9776/B1945 Removal of remains for reburial.
WO 162/198 Copies of correspondence relating to the conduct of Lieut. J B Carey and the death of the Prince Imperial, October 1879 - January 1880.
MPHH 1/525 Zululand map 1879.
T 1/12834 Funeral expenses.
RG 10/876 folios 13, 20, 14, 21, 46, 82.

Census return for Camden House, Chislehurst 1871 enumerates Emperor Napoleon III and his family including the Prince Imperial.

Old H. This could be the photo 24th Mentioned.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
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,

I can't get the photo larger on the forum . But if you look through a magnifying glass there is damage to the area i have circled.

ciroferrara. Just seen your post. So are you saying the photo posted by Admin today is fake. (You need to add an avatar to your name)

without causing offense to the best of my knowledge it is.. mentioned in Ian Knights "With His Face To His Foe" the image was made for/by his supporters

Hi all.
I think I'm with ciroferrara , if I'm correct one of the wounds sustained by the Prince was an Assagai thrust / wound
into the Right Eye socket which in Pete's ( Admin ) photo clearly isnt present . As usual happy to be corrected .
cheers 90th.

The two Jackets are totally different. The jacket worn by the Prince in the photo has a long line of Buttons down the front. The Jacket worn by the prince when he fell doesn't.