Bonaparte, Charles Louis Napoléon called Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and then Napoléon III (1808-1873).

The nephew of Napoleon I and the third son of Louis Bonaparte, the King of Holland, he was elected President of the French Republic on December 10, 1848, on the basis of universal male suffrage. His coup d’état on December 2, 1851, brought the Second Republic to an end and enabled him to become the Emperor of the French exactly one year later, December 2, 1852, under the name of Napoleon III.

At first he exercised personal unchallenged power; subsequently, after 1859, his regime evolved towards what has been called a ‘liberal empire.’ His armies were defeated at the battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war. On September 4, 1870, the Republic was proclaimed, bringing to an end this period of French history known as the ‘Second Empire.’ Napoleon III then left for exile in England, where he died in January 1873.