Eugénie de Montijo (; born MarÃa Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick; 5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920) was
Empress of the French from her marriage to
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
on 30 January 1853 until he was overthrown on 4 September 1870. From 28 July to 4 September 1870, she was the ''de facto'' head of state of France.
Born to prominent Spanish nobility, Eugénie was educated in France, Spain, and England. As Empress, she used her influence to champion "authoritarian and clerical policies"; her involvement in politics earned her much criticism from contemporaries.
[McQueen 2011, p. 3.] Napoléon and Eugénie had one child together,
Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856–1879). After the fall of the Empire, the three lived in exile in England; Eugénie outlived both her husband and son and spent the remainder of her life working to commemorate their memories and the memory of the
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...
.
Youth
MarÃa Eugenia Ignacia Agustina was born on 5 May 1826 in
Granada
Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...
, Spain. She was the youngest child and daughter of Don
Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero, three times
Grandee of Spain
Grandee (; , ) is an official royal and noble ranks, aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they ha ...
, whose titles included 13th
Duke of Peñaranda de Duero, 9th
Count of Montijo, 15th
Count of Teba, 8th Count of Ablitas, 8th Count of Fuentidueña, 14th
Marquis of Ardales, 17th
Marquis of Moya and 13th Marquis of la Algaba, and
MarÃa Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée. MarÃa de Grivegnée was the daughter of the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn (1764–1837), who became United States
consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...
to
Málaga
Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...
, and later was a wholesale wine merchant, and his wife, Marie Françoise de Grivegnée (born 1769), daughter of
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
-born Henri, Baron de Grivegnée and Spanish wife, Doña Francisca Antonia de Gallegos y Delgado (1751–1853). In later life, the Empress told Lady Helena Gleichen that "she was born in the middle of an earthquake and
her mother was carried out of the house and laid under a tree, her family ever after used to mock at her saying, 'The mountain was in travail and it brought forth a mouse.
Eugenia's elder sister,
Maria Francisca de Sales Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, nicknamed "Paca", who inherited most of the family honours and was 14th Duchess of Peñaranda, Grandee of Spain and 9th Countess of Montijo, a title later ceded to Eugenia, married the
15th Duke of Alba in 1849. Until her marriage in 1853, Eugenia variously used the titles Countess of Teba or Countess of Montijo. However, some family titles were inherited by her elder sister, through which they passed to the
House of Alba. After the death of her father, Eugenia became the 9th Countess of Teba and is named as such in the ''
Almanach de Gotha
The ''Almanach de Gotha'' () is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published in 1763 by C. W. Ettinger in ...
'' (1901 edition). After Eugenia's demise, all titles of the Montijo family came to the
Fitz-Jameses (the Dukes of Alba and
Berwick).
On 18 July 1834, MarÃa Manuela and her daughters left Madrid for Paris, fleeing a
cholera outbreak and the dangers of the
First Carlist War
The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish monarchy: the conservative a ...
. The previous day, Eugenia had witnessed a riot and murder in the square outside their residence, Casa Ariza.
Eugénie de Montijo, as she became known in France, was formally educated mostly in Paris, beginning at the fashionable, traditionalist
Convent of the Sacré Cœur from 1835 to 1836. A more compatible school was the progressive Gymnase Normal, Civil et Orthosomatique, from 1836 to 1837, which appealed to her athletic side (a school report praised her strong liking for athletic exercise, and although an indifferent student, that her character was "good, generous, active and firm"). In 1837, Eugénie and Paca briefly attended a boarding school for girls on
Royal York Crescent in
Clifton, Bristol, to learn English. Eugénie was teased as "Carrots" for her red hair and tried to run away to India, making it as far as climbing on board a ship at Bristol docks. In August 1837, they returned to school in Paris. However, much of the girls' education took place at home, under the tutelage of English governesses Miss Cole and Miss Flowers, and family friends such as
Prosper Mérimée and
Henri Beyle.
In March 1839, on the death of their father in Madrid, the girls left Paris to rejoin their mother there. In Spain, Eugénie grew up into a headstrong and physically daring young woman, devoted to horseriding and a range of other sports. She was rescued from drowning and twice attempted suicide after romantic disappointments. She was very interested in politics and became devoted to the
Bonapartist cause, under the influence of Eleanore Gordon, a former mistress of
Louis Napoléon. Due to her mother's role as a lavish society hostess, Eugénie became acquainted with Queen
Isabella II of Spain
Isabella II (, MarÃa Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 1833 until her deposition in 1868. She is the only queen regnant in the history of unified Spain.
