Louis, Prince Napoléon
| Louis | |
|---|---|
| Prince Napoléon | |
Kingdom of Belgium | |
| Died | 3 May 1997 (aged 83) Prangins, Vaud, Switzerland |
| Spouse |
Alix de Foresta (m. 1949) |
| Issue | Charles, Prince Napoléon Princess Catherine Princess Laure Prince Jérôme |
| House | Bonaparte |
| Father | Victor, Prince Napoléon |
| Mother | Princess Clémentine of Belgium |
Louis, Prince Napoléon (Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie; 23 January 1914 – 3 May 1997) was a member of the Bonaparte dynasty. He was the pretender to the Imperial throne of France, as Napoléon VI, from 3 May 1926 until his death on 3 May 1997.
Early life
He was born in
Victor, Prince Napoléon and his wife Princess Clémentine of Belgium, daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians and Archduchess Marie Henriette of Austria. Leopold II's mother, Princess Louise-Marie of Orléans, was the eldest daughter of King Louis Philippe I, ruler of France during the July Monarchy
.
As a child, Prince Louis spent some time in
Bonapartist pretender to the Imperial throne of France, his mother acting as regent until he came of age.[1]
Second World War and later life
On the outbreak of the
Organisation de Résistance dans l'Armee under the name "Louis Monnier". Another member of the Charles Martel Brigade to which he belonged was his cousin Joachim, Prince Murat, who was killed in July 1944. Prince Louis himself narrowly escaped death a month later when, on 28 August, he was badly wounded as part of a seven-man patrol that came under attack; he was the sole survivor. Following his recovery, he joined the Alpine Division and was later decorated for bravery. After his 2nd cousin Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte
died in America in 1945, he became the sole living male member of the Bonaparte line.
After the war, he lived in Switzerland and, irregularly, in Paris until 1950, when the law of
banishment
against the heads of France's former ruling dynasties was repealed.
Prince Louis became a successful businessman, with a number of financial interests in Africa. In 1951, the prince sent a memorial wreath bearing the Napoleonic 'N' insignia to the funeral of
Wilhelm II, German Emperor. This was seen as an ironic gesture by royalists at the time, given the fact that it was the German House of Hohenzollern that had defeated and dethroned Louis Napoleon's own imperial house during the Franco-Prussian War
in 1870.
Following Prince Louis's death in
Charles Napoléon.[2]
Marriage and issue
Louis married
Alix de Foresta (born 4 April 1926), daughter of Count Albéric de Foresta, on 16 August 1949 at Linières-Bouton, France. They had four children:[3]
- Prince Charles Marie Jérôme Victor (b. 19 October 1950); claims headship of the House of Bonaparte and the title Prince Napoléon.
- Princess Cathérine Elisabeth Albérique Marie (b. 19 October 1950); married, firstly, on 4 June 1974, in Prangins, Switzerland, Nicolò San Martino d'Agliè dei marchesi di Fontaneto con San Germano (nephew of Queen Paola of Belgium, b. 3 July 1948), divorced in 1982 without issue. She married, secondly, on 22 October 1982, in Paris, France, Jean-Claude Dualé (b. 3 November 1936 in Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia) and had two daughters:
- Charlotte Dualé (13 October 1982)
- Marion Dualé (29 March 1985)
- Princess Laure Clémentine Geneviève Bonaparte (b. 8 October 1952 in Paris, France); married on 23 December 1982 to Jean-Claude Lecomte (15 March 1948 – Sep 2009) and had one son:
- Clément Louis Lecomte (7 July 1995)
- Prince Jérôme Xavier Marie Joseph Victor (b. 14 January 1957), married on 2 September 2013 to Licia Innocenti.
Decorations
- Commandeur de la Legion of Honour[4]
- Croix de Guerre 1939–1945.
- Médaille de la Résistance
- Médaille commémorative de la Seconde Guerre mondiale
Ancestry
| Ancestors of Louis, Prince Napoléon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
| Monarchy in exile (1792–1815) |
|   |
|---|---|---|
| Legitimist/Unionist pretenders (1830–present) |
| |
| Blancs d'Espagne succession (1883–present) |
| |
| Bonapartist pretenders (1814–present) |
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*Orléanist pretender from 1848-1873 as Louis Philippe II | ||
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