Did Louis the 14 Have a Black Baby
Napoleon's Illegitimate Children: Léon Denuelle & Alexandre Walewski
Napoleon's illegitimate son, Charles Léon Denuelle
In improver to his legitimate son (Napoleon Two, who appears in Napoleon in America), Napoleon had two stepchildren and at least two illegitimate children: the wastrel Charles Léon Denuelle and the accomplished Alexandre Colonna Walewski. Here's a wait at Napoleon'due south illegitimate children.
Charles Léon Denuelle
Though Napoleon claimed he had just seven mistresses, he probably had at least 21. I of these was Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne. Napoleon met her in 1805, when she was a cute eighteen-yr old in the utilize of Napoleon'due south sister, Caroline Bonaparte Murat (Eléonore was also the mistress of Caroline's husband Joachim). In April 1806 Eléonore obtained a divorce from her hubby, who was in prison for forgery. Napoleon prepare her upward in a firm on Rue de la Victoire in Paris. On Dec xiii, 1806, she gave nativity to Napoleon's starting time child, a male child. Napoleon was delighted, as this proved he was not responsible for his married woman Josephine's infertility. When Eléonore asked for permission to name the male child Napoleon, he agreed to half the name. Then the baby was christened Léon, and the birth certificate read:
Son of Demoiselle Eléonore Denuel, aged twenty years, of independent means; father absent-minded. (1)
Eléonore's liaison with Napoleon concluded soon after Léon's nascency. In 1808 Napoleon bundled for her to ally an infantry lieutenant. He was killed during the Russian campaign in 1812. In 1814, she married Charles de Luxbourg, a Bavarian diplomat.
Meanwhile, young Léon was taken from his female parent's care and entrusted to a series of nurses, paid for by Napoleon. Léon was brought up under the last name of Mâcon, a recently deceased general of whom Napoleon thought highly. According to Napoleon'south valet Constant,
the Emperor tenderly loved [his] son. I often fetched him to him; he would caress and give him a hundred delicacies, and was much amused with his vivacity and his repartees, which were very witty for his historic period. (two)
Once Napoleon'due south legitimate son, the Male monarch of Rome, was born, Léon received much less attention, though Napoleon continued to provide for the boy and remained fond of him. In March 1812, the Baron des Mauvières – the male parent-in-law of Napoleon's private secretary, Baron de Méneval – was appointed Léon'due south guardian. This provided a discreet style for Napoleon to manage the funds he was settling on the male child. In June 1815, after Napoleon'southward defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and subsequent abdication, eight-year-onetime Léon (with Méneval) joined Napoleon at Malmaison earlier the latter's deviation for Rochefort and exile to St. Helena.
Léon attended a succession of Parisian boarding schools, with the expectation that he might accept a legal career. In his instructions to the executors of his will, Napoleon wrote, "I should not exist sorry were little Léon to enter the magistracy, if that is to his liking." (three) Napoleon besides ancestral 300,000 francs to Léon, for buy of an manor. This legacy did not immediately happen, as the amount was to exist taken from money Napoleon claimed was due to him from the "gratitude and sense of honour" of his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais and his widow Marie Louise. Neither of them came up with the funds, despite a lawsuit past Napoleon'southward executor Charles de Montholon.
In 1821, Méneval assumed Léon's guardianship. This soon became a headache for him, every bit it had been for his father-in-law, not least considering Léon'southward taste for luxury and pleasance far exceeded his pocket money of 12,000 francs a year. Méneval hired a tutor, whom Léon disliked. In January 1823, Léon escaped from his tutor while at the theatre and fled to Mannheim, in Baden, where Eléonore and her husband were living. By 1826, Léon was back in Paris and living on his own.
Contemporaries commented on how much Léon looked like Napoleon. According to a British observer, Léon was
tall, five anxiety six at to the lowest degree, an upright, handsome effigy of a human … His origin was stamped upon his face, he was physically the living portrait of the great captain. (four)
Léon told his uncle Joseph Bonaparte that he possessed
a trifling popularity which I owe to a glorious resemblance. (5)
With his imperial visage, his large income, and his gustation for pleasure, Léon cut a conspicuous figure.
He was the prey of parasites and gamblers, an intrepid plunger himself, though sometimes a bad thespian. (six)
In Feb 1832, afterward losing xvi,000 francs in a card game and declining to pay up, Léon fought a duel in the Bois de Vincennes against Charles Hesse, a Prussian-built-in British officer. Though Hesse fired starting time, Léon's shot struck Hesse in the breast and killed him. Léon was charged with deliberate manslaughter. A jury acquitted him.
This experience did non deter Léon from gambling. After a brief, undistinguished stint in the National Guard, past 1838 he had wound upwardly (twice) in the debtors' prison of Clichy. A constabulary written report of January 1840 described his living arrangements.