Isabella wa ...
and the prime minister
Ramón Narváez. MarÃa Manuela was increasingly anxious to find a husband for her daughter and took her on trips to Paris again in 1849 and England in 1851.
Marriage
She first met Prince Louis Napoléon after he had become president of the
Second Republic with her mother at a reception given by the "prince-president" at the
Élysée Palace
The Élysée Palace (, ) is the official residence of the President of France, President of the French Republic in Paris. Completed in 1722, it was built for Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, a nobleman and army officer who had been appointed g ...
on 12 April 1849. "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through the chapel, Sire", she answered.
In a speech on 22 January 1853, Napoleon III, after becoming emperor, formally announced his engagement, saying, "I have preferred a woman whom I love and respect to a woman unknown to me, with whom an alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices". They were wed on 29 January 1853 in a civil ceremony at the
Tuileries, and on the 30th, there was a grander religious ceremony at
Notre Dame.
The marriage had come after considerable activity concerning who would make a suitable match, often toward titled royals and with an eye to foreign policy. The final choice was opposed in many quarters. Eugénie was considered of too little social standing by some. In the United Kingdom, ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' made light of the latter concern, emphasizing that the
parvenu
A ''parvenu'' is a person who is a relative newcomer to a high-ranking socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb ''parvenir'' (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something).
Origin ...
Bonapartes were marrying into
Grandee
Grandee (; , ) is an official royal and noble ranks, aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they ha ...
s and one of the most important established houses in the
peerage of Spain: "We learn with some amusement that this romantic event in the annals of the French Empire has called forth the strongest opposition and provoked the utmost irritation. The Imperial family, the Council of Ministers, and even the lower coteries of the palace or its purlieus, all affect to regard this marriage as an amazing humiliation..."
Eugénie found childbearing extraordinarily difficult. An initial miscarriage in 1853, after a three-month pregnancy, frightened and soured her. On 16 March 1856, after two-day labor that endangered mother and child and from which Eugénie made a prolonged recovery, the empress gave birth to an only son,
Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, styled ''Prince Impérial''.
After marriage, it did not take long for her husband to stray as Eugénie found sex with him "disgusting". It is doubtful that she allowed further approaches by her husband once she had given him an heir.
He subsequently resumed his "petites distractions" with other women.
Empress
Public life
Eugénie faithfully performed the duties of an empress, entertaining guests and accompanying the emperor to balls, opera, and theater. After her marriage, her ladies-in-waiting consisted of six (later twelve) ''
dames du palais'', most of whom were chosen from among the acquaintances to the empress before her marriage, headed by the ''Grand-Maitresse''
Anne Debelle, Princesse d'Essling, and the ''dame d'honneur'',
Pauline de Bassano. In 1855
Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873) was a German painter and lithography, lithographer, known for his flattering portraits of royalty and upper-class society in the mid-19th century. His name has become associated with fashio ...
painted ''
The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting'', where it depicted Eugénie, sitting beside the ''Grand-Maitresse'' in a countryside setting, with eight of her ladies-in-waiting.
She traveled to Egypt to open the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...
and officially represented her husband whenever he traveled outside France. In 1860, she visited Algiers with Napoleon.
She strongly advocated equality for women; she pressured the
Ministry of National Education to give the first baccalaureate diploma to a woman and tried unsuccessfully to induce the
Académie Française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
to elect the writer
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...
as its first female member.
Her husband often consulted her on important questions. She acted as regent during his absences in 1859, 1865 and 1870, as he often accompanied his soldiers on the battlefield to motivate them during the wars. In the 1860s, she often attended meetings of the Council of Ministers, even leading the meetings for a brief space of time in 1866 when her husband was away from Paris.
A Catholic and a conservative, her influence countered any liberal tendencies in the emperor's policies. Her strong preference was for
hereditary monarchy
A hereditary monarchy is a form of government and succession of power in which the throne passes from one member of a ruling family to another member of the same family. A series of rulers from the same family would constitute a dynasty. It is ...
and she made repeated displays of support for members of European royalty who were in crisis, like supporting a restoration of the Bourbons in Spain or trying to help the deposed monarchs of
Parma
Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
and the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies () was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by popula ...
