Napoleon III

Napoleon III (1808-1873), emperor of the French (1852-1870), who revived the Napoleonic empire in the mid-19th century and led France to defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Paris, on April 20, 1808, the third and last son of King Louis and Queen Hortense of Holland, and thus a nephew of Napoleon I. Because the Bonaparte family was banished from France after his uncle's downfall, Louis Napoleon was educated privately in Switzerland and Bavaria. His mother schooled him in the glories of the Napoleonic legend and set his course towards the recovery of family power. To that end, he wrote pamphlets and treatises to advertise himself and formulate a political programme, portraying himself as social reformer, political liberal, military expert, and proponent of agricultural and industrial development. He also led two unsuccessful armed attempts to overthrow the regime of King Louis Philippe, in 1836 and 1840. Imprisoned for life after the latter, he managed to escape in 1846, calling renewed attention to himself.

Once Louis Philippe was ousted in 1848, Louis Napoleon renewed his quest by offering himself as a candidate for the presidency of the new French republic. To the astonishment of political veterans, he won in a landslide. His triumph was diminished, however, by a Royalist victory in the legislative elections in 1849 and by the constitution's limiting him to one four-year term. He resolved that dilemma by a coup d'état on December 2, 1851, assuming dictatorial powers and extending his term of office to ten years. Despite continued pockets of opposition, clear evidence of widespread popular support encouraged him a year later to convert the Second Republic into the Second Empire; because Napoleon I's son had been known to his followers as Napoleon II, Louis Napoleon took the title Napoleon III. Historians divide his reign into two periods. The dictatorship persisted until 1860; thereafter he began a series of liberal reforms that culminated in a limited monarchy, the Liberal Empire, on January 2, 1870. This liberalization was marked by labour legislation, a movement towards free trade, and a revival of opposition parties. Perhaps Napoleon III's most durable work was the reconstruction of Paris. His successes, however, were overshadowed by a foreign policy that was too often idealistic, blinding the emperor to real dangers to French security. The threat from Prussia, in particular, was perceived too late and caught the French unprepared in every respect when war came in 1870. Swift defeat in the field led to Napoleon's capture, and his regime was overthrown in Paris on September 4, 1870. He died in exile on January 9, 1873, at Chislehurst, Kent.

Napoleon III's reputation in France collapsed in the aftermath of the shocking defeat and has never entirely recovered. The re-evaluation of his place in history has been more the work of foreign historians, untouched by the national humiliation of 1870, who recognized his good intentions. His place in history will ultimately depend upon whether his social and economic goals are deemed to have been necessary and desirable. His despotism now appears to have been relatively benevolent, and the responsibility for military failure in 1870 is no longer attributed to him alone.