Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, Prince of Montfort (birth name: ''Jean-Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Napoléon''; born 11 July 1986,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) is the head of the former Imperial House of France, and heir of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, the First Emperor of the French.

Family background

Prince Jean-Christophe was born in

Saint-Raphaël, Var Saint-Raphaël (; oc, Sant Rafèu ) is a commune in the Var department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern France. In 2017, it had a population of 35,042. Immediately to the west of Saint-Raphaël lies a larger and older town, ...

, France. He is the son of Prince Charles Napoléon and his first wife Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, daughter of the late Prince Ferdinand of Bourbon, Duke of Castro, a claimant to headship of the former Royal House of the Two Sicilies.de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. ''Le Petit Gotha''. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery, Paris 2002, pp. 437, 442 (French) His parents divorced on 2 May 1989, two months before Jean-Christophe's 3rd birthday. Jean-Christophe is the great-great-great-grand-nephew of Emperor

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

(who has no legitimate direct descendants) through the emperor's youngest brother, Jérôme, King of Westphalia. Through his mother, he is a descendant of King

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of ...

and through his great-grandmother, Princess Clémentine of Belgium, he descends from

Leopold II of Belgium * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...

William IV, Prince of Orange William IV (Willem Karel Hendrik Friso; 1 September 1711 – 22 October 1751) was Prince of Orange from birth and the first hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands from 1747 until his death in 1751. During his whole ...

Charles III of Spain it, Carlo Sebastiano di Borbone e Farnese , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Elisabeth Farnese , birth_date = 20 January 1716 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Spain , death_da ...

Frederick William I of Prussia Frederick William I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the "Soldier King" (german: Soldatenkönig), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neu ...

George II of Great Britain George II (George Augustus; german: link=no, Georg August; 30 October / 9 November 1683 – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover, Hanover) and a prince-ele ...

and

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

, King of the French, who was the last king to rule France, while his great-great-grandfather was

Prince Napoléon Bonaparte A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

, the cousin of the Emperor

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

, France's most recent monarch.

Prince Napoléon

Jean-Christophe's grandfather,

Louis, Prince Napoléon Louis, Prince Napoléon (''Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie''; 23 January 1914 – 3 May 1997) was a member of the Bonaparte dynasty. He was the pretender to the Imperial throne of France, as Napoléon VI, from 3 May 1926 until his ...

, died in 1997 and stipulated in his will that he wished his 11-year-old grandson Jean-Christophe to succeed him as Head of the Imperial House of France rather than the boy's father, Charles, who had embraced republican principles and decided to remarry without his father's consent. Despite the dynastic dispute, Jean-Christophe's father has stated that "there will never be conflict" between him and his son over the imperial succession.

Education and career

Jean-Christophe studied at ''Lycée Saint Dominique'' in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

from 2001 to 2004, obtaining a

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

with honours in the sciences and mathematics. From 2004 to 2006, he studied economics and mathematics at the '' Institut Privé de Préparation aux Études Supérieures'' (IPESUP) in Paris. Jean-Christophe matriculated at the HEC School of Management in Paris, graduating in 2011 with an MSc in management. He completed an MBA at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

in May 2017. He worked from 2017 until 2022 as a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

associate in the London office of the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate bu ...

. In April 2022 he founded a private equity boutique Leon Capital LLP. He has lived and worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

as an investment banking analyst for

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

and in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as a private equity associate for

Advent International Advent International is a global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strategic restructuring in five core ...

. He is fluent in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and Spanish. He represents his dynasty's heritage at public events and ceremonies in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Personal life

On 17 October 2019, he contracted a civil marriage with Countess Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg, by birth member of an ancient House of Arco at

. On 19 October 2019, the couple were married religiously by the Roman Catholic bishop Antoine de Romanet at the Cathedral of Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris. The wedding ball took place at the

Palace of Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...

. Prince and Princess Napoléon have one son, Prince Louis Charles Riprand Victor Jérôme Marie Napoléon (b. 7 December 2022 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

), who is the current heir to the Bonaparte dynasty and legacy.

Honours

Foreign

House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons that ruled Southern Italy and Sicily for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Phili ...

: Deputy President Bailiff Knight Grand Cross with Collar of Justice of the Two Sicilian Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George

Awards

* : Freeman of the City of London

Ancestry

References

External links

Website of the Mexico-France Napoleonic Institute
(In French and Spanish)
Fondation NapoléonRenouveau Bonapartiste
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jean-Christophe Napoleon 1986 births Living people People from Saint-Raphaël, Var House of Bonaparte Princes Napoléon Bonapartist pretenders to the French throne French Roman Catholics Princes of France (Bonaparte) Paris-Sud 11 University alumni Harvard Business School alumni