XIII. NAPOLEON EUGENE LOUIS JEAN JOSEPH (1856-1879), Prince Imperial,
only son of the emperor Napoleon III. and the empress Eugenie, was born
at Paris on the 16th of March 1856. He was a delicate boy, but when the
war of 1870 broke out his mother sent him to the army, to win popularity
for him, and the government journals vaunted his bravery. After the
first defeats he had to flee from France with the empress, and settled
in England at Chislehurst, completing his military education at
Woolwich. On the death of his father on the 9th of January 1873 the
Imperialists proclaimed him Napoleon IV., and he became the official
Pretender. He was naturally inactive, but he was influenced by his
mother on the one hand, and by the Bonapartist leaders in France on the
other. They thought that he should win his crown by military prestige,
and he was persuaded to attach himself as a volunteer to the English
expedition to Zululand in February 1879. It was a blunder to have
allowed him to go, and the blunder ended in a tragedy, for while out on
a reconnaissance with a few troopers they were surprised by Zulus, and
the Prince Imperial was killed (June 1, 1879). His body was brought back
to England, and buried at Chislehurst.
XIV. THE BONAPARTES OF BALTIMORE are a branch of the family settled in
America, descended from Jerome Bonaparte (VII.) by his union with
Elizabeth (b. 1785), daughter of William Patterson, a Baltimore
merchant, probably descended from the Robert Paterson who was the
original of Sir Walter Scott's "Old Mortality." The marriage took place
at Baltimore on the 24th of December 1803, but it was greatly disliked
by Napoleon, who refused to recognize its legality. However, it was
valid according to American law, and Pope Pius VII. refused to declare
it void. Nevertheless Jerome was forced by his brother to separate
himself from his wife, whom he had brought to Europe, and after a stay
in England Madame Patterson, or Madame Bonaparte, as she was usually
called, returned to Baltimore. She died in 1879. Jerome's only child by
this marriage was Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (1805-1870), who was born in
England, but resided chiefly in Baltimore, and is said to have shown a
marked resemblance to his uncle, the great emperor. He was on good terms
with Jerome, who for some time made him a large allowance, and father
and son occasionally met. His elder son, also called Jerome Napoleon
Bonaparte (1832-1893), entered the French army, with which he served in
the Crimea and in Italy.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte (b. 1851), younger son of the first Jerome
Napoleon Bonaparte, and a grandson of Jerome, king of Westphalia,
attained a distinguished place in American politics. Born at Baltimore
on the 9th of June 1851 and educated at Harvard University, he became a
lawyer in 1874 and has been president of the National Municipal League
and has filled other public positions. He was secretary of the navy in
President Roosevelt's cabinet from July 1905 to December 1906, and then
attorney-general of the United States until March 1909.