Alix, Princess Napoléon

French Imperial Family

HIH The Prince Napoléon Jeanne-Françoise Napoléon HIH The Prince Napoléon HIH Princess Caroline, Mme Quérénet-Onfroy de Breville Sophie Napoléon Anh Napoléon HIH The Dowager Princess Napoléon HIH Prince Jérôme Napoléon HIH Princess Licia Napoléon HIH Princess Cathérine, Mme Dualé HIH Princess Laure, Mme Lecomte

Alix, Princess Napoléon (née de Foresta; born 4 April 1926) was the wife of Louis, Prince Napoléon, claimant to the Imperial throne of France of the House of Bonaparte from 1926 until his death. Bonapartists regarded her as "Empress of the French" in pretense for several decades in the 20th century.

Life

She was the daughter of Albéric, comte de Foresta. Although she was the only consort of the surviving Imperial line not born a princess, her family had been nobles in Lombardy since the 13th century, becoming counts palatine in 1330, constables of Venice in 1425, then retainers of the powerful Doria family in Genoa. They settled in Provence, France early in the 16th century, where they acquired twenty-two manors and the title of marquis by 1651.^[1] Ironically, the Forestas distinguished themselves during the French Restoration as courtiers loyal to the House of Bourbon, and to Henri, comte de Chambord in particular.^[1] Long established as squires of large estates and rice paddies in the Camargue, the Forestas often welcomed Charles and his siblings there while they were growing up.^[2]

In 1961, about "200 girls from the United States and other countries" paraded "through the halls of the Palace of Versailles...to curtsey before Princess Alix Napoleon, wife of the great-grandnephew of Napoleon Bonaparte."^[3]

In 1976, she went to the Iranian Embassy for the Shah's birthday, being described at that time in the press as "one of the two most royal ladies of France -- Princess Napoleon Bonaparte The elegant, lovely-looking Alix..."^[4]

She was an honorary member of The Napoleonic Society of America (1983–2006), which later merged with The Napoleonic Alliance to form The Napoleonic Historical Society in 2006. More recently, she also gave Havana’s Napoleonic Museum "part of a porcelain dinner service presented by Napoleon Bonaparte to his brother Jerome on his wedding day."^[5]

Marriage and issue

Louis, Prince Napoléon married Alix de Foresta on 16 August 1949 at Linières-Bouton, France. They had four children:^[6]

• Prince Charles Marie Jérôme Victor (born October 19, 1950) who claims headship of the House of Bonaparte and the title, "Le Prince Napoléon".
• Princess Catherine Elisabeth Albérique Marie (b. 19 October 1950), who wed firstly on June 4, 1974, Nicolò San Martino d'Agliè dei marchesi di Fontaneto e San Germano (b. 3 July 1948) in Prangins, Switzerland, and divorced in 1982 without issue. She wed secondly on October 22, 1982, Jean-Claude Dualé (b. 3 November 1936 in Medjez-el-Bab, Tunisia) in Paris, France, and had two children:
  • Charlotte Laure Laëtitia Dualé (13 October 1982)
  • Marion Josée Alix Dualé (March 29, 1985)
• Princess Laure Clémentine Geneviève Bonaparte (b. 8 October 1952 in Paris) married on December 23, 1982, Jean-Claude Lecomte (b. 15 Mar 1948 in Ax-les-Thermes, France) and had a son:
  • Clément Louis Lecomte (7 July 1995)
• Prince Jérôme Xavier Marie Joseph Victor (b. 14 January 1957) married on September 2, 2013, Licia Innocenti (b. 27 April 1965 in Baden, Aargau, Switzerland)

Titles and styles

• 4 April 1926 – 16 August 1949: Mademoiselle Alix de Foresta
• 16 August 1949 – 3 May 1997: Her Imperial Highness The Princess Napoléon
• 3 May 1997 – present: Her Imperial Highness The Dowager Princess Napoléon

Alix's coat of arms as Princess Napoléon

References

1. 1 2 "Carnet Web de Généalogie". Nobiliare de Provence - Foresta (in French). Retrieved 2006-10-31. 
2. ↑ Valynseele, Joseph (1967). Les Prétendants aux Trônes d'Europe (in French). Paris. p. 249. 
3. ↑ "Girls Await Top-Paris Society Ball," The Spokesman-Review 79.42 (25 June 1961): 2.
4. ↑ "Watergate Prosecutor Comments," The Victoria Advocate 131.184 (7 November 1976): 3D.
5. ↑ "Princess Alix de Foresta Attends Reopening of Havana’s Napoleonic Museum," Cuba Daily News (03 / 31 / 2011).
6. ↑ Nicolas Enache. La Descendance de Marie-Thérèse de Habsburg, Reine de Hongrie et de Bohéme. Paris, 1999. ISBN 2-908003-04-X pp. 200, 210

External links

• Photograph of Alix and the Empress of Persia