Napoleon I (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the Prince Regnant of the Principality of Kessel from 15 December 1868 until his death in 9 January 1873.
He was the third son of Louis Bonaparte, the King of Holand and nephew of Napoleon I the Emperor of the French Empire. Aftermath of the Westphalian Crisis had created the Principality of Kessel and it was given by Franz Joseph I to Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte. During his reign Napoleon I commissioned a grand reconstruction of Kessel carried out by the man he appointed as prefect of Kessel, Baron Jochen August Schmitz accompanied by an elaborate system of parks and gardens.
Early Life[]
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Louis Bonaparte (1778–1846), the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, the King of Holland, and father of Napoleon I of Kessel
Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and afterward Napoleon I, was brought into the world in Paris the evening of 19–20 April 1808. His dad was Louis Bonaparte, the younger sibling of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made Louis the King of Holland from 1806 until 1810. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the only daughter of Napoleon's wife Joséphine by her first marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais.
As empress, Joséphine proposed marriage as an approach to create an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then barren. Louis wedded Hortense when he was 24 and she was nineteen. They had a troublesome relationship and just lived respectively for brief periods. Their first child Napoléon Charles Bonaparte had died in 1807 and—however isolated and parents of a second child, Napoléon-Louis Bonaparte, they chose to have a third child. They continued their marriage for a short time frame in Toulouse beginning from the 12 of August 1807 and Louis was conceived rashly, (at least) three weeks shy of nine months. His mom was known to have lovers and Louis Napoleon's enemies including Victor Hugo, spread the tattle that he was the offspring of an alternate man, however most history specialists concur today that he was the real child of Louis Bonaparte.
Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), mother to Louis Napoleon in 1808
Charles-Louis was absolved at the Palace of Fontainebleau on 5 November 1810, with Emperor Napoleon filling in as his godfather and Empress Marie-Louise as his godmother. His dad remained away, by and by isolated from Hortense. At seven years old, Louis Napoleon visited his uncle at the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Napoleon held him up to the window to see the officers marching in the yard of the Carousel beneath. He last saw his uncle with the family at the Château de Malmaison, quickly before Napoleon withdrew from the Battle of Waterloo.
All members of the Bonaparte dynasty were forced into exile after the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the Bourbon Restoration of monarchy in France. Hortense and Louis Napoleon moved from Aix to Bern to Baden, lastly to a lakeside house at Arenenberg in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. He got a portion of his schooling in Germany at the exercise room school at Augsburg, Bavaria. Thus, for the remainder of his life, his French had a slight however perceptible German intonation. His mentor at home was Philippe Le Bas, a vigorous conservative and the child of a progressive and dear companion of Robespierre. Le Bas showed him French history and extremist governmental issues.
The lakeside house at Arenenberg, Switzerland, where Louis Napoleon spent much of his youth and exile
At the point when Louis Napoleon was fifteen, his mother Hortense moved to Rome, where the Bonapartes had an estate. He breathed easy learning Italian, investigating the antiquated demolishes and learning human expressions of enticement and heartfelt undertakings, which he utilized frequently in his later life. He became companions with the French Ambassador, François-René Chateaubriand, the father of sentimentalism in French writing, with whom he stayed in touch for a long time. He was brought together with his older sibling Napoléon-Louis; together they became engaged with the Carbonari, secret revultionary socities battling Austria's control of Northern Italy. In the spring of 1831, when he was 23, the Austrian and papal governments launched an offensive against the Carbonari. The two siblings were hunted by the police, and were forced to flee. During their flight, Napoléon-Louis contracted measles.He died in his brother's arms on 17 March 1831. Hortense joined her son and together they evaded the police and Austrian army and finally reached the French border.
July Revolution[]
Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), the King of France
Hortense and Louis Napoleon went undercover to Paris, where the old system of King Charles X had recently fallen and been supplanted by the more liberal system of King Louis Philippe ,during the July Revolution. They showed up in Paris on 23 April 1831 and took up home under the name "Hamilton" in the Hotel du Holland on Place Vendôme. Hortense composed an appeal to the King, requesting to remain in France, and Louis Napoleon offered to chip in as a customary warrior in the French Army. The new King consented to meet covertly with Hortense; Louis Napoleon had a fever and didn't go along with them. The King at last concurred that Hortense and Louis Napoleon could remain in Paris as long as their visit was brief and in secret. Louis-Napoleon was informed that he could join the French Army in the event that he would essentially change his name, something he resentfully wouldn't do. Hortense and Louis Napoleon stayed in Paris until 5 May, the 10th commemoration of the demise of Napoleon Bonaparte. The presence of Hortense and Louis Napoleon in the lodging had gotten known, and a public exhibit of grieving for the Emperor occurred on Place Vendôme before their inn. That very day, Hortense and Louis Napoleon were requested to leave Paris. They went to Britain momentarily, and afterward back into oust in Switzerland.
