His wife is the same as in TOTL. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he had four children in TTL.
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List of monarchs III
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His wife is the same as in TOTL. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he had four children in TTL.
What if Napoleon died in the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and the French continued the Empire with Tallyrand as the 2nd Emperor?
Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Luicen Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was an Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Empeor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form a alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from it's newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick __________ as his successor.
Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[4] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Luicen Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was an Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Empeor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form a alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from it's newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick __________ as his successor.
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Carlo Maria Buonaparte, b. 1745, d. 1785
1) Joseph Bonaparte, b. 1768, d. 1844
2) Napoleon I, 1st Emperor of France, b. 1769, r. 1804 to 1812, m1. Josephine Beauharnais, m2. Marie Louise of Austria
a) Napoleon Francis aka Prince Napoleon II (...), b. 1811
3) Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano, b. 1775, d. 1840, m1. Christine Boyer, m2. Alexandrine de Bleschamp
1a) Filistine Charlotte, b. 1795
1b) Christine Egypte, b. 1798
2c) Charles Lucien, b. 1803
2d) Letizia, b. 1804
2e) Jeanne, b. 1807
2f) Paul Marie, b. 1809
2g) Louis Lucien, b 1813
2h) Pierre Napoleon, b. 1815
2i) Antoine, b. 1816
2j) Marie Alexandrine, b. 1818, m. Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Perigord
1) Maurice I, 5th Emperor of France, b. 1842, r. 1881 to 1904, m. Claudine La Fayette
a) Has children
2k) Constance, b. 1823
4) Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, b. 1777, 1805/1809 to 1820, m. Felice Pasquale Baciocchi
a) Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, b. 1806 to 1869, m. Achille I, 3rd Emperor of France and King of Naples, b. 1801, r. 1838 to 1847
1) Eldest Son who succeeds as King of Naples and heir to his mother's titles
2) Only Daughter
3) Several other sons
5) Louis Bonaparte, b. 1778, d. 1846
6) Pauline Bonaparte, b. 1780, d. 1825
7) Caroline Bonaparte, b. 1782, d. 1839, m. Joachim Murat, King of Naples (r. 1808 to 1820)
a) Achille I, 3rd Emperor of France and King of Naples, b. 1801, r. 1838 to 1847, m. Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, b. 1806 to 1869
1) Eldest Son who succeeds as King of Naples and heir to his mother's titles, b. 1825
2) Only Daughter, b. 1827
3) Several other sons
b) Marie Letizia, b. 1802, d. 1859, m. Guido Taddeo Pepoli, Conte de Castiglione)
1) Eugene I, 4th Emperor of France, (prev. Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli), b. 1825, r. 1847 to 1881, m. Frederique of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen
a) Four children
c) Lucien Charles (...), Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1803, d. 1878
d) Louise Julie, b. 1805, d. 1889
8) Jerome Bonaparte, b. 1784, d. 1860
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by __________.
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick __________ as his successor.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick __________ as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by __________.
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Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
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Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
Carlo Maria Buonaparte, b. 1745, d. 1785
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
Carlo Maria Buonaparte, b. 1745, d. 1785
1) Joseph Bonaparte, b. 1768, d. 1844
2) Napoleon I, 1st Emperor of France, b. 1769, r. 1804 to 1812, m1. Josephine Beauharnais, m2. Marie Louise of Austria
a) Napoleon Francis aka Prince Napoleon II (...), b. 1811
3) Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano, b. 1775, d. 1840, m1. Christine Boyer, m2. Alexandrine de Bleschamp
1a) Filistine Charlotte, b. 1795
1b) Christine Egypte, b. 1798
2c) Charles Lucien, b. 1803
2d) Letizia, b. 1804
2e) Jeanne, b. 1807
2f) Paul Marie, b. 1809
2g) Louis Lucien, b 1813
2h) Pierre Napoleon, b. 1815
2i) Antoine, b. 1816
2j) Marie Alexandrine, b. 1818, m. Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Perigord
1) Maurice I, 5th Emperor of France, b. 1842, r. 1881 to 1904, m. Claudine La Fayette
a) Maurice II, 6th Emperor of France, b. 1867, r. 1904 to 1907, d. 19XX, m. Unnamed Danish Librarian
1) Two adopted children
b) Has daughters
2k) Constance, b. 1823
4) Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, b. 1777, 1805/1809 to 1820, m. Felice Pasquale Baciocchi
a) Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, b. 1806 to 1869, m. Achille I, 3rd Emperor of France and King of Naples, b. 1801, r. 1838 to 1847
x) see line of Achille I
5) Louis Bonaparte, b. 1778, d. 1846
6) Pauline Bonaparte, b. 1780, d. 1825
7) Caroline Bonaparte, b. 1782, d. 1839, m. Joachim Murat, King of Naples (r. 1808 to 1820)
a) Achille I, 3rd Emperor of France and King of Naples, b. 1801, r. 1838 to 1847, m. Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, b. 1806 to 1869
1) Achille II, King of Naples, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Prince of Lucca and Piombino, Count of Compignano, b. 1825, r. 1847 to 1910
a) Achille III, King of Naples (...), b. 1847, r. 1910 to 1923
1) Achille IV, King of Naples (...), b. 1880, r. 1923 to 19XX
2) Only Daughter, b. 1827
3) Several other sons
b) Marie Letizia, b. 1802, d. 1859, m. Guido Taddeo Pepoli, Conte de Castiglione)
1) Eugene I, 4th Emperor of France, (prev. Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli), b. 1825, r. 1847 to 1881, m. Frederique of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen
a) Four children
c) Lucien Charles (...), 2nd Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1803, d. 1878
1) Joachim (...), 3rd Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1834, d. 1901
a) Joachim (...), 4th Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1856, d. 1932
1) Joachim (...), 5th Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1885, d. 1938
a) Leopold (...), King of Florida, Last Prince of Pontecorvo, b. 1920, r. 1939 to 1972
d) Louise Julie, b. 1805, d. 1889
8) Jerome Bonaparte, b. 1784, d. 1860
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Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [3]
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with _________.