. According to
Nancy Nichols Barker, "her ideas on the principles of government were ill formed and included a jumble of
Bonapartism
Bonapartism () is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In ...
and
Legitimism, whose incompatibility she seemed not to even recognize."
She was a staunch defender of papal temporal powers in Italy and of
ultramontanism
Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented b ...
. Because of this she ardently tried to dissuade her husband from recognizing the new
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...
, which was formed after
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
's 1861 annexation of the Bourbon-ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and all of the pope's territory outside Rome. She also supported keeping a French garrison in Rome to protect the papacy's continued hold on the city. Her opposition to Italian unification earned her the enmity of
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Victor Emmanuel II (; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di House of Savoy, Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia (also informally known as Piedmont–Sardinia) from 23 March 1849 u ...
, who stated that "the emperor is weakening visibly and the empress is our enemy and works with the priests. If I had her in my hands I would teach her well what women are good for and with what she should meddle." She also clashed with the French foreign minister
Édouard Thouvenel over the question of the French garrison in Rome. Much to Eugénie's chagrin, Thouvenel negotiated an agreement to wind down the French military presence in exchange for a guarantee of papal sovereignty from the new Italian kingdom. The
Duke of Persigny blamed her influence when Thouvenel was dismissed by the emperor, declaring to Louis-Napoléon that, "You allow yourself to be ruled by your wife just as I do. But I only compromise my future...whereas you sacrifice your own interests and those of your son and the country at large."
She was blamed for the fiasco of the
French intervention in Mexico and the eventual death of Emperor
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I (; ; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian archduke who became Emperor of Mexico, emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution by the Restored Republic (Mexico), Mexican Republ ...
.
[''Maximilian and Carlota'' by Gene Smith, , ] However, the assertion of her clericalism and influence on the side of conservatism is often countered by other authors.
In 1868, Empress Eugénie visited the
Dolmabahçe Palace in
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, the home to
Pertevniyal Sultan, mother of
Abdulaziz
Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother Abdulmejid I in 1861.
Ab ...
, 32nd sultan of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. Pertevniyal became outraged by the forwardness of Eugénie taking the arm of one of her sons while he gave a tour of the palace garden, and she slapped the empress on the stomach as a reminder that they were not in France. According to another account, Pertevniyal perceived the presence of a foreign woman within her quarters of the
seraglio as an insult. She reportedly slapped Eugénie across the face, almost resulting in an international incident.
Role in the arts
The Empress possessed one of the most important jewellery collections of her time; Catherine Granger recalls that her purchases were estimated at the enormous sum of 3,600,000 francs, a sum to be compared with the 200,000 francs devoted to the purchase of works of art for her personal collection. The American jeweller
Charles Tiffany, who had already acquired the French crown jewels, bought most of the former Empress's jewels from the government and sold them to the ladies of American high society.
Eugénie de Montijo in Granada, 180px
The empress was "perhaps the last Royal personage to have a direct and immediate influence on fashion".
She set the standard for contemporary fashion at a time when the luxury industries of Paris were flourishing.
Gowns, colors, and hairstyles ''"à l'impératrice"'' were avidly copied from the empress throughout Europe and America. She was famous for her large
crinolines and for rotating her outfits throughout the day, with a different dress for the morning, afternoon, evening, and night.
The British satirical magazine ''
Punch'' christened her variously as the "Queen of Fashion", "Imperatrice de la Mode", "Countess of Crinoline", and "Goddess of the
Bustle
A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skir ...
s". She never wore the same gown twice, and in this way commissioned and acquired an enormous wardrobe, which she disposed of in annual sales to benefit charity. Her favored couturier,
Charles Frederick Worth
Charles Frederick Worth (13 October 1825 – 10 March 1895) was an English fashion designer who founded the House of Worth, one of the foremost fashion houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is considered by many fashion historians to ...
, provided hundreds of gowns to her over the years and was appointed the official dressmaker to the court in 1869.
In the late 1860s, she caused a shift in fashion by turning against the crinoline and adopting Worth's "new" slimmer silhouettes with the skirt gathered in the back over a bustle.
