Emperor of the French Napoleon III

A nephew of Napoleon I, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte built his career on family legend, political ambition, and remarkable persistence. After failed attempts to seize power and a period of imprisonment, he returned to public life during the upheavals of 1848 and won the presidency of the French Second Republic by a huge popular vote.

In 1851 he carried out a coup d'état, and the following year he became Emperor Napoleon III, ruling France during the Second Empire. His reign mixed authoritarian control with modernization: Paris was reshaped on a grand scale, railways and industry expanded, and France played an active role abroad, including in the Crimean War and the campaign that helped Italian unification.

His later years were marked by growing political pressure and military failure. The Franco-Prussian War brought his capture at Sedan in 1870 and the collapse of the empire. He spent his final years in exile in England, where he died in 1873.