Napoleon II (1811-1832), Duke of was the son of Emperor Napoleon I of France and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria. Napoleon I had long hoped for a son to inherit his empire, and he gave his newborn son the title of king of Rome.
When Napoleon I was overthrown in 1814, he gave up the throne in favor of his young son. But the French Senate did not recognize Napoleon II as emperor, and Louis XVIII, a member of the Bourbon royal family, became king of France that year. Marie Louise then took her son to live at the court of her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria. After Napoleon I was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, he again proclaimed his son emperor of France. However, the French refused to give the young boy the throne, and he remained in Austria. His mother’s family gave him the title of Duke of Reichstadt in 1818.
Napoleon II was never strong, and he grew into a tall, slender youth. He died of tuberculosis on July 22, 1832, at the age of 21 and was buried in the Habsburg (or Hapsburg) family’s church tomb in Vienna. In 1940, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, had the body placed near that of Napoleon I in the Eglise du Dome (Church of the Dome) at the Hotel des Invalides (Home for Disabled Soldiers) in Paris. Napoleon II was born on March 12, 1811, in Paris.
