Chambord Adopts Napoleon IV

In an earlier thread, someone suggested that the Comte de Chambord pull a Charles XIII of Sweden and adopt his successor - the Bonapartes. Naturally, when we think of Chambord, this seems very unlikely.

While I was reading a biography of Chambord recently, I came across an interesting tidbit of info. Chambord was MORE THAN willing to adopt the Prince Imperial as HIS HEIR TO THE THRONE OF FRANCE!

Okay, I hear you. This was the guy who turned down the French throne because of a flag and he's willing to accept the Bonapartes, not even a blood relation of his, as his successor on the throne of St. Louis? WTF!:confused:

It's true. Queen Isabel II of Spain was very good friends with fellow Spaniard and devoted royalist, the Empress Eugènie. Isabel was also in contact with Chambord. Knowing that he was elderly, unlikely to have legitimate children and that this would lead to further ruptures in the house of Bourbon (between the Orléanists and the Légitimists), she broached the subject to him of adopting the Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV).

Chambord was all for the idea! Trust me, my head was orbiting somewhere around Saturn when I read this. He would adopt the Prince Imperial as his 'dauphin', the prince would then marry one of Isabel's daughters (I suspect had the Conde de Montizon had a daughter, she would've been suggested instead), and succeed Henri V as the king of France. Of course, whether this was legal was a different matter entirely.

However, after he failed to be restored to the throne - which was what all of this hinged on - Chambord wrote to Isabel and Eugènie saying that he was too old and were he to do this, people would mistake his intentions, and the matter was dropped.

But what if, as ASB as it might seem, the last of the direct line of Louis XV had adopted the heir to the line of the Bonapartes?
 
Very interesting idea! However, are you sure that the Comte de Chamord was serious or was he trying to neutralize the Bonapartes and go back on his word once he's on the throne? I ask because there was a similar idea for him to adopt the Comte de Paris (Philippe VII of the d'Orléans) as his heir, thereby uniting the two competing branches of the French Royal house. Out of curiosity what book did you read that in? I've been wanting a good bio on Chambord for some time but can never find one in English.
 
Of course, whether this was legal was a different matter entirely.

Right. I, too, am surprised that Chambord would consider this route seriously. I'd be even more surprised if the bulk of the legitimists (or even if a large size of them) would endorse this arrangement and recognize Napoleon IV as the "legitimate" legitimist pretender!
 
there was a similar idea for him to adopt the Comte de Paris (Philippe VII of the d'Orléans) as his heir, thereby uniting the two competing branches of the French Royal house.

What's with that? Is there a precedent in the acquisition of dynastic rights via adoption in pre-Napoleonic France? I'd think that if Chambord was to consider the Orléans as his successors all he needed to say is that - in his view - Felipe V renunciation for himself and his descendents was valid and hence the Orléans would be his genealogical and dynastic successors... period.
 
Isabel fall in the same wishful thinking bandwagon than all other supporters of Henri.
If you ask different peoples, he was to accept the alliance with Orleanists, he was to be more liberal, he was to so many things.

Everything safe reality. Henri V was so dyed in the ultra-royalist wood than any form of compromise when it came to its political program and ambitions was a nightmare to achieve and maintain.
Given the huge division of french royalists and the "splendid isolation" of Chambord during decades, no wonder such "I sware, he totally told me so" made it, but it doesn't mean it had any chance to happen or even to be an actual project of the pretender.
 
In an earlier thread, someone suggested that the Comte de Chambord pull a Charles XIII of Sweden and adopt his successor - the Bonapartes. Naturally, when we think of Chambord, this seems very unlikely.

While I was reading a biography of Chambord recently, I came across an interesting tidbit of info. Chambord was MORE THAN willing to adopt the Prince Imperial as HIS HEIR TO THE THRONE OF FRANCE!

Okay, I hear you. This was the guy who turned down the French throne because of a flag and he's willing to accept the Bonapartes, not even a blood relation of his, as his successor on the throne of St. Louis? WTF!:confused:

It's true. Queen Isabel II of Spain was very good friends with fellow Spaniard and devoted royalist, the Empress Eugènie. Isabel was also in contact with Chambord. Knowing that he was elderly, unlikely to have legitimate children and that this would lead to further ruptures in the house of Bourbon (between the Orléanists and the Légitimists), she broached the subject to him of adopting the Prince Imperial (Napoléon IV).

