Napoléon Louis Bonaparte

Born 11 October 1804, Napoléon-Louis was caught in the machinery of empire from birth: his father Louis Bonaparte ruled Holland as King Louis I, his uncle was Napoleon I, his mother Hortense was the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais. When his father abdicated in July 1810, the boy became Louis II at five years old. The reign lasted less than two weeks before Napoleon folded the kingdom into France. He lived another twenty-one years in that shadow, dying 17 March 1831. His younger brother Louis-Napoléon would finish the family's unfinished business, becoming Napoleon III in 1852.