![]() ![]() ![]() Eugénie's beauty and charm made her one of the bright lights of his reign, and her strength of character sustained - some would say overwhelmed - him through the triumphant years of his reign and the final, bitter years of his exile. Through their children, Napoléon III hoped to establish the new bloodline for French royalty. The marriage to Eugénie was a personal triumph for the new Emperor, who had yet to prove his legitimacy to the crowned heads of Europe. His earlier marriage offers to the houses of Vasa and Hohenzollern had been rejected contemptuously. His first goal was achieved in January of 1853, when he married Eugénie de Montijo, Comtesse de Teba. #Heads on display in paris seriesTo this end, Napoléon III set about persuading the world of his worth with a series of dramatic gestures: marriage to a beautiful and certified aristocrat, a convincing military victory abroad, a grand plan for redesigning the very face of Paris, and a universal exposition. But to hold it, to give his reign legitimacy and security, he needed to demonstrate to the French people, and to the allies and enemies of France, that, in addition to the blood of the Bonapartes, he had the spirit of a true Napoléon. Now his time had come, and the crown was his alone. From the time of his youth, in exile and disgrace as a bearer of the Bonaparte name, he never doubted that he was destined for greatness. Napoléon III had won his throne through force of will and wiles. He skillfully parlayed his popularity, and the halo of glory around the name Napoléon, into the presidency of the National Assembly in 1848. In spite of a decree banning the Bonaparte family from France forever, Charles was elected in absentia to the Assembly. The National Assembly performed no better, losing widespread support by opposing universal suffrage. The restored monarchy committed blunder after political blunder in its attempt to win English favor and avoid conflicts on foreign soil. Let the man dream.īut in the ensuing years, as Charles Louis's star climbed toward its zenith, his faith in his own destiny seemed justified. But he always insisted that it was his destiny to become his uncle's successor, to restore France to her former glory. He had many friends and mistresses, spent their money freely on his pleasures. He was handsome, and the blood of the Bonapartes flowed in his veins. In England, the escaped pretender cut a strange figure in society. Disguised as a workman, he escaped to London in 1846. But the fortress at Ham could not restrain a man who proposed ocean-splicing canals and the eradication of poverty. He also found time to correspond with the radical political philosopher Pierre Proudhon, the flamboyant bohemian writer George Sand, and other fellow spirits. Intellectual friends, both men and women, lightened his captivity with frequent visits. He passed the time writing fragments of history, proposing schemes for cutting a canal through Nicaragua, and publishing a series of articles on the abolition of pauperism. At this "University of Ham," as he called it, Charles Louis dreamed his dreams of empire. And so, rather than arouse the wrath of the still considerable number of Bonapartists, the Court of Peers determined to make the military fortress at Ham the Elba of Charles Louis. On the very day when Charles Louis was sentenced, Emperor Napoléon's ashes were received by both royalty and the multitudes of Paris with great pomp at the church of Les Invalides. Many monarchists and conservatives in the Court of Peers and the National Assembly wished for terminal punishment but the name of Napoléon was in the ascendant once again throughout France. The second attempt in 1840 earned him the detention term at Ham, behind the very walls that, over four centuries before, had held Joan of Arc captive. After the first attempt in 1836, the government had exiled him to America. Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew and adopted godson of the Emperor, had failed in his second attempt at a coup d'état against the restored monarchy of Louis Philippe. Signature Buildings of San Francisco BackstoryĮxactly ten years before the opening of the first universal exposition in Paris, the future father of the event was serving a lifetime prison term in the state military fortress at Ham.Presentations for Biography of a City: San Francisco.Humanities Course Keynote Presentatioms.Biography of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld. ![]()
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