THE BRITISH BONAPARTES by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2023-01-01T06:25:18+00:00

Armorial bearings of Napoleon III as a Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, painted by Alison Hill, heraldic artist at HM’s College of Arms, London. The emperor was invested with the insignia at Windsor in 1855 by Queen Victoria. A stall plate in the Garter Chapel at Windsor also bears these arms.

Chapter 7

Eugenie and her Boy: An Officer and a Dame of the British Empire

From Camden Place, Eugenie and Louis-Napoleon (le petit prince) continued their lives rather like English gentlefolk. It is especially surprising to think that Louis-Napoleon, the Prince Imperial and heir to the French Empire, gained a commission in the British army, and served in the far-flung British Empire in Africa. He was possibly romantically entangled with one of Queen Victoria’s daughters and has a tomb-like monument dedicated to him in St George’s Chapel, Windsor – a burial place usually reserved for British royalty. Following the collapse of the Second French Empire, and the death of Napoleon III, Eugenie and her boy lived the rest of their lives as exiles from France and seem to have become Anglophiles, perhaps by predicament or perhaps by choice.

As we have seen, Eugenie had some British roots and was briefly educated in England. Her Scottish maternal grandfather, William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, near Dumfries, was an immigrant to Spain who became a wine merchant and US consul in Malaga. Eugenie was known to dress in the Kirkpatrick tartan occasionally and greatly enjoyed her various trips to Scotland. There were, however, further family links to Britain.

Both Eugenie and her sister were daughters to Cipriano de Palafox, 8th Count of Montijo, 15th Duke of Penaranda and a grandee of Spain (1785–1839). A soldier who fought on the side of Joseph Bonaparte (while king of Spain) in the Spanish wars, he lost an eye in battle and was honoured for his service by Napoleon I. He married Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick de Grevignée; daughter of the aforementioned William Kirkpatrick and his wife, a French noblewoman, Marie François de Grevignée. Her sister, Catherine (Eugenie’s great-aunt), married Mathieu de Lesseps and had a son; Ferdinand de Lesseps – making Eugene a first-cousin-once-removed of the creator of the Suez Canal – which she opened in his presence in 1869.

Maria Manuela (1794–1879) had what one might call a colourful past and had one or two gentleman admirers. Amongst her close friends was Prosper Mérimée. She was his inspiration for his novel Carmen – which Bizet later turned into the famous opera of the same name. Manuela was perhaps more worldly than her daughters. As a young woman, it is thought that she ‘entertained’ the customers at her father’s winery. It was scandalous rumours such as this which lost her the coveted position of head of the household to Queen Isabella of Spain. Manuela also formed an ‘intimate’ friendship with a young Lord Clarendon (the great British foreign secretary). It is possible that they were lovers, and it was in fact he who had arranged that Eugenie and Napoleon should meet in secret for the first time – to give the two a chance to get to know one another.

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