CONCERNING ROYALTY

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 76

CONCERNING ROYALTY

VI.—THE NAPOLEONS. By J. P. (Fob thb Witness.) Prince Victor Napoleon died on March 3, but the average man in the street may not be able accurately to “place” him, though he was evidently one of the family which has made its mark in European history. The recently-deceased prince was the grandson of Napoleon’s youngest brother Jerome, and since the death of his father in 1891, has been the acknowledged heir of the house. As his mother was Clotilde (1843-1911), daughter of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, Prince Victor was a cousin to the present King of Italy and to King Carlos of Portugal, who was assassinated in 1908. Eighty years ago, the name of Napoleon was one to conjure by. People of France had forgotten tho misery entailed by the ambition of the great Napoleon, and remembered only the glory of his conquests. Louis Napoleon had been recognised by his uncle as, after his father, the successor to the thrOne. He was the third and only surviving son of Louis, King of Holland, and of Hortense Beauharnais. But his in 1836 to dethrone King Louis Phillipe was a failure, and he was transported to America. The unpopularity of the “Citizen King” tempted him to another foolish attempt in 1840. A tame eagle was expected to perch on his banner as a harbinger of victory ; but the enterprise quicklv proved an inglorious fiasco. The ambitious would-be usurper was tried by the House of Peers and sentenced to imprisonment for life. After six years’ incarceration in the Castle *of Ham, he escaped in the clothes of a workman, and found refuge in England. A more favourable opportunity came in 1848, when a revolution dethroned Louis Phillipe. Louis Napoleon returned to France, was elected a member of the National Assembly, and offered himself as a candidate for the Presidency. The wiser heads in France distrusted the adventurer, but the prestige of the Napoleonic name told upon the people, and lie was elected by a very large majority. His relations with the AsSembly were not very harmonious, for his conduct was autocratic, and his ambitious spirit prompted him to emulate his famous uncle, and aspire to the Imperial dignity. By the famous “coup d’etat” of December 2, 1851, He seized the supreme power, and held it for 20 years. Twelve months after the “coup d’etat” he was elected Emperor by nearly eight million votes. His marriage to Eugenie in 1853, and the birth of the Prince Imperial in 1856, seemed to guarantee the continuation of his family as a ruling dynasty, but the disaster at Sedan which made France a republic, and the death of his son at the Zulu War in 1879 destroyed those hopes. Prophecy mongel’s had declared that this prince was to be a great world-ruler; in fact, Rev. M. Baxter, of the Christian Herald, had .been advertised to give a Sunday address on the subject. Unfortunately for the man who so confidently assumed the role of prophet, the prince’s death was announced in the London papers two days before the lecture was to be delivered. The recently-deceased Prince Victor has left a son and a brother as sole male representatives of the Napoleon family, but they have not the ghost of a chance for the Imperial throne. The family name has lost its prestige, although Victor endeavoured to keep the world from forgetting his claims. He wrote a book upon the career of the great his great-granduncle, and was in the habit of sending his own autographed portrait to partisans throughout France. Although at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Napoleon family had five male members, it is now almost on the point of extinction. . Joseph, who was King of Naples and of Spain, left two daughters. The Emperor Napoleon’s son died of consumption at 21. Lucien’s sons left no lawful male issue, with tho exception of the eldest, whose only son became a cardinal. The family of Louis, King of Holland, became extinct with the death of the Prince Imperial, and Jerome’s two descendants are the boy in his teens, and the unmarried Print* Louis, aged 62. Regarding Prince Jerome, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, it may be added that when Princess Charlotte of England died in 1817, his son stood fairly close in succession to the British throne. The 12 surviving 6ons and daughters of George 111., all aged over 40, were either un-mr-ried or childless, so if those middleaged bachelor sons of the doted King had not rushed to the marriage altar, the prospect of a Napoleon having the claim of primogeniture would not have been a remote one. for Jerome’s wife was a grandniece of George 111.