The man who had once charmed France by sheer force of personality was gone. What remained of Napoleon III shuffled through the palace corridors on a cane, his body failing, his mind clouded by opium. But on the morning of September 1, 1870, he mounted his horse and rode out to the front lines of the Battle of Sedan, determined to lead his army against the Prussians who had surrounded him. It was a decision that would end everything.

The fight had barely begun before it became clear how badly things were going. The French troops could not stand against the elite Prussian forces. Shells rained down on the battlefield, and in the chaos, the emperor wandered aimlessly out in the open, apparently indifferent to the death falling around him. His doctor watched in horror and confided to his diary: “If this man has not come here to kill himself, I don’t know what he has come to do.

I have not seen him give an order all morning. ”

By the time the dust settled, 17,000 French soldiers lay dead. The Prussians took 21,000 prisoners. Among them was Napoleon III himself, the last emperor of the French, captured on the field of battle.

How had it come to this? How had the nephew of the greatest military genius in European history ended up as a prisoner of war, his empire crumbling around him, his wife fleeing for her life, his legacy in ruins? The trouble began long before Sedan. In fact, Napoleon III’s life had been a controversy from the moment before he was even born.

His father, Louis Bonaparte, was the brother of Napoleon I, the emperor who had conquered Europe and whose image still hung in the grand paintings of the age. Louis had ridden his brother’s coattails for years and eventually became King of Holland. His mother, Hortense, was the only daughter of Napoleon I’s first wife Joséphine from her first marriage. For anyone struggling to keep track of the family tree, that meant Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother married his stepdaughter.

Even more bizarrely, it was all Joséphine’s idea. She was infertile and knew she could never provide Napoleon with an heir. The next best thing, apparently, was to marry her daughter to her brother-in-law so they could produce one. The marriage was a disaster.

The couple could not stand each other, and young Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte—the future Napoleon III—endured a tense childhood torn between his fighting parents. His uncle, however, seemed to like him. The last time uncle and nephew ever saw each other was at a family gathering, right before Napoleon Bonaparte marched off to Waterloo. After the catastrophic defeat of 1815, the new French regime forced all Bonapartes into exile.

Little Napoleon went from the lap of luxury in Paris to life on the run. The family drifted through Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, waiting for the moment when the name Bonaparte would mean something again. That moment seemed to arrive in 1831, when the family returned to Paris after the reign of King Charles X had ended. The new king, Louis-Philippe, allowed the Bonapartes to stay in Paris temporarily, on the condition that they remain incognito.

Within a month, most of the city knew where Napoleon and his mother were staying. On May 5, the tenth anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, mourners packed the streets in front of their hotel. It was a gesture that filled the young man with pride and hope—and it was exactly the sort of thing the king could not tolerate. A Bonaparte in Paris, turning the people against him?

Louis-Philippe could not allow it. Napoleon left Paris a changed man. His name had always weighed heavy on him, but his time in the city gave him a new perspective. He saw how much the people loved his uncle, and he became convinced that he could march on Paris and the people would rise up to support him.

It was a conviction that would shape the rest of his life—and lead him into a series of spectacular failures. His first attempt was in Strasbourg, a coup that collapsed almost immediately. He fled France once more, traveling to London and then to Brazil, before finally ending up in New York City. There he mingled with the American cultural elite, where the name Napoleon still opened doors.

He set off to explore America but had not gotten very far when a letter from his mother reached him. Her health had turned for the worse, and she did not have much time. He dropped everything and hurried back to Europe to say goodbye. His thoughts soon returned to seizing power in France.

In 1840, he bought weapons and uniforms and gathered about sixty men to march with him. It was not much of a force, but Napoleon figured he didn’t need much. He would simply show up in France, and the people would rejoice at the return of a Bonaparte. He never even made it off the beach.

His men arrived on French shores, where customs agents immediately stopped them. He had hoped the local garrison would rally to their cause, but that did not happen. The garrison surrounded Napoleon’s men on the beach, and after a standoff in which one of his men died, the locals apprehended all the mutineers. The press made him a laughingstock.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was not, however, a dank cell. He had guards, but he still had a surprising amount of freedom. He was even able to take up with a local woman named Éléonore, with whom he fathered two children while biding his time and planning his next move.