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Les Idées Napoléoniennes (Napoleonic Ideas) written by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile in Switerzland.
In a state of exile with his mother in Switzerland, he enrolled in the Swiss Army, trained to become an officer, and wrote a book about artillery tactics used by his uncle Napoleon I. Louis Napoleon additionally started expounding on his political way of thinking – for as H. A. L. Fisher recommended, "the program of the Empire was not the spontaneous creation of an obscene globe-trotter" but rather the aftereffect of profound reflection on the Napoleonic political way of thinking and on the best way to change it to the changed homegrown and worldwide scenes. He distributed his Rêveries politiques or "political dreams" in 1833 at 25 years old, continued in 1834 by Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Suisse ("Political and military contemplations about Switzerland"), continued in 1839 by Les Idées napoléoniennes ("Napoleonic Ideas"), an abstract of his political thoughts which was distributed in three versions and in the long run converted into six dialects. He put together his precept with respect to two thoughts: widespread testimonial and the supremacy of the public interest. He required a "government which secures the upsides of the Republic without the burdens", a system "solid without dictatorship, free without turmoil, autonomous without success".
Westphalian Crisis[]
Louis Napoleon meeting Kaiser Franz Joseph I of the Austrian Empire in Vienna in 14 December 1868
During the Westphalian Crisis, Louis Napoleon was still in exile in Switerzland and is currently 60 years of age having composed a few books about military strategies enlivened by his uncle Napoleon I of France and Napoleonic political perspective. Having found out about the Westphalian Crisis he had started composing one more book about his other uncle who was the past ruler of Westphalia. While composing his book about his uncle Jérôme Bonaparte he had been called by Austrian Emperor, Kaiser Franz Jospeh I to Vienna. Louis Napoleon had shown up at Vienna on 14 December 1868 he was brought to meet Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria, the Kaiser had given Louis Napoleon the title of the Prince Regnant of the Principality of Kessel, the recently shaped Principality after the Westphalian Crisis. Louis Napoleon had acknowledged this title and set out toward the city of Kessel.
The Reign of Napoleon I of Kessel the Grand Reconstruction of Kessel[]
Napoleon I and Baron Jochen August Schmitz make official the annexation of seven municipalities around Kessel to the city. The annexation increased the size of the city from eight to fifteen city boroughs.
Napoleon I began his regime by launching a series of enormous public works projects in Kessel, hiring thousands of workers to improve the sanitation, water supply and traffic circulation of the city. To direct this task, he named a new prefect of Kessel, Baron Jochen August Schmitz, and gave him extraordinary powers to rebuild the center of the city. He installed a large map of Kessel in a central position in his office, and he and Schmitz planned the new Kessel.
The population of Kessel had doubled since 1815, with neither an increase in its area nor a development of its structure of very narrow medieval streets and alleys.
To accommodate the growing population and those who would be forced from the center by the construction of new boulevards and squares, Napoleon I issued a decree in 1870 to annex seven municipalities on the outskirts of Kessel and increase the number of city boroughs from eight to fifteen. Kessel was thus enlarged to its modern boundaries with the exception of the two major city parks that only became part of the city in 1920.
For the entire duration of Napoleon I's reign and a decade afterward, most of Kessel was an enormous construction site. His hydraulic chief engineer, Wilfried Huber, built a new aqueduct to bring clean water from the Fulda River in the region, and a new huge reservoir. These two works increased the water supply of Kessel from 87,000 to 400,000 cubic meters of water a day. Hundreds of kilometers of pipes distributed the water throughout the city, and a second network, using the less-clean water from the Eder river, washed the streets and watered the new park and gardens. He completely rebuilt Kessel's sewers and installed miles of pipes to distribute gas for thousands of new streetlights along the Kessel streets.
Napoleon I instructed Schmitz to bring air and light to the centre of the city, to unify the different neighbourhoods with boulevards, and to make the city more beautiful.
