Eugènie-Marie de Montijo biography

Dromo's Den

Eugènie-Marie de Montijo Biography

EUGÉNIE-MARIE DE MONTIJO, (1826-[1920]). Ex-Empress of the French, wife of Napoleon III. She was born at Granada, in Spain, May 5, 1826, the second daughter of the Count of Montijo and Maria Manuela Fitzpatrick, whose father had been United States Consul at Halaga and was a Scotchman by birth and an American by residence. Eugenie was educated at the convent of the Sacré Cœur, near Paris, and after the age of eight lived with her mother and sister in Paris. They moved in French society, though not in the most exclusive circles. Eugenie appeared in society in Paris in 1851 and fascinated everyone by her beauty and amiability, Louis Napoleon, who had just been crowned Emperor, not excepted. He conceived an ardent passion for Mademoiselle de Montijo—or the Comtesse de Teba, as she was known—and after the failure of his attempt to enter the circle of European royalty through a dynastic marriage, he decided upon a marriage of inclination, offered himself to Eugenie de Montijo, and was accepted—a denouement that was viewed by her enemies as the coup of a successful adventuress paralleling Napoleon's own coup d'état. The marriage took place with great pomp at Notre Dame on Jan. 30, 1853, and Eugenie was installed as Empress at the Tuileries. The birth of a son, the Prince Imperial, in 1856 served to strengthen Napoleon's hold upon his position. The frivolous nature of Eugenie and the ambition of Napoleon for a brilliant court made the Tuileries the model for luxury and extravagance in Europe. But Eugenie was the arbiter, not only of fashion, but of politics, in spite of the intervals when public policy forced Napoleon to escape from her tutelage. Her Spanish traditions had imbued her with a distrust for democracy and a devotion to the church which dictated entirely the direction of her political influence and that of a powerful group which surrounded her. Napoleon's personal convictions were more liberal, but policy as well as the influence of the Empress dictated to him an indulgent attitude towards the church. Eugenie was deficient, however, in political sagacity and failed in most of her political ventures. She favored the unfortunate Mexican expedition of Maximilian and blocked Napoleon's plans for the liberation of Italy so successfully that he was left without the confidence of either clericals or Italians. She discouraged all concessions to the democratic tide of opinion that had been swelling during the Empire and thus helped to increase the force of the Liberal opposition. Finally, in 1870, with the idea that a successful war would strengthen the dynastic prospects of her son, she made her supreme political mistake in urging Napoleon into the fatal conflict with Prussia, and, as regent during his absence in the war, she was unable to do anything to retrieve the position and fled to England as a simple traveler. She was joined there by Napoleon after his release and the downfall of the Empire, and after his death in 1873 devoted herself to the education of the Prince Imperial. Her hopes for his future were blasted by his death in Africa in the Zulu War in 1879. Thereafter she continued to reside in England in strict retirement at Chislehurst.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 160.