Kingdom of Holland

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For the present-day nation, see Kingdom of the Netherlands.

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Kingdom of Holland

Royaume de Hollande
Koninkrijk Holland

Client state of the French Empire

←

1806–1810

→


Flag	Coat of arms

Motto
Eendracht maakt macht
"Unity makes strength"

The Kingdom of Holland

Capital

The Hague
(1806–1808)
Utrecht
(1808)
Amsterdam
(1808–1810)

Languages

Dutch, French

Religion

Protestant, Roman Catholic

Government

Constitutional monarchy

King

1806–1810

Louis I

1810

Louis II

Historical era

Napoleonic Era

Established

5 June 1806

Disestablished

9 July 1810

Currency

Dutch guilder

The Kingdom of Holland (Dutch: Koninkrijk Holland, French: Royaume de Hollande) was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the leading province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country. In 1807 Prussian East Frisia and Jever were added to the kingdom but in 1809, after a British invasion, Holland had to give over all territories south of the river Rhine to France.
Also in 1809, Dutch forces fighting on the French side participated in defeating the anti-Bonapartist German rebellion led by Ferdinand von Schill, at the Battle of Stralsund.
King Louis did not perform to Napoleon's expectations — he tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's — and the kingdom was dissolved in 1810 after which the Netherlands were annexed by France until 1813. The kingdom of Holland covered the area of present-day Netherlands, with the exception of Limburg, and parts of Zeeland, which were French territory. East Frisia (in present-day Germany) was also part of the kingdom.

Coat of arms

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Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte was installed as King of Holland on 5 June 1806.^[1] Originally the arms of the new kingdom were to be like those of the Kingdom of Italy: an eagle bearing a shield, with the arms of the United Netherlands, the lion, now royally crowned. In December 1806, A. Renodi in Paris designed arms quartering the Napoleonic eagle with the lion of the United Netherlands. Around the shield was the French Order of the Grand Aigle. Behind the shield are crossed sceptres, typical for Napoleonic heraldry, and above the shield, Napoleon's star.
A few months later, on 20 May 1807, King Louis (now called "Lodewijk") altered these arms, adding a helmet, leaving out his brother's star and replacing the Grand Aigle with his own Dutch Order of the Union and the old Dutch devise Eendracht maakt macht (literally "Concord makes strength", often translated as "Unity makes strength") around the shield. Exemplary for the innovation in Napoleon's heraldry are the two hands coming out of clouds from behind the shield holding swords, designating King Louis as Connétable de France.

Coat of arms of Holland (1806).
Coat of arms of Holland (1808).

History

Main article: History of the Netherlands

Napoleon felt the Batavian Republic was becoming too independent for his liking. He thus forced the Dutch to accept his brother, Louis Bonaparte, as king. The alternative would have been outright annexation to France.
Despite these circumstances, many citizens were very happy with his arrival. But there was also opposition, because many feared the new King would introduce the dreaded conscription. This Louis would not do, much to the dismay of Napoleon, who demanded that Louis would raise a large army to guard the North from British invasion, and to aid the French armies in Germany and Spain. Apart from the lavishly uniformed Royal Guard, the army of the Kingdom of Holland would always be short of recruits, leading to units being disbanded or amalgamated. Acts to recruit more troops, for instance by raising a Jewish regiment or by adding all male orphans to the army as Velites were of little effect, the latter leading to public riots and accusations of introducing the conscription.
Napoleon intended for Louis to be little more than the prefect of Holland. The ministers were provided mostly by Napoleon. However, Louis had his own mind, and was determined to be as independent of his elder brother as possible. In addition to refusing to introduce conscription, he declared himself Dutch rather than French and demanded that his ministers renounce their French citizenships as well. He made a sincere effort to learn the Dutch language, and required his court and ministers to only speak Dutch. He went as far as to adopt the Dutch spelling of his name, Lodewijk.
Due to the economic blockade enforced by Napoleon, the economy of the Kingdom of Holland was further ruined; the smuggling of British goods increased. Louis hesitated to oppose this, which led Napoleon sending units of Douanes Imperiales to Holland.
After British troops invaded Walcheren in 1809, Napoleon was fed up with his hesitant brother and decided to make Holland an integral part of France. After annexing the southern provinces of Holland into the Empire, he forced Louis to abdicate in 1810. Louis' son (and Napoleon's nephew), Napoleon Louis, reigned for a week as Louis (Lodewijk) II before Napoleon annexed the rest of the kingdom into the French Empire. During that period Queen Hortense acted as Regent of the Kingdom.

Long-term implications

While the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland was short-lived, in the aftermath of Napoleon's fall the precedent of Netherlands having been a Kingdom, facilitated the House of Orange's successful efforts to upgrade themselves from stadholders to full-fledged monarchs.

Louis Bonaparte

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the King of Holland. For Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, see Napoleon III.

Louis I

King of Holland
French Prince
Count of Saint-Leu

King of Holland

Reign

5 June 1806 – 1 July 1810

Predecessor

Title created

Successor

Louis II

Spouse

Hortense de Beauharnais

Issue

Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Royal
Louis II of Holland
Napoleon III of France

Full name
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Father

Mother

Born

2 September 1778
Ajaccio, Corsica

Died

25 July 1846 (aged 67)
Livorno, Tuscany

Burial

Saint-Leu-la-Forêt

Religion

Roman Catholic

Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846), King of Holland (1806–10), known as Lodewijk Napoleon (pronounced [ˈloːdəʋɛik nɑˈpoːleːjɔn]) in Dutch, was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. His brother was the first Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, and his son was the last, Napoleon III.

Early life

Louis was born Luigi Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon I of France, Lucien Bonaparte, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline Bonaparte, Caroline Bonaparte, and Jérôme Bonaparte.
Louis Bonaparte's early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in Egypt. Thanks to his older brother, Napoleon, Louis was given a commission in the French Military, and was promoted to Lieutenant in the 4th Artillery Regiment, and from there he was made Aide de Camp on Napoleon's staff. Napoleon, during his Italian Campaign, recommended Louis to Carnot, and Louis was consequently made a Captain. He later became a General by the age of 25, although he himself felt that he had risen too high in too short a time.
Upon Louis's return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory. After becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleon's stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage at first, was persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family, and she did so.
Louis supposedly had a poor mental condition at times, and supposedly suffered from periods of mental illness.^[1] Louis's "poor mental condition" may have been periods of depression caused by trying to hide his homosexuality or bisexuality.^[2] These periods of depression or mental instability (records fail to distinguish) would plague Louis, and consequently Napoleon, until his death.

King of Holland (1806–1810)

Royal Monogram

With son Napoleon Louis Bonaparte

Feeling that the Batavian Republic was too independent for his liking, Napoleon replaced it with the Kingdom of Holland on 5 June 1806, and placed Louis on the throne. Napoleon had intended for his younger brother to be little more than a French prefect of Holland. However, Louis had his own mind, and tried to be a responsible and independent ruler. In an effort to endear himself to his adopted country, he tried to learn the Dutch language; he called himself Lodewijk I (adopting the Dutch form of his name) and declared himself Dutch rather than French. Allegedly, his Dutch was initially so poor that he told the people he was the "Konijn van 'Olland" ("Rabbit of 'Olland"), rather than "Koning van Holland" ("King of Holland"). However, his sincere effort to learn Dutch earned him some respect from his subjects.
Having declared himself Dutch, Louis tried to make his court Dutch as well. He forced his court and ministers (mostly provided by Napoleon) to speak only Dutch, and also to renounce their French citizenships. This latter was too much for his wife Hortense who, in France at the time of his demands, refused his request.
Louis could never settle on the location for his capital city while he was in Holland. He changed capitals over a dozen times, trying Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, and other places. On one occasion, after visiting the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant, he liked the place so much that he had the owner evicted so he could take up residence there. Then, Louis moved again after seven weeks. His constant moving kept the court in upheaval since they had to follow him everywhere. The European diplomatic corps went so far as to petition Bonaparte to remain in one place so they could keep up with him. This restlessness was later attributed to his alleged "lunacy".
Hortense bore Louis's sons Napoleon Charles Bonaparte and Napoleon Louis Bonaparte in Paris, while Louis was in Holland. In 1806, Louis called for his son to be sent to him in Holland, but he was again refused by Hortense, who believed that her son would never be returned to France. When Louis appealed to his brother Napoleon for help, Napoleon sided with Hortense. Napoleon kept the boy in his own court, and he even had him named the heir to the French throne prior to the birth of his own son.
Two major tragedies occurred during the reign of Louis Bonaparte: the explosion of a cargo ship loaded with gunpowder in the heart of the city of Leiden in 1807, and a major flood in Holland in 1809. In both instances, Louis personally and effectively oversaw local relief efforts, which helped earn him the title of Louis the Good.
Louis Bonaparte's reign was short-lived, however, which was due to two factors. The first was that Napoleon wanted to reduce the value of French loans from Dutch investors by two-thirds, meaning a serious economic blow to the Netherlands. The second factor was the one that became the pretext for Napoleon's demand of Louis's abdication. As Napoleon was preparing an army for his invasion of Russia, he wanted troops from the entire region under his control, the allied border countries. This included troops from the Netherlands. Louis, confronted by his brother's demand, refused point-blank. Napoleon then accused Louis of putting Dutch interests above those of France, and removed most of the French forces in Holland for the coming war in the east, leaving only about 9,000 garrison soldiers in the country. Unfortunately for Louis, the English landed an army of 40,000 in 1809 in an attempt to capture Antwerp and Flushing. With Louis unable to defend his realm, France sent 80,000 militiamen, commanded by future King of Sweden Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte and successfully repelled the invasion. Napoleon then suggested that Louis should abdicate, citing Louis's inability to protect Holland as a reason. Louis refused and declared the occupation of the Kingdom by a French army as unlawful. On 1 July 1810 Louis abdicated in favor of his second son, Napoleon Louis Bonaparte. He fled from Haarlem on 2/3 July and settled in Austria. Oudinot invaded Holland on 4 July. Napoleon annexed Holland to France by decree (of Rambouillet) on 9 July.

Years of exile

After his abdication, Louis Bonaparte assumed the title of Count of Saint-Leu (comte de Saint-Leu),^[3] which was a reference to his property at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt near Paris.^[4] He was appointed as the Constable of France in 1808, a strictly honorary title.
After his Dutch kingdom was taken away from him, the Austrian Emperor Francis I offered him asylum. Between 1811 and 1813, he found refuge in Graz, where he turned to writing and poetry.^[5] Louis wrote to Napoleon after the latter's defeat in Russia to request that the Dutch throne be restored to him; however, Napoleon refused. His request to visit the Netherlands was denied several times by King William I of the Netherlands, but King William II of the Netherlands allowed him a visit in 1840. Although traveling in the Netherlands under a false name, some people found out that it was their former king, which led to a cheering crowd gathering under the window of his hotel room. It is said that he was quite moved by this demonstration of affection from his former subjects.
After the death of his eldest brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by the Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although Louis took little action himself to advance the claim. Louis's son and heir, the future Emperor Napoleon III, on the other hand, was at that time being imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'état.
Louis Bonaparte died on 25 July 1846 in Livorno, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.

Marriage and children

Louis was married on 4 January 1802 to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of the deceased general Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. Josephine was the first wife of Louis's brother Napoleon. Thus Hortense was also Louis's step-niece.
This marriage had been forced upon them and was rather loveless, though they supposedly consummated it and interacted often enough to produce three sons. As a rule, the Bonapartes, with the exception of Napoleon, loathed the Beauharnais. Hortense also certainly had extra-marital lovers.^[6]
Hortense de Beauharnais gave birth to three sons which were officially claimed by Louis Bonaparte, despite his own doubts about their paternity:

Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born 10 October 1802, Prince Royal of Holland. When he died on 5 May 1807 at 4½ years of age, his body lay in state at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Ile-de-France.
Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, born 11 October 1804. Became Prince Royal of Holland on his brother's death, and was King Lodewijk II for eight days in 1810, between his father's abdication (1 July) and the fall of Holland to Napoleon Bonaparte's invading army (9 July). Napoleon Louis Bonaparte died on 17 March 1831, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Île-de-France.
Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, (1808–73). Born in Paris, he was the third and last son, and would become Emperor Napoleon III of France (1852–70).

Royal styles of Louis I of Holland

Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Sire

Title and styles

2 September 1778– circa 1795: Nobile Luigi Buonoparte
circa 1795 – 18 May 1804: Louis Bonaparte
18 May 1804 – 5 June 1806: Louis, French Prince
5 June 1806 – 1 July 1810: His Majesty the King of Holland
5 July 1810 – 22 June 1815: Louis, French Prince
22 June 1815 – 25 July 1846: The Count of Saint-Leu

Full title as King of Holland

His Majesty Louis I, By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the Kingdom, King of Holland.

Napoléon Louis Bonaparte

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Napoleon Louis Bonaparte)

Louis II
A portrait of Napoléon Louis Bonaparte.
King of Holland
Reign	1 July 1810 – 9 July 1810
Predecessor	Louis I
Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves
Reign	3 March 1809 – 1 December 1813
Predecessor	Joachim I
Regent	Napoleon

Spouse	Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte
House	House of Bonaparte
Father	Louis I of Holland
Mother	Hortense de Beauharnais
Born	11 October 1804 Paris, France
Died	17 March 1831 (aged 26) Forlì, Italy
Burial	Saint-Leu-la-Forêt

Royal styles of Louis II of Holland

Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Sire

Napoléon-Louis Bonaparte (11 October 1804 – 17 March 1831), also known as Louis II of Holland, was the middle son of Louis I of Holland and Hortense de Beauharnais. His father was the younger brother of Napoléon I and reigned as King of Holland from 1806 to 1810, while his mother was the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoléon's first wife.

Background

Napoléon Louis's elder brother, Napoléon Charles, died in 1807 at the age of four. On his death, Napoléon Louis became Prince Royal of Holland. It also made Napoléon Louis the eldest nephew of Emperor Napoléon I, who at the time had no legitimate children, and he was his uncle's likely eventual successor. He lost this status on 20 March 1811 when his uncle's second wife, Marie Louise, gave birth to a son, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, who was styled the King of Rome and later the Duke of Reichstadt.
In 1809, Napoléon I appointed him as Grand Duke of Berg, a status he kept until 1813.
On 1 July 1810, Louis I of Holland abdicated his throne in favour of Napoléon Louis.^[1] For the nine days between his father's abdication and the fall of Holland to the invading French army in July 1810, Napoléon Louis reigned as Lodewijk II, King of Holland.
When Napoléon I was deposed in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo, the House of Bourbon was restored to the throne of France. Napoléon Louis fled into exile, but the Bonapartes never abandoned the thought of restoring the Napoleonic Empire.
Napoléon Louis married his first cousin, Charlotte, who was the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Napoléon I. He and his younger brother Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte settled in Italy, where they espoused liberal politics and became involved with the Carbonari, an organization fighting Austria's domination of northern Italy.
On 17 March 1831, while fleeing Italy due to a crackdown on revolutionary activity by Papal and Austrian troops, Napoléon Louis, suffering from measles, died in the arms of his brother in Forlì.^[2] Eventually, the Napoleonic Empire was restored by Napoléon Louis's younger brother, who became Napoléon III in 1852.
Napoléon Louis is buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Île-de-France.

Title and styles

5 May 1807 – 1 July 1810: His Royal Highness The Prince Royal of Holland
1 July 1810 – 9 July 1810: His Majesty The King of Holland
3 March 1809 – 1 December 1813: His Royal Highness The Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves