Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-12-12
NAPOLEON'S SON.
If He Was King of Rome He Failed
to Produce Proof.

There has recently died at Arezzo,
Italy, at the age of eighty-four, a Curl
Gus old gentleman, by profession a
cook, who persistently claimed that he
was the only son and the rightful heir
of Napoleon l. and Marie Louise of
Austria. On his cards were inscribed
these words:
"Napoleone. Re Di Roma, Sacrifi-
cato''
Translated this runs, Napoleon, the
King of Rome, sacrificed" or as the past
participle 'sacrificato" has here the
force of noun, the sense of that word
might be better interpreted ga mar
tyr"
Marie Louise, it will be remembered,
was married to Napoleon after his di-
vorce from Josephine. The ceremony
took place at Vienna on March II,
1910. Almost exactly a twelvemonth
afterward, i. e., on March 20, 1911, the
baptized Napoleon and received the til
tie of king of Rome. 1t was the proud
est day in the life of the great en-
peror. He was at the apogee of his
power. Europe lay at his feet, France
worshipped him; the birth of an heir
and apparently made him the founder
of a new and mighty dynasty of kings.
But have not the old Greeks taught us
that when vain man is at the sum-
nit of his fortune Nemesis is already
upon his track?
Fourteen months after the birth of
his son, Napoleon declared war against
Russia and set out on that disastrous
campaign which was to prove the be-
ginning of the end. Europe precipi-
tated itself upon him. He made a
feint of abdicating in favor of his son,
who thence got the title of Napoleon Ii.
But Immediately after that abdication
his wife fled with his son across the
frontier to Austria. Almost stimuli
taneously Napoleon reached Elba.
And now comes the gist of the
claimants story. 1t is historical
fact that Marie Louise received a
duchy in Parma, Italy, where she lived
with her paramour, the count of Neip-
perg. The young king of Rome did
not join her till some years later. The
claimant insisted that he never joined
her, but that an illegitimate son of
Neipperg and Louise, a year or two
younger, was substituted for the true
heir as soon as he was old enough to
10
true heir, what of him? He was en-
trusted to monk named Capelli, who
superintendent his education and i'm
pressed upon his mind the brilliant
future that was in store for him. But
Capelli died. All the proofs of the
boys parentage were destroyed. He
was relegated to obscurity and finally
was forced to adopt the profession of
a cook. The false king of Rome was
brought up in luxury, was created
duke of Reichstadt in 1918 and died at
Schonbrunn in 1882.
To substantiate his assertions the
claimant appealed to the historic fact
that Marie Louise never loved Ma
poleon. Would she not be glad to
have the issue of her only love affair
foisted into the place Of the heir? Was
it not also a matter of history that
the false king of Rome bore no like
ness whatever to his imperial father?
He was a blond like his mother. He
was distinctly Teuton, not an Italian.
The claimant, on the contrary, could
point to a strong Napoleonic likeness.
He was a BOnaparte at least in looks,
especially when he shaved his mus
tache. Furthermore, he had a scar on
his forehead which, he asserted, was
the birthmark of the rigntful heir.
Unfortunately, this scar is not men
toned in the birth certificate of Ma
poleon's son, which was drawn up by
Dubois. Now, it is certain that Dubois
would have recorded this scar had it
existed. A greater difficulty occurs in
the fact that Marie Louise, on her
flight from Paris, resigned the young
prince into the hands of his grand
father, the emperor of Austria, under
whose supervision he was brought up.
An imposture at that early date would
have been we'll nigh impossible.