Clementine, Princess Napoleon
By Arturo Beéche
Dead for
more than four decades, Princess Clementine of Belgium remains a familiar
figure among
her compatriots.
Yet, on the other side of the border, most French people have just about
forgotten
the woman
who could have been their empress. In 1910 on the occasion of her marriage
to Prince
Victor
Napoleon, the press received her as "the newest French princess." Clementine
of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
princess of Belgium, was born at Laeken Palace on 30 July 1872. She was
the third
daughter, and last child, of King Leopold II and Queen Marie-Henriette.
After the arrival
of the
young princess, the royal couple lost any hope of producing a male heir.
Raised
by a mother who had a terrible and difficult temper, Clementine sought
friendship and
tenderness
from her older sister, Stephanie, Crown Princess of Austria-Hungary. The
older sister
on said
that she "follows the progress of my young sister...it was me who taught
her her first
words,
helped her give her first steps...I shared my happiness with her...and
in between study
hours,
I always went by her nursery to kiss her and play with her."
After Stephanie's
departure to Austria, King Leopold II tied to sweeten the life of his young
daughter,
while also keeping her away from Queen Marie-Henriette. Once she became
of age,
Princess
Clementine was given her own entourage, and given the independence to travel
without
her mother's
approval. "Thanks to you, dear father, I have been able to find happiness,"
the
princess
exclaimed in a letter to Leopold. To her sister Stephanie she wrote "I
cannot tell you how
very envious
I am of those children who know what maternal love is."
Queen Marie-Henriette
died in 1902. After her mother's disappearance Clementine became the
country's
first lady next to her aging father. Yet, a misunderstanding began to develop
between the
two. This
growing difference was caused by the figure of an adventuress by the name
of Blanche
Delacroix,
the King's mistress.
During
her young life, Princess Clementine had three inspiring loves. The first
was for her first
cousin
Baudoiun, heir to King Leopold II. The second was a long and friendly relationship
with a
member
of the Belgian court, baron Auguste Goffinet. Her third love was the heir
to the
Napoleonic
tradition, prince Victor Napoleon. Baudouin did not return the princess's
interest and
in fact
died in his early twenties; an alliance with Goffinet would have been impossible;
Prince
Victor
Napoleon she never relinquished.
Clementine
had first met Prince Napoleon in 1888, when the Frenchman visited her parent's
palace
on a social
call. Since then, Clementine felt a deep attraction to the Prince telling
her sister
Stephanie
that " you can see me with my little air of conqueror...for it seems that
my hair and I have
had some
success, particularly with Prince Victor Napoleon Bonaparte, of whom I'm
a loyal
admirer."
Unfortunately, King Leopold was seriously opposed to any matrimonial alliance
between
his august daughter and a lowly Bonaparte scion. Added to this situation,
the constant
presence
of Blanche Delacroix further estranged father and child.
At thirty
one years of age, Clementine felt time was passing her by. She once again
asked her father
for his
permission to marry Prince Victor, but the answer was an emphatically royal
no.
Clementine
again asked Leopold II claiming that this was her last chance at marital
happiness, yet
the King
continued to hold his ground and even threatened Clementine with disinheritance.
Left without
any options, Clementine and Victor passively awaited King Leopold's death
so they
could
marry. When the King died in 1909, Clementine asked the new monarch, King
Albert I, her
cousin
and Prince Baudouin's youngest brother, for permission to marry Victor.
Albert gladly
expressed
his satisfaction with Clementine's plans. To Stephanie, by now remarried
to Prince
Lonyay,
Clementine wrote, "You can imagine the depth of my happiness upon being
able to
correspond
the love, loyalty and happiness of the man who for long years has remained
next to me.
God has
managed to look at my plight and in his power all has been arranged."
The wedding
took place in Italy in on 10 November 1910. Marriage to Prince Victor transformed
Clementine
from the former first lady of Belgium, into the wife of the French imperial
heir.
Nonetheless,
her real happiness was provided by "my good husband, gentle, adoring, tender,
loving,
intelligent, connoisseur of people and things. He is beautiful, this Prince."
In another letter
to Stephanie,
Clementine said "Napoleon is a love, I adore him. During the day I spend
most of
time looking
for things that please, and at night!...they are exquisite, and I never
thought that they
could
be this good."
Two children
crowned the loving marriage of Clementine and Victor Napoleon: Marie-Clotilde
born in
1912 and Louis born in 1914. During the First World War, Belgium was invaded
by the
legions
of the German Kaiser. Clementine and her family sought refuge in Britain
next to old
Empress
Eugenie of France, widow of Napoleon III.
At the
end of the war, Clementine and her family returned to Belgium. These were
some of the
happiest
years of the Princess' life. Surrounded by her husband and growing children,
Clementine
was happy
and satisfied. Whenever she mentioned her family, her deep love for Victor
and the
children
became evident, "my daughter is happy, smiling and sweet; she is the picture
of her father.
My son
has the sweet disposition, he is very attaching. he is intelligent and
observing, loves to sing
all day....but
he does not smile much whenever he has to study." By the time she reached
the age of
fifty,
Clementine, the sad princess of yesteryear, had changed into a highly respected,
obliging
princess
with a happy family life.
Sadly,
Prince Victor died in 1926 victim of an attack of apoplexy. He was but
sixty four years of
age. Clementine
survived him for almost three decades. The final happy chapters in Clementine's
life where
the marriage of her son and the birth of her grandchildren. In 1949, Prince
Louis
married
Countess Alix de Foresta, a young French woman with a seducing personality.
Passionate
about
history, Alix has played a leading role in restoring the Napoleonic tradition
in France.
In 1950
the law of exile was abrogated in France. The Bourbons and Bonapartes were
allowed to
return
to their country. Louis and Alix settled in Paris, and months later she
gave birth to twins,
Charles
and Catherine. Two other children were to follow. Clementine's life ended
in 1955. No
longer
interested in palatial living, Clementine rented a small villa at Cimiez,
near Nice. It was
there
that she died on 8 March 1955.
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