Queen Victoria and the Empress Eugénie

Queen Victoria's portrait of Eugénie, May 1855

By the last decades of the nineteenth century the Bonaparte family had gained legitimacy among Europe's rulers. No longer identified with opposition to the British oligarchy and its absolutist allies on the continent, they had become part of the established order, allies against Republican and working class movements which increasingly put fear into the heads of Europe's ruling classes.

The Bonapartes themselves exhibited a certain sense of entitlement, all the more curious since their claims derived entirely from the upstart Emperor, exiled on St Helena and insultingly referred to as "General Bonaparte" by his British gaolers. At least one of the family, Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904), daughter of Napoleon's brother Jerome, recognised this, apparently telling Marcel Proust that if it weren't for her famous uncle she would be "selling oranges in the streets of Ajaccio, " but there is no evidence that it made her feel any less entitled.

One of the Bonapartes, Prince Louis-Lucien(1813-1891) was apparently devoted to Queen Victoria. She always addressed him as Imperial Highness although he had no right to the title. According to his cousin Caroline Murat he lived so long in England and had "became almost an Englishman", and a rather conservative one at that. (1) Having met Gladstone at Eugenie's he commented "I didn't know a Liberal could be a true gentleman". (2) The closest relationship though was between Queen Victoria and Eugénie, Empress of the French (1826-1920).

Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portrait of Eugénie, Empress of the French, copied by Mary Curtis in December 1855 for Queen Victoria

The world in which Victoria and Eugenie became friends was very different from that of the first Napoleon. Britain was at the pinnacle of its global power, and the centuries old struggle with France had come to an end, although not everyone had noticed it.(3) The Enlightenment ideas with which Napoleon was identified, the rights of property, secularism and legal equality had for the most part become mainstream among the English ruling class, and most of England's rulers still shared Napoleon's distrust of democracy.

Victoria and Albert with Napoleon III and Eugénie, London 1855

Queen Victoria had been told in 1850 by Lord Aberdeen that the future Napoleon III had good manners and was " very quiet, not at all French " (4), which perhaps reconciled her to the fall of King Louis Philippe, "the one person fitted to govern such an unmanageable people. " (5).

Over a decade earlier, before Napoleon's body had been brought back from St Helena she had been sent a book by her uncle the Duke of Sussex, a well known Whig supporter of Napoleon. The book had suggested to her the almost treasonous thought that "Napoleon's wars were good " and disabused her of the belief that he had been a coward. (6)

Initially opposed to Louis Napoleon's coup, in October Victoria recorded that the Govt formed was of "people who are nobody". By December though she rejoiced at the big majority that Louis Napoleon had gained in the French elections, "as a sign of moderation" and "a stepping stone to something better". (7)

Napoleon III, Eugénie and the Prince Imperial

Her soon to be friend, the Spanish Princess Eugénie de Montijo, had married Napoleon III in 1853, and their first meeting was in 1855 when she and her husband were guests in London during the Crimean War. Shortly after Victoria returned the visit and in Paris was taken to see the tomb of "the great Napoleon".

Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portrait of Eugénie, Empress of the French, copy by Johann Horrak.

In her diary of December 24th, 1857 commenting on her Christmas presents Queen Victoria singled out a gift by "Dearest Albert" of "a copy of Winterhalter's picture of the Empress Eugénie in a straw hat, which I am so particularly fond of, and which is charming."

After the overthrow of the Second Empire Victoria visited the Empress and her son in Kent where Eugénie "very thin & pale, but still very handsome", with "deep sadness in her face" and frequent tears in her eyes, spoke of her dreadful last hours in Paris as the populace stormed the Tuileries. (8)

After Napoleon III's death the Empress gave Victoria a photograph of him and his travelling clock which had accompanied him everywhere and was beside his bed when he died. Victoria showed it to Eugénie when the latter visited, and wrote in her diary: "Now it stands in my sitting room, & I shall always take it about with me, & leave it as an Heirloom to Windsor!!!" (9)

Most devastating of all was the tragic death of Eugenie's only child, the Prince Imperial, while serving with British troops in South Africa. Victoria heard the news before Eugénie, and may have felt some responsibility for it. She recorded that it haunted her all night "seeing those horrid Zulus constantly before me", and "thinking of the poor Empress who did not yet know it." (10) Her diary gives a very detailed account of the Prince Imperial's funeral where she met all the assorted Bonapartes, most of whom she seemed to have some knowledge of,

The Princes & Psse Matilde came in here, & the different Princes were presented by Pce Napoleon, who has very civil, & very subdued & embarassed. Psse Matilde, I found very little altered At the door, we were met by Ld Sydney Psse Matilde (whom I had not seen since 55, in Paris) Pce Napoleon, with his 2 sons Victor & Louis, Pce Lucien Bonaparte (the savant, who always resides in England) Pce Charles Napolén Bonaparte (his, nephew) Pce Murat, his daughter Psse Eugénie, & his brother Pce Louis, the Duc de Bassano & others. Pce Napoleon is aged, & grown balder, & more like to Napoleon I than ever. His eldest son Victor, is tall & nice & intelligent looking, very like the Italian family, but with the fine Bonaparte brow, & complexion. The 2nd, is much shorter & darker, & has quite the Bonaparte features. Pce Lucien, is grey & old looking, very pleasing, & gentlemanlike. He loved the dear young Prince dearly & feels his death acutely. He is the son of Napoleon I's eldest brother. He was present at the painful identification & said "Mais, je l'ai reconnu!" His nephew, Pce Charles, I had never seen before, a good looking elderly man, whose mother, was the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. Besides these, there was Pce Murat's handsome daughter Eugénie & his younger brother Pce Louis. — (11)

In her widowhood the Empress Eugénie, often referred to by Victoria as "dear Empress Eugénie" and sometime "poor Empress Eugénie ", was a frequent visitor to Osborne House, Balmoral and Windsor. Occasionally Victoria visited her, including a couple of visits to Eugénie's villa, "Cyrnos" in the South of France. Victoria sometimes lent Eugénie a cottage at Osborne house, and also another one in Abergele in the Scottish highlands. In Osborne House gardens were some violets brought back from St Helena in 1880. (12) Sometimes other members of the Bonaparte family accompanied Eugénie on her visits.

