A botched coup attempt...


After Napoleon I was driven out in 1815, the daughter of his first wife Josephine, Hortense de Beauharnais, together with her husband Louis Bonaparte, a brother of the Emperor, had to wander through Switzerland and France for months - to avoid being arrested by the "Ancien Régime" that had been reinstalled escape.

Through the mediation of Tsar Aleksandr I, they were finally granted an exile in Eastern Switzerland, the Arenenberg Castle - a pretty building - today a museum - near Lake Constance, which I have already looked at. A visit there is really worth it!









Hortense and Louis' son Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, born in 1808, also grew up there...:





As the boy grows older and becomes a man...



...he longs for something higher:

In 1829, Louis Napoléon wanted to take part in the Russo-Turkish War on the Russian side in order to reap military merits, but his father turned a deaf ear!

Instead, he joins the Italian insurrectionary movement of the "Carbonari" together with his brother Napoléon Louis and - mainly because of his name - becomes the leader of the siege of the fortress of Civita Castellana..:



Things turn out badly, the brother dies, the "Carbonari" are cut into small slices by Italian troops and Louis Napoléon has to flee with his mother.

In France, which after the final overthrow of the Bourbons at that time was ruled by "Citizen King" Louis Philippe I, he found acceptance. However, the always restless Paris is forbidden to him, so he settles in Strasbourg.

The returnee thanks the "citizen king" badly!

He still has higher goals - and so he becomes a putschist.

On the morning of October 29, 1836, he went to the barracks of the 4th artillery regiment in Strasbourg, where his uncle (the emperor) had already served, and delivered a thunderous speech.



He explains to the soldiers that he has come to restore "France's greatness and honor".

Since the regimental commander, Colonel Horace Vaudrey...



... an old Bonapartist, declared himself the Emperor's nephew, the artillerymen followed him...:



Their way leads to the barracks of the 46th Infantry Regiment, also barracked in the city, to ask them to participate.

Then - according to the plan - they want to march together to Paris, attract more troops along the way and take over power!

Louis Napoléon probably has something as romantic in mind as his uncle's famous march from Frejus to Paris, which ushered in the "Hundred Days".

But the soldiers of the 46th Infantry Regiment do not want to take part.

Worse still: Their colonel has the rebelling artillerymen surrounded and arrested, since most of them left their rifles and cannons in the barracks in the excitement...:



Already in the early afternoon the clumsy rebellion was crushed without a shot! Louis Napoleon and Colonel Vaudrey are imprisoned.

The "citizen king" Louis Philippe is unexpectedly lenient with the man who wanted to overthrow him.

Instead of putting the emperor's nephew against the wall, he is pardoned on condition that he goes into exile in the USA. Very relieved, Louis Napoleon accepted this offer and left France on November 21st on board the frigate "Andromeda"...:



As we know from the history books, he will come back, starting another coup from England in August 1840, which he also fails...



... are sentenced to imprisonment in northern France, are able to flee to England there under adventurous circumstances, return to France again in 1848 during the March riots, are elected President of the Republic on December 20, 1848...



... initiating another coup d'etat in 1851 (the third!)...



... who eventually made him Emperor Napoleon III. power.

For 20 years he will then rule France "by the grace of God" until he finally makes the mistake of messing with smarter people (Bismarck) and more competent military men (Moltke)...





What can I say: the man was nothing like his uncle's stature other than his name and it would have been decidedly better for him (and his time) if he had been born as Mr. Smith, Miller or Jones...

He was an idiot, along with his wife..for effectivly starting war with Prussia…dumb and dumber…