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [3]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with _________.
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Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
1972-1979: Charles II (House of Bonaparte) [10]
[10] Charles Joseph Bonaparte became Emperor Charles II (he counted Charlemagne II as the first Charles) after his predecessor was assassinated and would rule France at it's weakest point in history. He was seen as a British puppet because of his wife Princess Charlotte of the British Commonwealth, who had a considerable amount of power in the Western Senate.
In 1974, Corsica would declare independence from West France and would have a Bonaparte on thier throne. The following year, Brittany and Normandy both became indepandent republics, which would cause the people to attempt to overthrow the monarchy and replace it with a republic, but failed. Charles II would also start plans of reuniting with East France in the near future.
In 1979, Charles II would abdicate after turning 75 years old. The Western Senate had already selected an heir, and he would move to London, where he wrote his memoirs about his time as Emperor of West France. He also traveled the world with his wife before dying in his hometown of Tregastel in 1997.
Charles II has been remembered as a weak ruler who did barely anything about the state West France was in during the '70s, which had been seen as being very different when compared to the French Empire in the '20s.
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
1972-1979: Charles II (House of Bonaparte) [10]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
[10] Charles Joseph Bonaparte became Emperor Charles II (he counted Charlemagne II as the first Charles) after his predecessor was assassinated and would rule France at it's weakest point in history. He was seen as a British puppet because of his wife Princess Charlotte of the British Commonwealth, who had a considerable amount of power in the Western Senate.
In 1974, Corsica would declare independence from West France and would have a Bonaparte on thier throne. The following year, Brittany and Normandy both became indepandent republics, which would cause the people to attempt to overthrow the monarchy and replace it with a republic, but failed. Charles II would also start plans of reuniting with East France in the near future.
In 1979, Charles II would abdicate after turning 75 years old. The Western Senate had already selected an heir, and he would move to London, where he wrote his memoirs about his time as Emperor of West France. He also traveled the world with his wife before dying in his hometown of Tregastel in 1997.
Charles II has been remembered as a weak ruler who did barely anything about the state West France was in during the '70s, which had been seen as being very different when compared to the French Empire in the '20s.
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Just a small correction I think I found on this, but the UK ITTL seems to be named the British Commonwealth (possibly a sing of it being a more federalized or decentralized entity with its internal parts or even its colonies)Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
1972-1979: Charles II (House of Bonaparte) [10]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.
[5] After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
[10] Charles Joseph Bonaparte became Emperor Charles II (he counted Charlemagne II as the first Charles) after his predecessor was assassinated and would rule France at it's weakest point in history. He was seen as a British puppet because of his wife Princess Charlotte of the United Kingdom, who had a considerable amount of power in the Western Senate.
In 1974, Corsica would declare independence from West France and would have a Bonaparte on thier throne. The following year, Brittany and Normandy both became indepandent republics, which would cause the people to attempt to overthrow the monarchy and replace it with a republic, but failed. Charles II would also start plans of reuniting with East France in the near future.
In 1979, Charles II would abdicate after turning 75 years old. The Western Senate had already selected an heir, and he would move to the UK, where he wrote his memoirs about his time as Emperor of West France. He also traveled the world with his wife before dying in his hometown of Tregastel in 1997.
Charles II has been remembered as a weak ruler who did barely anything about the state West France was in during the '70s, which had been seen as being very different when compared to the French Empire in the '20s.
How is Charles II related to Victor Emmanuel? And the new monarch of Corsica?
