What Happened To Napoleon's Son?

napoleon bonaparte doubtlessly one of the most important figures in the past two centuries and indeed throughout all history his reign is the emperor of france which under him soon equated to emperor of much of europe was remarkable albeit expectedly quite difficult at times one of his greatest challenges was securing an heir it was a task that was constantly on his mind eventually it would cause him to sacrifice his marriage with the woman whom he loved more than any other and yet the birth of napoleon ii in 1811 by his second wife amounted to much less than he had hoped napoleon was defeated in 1814 and again in 1815. in the aftermath the throne went back to the bone monarchy that the french revolution had originally replaced in the form of louis the 18th charles the tenth and louis the 19th who reigned for literally about 20 minutes the throne then went to the related july monarchy under louis philippe the first but was then abolished and the republic returned until in 1852 a bonaparte brought back the imperial monarchy again this being napoleon the third so what happened to napoleon ii in between the two in this video we'll find out before we begin i'd like to thank my patreon supporters listed here who helped make these videos possible napoleon the first had a complicated love life i'll do my best to summarize it and other events so that we can see how napoleon de comes into the picture napoleon's first marriage occurred in 1796 shortly before his rise to glory he married a woman known to history as josephine de bochane the daughter of wealthy sugarcane planters from martinique in the caribbean she was 32 6 years older than napoleon and already widowed with two children a son eugene and a daughter orton napoleon seized control of the french government in 1799 and became emperor in 1804. now in a hereditary office of major importance having an heir became a more pressing issue yet josephine for uncertain reasons had not been able to become pregnant throughout their marriage now as she entered her 40s the outlook was not good napoleon formally adopted her son eugene and had an unknown number of illegitimate children via mistresses however though eugene achieved great position under his stepfather and would have made a suitable heir the emphasis was of course on having a legitimate heir of his own blood thus for the time being napoleon looked to his nephews as heirs these were the sons of his brother louis and his stepdaughter ortons who married each other in 1802 still it was often on his mind that a direct heir provided the best certainty and legitimacy in 1807 portals first firstborn son who was napoleon's primary consideration for air died in 1809 an attempt on napoleon's life was made not for the first time due to incidents like these the issue became more pressing as the years passed in 1810 he felt his hand was forced he divorced josephine and tried to kill two birds with one stone by marrying marie louise the daughter of his former enemy the austrian emperor francis the first she in the words of edouard von vertimer in his book the duke of reichstat considered napoleon the antichrist embodied after meeting him however her attitude changed sharply and she quickly warmed up to him before long she was the mother of napoleon's only legitimate son napoleon francois joseph charleno part was born on march 20th 1811. he was immediately named his father zeir and given the title king of rome a title traditionally given to the holy roman emperors which napoleon considered up for grabs given that he had helped cause the holy roman empire to dissolve the birth was difficult however nearly costing marie louise her life and thus they never tried again for another three years later however fortune began to run out for napoleon his armies had been ravaged by his disastrous 1812 invasion of russia and the battles fought the year after in the war of the sixth coalition when austrian prussian and russian forces reached and surrounded paris in march of 1814 they demanded napoleon abdicate which he was forced to do on april 4 1814. napoleon tried to abdicate in favor of his son but the coalition would not accept this they sought not only the defeat of napoleon but in fact everything that had happened since the french revolution and thus pressed him to not only renounce the throne for himself but also his heirs napoleon ii was not present at the time regardless he and his mother had already reluctantly left paris at napoleon's order saying he would rather that they end up at the bottom of the sen river than the hands of the enemy ultimately though they ended up in austria following napoleon's defeat napoleon ii had not seen his father since january he would never see him again napoleon ii spent the remainder of his life in austria where he was brought up for the most part as an austrian in the court of his grandfather francis the emperor of austria his very name in fact napoleon was awkwardly ignored instead he was referred to as franz the german version of francis his second name in 1814 after napoleon's first defeat marie louise was made duchess of parma piazzensa and aguastala accordingly napoleon ii was named prince of parma however this was not much more than a title the territories were to be given to the bourbons after her death who despised the bonaparte's far more than the austrians and would never sleep comfortably at night were the young napoleon to inherit them and find himself in a position of power marie louise would govern these territories alongside her new lover and eventual second husband adam albert von neiper who will be addressed in a moment famously on march 20th of 1815 napoleon returned to power during his hundred days of resurgence lasting until june of that year he attempted to restore what had been lost there was great