WI: Napoléon III Dies at Sédan? Would/could the Second Empire Survive?

As it says on the tin. IIRC, Nappy had three horses shot out from under him on the battlefield. One contemporary account describes him as resembling a man "looking for death" on the battlefield. Would it bring any glory to the tarnished imperial regime? Or would it simply lead to an earlier chaotic adventure like the Commune?
 
Going off something Plon-Plon said OTL, would there be a succession struggle? Plon-Plon hoped that the emperor would die leaving an underage son (who he was always very quick to point out was a dim-witted idiot), since he said: "And then France will rally to me. For they will never accept the rule of a monarchist [Eugenie] and a child [Napoléon IV]" (a variant of this quote is "rule of a woman and an idiot" IIRC).

Not to mention, France's last two regencies (for Henri V, for the Comte de Paris) didn't work out so well. Although, by comparison, in both cases, the king (Charles X/Louis Philippe) was confronted with a crisis and abdicated, rather than that he was dead, as Napoléon III would be here.
 
A lot depends on France's military fortunes. If they collapse militarily to the OTL extent, I don't see the regime surviving no matter how heroic the imperial death.
 
I agree that NIIIs death is unlikely to make much of a difference. His policies led to the war, and I don't see the French military doing any better if he dies at Sedan, the same generals are running things and the structural issues in the French military won't get better with his death. If NIII dies at Sedan you may see the end of the Second Empire sooner, and more confusion about who is in charge and the nature of the government with fighting going on. If the war ends sooner, although it will take the Prussians getting to Paris to make any government give up, you could see the Commune not come in to existence which has butterflies for postwar French politics.
 
Top