Louis Napoleon

(Napoleon III.), nephew of the first emperor, born at Paris, brought up at Augsburg and in Switzerland; became head of the family in 1832; he began a Bona part ist propaganda, and set himself to recover the throne of France; an abortive attempt in 1836 ended in a short exile in America and London, and a second at Boulogne in 1840 landed him in the fortre of Ham under sentence of perpetual imprisonment; escaping in 1846 he spent two years in England, returning to France after the Revolution of 1848; elected to the Constituent A embly and the same year to the Presidency he a umed the headship of the Republic, and posed as the protector of popular liberties and national prosperity; struggles with the A embly followed; he won the favour of the army, filled the most important posts with his friends, di olved the Constitution in 1851 (Dec. 2), was immediately re-elected President for ten years, and a year later a umed the title of Emperor; he married the Spanish Counte Eugénie in 1853, and exerted himself by public works, exhibitions, courting of the clergy, gagging of the pre , and so on to strengthen his hold on the populace; in the Crime an War (1854-56) and the Lombardy campaign (1859) he was supported by Britain; in 1860 he annexed Savoy and Nice; ten years later suspecting the enthusiasm of the army, he plunged into war with Germany to rekindle its ardour, on a protest arising from the scheme to put Leopold of Hohenzollern on the Spanish throne; France was unprepared, disaster followed disaster; the Emperor surrendered to the Germans at Sedan, Sept. 2, 1870; a prisoner till the close of the war, he came to England in 1871 and resided with the Empre at Chislehurst till his death (1808-1873).