Napoleon III - 2008 is the bicentennial of his birth
Napoleon III of France lived at Camden Place in Chislehurst from 1870 until his death in 1873.
He was born 20 April 1808 in Paris, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and was christened Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. He was forced into exile in 1815 following Bonaparte's deposition. He was elected President of France in 1849 following the deposition of the monarchy in the 1848 revolution, and following changes to the constitution, he was elected the first Emperor of the Second French Empire in 1864.
Louis-Napoleon was responsible for much of the modernisation of France that followed, and for a time was extremely popular, but in 1870 he began the Franco-Prussian War. This war proved disastrous for France. In battle against Prussia in July 1870 the Emperor was captured at the Battle of Sedan and he was deposed by the forces of the Third Republic in Paris two days later. He was exiled to England with his wife Eugenie, and his only legitimate son, The Prince Imperial.
He was originally buried at St. Mary's in Chislehurst. However, after his son died in 1879 (fighting in the British Army against the Zulus in South Africa), the bereaved Eugenie decided to move the bodies of her husband and son to the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough.
Recently the reputation of Napoleon III has had something of a resurgence in France, now acknowledged for many of the reforms his administrations introduced there.
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