Napoleon Franz Bonaparte

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Prince Napoleon Franz as a child, Thomas Lawrence , 1818/19, oil on canvas, 58 × 49 cm, today Fogg Art Museum , Harvard University Art Museums

Napoleon Franz Joseph Karl Bonaparte ( French: Napoléon-François-Joseph-Charles Bonaparte ; born March  20, 1811 in the Tuileries Palace in Paris , †  July 22,  1832 in Schönbrunn Palace near Vienna ) was the only legitimate male descendant of Napoléon Bonaparte ; he came from his second marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria .

As the Imperial Crown Prince of France , he had been King of Rome since 1811 . After Napoleon's fall from 1814 to 1817, he held the title Prince of Parma, derived from his mother . During the reign of the Hundred Days he was briefly again the French Prince impérial and, after the final abdication of his father as Napoleon II , was titular Emperor of the French from June 22 to July 7, 1815 ; However, this claim expired on July 8th with the restoration of the kingdom by Louis XVIII. In 1818 he was appointed Duke of Reichstadt by his maternal grandfather, Emperor Franz I of Austria .

Life

Crown Prince Napoleon

As the first and only legitimate male descendant of Napoléon Bonaparte, he was Napoléon's long-awaited heir to the throne and was therefore also nicknamed "L'Aiglon" ("Son of the Eagle"). After the two abdications (1814 and 1815) and finally the death of his father in 1821, he was proclaimed emperor three times by the Bonapartists as "Napoléon II". However, he did not claim rule in France, nor was he ever entrusted with political leadership in his short life.

The Duke of Reichstadt in an Austrian uniform, watercolor by Moritz Daffinger

After Napoléon I reappeared on the European political stage for the reign of the Hundred Days , he had to abdicate again on June 22, 1815. This time he did not renounce his successor and proclaimed his son , who was appointed Prince impérial (but not again King of Rome ) on April 22, 1815 , expressly with the name "Napoléon II" as Emperor of the French. However, this proclamation no longer had any real effect, since on July 8, 1815, Louis XVIII. returned to Paris to take over the government.

After the fall of Napoleon

Coat of arms of the Duke of Reichstadt

In the course of the Congress of Vienna it was decided that the former Empress Marie-Louise and her son Franz were allowed to continue to use the titles of the Duchy of Parma received in the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814 - Marie-Louise as Duchess, Franz as Prince of Parma. In 1817, at the instigation of the Allies Russia and Great Britain, the title of Prince of Parma was revoked because he would have been entitled to success as such - and from the point of view of the victorious powers, a Bonaparte on a European throne had to be prevented. His grandfather, the Austrian Emperor Franz I , gave him the Bohemian Imperial City (Czech: Zákupy ) on July 22, 1818 and elevated it to a duchy ; from then on, Franz held the title of Duke of Reichstadt - although he never visited the city.

In Vienna, Franz made friends with his aunt by marriage, Archduchess Sophie Friederike of Bavaria , who was six years his senior . Both attended balls and concerts together, and Viennese gossip suggested that Sophie's second son Ferdinand Maximilian was the child of the Duke of Reichstadt.

The last moments of the Duke of Reichstadt

Sickness, death, burial

The duke struggled with lung problems at an early age and eventually fell ill with tuberculosis . Franz died at the age of 21 on July 22, 1832 in Schönbrunn Palace near Vienna.

Tomb of Napoleon II in the Invalides

The Duke's body was buried in the imperial crypt under the Capuchin Church in Vienna, his heart in the Habsburg crypt and his entrails in the ducal crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral . This corresponded to the funeral ceremony, as was customary at the Viennese court at the time. A " separate burial " with the division of a body to all three traditional Viennese burial sites of the Habsburgs (imperial crypt, heart crypt, ducal crypt) was given to a total of 41 members of the dynasty.

On the night of December 14-15, 1940, the sarcophagus with the body of the Duke of Reichstadt was removed from the imperial crypt by order of Adolf Hitler and transported to Paris by train (in memory of the transfer of Napoléon's corpse from St. Helena to Paris). First, the sarcophagus was placed in the Invalides in the chapel of St. Jérôme, which also houses the tomb of Jérôme Bonaparte. In 1969, on the occasion of Napoleon I's 200th birthday, the French government decided to move the sarcophagus to the lower church (in order to ultimately "unite" it with his father, as the source describes it), where it has now been December 18 of this year. However, the duke's heart and entrails remained in Vienna.

reception

In Ajaccio in Corsica in front of the Maison Bonaparte , reminiscent of him bust of Napoleon II.

performing Arts

The French playwright Edmond Rostand wrote the drama The Young Eagle (L'Aiglon) , which was first performed in 1900, about the Duke of Reichstadt, whose leading role was a prime role for the then stage star Sarah Bernhardt . Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert turned the piece into an opera.

Museum

Some objects belonging to the Duke of Reichstadt are exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum , such as his paint box, hat and sword. The Viennese treasury keeps the silver throne cradle bed, a gift from the city of Paris on the occasion of his birth.

music

The British pop duo Pet Shop Boys dedicated a title of the same name to the King of Rome on their 2009 album YES .

literature

Web links

Commons : Napoleon II  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Musée de l'Armée: Les tombeaux et momnuments funéraires. In: Website of the Musée de l'Armée in Paris. Musée de l'Armée, accessed June 14, 2020 (French).
  2. ↑ Alexander Glück, Marcello LaSperanza, Peter Ryborz: Unter Wien: In the footsteps of the third man through canals, tombs and casemates. Christoph Links Verlag, 2001, p. 44 ( online on Google Books ).
  3. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner, Manfred Litscher: The Heeresgeschichtliche Museum in Vienna. Verlag Styria, Graz / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-222-12834-0 , p. 44.
  4. ↑ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Ed.): The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna. Vienna / Graz 1960, p. 46.
personal data
SURNAME Bonaparte, Napoleon Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Napoleon II; Franz Duke of Reichstadt; King of Rome; Prince of Parma; Bonaparte, Napoléon-François-Charles-Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1832
Place of death Vienna