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Queen Hortense And Her Children, Napoléon-Louis And Louis-Napoléon

By ISABEY Jean-Baptiste

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Włodzimierz Potocki

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Napoléon I’s toothbrush,

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Louis Napoléon(Napoléon III), At The Tomb Of Queen Hortense , His Mother,(October 4, 1848)

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Marshal Ney on Horseback Fighting the Wind, both painting and sculpture

By ERNEST MEISSONIER

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Horse of Joachim Murat

By Antoine-Jean Gros

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Jean Lannes

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Victor Emmanuel II king of Sardinia greeting zouaves of the French troops (3rd Zouaves) after the end of the Battle of Palestro.

By Job

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Prince Józef Poniatowski on the “Szuma” mare from Sanguszka stud farm

Juliusz Kossak (Polish, 1824-1899)

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Joséphine, Empress of the French, holding the medallion portrait of Napoléon I

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The Orsini Attempt on Napoléon III

Orsini's atack on Napoléon III in front of the Opera on 14 January 1858,by H. Vittori

Felice Orsini was one of the most extreme of the Italian revolutionaries. At just twenty, he was involved in a conspiracy that earned him a life sentence, but he was freed under the amnesty granted by Pope Pius IX. In 1853, he again became entangled in a plot and was expelled from Italy by the Sardinian government. He later went to London, where he joined Giuseppe Mazzini and other exiled European revolutionaries. Convinced that Louis-Napoléon was the greatest obstacle to Italian independence and to revolution across Europe, Orsini resolved to kill him. He entered Paris under a false name and recruited three accomplices—Pieri, Gomez, and Rudio.

On January 14, 1858, Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie were on their way to the Opera for a special concert honoring the retiring singer Eugène Massol. Their 8:30 pm arrival had been announced in advance. The procession included a carriage of imperial officers, an escort of lancers, and finally the imperial carriage carrying the Emperor, the Empress, and General Roguet (a former page to Napoléon I and aide-de-camp to Louis-Napoléon). The evening’s program included Marie Stuart, La Muette (written by Massol), Guillaume Tell, and the ballet from Gustave’s Bal masqué.

As their carriage reached the Opera, the conspirators hurled several “Orsini bombs”—powerful grenades designed to explode on impact. Three detonations followed: one in front, one to the left, and one beneath the carriage. The blasts shattered windows and gas lamps, tore craters into the road, and hurled victims into the air. The imperial carriage was riddled with 76 marks and knocked onto its side. One horse was killed instantly and another fatally injured. General Roguet was badly wounded by shrapnel. Altogether, 156 people were injured, including guards and bystanders, and 8 later died.

The Emperor and Empress, however, were almost miraculously unharmed. Their armored carriage saved them, and Eugénie, in the chaos, showed remarkable courage. Believing someone was about to force open the carriage door, she thought it was an assassin and placed herself in front of her husband, ready to shield him with her own body.

Despite the carnage, the imperial couple attended the performance to reassure the public, leaving at midnight.

The police quickly apprehended the conspirators. Pieri was arrested before the attack even began, carrying an Orsini bomb, weapons, and foreign currency. Gomez was caught nearby, Rudio later that night, and “Allsop”—who turned out to be Orsini himself—the following morning. All confessed, framing the attack as a political act. Investigators determined that the bombs had been built in Britain and that Orsini was the mastermind. A Carbonaro and devoted supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini, he despised Napoléon III for betraying the Italian republican cause by supporting the Pope against the Roman Republic in 1849.

At trial, Orsini, Pieri, and Rudio were sentenced to death for attempted regicide; Gomez was sentenced to life at hard labor, and Rudio’s sentence was eventually commuted to the same. Before his execution, Orsini wrote letters to Napoléon III, pleading with him to “restore to Italy the independence that his children had lost to the French in 1849.” In one letter, he urged:

“May Your Majesty remember that the Italians, among whom was my father, shed their blood for (Napoléon the Great), wherever it pleased him to lead them; may he remember that, as long as Italy is not independent, the tranquillity of Europe and that of your Majesty will be nothing more than a chimaera: may Your Majesty not deny the ultimate wish of a patriot on the steps of the scaffold; if Your Majesty were to deliver my country, the blessings of 25 million citizens would follow him in posterity.”

On March 13, 1858, Orsini and Pieri were beheaded in Place de la Roquette before a silent crowd. Gomez was sentenced to hard labor for life, and through Empress Eugénie’s personal plea, Rudio’s life was spared.

Portrait of Felice Orsini, the main perpetrator of the attack against Napoléon III .Painting by Ludwig Bucheister.

Five days after the attack, on January 19, Napoléon III addressed the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. He told them:

“God sometimes permits the death of the just; but he never permits the triumph of the cause which has instigated the crime. Thus these attempts can neither disturb my security in the present, nor my trust in the future. If I live, the empire lives with me. If I fall, the empire will be strengthened even by my death; for the indignation of the people and of the army would be a new support for the throne of my son. Let us contemplate the future, then, with confidence; calmly devoting ourselves without anxiety to our labors every day for the promotion of the prosperity and the grandeur of the country. May God protect France!”

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Queen Hortense and Prince Louis Napoléon(future Napoléon III)

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A Thirteen-Year-Old Louis-Napoléon’s Letter to His Mother on His Uncle’s Death

Augsburg, 24th July 1821.

“It is a great grief to me that I did not even see him once before he died; for at Paris I was so young that it is really only in my heart that I retain any remembrance of him. When I do wrong, if I think of this great man I seem to feel his spirit within me bidding me make myself worthy of the name Napoléon.”

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Statue of Pauline Borghese (née Bonaparte) Napoléon’s favorite sister, shown looking at a portrait of her brother.

by Thomas Campbell, 1840

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Allegory of France before the return of Napoléon from Egypt

By Jean-Pierre Franque

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L'AIGLON, POSTER PROJECT FOR THE PLAY BY EDMOND DE ROSTAND

By RENÉ GRUAU

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Stéphanie de Beauharnais

Happy birthday to the Grand Duchess of Baden, born on August 28, 1789.