Tuesday, March 20, 2012

A daughter for the Victor Napoleons

March 20, 1912

Princess Victor Napoleon, daughter of the late King Leopold II of the Belgians, gave birth to a daughter this evening, according to the New York Times.

Bags of soil was brought from France to the Brussels home of the exiled Prince Victor Napoleon  so "that the child might be born on French soil."

A son would have obtained the "political inheritance."  It had also been asserted that if the Princess had given birth to a prince, Empress Eugenie would have settled a "large fortune" on the child to "help him support the imperialist cause."

Princess Victor Napoleon, although a Belgian, shares her husband's dream of a "Napoleonic restoration."

Princess Clementine of Belgium and Prince Victor Napoleon were married on November 24, 1910.  They had been in love for years, but the late King Leopold II would not agree to a marriage.  He died on December 23, 1909.   The marriage took place "as soon after that event as was considered fitting."

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