The wife of Napoleon III Eugene de Montijo is the last empress of France. She wore this title in 1853 - 1871. and all this time was an important political and secular figure of the country. After the overthrow of her husband, an aristocrat lived in exile for another 50 years.
Origin
The future Empress of France, Eugenia, was born on May 5, 1826 in Spanish Granada. Her noble family had multinational roots. The girl could equally confidently call herself French, Spanish and Scottish. Her father Cipriano Palafox had the title of Count of Montijo. Mother Maria Kirkpatrick is a Spanish noblewoman. The aristocratic family was full of contradictions, inherited as a gift from the past. For example, with the onset of the Franco-Spanish War, Count Montijo made a difficult choice and supported Napoleon.
According to his position, Eugene Palafox received an elite education. For study, she was transported to Paris. In France, the girl became widely known as Eugenia de Montijo, although by all formalities this title belonged to her older sister.
Acquaintance with Napoleon III
Eugene first met her husband in 1849, when Napoleon 3 was not yet Napoleon 3, but ruled by France as president. The girl already knew the high society well, so it is not surprising that she received an invitation to a traditional ball, which took place in the Champs Elysees.
In 1853, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and Eugene were married by a legal marriage. The wedding took place shortly after the coronation of the new emperor of the French. On January 29, a secular ceremony was held in the Tuileries, and on January 30 a church ceremony in Notre Dame followed.
Dynastic question
Whatever spouse Napoleon 3 chose, becoming emperor, he sent his personal life to the altar of state interests. The monarchies adopted far-sighted dynastic marriages that made it possible to conclude and strengthen allied relations with neighboring powers.
Napoleon III made an offer to his beloved while still president, but the future empress of France Eugenie suggested waiting with a hasty decision. Now Bonaparte was the emperor, and the consequences of his wedding became much more serious for the whole country compared to a wedding in an elected position.
In higher government circles, the decision of the monarch was made controversially. Many aristocrats and ministers considered marrying a nee Spaniard a wrong decision due to the fact that they looked down on Spain in Paris. Some perceived such a marriage as a humiliation of the state. Napoleon’s wife herself hardly thought so. She quickly got used to her high and responsible status and its inevitable attributes.
Social life of the empress
In the XIX century, Paris was considered the capital of European high life and fashion. The most luxurious balls and the most expensive exhibitions were held here. Empress of France Eugene could not help but correspond to the lifestyle that a huge city dictated to her. She regularly appeared in the fashion salon of Princess Paulina von Metternich. Thanks to this institution in Paris, the fashion for female smoking has spread, outfits from Charles Worth and the music of Richard Wagner. It gathered the most famous aristocrats of the city.
Empress of France Eugene also instilled in her subjects some habits. Together with her husband, she passionately loved ice skating. Cultivated by the crowned times, the fun quickly swept the masses.
Another (already court) entertainment of Eugenia was her posing for paintings by various artists. Dozens of portraits of the empress have been preserved. On some, the model is depicted in the Palace of Versailles; on others, it rests in the countryside; on others, it is surrounded by its maids of honor. Eugenia's favorite portrait painter was German Franz Winterhalter. This artist enjoyed the exceptional favor of the empress.
Policy Impact
Despite her rather idle lifestyle, the last empress of France did not forget about her monarchical position. To the best of her ability, she helped her husband in the performance of his duties. When Napoleon left the country during his trips abroad, his wife remained in France and was actually a regent.
Eugenia's views and decisions were greatly influenced by her zealous Catholic faith. Napoleon's wife was a staunch supporter of ultramontaneism. This religious movement advocated the supremacy of the authority of the pope over all national Catholic churches. The movement was reactionary and was often criticized in freedom-loving France.
The fact that Countess Montijo never hid her deep commitment to Catholicism is easily explained by her Spanish blood. During the reign of Napoleon, the Italian Risorgimento fell, when numerous states of this split country united into one power. In parallel with this process, there was a process of decreasing the significance of the Papal region and the Pope in general. Eugene regularly lamented about this.
In 1869, the empress went to Egypt and took part in the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal (France had 53% of the project). In addition to traveling abroad, Eugene was known for her feminism and the protection of women's rights. It was she who pressed the French Ministry of Education, after which the girls received the right to receive a bachelor's degree. Also, a wide public outcry was caused by Napoleon’s unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Academy of Sciences to make the famous writer George Sand his first female member.
Some decisions of Eugenia were widely criticized. The public blamed her for tying France into the Mexican War. The European powers wanted to create a new monarchy in Latin America. The empress supported this idea and often reminded her of her husband. After the exhortations of his wife, Napoleon III decided to start an invasion of Mexico. The war ended in complete fiasco.
Deposition
The reign of Napoleon III ended in 1870 due to defeat in the war with Prussia. It so happened that Eugene contributed to the destruction of the recently restored empire. A formal dispute between France and Prussia occurred on the basis of disagreement about the future heir to the Spanish throne. In the fate of her native country, the empress, no doubt, was an interested party. Perhaps it was her disagreement with the position of Prussia that became decisive for the crowned husband.
One way or another, but the war began. Its reasons were far deeper than the debate about the Spanish throne. Therefore, a smoldering conflict for many years would have flared up anyway, all the more so since both sides really wanted to escalate. But history does not know the subjunctive mood, and the facts were not on the side of France. Napoleon led the army and with it suffered a crushing defeat in the decisive Sedan battle.
Eugene at that time was in Paris. With the departure of her husband, she was appointed regent of France. Now Napoleon was in captivity from the unknown, and anti-monarchical sentiments grew in the capital. The emperor was quickly overthrown. After carrying out the formal procedure on September 4, Eugene left the country. When the empress received the first news of her husband’s decision to surrender, she did not believe this message, believing that the husband could not dishonor himself so, and the Germans killed him.
Emigration
Napoleon managed to free himself from captivity unharmed. The couple settled in the English city of Chislhurst. In 1873, Napoleon died after an operation to crush kidney stones. Eugenia has the only son left. The growing Eugene Napoleon chose a military career.
In 1879, he volunteered for the Anglo-Zulu War. Biographers note that the young man took a rash act because of a desire to end his dependence on his mother. A month before the end of the war, Eugene died during an intelligence raid.
Last years
When Napoleon III was still alive, a large party of Bonapartists and supporters of the restoration of the monarchy was formed around him. The former emperor died, and the hopes of the royalists turned to the rightful heir to Eugene. Now he has passed away. Eugene was left alone and became the head of the Bonapartist party, although her value was rapidly approaching zero.
The exile spent most of her old age in the UK. She was friendly with many reigning dynasties, including the Russian Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, who last visited Evgenia in 1909 in the company of her husband Nicholas II.
Death and memory
Napoleon III's wife remained active even in old age. During World War I, she visited the ships of the navy of Great Britain. Eugene continued to travel to her native Spain, where she had many relatives left. While there, she died on July 11, 1920 at the age of 94. The countess was buried next to her husband and son in British Farnborough.
The archipelago located in the Primorsky Territory of Russia reminds of Empress Eugenia. The ridge of islands was named after her, due to the fact that in the 1850s, French sailors discovered this new land. The name of Eugenia also bears an asteroid, discovered in 1857.