Prince Victor Napoléon and his nurse

A carte-de-visite portrait of Prince Victor Napoléon (1862-1926), the elder of Plon-Plon and Clothilde’s two sons. He is presumably seen here with his nurse.

Born Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric at Meudon on 18 July 1862, Prince Victor was eight when the Second Empire fell and he went into temporary exile with the rest of his family. However, he was allowed to return to France in 1874 and in 1881 completed his studies at the lycée Charlemagne.

In 1884, the support of an important group of young Bonapartists, who favoured Prince Victor over his father as Imperial pretender to the throne after the death of the Prince Imperial (whose will had specifically by-passed the father in favour of Prince Victor), caused a schism in the Bonapartist camp between ‘Jeromists’ and ‘Victorians.’ After the death of his father in 1891, Prince Victor became the sole head of the Bonapartist party.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.