29th January 1853 was the wedding day of Emperor
Napoleon III of France and Princess Eugenie. It was hardly a love-match, but it
fitted the bill as a dynastic marriage.
Prince Louis Napoleon was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.
He had been elected to the office of President of the French Republic in 1848
but staged a coup d’etat in 1851 that abolished the republic and established a
new Napoleonic empire. As Emperor he sought a suitable Empress to produce his
heirs and to stand by his side on public occasions.
Eugenia Maria De Montijo De Guzman came from an aristocratic
Spanish family that boasted a string of long-established titles. She was
therefore highly suitable as a candidate for Empress, although the temperaments
of the partners were somewhat different. She was a strict Catholic, aged 26,
with a highly-developed sense of
morality, whereas Napoleon, aged 44, was a typical French aristocrat who had no
intention of remaining faithful to his new bride.
The marriage was a civil ceremony followed by a church
service the following day. Eugenie (the French form of her name by which she
was subsequently known) insisted that the union would not be consummated until
after it had been blessed by the Church.
It would appear that Eugenie tolerated the marriage for the
sake of appearances, although she was repulsed by her overweight, sweaty
husband who attracted women more by his family name than his prowess as a
lover. She did, however, bear him a son who turned out to be their only child
and was given the title of Prince Imperial.
The Second Empire only lasted until 1870 when the French
were defeated in the Franco-Prussian War and the imperial family was exiled to
Great Britain. Napoleon died there in 1873 and the Prince Imperial was killed
in South Africa fighting for the British during the Zulu War of 1879.
Eugenie continued to live in England but also had a house in
the south of France where she spent much of her time in retirement. She died in
1920 at the age of 94.
© John Welford
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