French│Empire Collection
This web site and all images are copyright ©
A small private Napoleonic collection in Sydney, Australia
This web site uses Adobe Flash
Documents
Letter from Prince Eugene announcing the birth of his son -1810
Lettre du prince Eugène annonçant la naissance de son fils -1810

Letter from Prince Eugene Napoleon announcing the birth of his first son

9 December 1810

Milan, Italy

LS

Prince Eugene writing to formally announce the birth of his first son, later to be named Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais. The letter written to a ‘Prince’ is probably to LeBrun, Arch-chancellor of the Empire, and states that the “Vice Reine has just delivered a boy, and I hasten to give you the news as I know you will receive it with interest and pleasure....”

Prince


La Princesse vice Reine vient d’accoucher heureusement d’un garçon. Je m’empresse de vous donner cette nouvelle persuadé que je suis, que votre Altesse, la recevra avec intérêt et plaisir, et qu’elle agréera l’empressement que je mets à la lui donner comme un nouveau témoignage des sentiments que je lui ai voué, et dont j’aime à lui renouveler l’assurance.


Milan la 9 Xbre 1810

Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais. 1810-1835

Born in Milan, Lombardy, he was the eldest son of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon I's stepson, and Princess Augusta of Bavaria. On the 1 December 1834 he married Queen Maria II of Portugal. The groom was almost twenty-four years old and the bride only fifteen years old. On his wedding day his bride conferred upon him the Brazilian and Portuguese style of "His Imperial and Royal Highness The Prince Consort of Portugal, Duke of Santa Cruz".

He arrived in Portugal shortly thereafter and the couple were wed in person in Lisbon on 26 January 1835. However Auguste fell ill and died only two months later.


His dynastic connections were exceptional, considering his paternal lineage: among his sisters were Joséphine, Queen consort of Oscar I of Sweden, and Amélie, Empress consort of his father-in-law Pedro I of Brazil. Later, his brother Maximilian would wed Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.