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Louis Bonaparte
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The French statesman Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), younger brother of Napoleon I, was king of Holland from 1806 to 1810.
Louis Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio, Corsica, on Sept. 2, 1778, the seventh child of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. He received a military education in France, and in 1796 he joined his brother Napoleon in Italy, where he served 2 years with the army. In 1798 he accompanied Napoleon to Egypt as his aide-de-camp. Returning to France in 1799, Louis played no part in the coup d'etat of Brumaire. In 1802 Napoleon and Josephine arranged a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, Josephine's daughter by her first marriage. But the marriage was based on neither love nor mutual respect and proved to be an unhappy experience for both.
Louis showed no aptitude for military life and did not take part in the numerous French campaigns. In 1806 Napoleon placed him on the throne of Holland, but he was never satisfied with his younger brother's actions. The Emperor intended Holland to be a satellite kingdom governed in the best interests of France; Louis, however, chose to defend Holland's national interests. In 1808 Louis was offered the throne of Spain, which he refused; it was subsequently accepted by his brother Joseph. Napoleon's displeasure mounted through 1809-1810 because of Louis's lax enforcement of the continental blockade, which was ruining Dutch trade. Finally, in 1810, after repeated attempts to bring his brother into line, Napoleon sent French troops into Holland and forced Louis to flee to Austria.
Louis had unsuccessfully tried to divorce his wife in 1810; and when he fled the empire, she remained behind with their three sons, the youngest of whom later reigned as Napoleon III. Louis took no further part in the affairs of the French Empire. After his brother's abdication in 1814, he settled permanently in Rome. During the revolutions of 1830 he encouraged the nationalist and liberal factions in Italy and expressed satisfaction that his two sons fought for Italian unity. In 1831 his older son, Napoleon Louis (his firstborn, Napoleon Charles, had died at the age of 5), was killed in battle during the Romagna campaign. His younger son, Charles Louis Napoleon, having assumed the leadership of the Bonaparte cause, was imprisoned in 1840 after two unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the reigning Orléans king. Louis did not live to see his son proclaimed emperor of the French in 1852. He died in Rome on July 25, 1846.
Further Reading
There is no good biography of Louis Bonaparte in English. A. Hilliard Atteridge, Napoleon's Brothers (1909), and R. F. Delderfield, The Golden Millstones: Napoleon's Brothers and Sisters (1964), cover his life completely if not in great depth. The best available work on his unhappy marriage with Hortense de Beauharnais is Denis A. Bingham, The Marriages of the Bonapartes (2 vols., 1881; 2d ed. 1882). See also Alain Decaux, Napoleon's Mother (1959; trans. 1962).
| Wikipedia: Louis Bonaparte |
This article is about the King of Holland. For Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, see Napoleon III.
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| Louis I | |
|---|---|
| King of Holland Comte de Saint-Leu |
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| Reign | June 5, 1806 - July 1, 1810 |
| Coronation | June 5, 1806 |
| Predecessor | None Kingdom created |
| Successor | Louis II of Holland |
| Spouse | Hortense de Beauharnais |
| Issue | |
| Napoleon Charles, Prince Royal Louis II of Holland Napoleon III of France |
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| Full name | |
| Louis Napoleon Bonaparte | |
| Father | Carlo Buonaparte |
| Mother | Letizia Ramolino |
| Born | September 2, 1778 Ajaccio, Corsica |
| Died | July 25, 1846 |
| Burial | Saint-Leu-la-Forêt |
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, King of Holland, Comte de Saint-Leu (Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch) (September 2, 1778 – July 25, 1846) was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, and a brother of Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Early life
Louis was born Luigi Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon I of France, Lucien Bonaparte, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline Bonaparte, Caroline Bonaparte, and Jérôme Bonaparte.
Louis Bonapart's early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in Egypt. Thanks to his oldest brother, Napoleon, Louis was a General by the age of 25, although he himself felt that he had risen too high in too short a time.
Upon Louis's return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory. After becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleon's stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage at first, was persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family, and she did so.
Louis supposedly had a poor mental condition at times, and supposedly suffered from periods of mental illness.[1] Louis's "poor mental condition" may have been periods of depression caused by trying to hide his homosexuality or bisexuality.[2] These periods of depresion or mental instability (nobody knows which) would plague Louis, and through him, Napoleon throughout his life.
As the King of Holland
Napoleon made him the King of Holland on June 5, 1806. Though the older brother, Napoleon, had intended for the younger brother to be little more than a French governor of Holland, Louis took his duties as the King seriously, calling himself Koning Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name), attempting to learn the Dutch language, and trying hard to be a responsible, independent ruler of Holland. Allegedly, when he first arrived in Holland[citation needed], he told the people he was the Konijn van 'Olland ("rabbit of 'Olland"), rather than "Koning van Holland" ("King of Holland"), because his Dutch was not very good by then. However, his attempt at speaking the Dutch language earned him some respect from his subjects.
While in Holland, Louis Bonaparte declared that he was Dutch and renounced his French citizenship[citation needed]. Louis also forced his court and ministers (mostly provided by Napoleon) to speak only Dutch, and also to renounce their French Citizenships. This latter was too much for his wife Hortense who, in France at the time of his demands, refused his request.
