From riches to rags: the lavish but sombre life and heart-rending end of the 1st son of the man who made the whole of Europe tremble and quake

             He was the man who did the Eagle of France proud through his birth, the eldest son of the man who redrew the map of Europe but had his own image marred by the accusation of the lady he loved the most who claimed that his issue was too "watery" to bear children - something that no man deserves to hear from the woman he loves dearly but through the birth of his son, the father was cleared of the dishonour. Thus began the life of Compte Charles Léon, son of Napoléon Bonaparte through his concubine Eléonore Desnuelles de la Plaigne. Léon's mother thought that she had found favour with Napoléon and was well on her way to becoming the empress but while Napoléon was very glad that she had borne him a son and loved his son, at least till his 2nd son was born from his other Polish lover - Countess Marie Walewska, he (Napoléon) did not wish to meet Léon's mother again, he merely made arrangements for her to have a decent life and also entrusted Léon into the care of a man known to him, while he made arrangements for Eléonore to get married to an army officer Pierre-Philippe Augier de Sauzay who would later die in Napoléon's Russian campaign. Prior to Eléonore's affair with Napoléon, she was married to another officer named Jean-François Revel-Honoré who was proven to be a fraud and was arrested prompting Eléonore to reach out to Napoléon's sister Caroline Bonaparte (then Caroline Murat) who had studied with her at school. Initially, Léon's Mom became the mistress of officer Murat and finally Napoléon himself after Caroline his sister introduced her to Napoléon leading to the birth of Léon after Napoléon's return from the victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.

                                                               Napoléon and Eléonore Desnuelles de la Plaigne

        As less fortunate as the circumstances of Count Léon seem to be given how he was born, things were only about to take a downturn as time progressed.While Napoléon initially was a very loving father and made provisions for both Léon and his mother to live life comfortably, as we see with so many parents in our day and age, when a new child is born, the elder one takes a backseat in attention and love, we can imagine how sad little Léon would have suddenly felt when he could not meet his beloved Dad. Léon was entrusted into the care of a caretaker who provided for his education but Léon did not like the man but eventually fled as a teenager to his mother's place who by now, had married a German aristocrat named "Karl August Emil Ludwig von Luxburg" in Aschaffenberg, a region of Franconia which was under the duchy of Bavaria, Germany for the 3rd and final time. By now, his mother had had another child from her third and final marriage to Emil Ludwig von Luxburg - Amalia von Luxburg who in stark contrast to Léon, had a better life in German aristocracy after her marriage. It so happened that things did not go too well between Léon and Eléonore's new husband, one reason cited was that Léon being the emperor's son, was in favour of his father and got involved in political movements in favour of the latter when politically, most of Europe including most German states did not like Napoléon because of the latter's imperialist tendencies. This led to Léon being sent back to Paris.

                                                        Count Léon as a young officer in the French army

     Back in Paris, Léon was initially the head of a battalion under his father and did whatever he could to do his father proud as a proud and loving son, whether his Dad was fully aware of his actions or not, even if Napoléon had known of his deeds, we can imagine that he would have been too engaged in his military campaigns or may not have thought too much of him, since he felt that he had already done what was necessary to ensure that his life was decent, while I would want to think otherwise about Napoléon, this is a part of his Léon's life about which we do not know that much beyond the above details that can elicit speculation. Count Léon was certainly proud of his heritage based on his appearance which clearly showed people whose son he was besides his name, he did have some bad habits like lavish spending which partly played a role in worsening his situation financially as we will see later. While Léon had a good education, his background and the fact that he was getting money from Napoléon's extended family without anyone to guide him on how to spend money wisely meant that he was very spendthrift, squandering all his money on whatever pleasures Paris had to offer in that day and age including women and gambling. While one may feel tempted to condemn Léon actions for seeking to live immorally and irresponsibly above whatever his financial support from Napoléon's generals and family could provide for him, although what he did was wrong, this could very well be the outcome of lack of financial guidance and above all, the lack of his father and his mother by his side to guide him not just on how to spend money wisely but also on how to live life more responsibly for the careless spending could very well indicate the emptiness in Léon's heart without the love, affection and guidance of both of his parents which in turn could be because of the unfortunate circumstances of his birth, if only Napoléon as a father had kept Eléonore and Léon by his side and taken care of them, Léon's life would have been way better.

