Napoleon was incredibly annoyed by the absence of an heir, especially considering that Josephine had two children from her first marriage, whom the emperor was now raising. Returning to France in 1806 after a brilliant victory at Austerlitz, he met the young and charming Eleanor Denuel de la Pleigne, the lecturer of his sister Caroline. In general, Caroline played a significant role in the formation of this connection: she hated Josephine and had a huge influence on her brother. In addition, a friend whom they met in a boarding school for noble maidens had an affair with her husband, so the idea of setting Eleanor with Napoleon was beneficial to her. The calculation was as follows: Eleanor will give birth to her brother's long-awaited heir and this will upset the emperor's relationship with his wife. Napoleon quickly fell in love with a slender brunette with huge black eyes, who was also quite witty. And already in December 1806, Eleanor gave birth to a boy. After that, Napoleon firmly decided to part with his beloved, but unable to bear him an heir, Josephine.
firstborn
Charles Leon Denuel was given to the education of the former nurse of the son of Caroline and received an annual allowance of 30,000 francs (almost a million euros). Napoleon was insanely happy about the birth of his son and loved the boy, but he didn’t want to have more business with his mother, who had fulfilled her role, and paid off her with an annual allowance of 22,000 francs. Eleanor tried to meet with Napoleon on her own, but the emperor was adamant, so she had to take care of her life. But in Count Leone, as the boy was called, Bonaparte did not cherish the soul. The heir often visited the castle, where his father played with him and gave him expensive gifts. The boy was raised by his grandmother Letizia, who found the incredible resemblance of Charles to Napoleon charming in childhood. Indeed, outwardly very similar to his father, Count Leon, however, did not inherit his determination at all. He led a wild and dissolute life and was extremely wasteful. He spent all his content on various adventurous projects or lost at cards. One night he lost 45,000 francs. With this lifestyle of money young man never enough, even taking into account the inheritance of 300,000 francs, which his father bequeathed to him.
Eleanor Denuel de la Plaigne
Napoleon wanted Charles to become a magistrate, but Count Leon did not work out with his studies, so he spent his life at the gaming table, behind the scenes of theaters, in the boudoirs of demi-monde ladies or in the stables. He liked the attention to himself, as to the son of the great Bonaparte, and he believed that only this fact gives him the right to an appropriate attitude. In fact, Charles either shot himself in duels or ran away from creditors, who once even put him in jail. Once, in 1840, he even provoked a duel with his cousin, Prince Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who was then living in exile in England. But the fight did not take place, because the duelists argued about weapons for so long that the police showed up and stopped the duel.
Count Leon pulled money from all his relatives, even sued his mother and won an annual allowance of 4,000 francs. But he continued to squander everything. Characterized by adventurism, Charles even tried to build political career. So, he wrote to Pope Pius IX that he was ready to become the Italian king. And when his cousin Charles-Louis-Napoleon ascended the throne, he demanded an appointment to public service and payment of their debts. But Napoleon III did not forget that English duel, so he did not give the post. However, he allocated 6,000 francs for a pension and 255,000 francs to Count Leon, of which 45,000 went to pay off debts. In fact, Napoleon III was the only relative who continued to support his flighty and reckless cousin. After the overthrow of his patron, Count Leon finally went bankrupt. He was buried at the age of 75 at the expense of the municipality as a beggar tramp.
The offspring of the "Polish novel"
Napoleon's son almost became an aide-de-camp to Grand Duke Constantine
Napoleon was finally convinced of the need for a divorce from Josephine by the pregnancy of another of her girlfriends, the Pole Maria Walewska. If he still doubted the paternity of Charles, then he did not doubt the fidelity of Mary. She fell head over heels in love with Napoleon and moved to Paris in 1808, settling near Eleanor, who at that time had retired. In 1809, she gave birth to Napoleon a boy, who was named Alexander. However, the windy emperor soon lost interest in Mary and became interested in his future wife, Marie-Louise of Austria. Alexander was born a month after their marriage in 1810. He received 10,000 francs a month's allowance. His mother Maria remained faithful to Napoleon for a long time and was even ready to share exile on the island of Elba with her lover, but he rejected her. In 1816 she married and had a child, but soon fell ill and died. After that, Alexander was sent to Poland. At the age of 14, he turned down an offer to become personal adjutant to Grand Duke Konstantin and came under the radar of the Russian police. Alexander fled to France in 1827 and there received a secret mission to Poland from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. So he became a participant in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831. For participation in the Grokhovsky battle he received a military cross and continued his military career, and after his resignation he took up writing.
Alexander Valevsky
Unlike the Count of Leon, he immediately joined the supporters of Napoleon III in 1848 and began to build a diplomatic career. First he became the envoy of France in Florence, then he did a brilliant job in England. It was he who arranged the visit of the emperor to England and the trip of Queen Victoria to France. In 1855, Bonaparte's son became Minister of Foreign Affairs and in this position presided over Paris Congress. In 1868, his health failed him, and Alexander Valevsky died, leaving behind seven children.
Legal heir
The only legitimate heir of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was his son from Marie-Louise of Austria, who was named Napoleon-Francois-Joseph. In fact, he was destined to become the next emperor, but fate decreed otherwise. He was born in 1811, a year after his parents' marriage. In 1814, the father abdicated in favor of the heir, but he was never crowned. The winner, Alexander I, insisted on returning the Bourbons to the throne. It is noteworthy that it was Alexander's sister who was predicted for Napoleon instead of the Austrian Archduchess, but the Russian emperor in every possible way delayed the solution of this issue and Bonaparte settled on the "Austrian version".
Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, Napoleon II
Napoleon II never occupied the throne
Napoleon's heir was sent with his mother to Vienna, where they decided to isolate him from Marie Louise. She never saw her son again. Napoleon-Francois-Joseph was kept in a golden cage: carefully guarded, kept away from everything French and even called Franz in Austrian. However, the young man, in spite of everything, remembered his great father and admired him. His life, unfortunately, was short-lived, he died in 1832 from tuberculosis. From the Bonapartists, the heir received the name Napoleon II, although in fact he never ruled France. He was buried in the famous Viennese Kapuzinerkirche next to other Habsburgs.
Josephine's children
Eugene de Beauharnais
Although Napoleon divorced Josephine in 1809, he raised her children from her first marriage and her husband's great-niece for ten years. Eugene de Boragne, after his mother's marriage to Bonaparte, received the title of Prince of the French Empire, and in 1807 became Viceroy of Italy. Despite the fact that the title of king was Napoleon himself, the 24-year-old Eugene actually ruled Italy. He ruled firmly, but managed to earn the love and respect of the subject people. In addition, Eugene made a brilliant military career. He commanded troops in Italy in the campaign against Austria in 1809, and in 1812 Napoleon gave him command of the 4th Corps. French army. With the departure of Napoleon from Russia, Eugene led the transfer of the remainder of the troops to Magdeburg.
After the first abdication of Bonaparte, Alexander I even seriously considered Eugene de Beauragne as a candidate for the French throne. For the renunciation of the Italian possessions, Eugene received 5,000,000 francs and transferred them to his father-in-law, King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria, for which he was “pardoned” and given the title of Landgrave of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstet. He promised to no longer support Napoleon, and in 1815 received a peerage of France. Until his death, Eugene lived in the Bavarian lands and no longer participated in political affairs.
Hortense de Beauharnais
Josephine's daughter Hortense was loved by Napoleon. To strengthen family ties, he married his stepdaughter to his younger brother Louis. So Hortense turned out to be her mother's daughter-in-law. Soon the couple became the king and queen of Holland and ruled there until 1810, until the country was annexed by France. The marriage was unhappy, Hortense loved another. She fell in love with Charles de Flao and even gave birth to a son from him. During the restoration of the Bourbons, she was under the protection of Alexander I and even received the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu from Louis XVIII. However, during the "hundred days" Hortense supported her stepfather, and after the defeat of Napoleon, she was expelled from France. She traveled throughout Europe and finally settled in Switzerland, where she raised her children alone. Hortense made an unsuccessful attempt to return to France. She died in Switzerland in 1837 at the age of 54.
Stephanie de Beauharnais
Napoleon raised Josephine's children from his first marriage
His wife's niece Stephanie, who was the daughter cousin Napoleon accepted Josephine's first husband as his own, sending her to the same boarding school as Hortense. She lived in the Tuileries, led a luxurious and carefree life. Soon her stepfather married her to Elector Karl of Baden, giving her the title of "Princess of France". For the sake of this wedding, Napoleon forced Karl of Baden to refuse marriage to Augusta of Bavaria, giving her as his wife to his stepson Eugene. Stephanie was given special attention, in all ceremonies she took second place after Josephine, which caused the envy of Hortense and Napoleon's sisters. In response, Stephanie also gave Napoleon attention, rumors spread. Jealous Josephine stopped the scandal by putting her niece in her place and reminding her of her fiancé.
The future husband, however, did not like Stephanie at all. She slammed her bedroom door in his face, the estrangement between them growing. The spouses were even sent to Karlsruhe, and Napoleon wrote paternal letters to his stepdaughter, in which he bequeathed to love her husband. But Stephanie was adamant. However, when a change suddenly occurred in her, and Stephanie became kind to her husband, he did not believe her and pushed her away from him. They had not seen each other for two years, and then suddenly for everyone they became the most happy family and had five children. In 1818, at the age of 29, Stephanie suddenly became a widow. She lived modestly in Mannheim Castle, and after Louis Napoleon's accession to the French throne, she began to visit Paris frequently. Stephanie died in 1860 in Nice.
The youngest son of Napoleon Bonaparte, the only one born in a legal marriage, Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte lived short life He became heir to the throne and was proclaimed emperor by Napoleon II, but was never crowned. Despite his high origin, he was isolated from the French court and parents and actually became a prisoner at the Austrian court.
He was waiting great destiny, but the Eaglet did not justify the hopes of the Bonapartists, having died at the age of 21.
After 13 years of marriage, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to divorce the childless Josephine in order to marry a woman who could give him an heir to the throne. By that time, he already had two illegitimate sons - from Eleanor Denuel de la Plaine and Maria Walewska. At the same time, the marriage was supposed to become dynastic and strengthen the position of Napoleon, making him related to the current legitimate monarch of another state. Napoleon proposed to the sister of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, but was refused. Then his choice fell on the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz I, Maria-Louise. Their wedding took place in 1810, and a year later they had a son, Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles, who received the title of King of Rome.
Birth of Napoleon Francois Joseph
After the economic crisis and military collapse, Napoleon abdicated in 1814 in favor of his legitimate son, but the winners declared the Bonapartes deposed and restored the power of the Bourbons in France. The Empress and son were separated from Napoleon and sent to Austria. The defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put an end to the power of Napoleon Bonaparte. His re-abdication in favor of his son did not find support, and although the Parisian legislatures in June 1815, Napoleon II was recognized as emperor, he was never crowned and, in fact, never reigned.
Empress Marie Louise with her son
From the age of 4, Napoleon Francois Joseph, nicknamed the Eaglet because the eagle was the heraldic symbol of the French emperor, grew up without a father. The mother was carried away by a new novel - Count Naiperg became her chosen one, from whom she gave birth to four children, and soon she was completely separated from her first son. In addition to the well-understood psychological problems a child deprived of the attention of his parents, there were also difficulties of a political nature: the Eaglet was constantly under the supervision of the Austrian authorities and from childhood was the object of intrigue.
Thomas Lawrence. Napoleon II as a child
At the Austrian court, they made sure that the name of Napoleon was not mentioned at all, and his son was called by his middle name, in the German way - Franz. Eaglet was forced to forget French and only speak German. He was deprived of hereditary rights to the Duchy of Parma, but was granted the title of Duke of Reichstadt, after the name of one of the estates in Bohemia. He was brought up as an Austrian prince, he grew up in Schönbrunn Castle near Vienna, but despite his high position, he was a virtual prisoner at court. Members of the government did not take their eyes off him, because the Bonapartists had high hopes for Eaglet as a likely candidate for the French throne.
The young man was fond of military history, read a lot and dreamed of a military career and great deeds, but his abilities did not have time to manifest themselves. His tutor wrote about him: "Distrustful, perhaps because of his position, which he assessed very sensibly, he directed a close, searching look at people, knew how to persuade them to talk, observe them and recognize them." At the age of 20, Eaglet was already in the rank of lieutenant colonel, but a year later he fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis and died suddenly in 1832. For some time there were rumors that he was poisoned, but they were not confirmed.
Napoleon II, Duke of Reichstadt
The eaglet never fulfilled either his dreams or the hopes of the Bonapartists placed on him. There were no direct descendants of Napoleon I Bonaparte, and the French throne was occupied by Eaglet's cousin, Prince Louis Napoleon, who proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. Eaglet was reunited with his father only after his death, when, by order of Hitler, his remains were transported to Paris and buried next to the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Eaglet, Napoleon Francois Joseph
Napoleon II became one of the most enigmatic and romantic figures in French history. His fate inspired Edmond Rostand to create a play in verse "Eaglet", which became table book Marina Tsvetaeva, who in her youth idolized Napoleon and his son and worshiped them with such passion that she even replaced the icon in the icon case with a portrait of Napoleon. Eaglet is dedicated to a number of her poems.
Eaglet, Napoleon Francois Joseph on his deathbed
Let's remember and
On March 11, 1810, in Vienna, with great solemnity, in the presence of the entire Austrian imperial family, court and diplomatic corps, the solemn marriage of Archduchess Marie-Louise with Emperor Napoleon, who was represented by proxy by Marshal Berthier, took place. This marriage ended a long string of years during which the French emperor, who freely controlled the fate of European monarchies, could not solve his own dynastic problem and acquire offspring. The Bonaparte clan wove a very intricate intrigue to convince the emperor of the ability to bear children. As a result, after Napoleon, three sons remained, whose fate was very different. Photo: top: AKG/EAST NEWS
Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais in March 1796, but they never had children in ten years of marriage. Meanwhile, Josephine had two children from her first husband, Viscount Alexander de Beauharnais, and this circumstance terribly unnerved her new husband. A man accustomed to brilliantly solve any problems that arose before him, simply could not believe that in this family-dynastic business he had suffered a final failure.
In 1805, Napoleon won the greatest victory of his career, defeating the combined forces of two emperors at Austerlitz - Russian and Austrian. At the beginning of 1806, he returned triumphantly to France and immediately struck up a relationship with the young beauty Eleanor Denuel de la Plaigne, his sister Caroline's lecturer.
