Napoléon Louis Bonaparte


Napoléon-Louis Bonaparte was King of Holland for less than two weeks in July 1810 as Louis II. He was a son of Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense. His father was the younger brother of Napoleon I of France who ruled the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland from 1806 to 1810. His mother was the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife. His younger brother, Louis-Napoléon, became Emperor of the French in 1852 as Napoleon III.

Biography

Napoléon Louis's brother, Napoléon Charles, died in 1807 at the age of four. On his death, Napoléon Louis became Prince Royal of Holland. It also made Napoléon Louis the second eldest nephew of Emperor Napoléon I, who at the time had no legitimate children, and he was regarded as his uncle's likely eventual successor. He lost this presumptive status on 20 March 1811 when Napoléon I's second wife, Marie Louise, gave birth to a son, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, who was styled the King of Rome and later Duke of Reichstadt.
In 1809, Napoléon I appointed him Grand Duke of Berg, a position he held until 1813.
On 1 July 1810, Louis I of Holland abdicated his throne in favour of Napoléon Louis. For the nine days between his father's abdication and the fall of Holland to the advancing French army in July 1810, Napoléon Louis reigned as Lodewijk II, King of Holland.
When Napoléon I was deposed in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo, the House of Bourbon was restored to the French throne. Napoléon Louis fled into exile, although the Bonaparte family never abandoned hopes of restoring the Napoleonic Empire.
On 23 July 1826 Napoléon Louis married his first cousin, Charlotte, the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Napoléon I. He and his younger brother Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte settled in Italy, where they embraced liberal politics and became involved with the Carbonari, who opposed Austrian domination of northern Italy.
On 17 March 1831, while fleeing Italy during a crackdown on revolutionary activity by Papal and Austrian forces, Napoléon Louis, who was suffering from measles, died in Forlì. The French Empire was eventually restored by his younger brother Louis-Napoléon, who became Napoléon III in 1852.
Napoléon Louis is buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.