A Prince is Born
"...oh, what a joyous thing, to be a father!"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
The bizarre news of Ferdinand's declaration as the proper king of Spain by virtue of an overly technical reading of Spanish succession law reached a Paris in thrall to the news of the birth of the Prince Imperial, Napoleon Charles Paul-Alexandre Joseph Bonaparte. Both mother and son had had a healthy and relatively light birth and the city was overjoyed, with fireworks and a carnival-like atmosphere in the streets. The Empire had its prince; Napoleon had his heir.
The news reverberated around Europe; as if the battlefield victories and strategic marriage between Napoleon and the Russian Imperial house had not fully conferred a sense of permanence upon the Bonaparte dynasty, perhaps this would. Louis of Holland, Jerome of Westphalia and Joseph of Naples, his royal brothers, had children of their own, as did his sister Caroline and her husband Joachim Murat, the Prince of Berg; the Bonapartes, ensconced on their thrones and with children set to succeed them, did not seem likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. Russian nobility was mutedly optimistic about the birth, though Tsar Alexander was said to have scowled upon the news of his nephew's birth; in the last year, he had slowly began to sour on his arrangements with France and though he did not desire war had begun to hatch a project to diplomatically isolate France in order to wring concessions from his brother-in-law, with his sister as an agent of influence.
Congratulations rolled in from across Europe (with the notable exception of Britain) as Napoleon focused on celebrating his son, including a lavish baptism when he was two months old. The news came within a few months, too, that Catherine was pregnant
again; it looked likely that
L'Aigle would have two hatchlings, an heir and a spare, in short order. For now, military and political matters would have to wait, no matter what the alarmed letters from Madrid said...