Napoleon III (1808–1873)

Emperor of the French 1852–70, known as Louis‐Napoleon. After two attempted coups (1836 and 1840) he was jailed, then went into exile, returning for the revolution of 1848, when he became president of the Second Republic but proclaimed himself emperor in 1852. In 1870 he was manoeuvred by the German chancellor Bismarck into war with Prussia (see Franco‐Prussian war); he was forced to surrender at Sedan, northeastern France, and the empire collapsed.

The son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais, brother and step‐daughter respectively of Napoleon I, he led two unsuccessful revolts against the French king Louis Philippe, at Strasbourg in 1836 and at Boulogne in 1840. After the latter he was imprisoned. Escaping in 1846, he lived in London until 1848. He was elected president of the newly established French republic in December, and set himself to secure a following by posing as the champion of order and religion against the revolutionary menace. He secured his re‐election by a military coup d'état in 1851, and a year later was proclaimed emperor. Hoping to strengthen his regime by military triumphs, he joined in the Crimean War (1854–55), waged war with Austria in 1859, winning the Battle of Solferino, annexed Savoy and Nice in 1860, and attempted unsuccessfully to found a vassal empire in Mexico 1863–67. In so doing he aroused the mistrust of Europe and isolated France.

At home, his regime was discredited by its notorious corruption; republican and socialist opposition grew, in spite of severe repression, and forced Napoleon, after 1860, to make concessions in the direction of parliamentary government. After losing the war with Prussia he withdrew to England, where he died. His son by Empress Eugénie, Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Napoleon, Prince Imperial (1856–79), was killed fighting with the British army against the Zulus in Africa.