Eight months after the King of Rome’s first—and only– stay at Compiègne, Napoleon headed off for the ill-fated campaign in Russia. The relatively tranquil era which was literally the honeymoon period with Marie-Louise, followed by the birth of the King of Rome, was over. For the next two years Napoleon was at war.
On January 24, 1814 when Napoleon said goodbye to his wife and son at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, he had no idea he would never see them again.
This portrait of Napoleon’s son in the Tuileries Garden is another work by Georges Rouget. It was with Napoleon at Saint Helena until he died when it went to Napoleon’s mother in Rome. She bequeathed it to her half brother Cardinal Joseph Fesch. When the cardinal died in Rome, he bequeathed 1000 paintings from his collection to the town of Ajaccio in Corsica, Napoleon’s birthplace.
They set up the Fesch Museum where the portrait of the King of Rome is displayed.
Two months later Paris capitulated to the coalition forces (Russia, Prussia, Austria, Great Britain, Spain and Portugal).
Napoleon initially abdicated in favour of his son on April 4. This was unacceptable by the victors, who included Marie-Louise’ father the Austrian Emperor. Two days later Napoleon was forced to abdicate on behalf of himself and his heirs. He was sent into exile on the island of Elba, where he expected to be joined by his wife and three year old son.
Marie-Louise’ father, convinced her to return to Austria with her son. Initially she had every intention of joining Napoleon. The King of Rome with his governess Madame de Montesquiou and a handful of her staff accompanied the child to Austria.
The following year when news reached Austria of Napoleon’s return to France, there were fears his son would be taken back to him. Madame de Montesquiou was sent back to France, leaving only her assistant Madame Soufflot, whose 16 year old daughter Fanny who had been a companion and playmate of Napoleon’s son from the beginning and his nurse, Madame Marchand.
When Napoleon’s second reign of the “Hundred Days” was terminated with the defeat at Waterloo he agreed to abdicate a second time, but one of the conditions he negotiated with the provisional government in Paris was that he would be succeeded by his son.
The unofficial reign of Napoleon II lasted a couple of weeks, with the child unaware of the situation as he was in Austria. The only impact would be that later Napoleon’s nephew would rule as Napoleon III in recognition of the “reign” of Napoleon II.
Madame Soufflot and Fanny managed to stay with the child, who was now known at the Austrian court as “Franz” (his second name, after his grandfather) for about 18 months until they were wrongly accused of trying to help a plot to abduct the child and return him to France.
Less than six months later after the departure of Madame Soufflot and Fanny, Marie-Louise left Austria to take up residence in Italy as the Duchess of Parma.
She went with her lover, but left her son in Austria where he was to be brought up in his grandfather’s household.
The King of Rome’s nurse Madame Marchand was forced to return to France. She had slept with the child every night since he had been born.
As a parting gift, Marie-Louise gave her this portrait painted by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, one of eight she commissioned from the artist. It is now part of the collection at Malmaison.
Two years later the Austrian Emperor made his grandson the Duke of Reichstadt. His tutors were military men and he was clearly Napoleon’s son. He excelled at mathematics and was interested in history. He officially joined the Austrian army as a cadet when he was 12.
With Napoleon’s death on Saint Helena in 1821, the Bonapartists regarded his son as the heir to the imperial throne.
He was a permanent threat to the monarchies of Europe, particularly the restored Bourbon monarchy, who were concerned about his possible return to France.
He not only shared his father’s passion for the army but he was the ideal figurehead, being a very handsome young man, more than seven inches taller than his father had been.
However it was not meant to be. From the age of 17 he had problems with his chest and lungs. A warmer climate would have helped, but no one was interested in letting him out of Austria. His health continued to deteriorate and he lost a lot of weight.
In 1832 Napoleon’s son fell ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 21 at Schönnbrunn Palace.
He was buried in the Hapburg’s chapel in Vienna. He had insisted that his grave would recognise him as the “Son of Napoleon”.
The body of Napoleon’s son remained in Austria until the Second World War.
In December 1940 Adolf Hitler made a short visit to Paris which included Les Invalides where Napoleon’s tomb takes pride of place. It was exactly 100 years since Napoleon’s body had been returned from Saint Helena.
As a PR gesture, Hitler decided to return the King of Rome’s remains to be placed with his father.
On the two hundredth anniversary of Napoleon’s birth, his son was buried downstairs near his father’s tomb, with a marble statue of Napoleon in his coronation robes overlooking him.