She was a slender brunette with huge black eyes, lively, flirtatious and witty. A girl from a good family, the daughter of a Parisian bourgeois, who graduated from the famous boarding school of noble maidens Madame Campan (where she met Caroline Bonaparte), she unsuccessfully married. Her first husband introduced himself as a dragoon officer, Jean Revel, but turned out to be an ordinary swindler and soon ended up in prison. Having settled in the service of her friend, Eleanor soon became close to her loving husband, Marshal Joachim Murat. The emperor himself, who did not like to spend a lot of time on preludes, also did not have to persuade her for a long time - Caroline, who hated Josephine, who had influence on her older brother, took care of this. Napoleon had by this time been married to Josephine for ten years and considered himself sterile. Therefore, he did not expect that young Eleanor would be able to give birth to a child for him. However, their love meetings soon led to a result that Caroline and the entire Corsican Bonaparte clan, who dreamed of divorcing Napoleon with the "foreigner" Josephine, were counting on. Eleanor became pregnant and gave birth to a boy nine months later. It happened on December 13, 1806 at two o'clock in the morning.
The emperor at that time fought in Poland. When Marshal François-Joseph Lefebvre told him the good news, overjoyed Napoleon exclaimed: “At last I have a son!” At first, a crazy idea even came to his mind to adopt a child, but he soon changed his mind - the emperor needed a legitimate heir. Napoleon refrained from formal recognition of his son and even forbade giving him his full name. But now he firmly decided to part with his beloved, but unable to give birth to an heir, Josephine.
Little Charles, Count of Leon, was placed in the care of Madame Loire, the former nurse of Achille, son of Caroline and Marshal Murat. Napoleon gave his son an annual allowance of 30,000 francs (in current prices, approximately 1 million euros), and his mother - 22,000 francs, but he no longer wanted to see her - she ceased to be interesting to him. When in 1807 Eleanor came to Fontainebleau without permission, the emperor even refused to accept her. After that, on February 4, 1808, she married the young lieutenant Pierre-Philippe Ogier, but four years later he went missing in Russia during the infamous crossing of the remnants of the French army across the Berezina.
And only in 1814 she successfully entered into a new marriage with a major of the Bavarian army, Count Karl-August-Emil von Luxburg. The first husband, who had been released from prison by that time, tried to protest the divorce and regain the newly-minted countess, but to no avail. The von Luxburgs lived comfortably for thirty-five years - first in Mannheim and then in Paris, where the count was appointed ambassador.
firstborn
Eleanor, who played her part, was no longer interested in the emperor, but he welcomed the young Charles and even spoiled him. The boy was often brought to the Tuileries to his father, who loved to play with him and gave him expensive gifts. It seemed that the emperor could not get enough of the child, who dispelled doubts about his ability to become a father. Napoleon appointed Baron Mathieu de Movière, father-in-law of his personal secretary Claude-Francois de Meneval, as the guardian of his son. And after Waterloo, when the Bonapartes from the august family became just private individuals, Napoleon's mother Letizia and his uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, took up the upbringing of the child. From early childhood, Count Leon showed a violent and rebellious temper. He was like two drops of water similar to his father in childhood, which especially touched his grandmother Letizia.
In a will written on the island of Saint Helena, Napoleon allocated 300,000 francs to his son and expressed the wish that he become a magistrate. However, the imperial son was not interested in a quiet life. Having reached adulthood, the young man, whom everyone around called Count Leon, began to lead a dissolute and wasteful life. Being outwardly a copy of his father, he did not possess his purposefulness at all. He entered the University of Heidelberg, but quickly abandoned his studies. Then he tried to implement one after another a variety of projects (up to the construction of a submarine). He entered military service as the commander of a battalion of the National Guard of Saint-Denis, but he was soon dismissed "for negligent attitude to official duties." He even tried to become a priest, but failed. But he turned into an inveterate duelist. In 1832, Count Leon killed in a duel in the Bois de Vincennes Karl Hesse, the illegitimate offspring of one of the English princes (cousin of the future Queen Victoria), adjutant of the Duke of Wellington. It was not an act of revenge for his father, as one might think - Count Leon and Hesse quarreled at the card table. The Count was a passionate gambler. Once, in one night, he lost 45,000 francs (in modern money - about a million and a quarter euros).
With such squandering, the money left by the emperor could not be enough for a long time. Meanwhile, the count believed that, being the son of a great man, he had a natural right to an outstanding role in society. And many considered it an honor to make acquaintance with the son of Napoleon. But Count Leon did not accomplish great deeds. He spent his life at the gaming table, behind the scenes of theaters and in the boudoir of the ladies of the demi-monde, as well as in the stables. An excellent rider and great lover of horses, he could shell out a fortune for a good horse. And he threw huge sums left and right, and when the money ran out, he easily got into debt. In 1838, creditors even put him in jail, but not for long.
In 1840, Count Leon decided to try his luck in England, where his wealthy relative, Prince Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and grandson of Josephine de Beauharnais, lived in exile, and began to extract money from his cousin. He did it in such a brazen manner that it came to a duel. But, fortunately, not to bloodshed. The seconds of Charles-Louis-Napoleon brought two swords to the intended place of the duel in Wimbledon, and the seconds of Count Leon brought two pistols. A long argument about which weapon to choose ended with the appearance of the police, who separated the failed duelists. Deported back to France, Count Leon successfully led a lawsuit against his mother, Countess von Luxburg, the court ordered her to pay him an annual allowance of 4,000 francs. He was also good at malicious and vicious pamphlets. They began to bring good fees, which, however, he immediately squandered.
In the late 1840s, Napoleon's son finally had the opportunity to try his hand at political battles. On the Apennine Peninsula, there was a struggle for independence from Austria and unification, and many expected that Pope Pius IX would help the Italian states unite. Count Leon wrote to the pope and offered himself as king of Italy, but apparently no one but Leon himself could imagine him in this role.
Having suffered a fiasco in Italy, Count Leon seriously took up French affairs. In March 1848, after the expulsion of King Louis-Philippe, he solemnly promised to preserve the French Republic, speaking out against all monarchists, including Bonapartists, who wanted to enthrone his cousin Charles-Louis-Napoleon. When the unloved relative nevertheless became Emperor Napoleon III, Count Leon began to seek his appointment to the public service and the payment of his debts. The cousin could not forgive the Wimbledon duel and did not give the post. But he provided a pension of 6,000 francs and allocated 255,000 francs, of which 45,000 went to pay off the count's debts, and the remainder provided an annual income of 10,000 francs. But even this money turned out to be too little for a hardened player. And soon Count Leon began again to beg for money from his crowned kinsman. Old age was approaching, funds were becoming scarcer, and the old reveler finally settled down somewhat. He reconciled with his mother, with whom he had been at enmity for so long, and in 1862 he married a woman with whom he had already lived for nine years and who bore him six children. And although Francoise Jaunet was immeasurably lower than his position - her father once served as a gardener for Count Leon - she remained faithful to her husband and was 25 years younger than him.
Finally, the first-born of the great emperor went bankrupt after the overthrow of Napoleon III, the man he once wanted to kill in a duel was the last one who helped him stay afloat. Poverty has set in. Count Leon died in Pontoise on April 14, 1881 at the age of 75, and was buried at the expense of the municipality as a beggar vagabond.