I had Victor Emmanuel planned as a descendant of Jerome Bonaparte (based on Louis, Prince Napoleon, born 1914), and he was the most senior male line descendant. Charles II is born in 1904 so must have been an elder paternal cousin of some sort.
Also looks like France is now five nations -
Republic of Normandy (Capital: Rouen or Caen)
Republic of Brittany (Capital: Rennes/Roazhon)
Kingdom of Corsica (Capital: Ajaccio)
Western French Empire (Capital: Nantes) = Pays de la Loires, Centre-Val de Loire, Nouvelle-Acquitaine, Occitanie
Empire of East France (Capital: Paris) Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, Iles Des Frances
I had Victor Emmanuel planned as a descendant of Jerome Bonaparte (based on Louis, Prince Napoleon, born 1914), and he was the most senior male line descendant. Charles II is born in 1904 so must have been an elder paternal cousin of some sort.
Also looks like France is now five nations -
Republic of Normandy (Capital: Rouen or Caen)
Republic of Brittany (Capital: Rennes/Roazhon)
Kingdom of Corsica (Capital: Ajaccio)
Western French Empire (Capital: Nantes) = Pays de la Loires, Centre-Val de Loire, Nouvelle-Acquitaine, Occitanie
Empire of East France (Capital: Paris) Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, Iles Des Frances
Charles II is indeed an elder paternal cousin.
Corsica went to Victor Emmanuel's younger brother.
Emperors of the French
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
1972-1979: Charles II (House of Bonaparte) [10]
1979-1980: Louis III (House of Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon) [11]
Emperors of the French
1980-2019: Louis III (House of Bourbon-Orléans) [11]
[11] Louis Charles Henri Philippe Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon was born in Orleans in 1950, where his family had had estates since his ancestor, Phillipe I d'Orleans Bourbon, had been made Duke of Orleans in 1661 by his brother, Louis XIV, the Sun King. However the family had mainly resided in Paris, until the capital was taken by Eastern France and his family fled to their Orleans' estate.
Some unfamiliar with the situation, might think it was ironic that at its weakest moment, the French Senate turned to the future head of the cadet line of the Bourbons, but the Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon family had been committed to the Revolutionary Republic and then the Empire from the very start, when Philippe I's great great grandson, Louis Philippe II, the then current Duke, had joined the Revolutionaries, renounced his nobility and changed his name to Égalité. His son, Louis Philippe III fled France after his father was executed during the reign of terror, but was one of the many former aristocrats invited back to the Empire with their estates restored by Tallyrand when he became Emperor, as long as they swore loyalty to the Emperor and renounced the old monarchy. Louis Philippe III followed in the footsteps of his father, adding Égalité to the family name and taking back the Duchy. He was a close friend of Tallyrand and an advisor to the Emperor. He and his descendants were prominent members of the Senate and when reforms made its member elected, more often than not a Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon sat in the Senate.
Louis' grandfather, Louis Henri was the Duke and an important Senator when Paris was lost to the Empire. After the family relocated to their estates in Orleans, with the Duke commuting to Nantes for Senate meetings, Louis' father, Samson Charles, married Elise Chartoiniere, the younger daughter of a successful industrialist, Jerome Chartoniniere, also a Senator. He and the older Duke worked together in the Senate against the faction that wanted the Empire to accept its diminished status. When the old Duke died, Samson was elected to replace and him and worked with the older Chartoniniere, who acted as his mentor.
It was in this atmosphere that Louis was born and raised. He was two years out of University and serving in the Diplomatic Corps when the Empire lost more provinces and seemed in an inevitable decline. The two factions in the Senate were the Realists, who accepted the growing diminished status of the Empire, and the Idealists, who called for major reform of the Empire's governing system and called for a return to the glories of France's past.
At first Charles had sided with the Realists, but he switched sides near the end of his reign, and under the tutelage of Chartoniniere and Senator Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon began seeking a return to France's glories and a reunited Empire. The Empire had found itself in a quandary as two of its former colonies, Cuba and Florida, had almost gone to war with each other over their conflicting claims to the Andros Archipelago. Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon had been a junior attaché of the Imperial Delegation to decide the issue, as both former colonies had requested the intervention of Mother France. But it was Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon who charmed both sides, winning them over with his eloquence, insight, and brilliant thinking.
Not only did he have the prestige of his recent mission, which propelled him to fame, but he had the backing of the most powerful faction in the Senate under his father and father-in-law. Charles was wise enough to realize it was time to make overtures to the Eastern Empire and that Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon, who'd Charles had appointed Count of Paris as a reward for his diplomatic triumph, was the best person to head up the mission.
