  thumb|coat of arms charles auguste louis joseph demorny/de morny, 1er duc de morny  (15â16 september 1811, switzerland â 10 march 1865, paris) was a french statesman. he was the natural (and illegitimate) son of hortense de beauharnais (the wife of louis bonaparte and queen of holland) and charles joseph, comte de flahaut, and therefore half-brother of emperor napoleon iii. ==biography== he was born in switzerland,mossiker, 361â2 and his birth was duly registered in a misleading certificate, which made him the legitimate son of auguste jean hyacinthe demorny, born in paris on 23 october 1811, see obituary notice:  and described as a landowner of st. domingo. m. demorny was in fact an officer in the prussian army and a native of st. domingo, though he owned no land there or elsewhere. his father was in fact charles de flahaut. his mother, hortense de beauharnais was the stepdaughter of napolÃ©on bonaparte and the estranged wife of louis bonaparte, king of holland. he was educated by his grandmother, adelaÃ¯de filleul. after a brilliant school and college career the future duc de morny received a commission in the army, and the next year he entered the staff college. the comte de morny, as he was called by a polite fiction, served in algeria in 1834â1835 as aide-de-camp to general camille alphonse trezel, whose life he saved under the walls of constantine. when he returned to paris in 1838, he secured a solid position in the business world by establishing of a major beet-sugar industry at clermont in the auvergne and by writing a pamphlet sur la question des sucres in 1838. in these and other lucrative speculations he was helped by his mistress franÃ§oise mosselman, the beautiful and wealthy wife of the belgian ambassador, charles aimÃ© joseph le hon, comte le hon. eventually there were few great commercial enterprises in paris in which he did not have an interest. although he sat as
1811_births 1865_deaths 19th-century_French_politicians Burials_at_PA"re_Lachaise_Cemetery French_art_collectors French_interior_ministers French_racehorse_owners_and_breeders Sportspeople_from_Paris