Everyone knew Napoleon III to be a notorious womanizer. His most infamous conquests included Eliza Rachel Félix, the most famous actress in Europe, and the Countess de Castiglione, widely considered the first supermodel. And that barely scratched the surface. Napoleon III kept himself busy in captivity, but that did not mean he was satisfied.

The press could ridicule him all they wanted, but he knew deep down that the people of France adored him and were waiting for his return. His confidence only grew in 1840 when his uncle Napoleon Bonaparte’s body was returned to Paris to much celebration and fanfare. Then, on May 25, 1846, Napoleon III, disguised as a laborer, simply walked out of prison. He walked right up to his getaway carriage, which took him to the English Channel.

From there he sailed to England, where he began plans for another insurrection. In July, Napoleon learned that his father had died in Italy. Through his grief, he saw an opportunity. With his father gone, Napoleon was now the clear, unopposed heir to the Bonaparte dynasty.

The name still held weight, but Napoleon needed real money if he ever hoped to return to France. His latest mistress, Harriet Howard, was one of the wealthiest women in England. She must have adored him, because she soon allowed him to move in with her, taking in his two illegitimate children and raising them as her own. Harriet Howard became the bankroll for Napoleon’s ambitions.

Then, in 1848, after years of failed coups and public embarrassment, his time finally arrived. The restoration of the French monarchy had not lasted long. The people revolted yet again and forced the king to abdicate. Napoleon saw the moment he had been waiting for.

He immediately set out for Paris and arrived to find the Second Republic had taken over, with different factions all vying for power. It was the perfect time to begin his political career. Napoleon arrived humbly, telling the new provisional government that he was “without any other ambition than that of serving his country. ” He did not get the response he had hoped for.

The provisional government told him to leave. The last thing they needed was a Bonaparte in Paris stirring up even more chaos. Napoleon, by now having learned patience, returned to England and waited for things in France to settle down. It turned out to be an excellent decision.

It meant his hands remained clean of the bloodshed that was coming. The June Days Uprising saw insurgents rise up against the provisional government. Paris turned into a war zone, barricades filled the streets, and by the time the fighting stopped, thousands lay dead. Napoleon III, nephew to France’s greatest hero, had been in London the whole time.

Many in the new government were tainted by the bloodshed, but his hands remained clean. After the uprising, France held elections for the National Assembly. Napoleon ended up on the ballot in thirteen different departments and was elected in five, receiving more votes than any other candidate. By the end of the year, France held a presidential election.

He won in a remarkable landslide, receiving 74. 2 percent of the vote. Everyone loved him—peasants, workers, small business owners, even intellectuals like Victor Hugo. Finally, after fighting his entire life, Napoleon had what he had always wanted.

He was President of France. But that was not good enough. According to the new constitution, he had to step down at the end of his term. His uncle would not have accepted limits like that, and neither would he.

He quickly sought an amendment that would allow him to succeed himself. He managed to get a surprising number of votes, but he did not get the two-thirds majority he needed. When his vote failed, he did something drastic. A coup d’état.

Along with his senior officers, he got to work. On the night of December 1, 1851, they occupied key strategic points across the city and plastered the streets with posters. The posters announced that Napoleon had dissolved the National Assembly. New elections were to take place, and Paris would remain occupied until then.

Napoleon was done playing fair. Even some of his own supporters could not support the coup. Several Republicans tried to organize a resistance, but Napoleon responded swiftly and brutally. His forces swept through the city and crushed any insurgents they found.

By the end of the day, somewhere between three and four hundred rebels lay dead on the streets. A period of intense political repression followed. He had 26,000 people apprehended. Many had their property confiscated and were forced to leave France.

The unluckiest ones were shipped off to a penal colony in French Guiana. For a self-proclaimed man of the people, Napoleon III was acting like a tyrant. It was still not enough to write a new, remarkably authoritarian constitution. Napoleon III saw himself as heir to Napoleon Bonaparte, and Napoleon Bonaparte was no president.

After embarking on a national tour and basking in the adulation of the people, Napoleon made it official. He was the Emperor of the French. Critics had ridiculed him for years, but they were not laughing now. As an emperor, he needed a wife who could bring political alliances.

He started sending letters to the families of Europe’s most eligible princesses, inquiring about marriage. Most of the families he contacted gave him a flat no. They knew France had been hanging on the edge of anarchy for decades, and it seemed only a matter of time before another revolution ripped Napoleon off his throne. He ended up settling for a minor Spanish aristocrat, Eugénie de Montijo.

