Eunuch Napoleon

[chornedsnorkack]

What would happen to French Consulate and Empire if Napoleon Bonaparte were an eunuch, and publicly known as such?

The first and most serious occasion Napoleon was wounded was 1793, storming of Toulon (December, Major Napoleon was 24).
He received a bayonet wound just above his left knee. It was feared that the leg would have to be amputated. Eventually the wound healed, but left a deep scar.
It was on the inner side of his left knee.

Suppose that the bayonet goes slightly higher?
Various options. The bayonet might have cut a femoral artery and caused bleeding to death. Or it might have been a wound to require amputation after all. Or the left leg may have remained attached but become seriously unfit to bear weight.

However, WI Napoleon received a wound that neither kills him nor cripples his legs, but does permanently deprive him of use of his either testicle or penis?

How would French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars comrades regard an officer who had no more balls?

It must have happened sometimes, though perhaps not very often (privates are a modest sized target). Were there any OTL French officers who did become eunuchs? And how did this affect the public attitudes to them and their military career (in cases they kept full use of legs)?

 

[James Ricker]

He wouldn't have been able to declare himself Emporor.The inability to father a dynasty makes that a moot point.

 

[Balaur]

If someone gets hit in the privates, they get hit in the groin-which is stuffed full of blood vessels. A bit of a problem for poor Napoleon if he gets hit there.

 

[Jared]

People would doubt whether he had the balls for the job of general.

 

[JonasResende]

How would French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars comrades regard an officer who had no more balls?

Probably not well.

It must have happened sometimes, though perhaps not very often (privates are a modest sized target).

Not if they're big enough to be wearing a hat and jackboots they're not Imagine the nicknames, Ole Boney no Bone, the No-Privates Private - oh the list can get quite long

 

[NavesFerrata]

If he survives getting to the field hospital and is still standing, I reckon he has a fighting chance -- mainly because if he does he probably has the bleeding decently controlled and because the same reason you don't want to get hit there (richly supplied with blood) also means that the area tends to heal pretty quickly and well. More to the point I seriously doubt whether he will be passed over for promotions because of his injury; there were ACW generals who had lost limbs. However, it will probably have knock-on effects related to his rise to civil power -- even the French would have thought he had lost his head if he tried to declare himself Emperor. The lack of testosterone and the psychological aspects of his injury probably will have some mental effects, which will alter how the Napoleonic Wars play out. In the middle 19th Century this comes into play again -- the question of whether without Uncle Boney's example Napoleon III tries to crown himself Emperor comes up. If he leaves office at the end of his term this augurs well for the French Second Republic and given that Napoleon III's delusions of being as talented a general as his uncle apparently played a big role in the utter SNAFU that was the Franco-Prussian War, and established Germany as a great power, it becomes clear that Napoleon's "urinary tract injury" may well have major consequences for la patrie in the longer run.

 

[chornedsnorkack]

If he survives getting to the field hospital and is still standing, I reckon he has a fighting chance -- mainly because if he does he probably has the bleeding decently controlled and because the same reason you don't want to get hit there (richly supplied with blood) also means that the area tends to heal pretty quickly and well. More to the point I seriously doubt whether he will be passed over for promotions because of his injury; there were ACW generals who had lost limbs. However, it will probably have knock-on effects related to his rise to civil power -- even the French would have thought he had lost his head if he tried to declare himself Emperor. The lack of testosterone

Groin also has major tendons moving the legs.
But were there any actual examples of 18th...19th century officers, whether in France or elsewhere in Europe, who lost their privates although they kept their legs? How were they treated in their later career?

and the psychological aspects of his injury probably will have some mental effects, which will alter how the Napoleonic Wars play out. In the middle 19th Century this comes into play again -- the question of whether without Uncle Boney's example Napoleon III tries to crown himself Emperor comes up. If he leaves office at the end of his term this augurs well for the French Second Republic and given that Napoleon III's delusions of being as talented a general as his uncle apparently played a big role in the utter SNAFU that was the Franco-Prussian War, and established Germany as a great power, it becomes clear that Napoleon's "urinary tract injury" may well have major consequences for la patrie in the longer run.

In OTL Spring 1804, Napoleon was 34, married for 8 years, but no children. It was in 1806 that he had his first, confirming that it was Josephine who was barren. In the meantime, Napoleon had 4 adult brethren.
Yet despite having been a hereditary emperor for 8 and a half years, and had a son for a year and a half, on 23th of October 1812, no one who heard that Napoleon was dead thought to proclaim Napoleon II.
If Napoleon´s infertility had been confirmed rather than merely suspected as in OTL 1804, would it have hampered the Consul for Life from making his (uninjured) brethren his heirs?

 

[NavesFerrata]

1.) Napoleon is going to get promoted -- he's too ambitious to watch lesser lights be promoted ahead of him again and again as he wins battle after battle as a major, and lacks any otherwise objectionable quality, because of this, and more than likely some civilian bureaucrat at the Revolutionary French equivalent of the Pentagon is going to notice that here is this Napoleon guy who wins battle after battle but isn't getting recommended for promotion, and is going to investigate and find out that there isn't any real reason that Napoleon isn't getting promoted. Failing this Napoleon will probably risk all to win all in a coup d'etat, he wasn't exactly averse to gambling for high stakes.
2.) This is certainly possible; Agha Mohammed Shah was in the same predicament you hypothesize for Boney (long story short, he got on the wrong side of some Pashtuns from Afghanistan and the crowned dude of the tribe that got him who caputred him decided in a show of cruel mercy to castrate him instead of killing him. Agha's a title for Turkish court eunuchs, in case you wondered). He simply named his nephew his heir; I suspect that Nappy will play this circumstance to the hilt. He might even decide to name one of his sisters First Consul if he can force a Bourbon prince du sang with a strong claim to the throne to marry her; essentially turning a weakness into a strength -- removing him then results in a War of the French Succession, at least if the restored monarchy's powers are worth fighting over, essentially forcing the forces of reaction to choose between a crowned republic in France, a continuation of the state of general war in Europe, giving up on the concept of balance of power, or Boney. Brilliant no?