Eugénie at her villa, Cyrnos, in the South of France

On one occasion the two friends visited the Demidoff villa in Italy, former home of Anatoly Demidoff (1813-1870), and his wife Mathilde Bonaparte. Victoria noted that

there were busts of the Empr Napoleon & Empress Eugénie, also a bust of myself, which I cannot understand how he got. Took tea, which we had brought with us, in one of the small rooms, & afterwards went up into a magnificent drawing room, which was full of fine & interesting things, amongst others the clock, which had stood in the room at St. Helena, in which Napoleon I died. There was also death mask of him. (13)

Funeral in 1820, attended by King and Queen of England and the Queen of Spain

Bonapartism as a political force effectively ended with the death of the Prince Imperial in 1879. Thereafter the Orleanists became the better bet for the enemies of Republicanism. (14) Nevertheless Victoria's relationship with the Bonapartes remained unbroken. In 1886 she saw the "monstrous" proposal by the French Govt to expel the Orléans & Bonaparte Princes as directed at Prince Napoleon and his son Prince Victor. In the final months of her life she was visited by Prince Napoleon and his brother Princce Louis, who she noted had been serving for some time in the Russian army, which happened to be governed by another Emperor and another relative of hers. (15)

Eugénie lived to see Victoria's son and then grandson on the throne, and then through the First World War, which destroyed much of the old European order. She died in 1920 on a final visit to Spain, the nation of her birth. Like Napoleon I she had two funerals, one in Madrid, and then her body was returned for burial in England. Her English funeral was attended not only by assorted Bonapartes, but by the King and Queen of England and the Queen of Spain.
-----------------------------------------------------
1. My Memoirs The Princess Caroline Murat (New York 1910) p. 80
2. Murat p 24
3. There was a war scare in Britain after Napoleon III came to power.
4. Victoria Diary, 6th Feb 1850.
5. Victoria Diary 14 August 1839
6. Victoria Diary, 14 Aug 1839
7. Victoria Diary, 31st Oct & 14 Dec 1848.
8. Victoria Diary 30th November 1870
9. Victoria Diary Osborne House 26th January 1873.
10. Victoria Diary, Balmoral Castle, Friday June 20th 1879)
11. Victoria Diary, Windsor 12th July 1879
12. Victoria Diary, 22 December 1881.
13 Victoria Diary, Florence (Villa Palieri). 19th April 1888
14. "Courts in exile: Bourbons, Bonapartes and Orléans in London, from George III to Edward VII" Philip Mansel in A history of the French in London, ed Debra Kelly & Martyn Cornick, p 118. Institute of Historical Research (London 2013)
15. Victoria Diary 4th June 1886 & 22 November 1900.

Queen Victoria, Count Walewski and a Famous Painting

Napoleon at Fontainebleau, 31 March 1814 Paul Delaroche

There appear to be a number of versions of Delaroche's painting of Napoleon's first abdication. One has been in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris since 1954. (1) Another resides in the Royal Collection.

In 1852 the painting was viewed at Windsor by Alexandre Walewski (1810-1868), Napoleon's natural son, now French emissary to the Court of St James. Victoria entertained Walewski and his wife a few days after the British Government had officially recognised Louis Napoleon as Emperor of the French!

The Walewskis & Lord Malmesbury to dinner, the Count, sitting next to me. He was very amiable & talkative, speaking immediately, & in great admiration, of the fine picture we have here of Napoleon at Fontainebleau, by P. Delaroche. The Counts own likeness to Napoleon is very striking, & if there was a doubt of the relationship, the fact of his appearance is an infallible proof. (2)

Alexandre Walewski (1810-1858)

Queen Victoria got to know Walewski and his second wife very well. In the early year things were rather strained. She was concerned that Lord Palmerston had expressed his approval to Walewski of the coup in which Louis Napoleon had seized power, which cost Palmerston his job. She also refused to give her support to the proposed marriage of Napoleon III to her niece, Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

In her diary she commented on Walewski's lack of tact, and later described him as a rogue when he appeared to criticise Napoleon III, for whom after a rather hostile start, the Queen came to develop a surprisingly close attachment.(3) She also was very well aware of Walewski's relationship with the promiscuous actress Rachel, who had a few years earlier borne him a daughter:

The latter was full of awkward "mal à propas", being famous for want of tact. He is most anxious our Fleets should have an opportunity of acting together, — enquired after the Orléans family, — spoke of Rachel, whose former liaison with him is notorious! &c(4)

A year or two later, during the Crimean War,in which the two great enemies were for the first time allies, Victoria entertained Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie, with whom she was to forge a long lasting friendship. The meeting was a great success, but Victoria could not help appreciate the irony of entertaining a nephew of Napoleon:

Then dancing began, I, dancing a Quadrille with the Emperor, Albert opposite, with the Empress. This was followed by a Reel, in which Vicky danced very nicely, then a Valse which the Emperor asked her to dance with him, & which frightened her very much, &c — Really to think of a Gd Daughter of George IIIrd, dancing with the nephew of our great enemy, the Empr Napoleon now my most firm Ally, in the Waterloo Gallery, — is incredible! And this Ally was only 6 years ago, an exile in England, poor, & not at all thought of! The Emperor led me in to supper & Albert, the Empress. Her manner is the most perfect thing I ever saw, so gentle, graceful & kind, & so modest & retiring. All was over by ½ p. 12. Vicky behaved extremely well, making beautiful curtseys & was much praised by the Emperor & Empress, about whom she raves.(5)

A few months later Victoria was in Paris, the first British monarch to go there for four centuries, and whilst there paid her respects before the tomb of the "Great Napoleon"!


----------------------------------------------
1. The Musée de l'Armée version, was bought by the Liverpool industrialist John Naylor, and was for years part of the Naylor Collection in Wales. An article published by theNapoleon Foundation says it was bought and donated to the Museum by Francis Howard, the Founder of the Grosvenor Art Gallery in London, a European educated American, the great grandson of Benjamin Franklin.
2. Queen Victoria's Diary, 9th December 1852. DNA has now confirmed Victoria's judgement that Walewski did descend from the male Bonaparte line.
3. Diary, 10th June 1853, 4th September 1859.
4. Diary 10th June 1853.
5. Diary 17th April 1855.