Charles had not only been impressed with Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon's diplomatic prowess, but his high charisma, his charm, and his family's long history. He was after all descended from Charlemagne. This would have tremendous impact in Paris in the Eastern Empire which hadn't adopted the Western ideal of an elected Emperor. The heir in the east would be whoever the Princess Paulette de Senarica married. Her father, the Prince Royal Paul, had died while she was an infant and she was the only descendant of the Emperor Paul de Senarica, who was ill. After the fact it was believed that Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon's real task was to woo Princess Paulette and win her hand.
Whether it was intended, that is exactly what happened. Once Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon was the husband of the Princess and the next Emperor in the East, it was obvious to those who wished a rapprochement that the next Western Emperor should be Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon.
Thus it was that before Emperor Paul died, Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon had been selected as the next Western Emperor by the Senate in Nantes with the full endorsement of Charles II. Paulette was crowned Empress of the West in Nantes before her father died. There was little the Eastern Empire could do but accept this.
Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon adopted the imperial title of Louis III, following in the tradition of Tallyrand, counting himself the third Emperor named Louis as there were two previous Carolingian Emperors of that name: Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne I, and Louis of Italy, the grandson of Louis the Pious.
This went along with a propaganda program of emphasizing the problems that led to the downfall of the Carolingian Empire was precisely dividing it into the West and the East, just as the same mistake led to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West.
Within a year Emperor Paul died and Louis III and Paulette led the Imperial Court in its return to Paris and a reunited France. By 1990 the portions of France that had separated all returned, albeit as Federal Districts with their own local governments.
After that Louis III continued the reforms envisioned by Charles II. A new constitution was written that reduced the power of the Emperor from a presiding monarch to a reigning one with a Prime Minister chosen by the majority of an expanded Senate, who would form a government. These reforms also made it unnecessary that a blood heir could not inherit the throne or that the Emperor had to retire at age 75.
Louis and Paulette had many children. As France entered the new Millennium, she was once again united, prosperous, and facing forward into the future. She also was the most democratic she'd been since the failed Republic, even though the Emperor was from the line of the old Kings.
Louis III died in 2019 only a few weeks shy of his 69th birthday from a heart attack.
*Louis Philippe III Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon, Duke of Orleans was King Louis Philippe I in OTL.
1804-1812: Napoleon (House of Bonaparte)
1812- 1838: Charlemagne II (House of Tallyrand-Périgord) [1]
1838-1847: Achille (House of Murat-Napoli) [2]
1847-1881: Eugène (House of Pepoli) [3]
1881-1904: Maurice (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [4]
1904-1907: Maurice II (House of Tallyrand-Bonaparte) [5]
1907-1932: François I (House of Picquart) [6]
1932-1947: Francois II (House of LeClerc) [7]
1947-1953: Eugène II (House of Dumont) [8]
1953-1960: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
Emperors of the Western French Empire
1960-1972: Victor Emmanuel (House of Bonaparte) [9]
1972-1979: Charles II (House of Bonaparte) [10]
1979-1980: Louis III (House of Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon) [11]
Emperors of the French
1980-2019: Louis III (House of Bourbon-Orléans) [11]
[1] Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord was born in 1754 and rose in prominence in the ancien regime as a clergyman and diplomat. He became a bishop in 1789 and attended the Estates General in that role, but joined the revolutionaries, renounced his bishopric, and was a major organizer of the Revolution. He was part of the coup in 1799 that established the Consulate and the rise of Napoleon to power. He was Napoleon's most important diplomat, although they disagreed often on policy. In 1802 he was laicized and later that year married Catherine Grand, who'd been his mistress since 1797. He opposed the Invasion of Russia in 1812 and when it was the disaster he predicted, including the death of Napoleon, he re-organized the French Senate, which appointed him the new Emperor instead of Napoleon's infant son, Prince Napoleon II.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.[/B]
[B[5] [/B]After many long and frustrating arguments, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparte (Born September 19th, 1867) was selected by the Senate to be the next Emperor of France. To say that Maurice was controversial would be an understatement, not only had he married a lowly Danish librarian who could not even produce any children, he was a progressive and repeatedly voiced that he had no interest in becoming Emperor of France. However, that did stop the Tallyrand-Bonapartes from submitting him as a candidate for the French Emperorship because he was the only male offspring of Maurice I. After being repeatedly begged by several French delegations, Maurice finally relented to go back to France. He was crowned in Paris as Maurice II, Emperor of France.
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
[10] Charles Joseph Bonaparte became Emperor Charles II (he counted Charlemagne II as the first Charles) after his predecessor was assassinated and would rule France at it's weakest point in history. He was seen as a British puppet because of his wife Princess Charlotte of the British Commonwealth, who had a considerable amount of power in the Western Senate.
In 1974, Corsica would declare independence from West France and would have a Bonaparte on thier throne. The following year, Brittany and Normandy both became indepandent republics, which would cause the people to attempt to overthrow the monarchy and replace it with a republic, but failed. Charles II would also start plans of reuniting with East France in the near future.
In 1979, Charles II would abdicate after turning 75 years old. The Western Senate had already selected an heir, and he would move to London, where he wrote his memoirs about his time as Emperor of West France. He also traveled the world with his wife before dying in his hometown of Tregastel in 1997.
Charles II has been remembered as a weak ruler who did barely anything about the state West France was in during the '70s, which had been seen as being very different when compared to the French Empire in the '20s.
He took the Imperial name Charles I, but within a few years he was known as Charlemagne, Charles the Great, and in 1814 he had himself re-coronated by the Pope as Charlemagne II, indicating that he was continuing the Empire of the first Charlemagne. He had this ritual performed on Christmas Day 1814 just as the first Charlemagne had it done on the same day, in order to emphasize he was not just Napoleon's successor but the first Charlemagne's.
However, he still was called Tallyrand by those in other nations and by many in France.
Tallyrand pursued diplomacy instead of war to establish the Empire. In 1815 he negotiated with the other great powers a new peace in the Treaty of Vienna. France was restored to her 1792 borders, thus including Avignon, Montbéliard, and Salm, all which had not been part of the ancien regime. At the same time, he divorced his first wife and married Dorothea of Courland, a German noblewoman. He and his first wife had been estrange for a number of years at this point.
He and the new Empress had several children, as well as he was the step-father of her previous children, including Napoléon-Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord, the son of his own nephew, Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord.
The Emperor reigned during a time of peace and prosperity. He died at the age of 84 and was succeeded by Emperor Achille I.
[2] Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Murat, nephew of Emperor Napoleon via his sister Caroline and son of General Joachim Murat, former Hereditary Grand Duke of Berg, briefly heir to the throne of Spain and when made Emperor, King of Naples. There was some opposition to having a foreign Head of State become Emperor of the French, but Naples had been under French suzerainty since 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte had been made King. He had married his cousin, Elisa Napoleone Bacciochi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Countess of Compignano, in 1825 and they produced several children, several male and only one female. Their eldest son would therefore be heir to a vast fortune and a vast number of titles - a challenger to the Emperor and it benefited France to bring all that under the imperial banner.
And thus the House of Murat sat on the imperial throne from 1838 when Achille was 37 and Elisa 32, their eldest son aged 13 and their daughter, only 11. Achille became interested in the French colonial assets, especially the former Spanish colony of Florida that had been acquired by the Empire in 1821. Oranges, sugar cane, cotton and tobacco became huge sources of wealth for the Empire.
When Achille died in 1847 at only 46, his son became King of Naples, but it was up to the Senate to determine who would become Emperor.
[3] After several long discussions, Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli, son of Marquis Guido Taddeo Pepoli and of Princess Letizia Murat, daughter of Joachim Murat and therefore nephew to the First Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte, was selected as Emperor. Gioacchino renounced his Italian titles and in the city of Paris, Gioacchino was crowned as Eugène I, Emperor of France.
Soon after he became Emperor, Eugène allied France with the Kingdom of Sardinia and declared war on the Austrians. The Italian War of 1848-1850 resulted in Sardinia becoming the Kingdom of Italy, but most of Lombardy-Venetia remained under the control of the Austrian Empire.
In the German War of 1866, he aided the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrians. After being convinced by his German wife, Federica of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he also helped the Prussians against Austria. After the war, Prussia and allied German states became the North German Empire. And finally, Lombardy-Venetia was annexed from Austria by the Kingdom of Italy.
During his rule, Eugène improved the agricultural and commercial industries of France. He reformed the Colony of Florida to have their own colonial parliament, while still being part of the French Empire. The French Emperor also encouraged immigration to Florida, which began growing abundantly wealthy from trade. In 1881, at the age of 65, the French Emperor passed away in the city of Sigmaringen, surrounded by his wife and his four children. He was succeeded by Emperor Maurice I.
[4] The Senate would pick Maurice Rudolph Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Prince Daniel Tallyrand-Périgord, son of Emperor Charlemagne II, and Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte and therefore related to the previous Emperor of France, Eugène Pepoli, whose grandmother was a Bonaparte. Maurice had already married a woman named Claudine La Fayette, a member of the House of La Fayette and had children when he became Emperor.
When he became Emperor, Maurice named his house Tallyrand-Bonaparte in honor of his parents.
He had France form an alliance with Italy and North Germany called the Triple Alliance. He also saw France acquire Spain's Caribbean territories in 1889 which gave France more revenue from its newly expanded overseas territory. Maurice also took part in the Scramble for Africa as France and various other European powers would make various colonies in Africa.
In 1904, Emperor Maurice would die at the age of 62, surrounded by his family. The Senate would pick his son, Maurice Henri Delarnes Tallyrand-Bonaparteas, as his successor.[/B]
He would immediately cause controversy after he dismissed all of his fathers and appoint people who were actually experienced and knowledgeable about the subjects their ministries were responsible for. Maurice II promoted and enacted several pieces of progressive legislation involving health and wellness, national education, and organized labour activity, to the dismay of many conservatives.
After nearly three years on the Imperial throne, Maurice II grew frustrated with the Imperial court, especially with their constant insults directed towards his wife. He enacted a few more pieces of legislation that severely curtailed the powers of the monarchy and the nobles by adopting a constitutional form of government. One of the last things that Maurice II did before he abdicated was enact a law that allowed for women to be able to be selected by the Senate as ruling Empress of France.
Three days later, Maurice II abdicated the Imperial throne and renounced all his titles and left France for the United States with his wife and his two newly adopted children. He was succeeded by Grand Marshall François Émile Édouard Picquart.
[6] François Émile Édouard Picquart was born into a French military family in 1856. His grandfather, Jean Picquart, came from peasant stock in Rouen and had served in the Grand Armée under Napoleon and Tallyrand as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant. His father, Jean-Pierre Picquart, also joined as an enlisted man but won a battlefield commission and rose to the rank of Major. François, as a third generation military man and the son of an officer, had the best education and attended University, receiving his commission upon graduation. His career was considered brilliant and he rose to prominence in the Cuba War of 1891, stepping into command when his superior was wounded in the Battle of Havana. After that he was rewarded with a promotion to General and put in command of the Empire's forces in Indo-China.
During Maurice II's reign, he returned to France as a hero of the Empire and made the Grand Marshall of all French Forces. There was little doubt when Maurice abdicated that the attempt to have the Senate appoint an Emperor partially based on family ties was a mistake. While every Emperor since Charlemagne II had been related to the first or second Emperor and then to both, the pretense was that the throne belonged not to anyone by right of blood but by strength of character and ability to rule. Now one of the reforms, ironically, that Maurice II had won was that blood was not even to be considered and sons or daughters could not inherit. The Senate needed no debate and asked Piquart to take the throne.
He was eager to take the throne as he felt that France was ill prepared for the coming war he was sure was to occur in the next few years. (Of course we all know he was right.) Europe was a powder keg waiting to explode. The continent had divided up into two alliances and the most powerful rivals to France: Britain, North Germany and the Ottomans, were preparing for war at sea and on land. France made alliances with Italy, the Hapsburg Empire, and Russia. Despite his career being an army officer, the Emperor was convinced the threat to France was naval and that was where the Empire had not kept up with her rivals.
So it was that the Empire turned its attention to the construction of a fleet of battleships. This focus on a new industry created a robust prosperity and when War did break out in 1916, France was ready. For the Emperor had turned his attention by the beginning of the second decade to all forms of mechanical war including Areoplanes, Airships, Armored Trains, Tanks, and Submarines.
While war dragged on in the East, turning into trench warfare, in the west France and her Italian allies swiftly took Spain (a lesser British ally) and the Lowlands, trapping British forces. Both Northern Germany and Britain sued for peace with France and Italy. The terms required them to also make peace with France's allies and so war between Northern Germany and Russia and Austria ended, with Polish lands transferred to Russia and Bohemian lands transferred to Austria. By the Fall of 1916 a new stability swept through Europe with France and Austria dominating the scene. France was once again in control of the Rhineland and the lowlands and a friendly government was installed in Spain.
The next decade and a half saw the continued industrial domination of France and the spread of its overseas Empire. The Dutch East Indies, the Belgian Congo, and the German and British Pacific Islands became the French East Indies, the French Congo, and French Oceania. The vast empire was held together with fast steam ships and luxury airships.
On his 70th Birthday in 1927, the Emperor announced that he and the Senate had passed a new law. Since the Emperor was a presiding monarch, not just a figure head, it behooved the Empire that Emperors retire at a reasonable age and that age had been set at 75. Therefore he would reign only five more years. The last year of his reign was filled with celebrations and special events. As the next Emperor had already been selected, both the current Emperor and the future Emperor attended the various celebrations.
[7] Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was an Imperial military leader during the reign of Francois I, born in 1901, as a minor member of the Imperial and Bourbon nobilities, his father and elder brother were Comte de Hauteclocque, and his ancestors had fought in both the Crusades and with Emperor Napoleon I. He became lined up to be the next Emperor in 1931, six years after his marriage to Therese de Gargan, also a member of the nobility in her own right.
1939 saw the Floridian Revolution in which the devolved colonial Parliament established by Emperor Eugene declared full independence, but more surprisingly they invited the son of the Muratist claimant who had challenged Francois for the imperial throne, nineteem year old Leopold, Prince of Pontecorvo, to rule as King of Florida. As the Empire saw the secession of this single colonial asset as a threat to the entire Empire, the Senate condemned this and took action to secure their other colonies with military leaders installed as Governors above any existing devolved legislatures.
The Revolution lasted for three years and pulled in the other nations around the Carribean Sea and Gulf of Mexico who saw the independence of Florida as helpful to trade and commerce as it meant a European power would lack influence on their trade partnerships. As such, the Mid-America Trade Executive was officially inaugurated and various nations implemented laws that allowed them to deploy military force to defend their trade interests. France might have been able to secure Florida on its own, but it could not do so when the MATE nations began enforcjng blockades of other French colonies, forcing Francois II to deploy military forces away from Florida to secure colonies.
Florida became a zero sum game. And in 1942, at the Treaty of Managua, the Empire officially recognised the full independence of the Kingdom of Florida under the House of Pontecorvo. Francois used the Senate to pressure the King of Naples, Achille IV, to revoke any hereditary claim that the King of Florida might have to the Neapolitan crown.
In return, the House or Pontecorvo would revoke any ability to propose a candidate to the Imperial Senate when the selection process for Francois' heir came up.
This process to select an heir had only narrowly been completed when Francois II died in 1947 in French Algeria when the Imperial airship crashed, killing both Francois and Empress Therese.
[8] Eugène Pierre Henri Maurice Dumont was born into a noble family in 1887 and rose in prominence as a diplomat who helped end the War of 1916 and was one of the people who made the Treaty of Managua which ended the Floridian Revolution. His diplomatic skills made him lined up to become the next Emperor and would become so when Emperor Francois and his wife died in the crashing of the Imperial airship in 1947.
Eugène and his wife Josephine Joffre had ruled for six years when the Revolutions of 1953 started, which was a wave of revolutions which saw many colonies and ethic regions get independence. Eugène would give independence to almost all of France's colonies but not mainland regions like Brittany or Corsica. So in July of 1953, the revolts that were happening in cities like Nantes and Aiacciu would expand to a revolution that led to the forced abdication of the Emperor and his exiling to Florida.
The Senate would replace Eugène II as Emperor with Victor Emmanuel of the House of Bonaparte.
[9] Victor Emmanuel, Count of Cendrieux, was the senior most male line descendant of the House of Bonaparte, seen as the great hope of the Empire by the Senate. After near fifty years of Emperors who had been great military leaders, but which had seen great revolutions and the reduction in the size of the Empire, a return to the charisma of the Bonapartist regimes was decided upon.
To begin with, the plan succeeded, the rebellions across mainland France succeeded, mollified by the creation of regional assemblies as had been given to the now independent Kingdom of Florida. However, these Assemblies still reported to the Senate and after seven years, the Eastern administrative regions (Haut des France, Grand Est, Bourgogne Franche Comte, Auvergne Rhone Alps, Provence Alps Cote D'Azur, and even the Iles Des Frances) declared their plan to secede from the Empire, and form the Republic of Eastern France, with politician Rene Coty, as it's Head of State.
This caused the rapid movement of the Imperial Capital to Nantes in Western France, planned as a temporary measure as nobody believed that the Eastern Republic would last. It didn't, but only on the grounds that Muratists managed to remove Coty from power after six years and install their own candidate, Paul, Count of Senarica, as Emperor of Eastern France. As this would mean the support of Naples, Italy, Austria and Germany, with only the British Commonwealth supporting the rump Empire in the West, the Eastern Senate agreed.
The two states lived in relative peace. And three years later, a disgruntled farmer who has lost land due to the Great Partition assassinated Victor Emmanuel during a public appearance.
The Western Senate had already selected his replacement, and rumours persist to this day that the assassination was an inside job facilitated by factions within the Senate.
[10] Charles Joseph Bonaparte became Emperor Charles II (he counted Charlemagne II as the first Charles) after his predecessor was assassinated and would rule France at it's weakest point in history. He was seen as a British puppet because of his wife Princess Charlotte of the British Commonwealth, who had a considerable amount of power in the Western Senate.
In 1974, Corsica would declare independence from West France and would have a Bonaparte on thier throne. The following year, Brittany and Normandy both became indepandent republics, which would cause the people to attempt to overthrow the monarchy and replace it with a republic, but failed. Charles II would also start plans of reuniting with East France in the near future.
In 1979, Charles II would abdicate after turning 75 years old. The Western Senate had already selected an heir, and he would move to London, where he wrote his memoirs about his time as Emperor of West France. He also traveled the world with his wife before dying in his hometown of Tregastel in 1997.
Charles II has been remembered as a weak ruler who did barely anything about the state West France was in during the '70s, which had been seen as being very different when compared to the French Empire in the '20s.