Louis could never settle on the location for his capital city while he was in Holland. He changed capitals over a dozen times, trying Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam, and other places. On one occasion, after visiting the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant, he liked the place so much that he had the owner evicted so he could take up residence there. Then, Louis moved again after seven weeks. His constant moving kept the court in upheaval since they had to follow him everywhere. The European diplomatic corps went so far as to petition Bonaparte to remain in one place so they could keep up with him. This restlessness was later attributed to his alleged "lunacy".
Hortense bore Louis's sons Napoleon Charles Bonaparte and Napoleon Louis Bonaparte in Paris, while Louis was in Holland. In 1806, Louis called for his son (which one?) to be sent to him in Holland, but he was again refused by Hortense, who believed that her son would never be returned to France. When Louis appealed to his brother Napoleon for help, Napoleon sided with Hortense. Napoleon kept the boy in his own court, and he even had him named the heir to the French throne prior to the birth of his own son.
Two major tragedies occurred during the reign of Louis Bonaparte: the explosion of a cargo ship loadeded with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in Holland in 1809. In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the moniker of Louis the Good.
Louis Bonaparte's reign of The Netherlands was short-lived, however, which was due to two factors. The first was that Napoleon wanted to reduce the value of French loans from Dutch investors by two-thirds, meaning a serious economic blow to the Netherlands. The second factor was the one that became the pretext for Napoleon's demand of Louis's abdication. As Napoleon was preparing an army for his invasion of Russia, he wanted troops from the entire region under his control, the allied border countries. This included troops from the Netherlands. Louis, confronted by his brother's demand, refused point-blank. Napoleon then accused Louis of putting Dutch interests above those of France, and removed most of the French forces in Holland for the coming war in the east, leaving only about 9,000 garrison soldiers in the country. Unfortunately for Louis, the English landed an army of 40,000 in 1808 in an attempt to capture Antwerp and Flushing. With Louis unable to defend his realm, France sent 80,000 militiamen and successfully repelled the invasion. Napoleon then suggested that Louis should abdicate, citing Louis's inability to protect Holland as a reason. Louis refused. Napoleon finally forcibly removed Louis from the Dutch throne and annexed the entire Kingdom of Holland on 1 July 1810.
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Return to France
Louis Bonaparte also had been made the Count of Saint-Leu[citation needed]. He was appointed as the Constable of France in 1808, a strictly honorary title.
After his Futch kingdom was taken away from him, Louis remained in Holland for nearly three years, and he turned to writing and poetry. Louis wrote to Napoleon after the latter's defeat in Russia to request that the Dutch throne be restored to him. However, Napoleon refused. Louis finally returned to France in 1813, where he remained for the rest of his life.
After the deaths of both Napoleon Bonaparte in 1821, and of his younger brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by the Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although Louis took little action himself to advance the claim. (Louis's son and heir, the future Emperor Napoleon III, on the other hand, was at that time being imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'état).
Louis Bonaparte died on July 25, 1846, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.
Marriage and children
Louis was married on January 4, 1802, to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of thye deceased general Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. Josephine was the first wife of Louis's brother Napoleon. Thus Hortense was also Louis's step-niece.
This marriage had been forced upon them and was rather loveless, though they supposedly consummated it often enough to produce three sons. As a rule, the Bonapartes, with the exception of Napoleon, loathed the Beauharnais. Hortense also certainly had extra-marital lovers.[3]
Hortense de Beauharnais gave birth to three sons which were officially claimed by Louis Bonaparte, despite his own doubts about their paternity:
- Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born 10 November 1802[1], Prince Royal of Holland. When he died on 5 May 1807 at 4½ years of age, his body lay in state at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Ile-de-France.
- Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, born 11 October 1804. Became Prince Royal of Holland on his brother's death, and was King Lodewijk II for one week between his father's abdication and the fall of Holland to Napoleon Bonaparte's invading army. Napoleon Louis Bonaparte died on 17 March 1831, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Île-de-France.
- Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, (1808 - 73). Born in Paris, he was the third and last son, and would become Emperor Napoleon III of France (1852 - 70).
Louis Bonaparte was also supposedly the father of an illegitimate son, François de Castelvecchio, (26 April 1826 – 29 May 1869)[citation needed]. He was born in Rome, Italy and died in Rennes.
See also
References
- ^ Farquhar, Michael (2001). A Treasure of Royal Scandals, p.163. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0739420259.
- ^ McMillan, James (1991). "Napoleon III", p.7. Longman Group United Kingdom Limited, Essex. ISBN 0-582-08333-2.
- ^ McMillan
- Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life, by Alan Schom
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Louis Bonaparte
Born: 2 September 1778 Died: 25 July 1846 |
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| New title | King of Holland 1806–1810 |
Succeeded by Louis II |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by Joseph Bonaparte |
— TITULAR — Emperor of the French 1844–1846 |
Succeeded by Napoléon III |
| — TITULAR — Bonapartist pretender to the French throne Prince Napoléon Line 1844–1846 |
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