Princes Caroline Murat: A Bonaparte in Suffolk

Memorial to Princess Caroline Laetitia Murat (1833-1902), Grand Niece of Napoleon, Ringsfield Church, Suffolk

This remarkable memorial was erected to commemorate Caroline Laetitia Murat, granddaughter of Joachim Murat and Caroline Bonaparte, sister of the Emperor Napoleon. After the fall of the Second Empire and the death of her first husband, Princess Caroline married a wealthy Englishman, John Lewis Garden, and spent her last years in a grand house in a tiny village in Suffolk.

Italianate Angels on the Memorial at Ringsfield Church

She was born to an American mother in the United States, where her father Lucien Charles Joseph Napoleon, Prince Murat, had been exiled along with other members of the Bonaparte family. After the 1848 Revolution she and her family returned to France and became part of the inner circle of the Second Empire. Her sister, the Duchess of Mouchie was close to the Empress Eugenie, her younger brother Achille accompanied Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian war and was imprisoned with him after the defeat at Sedan. Caroline herself had apparently in 1849 been considered a suitable wife for the much older Louis Napoleon, by his English mistress Miss Howard.(1)

Princess Caroline Murat

In 1850 she married the diplomat Charles de Chassiron (1818-1871) and they had one son, Guy de Chassiron (1863-1932). In 1870 following the defeat by Prussia, Caroline's mother and other members of her family fled to England in the company of Mr Garden, a wealthy English friend of her brother Achille. Mr Garden also obtained a passport for her and her young son, and she soon joined them. The mysterious Mr Garden meanwhile went to Prussia to visit the imprisoned Emperor Napoleon and his companion Achille Murat, and in 1872, a year after her first husband's death, Caroline and he were married. They quickly had two daughters, Eugenie Caroline (1873-1951) and Frances Harriet Doucha (1874-1970). (2)

Redisham Hall in Suffolk, the family home of John Lewis Garden (1833-1892) and his wife Caroline Murat.

Caroline Murat's memoirs reveal little about her private life, but give an insight into the highly privileged, titled and perhaps entitled world in which the Bonapartes moved in France and in England. They are of course the reflections of a woman nearing the end of her life and looking back with sadness and maybe some regret on what she regarded as a golden period for her and probably France:

days of glory, of luxury, of love, of folly; with no looking back, with no looking forward - the retreat from Moscow - the life and death of the King of Rome - the battle of Waterloo - the sad drama of St. Helena - all, but forgotten, disappeared in one round of triumphal glory and pleasure (3)

At the centre of the English connections in the early years was the aforementioned Miss Howard, Louis Napoleon's mistress whom he had met at the home of Lady Blessington in 1846. Her circle included a number of Dukes and Earls as well as Count d'Orsay.(4)

As the Empire drew to its close we learn that the Empress Eugenie and Princess Caroline's sister sent their jewels for safekeeping to Mr Gladstone, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Then after the Empress's flight from France the Duke of Hamilton went in his own yacht to France to retrieve some of the her possesions from the Tuileries. Then we find the Princess writing to her cousin, Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, whose candidature for the throne of Spain was the ostensible reason for the fatal war between France and Prussia, to get him to intercede to prevent Prussian soldiers vandalising her property in occupied France. (5)

What comes over very clearly is that Princess Caroline had little respect for the Empress Eugenie, the wife and widow of Napoleon III, "an influence always so sinister for France", whom she appeared at least partially to blame for the fall of the second Empire. (6) Neverthess she named her first daughter after her, and asked her to become godmother. This was refused because her daughter was not being baptised into the Catholic faith.

She also criticised the Spanish born Empress for the Prince Imperial's funeral which was attended by Queen Victoria:

if she had one drop of our blood in her veins no English flag would have covered his coffin, no English princes would have carried him to his grave. (7)

Memoirs of Caroline Murat, published posthumously in 1910

Neither did Caroline have much love for England. She loved her home, but after the glitter of Paris she was unsurprisingly unimpressed with Suffolk and its people, "perhaps the most stupid of English counties." (8) She loved her English daughters, but couldn't forgive the country for the ills the Bonaparte family and France had suffered at its hands. Her last few words though were reserved for the former Empress Eugenie, who once had rebuffed a criticism from Princess Caroline's mother with,

Ah! ma cousine, vous etes Louis Seize - n'oubliez pas que je suis Louis Quatorze

"In those few words", she commented, "we may read the history of the Second Empire and its reverses."(9)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Whether Caroline was informed of this at time is unclear. She was only 16 and says she would not have entertained the idea. Princess Caroline Murat, My Memoirs, New York 1910, pp 211-212
2. John Lewis Garden(1833-1892) was born at Redisham Hall. It was originally an Elizabethan mansion which his grandfather, John Garden, a wealthy Londoner purchased in 1808, demolished and then rebuilt in the classical style then fashionable amongst England's upper classes. It was completed in 1823, after his death, when the house passed to John Garden (1796-1854), who was depicted as a child in a Hoppner painting. See also the description of the painting now in the New York Metropolitan Museum. J.L. Garden had the house re-fronted in 1880.

He was educated at Eton and Trinity College Cambridge, but didn't graduate. He is listed as serving with the East Indian Company. He is sometimes mentioned as a big game hunter, and during his marriage to Princess Caroline he spent over a year away on a game hunt with his younger brother. My Memoirs p. 286-7.
3. My Memoirs p. 48.
4. My Memoirs pp. 211-212.
5. The Duke of Hamilton was married to Louis Napoleon's cousin, Princess Marie Amelie of Baden. My Memoirs pp. 235, 215-7,214, 358.
6. My Memoirs pp. 179, 183-4, 305.
7. My Memoirs p. 334
8. My Memoirs p. 256
9. My Memoirs p. 340

July 1879, A Great Victorian Spectacle: The Funeral of the Prince Imperial

Prince Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte (1856-1879)

Little is now remembered of Napoleon IV, but his premature death rocked Victorian England and led to a remarkable outpouring of public sympathy. The Illustrated London News felt it important enough to merit a special edition.

The Prince Imperial's body being transported back to England

Prince Louis Napoleon, the Prince Imperial came to live in England in 1870 after his father Napoleon III was overthrown following defeat and capture by Prussia at the battle of Sedan. The young Prince's mother Princess Eugenie had to flee from the Paris Commune, and joined him in a hotel in Hastings. They then settled in Chislehurst where Napoleon III joined them six months later when he was freed by the Prussians.