Polish novel
The need for a divorce from Josephine became finally clear to the emperor after the news of the pregnancy of his new girlfriend, Maria Walewska, whom he met in 1807 in Warsaw. If Eleanor Denuel de la Plaigne was a rather windy person and Napoleon could still have some doubts about his paternity, then this time he was ready to vouch for the loyalty of his beloved. They say that at first Mary gave in to the courtship of the emperor out of patriotic feelings: the gentry hoped that a love affair with a Polish woman would make Napoleon think more about the interests of her homeland. But soon the twenty-year-old girl, not out of love given by her parents to the elderly aristocrat Anastasia Colonna-Valevsky, fell head over heels in love with Napoleon. Having moved to Paris at the beginning of 1808, she settled on Victory Street, not far from the apartment in which Eleanor Denuel de la Plaine, already known to us, lived, who had already received her resignation at that time. And in 1809, Maria, in love, followed the emperor to Austria. It was there, in Schönbrunn, that Maria announced to Napoleon that she would soon become a mother.
In October 1809, Walewska went to Poland to give birth there on May 4, 1810, to a child named Alexander. Six months later, with her son in her arms, she returned to Paris, but the place next to Napoleon, and all his thoughts, was already occupied by another woman - Princess Marie-Louise of Austria.
Marriage of convenience
Having divorced Josephine, Napoleon immediately set about choosing a new wife, who was supposed to give birth to a legitimate heir to the throne. On January 28, 1810, a special meeting of the highest dignitaries of the empire was convened on this issue. The choice was not rich. The marriage alliance was supposed to guarantee the Napoleonic dynasty a place in the sun, and therefore, it had to be concluded with a great power. In addition to France, there were three of them in the then world. But with England there was a constant war not for life, but for death, and the choice remained between Russia and Austria.
Most ministers supported the candidacy of Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, sister of Emperor Alexander I, and only a few, including Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, for the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise, daughter of Emperor Franz I. Russia was much stronger than Austria , just once again defeated by the French troops. However, Alexander I clearly did not want to marry his sister to a “Corsican”, coming up with more and more excuses: young age, different religions, and, finally, the fact that only her mother could marry her, and he did not have such power. Napoleon, irritated by the obstinacy of the Russian court, declared that he was leaning towards the "Austrian version."
Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, while still the Austrian ambassador in Paris (since October 1809 - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria), assured him that Austria agreed to marry Napoleon to her young Archduchess. In early February 1810, a marriage contract was prepared, completely copied from a similar contract drawn up at the marriage of the French king Louis XVI to another Austrian archduchess, Marie Antoinette, the aunt of Napoleon's bride. The Austrian emperor ratified the treaty, and on February 21 a message about this arrived in Paris. And the very next day, Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff, went to Vienna to represent the emperor of the French during the solemn marriage ceremony. He arrived in the capital of Austria in early March 1810, and already on March 11, a traditional marriage by proxy was concluded - in the presence of the entire Austrian imperial family, the entire court, the entire diplomatic corps, dignitaries and generals. The next day, Bertier went to France, and 24 hours later, the future Empress Marie-Louise left Vienna after him. The eighteen-year-old princess was on her way to a country she had always been taught to hate.
Napoleon met her on March 27, 1810, not far from Paris, and only then did the couple see each other for the first time in their lives. When concluding a marriage, the emperor sought to find a wife who could give birth to an heir to him, and was not very worried about appearance and feelings. But in the carriage, he found a delightful, childishly naive young woman and fell in love with her. On April 2, 1810, the wedding of Napoleon and Marie Louise was celebrated again at the Tuileries Palace.
Middle-brother
A month later, Alexander Walevsky was born, the son of Napoleon from his Polish lover. The emperor allocated 10,000 francs a month for its maintenance. Of course, this was a huge amount, which spoke of how important his “Polish wife” was to him, but the emperor’s romance with Walewska was finally interrupted - largely due to the jealousy of his legal wife. The countess quietly left for Warsaw, but remained faithful to her former lover for a long time. When the deposed Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba and many of his former friends and associates turned their backs on him, Valevskaya secretly visited him there with four-year-old Alexander. However, the deposed emperor met his “Polish wife” rather dryly, who was ready to voluntarily share exile with him.
Only after Napoleon was exiled to the island of St. Helena, Maria Walewska considered herself free from obligations towards him. In September 1816, in Brussels, she married the former colonel of the Napoleonic Guards, Philippe-Antoine d'Ornano. But she did not have long to enjoy the happiness of a new marriage. The birth of a child on June 9, 1817, named Rodolphe-Auguste-Louis-Eugene, became fatal for her. Seriously ill, the beautiful Polish woman died on December 11 at the age of only 31 years.
Alexander-Florian-Joseph Colonna-Walevsky, Napoleon's second son, was brought to Poland after his mother's death. At the age of 14, he turned down an offer from Grand Duke Konstantin to become his personal aide-de-camp, and he was closely monitored by the Russian police. So in 1827 he fled to France. In December 1830, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Horace de Sebastiani, entrusted Alexander with a secret mission in Poland - thus Napoleon's son was among the participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831.
On February 13, 1831, with the rank of captain, as an adjutant to the commander, he took part in the famous battle of Grokhov, in which the Russian army under the command of Field Marshal Ivan Dibich and Polish army under the command of Prince Radziwill. In this battle, both sides suffered huge losses, but the Poles considered themselves victorious, since the Russian troops did not dare to storm the Polish capital and retreated.
For this battle, Alexander Walevsky received a military cross, and then was sent by the Polish rebel government to London to negotiate future fate Poland. After the defeat of the Polish uprising, he again returned to Paris, where, as the son of Napoleon, he met a very gracious reception and was enlisted as a captain in the French army. After retiring in 1837, Alexander became a publicist and playwright: he wrote a number of pamphlets ("Speech on the Algerian Question", "English Alliance" and others), as well as one five-act comedy. At the same time, he began to carry out various diplomatic missions for influential members of the government of Guizot and Thiers. He was sent on especially important assignments to many countries, including Egypt and Argentina. When Alexander Valevsky returned from Buenos Aires and was assigned to Copenhagen, the French Revolution of 1848 broke out, and he, unlike his brother Count Leon, immediately joined Charles-Louis-Napoleon, the future Emperor Napoleon III. He was appointed envoy of France by a distinguished relative, first in Florence, then in Naples, and finally in London, where Alexander managed things so flexibly that he managed to achieve recognition of the Second Empire by the British, despite all the horror that the name of Napoleon caused in them. It was he who organized the visit of Napoleon III to England and Queen Victoria to France, and also ensured the cooperation of the two powers in Crimean War. As a reward for such a brilliant success, in May 1855, Alexander was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of France and had the pleasure of presiding over the Congress of Paris in 1856, where Russia, which he hated, was humiliated. During the negotiations, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
But the career of the Napoleonic offspring did not end there either. In 1868 Walewski was elected president of the Legislative Corps and a member of the Academy of Fine Arts. However, the earl's health was undermined, and on September 27, 1868, at the zenith of his success, he died, leaving behind seven children. His wife Maria-Anna di Ricci, in which the blood of Italian and Polish aristocrats mixed (she was the daughter of Count Zanobio di Ricci and the great-niece of the last king of Poland, Stanislaw August Poniatowski), bore him four children, including the son of Charles-Zanobi-Rodolf, who became a lieutenant colonel and died in 1916 in World War I, fighting for France. But the most beloved son of Valevsky was Alexander-Antoine, whom the actress Rachel Felix gave birth to. His father not only recognized him, but also left him the title of count as an inheritance. The current Count Colonna-Walevsky, born in 1934, is the great-grandson of Alexandre Antoine.