Beginning in 1869, in the center of the city, Schmitz's workers tore down hundreds of old buildings and constructed new avenues to connect the central points of the city. Buildings along these avenues were required to be the same height, constructed in an architecturally similar style, and be faced with cream-colored stone to create the signature look of Kessel boulevards.
The Kessel Opera House was the centerpiece of Napoleon I's new Kessel. The architect, Markus Althaus, described the style simply as "The Napoelon"
Napoleon I built two new railway stations: the Bahnhof Friedrich and the Bahnhof Erlenfeld. He completed Hallen, the great cast iron and glass pavilioned produce market in the center of the city, and built a new municipal hospital, the Hotel Wehlheiden, in the place of crumbling medieval buildings. The signature architectural landmark was the Kessel Opera House, one of the largest theater in the world, designed by Markus Althaus to crown the center of Napoleon I's new Kessel.
Napoleon I also wanted to build new parks and gardens for the recreation and relaxation of the Kesselians, particularly those in the new neighbourhoods of the expanding city.
The Karlsaue Park, transformed by Napoleon I, it was designed to give a place for relaxation and recreation to all the classes of Kessel.
Napoleon I's new parks were inspired by his memories of the parks in London, especially Hyde Park, where he had strolled and promenaded in a carriage during a short trip to Britain; but he wanted to build on a slightly larger scale. Working with Schmitz and August Krämer, the engineer who headed the new Service of Promenades and Plantations, he laid out a plan for four major parks at the cardinal points of the compass around the city. Thousands of workers and gardeners began to dig lakes, build cascades, plant lawns, flowerbeds, and trees, and construct chalets and grottoes. Napoleon I transformed the Karlsaue into a park to the west of Kessel. To the east, he created the Dönche park, and to the north, the Bad Wilhelmshöhe.
Marraige and Personal Life[]
Louis Napoleon has a historical reputation as a womanizer, yet he said: "It is usually the man who attacks. As for me, I defend myself, and I often capitulate" He had many mistresses. During his reign, it was the task of his friend Count Leonhardt Waltz, his social secretary, to arrange for trysts and to procure women for favours. His affairs were not trivial sideshows: they distracted him from governing, affected his relationship with his wife, and diminished him in the views of the other European courts. Among his numerous lovers and mistresses were
- Maria Anna Schiess of Allensbach, mother of his son Bonaventur Karrer.
- Alexandrine Éléonore Vergeot, laundress at the prison at Ham, mother of his sons Alexandre Louis Eugène Bure and Louis Ernest Alexandre Bure
- Elisa Rachel Felix, the "one of the most famous actress in Europe"
- Harriet Howard, wealthy actress and a major financial backer
- Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione spy, artist and famous beauty, sent by Camillo Cavour to influence the Emperor's politics
- Marie-Anne Walewska, a possible mistress, who was the wife of Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, his relative and foreign minister of Switzerland
- Justine Marie Le Boeuf, also known as Marguerite Bellanger, actress and acrobatic dancer. Bellanger was falsely rumoured to be the illegitimate daughter of a hangman, and was the most universally loathed of the mistresses, though perhaps his favourite.
- Countess Louise de Mercy-Argenteau, likely a platonic relationship, author of The Last Love of an Louis Napoleon, her reminiscences of her association with the Prince.
Princess Sofia Möller the wife of Napoleon I
His wife, Sofia Möller, resisted his advances prior to marriage. She was coached by her mother and her friend, Prosper Mérimée. "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through the chapel, Sir," she answered. Yet, after marriage, it took not long for him to stray as Möller found sex with him "disgusting". It is doubtful that she allowed further approaches by her husband once she had given him an heir.
By his late forties, Napoleon started to suffer from numerous medical ailments, including kidney disease, bladder stones, chronic bladder and prostate infections, arthritis, gout, obesity, and the chronic effects of smoking. In 1856, Dr. Robert Ferguson, a consultant called from London, diagnosed a "nervous exhaustion" that had a "debilitating impact upon sexual ... performance" which he also reported to the British government.
Death[]
Napoleon I of Kessel after his death
Napoleon I passed his time writing and designing a stove which would be more energy efficient. In the summer of 1872, his health began to worsen. Doctors recommended surgery to remove his gallstones. After two operations, he became very seriously ill. They were his last words. He was given last rites and died on the 9th of January 1873.
Napoleon was originally buried at Friedhof Bettenhausen a cemetery in Kessel. However, his son had decided to build a monastery and a chapel for the remains of Napoleon I. In 1888, the bodies were moved to the Crypt of Napoleon I of Kessel.