v56_0375 - Essai de 5 francs en argent 1816 VG.2402

NAPOLEON II

(20/03/1811-22/07/1832)

Napoleon François-Joseph Charles Bonaparte was born on March 20, 1811. King of Rome at his birth, he left France for good on May 2, 1814 with his mother, Archduchess Marie-Louise, without having seen his father again. The child bears the first names of his paternal grandparents, François and Joseph for Austria and Charles, the first name of Napoleon's father. In 1818, the Aiglon received the title of Duke of Reichstadt, for whom his father had abdicated on June 22, 1815, proclaiming him Napoleon II, Emperor of the French. Entrusted to the custody of Metternich, the Emperor's son died in the costume of an Austrian colonel on July 22, 1832. He was immortalized in Edmond Rostand's drama (1900) where he was played by Sarah Bernhardt.