Eugénie's influence on contemporary taste extended into the decorative arts. She was a great admirer of Queen
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last List of French royal consorts, queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the ...
and decorated her interiors in revivals of the
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
and
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
styles. A general vogue arose for 18th century French design, becoming known as ''"Style Louis XVI Impératrice"''. According to Nancy Nichols Barker, her admiration for Marie Antoinette "was nearly an obsession. She collected her portraits and trinkets, lived in her suite at
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud () is a French commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthie ...
, had constructed a small model of the
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 ...
in the park, and frequently engaged
Hübner in lugubrious conversation about the fate of the martyred queen."
In 1863, the Empress established a museum of Asian art called the
''musée Chinois'' (Chinese Museum) at the
Palace of Fontainebleau
Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the List of French monarchs ...
.
She carefully curated the displays of her museum, constituting diplomatic gifts given to her by an embassy from
Siam
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
in 1860, as well as loot taken from the
Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...
outside
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
by French troops during the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
. General
Charles Cousin-Montauban had sent crates of this loot to Eugénie as a gift, with the first shipment arriving in February 1861. The collection numbers some 800 objects, with 300 coming from the sack of the Summer Palace.
Biarritz
In 1854, Emperor Napoleon III and Eugénie bought several acres of dunes in Biarritz and gave the engineer Dagueret the task of establishing a summer home surrounded by gardens, woods, meadows, a pond and outbuildings. Napoleon III chose the location near Spain so his wife would not get homesick for her native country. The house was called the Villa Eugénie, today the
Hôtel du Palais. The presence of the imperial couple attracted other European royalty like the British monarchs
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
and the Spanish king
Alfonso XIII
Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando MarÃa Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...
and made Biarritz well-known.
Role in Franco-Prussian War
The Empress held anti-Prussian views and disliked the
North German
Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...
chancellor,
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
, for what she perceived as his "meddling" in Spanish affairs.
[Wawro, 2003; p. 35] She believed that France's status as a great power was under threat, and that a victory against Prussia would secure her son's future rule.
[Horne, 1965; p. 36][du Camp, 1949; p. 280] Maxime du Camp
Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer.
Biography
Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...
claimed that, after the
Prussian victory over Austria in 1866, the Empress would often state that "Catholic France could not support the neighborhood of a great Protestant power."
In 1870, when the
diplomatic crisis
Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents, especially historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, pr ...
which would lead to the
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
erupted over Prussia's
Hohenzollern candidate for the Spanish throne, Eugénie was key in pushing her husband toward supporting what she called "my war" ("C'est ma guerre").
In one instance she pointed to the couple's son in front of her husband and declared "this child will never reign unless we repair the misfortunes of
Sadowa".
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( ; ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian who served as President of France from 1871 to 1873. He was the second elected president and the first of the Third French Republic.
Thi ...
included her, the foreign secretary the
Duc de Gramont,
Émile Ollivier, and the military in the pro-war camp behind the Emperor, who was himself indecisive.
After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Eugénie remained in Paris as Regent while Napoleon III and the Prince Imperial travelled to join the troops at the German front. When the news of several French defeats reached Paris on 7 August, it was greeted with disbelief and dismay. Prime Minister
Émile Ollivier and the chief of staff of the army, Marshal
Le Bœuf, both resigned, and Eugenie took it upon herself to name a new government. She chose General
Cousin-Montauban, better known as the count of Palikao, 74 years old, as her new prime minister. The count of Palikao named Maréchal
Francois Achille Bazaine, the commander of the French forces in Lorraine, as the new overall military commander. Napoleon III proposed returning to Paris, realizing that he was doing no good for the army. The empress responded by telegraph: "Don't think of coming back unless you want to unleash a terrible revolution. They will say you quit the army to flee the danger." The emperor agreed to remain with the army but sent his son back to the capital. With the empress directing the country and Bazaine commanding the army, the emperor no longer had any real role to play. At the front, the emperor told Marshal Le Bœuf, "we've both been dismissed."
The army was ultimately defeated, and Napoleon III gave himself up to the Prussians at the
Battle of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War from 1 to 2 September 1870. Resulting in the capture of Napoleon III, Emperor Napoleon III and over a hundred thousand troops, it effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia and ...
