How was Napoleon III a liberal conservative and republican?

Answer 1

French monarchists in the 19th century thought the French crown should go to one of two dynasties - the House of Bourbon or the House of Orleans.

The House of Bourbon was the House of Louis XVI at the time of the revolution, and of his two brothers Louis XVIII and Charles X, both of whom became King in succession after Napoleon I was deposed. Charles was deposed by revolution in 1830 because he could never reconcile himself to behaving as a "proper" constitutional monarch with limited authority.

The Bourbon claim to the throne relied very heavily on divine mandate. The Bourbons were the successors of the oldest and most prestigious royal dynasties in Europe, dating back since before the time of Charlemagne. The French monarchy was viewed as God's sacred mandate, and the rules of succession clearly indicated that the Bourbons, under Salic Law, were rightful rulers.

The supporters of the Bourbon monarchy ("Legitimists") in the 19th century tended towards royal absolutism or constitutional monarchy that left the king with wide powers.

Following this, Louis-Philippe, son of the former Duc d'Orleans, became the "Citizen King". He promised to rule as a "people's monarch", not by right of inheritance or divine sanction, but because the people accepted him, somewhat similar to a President. Despite his promises, he eventually fell victim to political intrigue and the fed up French people deposed him in 1848 and declared a republic.

Even though Louis-Phillipe was not the legitimate heir to the throne under the law, he was at least a descendant of previous kings (the original Duc D'Orleans was the King's younger brother). He thus had a claim, albeit a weaker one, to rule by right of inheritance AND popular sanction.

Napoleon had absolutely no right to the French throne; his parents were very minor Corsican nobility. This is why he did not name himself King of France; he named himself Emperor, in the same way that the Roman Emperors emerged out of a republican government. Supporters of Napoleon III usually were NOT traditional monarchists at all: they were the rural poor and others who remembered the glory days of Napoleon I, and believed Napoleon III to be a friend to the oppressed, a quasi-socialist. Napoleon III was a populist hero, not a monarchical one. His views were quite left-wing (he supported republican revolutionaries in Italy), and although republicans and socialists didn't like him, he definitely had more in common with them politically than he did with the French establishment.

Basically, they didn't like him for the same reason the crowned heads of Europe didn't like Napoleon I: He was an upstart usurper, a tinpot dictator who ruled because of the adulation of the rabble and promises of bread and military glory, rather than through divine right and the defence of France's traditional institutions, which is what monarchists (both Legitimists and Orleanists) hankered for.

Answer 2

because they called him big papa