Eaglet
The third son of the great emperor from Marie Louise of Austria, who was named Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, was born a year after the first meeting of his crowned parents - on March 20, 1811. Immediately after his birth, he was proclaimed King of Rome and heir to the empire. It would seem that this legitimate son had a great future ahead of him. But fate decreed otherwise. In early April 1814, Napoleon abdicated in favor of Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, who was proclaimed emperor of the French, but was never crowned: the victorious emperor Alexander I, not without the assistance of the ubiquitous Talleyrand, insisted on returning to the Bourbon throne. The four-year-old son of Napoleon left with his mother to visit relatives in Vienna. It was decided to isolate Marie Louise and her son from Napoleon as well as from each other.
The former empress, who received the Duchy of Parma in exchange for her former possessions, began to be accompanied everywhere by the Austrian officer Adam-Adalbert von Neipperg. He was about forty years old, and he had a very attractive appearance, except for a wide black band that hid an empty eye socket. Neipperg was ordered by the Austrian emperor to spy on Marie-Louise and stop any attempts to contact the exiled emperor. But soon the spy became a lover, and in 1821 the husband of the Duchess of Parma. Marie-Louise never saw Napoleon again, and gave birth to four children to her new husband. She lived the rest of her life in Parma. Widowed for the second time (Adam-Adalbert von Neipperg died in 1829), she married again on February 17, 1834 - to her chamberlain, Count Charles-Rene de Bombell.
Meanwhile, Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, the dream and hope of all the Bonapartists of the world, lived in Vienna, and he was guarded as carefully as even the most dangerous criminals are sometimes not guarded. He was forced to practically forget the French language and speak only German, and everyone called him exclusively “in Austrian” - Franz. In 1818, Napoleon's son was given the title of Duke of Reichstadt. They say that, while living at the court of his grandfather, the young man, in spite of everything, remembered his great father, was his ardent admirer (believing that Napoleon was unlucky with Marie-Louise) and was weary of the Schönbrunn orders. Unfortunately, his life was short - he died of tuberculosis on July 22, 1832. This young man went down in history under the dynastic name of Napoleon II, given to him by the Bonapartists. In fact, he never reigned, although from June 22, 1815 (that is, after the second abdication of Napoleon) in Paris for several weeks, it was he who was recognized as emperor. Under the repressive Bourbon regime, it was not safe to talk aloud about Napoleon. Therefore, everyone sang eagles - the eagle was the heraldic symbol of the French emperor. And his son, whom it was also not recommended to talk about, became Eaglet. This nickname was glorified by Edmond Rostand, who wrote the drama "Eaglet" in 1900 - about the sad life of Napoleon II, who lives in a golden German cage.
He was buried in the famous Viennese Kapuzinerkirche next to other Habsburgs. And when Adolf Hitler was looking for a way to show respect to the French, he remembered the young heir and decided to transfer his remains from Vienna to German-occupied Paris (at the same time, interestingly, the drama "Eaglet" was banned by the Nazis). In December 1940, Napoleon II rested in the Cathedral of the Les Invalides, next to the tomb of his father, whose ashes were transferred here exactly one hundred years before. So the crowned father and his unfortunate son finally met.
Emperor Napoleon had three sons - the legitimate son Francois-Joseph, the failed heir to the throne, and two illegitimate sons - Charles, Count Leon, and Alexander Valevsky.
Their fate turned out differently, which we, based on historical sources, will tell in this article.
In March 1796, Napoleon married Josephine de Beauharnais, who by that time already had two children from her first husband, Viscount Alexander de Beauharnais. For ten years of marriage, Napoleon and Josephine never had their own children, which, of course, terribly depressed Bonaparte. He, accustomed to victoriously solve any problems that arose before him, it was hard to get used to the idea that in this family-dynastic business he had suffered a terrible failure.
It was even rumored that the great Napoleon began to consider himself barren ...
In all other cases, except for the birth of an heir, at that time Napoleon won one victory after another and was at the peak of fortune and fame.
In 1805, he won the greatest victory of his career at Austerlitz, where the allied forces of the two emperors were defeated - Russian Alexander I and Austrian Franz II.
At the beginning of 1806, Napoleon returned victorious to France, where he immediately struck up a relationship with the young beauty Eleanor Denuel de la Plaigne, a lecturer, and in a modern way a reader aloud, his sister Caroline, a slender brunette with huge black eyes.
Eleanor was a flirtatious and witty girl from a good Parisian bourgeois family. While studying at the famous boarding school of noble maidens Madame Campan, she met Caroline Bonaparte, to whom she later got a job.
There was also an unsuccessful marriage in her life to the dragoon officer Jean Revel, who turned out to be an ordinary swindler, was arrested and imprisoned.
Having settled in the service of her friend Caroline Bonaparte, Eleanor quickly became close to her loving husband, Marshal Joachim Murat. The emperor himself, who did not like to spend a lot of time on preludes, also did not have to persuade her for a long time - Caroline, who hated Josephine, who had influence on her older brother, helped in this. 
The love meetings between Napoleon and Eleanor nevertheless led to a result that both Caroline and the entire Corsican Bonaparte clan, who dreamed of diluting Napoleon with the "stranger" Josephine, hoped for very much - on December 13, 1806 at two o'clock in the morning, Eleanor gave birth to a boy.
Napoleon, who was fighting in Poland at that time, having received a message about this from Marshal Francois-Joseph Lefebvre, was filled with
joyfully exclaimed: “Finally I have a son!”
At first he decided to adopt a child, but soon changed his mind - the emperor needed a legitimate heir ...
The boy was named Charles, Count of Leon, and given to the upbringing of Madame Loire, the former nurse of Ashille, the son of Caroline and Murat.
He was given an annual maintenance of 30,000 francs, which is about 1 million dollars in modern prices.
His mother was not forgotten either: Eleanor received 22,000 francs a year.
The birth of a son led Napoleon to the decision to part with Josephine, who was unable to give him an heir ...
To Eleanor, Napoleon also cooled after the birth of his son, after which, on February 4, 1808, she married the young lieutenant Pierre-Philippe Ogier. Her family life with Ogier was short-lived - in 1812 he went missing while crossing the remnants of the French army across the Berezina River in Russia ...
In 1814, Eleanor successfully entered into a new marriage with a Bavarian army major, Count Karl-August-Emil von Luxburg, with whom she lived comfortably for thirty-five years - first in Mannheim, and then in Paris, where the count was appointed ambassador.
Napoleon spoiled the young Charles, he was often brought to the Tuileries to his father, who loved to play with him and gave him expensive gifts. Baron Mathieu de Moviera, father-in-law of Napoleon's personal secretary Claude-Francois de Meneval, was appointed guardian of Charles.
After the Battle of Waterloo, when the Bonapartes from the august family became just private individuals, Napoleon's mother Letizia and his uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, took up the education of Charles.
Count Leon was like two drops of water like his father in childhood and from early childhood showed a violent and obstinate temper.
In the will that Napoleon wrote on the island of Saint Helena, Charles was allocated 300,000 francs with the wish that he become a magistrate. However, Count Leon was not interested in a quiet life and, having reached adulthood, he began to lead a wild and disorderly lifestyle.
Having started his studies at the University of Heidelberg, Charles quickly abandoned it, after which he tried to carry out a variety of projects one after another, up to the construction of a submarine.
He entered military service as the commander of a battalion of the National Guard of Saint-Denis, but he was soon dismissed "for negligent attitude to official duties." 
Charles even tried to become a priest, but did not finish his studies.
An excellent rider and great horse lover, he could shell out a fortune for a good horse.
The count was also a passionate gambler. Once, in one night, he lost 45,000 francs (in modern money - about a million and a quarter euros).