But she was not like the actresses and courtesans he had spent his life seducing. When he tried to take her to bed, she rebuffed him, demanding they wait for marriage. Napoleon, the most insatiable man in Europe, was not happy about it. Despite their differences, they married in 1853.

Not long after, they welcomed a son—another Bonaparte to carry on the dynasty. From there, Eugénie took up the ceremonial role of empress. She entertained guests at the palace, joined Napoleon at balls and other public events, and represented him when he left the country. She did pretty much everything Napoleon could have expected, and more.

But that was not enough to keep him faithful. As soon as he had an heir to the throne, he ditched his wife and returned to womanizing. If women were Napoleon III’s number one bad habit, smoking like a chimney was definitely number two. He lit up first thing in the morning and then just kept smoking for the entire day.

Anyone who entered his rooms learned this right away. Smoke hung in the air at all times, clinging to the extravagant art, furniture, and draperies that decorated his chambers. Napoleon III had gained his throne mostly through charisma, with a healthy amount of authoritarianism thrown in for good measure. That was a great way to rise to power but not a great way to keep it.

As the years of his reign wore on, his grasp on France started slipping. Opposition to his authoritarian policies grew across every political sphere, and he could no longer rely on the blanket support of the people. His unhealthy lifestyle and disdain for doctors caused his ailments to pile up. He started walking with a cane and soon could not even mount a horse anymore.

Napoleon III was no longer the kind of man who instilled much confidence. By 1869, he could add urinary tract problems to his ever-growing list of maladies. The treatment was opium, which came with troubling side effects. He became lazy, lethargic, and apathetic to the world around him.

Lord Malmesbury had known Napoleon III since his days in exile in England. He must have been excited to see his old friend, now an emperor. But he did not like what he found when he arrived in Paris. Malmesbury instantly realized that Napoleon was terribly changed and very ill.

The man who had fought tooth and nail for the throne was gone. Unfortunately, France needed that man. Just as Napoleon grew frail and ineffective, its rival Prussia found itself a strapping new chancellor named Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck had grand plans for Prussia, and he planned to achieve them by “iron and blood.

” Napoleon III stood in the way of those plans, and Bismarck knew weakness when he saw it. Once Napoleon had exhausted every diplomatic option, he realized he had no choice. Bismarck wanted iron and blood, and he was going to get it. Although Napoleon’s body was already wasting away, he decided to lead his men from the front lines.

The Franco-Prussian conflict was one misstep after another, all leading to the catastrophic Battle of Sedan. Reports of Napoleon’s actions during the battle are disturbing. As the fight grew more hopeless, the anguished emperor wandered around aimlessly out in the open while shells rained down around him. He gave no orders.

He simply walked, waiting for whatever fate had in store. Napoleon III and his wife had never gotten along well, but her reaction to his loss was particularly cold-hearted. When she heard the news, she shouted: “An emperor does not capitulate! Doesn’t he know he has dishonored himself?

” Soon angry crowds formed outside the palace, furious at Napoleon’s humiliation. The empress slipped out a side door and fled to England. After everything he had accomplished, Napoleon III was nothing more than a scapegoat in the end. A newly elected assembly removed him from power and placed the blame for France’s loss at his feet.

They arranged a peace with Prussia, and with Napoleon suitably neutered, Bismarck let the disgraced emperor walk free. After his release from Prussia, Napoleon had no money to his name and could find no support anywhere. He had to pawn the clothes and jewels on his back just to afford safe passage to England. Once he arrived, he entertained no new plans for invasion or rebellion.

He just wasted away. On January 9, 1873, after complications from surgery, he lay dying. As his breathing slowed, he clung to his attendant and asked: “Were you at Sedan? ” When the man said he was, Napoleon III continued: “Isn’t it true that we weren’t cowards at Sedan?

”

Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most uniquely brilliant people in history, and Napoleon III could not live up to him. Many of his critics pointed to the same reason to explain why he failed: his obsession with womanizing was so all-encompassing that it seriously affected his ability to rule. But as far as Napoleon III saw it, he had no other choice. The man was addicted to intimacy, yet he could not get any of that from his wife.

Eugénie found sleeping with her husband to be, in her own words, disgusting. After they had a child, it is very likely that she never let him touch her again.