Eugénie de Montijo

Eugénie de Montijo
Empress consort of the French
Countess of Teba and Marquise of Ardales
Portrait by Franz Winterhalter
Tenure 30 January 1853 – 11 January 1871
Spouse Napoleon III of France
Issue
Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial
Full name
María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick
House House of Bonaparte
Father Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero
Mother María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y de Grevigné
Born 5 May 1826(1826-05-05)
Granada, Spain
Died 11 July 1920(1920-07-11) (aged 94)
Madrid, Spain
Burial Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough
Signature
Styles of
Empress Eugénie of France as consort
Reference style Her Imperial Majesty
Spoken style Your Imperial Majesty
Alternative style Madame

Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marquise of Ardales; 5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo (French pronunciation: [øʒeni də montixo]), was the last Empress consort of the French from 1853 to 1871 as the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.

Contents

Empress

The last Empress of the French was born in Granada, Spain, to Don Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero (1785–1839), Grandee, whose titles included: Count of Ablitas, 9th Count of Montijo, 15th Count of Teba, 8th Count of Fuentidueña, 14th Marquis of Ardales, 17th Marquess of Moya and 13th Marquis of la Algaba.[1] and his half-Scottish, quarter-Belgian, quarter-Spanish wife (whom he married on 15 December 1817), María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y de Grevigné (24 February 1794 – 22 November 1879), a daughter of the Scots-born William Kirkpatrick of Closbourn (1764–1837), who became United States consul to Málaga, and later was a wholesale wine merchant, and his wife, Marie Françoise de Grevignée (born 1769), daughter of Liège-born Henri, Baron de Grevignée and wife Doña Francisca Antonia Gallegos (1751–1853).

Eugenia's older sister, María Francisca de Sales de Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, nicknamed "Paca" (24 January 1825 – 16 September 1860), who inherited most of the family honours and was 12th Duchess of Peñaranda Grandee of Spain and 9th Countess of Montijo, title later ceded to her sister, married the Duke of Alba in 1849. Until her own marriage in 1853, Eugénie variously used the titles of Countess of Teba or Countess of Montijo, but some family titles were legally inherited by her elder sister, through which they passed to the House of Alba. After the death of her father, Eugenia became the 9th Countess of Teba, and is named as such in the Almanach de Gotha (1901 edition). After Eugenia's demise all titles of the Montijo family came to the Fitz-Jameses (the Dukes of Alba and Berwick).

Eugénie de Montijo, as she became known in France, was educated in Paris, at the fashionable Convent of the Sacré Cœur. When Prince Louis Napoléon became president of the Second Republic, she appeared with her mother at several balls given by the "prince-president" at the Elysée Palace; it was there that she met the future emperor, whom she wed on 30 January 1853. In a speech from the throne on 22 January, Napoleon III formally announced his engagement, saying, "I have preferred a woman whom I love and respect to a woman unknown to me, with whom an alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices".

The match was looked upon dubiously in the United Kingdom. The Times editorialized: "We learn with some amusement that this romantic event in the annals of the French Empire has called forth the strongest opposition, and provoked the utmost irritation. The Imperial family, the Council of Ministers, and even the lower coteries of the palace or its purlieus, all affect to regard this marriage as an amazing humiliation..."

On 16 March 1856, the empress gave birth to an only son, Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, styled Prince Impérial. Her husband often consulted her on important questions, and she acted as Regent during his absences in 1859, 1865 and 1870. A Catholic and a conservative, her influence countered any liberal tendencies in the emperor's policies. She was a staunch defender of papal temporal powers in Italy and of ultramontanism. She was blamed for the fiasco of the French intervention in Mexico and the eventual death of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.[2]

After the Franco-Prussian War

When the Second French Empire was overthrown after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), the empress and her husband took refuge in England, and settled at Chislehurst, Kent. After his death in 1873, and that of her son in 1879, she moved in 1885 to Farnborough, Hampshire and to her villa "Cyrnos" (ancient Greek name of Corsica), which was built at Cape Martin, between Menton and Nice, where she lived in retirement, abstaining from politics. Her house in Farnborough is now an independent Roman Catholic girls' school, Farnborough Hill.

