Eugénie de Montijo
Queen · 1853-1870 · born on 5 May 1826, died on 11 July 1920
Of Spanish origin, educated between Paris, Madrid and London, Eugénie de Montijo met Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte and married him in 1853, after his accession to the throne. Empress of the French, she embodied with brilliance the splendour of the Second Empire.
She exercised real political influence, particularly on diplomacy and on the Mexican question, whose ill-fated expedition (1861-1867) she supported. Her hostility towards Prussia was part of the context that led to the war of 1870.
After Sedan and the fall of the Empire, she took refuge in England, where she lived a long old age surrounded by the imperial court in exile. She died in 1920, at ninety-four, the last Empress of the French.
In the tree of power
- Spouse: Napoléon III (1852-1870)