Chambord was all for the idea! Trust me, my head was orbiting somewhere around Saturn when I read this. He would adopt the Prince Imperial as his 'dauphin', the prince would then marry one of Isabel's daughters (I suspect had the Conde de Montizon had a daughter, she would've been suggested instead), and succeed Henri V as the king of France. Of course, whether this was legal was a different matter entirely.

However, after he failed to be restored to the throne - which was what all of this hinged on - Chambord wrote to Isabel and Eugènie saying that he was too old and were he to do this, people would mistake his intentions, and the matter was dropped.

But what if, as ASB as it might seem, the last of the direct line of Louis XV had adopted the heir to the line of the Bonapartes?

I don't think its ASB at all. I think the Prince Imperial would have been a much more sympathetic figure to Henri V than the alternative (the House of Orleans). Empress Eugenie was a hard-core royalist and Catholic - it would have been highly likely that aside from her husband she would see Chambord as the rightful King of France. The Prince Imperial was a widely admired young man and very much seemingly more his mother's son than another Bonaparte (compare him to Napoleon "Plon-Plon" Bonaparte who became the de facto Head of the House after Nap IV was killed and was an anti-clerical liberal). The Prince Imperial's future would be further secured if he indeed marry the Spanish Infanta as his mother and Isabel II wanted. Remember Chambord regarded the Spanish Bourbons his true heirs and the legitimist line from Louis XIV. Through the child of Nap IV and the Infanta, that blood would reign over France again.

What's really at play here (and I think the reason Chambord didn't really care if he became king in the end) is how much he loathed the House of Orleans who he was raised to be believe as treacherous and ambitious (which they pretty much were). Remember how much Chambord regarded the memory of the exile of his beloved grandfather, the travails of his mother in trying to regain his throne and the second exile of the person he regarded as a saint - his aunt, the Duchess D'Angeloume, Madame Royale. All with the connivance of the House of Orleans (Egalite voted for the death of Louis XVI and did nothing for the rest of the main family before he lost his head and Louis-Phillipe after regaining trust from the main royal family was appointed Regent for Henri V when Charles X and his son abdicated only to turn around, seize the throne and personally organize the final exile for the deposed royals - including the boy Henri). There's a very telling memoir by one of Louis-Phillipe's ministers for free on Google Books where there is an entire section devoted to how Louis-Phillipe's government made it extremely difficult for Chambord to travel ANYWHERE. They pointedly told foreign government heads (including ones Chambord were related to) not to see him, and made sure governments did not acknowledge his titles, nor allow him to stay in any country for an extended period of time. One of the times that Madame Royale and Chambord's mother were in complete agreement and Marie-Therese was known to show signs of happiness was when the word came that Louis-Phillipe had been toppled and had ironically tried to abdicate for his infant grandson to no avail. The main Bourbons regarded this as karma. I know Orleans propaganda had it that Chambord acknowledged the Count of Paris as his heir (after the Orleans princes acknowledged Henri as Head of the House - which only came after it was clear he would have no children) but there is no evidence of this or that his wife was not following his intentions in saying the Count of Montizon was Chambord's heir.

I find if far easier to believe he would acknowledge the Prince Imperial married to a Spanish Infanta as his heir (which would unite both Bonapartists and Legitimists) than the Count of Paris.
 
Henri of Chambord was so devoted to monarchic principles that he refused the crown.

The rules of succession were a very important part of the rules of the traditional french monarchy. It had even been one of the causes of the hundred years war.

So he would never have adopted a Bonaparte. And if he had ever tried, he would have lost the support of the orleanists who represented half of the monarchist representatives.
 
de Chambord's hate for the Orleanist branch is possibly the only sure thing. IIRC the proposal to let Henri take the throne with the Comte de Paris being apponted as his successor came from the Orleanists, and was never considered a real possibility by the Legitimists. On this basis, the adoption of the Prince Imperial is just possibly more palatable :D (which does not mean it was a real possibility or even a possible scenario: I do agree in full with LSCatilina)..
 
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