After the deaths of her husband and son her health started to deteriorate. Her physician recommended she visit Bournemouth which was, in Victorian times, famed as a health spa resort. During her visit in 1896, a groundskeeper lit hundreds of little tea candles in the municipal Bournemouth Gardens to light her way to the sea at night. This event is still commemorated in the same gardens every September in an elaborate public display, set to music, of both static and floating lighted candles.[3]

The former empress died in July 1920, aged 94, during a visit to her relatives, the Dukes of Alba in Madrid, in her native Spain, and she is interred in the Imperial Crypt at St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, with her husband and her son, who had died in 1879 fighting in the Zulu War in South Africa. She left her possessions to various relatives: her Spanish estates went to the grandsons of her sister, the Fitz-Jameses (Dukes of Berwick and Alba), the house in Farnborough with all collections to the heir of her son, Prince Victor Bonaparte, Villa Cyrnos to his sister, Princess Laetitia of Aosta. Liquid assets were divided into three parts and given to the above relatives, except the sum of 100 000 francs bequeathed to the Committee for Rebuilding the Cathedral of Reims.

Her deposed family's friendly association with the United Kingdom was commemorated in 1887 when she became the godmother of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887–1969), daughter of Princess Beatrice, who later became Queen consort of Alfonso XIII of Spain. This baptism was an early example of ecumenism as Victoria Eugenie was baptised in the (Protestant) Church of Scotland.

Legacy

The Empress has also been commemorated in space; the asteroid 45 Eugenia was named after her,[4] and its moon, Petit-Prince, after the Prince Imperial.[5]

She had an extensive and unique jewelry collection, most of them were later owned by the Brazilian Aimee de Heeren. [6][7] De Heeren collected jewelry and was fond of the Empress as both were considered to be the "Queens of Biarritz"; both would spend summers on the Côte Basque.

In popular culture

Named for the Empress, the Eugénie hat is a style of women's chapeau worn dramatically tilted and drooped over one eye; its brim is folded up sharply at both sides in the style of a riding topper, often with one long ostrich plume streaming behind it.[8] The hat was popularized by film star Greta Garbo and enjoyed a vogue in the 1930s that was "hysterically popular".[9] More redolent of the Empress' actual apparel, however, was the late nineteenth-century fashion of the Eugénie paletot, a women's greatcoat with bell sleeves and a single button enclosure at the neck.[10]

Titles from birth to death

Honours

Ancestry

Film portrayals

See also

References

  1. ^ Genealogy of the Counts of Montijo website
  2. ^ Maximilian and Carlota by Gene Smith, ISBN 0245524185, ISBN 978-0245524189
  3. ^ Bournemouth Gardens website
  4. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D.; International Astronomical Union (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=KWrB1jPCa8AC&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 18 September 2011. 
  5. ^ "Solar System Exploration: Asteroids – Moons". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2011. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Asteroids&Display=Moons. Retrieved 18 September 2011. 
  6. ^ The Marguerite Necklace of Empress Eugenie and Aimee de Heeren
  7. ^ Aimee de Heeren wearing the Marguerite Necklace
  8. ^ Calasibetta, Charlotte Mankey; Tortora, Phyllis (2010). The Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion. New York: Fairchild Books. pp. 249–250. ISBN 978-1-56367-973-5. http://fairchildpub.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/fashion-dictionary-sample1.pdf. Retrieved 2011-09-18. 
  9. ^ Shields, Jody (1991). Hats: A Stylish History and Collector's Guide. New York: Clarkson Potter. p. 43. ISBN 9780517574393. http://books.google.com/books?id=nkPrAAAAMAAJ. 
  10. ^ Calasibetta, p. 93.

External links

Eugénie de Montijo
Born: 5 May 1826 Died: 11 July 1920
French royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Marie Amalie of the Two Sicilies
as Queen of the French		 Empress of the French
30 January 1853–11 January 1871		 Monarchy abolished
Spanish nobility
Preceded by
Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero		 Countess of Teba
1839-1920		 Succeeded by
Eugenia María Fitz-James Stuart
Marquise of Ardales
1839-1920		 Succeeded by
Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart