Nephew of Napoleon I, being the son of Louis Bonaparte (the King of Holland) and Hortense the Beauhanais. After the death of his elder brothers he inherited the Bonaparte claim to the throne of France. His coup d'ÃÂétat of 1836 failed and he was put on the ship AndromÃÂède that took him to Norfolk. He enjoyed himself for a while in New York, but when by his friend Dr. Conneau sent him message that his mother Hortense was dying ('Venez, venez!') he took the ship George Washington to London. Using a Swiss passport he travelled incognito to Arenenberg; the French agents that were put on his track failed to stop him and he reached Hortense in time on August 4th, 1837. She died two months later.
In 1840 his second coup d'ÃÂétat failed too and Louis Napoleon was imprisoned at the Ham fortress. There he taught his parlourmaid Alexandrine orthography and she gave him two children in return.
On May 20th, 1846 he sent her away and six days later he escaped. By the time it was noticed he was already on a ship to London. After the revolution of 1848 he came to Paris and the National Assembly granted him permission to stay. Soon he was elected in parliament and in December he was elected president with a huge majority over Cavaignac. When he visited his old prison at Ham in 1849 it was inhabited by Bou-Maza, an Arabian who had fought against the French. Louis ordered his release.
On December 2nd of 1851 he imprisoned many of his opponents and this third coup d'ÃÂétat succeeded. 'His' Senate asked him to become emperor and a in a referendum his plan was confirmed with an enormous majority. On December 2nd of 1852 the empire was restored and he took the name Napoleon III, with due respect to the first Napoleon's son who never ruled France at all. On January 30th of 1853 he married EugÃÂénie de Montijo, who provided him with an heir in 1856.
Allthough he was by no means a brilliant military strategist like his famous uncle, he enjoyed some military successes in the Crimean War as well as against the Austrians. Perhaps more important, under his reign France was modernized in many ways. In 1862 Maximilian of Austria became emperor of Austria under protection of French troops. When Louis Napoleon wouldn't continue the french military presence in Mexico in 1867, Maximilian refused to give up his throne and was soon afterwards executed by his rebellious opponents. For Louis Napoleon this was the beginning of the end. His health started to fail and he tried to liberalize his empire in order to preserve it for his son. But in 1870 he was outwitted by Bismarck's secret diplomacy and under pressure of the public opinion he had to declare war on Germany. Unfortunately he was completely misinformed about the strenght of his army and defeat soon became inevitable.
Louis Napoleon joined the troops, but his personal courage was to no avail. He surrendered at SÃÂédan on September 1st, 1870 and was taken to Germany as a prisoner of war. The French refused to accept his capitulation and overthrew his empire. This resulted in the disastrous defeat of 1871 and the loss of Elsace-Lorraine.
Louis Napoleon lived for a while at WilhelmhÃÂöhe (near Kassel) and after his release in March 1871 he spent his last few years in England