ABSTRACT
On April 20, 1808, Queen Hortense, wife of Louis, King of Holland, gave birth in the early morning to her third son, the future founder of the Second Empire. He was the first child of the imperial house who was born a prince, for Napoleon was faithful to his childless empress; and Louis had not yet been promoted to his uneasy throne when his other two sons were born. Napoleon on the Spanish frontier, on the point of adding a new kingdom to the dominions of his dynasty, rejoiced at the timely birth of a new heir. For the unhappy marriage of Hortense to Louis Napoleon she had herself been mainly responsible. After Napoleon had been installed in his island empire at Elba, they returned to Malmaison; and there it was that Josephine, unable to share the Emperor’s exile, died before his return.
