Napoléon, Prince Imperial

Louis-Napoléon was born in 1856, the only child of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie. When his father was dethroned in 1870, the family fled to England. At seventeen, after Napoleon III's death in January 1873, Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoléon IV. He trained as a British Army officer and, eager for combat, convinced authorities to let him join the Anglo-Zulu War. On 1 June 1879, serving with British forces, he was killed in a skirmish with Zulus. The death reverberated across Europe — the House of Bonaparte's last serious dynastic claim died with him in the field.