. The news of the capitulation reached Paris on 3 September. When the empress received word that the emperor and the army were prisoners, she reacted by shouting at the Emperor's personal aide, "No! An emperor does not capitulate! He is dead!...They are trying to hide it from me. Why didn't he kill himself! Doesn't he know he has dishonored himself?!". Later, when hostile crowds formed near the Tuileries Palace and the staff began to flee, the empress slipped out with one of her entourage and sought sanctuary with her American dentist,
Thomas W. Evans, who took her to Deauville. From there, on 7 September, she took the yacht of a British official to England. In the meantime, on 4 September, a group of republican deputies proclaimed the return of the
Republic
A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
, and the creation of a
Government of National Defense.
From 5 September 1870 until 19 March 1871, Napoleon III and his entourage, including Joseph Bonaparte's grandson Louis Joseph Benton, were held in comfortable captivity in a castle at
Wilhelmshöhe, near
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
. Eugénie traveled incognito to Germany to visit Napoleon.
After the Franco-Prussian War
When the Second Empire was overthrown after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the empress and her husband took permanent refuge in England and settled at
Camden Place in
Chislehurst
Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater ...
,
Kent
Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. Her husband, Napoleon III, died in 1873, and her son died in 1879 while fighting in the
Zulu War in South Africa, with Eugénie visiting
his death site on the first anniversary. Before her son's death and after she was widowed, she attempted to join Bonapartists and Legitimists in political alliance against the
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France durin ...
by making overtures to the
Count of Chambord (the Legitimist claimant to the throne of France) and proposing that he adopt her son. The idea was rejected by the Count of Chambord. In 1885, she moved to
Farnborough, Hampshire, and to the
Villa Cyrnos (named after the ancient Greek for Corsica), which was built for her at Cape Martin, between Menton and Nice, where she lived in retirement, abstaining from politics. Her house in Farnborough is now an independent Catholic girls' school,
Farnborough Hill.
After the deaths of her husband and son, as her health started to deteriorate, she spent some time at
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house in the style ...
on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
; her physician recommended she visit
Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
which was, in Victorian times, famed as a health spa resort. During an afternoon visit in 1881, she called on
the queen of Sweden, at her residence 'Crag Head'. Her health recovered sufficiently to allow her to travel internationally; she is recorded to have visited the
Tomb of Yuya and Thuya (KV46) in the
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings, also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings, is an area in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Twentieth Dynasty, rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and power ...
during its clearance in the spring of 1905, during which visit she sat on a chair that unbeknownst to her was the 3,000-year-old
Throne of Princess Sitamun.
Her deposed family's friendly association with the United Kingdom was commemorated in 1887 when she became the godmother of
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenberg (24 October 1887 – 15 April 1969) was List of Spanish royal consorts, Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII from their marriage on 31 May 1906 until 14 April 1931, when the Spanish Second Re ...
(1887–1969), daughter of
Princess Beatrice, who later became queen consort of
Alfonso XIII of Spain. She was also close to Empress consort
Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, who last visited her, along with Emperor
Nicholas II, in 1909.
On the outbreak of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, she donated her steam yacht ''Thistle'' to the
British Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
. She funded a military hospital at Farnborough Hill as well as made large donations to French hospitals, for which she was appointed
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1919.
Death, burial and aftermath
The former empress died on 11 July 1920, aged 94, during a visit to her relative
the 17th Duke of Alba, at the
Liria Palace in Madrid in her native Spain, and she is interred in the Imperial Crypt at
St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, with her husband and her son. The British King
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
attended her requiem.
After World War I, Eugenie lived long enough to see the collapse of other European monarchies, such as those of Russia, Germany and
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
. She left her possessions to various relatives: her Spanish estates went to the grandsons of her sister Paca; the house in Farnborough with all collections to the heir of her son, Prince
Victor Bonaparte; Villa Cyrnos to his sister
Princess Laetitia of Aosta. Liquid assets were divided into three parts and given to the above relatives except for the sum of 100,000 francs bequeathed to the Committee for Rebuilding the
Cathedral of Reims
Notre-Dame de Reims (; ; meaning "Our Lady of Reims"), known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Catholic Church, Catholic cathedral in the Reims, French city of the same name, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Reims, Archdiocese of R ...
.
Legacy

The empress has been commemorated in space; the asteroid
45 Eugenia was named after her, and its moon
Petit-Prince after the prince imperial.
She had an extensive and unique jewelry collection, most of which later was owned by the Brazilian socialite
Aimée de Heeren. De Heeren collected jewelry and was fond of the empress as both were considered to be the "Queens of Biarritz"; both spent summers on the Côte Basque. Impressed by the elegance, style and design of the jewelry of the neo-classical era, in 1858, she had a boutique in the Royal Palace under the name Royale Collections.
She was honoured by
John Gould
John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist who published monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould (illustrator), Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, includ ...
who gave the
white-headed fruit dove the scientific name ''Ptilinopus eugeniae''.
In popular culture
George W. M. Reynolds's
penny dreadful
Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular Serial (literature), serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typical ...
''The Empress Eugenie's Boudoir'' tells of the goings-on in the French court during the days of the Second Empire and features the titular empress as one of its lead characters.
Named for the empress, the
Eugénie hat is a style of women's chapeau worn dramatically tilted and drooped over one eye; its brim is folded up sharply at both sides in the style of a riding topper, often with one long ostrich plume streaming behind it.
The hat was popularized by film star
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras.
Regarded as one of the g ...
and enjoyed a vogue in the early 1930s, becoming "hysterically popular". More representative of the empress' actual apparel, however, was the late 19th-century fashion of the ''Eugénie
paletot'', a women's greatcoat with bell sleeves and a single button enclosure at the neck.
Honours
* 475th Dame of the Royal
Order of Queen Maria Luisa of Spain, ''6 March 1853''
* Dame of the
Order of Saint Isabel of Portugal, ''1854''
* Grand Cross of the
Imperial Order of Saint Charles of the Mexican Empire, ''10 April 1865''
* Honorary Dame Grand Cross of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
, ''1919''
* Dame of the
Order of the Starry Cross of Austria
Film portrayals
* In ''
Suez
Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...
'' (1938),
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Michaela Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1989. She received numerous honors including an Academy Awards ...
plays her as the love interest of
Ferdinand de Lesseps.
* In ''
Juarez'' (1939), she was played by
Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress.
Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Award ...
, portrayed as a ruthless consort who joins her husband in setting
Austrian Archduke Maximilian on the
throne of Mexico, and then abandons him.
* In ''
Violetas Imperiales'' (1932, 1952): Set in 19th-century Granada, Eugénie de Montijo (played by
Simone Valère) asks a gypsy girl, Violetta (played by
Carmen Sevilla
MarÃa del Carmen GarcÃa Galisteo (16 October 1930 – 27 June 2023), known professionally as Carmen Sevilla, was a Spanish actress, singer, and dancer. She began her career in the 1940s and became one of the most popular and highest paid star ...
), to read her fortune in her hand. Emboldened by Violetta's prediction that she will become a queen, Eugénie heads for Paris.
* In ''
The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), she is played by
Patricia Morison; she credits the waters of
Lourdes
Lourdes (, also , ; ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a ...
with curing the prince imperial.
* In ''
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' (2007),
Emma de Caunes plays her during a fantasy sequence.
* In the miniseries ''
Sisi'' (2009), she is portrayed by Hungarian actress
Andrea Osvart.
Arms
File:Grand coat of arms of Empress Eugenie.svg, Coat of arms as empress of the French
(1853–1870)
File:Coat of Arms of Empress Eugenie of the French (Order of Queen Maria Luisa).svg, Coat of arms as dame of the Order of Queen MarÃa Luisa
(1853–1920)
See also
*
Eugénie Archipelago
*
Arenenberg
*
Hispagnolisme
*
L'Empereur, sa femme et le petit prince
Citations
References
*
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* Anthony Geraghty, ''The Empress Eugenie in England: Art, Architecture, Collecting'', London: The Burlington Press, 2022
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Further reading
*
External links
Eugenie de Montijo.com - The Empress of the French and Paris Les HallesPronunciation of name by French speaker*
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montijo, Eugeniede
1826 births
1920 deaths
French people of Scottish descent
People from Granada
Eugenie de Montijo
Eugenie de Montijo
Eugenie de Montijo
Eugenie de Montijo
French socialites
Jewellery collectors
19th-century Spanish nobility
19th-century regents
French people of the Franco-Prussian War
Honorary Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Napoleon III
French Roman Catholics
Spanish Roman Catholics
French people of Belgian descent
Spanish people of Scottish descent
Spanish people of Belgian descent
Spanish emigrants to France
Exiled royalty