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Authors: Desmond Seward

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175.
‘One can dismiss …’: Ducamp (1949), I, p. 146.

176.
‘No doubt a woman …’: La Gorce (1894–1905), V, p. 149.

S
EVEN

177.
‘We are in danger …’: Jurien’s letter; Kurtz (1964), pp. 223–4.

178.
‘Among the infamous jibes …’: Paléologue (1928), p. 79.

179.
‘
Alors, vous auriez mieux fait de rester chez vous, au lieu de venir agacer mes nerfs ici
’, Wellesley (1928), p. 294

179.
‘… the barrier of blood’: while Eugénie regretted the
coup
, she saw it as having been unavoidable.

180.
‘… Franz-Joseph’s visit’: Metternich (1922), p. 171.

181.
‘After dinner …’: Feuillet (1894), p. 352.

182.
‘Everywhere …’: Verly (1894), pp. 118–19.

185.
‘The last time …’: Jules and Edmond de Goncourt,
Journal
, Paris, 1989.

188.
‘… the great French Egyptologist’: An expert on hieroglyphics, Mariette Bey had helped to discover the Serapeum of Memphis.

190.
‘In a letter …’: Pincemaille (2000), p. 14, quotes this letter at some length.

193.
‘… the only form of French monarchy’ Almost ninety years later, it inspired the constitution of General de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic, a republican monarchy.

195.
‘There could have been …’: Grunwald (1951).

195.
‘Could anything …’: Whitehurst (1873), II, p. 288.

197.
‘It was like …’: Whitehurst (1873), II, p. 347.

198.
‘Only a handful …’: C. James,
Des causes de la mort de l’empéreur
, 1873; also Bresler (1999), pp. 404–15.

E
IGHT

202.
‘He had been …’: La Gorce (1894–1905), VI, pp. 129–30; Howard (1961), pp. 38, 44–5.

203.
‘Six railway lines …’: Howard (1961), p. 24–6.

204.
‘The French did not…’: Namier (1958), p. 142.

208.
‘Eugenie explained …’: Paléologue (1928), p. 150.

210.
‘Thus by a tragic …’: Howard (1961), p. 57.

214.
‘Nothing is ready …’: ‘Lettres à l’Impératrice Eugenie (1870–71)’,
Revue des Deux Mondes
, 15 July 1929.

214.
‘I am good for nothing …’: Abbé Pujol, ‘Les Derniers Jours de Saint-Cloud’,
Revue des Deux Mondes
, 15 July 1929.

215.
‘The Regent Takes Control’: For this chapter, see Duc d’Abrantès, Essai
sur la Régence de 1870
.

220.
‘Accordingly …’: Howard (1961), pp. 134–5.

223.
‘… a legend grew up’: A modern historian refutes this by quoting the republican Jules Simon
(Souvenirs du quatre Septembre
, Paris, 1874). ‘The Council of Ministers and Privy Council were unanimous in agreeing with her. There were two reasons for their decision. First, and which counted most with the empress, the personal danger the emperor would run in returning to Paris. Second, a failure to appreciate what MacMahon’s army was risking in marching north.’ W.C.H. Smith,
Eugénie, L’Impératrice et femme
, p. 371.

224.
‘Her face was ravaged …’: Garets (1928), I, p. 205.

226.
‘She was eating …’: Garets (1928), I, p. 204.

227.
‘… I do not fear the crisis’:
Lettres familières
, I, p. 228.

227.
‘… in a mouse-trap’: Howard (1961), p. 207.

230.
‘She was pale and terrible …’: Filon (1920), p. 139.

231.
‘Paléologue claimed …’: Paléologue (1928), p. 217.

235.
‘Had the empress…’: Gower (1883), I, p. 371.

237.
‘Flight’ For this chapter, Crane (ed.) (1905).

243.
‘… the club house of Chislehurst Golf Club’, whose members wear a tie with the imperial eagles.

248.
‘General Monts …’: H. Welschinger, ‘La Captivité de Napoléon III’,
Revue des Deux Mondes
, March-April 1910.