In the summer of 1872 the young prince was admitted to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. After the death of his father in January 1873 he technically became Napoleon IV, although he never used the title himself. In 1879 he went out with the British Army to South Africa to act as an observer in the Zulu War. Despite the efforts of the British military, under strict orders to shield him from danger, a reconnaissance party he had joined was ambushed by a group of Zulu warriors and he was killed.

Painting by Paul Jamin portraying death of Prince Imperial in South Africa

The Prince Imperial's death was both tragic and highly embarrassing, particularly to Queen Victoria, by origin a German princess whose sympathies with the newly unified and triumphant Germany were well known, and who against the wishes of the young man's mother and against the advice of her Prime Minister had given the young prince permission to go to South Africa.

The Prince's body was transported back to England, and his funeral took place in a small Catholic church in Chislehurst in July 1879. The procession was witnessed by some 40,000 people. It must have been one of the largest seen in Victorian England.

This was an extraordinary event, or at least so it seems to modern eyes: the funeral of a 23 year old prince from a parvenu and twice ousted French dynasty, attended by royalty, representatives of the Cabinet, foreign dignitaries, members of the Catholic hierarchy and British military top brass.

The Catholic journal, The Tablet, waxed lyrical:

When it is said that seven batteries of the Royal Horse and Royal Artillery, with both their bands, mounted and unmounted, and that the 5th Royal Irish Lancers, all took part in the procession, it may easily be imagined that for one hour it slowly defiled along. The boom of the minute guns and the tolling of the church bells were all, save the mournful music, that broke the silence of the scene. Sorrow sat on the faces of all the crowd, who, grieving for the dead, mourned still more for his Imperial mother, for they recalled "that he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow."(1)

Queen Victoria herself was in attendance, having previously made the tearful journey to Chislehurst to comfort Princess Eugenie. Victoria was fascinated by death, but royal protocol prevented her from attending the funerals of mere commoners, but this was different.

What is more the Prince Imperial was apparently her godson, although she had not actually attended the christening at Notre Dame in 1856, but had been represented by Josephine, Queen Consort of Sweden and Norway. The granddaughter of the Empress Josephine, a Catholic monarch in a Lutheran country, representing the Protestant grandmother of the future Kaiser Wilhelm II at a Catholic funeral in France: what a strange cosmopolitan world nineteenth century Royalty inhabited! This seems to be incorrect - see comment below

Royal pall Bearers at funeral of Prince Imperial

The Tablet emphasized the Royal connections:

The Prince of Wales wears the uniform of the Norfolk Artillery Militia, the Duke of Edinburgh that of the Scottish capital from which he takes his title, the Duke of Connaught of the Isle of Wight Artillery. The Duke of Cambridge wears the uniform of a Field Marshal; Prince Leopold that of an Elder Brother of the Trinity House, and the Crown Prince of Sweden, the great grandson of Bernadotte, the white tunic and quaint brass helmet of the cavalry of the Swedish Guards. In front of the carriage two artillerymen support an enormous wreath of violets, the offering of the City of Paris; on the Union Jack which totally covers the coffin lies a gilt laurel wreath placed there by the kindly hand of the Queen herself, and a violet cross formed of porcelain, the tribute of the Princess Beatrice. (1)

In the funeral procession was an unidentified old man who apparently had been present at the funeral of Napoleon I on St. Helena and more recently at the funeral of Napoleon III. Among the members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who attended was a Catholic Bishop, Monseigneur Las Cases, formerly Bishop of Constantine in Algeria, and a relative of the author of the Memorial de Ste. Helene.

There was of course a full turnout of the Bonaparte family and their supporters, including actress Sarah Bernhardt, the slight figure in deep mourning, amongst a group of brother and sister artistes of the Comedie Francaise. Among all the floral tributes was an enormous wreath of bay leaves, carried with difficulty by five men. This came from Ajaccio, in Corsica, from the cradle of the first to lie at the tomb of the last of the Napoleons (2).

There were two memorials to the Prince Imperial in Chislehurst, where he was apparently much loved. The main memorial bears words taken from his will:

I shall die with a sentiment of profound gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen of England and all the Royal Family, and for the country where I have received for eight years such cordial hospitality

There is more surprisingly another in the chapel at Windsor.

Monument to the Prince Imperial (Napoleon IV), Chapel of St. George, Windsor Castle, 1881

This was initially suggested by the Dean of Westminster, but the British establishment felt that a memorial to a member of an exiled French dynasty ought not to appear in Westminster Abbey, and that it should more appropriately be located at Windsor to show the personal and private affection of the Royal Family towards the Prince Imperial. (3)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. The Tablet

2. The Tablet, op. cit.

3. Chapel Archives and Chapter Library, Windsor

Chatsworth: The 6th Duke, Canova, Madame Mère & Paolina Borghese

Letizia Bonaparte and me

The main object of my visit to Chatsworth was to look again at Canova's imposing sculpture of Napoleon's mother, Letizia Bonaparte. Sculpted at the height of her son's power, it was purchased in Paris by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1818, when Letizia had been exiled to Rome and her son was languishing on St Helena.

In 1823 on one of his frequent visits to Rome where his step mother lived, the 6th Duke met Madame Mère, and wrote in a letter : "I am growing particular with Madame Mère. She scolds long and loud about the statue which she says they had no right to sell nor I to buy." He said that the statue was very like the old lady, who had a "very stately walk and her whole appearance is miraculous for a woman of 80."

Here also is Canova's large, much admired bust of Napoleon,



inherited by the Duke from his step mother, and flanked in the sculpture gallery by the seated figures of his mother



unhappy mother of the greatest son - Lord Holland

and his favourite sister, the exquisitely beautiful and loyal Paolina, shown looking at a portrait of her brother.


This sculpture was commisioned by the Duke and executed by the Rome based Scottish sculptor, Thomas Campbell (1790 -1858). Pauline collaborated willingly with Campbell, and allowed him to take casts from her hands and feet which were apparently of perfect form, and which he cast into bronze! Their whereabouts is unknown to me.


Opposite is a bust of another emperor and a ruler much admired by Napoleon, Alexander the Great, and close by is a Canova bust of Letizia which the Duke thought better than the head on the larger seated figure.




The sculpture gallery comes at the end of the tour, and for that reason perhaps not all visitors give it the attention it deserves. Even Albert and I missed some Napoleonic relics: medals made for Napoleon from the famous Elba iron that were given to the Duke by Paolina, apparently set into the rear panel of the pedestal of one of the statues; the bracelet Paolina wore when mourning her brother’s death, used to disguise a fracture in the wrist of Thorvaldsen’s Venus.