Turning into an inveterate duelist, Count Leon in 1832 killed in a duel in the Bois de Vincennes due to a quarrel at the card table, Karl Hesse, the illegitimate offspring of one of the English princes, cousin of the future Queen Victoria, adjutant of the Duke of Wellington.
Naturally, with such squandering, the money left by Emperor Napoleon could not be enough for a long time. Easily parting with money, Charles also easily got into debt when there was a shortage of them ...
In 1838 he was imprisoned for debts, but not for long.
In 1840, Charles decided to try his luck in England, where at that time his wealthy relative, Prince Charles-Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and grandson of Josephine de Beauharnais, lived in exile. Without thinking of anything else, the count began to extract money from his cousin, and all this happened in such an impudent form that it came to a duel, which, fortunately for both duelists, did not take place ...
The seconds of Charles-Louis-Napoleon brought two swords to the place of the duel in Wimbledon, and the seconds of Count Leon brought two pistols. A long dispute about which weapon to choose ended with the appearance of the police, who separated the unfortunate duelists.
Count Leon was expelled to France, where he successfully sued his mother, Countess von Luxburg, who was ordered by the court to pay him an annual allowance of 4,000 francs.
Writing bilious and unfriendly pamphlets also began to bring good fees, but he immediately squandered them ...
In the late 1840s, Charles had the opportunity to try himself as a politician. In those years when the struggle for independence from Austria and unification was going on on the Apennine Peninsula, many hoped that Pope Pius IX would help the Italian states to unite.
Count Leon wrote to the pope and offered himself as the Italian king, however, most likely, no one but Leon himself could imagine him in this role ...
Having failed in Italy, Count Leon decided to take French affairs seriously. And now, after the exile of the king 
Louis Philippe in March 1848, Charles solemnly promised to preserve the French Republic, speaking out against all monarchists, including the Bonapartists, who wanted to enthrone his cousin Charles-Louis-Napoleon.
When, nevertheless, Charles-Louis-Napoleon became Emperor Napoleon III, Count Leon began to seek his appointment to the public service and the payment of his debts, but his cousin, offended by the Wimbledon duel, did not give the position ...
Instead of a position, a compassionate relative provided Charles with a pension of 6,000 francs and allocated 255,000 francs, of which 45,000 went to pay off the count's debts, and the remainder provided an annual income of 10,000 francs.
But this money was soon lost and squandered, and Count Leon again turned to the emperor for help.
Old age was inexorably approaching, funds became scarce, and the old reveler settled down somewhat. He reconciled with his mother, with whom he had been at enmity for so long, and in 1862 he married a woman with whom he had already lived for nine years and who bore him six children.
His wife, Francoise Jaunet, was 25 years younger than him and immeasurably lower than his position - her father had once served as a gardener for Count Leon - but she remained faithful to her husband.
After the overthrow of Napoleon III, the first-born of the great emperor was completely ruined, poverty set in.
Count Leon died in Pontoise on April 14, 1881 at the age of 75 and was buried at the expense of the municipality as a beggar vagabond ...
Let's move on to the fate of the second illegitimate son Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte Alexander Walevsky. 
In 1807, in Warsaw, Napoleon met Maria Walewska. There is an opinion that initially Valevskaya succumbed to the courtship of the emperor out of patriotic feelings: the gentry hoped that a love affair with a Polish woman would make Napoleon think more about the interests of her homeland.
However, soon a twenty-year-old girl, not out of love given by her parents to the elderly aristocrat Anastasia Colonna-Valevsky, herself fell in love with Napoleon without memory.
At the beginning of 1808, Maria Valevskaya moved to Paris, moved into an apartment on Victory Street, not far from the apartment in which Eleanor Denuel de la Plaigne, already familiar to us, lived, who at that time had already received her resignation ...
In 1809, Maria in love follows Napoleon to Austria, where she is in Schönbrunn and announces to him that she is expecting a child from him ...
On May 4, 1810, in Poland, Walewska gave birth to a boy, who was named Alexander.
Six months later, with her son in her arms, she returned to Paris, but the place next to Napoleon was already taken by another woman - Princess Marie-Louise of Austria ...
Napoleon allocated 10,000 francs a month for the maintenance of his son Alexander, a huge sum in those days.
At the same time, his romance with Maria Valevskaya was finally interrupted - largely due to the jealousy of his new legal wife. The Countess quietly left for Warsaw, but remained faithful to her former lover for a long time...
After the deposed Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, Walewska secretly visited him there with four-year-old Alexander, but the emperor met his “Polish wife” rather dryly, who was ready to voluntarily share exile with him.
And only after Napoleon was exiled to the island of St. Helena, Maria Walewska considered herself free from obligations towards him.
In September 1816, in Brussels, she married Philippe-Antoine d'Ornano, a former colonel of the Napoleonic guards, but the birth of a child on June 9, 1817, who was named Rodolphe-Auguste-Louis-Eugene, became fatal for her.
Seriously ill, the delightful Polish woman died on December 11 at the age of only 31…
After the death of his mother, Alexander-Florian-Joseph Colonna-Walewski, the second son of Napoleon, was brought by his uncle Theodor Marcin Lonchinsky to Poland.
He was educated in Geneva in 1820-1824. 
At the age of 14, he turned down an offer from Grand Duke Konstantin to become his personal adjutant, and he was followed by the Russian police, for which he fled to France in 1827.
In December 1830, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Horace de Sebastiani, entrusted Alexander with a secret mission in Poland - so the son of Napoleon was among the participants in the Polish uprising of 1830-1831.
On February 13, 1831, Alexander Valevsky, with the rank of captain, as an adjutant to the commander, takes part in the famous battle of Grochov, in which the Russian army under the command of Field Marshal Ivan Dibich and the Polish army under the command of Prince Radziwill opposed.
In this historic battle, both sides suffered colossal losses, but the Poles considered themselves victorious, because the Russian troops did not dare to storm the Polish capital and retreated.
For active participation in this battle, Alexander Walevsky received a military cross, after which he was sent by the Polish rebel government to London to negotiate the future of Poland.
After the defeat of the Polish uprising, Alexander Walevsky returned to Paris, where, as the son of Napoleon, he met a very gracious reception and was enlisted as a captain in the French army.
After retiring in 1837, Alexander became a publicist and playwright: he wrote a number of pamphlets ("Speech on the Algerian Question", "English Alliance" and others), as well as one five-act comedy.
At the same time, he began to carry out various important diplomatic missions for influential members of the government of Guizot and Thiers in many countries, including Egypt and Argentina.
When Alexander Walevsky returned from Buenos Aires, the French Revolution of 1848 broke out and, in contrast to his brother Count Leon, he immediately joined Charles-Louis-Napoleon, the future Emperor Napoleon III. 
He was appointed envoy of France by a distinguished relative, initially to Florence, then to Naples, and finally to London, where Alexander was so flexible in his dealings that he succeeded in obtaining the recognition of the Second Empire by the English, despite all the horror that the name aroused in them. Napoleon.
It was Alexander Valevsky who organized the visit of Emperor Napoleon III to England and Queen Victoria to France, and also ensured cooperation between the two powers in the Crimean War.
As a reward for this success, in May 1855, Alexander was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of France and had the pleasure of presiding over the Congress of Paris in 1856, where Russia, which he hated, was humiliated ...
During the negotiations, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
Subsequently, in 1868, Alexander Walevsky was elected president of the Legislative Corps and a member of the Academy of Fine Arts. However, the count's health was undermined, and on September 27, 1868, at the zenith of his fame, he died ...