The Comte Léon lives at the Hôtel de Bruxelles, Rue du Mail. He has for mistress a adult female of vicious life, living and cohabiting with a hubby named Lesieur, a clerk at the War Function, who has deserted his lawful wife for this concubine, who treats him in the most indecent manner. This self-styled Mme Lesieur follows the practise of magnetism, the proceeds of which business is devoured, every bit likewise Lesieur's assart, by the Comte Léon. … All the tenants of the house are indignant at the scandalous behaviour of the Comte Léon and the woman. (seven)
Effectually this time Léon resolved to visit his uncle Joseph to ask him for money. Méneval warned Joseph:
Léon is going to London, and asks me to give him a letter for you lot. … He has known reverses of fortune, the details of which I only know imperfectly; if you deign to hear what he has to say, he will tell yous the facts himself. They have been caused past the independent attitude he has called to presume towards the communication of those who wish him well, and from his ain inexperience. He appears to have many schemes in paw and to overestimate his resources, as also the value of a supposed protection exercised on his behalf past the tardily Archbishop of Paris with Key Fesch. He is a man of enterprising temper, whom prudence and a spirit of rectitude practice non always govern. (8)
Joseph decided non to receive Léon based, among other things, on a rumour that Léon was a spy in the pay of Rex Louis Philippe'south government. Léon's cousin, Louis Napoleon (son of Napoleon's brother Louis) also refused to see him. Léon provoked Louis Napoleon into fighting a duel on Wimbledon Mutual, which was called off only when the police arrived. Léon returned to French republic, where he survived by begging, borrowing and pursuing lawsuits, including two against his mother.
Something of Léon'south manner of life can exist gleaned from a February 1848 letter of the alphabet he wrote to General Gourgaud, who had briefly been with Napoleon on St. Helena:
M. Caillieux has insisted on my paying or leaving his business firm immediately; I was forced to quit my lodgings a few minutes after, with the only garment I had to my back. He has ruthlessly detained my trunk, in which I had packed all my worldly goods, and my papers, too every bit a moving-picture show of value representing the Emperor at Waterloo. … I am sleeping for the time being in a miserable furnished room at 20 sous a day, where I am very uncomfortable. I am going to beg yous, my dear General, to be so kind as to lend me a piddling money to buy a bed, and I volition pay you back as soon as ever I can. I shall be very grateful to you lot for the loan. (9)
In 1849, Léon founded the Société Pacifique, the object of which was "to organize a serial of productive works that may provide the French People with the means of living by the labour of their easily." (10) He unsuccessfully petitioned the National Assembly for one million francs to support the scheme, which proposed such things as the installation of economic kitchens.
When Louis Napoleon became Napoleon III of France, he refused to see Léon. He did, however, in 1854 prescript that the dispositions in Napoleon'south will should be carried out. Léon was given a yearly income of x,000 francs. Among other things, Léon opened an ink manufactory. He also milked his one-half-brother Alexandre Walewski (see beneath) for funds.
On June 2, 1862, Léon, at the historic period of 55, married 31-year-one-time Françoise Fanny Jonet, the daughter of his former gardener. Iv of their children lived past infancy: Charles (built-in October. 24, 1855), Gaston (June i, 1857), Fernand (Nov. 26, 1861) and Charlotte (January. 17, 1867).
The family unit settled at Pontoise, northwest of Paris. Léon died there on Apr 14, 1881, at the age of 74, of stomach or bowel cancer. He was cached in a pauper'south grave in the local cemetery, marked with a blackness wooden cantankerous. His remains were later dug upwards to make room for others. Charles Léon Denuelle has living descendants.
Alexandre Colonna Walewski
Alexandre Walewski in 1832, school of George Hayter
Alexandre Florian Joseph Colonna Walewksi was born in Walewice, well-nigh Warsaw, on May four, 1810 to Napoleon's Shine mistress, Countess Marie Walewska. Marie became significant when she was living nigh Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, where Napoleon was temporarily residing. When Marie asked to get to Paris to have the infant, Napoleon told her to return to her married man and give birth in his business firm. Constant writes:
She was delivered of a son who diameter a striking resemblance to His Majesty. This was a great joy for the Emperor. Hastening to her equally soon as it was possible for him to get away from the château, he took the child in his arms, and embracing it every bit he had just embraced the mother, he said to him: 'I volition make thee a count.' (12)
In 1810, Marie and the infant moved to Paris. Napoleon installed them in a house and provided for them, though he ended his thing with Marie in view of his impending marriage to Marie Louise.
In September 1814, when Napoleon was in exile on Elba, Marie (by at present divorced) visited him there with and then four-twelvemonth quondam Alexandre. Napoleon played hide-and-seek with the boy and rolled around with him in the grass. Napoleon reportedly said to Alexandre, "I hear y'all don't mention my name in your prayers." Alexandre admitted he didn't mention Napoleon, merely he did remember to say "Papa Empereur." Napoleon said to Marie, "He'll be a bang-up social success, this boy: he's got wit." (13)
Along with Méneval and Léon, Marie and Alexandre joined Napoleon for a concluding farewell at Malmaison in June 1815. In 1816, Marie married her lover, the Count d'Ornano. The post-obit yr, when Alexandre was seven, she died. The boy's uncle ensured that he received a skillful education.