Finally a comment by Alison Yarrington, who advised Chatsworth in the project to restore the sculpture gallery to its original conception

These Napoleonic associations were also carried on the air at Chatsworth that was seasonally perfumed by the four orange trees from the Empress Josephine’s collection at Malmaison planted in the Orangery. The scent of these and other rare specimens scented the whole of Chatsworth with their blossoms. (1)

The 6th Duke and Paolina Borghese

Just before the entrance to the Sculpture Gallery there is currently an exhibition about the 6th Duke. In it is a copy of Lefèvre's portrait of Paolo Borghese, Napoleon's favourite sister, friend and perhaps lover of the 6th Duke.


Pauline Borghese (1780 – 1825)

Pauline was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world. Twice married and once widowed, she was the sole member of Napoleon's family to accompany him to Elba, where she used her own fortune to support him and his followers when Louis XVIII failed to pay the money promised in the Treaty of Fontainebleau.

During Napoleon's exile to St Helena she received visits in Rome from a number of Whigs who were receptive to her complaints about his treatment. When she heard of Napoleon's last illness on St Helena she wrote a letter to the English Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, to which she never received a reply, and she was making plans to go to St Helena when news reached her of her brother's death.

By the time she met the 6th Duke, Paolina was separated from her husband, Prince Camillo Borghese (1775-1832), although she was to be reconciled with him shortly before her death. The 6th Duke never married but had a number of romantic liaisons, and it seems highly probable that he was the last of Paolina's long line of lovers.

---------------------------------------------------------------

1. Under Italian skies, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, Canova and the formation of the Sculpture Gallery at Chatsworth House. This is an excellent study of the Duke's passion for marble and his admiration of Canova, the most talented, the most simple, and most noble-minded of mankind, as he later described him.

Napoleon and the Swedish Royal Family: Interesting post on "My Napoleon Obsession"

Carmi on "My Napoleon Obsession" writes a delightful blog. All her posts are brief and visually attractive.

The latest Stunning Cameo Tiara, is about the tiara recently worn by the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria at her wedding.

This tiara has been in the Swedish Royal family since the early nineteenth century.

It was apparently originally given by Napoleon to the Empress Joséphine, and passed into the hands of her grandaughter, Josephine of Leuchtenberg (Joséphine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone,1807– 1876). (1)

In 1823 Joséphine and her jewelry came to Sweden when she married Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte (1799-1859), who also happened to be Napoleon's godson. In 1844, on the death of his father Jean Bernadotte, Joseph became Oscar I of Sweden and Norway.

Jean Bernadotte (Charles XIV of Sweden and from 1818 Carl III Johan of Norway ), had of course been one of Napoleon's marshalls.

Bernadotte's wife and Joseph's mother was none other than Desirée Clary, Napoleon's first love to whom he had at one point been engaged.

Desirée's sister married Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte.

What a complicated set of relationships!

When Joséphine arrived in Sweden in 1823 the name Napoléone was removed, but the Swedes kept the jewels! If ever they wished to sell them I think they would fetch a tidy sum.

It always amazes me how the European Royal Families all seem connected either to Queen Victoria and/or the Empress Josephine.

Anyway thanks to Carmi for another interesting post.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Her father was Eugène de Beauharnais, The Empress's son by her first marriage. Her mother was Princess Augusta of Bavaria. Through her mother Joséphine was also a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden, Charles IX of Sweden and of Christian II of Denmark.

Two Bonaparte Princes and the Actress: Whatever Happened on the Train to Manchester?

It is August 1847.

The celebrated French tragédienne Rachel ( Elisabeth Rachel Félix,1821-1858) has just finished four highly acclaimed performances at the St. James Theatre in London.

Everybody who is anybody has seen her - including Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington, and Prince Louis Napoleon. The latter, one of her numerous lovers, is soon to return to France and assume the title of Napoleon III.

So, after her London success, Rachel is now headed on the train to Manchester to make her debut in the English provinces.

Accompanying her are Louis Napoleon and his cousin Prince Napoléon.

Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, 1822-1891

- who according to some bears a physical resemblance to his more famous uncle

- but is to acquire during the Crimean War the rather unflattering nickname for a Bonaparte of "Plon Plon" (derived from Craint-plon - fear of bullets).

Picture the scene in the carriage.

Rachel and Louis Napoleon begin the journey sitting together. Prince Napoléon sits opposite. The three have the carriage to themselves.

Louis Napoleon apparently falls asleep, so what else is Rachel to do but go and sit beside his cousin?

Unfortunately Louis Napoleon is not asleep.

For some time, through half shut eyes, he watches Rachel and his cousin kiss and cuddle.

He then begins to simulate the process of awakening.

By the time he is fully "awake" Rachel is back sitting beside him, and Prince Napoléon is examining the English countryside through the carriage window as avidly as if he has never seen trees before.

Louis Napoleon says nothing, but he is irritated by the duplicity. He stays in Manchester one night only, and returns to London the following day. That appears to have been the end of that particular affair (1)

Rachel at the Theatre Royal

Rachel's destination was Manchester's new Theatre Royal, with its white marble sculpture of Shakespeare on the facade. (2)

The theatre still stands, although it has lost its former glory.

In recent decades it has been variously cinema, bingo hall and night club.

Hopefully better times await it again.

A refurbishment costing £150 million has been announced, and when completed it will be the new home of the Manchester Library Theatre Company.

Presumably 160 years of grime will be removed from the Shakespeare sculpture and the marble will be revealed again.

Back to August 1847.

Rachel appeared on four nights in four different plays: Les Horaces, Phèdre,Virginie and Jeanne d'Arc .

In those days two or even three plays were performed on the same night, and on occasion Rachel would be taking her final curtain call not much before midnight.

On her final benefit night her sister, Mademoiselle Dinah Felix, made an appearance, reciting "Le Chene et le Roseau" and "La Belete". One wonders what the good merchants of Manchester made of that.

Rachel's performances were a resounding artistic success.

The Observer said there was no mistaking here the presence of the highest histrionic genius.

The Examiner noted the

enthusiasm of the audience, both during the course and at the close of the performance, when Rachel was called for and received with showers of bouquets.

The Manchester Guardian contrasted French actors favourably with English actors:

English actors think it sufficient to know what to say on the stage, French actors learn what to say and what to do.

Those attending were apparently able to buy scripts of the plays being performed with French and English in parallel lines, but despite this the size of the audiences was a disappointment. The Courier noted that for one performance the dress circle (10/6) the pit stalls (5/-) and the pit (3/-) were full, but the upper circle (5/-) gallery (2/-) and upper gallery (1/-) contained no more than 50 people.

The Manchester Times , with characteristic Victorian optimism, had expected that

our Athenæum, our Mechanics' Institute, and other educational institutions, would have been preparing, through their language classes, large numbers who could have understood and enjoyed a performance of this nature.

One wonders how many today would turn out to watch a play performed in French. I don't think it would need a very large theatre!

Rachel was followed by Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale". Miss Lind commanded an enormous fee for her appearances at the Theatre Royal, and had no trouble filling it. For her the best seats were priced at £1-11s-6d - three times the cost of seats for the French plays. (3)

On one night she was indisposed and the performance was postponed twenty four hours. The news was communicated to various stations on the line of railway by means of the electric telegraph. (4)

As always Manchester was at the cutting edge of technology.

Update 25/11/2010

I understand that plans to house the Library Theatre in the old Theatre Royal building have had to be shelved because of the high cost of renovation. A pity, but I can't say that I am surprised. I wonder what will happen to the building now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Roman Golicz The English Life of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: The Life of Napoleon III in the context of Anglo-French Relations - available online.

2. This was the third Theatre Royal - the previous two were burnt down - a common occurrence given the dependence on candle light. The insurers insisted that the new Theatre Royal had a huge tank containing thousands of gallons of water installed over the stage. My thanks to Roy Rogers for this and other insights into the surprising history of Manchester Theatre

3. Rachel should have learned lessons from her and Jenny Lind's differing receptions in Manchester. Hearing that Jenny Lind had made 2 million francs on an American visit, Rachel followed her there, with predictably poor results. "Music is enjoyed by human beings everywhere, while French classical plays, even though acted by a genius like Rachel, could be rightly understood only by a French- speaking people." Famous Affinities of History by Lyndon Orr, The Story of Rachel

4. Manchester Theatre Royal Playbills, May-Sept 1847. Arts Library, Manchester Central Library. Unfortunately this excellent collection, which contains press cuttings as well as playbills, will soon be unavailable to researchers for three or four years while the library is being renovated.

Madame Récamier: The Lady who said No

Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard Récamier (1777 -1849), perhaps the most celebrated beauty of her age.

Born in Lyons, she married Monsieur Récamier in 1793. She was 15 and he was 42.

It was never more than a formal marriage. Some believe that her husband was in fact her natural father, and that he married her simply to ensure that she should inherit his wealth in the uncertain times of the Revolution.

She was painted by David and sculpted by Canova.

She entranced Napoleon and Wellington in turn, and turned them both down. (1)

She has given her name to the reclining sofa on which she was painted by David.



I myself came across her by a rather circuitous route. A Christmas present introduced me to W.G. Sebald. In his Rings of Saturn I discovered the sad tale of Charlotte Ives and the French writer Chateaubriand whom the young Charlotte fell in love with while he was exiled in Bungay (which happened to be my father's home town) during the French Revolution. I moved on to Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'outre-tombe, and this led me to his close friend Madame Récamier, and so back to Napoleon, to whom so many roads always seem to lead.

Madame Récamier and Napoleon

Madame Récamier met Napoleon twice only. In December 1797 she was present when the Directory honoured him on his triumphant return from Italy. She stood while everyone else was seated to get a better view; the crowd murmured, presumably at her beauty; Napoleon turned and gave her a harsh look; she sat down. It seems that he never forgot her.

In 1799 she met Lucien Bonaparte who often visited her at her home in Clichy. Lucien became besotted with her and pursued her unsuccessfully; he wrote her letters from "Romeo to Juliette" !

Her next meeting with Napoleon was at function given by Lucien. She was pleasantly surprised by him and felt that the simplicity of his manners was in contrast to Lucien's.

She was struck by the tenderness he showed towards his niece: While he was talking with persons about him, he held the hand of Lucien's little daughter, a child of four years, whom he at last forgot. The child, tired of her captivity, began to cry. "Ah. pauvre petite!" he exclaimed, in a tone of regret, "I had forgotten thee." (2)

When Lucien approached, Napoleon said, And I too would like to go to Clichy. Fouché, Napoleon's Chief of Police, told her The First Consul thinks you charming.

At dinner, after she had failed to take the vacant seat beside him, Napoleon loudly described her as the most beautiful, and after dinner he came up to her and asked

Why did you not take the seat next to me?

I should not have presumed she replied.

It was your place, he said.

At the after dinner concert he made her uncomfortable by staring at her, and afterwards he approached her: You are very fond of music, madame?. Then Lucien appeared and Napoleon moved away.

A friend of Napoleon's liberal critic Madame de Stael, Madame Récamier turned against Napoleon when he exiled the latter, and her salon was seen as a centre of opposition. Nevertheless she remained on cordial terms with Napoleon's sisters Maria (Madame Bacciocchi ) and Caroline (the Queen of Naples, wife of Murat).

In 1805 Fouché and Caroline Bonaparte tried to get her to accept a position at court, probably in part to counter the influence of Josephine. Fouché told her: since the day he [Napoleon] first met you, he has never forgotten you; and though he complains that you have ranged yourself among his enemies, he does not blame you, but your friends. (3) Around this time she twice accepted an offer to use Caroline's box at the theatre; by coincidence or otherwise Napoleon was present both times and fixed his spy glass on her.

Fouché was very angry when she turned the offer down.

Exiled in 1811-1814, she visited the King and Queen of Naples (Murat and Caroline Bonaparte) as the empire was tottering. On the way she met Fouché who was also headed to Naples to try to keep Murat and Caroline on Napoleon's side. She was there when Murat told his wife that he had sided with Austria and England. Later, whilst the defeated Napoleon was on his way to Elba, she was called back to Naples by Caroline, and stayed with her several days.

On Napoleon's short lived return to Paris in 1815 she decided not to flee.