Some unfamiliar with the situation, might think it was ironic that at its weakest moment, the French Senate turned to the future head of the cadet line of the Bourbons, but the Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon family had been committed to the Revolutionary Republic and then the Empire from the very start, when Philippe I's great great grandson, Louis Philippe II, the then current Duke, had joined the Revolutionaries, renounced his nobility and changed his name to Égalité. His son, Louis Philippe III fled France after his father was executed during the reign of terror, but was one of the many former aristocrats invited back to the Empire with their estates restored by Tallyrand when he became Emperor, as long as they swore loyalty to the Emperor and renounced the old monarchy. Louis Philippe III followed in the footsteps of his father, adding Égalité to the family name and taking back the Duchy. He was a close friend of Tallyrand and an advisor to the Emperor. He and his descendants were prominent members of the Senate and when reforms made its member elected, more often than not a Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon sat in the Senate.
Louis' grandfather, Louis Henri was the Duke and an important Senator when Paris was lost to the Empire. After the family relocated to their estates in Orleans, with the Duke commuting to Nantes for Senate meetings, Louis' father, Samson Charles, married Elise Chartoiniere, the younger daughter of a successful industrialist, Jerome Chartoniniere, also a Senator. He and the older Duke worked together in the Senate against the faction that wanted the Empire to accept its diminished status. When the old Duke died, Samson was elected to replace and him and worked with the older Chartoniniere, who acted as his mentor.
It was in this atmosphere that Louis was born and raised. He was two years out of University and serving in the Diplomatic Corps when the Empire lost more provinces and seemed in an inevitable decline. The two factions in the Senate were the Realists, who accepted the growing diminished status of the Empire, and the Idealists, who called for major reform of the Empire's governing system and called for a return to the glories of France's past.
At first Charles had sided with the Realists, but he switched sides near the end of his reign, and under the tutelage of Chartoniniere and Senator Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon began seeking a return to France's glories and a reunited Empire. The Empire had found itself in a quandary as two of its former colonies, Cuba and Florida, had almost gone to war with each other over their conflicting claims to the Andros Archipelago. Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon had been a junior attaché of the Imperial Delegation to decide the issue, as both former colonies had requested the intervention of Mother France. But it was Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon who charmed both sides, winning them over with his eloquence, insight, and brilliant thinking.
Not only did he have the prestige of his recent mission, which propelled him to fame, but he had the backing of the most powerful faction in the Senate under his father and father-in-law. Charles was wise enough to realize it was time to make overtures to the Eastern Empire and that Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon, who'd Charles had appointed Count of Paris as a reward for his diplomatic triumph, was the best person to head up the mission.
Charles had not only been impressed with Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon's diplomatic prowess, but his high charisma, his charm, and his family's long history. He was after all descended from Charlemagne. This would have tremendous impact in Paris in the Eastern Empire which hadn't adopted the Western ideal of an elected Emperor. The heir in the east would be whoever the Princess Paulette de Senarica married. Her father, the Prince Royal Paul, had died while she was an infant and she was the only descendant of the Emperor Paul de Senarica, who was ill. After the fact it was believed that Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon's real task was to woo Princess Paulette and win her hand.
Whether it was intended, that is exactly what happened. Once Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon was the husband of the Princess and the next Emperor in the East, it was obvious to those who wished a rapprochement that the next Western Emperor should be Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon.
Thus it was that before Emperor Paul died, Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon had been selected as the next Western Emperor by the Senate in Nantes with the full endorsement of Charles II. Paulette was crowned Empress of the West in Nantes before her father died. There was little the Eastern Empire could do but accept this.
Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon adopted the imperial title of Louis III, following in the tradition of Tallyrand, counting himself the third Emperor named Louis as there were two previous Carolingian Emperors of that name: Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne I, and Louis of Italy, the grandson of Louis the Pious.
This went along with a propaganda program of emphasizing the problems that led to the downfall of the Carolingian Empire was precisely dividing it into the West and the East, just as the same mistake led to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West.
Within a year Emperor Paul died and Louis III and Paulette led the Imperial Court in its return to Paris and a reunited France. By 1990 the portions of France that had separated all returned, albeit as Federal Districts with their own local governments.
After that Louis III continued the reforms envisioned by Charles II. A new constitution was written that reduced the power of the Emperor from a presiding monarch to a reigning one with a Prime Minister chosen by the majority of an expanded Senate, who would form a government. These reforms also made it unnecessary that a blood heir could not inherit the throne or that the Emperor had to retire at age 75.
Louis and Paulette had many children. As France entered the new Millennium, she was once again united, prosperous, and facing forward into the future. She also was the most democratic she'd been since the failed Republic, even though the Emperor was from the line of the old Kings.
Louis III died in 2019 only a few weeks shy of his 69th birthday from a heart attack.
*Louis Philippe III Égalité d'Orleans Bourbon, Duke of Orleans was King Louis Philippe I in OTL.
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I didn't think it was fair for me to end two lines in a row and start a new one, so I had Louis III die of a heart attack less than 2 years before the present.
