NAPOLEON’S SON
Josephine was a widow with two children when she married Napoleon. He was keen to have an heir but initially Josephine had been indifferent.
As Josephine already had children, when she did not become pregnant, it was a natural assumption that it was Napoleon who had a problem. By the time Josephine realised it was a major issue, her age came into play (she was seven years older than Napoleon).
When the young Polish Countess Marie Walewska became pregnant, Josephine knew her days were numbered. Napoleon looked around for a young wife who would bring both a royal connection and a son and heir. The Austrian emperor’s eldest daughter Marie-Louise (who was also Marie-Antoinette’s great niece) managed to deliver both.
On April 2 1810, Napoleon and Marie-Louise’ official religious marriage ceremony had taken place in the Louvre. On March 20 the following year, Paris awoke to the sound of cannon fire from Les Invalides announcing a child had been born to the Imperial couple. Protocol called for 21 shots to announce the birth of a girl and 101 for a son. As soon as the 22nd shot was fired, France knew Napoleon had his much desired son and heir.
The booties, worn by Napoleon’s son to his christening June 9 1811, were part of an amazing collection of Napoleon memorabilia sold at auction by Prince Albert of Monaco in 2014. His great grandfather had started the collection and his father had added to it. The booties fetched 50,000 euros in the sale.
The original christening gown and bonnet are in the Fontainebleau collection. The christening was attended by 7000 guests. Celebrations continued for most of the month. Food buffets, fountains of wine and orchestras entertained Parisians on the Champs Elysées with fireworks on the Place de la Concorde.
The City of Paris presented the imperial couple with a cradle worthy of the Emperor’s heir.
It was a magnificent creation of gilded silver extravagantly decorated with bronze and gold. It was designed by the artist Prud’hon who had decorated Marie-Louise’ bed chamber at the Tuileries.
The legs of the cradle were entwined horns of plenty. Napoleon’s emblems of the eagle and bees were present and a winged victory held the crown from which the curtains fell.
The day the baby was born, he was placed in this cradle. It became his cradle at Saint Cloud.
When Napoleon was exiled on Elba, Marie-Louise took her son and his lavish cradle back to Vienna with her. It remains there.
However the other two original cradles are at Fontainebleau.
The child was named Napoleon François Charles Joseph (after his father, grandfathers and uncle who was also his godfather) and from birth carried the title “King of Rome” (Roi de Rome in French).
Four months before the birth of his son, Napoleon had resurrected the “Maison des enfants de France” in the model of the previous French kings. The all powerful position of governess was given to Madame de Montesquiou, the 45 year old wife of one of the Empire’s dignitaries. She had a staff of 30 people. In the months leading up to the birth, she assembled all the clothing (including 200 pairs of booties!) and furniture for the child.
For the Tuileries, she ordered an elm wood cradle with bas-reliefs representing the Seine
and the Tiber rivers.
Just as was the case with Napoleon, green was always the colour used for the fabrics for
beds.
Madame de Montesquiou ordered another rocking cradle in elm wood trimmed with laurels
(the Roman emblem of victory).
As usual, the fabric was green, which was regarded as soothing, creating the ideal tranquil setting for
sleep.
Smaller folding cradles were used for taking Napoleon’s son from one chateau to another.
The King of Rome’s travels started very early. His christening took place in Paris before he was three
months old. It was followed by celebrations at the Palace of Saint Cloud, complete with dances,
concerts, theatre performances, music and fireworks.
The following months there were celebrations at the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon at Versailles.
From there, the five month old King of Rome was taken to the Imperial Palace of Compiègne where
a new apartment had been prepared for him.
Shortly before the French Revolution, Marie-Antoinette had moved her apartment from the former queen’s apartment to a new wing, with the adjacent apartments being occupied by her two children.
When Napoleon took over the Chateau of Compiègne as an imperial residence, he had his architect Berthault transform the wing formerly occupied by Marie-Antoinette into an apartment to accommodate foreign monarchs.
In 1808 the deposed King of Spain and his wife set up residence there for three months. Napoleon’s brother Louis, then King of Holland, and his wife Hortense (Josephine’s daughter) also used the apartment when they were at Compiègne to greet Marie-Louise when she arrived from Austria.
Napoleon decided to give Marie-Antoinette’s former apartment to his son. The walls were left as they were in her time, with Napoleon’s monogram replacing Marie Antoinette’s. New Empire style furniture in gilded wood was added.
A small boudoir is next to the bedroom. It is furnished as it was during the stay of the Spanish king, with
simple mahogany furniture. The window behind the sofa is where there was a two way mirror, allowing
natural light to the toilet (which had its entry from the bedroom next door).
The boudoir joined the bedroom to the bathroom.
When Marie-Antoinette created the apartment she had a series of private rooms after the bedroom,
with the bathroom set up behind the official bed chamber.
Napoleon had the new bathroom for his son set up in one of the private rooms.
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.
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 in-
cluded 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, her 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 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.
* Knowing Marie-Louise had every intention of joining Napoleon in exile, her father, the Austrian Emperor sent one of his trusted men to distract her. The Count Von Niepperg succeeded brilliantly. He had become Marie-Louise’s lover within three months and he accompanied her to Italy in her new role as Duchess of Parma. They had two children which could not be recognised. They married after Napoleon’s death. Her son was in Austria with his grandfather. He found out about the situation some years later. He stopped writing to his mother, describing her as “good but weak”.
Two years later the Austrian Emperor made his grandson the Duke of Reichstadt. His tutors were military
men and he was clearly his father’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 he 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. Hitler made a short visit to Paris which included Les Invalides where Napoleon’s tomb takes pride of place. As a PR gesture, Hitler decided to return the King of Rome’s remains in 1940.
On the two hundredth anniversary of Napoleon’s birth, his son was buried downstairs near his father’s tomb, with a statue of Napoleon overlooking him.
Napoleon’s memento
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 Napoleon’s birthplace, the town of Ajaccio in Corsica.
They set up the Fesch Museum where the portrait of the King of Rome is displayed.