fear in this time namely in vienna that the little king of rome might be abducted and taken to france despite marie-louise's desire to now remain in austria authorities throughout austria were forbidden from allowing the passage of anyone matching his description napoleon was defeated at the battle of waterloo on june 18th he was forced to abdicate once again on june 25th of that year he was then exiled to the island of saint helena once again napoleon had abdicated in favor of napoleon the second the provisional government headed by josephus did not recognize napoleon's dynastic wishes and indeed napoleon ii was in austria the entire time but they were never formally denied until the return of louis xviii so it is sometimes maintained that napoleon ii technically held the position of emperor of the french from june 22 to july 7th of 1815. the congress of vienna however was quite decided that the best guarantee for peace and stability in europe was to return the bourbon louis the 18th to the french throne in 1821 napoleon the first died among his final wishes were for his son to never forget that he was a prince of france when his father finally died he was allowed to learn more about his story which fascinated him and helped to shape his sense of identity for the rest of his life he was not taught to zealously despise his father rather he was given his family's honest opinion that his father was a self-interested opportunist who rose to power on the back of chaos and was responsible for throwing europe into further mayhem in the pursuit of his personal ambitions shortly after her legal husband's death his mother marie louise married the aforementioned adam albert von neuberg an austrian general and politician who had fought against napoleon and had been ordered to prevent attempted communication between the two despite remaining loyal to napoleon for some time much to the annoyance of her family in vienna to the point of trying to see him in his first exile on elba the empress fell in love with the commander within the year after napoleon's first downfall and soon returned to hating napoleon and the french the couple would go on to have three children in 1818 at the age of seven emperor francis gave napoleon ii the title of duke of reichstag it was yet another mere title as the leaders of europe including his own grandfather were quite hesitant to give him any actual power or even to let him go anywhere near france even to the italian territories governed by his mother especially as it became clear as he aged that the apple had not fallen far from the tree despite very likely not having much memory of his father he displayed the same interest in the military that his father had at his age thus barred from italy he did not often see his mother who was often in her territories there with von neiper and thus he knew nothing of her affair with him for quite some time he was raised by the emperor francis however he was not mistreated the austrians accepted him as one of their own and protected him against the possibility of assassination attempts which were a realistic concern given the number of royalists in france who were left uncomfortable by the boy's mere existence napoleon ii grew to be a tall intelligent capable and ambitious albeit sickly young man who lived his life under the watchful eyes of europe's masters namely his family in austria who were hesitant to ever let him become anything though his grandparents supported him and cared for him dearly this caused him to resent his family he even began to insist on being called napoleon napoleon ii became close friends with sofia bavaria around this time the unhappy wife of the archduke franz karl son of the emperor france quite close friends in 1831 at the age of 20 the emperor allowed him to take command of an austrian battalion but it came too late his health had begun deteriorating in his teenage years and was now quite poor napoleon ii caught tuberculosis in 1832 and died on july 22nd of that year aged 21. the short life of napoleon ii was an unfortunate one as he neared his death he is recorded to have said must i end so young a life that is useless and without a name my birth and my death that is my whole story he was clearly a young man with great talent and potential much like his father too much like his father and europe could see it in fact after his death he was called leg long the eaglet his complicated origins left him well cared for but barred from any chance to ever prove himself two weeks after his death princess sophie had a son maximilian who would go on to become emperor of mexico some have speculated that this was not the son of the husband for whom she had a little affection but rather of her friend at whose premature death she had very much grieved it's an interesting notion although his similarity in appearance to the archduke makes me very much doubt it and so there is one final question i mentioned the bonaparte's returned when napoleon iii rose to power in 1848. who was he if napoleon ii died probably childless in obscurity napoleon iii was the son of napoleon's brother louis and his stepdaughter ortons thus in a sense napoleon was succeeded by a nephew after all i hope you enjoyed this video if so i invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to help support the channel there is a link to my patreon page in the description i'd like to thank my current patrons listed here once again for their support fire of learning is also on instagram and i have a science channel much like this called lusinox thank you for watching you

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 890,646

Keywords: Napoleon II, Son of Napoleon, Bonaparte, 2ND, Kaiser Franz, Francis of Austria, Austrian Emperor, Maximilian

Id: yCyEdKMYaxQ

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 04 2021