[SEDAN] NAPOLÉON III (1808-1873)

[SEDAN] NAPOLÉON III (1808-1873)

Autograph dispatch signed « Napoléon » to commander Charles Duperré
[Wilhlmeshoehe castle, 6-8 September 1870], 1/2 p. in-8° on bifolio
Browning on right margin, usual fold mark

Historical dispatch, at the heart of the tragedy after the capitulation of Sedan and the fall of the Second Empire

« Au commandant Duperré, à Hastings Angleterre
Reçois votre dépêche. Ou est l’impératrice
J’embrasse mon fils tendrement
Napoléon »

The circumstances under which this dispatch was written are, as we know, most tragic for the deposed emperor and his family. Napoleon III was taken prisoner after the defeat at Sedan on 2 September 1870. He was then taken captive to Wilhlmeshoehe Castle in Germany, where he arrived on 5 September 1870, where he remained until 19 March 1871.
The date of this dispatch can be placed almost exactly, between 6 and 8 September 1870, because Napoleon still did not know where the Empress was. He’s worried about her, and rightly so. The latter escaped from the Tuileries on September 4 when the crowd had already invaded the Palais Bourbon. Popular pressure in Paris was such that she was forced to flee, fearing for her life. She found refuge with Dr. Thomas W. Evans, her American dentist. It was Evans who organized his escape to England.
The emperor, however, knew his son was safe and sound. The latter had taken a train to Maubeuge on 4 September. On the 6th, he left Ostend where he spent the night at the Hotel d’Allemagne before embarking for England with Commander Charles Duperré, one of his four aides-de-camp. He was then taken to Hastings, where his mother the Empress joined him on 8 September.

A naval officer, Charles Duperré (1832-1914) was an ordinance officer to Napoleon III and aide-de-camp to the Prince Imperial from 1867 to 1870. It was he whom the Emperor commissioned to conduct his son to England after the defeat at Sedan. He did not return to command in the navy until 1872 and was promoted to admiral in 1878.