Edward Shawcross' 'The People's Emperor. The Unlikely Rise and Spectacular Fall of Napoleon III' 2026

Faber & Faber first edition - 2026

Edward Shawcross' Prologue opens with the disaster at Sedan in September 1870, which led to the Emperor Napoleon III surrendering to the Prussian/German army and subsequently being ejected from his throne. Before the fighting started, one French general said (in French, of course), "We are in a chamber pot, about to be shat upon". A devastatingly accurate comment. Few had predicted the disaster; but, as the author states, few had predicted that Louis-Napoleon would become Emperor. His story is one of unlikelihoods - his daft dream to recreate the Empire of his uncle, Napoleon I. Not all observers were as rude as Victor Hugo, who came to despise Louis-Napoleon, and who castigated him as Napoleon le Pétit. Karl Marx called the first Napoleon's regime as a tragedy and the third's as a farce. And yet, by 1870, Louis-Napoleon had ruled for longer than his uncle and over, by and large, a stable regime. Between 1848 and 1868, French exports tripled. Paris was transformed into a monumental capital, a centre of modernity. Through success in the Crimean War and Austria's defeat in northern Italy, France had become a European (and global) superpower. It is due to the author's skill, that the story of Louis Napoleon's unlikely rise and spectacular fall, is cogently explained.

Although I had read biographies of Louis-Napoleon and the France of the third quarter of the 19th century before, I found Shawcross's first 150 pages, detailing Louis-Napoleon's early life and numerous failures before 1848, extremely helpful in explaining this 'unlikely rise'. Above all, it was the name. Napoleon I, by forcing his younger brother, Louis, the comte de Saint-Leu, to marry Hortense de Beauharnais (his wife Joséphine's daughter by her first marriage), hoped to establish a dynasty. Napoleon's older brother, Joseph, had no male children, so any male offspring of Louis and Hortense would be next in line to the throne after their father (are you following?!). Two sons were born:  Napoleon-Louis and, in1810, Louis-Napoleon. (In fact, when Napoleon I divorced Josephine and married again, he did have a male heir - subsequently to be known as Napoleon II, but who was never to reign.) After Napoleon I's final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Hortense and her two boys settled in Switzerland, having bought the chateau of Arenenberg above the shores of Lake Constance. This was to be Louis-Napoleon's main base from the age of seven to 31. There has been a Napoleon Museum at Arenenberg since 1907.

Two people dominated Louis-Napoleon's thinking - his mother and his revered uncle (who died at St Helena in 1821). He did visit his father, who lived in Rome, but the two were never close - the latter regularly chastising his son for his silly dreams and regular failures. When, in 1830, the reactionary Charles X, who had succeeded his brother Louis XVIII in 1824,  was overthrown and Louis-Philippe, became king, it was clear there was little popular support for the latter. Louis-Napoleon, apparently, thought the law banishing his family would soon be revoked and he could return to France. No such luck: Louis-Philippe renewed the law. However, both Napoleon-Louis and Louis-Napoleon had other exciting fish to fry: the cause of Italian nationalism. They soon got involved with Rome's revolutionary underworld, and both brothers then joined the Carbonari revolt against the Austrian occupation of northern Italy in 1831. However, not only did the revolt fail, but Napoleon-Louis died of measles in the retreat. Louis-Napoleon escaped, with his mother, first to Paris (causing an intense embarrassment for Louis-Philippe) and then to London, before returning to Arenenberg. 

The next seventeen years saw Louis-Napoleon seemingly no nearer his self-proclaimed destiny. He wrote - his Réveries politiques, published in May 1832, was awash with fantasies about the Empire and was a manifesto hoping to resurrect Bonapartism; he travelled - to England, where he marvelled at the country's industry and technology (e.g. travelling on a railway for the first time); he made love to various women; and he plotted. He realised, though, that his ambition was not matched by his achievements. I know that I am much through my name, nothing through myself." But, as Heinrich Heine, said, 'Napoleon' is for the French a magical word which electrifies and dazzles them... Louis-Napoleon tried his best; his message was simple - populist, radically democratic and heavy on Napoleonic nostalgia. He attempted an uprising in Strasburg in 1836 and ended up in prison. The punishment for treason was death, but Louis-Philippe had no intention of creating a martyr; instead, he packed Louis-Napoleon off to America. Not for long; he returned to London. He lost his mother in October 1837; however, he was soon back to conspiring. He wrote Des idées Napoléoniennes in the British Museum Reading Room- another political manifesto. Then, in 1840, he 'invaded' France again. It was another fiasco. Landing near Boulogne, with a few die-hard Bonapartists, he was quickly captured and sent off to gaol once more. Ironically, that same year Napoleon I's remains were transported from St Helena to Paris and a splendid tomb in the church of the Invalides. Meanwhile, his nephew was in Ham prison, north-east of Paris, told he would remain there for the rest of his life.