Duel with Napoléon's foe's illegitimate heir:
      
    Besides Léon always being proud of his Dad and being a loving son, it is said at one point that he got into a duel with a British army officer named "Charles Hesse". It is alleged that the latter fired first at Léon. However, Léon's bullet found its mark in Hesse's heart killing him instantly, it is further claimed that the victim might have actually been an illegitimate heir of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington who had defeated Napoléon at Waterloo. So in a twist of fate, Léon supposedly avenged his father's defeat at Waterloo. Although the judge found Léon guilty of manslaughter, Léon was later presumably acquitted when the judge came to know of his background. This is an anecdote about Léon's life, if it were true, it would have been an ironic twist of fate and a reversal of fortunes of what had happened at Waterloo, one in Napoléon's favour, albeit posthumous!.       

Strained relationship with his mother: 

    By this time, after the death of her 3rd husband in Germany, Eléonore was back in Paris probably because she had more contacts in Napoléon's family as well as friends who could take care of her for the remaining years of her life. At this juncture, it is not too clear whether Léon would have met his mother, if he met her at all considering the fact that both were living in Paris. There are reports of Léon having filed a couple of lawsuits against his Mom when she was still in Germany which could have hurt her feelings and worsened their relationship as mother and son which if true, adds yet another layer of tragedy to both of their lives and their relationship. While one would disapprove of Léon's actions at this point, one can imagine the grief and sorrow in his heart owing to neglect which could have worsened his image of his mother within himself causing him to act wrongly against his own Mom. Unfortunately, Léon failed to realise that he was held captive by the circumstances of his birth that loomed large over his life for which Napoléon was to blame because the latter got Léon's mother married off to another man who died causing her to get remarried to another aristocrat. Again, she is not to be blamed for this either because in her heart, Eléonore, Léon's Mom, would have hoped to live as Napoléon's lawful wife, when things did not fall into place, she would have felt prompted by her emotions to find fulfillment in a life that was as close as possible to a life with Napoléon - the one that she led with the German Aristocrat Ludwig von Luxburg (it is mentioned that a lady close to Napoléon's entourage had welcomed her to go there after her 2nd husband's passing). This could be yet another reason why she returned to the place where her heart always resided after Ludwig's passing- Paris because Paris, besides being a safer place to spend the final years of her life, reminded her of Napoléon and the life which could have been but never was!. Sure enough, when she passed away in Paris on Jan 30th, 1868 aged 80, it is said that she wore the necklace given to her by Napoléon and another medal given to her by him at the time of her burial at plot 41 of the Père Lachaise cemetery where Léon was also buried later.  

                                                                             Count Léon at an older age

     At a certain point in Léon's life, he was being ignored in his pleas to get financial support from Napoléon's extended family because they suspected him of being a spy for the Bourbons among other reasons. For this reason, he travelled to London to meet one of his cousins who turned him down, enraged, Léon challenged him to a gun duel, one that was stopped by Scotland yard and Léon was sent back to France. However, Napoléon's successors like Napoléon-II and Napoléon-III, despite their dislike of Léon for various reasons, provided members of the extended family of Napoléon with financial support for their living including ones born out of wedlock like Léon, especially since Napoléon had mentioned that his entire family had to be taken care of financially. However, this support ceased with the fall of the 2nd empire. This led to Léon final plunge not just into the annals of history as a once famous and beloved son of Napoléon but also into poverty and obscurity. It is said that he thankfully married a lady named Louise Fanny with whom he had 5 children just before he stopped receiving financial support from the government, some of these children of Léon's died in their infancy but 3 of whom survived into adulthood including a certain count Gaston who was associated with the Larousse publishing house that makes French dictionaries in France which expressed its condoleances on Gaston's passing once to his widow. While we know that Léon died of stomach or bowel cancer roughly 13 years after his mother's passing and was buried at the same plot of Lachaise cemetery in Paris, the silver lining in the cloud is that this lineage still exists till date.