She received a note from Hortense, Napoleon's step daughter, saying she hoped she would not leave Paris: You may trust to me to take care of your interests. I am convinced that I will not even have occasion to show you how delighted I should be to be useful to you. (4)

She also received a letter from Caroline offering her refuge in Naples. In the event she had nothing to fear. Napoleon himself got her close friend, fervent admirer and formerly strong critic of the Emperor, Benjamin Constant, to draft the new constitution.


Madame Récamier and Wellington


During the restoration in 1814 she met Wellington at Madame de Stael's. She also introduced him to Queen Hortense, Napoleon's step daughter, who at that stage was supporting the restoration of the Bourbons.

Wellington was clearly as entranced by Madame Récamier as Napoleon had been. He wrote a number of letters to her including this on June 13th 1814:

.. every time I see you, I leave more deeply impressed with your charms and less disposed to give my attention to politics!!! I shall call upon you tomorrow .. in spite of the effect such dangerous visits have upon me.

He was to call on her again after Waterloo: I have given him a good beating, he said. Despite her opposition to Napoleon she was disgusted by this remark and refused to receive him.

Her account is worth reading:

I see him again after the battle of Waterloo. He calls upon me the day after his return. I did not expect him. My annoyance at this visit. He comes back in the evening and finds my door closed. I refuse also to see him the next day. .. They say he is very much taken up with a young English lady, wife of one of his aides-de-camp.

Dinner at the Queen of Sweden's with her [de Stael] and the Duke of Wellington, whom I then see again. His coolness to me; his attention to the young English lady. I am placed at dinner between him and the Duke de Broglie. He is sullen at the beginning of dinner, but grows animated, and finishes by being very agreeable. I perceive the annoyance of the young English lady seated opposite us. .. I see the Duke of Wellington very seldom. (5)

-------------------------------------------------------------
Notes

1. Strange that Napoleon and Wellington seemed to be attracted to the same women. They shared at least two mistresses, the actress Mlle George, who has appeared in this blog on other occasions, and who apparently offered to accompany Napoleon to St Helena, and the Italian contralto, Giuseppina Grassini.

2. Memoirs and correspondence of Madame Récamier   Translated from the French and Edited by By Isaphene M. Luyster p. 18-19.

3. Memoirs p. 52

4. Memoirs p. 111

5. Memoirs p. 106

Rachel: "I prefer renters to owners"

Elisabeth Rachel Félix, French tragédienne, 1821-1858

- first a great Jewess, second a great actress, and third a great lover (1)


- two sons and no husband, innumerable lovers, a million and a quarter francs, and a reputation as a tragic actress which has never been overshadowed (2)

She was born in Switzerland to travelling pedlars.

A slight Piaf like figure, she was spotted with her sister when they were sent to sing and recite in Paris cafes.

She appeared at the Théâtre-Français at the age of 17, and soon reached the top of her profession.

She performed in London and was received by Queen Victoria; she also toured Belgium, Holland, Prussia, Russia and latterly the United States.

But for my research on the Bertrand family I probably would never have come across Rachel, nor James Agate who, in a characteristic turn of phrase, remarks that ambition sent her rummaging among imperial debris. (3)

Indeed, among her many lovers were Napoleon III, Napoleon's natural son, the then widowed Count Walewski (with whom she had a son, Alexandre Antoine Colonne Walewski 1844-1898) and Prince Napoleon (Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte). But that was not all.

Rachel and the Belle Poule

She also had relationships with two members of the Belle Poule expedition that brought Napoleon's body back to France in 1840. First was the leader of the expedition, the Prince of Joinville (1818-1900), son of Louis Philippe, who sent Rachel a visiting card on which he had written:

Ou? - Quand? - Combien?

Her reply was equally short and to the point:

Chez toi - Ce soir. - Pour rien.

More significant was her relationship with Arthur Bertrand, who had been born on St Helena in 1817, and as a young child had been a favourite of Napoleon in his latter years. Arthur returned to St Helena with his father to get Napoleon's body in 1840. His mother had died a few years earlier.

Agate describes Arthur thus:

the gambler broken at twenty-two, with a baby face which could blush as easily as a girl's and the habit of borrowing from his mistresses the money to pay his debts. (4)

At the age of 17 Arthur had begun a relationship with the comedienne Pauline-Virginie Déjazet, who was 36. His mother Fanny approved of this relationship, and had sent her another of those locks of Napoleon's hair! This affair appears to have lasted until he met Rachel in 1840.

Arthur's relationship with Rachel lasted after a fashion for eight years. They had a son Gabriel Victor Felix who was born in 1848. Unlike Count Walewski, Arthur never acknowledged the son as his. He never married and died in 1871. Gabriel fought in the Franco-German war, and died in 1889 in Brazzaville where he was serving as the French Consul .

Rachel and Mlle George

Mlle George, herself a leading actress, and the former lover of Napoleon and Wellington had by the 1840's fallen on hard times, so she went to see Rachel to ask her to perform in a benefit. Rachel refused to see her, but asked her to write instead, to which Mlle George responded:

I have been as big an actress as Rachel and as great
a whore. It's true that I'm starving, that I owe ten francs to my porter, that I've sold the Emperor's diamonds to my pawnbroker ..But I will not write to Rachel.(5)

In the event Rachel did agree to appear at the benefit, but on stage the older actress deliberately set out to humiliate the young pretender. Most of the audience hissed Rachel, and she left the theatre without even taking a curtain call!

Rachel's Waterloo

Rachel's final tour was to the United States. It was not a success. American audiences had little appreciation of French tragedy, and her health was failing. She moved on to Havana from where in 1855 she wrote using Napoleonic imagery:

Thus it comes about that I must bring my poor routed army back to the Seine. It is in my mind that I am coming home to die and, like Napoleon, shall come to the Invalides to demand a stone whereon to lay my head." (6)

On her return she wrote to a journalist denying that she was going to marry:

I am thirty-two, my face tells me I am fifty, and we won't say anything about the rest. Eigthteen years of classical tirades, scamperings from one end of the world to the other, retreats from Moscow and betrayals at Waterloo .. (7)

She made her last journey on Prince Napoleon's yacht from Marseilles to le Cannet. She died of consumption in 1858. Despite rumours to the contrary she remained a Jewess, although she had had both her sons baptised as Catholics.

So ends my rummaging amongst the imperial debris. Others may wish to explore the Walewski/Felix descendants on the family website.