248.
‘These long days …’: ‘Lettres à l’Impératrice Eugénie’,
Revue des Deux Mondes
, September 1930.

248.
‘The events through which …’:
Lettres familières
, II, p. 7.

249.
‘Yet no two women …’: Filon (1920), p. 255.

252.
‘Her visits to Chislehurst…’: Paléologue (1928), p. 237.

252.
‘The Comte de Chambord …’: Halévy (1937), pp. 62–8.

256.
‘The Empire will be …’: Wellesley and Sencourt (1934), p. 375.

257.
‘Eugénie was too overcome …’: Filon (1920), pp. 283–6.

258.
‘French royalism …’: Osgood (1960).

259.
‘The Napoleons are genuine democrats’: quoted in Crane (ed.) (1905), p. 617.

259.
‘I have to admit…’:
Lettres familières
, II, p. 52.

261.
‘Certainly he met her …’: Kurtz (1964), p. 289.

261.
‘Those four years …’: Filon (1920), p. 302.

262.
‘Your view …’:
Lettres familières
, II, p. 60.

263.
‘After ten years a regime like this …’: Even so in 1877 the Bonapartists won 105 seats, more than the Legitimists and Orleanists combined. Zeldin (1973), I, p. 564.

264.
‘… he died like a lion’: The most recent study is Phillips (1999).

265.
‘Alone in life …’:
Lettres familières
, II, p. 115.

266.
‘… a new and much larger house’: Mostyn (1999).

267.
‘… she employed another Frenchman’: For Destailleur see Hall (2002), p. 45.

267.
‘Four White Canons’: W.H.C. Smith (2001).

269.
‘… curtsy to each other’: Smyth (1921), p. 108.

270.
‘Eugénie had renewed …’: Kurtz (1964), pp. 352–3.

271.
‘Maurice Paléologue first met…’: Paléologue (1928).

272.
‘When Mrs Pankhurst…’: Smyth (1921), p. 58.

273.
‘But although …’: Guétary (1905), p. 279.

274.
‘She hates prejudice …’: Daudet (1911), p. 97.

275.
‘She never indulged …’: Daudet (1935), p. 252.

276.
‘She realized …’: Sermonetta (1929), p. 133.

278.
‘Her best epitaph …’: Smyth (1919), II, p. 243.

About the Author

Desmond Seward was born in Paris and educated at Ampleforth and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is the author of many books including The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders, The Hundred Years War, The Wars of the Roses, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry V as Warlord, Josephus, Masada and the Fall of Judaea (da Capo, US, April 2009), Wings over the Desert: in action with an RFC pilot in Palestine 1916-18 (Haynes Military, July 2009) and Old Puglia: A Portrait of South Eastern Italy (Haus August 2009).

*
Roger Sencourt,
Life of the Empress Eugénie
, London, 1931.

*
Jean des Cars,
Eugénie: la dernière imperatrice
, Paris, 2000.

*
Admittedly she never visited Lourdes, which was within easy reach of Biarritz. Nor is there any proof for Franz Werfel’s claims in
The Song of Bernadette
(New York, 1942) that she had sent Mme Bruat for water from the grotto to heal the Prince Imperial and bullied the emperor into rescinding the order.

*
Christophe Pincemaille (2000) dismisses the
Entretiens
as ‘
un faux grossier
’ (a clumsy sham) and Kurtz (1964) calls it ‘one of the poisoned wells’. This is excessive. A good deal in it is obviously genuine and of real value, even if one has always to be on guard against Paléologue’s emendations and flights of fancy. Undoubtedly he had had many discussions with Eugénie.

*
A corvette of 1,400 tons, driven by steam and sail, she could do 15 knots and was manned by a crew of 180.

*
This was partly because of Thier’s behaviour during the coup of 1851 – so craven that the police did not bother to arrest him.

*
Colonel of the Empress’s Regiment of Dragoons.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue: The Wedding of 1853

ONE: HOW TO BECOME AN EMPRESS