Napoléon, Prince Imperial

Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte was the only child of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie and heir to the Bonapartist claim after the fall of the Second French Empire. Educated in Britain after his family’s exile, he trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and sought active military experience during the Anglo-Zulu War.

Attached unofficially to British forces in Zululand, the Prince Imperial was killed on 1 June 1879 when a reconnaissance party was surprised by Zulu warriors. His death had political consequences in France and caused intense controversy in Britain over the arrangements that allowed him into danger.

Ian Knight’s With His Face to the Foe is devoted to Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, following the only son of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie from heir to the Second Empire through exile in Britain to his decision to accompany British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War places his fatal 1879 reconnaissance within the wider campaign, alongside Isandlwana, Rorke’s Drift and Ulundi. Voices from the Zulu War returns to the Prince Imperial through contemporary testimony, allowing the circumstances of his death and the controversy surrounding his escort to be read against the experiences of other participants in the war.