This ruler's mistresses included actress Marguerite Bellanger and the wife of his foreign minister Alexandre Walewski.
This ruler's mistresses included actress Marguerite Bellanger and the wife of his foreign minister Alexandre Walewski. He declined to support the compulsory schooling plan of education minister Victor Duruy. The observation that history appears the first time as tragedy, the second as farce, was made about this man. He commissioned Charles Garnier to build a dazzling (*) opera house in his capital. This ruler ordered Baron Haussmann to redesign Paris, and named Archduke Maximilian the ruler of Mexico. He was eventually captured at the Battle of Sedan. For 10 points, name this ruler of the Second French Empire, who led the country to defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and was the nephew of an earlier emperor.
This ruler's mistresses included actress Marguerite Bellanger and the wife of his foreign minister Alexandre Walewski.
Napoleon III [or Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, prompt on Napoleon, prompt on Bonaparte, do not accept "Napoleon Bonaparte"]