Napoleon II of France
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Napoleon II (March 20, 1811 – July 22, 1832), Duke of Reichstadt, was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte, and briefly the second Emperor of the French.
Napoléon François Joseph Charles, known from birth as the King of Rome, was the son of Emperor Napoleon I and his second wife, Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. He was styled as HM The King of Rome, which Napoleon I declared was the courtesy title of the heir-apparent.
Three years after his birth in Paris, the First French Empire - to which he was heir - collapsed, and Napoleon abdicated the throne in favour of his infant son, who was taken by the empress to Chateau Blois in April 1814. In 1815, after his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon again abdicated in favour of his son.
The Chamber of Representatives and Chamber of Peers recognised him as Emperor from the moment of his father's abdication (June 22, 1815), but the entrance of the Allies into Paris (July 7) put an end to this short-lived regime. Despite his nominal reign, he is not normally referred to as "Napoleon II" except by Bonapartists who also call him the King of Rome. Nevertheless, the next Napoleon to come to the throne of France took the name Napoleon III in deference to him.
After 1815, the young prince, now known as "Franz," after his maternal grandfather, rather than as "Napoleon," was a virtual captive in Austria. He was awarded the title of Duke of Reichstadt in 1818. He died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna on July 22, 1832. He once said "Had Josephine been my mother, my life would have been different". In 1940 his remains were transferred, as a gift to France from Adolf Hitler, from Vienna to the dome of Les Invalides in Paris, where he now rests beside his father. His heart remains in urn 42 in the Herzgruft and his viscera are in urn 76 in the Ducal Crypt in Vienna.
He was also known as "L'Aiglon", or "The Eaglet". Edmond Rostand wrote a play, L'Aiglon, about his life.
Serbian composer Petar Stojanović composed an operetta "Napoleon II: Herzog von Reichstadt", premiered in Vienna in the 1920s.
Trivia
- A stuffed small bird is exhibited in one of the chambers in Schönbrunn Palace, apparently the animal was the only friend the young Duke of Reichstadt had.
Publications
- Welschinger, Le roi de Rome, 1811-32, (Paris, 1897)
- Wertheimer, The Duke of Reichstadt, (London, 1905)
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