The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-29
The Fate of the Bonapartes

AtS Il ave vi thC pal
Meanwhile the Orleanists are crown
less wanderers OF the four Bourbon
crowns of France, Naples, Parma and
Spain, only the Spanish diadem remains
and uneasy indeed lies the head that
wears 1T. All the crowns that the sons
and daughters of I.etitia Bonaparte
gathered unto themselves in five years.
more In number than any other royal
family ever gained in five centuries
have banished. A traveller in 1910 could
have crossed Europe from north to
south, from east to west. from the Med
itcrranean to the Baltic, from the At
lantic to the Ionian sea- without 1eav-
Ing the realms of the Bonapartes. But
after 100 years not an acre of SOW
eieignty was left them and the only
living Bonaparte who had held high
place in any government was that
grandson of the disinherited Betsy
Paterson who had sat in the cabinet
OF President of the American re-
public.
The family name is kept alive only in
the descent from Jerome. Joseph had no
sons, and Louis race was extinguished
in the wilds of Africa, where the young
Prince Imperial of Napoleon III and Eu-
genie, while recounting to his British
comrades the Italian campaign of the
Little Corporal, received a Zulu spear in
his heart. Like rRiglon, this heir and
perors was buried in foreign uniform
leaving Eugene, his widowed and child
less mother, to bear alone the crown of
sorrow which is the sole legacy of the
Napoleonic race.
With the death of the Prince Imperial
the succession passed to the blood of
Jerome, whose son Napoleon, but more
familiarly known as "Plon Plon," mar
ried to the daughter of the great Vic
tor Emmanuel. became the Bonapartst
pretender until he died in 1891 His dy-
ing wish was that his body might rest
in the Invalides, failing which honor he
requested that he be entombed in the rock
of one of the lies Sangupinaire at the
mouth of the Bay of Ajaccio, where the
wind and wave of the sea would be
emblematic of my life, its agitations and
torments." But 'Plon Plon'' was denied
grave anywhere in the soil of the re-
public. as his two SONS have been re-
fused roof beneath the French flag.
The younger of these, Louis Napoleon
has gained rank in the Russian army,
while his elder brother. Victor Napoleon,
has maintained the premiership from
BRUSSELS with ever-diminishng serious
ness. Until the opening of the year 1914
neither brother had a son. and there was
no young Bonaparte In Europe to preserve
the name. But now Victor has a son by
his wife, the Princess Clementine. daugh-
ter of Leopold, late King of the Belgians,
and on him will fall the fading shadow
Of the imperial throne
By right of birth. however the Balti-
more branch should take precedence OF
the Wurtemberger branch. from which
the Brussels pretender descends, and the
present Jerome Napoleon Charles Bona.
parte of Washington should be the head
of the House of Bonaparte. This son OF
the late Col. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte
Is the grandson Of that Jerome Napoleon
who was born to Betsy Paterson while
she was in England vainly trying to re-
join her bridegroom. from whom the En-.
peror had separated her. Happily for him
however, he pretends to no other SOW
ereignty than that with which every
American citizen is unalienably endowed
This American and the child of the
Brussels pretender are the only male
Bonapartes of the fourth generation, and
to them alone is entrusted the perpetual
ton of name at which the world grew
pale in other days. For nature all but
joined the allied monarchs in their re-
solve to exterminate the Corsican imperia
race.
Lucien's latest male descendant. Prince
Roland Bonaparte, married the richly
lowered daughter of that one-time wait
er, NJ Blanc, whose croupiers raked in fol-
him harvest of gold from his gaming
tables at Monte Carlo. But no son was
born Of that golden alliance between
the purple and the green. and the only
child Is the wife of Prince George OF
Greece, the oldest brother of King Con-
stantine.