----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES

1. James Agate, Rachel (NY/London 1924, Reissued 1969) p. 14. Agate was a distinguished British theatre critic in the first half of the twentieth century. This book is clearly the product of a less politically correct age e.g. " a Jewess she was to her bone and marrow, a Jewess in the worst and the best sense." (p. 91)
2. Agate p 15
3. Agate p. 81.
4. Agate p. 79.
5. Agate p. 75
6. Agate p 86.
7. Agate p. 87

Jerome's Other Family: The American Bonapartes

Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879).

Daughter of a wealthy Baltimore merchant of Irish extraction.

The first wife of Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme.

Noted for her somewhat immodest attire in a rather puritanical country.


As a young officer in the French Navy, Jérôme decided to leave his ship in the Caribbean to visit the United States.

As the brother of Napoleon, he found that doors opened easily to him. He called on President Jefferson, attended a ball in Baltimore, and fell in love with Elizabeth.

They soon decided to marry, and did so on Christmas Eve 1803. He was nineteen and she eighteen.

Napoleon refused to recognise the marriage. He had other plans for Jérôme.

Over a year later they set out for Europe. Jérôme landed in Portugal and set off for Rome to try to persuade his brother to change his mind. Elizabeth proceeded to Amsterdam but on the orders of the Emperor was prevented from landing. She went instead to London where she gave birth to their son, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte (July 5, 1805 – June 17, 1870). She never saw he husband again. (1)

Napoleon annulled the marriage and Jérôme duly married Catharina of Wurttemberg in 1807. Elizabeth returned with her son to Baltimore, and in 1808 refused a request from Jérôme to send her son to him.

She was divorced by a Special decree of the Maryland Assembly in 1815. She never remarried: she enjoyed her status as sister in law to the Great Napoleon, and made a personal fortune out of property. After 1815 she returned to Europe, where she spent many years. She felt happier amongst society in Europe, although she spent her later years back in Maryland.(2) She outlived her son.

Despite his mother's efforts to persuade him otherwise, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the United States, married an American and had two sons. Both attained distinction in very different walks of life.

The eldest, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (November 5, 1830 – September 3, 1893) studied at West Point , then resigned from the U.S. army to serve in the army of Napoleon III of France, and fought in the Crimean War. He received military decorations from France, Britain and Turkey. In 1871, after the fall of the Second Empire, he returned to the United States and married Caroline Le Roy Appleton Edgar. They had a daughter Louise-Eugénie Bonaparte (1873-1923), who married Count Adam Carl von Moltke-Huitfeld (1864-1944), and a son Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (see below).





The second and much younger son, Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921), was a lawyer and municipal reformer, and served in the cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt.

He first served as United States Secretary of the Navy (1905-1906), quite appropriate for a grandson of Jérôme.

He then became Attorney General (1906-1909), and was responsible for setting up the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner of the FBI. He had no children.

The Last of the Line: Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (1878-1945)

Jerome-Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, inherited enough wealth so that he never needed to work or practice a profession. In 1921 he was apparently offered the Albanian crown, but he even turned that down, although he was not the only one to do so!

He died on November 10, 1945 in New York.

He was walking his wife's dog in Central Park and tripped over its leash. So ended the American Bonaparte male line.


---------------------------------------------------------
Notes

1. Betsy was in Florence's Pitti gallery in 1822 when Jérôme and his second wife Catherine walked in. They did not speak.
2. Her brother's widow married Wellington's older brother. In 1908 a play Glorious Betsy , was written about her by Rida Johnson Young; this formed the basis of the film Hearts Divided (1936) starring Marion Davies.

The Bonaparte Dynasty: Napoleon VI

On visiting Longwood House I was curious as to the identity of the distinguished looking couple in this picture. I was told it was Prince Napoleon, photographed with his wife on the occasion of their visit to St Helena. I didn't like to reveal my ignorance and so asked no further questions.

I gave it little further thought, but a recent post on "My Napoleon Obsession" about Marie Bonaparte (1882-1962) made me dig further.

Prince Napoleon turned out to be Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie Bonaparte(1914–1997), a descendant of Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860). He was born in Belgium, as members of the French Royal families were banned from France from 1886. His mother was Princess Clémentine of Belgium, the daughter of Leopold II of Belgium (a cousin of Queen Victoria no less) and Marie Henriette of Austria.

As a small child he had spent some time in England where he stayed with the Empress Eugénie, the widow of Napoleon III. The UK seems to have a soft spot for Kings and Emperors, and they all seem related to Queen Victoria! As a young adult he joined the Foreign Legion, fought with the French resistance, and was officially allowed back into France by General De Gaulle in 1950.

His claim to the Imperial crown was derived in 1926 from his father, Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (1862–1926). The latter became Napoleon V on the death of Napoleon IV, who had died fighting for the British army against the Zulus in South Africa! His grandfather was Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (1822-1891) who was Napoleon's nephew.

Who then is the current Prince Napoleon?

This is not an easy question, and I am not sure what authority a mere Englishman should turn to for an answer. Suffice it to say that it is either Napoleon VII , Charles Marie Jérôme Victor Napoléon Bonaparte (1950-), who was somewhat controversially disinherited in Napoleon VI's will, or his son, Napoleon VIII, (Jean-Christophe Napoléon (1986-).

Uncle Napoleon

Not one of the best known images of Napoleon.

This picture of him with his nephews and nieces on the terrace at St Cloud was produced in 1810 by Louis Ducis (1775-1847), a student of Jacques-Louis David.

It is one of many reproduced in the Lefebvre book.

I was interested in it because I have a number of times commented on the pleasure which Napoleon derived from the company of children on St. Helena. Those interested should take a look at The Children of Longwood

Art historians would put the picture in a rather different context:

this gender-bent modern allegory of Charity was heart-warming, but also involuntarily somewhat sinister, since it radicalised the idea of the social non-existence of women found in the Code Napoleon - Philippe Bordes, Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile

However, if in reality Napoleon had in fact scarcely any free time to devote to his private life, one element remained to be settled: the future of the dynasty. The Empress Joséphine became sterile, it was necessary however for the Emperor to have an heir. The pictures of Ducis and Pauline Auzou interject then a kind of propaganda showing all the hopes placed by the French in the future of Napoleon. In this sense, they are more than simple scenes of intimacy .. - Jérémie Benôit

Quite coincidentally Napoleon may have enjoyed the company of children!