He spent his days reading, writing, wenching and plotting. For nearly six years, he whiled away his life; then, in May 1846, he escaped, dressed as a workman. Reaching England, he picked up the London Society where he had left off in 1840. His father died that July. With Napoleon II and Napoleon-Louis also dead, Louis-Napoleon was at last the actual heir to the Bonaparte legacy. He was now aged 37 and had really achieved nothing. Then 1848 dawned. The famed author and politician Alexis de Tocqueville, had warned I believe that we are at this moment sleeping on a volcano. He was right. That year, Louis-Napoleon, the achiever of virtually nothing and exiled from France, was in the foothills. Just four years later, on 2nd December 1822, he was atop the volcano, as the Emperor Napoleon III. A lucky break? Perhaps; but one can argue he made his luck. 

The people determined that the revolution would not be stolen, unlike in 1830. Louis-Philippe fled. Louis-Napoleon wrote to his cousin from London: "I must be master." The monarchy may have fallen again, but the bourgeoisie were terrified of the Socialists. The magical name of Napoleon appeared to fill a void. From London, the repeated refrain was that Louis-Napoleon would make France great again. The Parisian crowds cheered, Vive l'empereur!. He returned to take up his place in the Assembly. His speech was disastrous - had he failed again? One newspaper editorial read: There is in this world an adventurer without spirit, without talent, without merit of any kind... Yet, throughout France, Napoleonic propaganda was working; he was seen as the anti-establishment candidate for the presidency. On Sunday, 10th December, the largest experiment thus far in history took place. Louis-Napoleon received more than 5.5 million votes, his opponent just under 1.5 million. But the Assembly had passed a law stating a president could not be re-elected; the next election would be in 1852. It was the start of a three-way power struggle between republicans, monarchists and Louis-Napoleon.

The new president's message was order, authority, religion and the welfare of the people at home and national dignity abroad. He used provincial tours to cement his popularity; he repeatedly invoked the magic name of his uncle; his coterie warned that the alternative was chaos. On 2nd December 1851, Louis-Napoleon staged a coup d'etat. He declared universal male suffrage restored. The carrot. The stick? In the largest crackdown against political activism so far in 19th century France, 27,000 people were arrested and 10,000 deported to Algeria. Then a plebiscite was held as to whether the people backed the coup d'etat. More than 7.4 million voted yes; only 640,000 no. There were 1.5 million  abstentions. Stability and order were preferred to liberty. Voting had been carefully managed; it was an illiberal democracy.

Louis-Napoleon was 41 years old; two-thirds of his life had passed. Harnessing the masses behind him was where his originality lay. On 2 December 1852, he signed the decree establishing what he had long dreamed of - the Second Empire, and as a hereditary monarchy. It was to last for the next eighteen years. I have spent so long on Louis-Napoleon's earlier life, because it explains so much of his behaviour and the successes and failures of his time as Emperor. He believed absolutely in his own star and he willed his fantasy into reality. His centrist message pitched between revolution and reaction was perfectly attuned to mass democratic politics. Make France Great Again (now, where have we heard that message?) He became the first directly elected head of state in history. He was one of the first to realise that conservative ideas could be popular to the masses. He ruled France for longer than anyone since Louis XV (died 1774).

This Blog is too long as it is. Suffice to say, detailed commentary on his time as Emperor can wait. Under his rule banking was reformed (the 1850s were boom years); canals were dug, roads made, wasteland reclaimed; by 1859 the nation's railway network had tripled; thanks to Baron Haussmann, Paris was the centerpiece of ambitious programmes of modernisation; train stations, bridges, schools, hospitals, sewers and department stores were constructed; a new central market, Les Halles was created; he was a major instigator of the Suez Canal. His foreign policy had mixed results - success in the Crimea and, to a certain extent, in Italy; failure in Mexico and, above all, against Bismarck. And he married - Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, a young Spanish aristocrat. She gave him an heir - Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph - to be known throughout his short life as the Prince Imperial. Never popular with the French élite (Marie Antoinette springs to mind), she was nevertheless her husband's 'strength and stay'. She forbore Louis-Napoleon's constant affairs and supported him through thick and thin. It is perhaps apt that the three of them are buried abroad - in the crypt at St. Michael's Abbey at Farnborough, Hampshire, an abbey which Eugénie herself had founded.