Entrobus
Objects relating to Napoleon III
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was heir and nephew to Napoleon I. He made two attempts at organising a coup against the government and rule of the King, Louis-Philippe, the second attempt especially laughable and ending with his comfortable imprisonment. He soon escaped (1846) and went to live in Southern England.
The king was overthrown for the last time in 1848, and the Second Republic established; Louis-Napoleon returned to France and surprisingly won the first presidential election. Biding his time, he launched a coup d'état against his own government in 1851, and established the French Second Empire, proclaiming himself Emperor of France on December 2 1852.
Overseeing much of the creation of modern Paris, a greatly developing economy and a string of military achievements, his controvertial rule was mostly a success until the latter 1860s. His health failing, popular unrest growing and the increased threat of Prussia which was challenging France's domination of continental Europe, led him to enter the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This was a disaster, within months the French were defeated at the Battle of Sedan in which 10,000s of troops were captured and the Emperor himself. Two days later, September 4 1870, he was deposed and the Government of the Third Republic created which sued for peace with Prussia.
Loius-Napoleon was imprisoned in Germany for six months before he and his family went into exile in England, in Surrey. He died January 9 1873 and was later buried in an Imperial Crypt beneath the church of Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire, a monastery founded by his wife the former Empress Eugene.
The objects: the least impressive of the four items has the most local interest -
(1) my father found the worn and aged coin shown at the lower left. We were walking in the Durham Dales near Stanhope a few years ago, and happened to stop beside an old gate in a stone farm wall. Looking at the view across the valley, he happened to look down and noticed the coin embedded in the worn ground surface. He picked it up and unable to see what it was, passed it to me. Expecting it to be an old penny we got a surpise when it turned out to be an 1864 10 Centimes of Napoleon III. Who dropped it? Who knows! It is unlikely to have been a tourist - most likely a French farm labourer or even an exile from the upheavals of 1870-71. In 1871 an uprising in Paris saw the Government flee to Bordeaux, and led to the worlds first Communist government which declared Paris an independant city state. This ended badly, as the government of the Third Republic fought to recapture the city and even sought the aid of Prussia to do so! Following a bloody victory, thousands of the insurrectionists were either imprisoned, exiled, escaped or were executed.
(2) lower centre - a bronze medal issued for the Paris Exposition of 1854. The back depicts the Coat of Arms of the Empire surrounded by the arms of the other nations which participated in the exhibition.
(3) lower right - a CDV or cabinet card of the aged emperor. This was probably photographed after his exile and would have been purchased by his supporters.
(4) top left - a letter with a stamp bearing his portrait. This was posted to Montmartre in Paris in 1864.
Objects relating to Napoleon III
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was heir and nephew to Napoleon I. He made two attempts at organising a coup against the government and rule of the King, Louis-Philippe, the second attempt especially laughable and ending with his comfortable imprisonment. He soon escaped (1846) and went to live in Southern England.
The king was overthrown for the last time in 1848, and the Second Republic established; Louis-Napoleon returned to France and surprisingly won the first presidential election. Biding his time, he launched a coup d'état against his own government in 1851, and established the French Second Empire, proclaiming himself Emperor of France on December 2 1852.
Overseeing much of the creation of modern Paris, a greatly developing economy and a string of military achievements, his controvertial rule was mostly a success until the latter 1860s. His health failing, popular unrest growing and the increased threat of Prussia which was challenging France's domination of continental Europe, led him to enter the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This was a disaster, within months the French were defeated at the Battle of Sedan in which 10,000s of troops were captured and the Emperor himself. Two days later, September 4 1870, he was deposed and the Government of the Third Republic created which sued for peace with Prussia.
Loius-Napoleon was imprisoned in Germany for six months before he and his family went into exile in England, in Surrey. He died January 9 1873 and was later buried in an Imperial Crypt beneath the church of Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire, a monastery founded by his wife the former Empress Eugene.
The objects: the least impressive of the four items has the most local interest -
(1) my father found the worn and aged coin shown at the lower left. We were walking in the Durham Dales near Stanhope a few years ago, and happened to stop beside an old gate in a stone farm wall. Looking at the view across the valley, he happened to look down and noticed the coin embedded in the worn ground surface. He picked it up and unable to see what it was, passed it to me. Expecting it to be an old penny we got a surpise when it turned out to be an 1864 10 Centimes of Napoleon III. Who dropped it? Who knows! It is unlikely to have been a tourist - most likely a French farm labourer or even an exile from the upheavals of 1870-71. In 1871 an uprising in Paris saw the Government flee to Bordeaux, and led to the worlds first Communist government which declared Paris an independant city state. This ended badly, as the government of the Third Republic fought to recapture the city and even sought the aid of Prussia to do so! Following a bloody victory, thousands of the insurrectionists were either imprisoned, exiled, escaped or were executed.
(2) lower centre - a bronze medal issued for the Paris Exposition of 1854. The back depicts the Coat of Arms of the Empire surrounded by the arms of the other nations which participated in the exhibition.
(3) lower right - a CDV or cabinet card of the aged emperor. This was probably photographed after his exile and would have been purchased by his supporters.
(4) top left - a letter with a stamp bearing his portrait. This was posted to Montmartre in Paris in 1864.