Thoughts on Léon's final years and his grave's desecration:
             
            Léon is a tragic figure whose life would have taken a turn for the better if only he had had parental guidance on how to live life and spend his earnings or financial support. Before anyone blames him for being too lazy to work. It must be remembered that he served as the head of a battalion under Napoléon's 1st empire just ahead of its fall and Napoléon being exiled to St.Helena, Léon later tried to start some businesses that eventually failed like an ink producing firm, these failures took their toll on his hope, morale and general outlook on a life which was already gloomy and bleak, seeing that he mostly did not have his Mom and Dad to look up to and encourage him in his weakest of moments. When Napoléon had to abdicate his throne before being sent to St Helena, Léon supposedly joined the parade with his tutor but he never saw his Dad again which is yet another tragic fate of a son who would have loved to see his Dad and spend time with him which he never got to enjoy. As for Léon's mother, if only Léon had not done anything to hurt her, there is a chance that their relationship would have been better but again because of Napoléon's action of getting her married off to another man, Léon would have hesitated to approach his mother in the sight of her new husbands, his stepdads. Léon who once played with Napoléon his Dad but later got estranged from him, now found himself getting estranged from the only other person closest to his heart - his Mom who had left him behind to start a new life with a couple of other men, those men should have ideally accepted Léon's presence in their family as if he were their own child after marrying his Mom. Whether his mother still had a soft corner for him despite his errors is highly likely but for many, it is still the subject of contention and debate.If his mother had moved on from feeling responsible and providing for his life, then it paints yet another grim picture of a failing relationship between a son and his mother, one for which Napoléon is responsible because of his mistake of getting Eléonore married off to another army officer when she clearly wanted to be with him, such a stable relationship could have also offered stability and a safe haven for Léon as a child physically, morally, mentally and emotionally. The "legitimate" side of Napoléon's family also did not like Léon that much for various reasons.

    Beyond all this, when Léon died in 1881 at the age of 75 and was buried at the same plot where his mother had been buried a couple of decades earlier, his remains were exhumed and disposed of as was the norm in France for paupers after some years of remaining buried at the site, since he had died as a pauper and could not pay the sum of money that was required for his grave to be maintained for years on end. Léon was once the pride of the emperor of France, who played on the lap of the man who in turn, played to win on the battlefields of Europe and Russia from Austerlitz to Marengo, Jena Auerstadt, Ulm to Friedland and Wagram, the first and only ruler of France who brought the imposing bear of Russia to its knees at the Battles of Smolensk and Borodino (something that not even the present-day superpower of the United States managed to do!), although it cost Napoléon dearly in terms of the number of generals, horses and troops that he lost in battle and now...his son, the very 1st one - the eaglet who lifted Naploléon's head up not just at his birth, but sought to honour the memory of the golden eagle standard of his father throughout his life as a living echo of a son's faint but poignant and loving hurrah from behind the vast crowds of generals and soldiers that cheered his father onward and forward through life, history and in the hearts of those who looked up to Napoléon and still do... that very son found himself denied of a plot of land posthumously in France, the very country Napoléon fought for and sought to elevate in the eyes of the world, the same Léon's grave was dug up and his bones grievously removed and desecrated to make place for another, maybe taken to an ossuary or suffered a worse fate. Surely, Léon deserved better treatment in life and in death than what he did because he was Napoléon's 1st son that wiped away his shame as someone who could not father a child but also did everything in his power to honour his father's legacy in his life, had the anecdote been true, he would have even reversed the outcome of Waterloo in his duel with Wellesley's offspring!. Although Léon did have his share of failures in life, it was not all his fault, he was a victim of his circumstances but he lived true to his father's legacy as a proud and loving son, albeit not acknowledged by Napoléon as a legitimate heir or successor to the throne of France. Had the lives of both mother and son been better, they would have lived longer. Who knows?, we can only imagine the outcome of such a recognition of Léon being the heir apparent and what that would have meant for France and the rest of Europe!

   In the above collage, we see Napoléon's burial site at the top left in the Invalides, the other 2 are pictures of the tombstone laid at the site of burial in memory of Eléonore, her son with Napoléon - Count Léon and their descendants at plot 41 of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

 
A note of recognition for the ACMN's work for their restoration of this monument:

  While the bones of Léon were dug out and desecrated by people who did not know whose son he was, seeing that his remains deserved to be treated more honourably, that happened at the turn of the century and the damage cannot be reversed because there is no telling where his bones have been scattered, whether they have been burnt to ashes or been subjected to some other detrimental act. However, the work of the ACMN (Association pour la Conservation des Monuments Napoléoniens (Association for the Conservation of Napoleonic Monuments)) and l'Association le Souvenir Français (French Remembrance Association) is commendable in that they have given the location of burial a tombstone and a golden plaque in memoriam of the deceased including Charles Léon and his mother Eléonore with an engraved eagle of the 1st Napleonic empire.