Shortly earlier his death in 1821, Napoleon wrote,
I wish Alexandre Walewski to exist drawn to the service of France in the army. (14)
This proved prophetic, as when Alexandre was 14, he refused to join the Russian ground forces (Poland was and so under Russian rule). He instead fled to London, and and so to Paris. When Louis-Philippe ascended the French throne in 1830, he sent Alexandre to Poland. The leaders of the 1830-31 Polish uprising dispatched Alexandre to London as their envoy. Co-ordinate to Charles Greville, Alexandre
was wonderfully handsome and agreeable, and soon became popular in London guild. (xv)
On December i, 1831, Alexandre married Lady Catherine Montagu, the daughter of the 6th Earl of Sandwich. They had two children: Louise-Marie (built-in Dec. xiv, 1832) and Georges-Edouard (Mar. 7, 1834), both of whom died in infancy. Catherine died shortly after her son's birth, in April 1834.
Back in France, Alexandre became a naturalized French citizen and joined the French regular army. He fought in Algeria as a helm in the French Foreign Legion, resigning his commission in 1837 to become a journalist, playwright and diplomat. On November 3, 1840, Alexandre had a son, Alexandre-Antoine, with French extra Elisabeth Rachel Félix, who also had a son with Arthur Bertrand.
On June 4, 1846, Alexandre married Maria Anna di Ricci, the daughter of an Italian count. They had four children: Isabel (b. May 12, 1847, died in infancy), Charles (June iv, 1848), Elise (Dec. 15, 1849) and Eugénie (Mar. 30, 1856).
After his cousin Louis Napoleon came to power, Alexandre served equally a French diplomat in Italy, and so every bit French ambassador to London. He bundled for Napoleon III to visit London in 1855, and for Queen Victoria to brand a render visit to French republic.
In 1855, Alexandre became French republic's Government minister of Strange Affairs and, in 1860, the French Minister of State. He besides served as a senator and, later, as president of the Corps Législatif. In 1866, he was named a Duke of the Empire. Alexandre Walewski died of a stroke or a heart attack at Strasbourg on September 27, 1868, at the age of 58. He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Alexandre Colonna Walewksi has numerous living descendants. You can read more about Alexandre and his family on the Colonna Walewksi family website.
Napoleon's other illegitimate children?
Co-ordinate to Constant,
This child [Léon] and that of the beautiful Pole [Alexandre]…are with the King of Rome, the only children the Emperor had. He never had whatsoever daughters, and I think he would not take liked to have any. (16)
This has non stopped speculation that Napoleon had other illegitimate children. Émilie de Pallapra claimed that she was Napoleon'south daughter, resulting from a brief liaison in Lyon between her mother Françoise Marie de Pellapra and the Emperor. Still, the alleged timing of their tryst is incompatible with Émilie's birth engagement in Nov 1805.
Every bit noted in my post about Charles de Montholon, Napoleon was probably the father of Albine de Montholon's girl Joséphine Napoléone, built-in on St. Helena on January 26, 1818. Petty Joséphine died in Brussels on September xxx, 1819.
For more fanciful speculation almost Napoleon's illegitimate children, see Affiliate xiii of The Bonapartes in America, past Clarence Edward Macartney and Gordon Dorrance.
You might likewise enjoy:
Napoleon'southward Children, Part 1 (well-nigh Napoleon'due south stepchildren, Eugène and Hortense de Beauharnais)
Napoleon II: Napoleon'due south Son, the King of Rome
x Interesting Facts Nigh Napoleon'due south Family
Living Descendants of Napoleon and the Bonapartes
What did Napoleon's wives recollect of each other?
- Joseph Turquan, The Love Diplomacy of Napoleon (New York, 1909), p. 249.
- Louis Constant Wairy, Memoirs of Constant, translated by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin, Vol. 2 (New York, 1907), pp. 157-158.
- Hector Fleischmann, An Unknown Son of Napoleon (New York, 1914), p. 88.
- Ibid., pp. 156-157.
- Ibid., p. 157.
- Ibid., p. 158.
- Ibid., p. 178.
- Ibid., pp. 182-183.
- Ibid., pp. 212-213.
- Ibid., p. 216.
- The Love Affairs of Napoleon, p. 249.
- Memoirs of Constant, Vol. 2, p. 183.
- Christopher Hibbert, Napoleon: His Wives and Women (London, 2002), p. 222.
- An Unknown Son of Napoleon, p. 88.
- Charles C.F. Greville, The Greville Memoirs, Vol. 2 (London, 1874), p. 104.
- Memoirs of Constant, Vol. 2, p. 158.
This child [Léon Denuelle] and that of the beautiful Pole [Alexandre Walewski]…are with the King of Rome, the only children the Emperor had. He never had any daughters, and I retrieve he would not have liked to have any.
Louis Constant Wairy
© Shannon Selin 2013-2022. Privacy Policy. Fabricated by Bookswarm
whittingtonaver1938.blogspot.com
Source: https://shannonselin.com/2015/03/napoleons-children-part-2/
0 Response to "Did Louis the 14 Have a Black Baby"
Post a Comment