Louis Napoleon

(1778–1846)

   King and officer in the armies of his brother Napoleon Bonaparte. Louis Napoleon took part in the campaigns in Italy and Egypt. He married Napoleon’s stepdaughter Hortense de Beauharnais and was father of the future French emperor Napoleon III. His brother, by now raised to Emperor Napoleon I, compelled Louis to accept the crown of the newly created Kingdom of Holland (the former Batavian Republic) during the years 1806–1810. The king tried in vain to follow a political line of his own and to be a “good king” for his subjects. He stimulated the national codification of law. However, the emperor, angry with his indepen dent course and especially with the failure of his brother to firmly maintain the Continental Blockade, forced him to resign. The King dom of Holland was annexed (or “reunited”) with the Empire from 1810 until it recovered its independence in 1813.