Had seven children.
His wife, Maria Anna di Ricci, former daughter Italian Count Zanobio di Ricci and great-niece of the last king of Poland, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, bore him four children, including the son of Charles-Zanobi-Rodolphe, who became a lieutenant colonel and died in 1916 in the First World War, fighting for France.
However, the most beloved son of Alexander Walevsky was Alexander-Antoine, whom the actress Rachel Felix gave birth to. His father not only recognized him, but also left him the title of count as an inheritance.
The current Count Colonna-Walevsky, born in 1934, is the great-grandson of Alexandre-Antoine.
So, let's move on to the youngest son of Emperor Napoleon - Napoleon-Francois-Joseph or Napoleon II.
Immediately after the divorce from Josephine, Napoleon began choosing a new wife, who was supposed to give birth to a legitimate heir to the throne.
On January 28, 1810, a special meeting of the highest dignitaries of the empire was convened on this issue. As a result, it was decided that a new marriage alliance was to guarantee the Napoleonic dynasty a place in the sun, and, therefore, it had to be concluded with a great power.
In addition to France, there were three such states in the world at that time: England, Russia and Austria. 
However, based on the fact that with England there was an incessant war not for life, but for death, then the choice remained between Russia and Austria.
Most of the ministers were in favor of the candidacy of the Russian Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, who was the sister of Emperor Alexander I, and only a few, including Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, for the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise, daughter of Emperor Franz I.
However Russian emperor Alexander I did not want to marry his sister to a “Corsican” and came up with more and more excuses: young age, different religions, and, finally, the fact that only her mother could marry her, but he did not have such power.
Irritated by the intrigues of the Russian court, Napoleon declared that he was leaning towards the "Austrian version."
And so, at the beginning of February 1810, a marriage contract was prepared, which was completely copied from a similar contract drawn up at the marriage of the French king Louis XVI to another Austrian archduchess, Marie Antoinette, the aunt of Napoleon's bride.
The Austrian emperor ratified the treaty, and on February 21, 1810, a message about this arrived in Paris.
On February 22, 1810, Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff, was sent to Vienna to represent the Emperor of the French during the solemn marriage ceremony.
On March 11, 1810, a traditional marriage by proxy was concluded in Vienna - in the presence of the entire Austrian imperial family, the entire court, the entire diplomatic corps, dignitaries and generals.
The next day, Bertier went back to France, and 24 hours later, the future Empress Marie-Louise, whom Napoleon met on March 27, 1810, near Paris, left Vienna.
Remarkably, only here the couple saw each other for the first time in their lives. Napoleon's goal was to find such a wife,
who could bear him an heir, so he was not very worried about appearance and feelings. However, in the carriage he found a delightful, childishly naive young woman and immediately fell in love with her.
On April 2, 1810, the wedding of Napoleon and Marie Louise was celebrated again at the Tuileries Palace.
On March 20, 1811, Marie Louise gave birth to a boy, who was named Napoleon-Francois-Joseph and immediately after birth was proclaimed King of Rome and heir to the empire.
It seems that a great fate awaited this legitimate son of Emperor Napoleon, but fortune decreed otherwise ...
In early April 1814, Napoleon abdicated - in favor of Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, who was proclaimed emperor of the French, but was never crowned: the victorious Russian emperor Alexander I 
not without the assistance of the ubiquitous Talleyrand, he insisted on returning to the throne of the Bourbons.
The four-year-old son of Napoleon left with his mother to visit relatives in Vienna. It was decided to isolate Marie Louise and her son from Napoleon as well as from each other.
The former Empress Marie-Louise, who received the Duchy of Parma in exchange for her former possessions, was accompanied everywhere by the Austrian officer Adam-Adalbert von Neipperg.
This Austrian officer was about forty years old, he had an extremely attractive appearance, except, of course, for a wide black bandage that hid an empty eye socket.
He was ordered by the Austrian emperor to spy on Marie-Louise and prevent any contact with the exiled emperor.
However, despite the service, the spy soon became a lover, and in 1821 the husband of the Duchess of Parma.
Marie-Louise never saw Napoleon again, and gave birth to four children to her new husband.
She lived the rest of her life in Parma, where she acquired a private court and countless favorites.
Widowed in 1829 for the second time, on February 17, 1834, she married again - to her chamberlain, Count Charles-Rene de Bombelle.
During the reign of Marie Louise, schools, bridges, hospitals were built in Parma, and the construction of a theater began, which the inhabitants of the city are still proud of.
Thus, Marie Louise remained the most beloved ruler of the small duchy ...
Napoleon-Francois-Joseph, the dream and hope of all the Bonapartists of the world, lived near Vienna in Schönbrunn Castle, and he was guarded as carefully as sometimes even the most dangerous criminals are not guarded - everyone perfectly understood that the name of Napoleon II alone, under certain circumstances, could serve as a banner for the Bonapartist movement.
He was forced to practically forget the French language and speak only German, and everyone called him exclusively “in Austrian” - Franz. 
In 1818, Napoleon's son was given the title of Duke of Reichstadt.
From the age of 12, the Duke of Reichstadt was considered to be military service and by 1830 he had risen to the rank of major.
They say that, while living at the court of his grandfather, the young man, in spite of everything, remembered his great father, was his ardent admirer and was burdened by the Schönbrunn orders.
Unfortunately, his life was short-lived - he died of tuberculosis on July 22, 1832.
In fairness, it must be said that there were rumors that he was poisoned.
This young man went down in history under the dynastic name of Napoleon II, given to him by the Bonapartists. In fact, he never reigned, although from June 22, 1815 (that is, after the second abdication of Napoleon) in Paris for several weeks, it was he who was recognized as emperor.
Under the repressive regime of the Bourbons, it was not safe to speak aloud about Napoleon, so everyone sang eagles - the eagle was the heraldic symbol of the French emperor.
And his son, whom it was also not recommended to talk about, became Eaglet. This nickname was glorified by Edmond Rostand, who wrote the drama "Eaglet" in 1900 - about the sad life of Napoleon II, who lives in a golden German cage.
Napoleon II was buried in the famous Viennese Kapuzinerkirche next to the other Habsburgs.
In December 1940, at the direction of Adolf Hitler, Napoleon II rested in the Cathedral of the Les Invalides, next to the tomb of his father, whose ashes were transferred here exactly one hundred years before.
So the crowned father and his unfortunate son finally met.
Information sources:
1. Wikipedia site
2. Nechaev "Sons of Napoleon"
In the history of France there were many upheavals and revolutions, monarchies were replaced by republics, and vice versa. One of the significant figures in the history of this country and all of Europe was Bonaparte.
Few people know that after his defeat, he abdicated in favor of his young son. The Bonapartists gave him the name Napoleon II. What happened to the rightful heir, how many more Napoleons were there in the history of France?
Sons of Napoleon
The French emperor had three sons, two of them illegitimate. The fate of each of the offspring has developed in different ways.
The first son appeared to the ruler from a connection with Eleanor de la Plaigne. At that time, Napoleon was married to Josephine Beauharnais, but the couple had no children in ten years of marriage. The boy was born on December 13, 1806 at two in the morning. The emperor received good news while in Poland. His first thought was to adopt a child, but soon she disappeared. Napoleon wanted to have a legitimate heir.
The boy was named Charles. Mother and son received annual money for their maintenance. The father loved and spoiled the boy. After his death, he left him a considerable sum. However, Charles squandered it very quickly, because he liked to spend money, play cards, participate in duels. He was dismissed from military service for non-compliance with the charter, he tried to study for a clergyman. As a result, the young man found a way to exist - he sued the annual allowance from his mother, and later received a pension from his cousin, who became emperor. After the overthrow of Napoleon III, Count Leon went bankrupt, later he was buried as a beggar tramp.
The birth of Charles prompted the emperor to think about parting with his official wife, who was unable to give birth to an heir. He meets Maria Valevskaya, who on 05/04/1810 gives birth to her son Alexander. When the mistress returned to Paris with her son in her arms, the emperor had already found a replacement for her. He allocated a substantial amount for the maintenance of his son. Maria Valevskaya died very early, and Alexander had to take care of his own life. In 1830 he took part in Polish uprising. After his defeat, the young man moved to Paris, where he became the captain of the French army. After retiring, he was engaged in journalism, dramaturgy, carried out diplomatic missions, was Minister of Foreign Affairs under Napoleon III, and participated in the Paris Congress of 1856. He died in 1868, leaving behind seven children.
Napoleon II, whose biography will be discussed below, was the third son of the emperor. He became the only legitimate child. Who was his mother?
Mother of the heir
After a divorce from Josephine, the ruler of France began to search for a wife who would give birth to a legitimate heir. At a special council, it was decided that Napoleon should enter into a marriage alliance with a great power. This would allow him to guarantee his rights in the international arena.
Most of the ministers saw the best candidate in the sister of the Russian Emperor Alexander the First, Anna Pavlovna. There were also those who were inclined towards an alliance with Austria through marriage to Marie-Louise, the daughter of Emperor Franz the First.
Alexander the First did not want such a relationship, so he came up with new excuses. Napoleon got tired of waiting, he turned his gaze towards the Austrian party. The contract was signed in 1810, at the same time a marriage by proxy was concluded in Vienna. Only after that the couple met. Before that, they had not seen each other.
The emperor fell in love with the young woman as soon as he saw her. A year later (04/20/1811) she gave him an heir, who was named Napoleon-Francois-Joseph. What fate awaited the heir named Napoleon II?
King of Rome
At the birth of the boy, he was proclaimed the King of Rome. However, this title was formal. In 1814 the Emperor abdicated. He did this in favor of his legitimate heir, and Napoleon II was declared French emperor. Only the Bonapartists considered him a ruler, who called the boy like this: Napoleon II Eaglet.
The history of such a nickname is connected with the repressive regime that was introduced after the abdication of Napoleon. The name of the former emperor turned out to be unsafe to mention, so his followers called him the Eagle. The bird was the heraldic symbol of the ruler. It was dangerous to mention the son who left France, so he was called Eaglet. Who came up with the nickname is unknown, but Edmond Rostand glorified him. In 1900, he wrote the drama The Eaglet about the life of Napoleon II. In it, a young man is forced to live in a golden German cage.
The three-year-old heir was not crowned, as the power in France changed. In addition, the Russian emperor opposed the coronation. Together with Talleyrand, he insisted that the Bourbons be returned to power.
Marie-Louise took her son and returned to her family in Vienna. There she received the Duchy of Parma and met her future husband, who was originally assigned to watch over her.
From Napoleon to Franz
Napoleon II remained the main hope of the Bonapartists. That is why he was guarded much more carefully than the most dangerous criminal. Everyone understood that the boy's origins could lead to a serious Bonapartist movement, not only in France, but throughout the world.
The son of the deposed emperor lived near Vienna (Schoenbrunn Castle). He was forced to speak only German, and addressed him by his middle name - Franz. In 1818 he was given the title of Duke of Reichstadt.
The duke was involved in military service from the age of twelve. Despite all the prohibitions, or maybe in spite of them, Franz remembered his origin. He was an ardent admirer of his great father.
Early death
By 1830, Napoleon II, whose height was about the same as his father, rose to the rank of major. It is not known whether he could justify the hopes of the Bonapartists. His life was short. He died in 1832 from tuberculosis.
They buried Napoleon-Francois in Vienna, next to other Habsburgs.
posthumous fate
A hundred years later, Napoleon II (photos have not survived to this day) was disturbed. In 1940, Adolf Hitler gave the order to transfer his remains to the cathedral of Les Invalides. He was placed next to the tomb of his father.
Heir of Napoleon II
The last monarch of France was Napoleon III Bonaparte. He was the nephew of the illustrious emperor and cousin of the Duke of Reichstadt. At the birth of the future monarch, they named Charles Louis Napoleon. Father was Ludovic Bonaparte. Mother - Hortense de Beauharnais. The marriage between them was contracted under duress, so the couple lived in constant separation.
The boy grew up at the court of his uncle. Since childhood, he literally worshiped him and was devoted to "Napoleonic" ideas. He strove for power and went to his goal, clearing the way in front of him.
After the overthrow of Bonaparte, the boy with his brother and mother moved to Switzerland, where Hortense acquired the Arenenberg castle. Louis did not receive a systematic school education due to constant travel. In Switzerland, he entered the military service.
After the death of Napoleon II, Charles Louis became the one who represented Napoleonic ideas and claims. Four years later, he tried to seize power in France. His act went down in history as the Strasbourg conspiracy. The attempt was unsuccessful, Bonaparte was sent to America. He stayed there for a year, after which he settled in Switzerland, and then in England.
The second attempt to become the head of France was made in 1840. She also failed. As a result, Charles Louis was arrested with other conspirators, put on trial by peers. His punishment was life imprisonment with all rights reserved. Surprisingly, no such punishment existed in French law. The unfortunate conspirator spent six years in the Gam fortress. At this time, he wrote articles, published books, and communicated with friends. In 1846, Bonaparte fled from the fortress to England. On the island he met Harriet Howard, who was an actress, wealthy and with many useful contacts. She helped her lover in many ways.
Reign of Napoleon III
In 1848 there was a revolution in France. Louis hastened to Paris. He took a wait-and-see attitude until the opportunity arose to put forward his candidacy for the presidency. According to the election results, he received 75% of the vote. At the age of forty he became President of the Republic.
He was not satisfied with being president, so in 1851 he dissolved the Assembly and established an empire in the state.
A year later, he was proclaimed emperor under the name Napoleon III. According to the Bonapartist tradition, it was taken into account that Napoleon II (the son of Emperor Bonaparte) was the head of state for fourteen days.
The monarch was in power until 1870. The Franco-Prussian War put an end to his reign. During these years, he suffered greatly from gallstones and took opiates. Because of this, he was lethargic and thought badly.
Napoleon III surrendered to William the First. A day later, the September Revolution took place in Paris. The empire has ceased to exist. The deposed ruler moved to England, where he died in 1873.
Baron Munchausen prototype
Many art historians suggest that for the illustrative image of the famous Baron Munchausen, the artist Gustave Dore took the appearance of Napoleon III as a prototype. The similarity is manifested in the oval of the head, the shape of the nose, mustache and beard. Munchausen's emblem was three ducks, which can be considered an allusion to the coat of arms of the Bonapartes (three bees).
Dynastic connection
There are five Napoleons in history. All of them were relatives.
It is customary to start the Bonaparte genealogy with Carlo Buonaparte. He had five sons: Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome. Napoleon II is the son of Napoleon the First, Napoleon the Third is the son of Louis, Napoleon the Fourth is the grandson of Louis, Napoleon the Fifth is the grandson of Jerome. In fact, only two of the list ruled, the rest were considered rulers only by the Bonapartists.
