Secrets de Paris – Little mysteries around the birth of Napoleon III

DOn the night of April 20 to 21, 1808, the third son of Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846) and Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837) was born in Paris. Nephew of Napoleon I^er by his father, this child is also the grandson of the Empress Joséphine by his mother… Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife had Hortense from a previous union.

The family tree of the future Napoleon III is unusual! It is all the less so as a serious uncertainty floats over his filiation. This boy, who will not receive the first name of Charles-Louis-Napoleon until a month after his birth and will not be baptized until 1810, is he really the son of the Constable of France, who is also King of Holland, like the state their marital status?