Napoléon-Charles Bonaparte

Napoléon-Charles Bonaparte
Prince Royal of Holland; Prince Français
Born 10 October 1802
Paris, France
Died 5 May 1807 (aged 4)
The Hague, Holland
Names
Napoléon Louis Charles Bonaparte
House Bonaparte
Father Louis I of Holland
Mother Hortense de Beauharnais
Royal styles of
Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
Reference style His Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness

Napoléon Louis Charles Bonaparte (10 October 1802 – 5 May 1807) was the eldest son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais. His father was Emperor Napoleon I's younger brother; his mother was the daughter of Napoleon's first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

Life

At the time of his birth his uncle was First Consul of France and childless. Napoleon Charles was his eldest nephew and seen as a potential heir, but he died before reaching his fifth birthday on 5 May 1807 of croup.

Napoleon Charles had two brothers: the youngest, Louis Napoleon, eventually became Emperor as Napoleon III in 1852.

The strong attachment that Napoleon showed towards the child, and which was not repeated with his two younger brothers, gave rise to speculation according to which Napoleon-Charles was actually the son of a forbidden relationship between Napoleon and his stepdaughter Hortense.

Ancestry