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 32 BONAPARTE intimated to Louis that, although king of Hol- land, he should never cease to bo a Frenchman ; but Louis after his accession to the throne pro- posed to devote himself exclusively to the in- terests of his kingdom, and hence arose in- terminable difficulties with Napoleon. Louis promoted science, letters, art, the construction of canals and dikes, a vast system of drainage, and various other ameliorations. He resisted Napoleon's design of converting the Dutch army and nation into tools for his conquests and am- bition. But while Louis lost no opportunity to propitiate Holland, Hortense sided with Napo- leon, and otherwise gave Louis serious cause for deploring their ill-fated union, though she im- parted brilliancy to the court of the Hague. The death of their first-born child, Napoleon Louis Charles, in 1807, increased his unhappiness. In the autumn of that year he became alto- gether estranged from his wife, and she went to Paris, where on April 20, 1808, she gave birth to the future Napoleon III. Louis trans- ferred his capital from the Hague to Utrecht, and eventually to Amsterdam. His relations with Napoleon became still more embittered by the injury which the blockade against England inflicted upon Dutch commerce. Louis resist- ed this measure as long as possible, and upon finally submitting to it he closed the Dutch ports not only against English but all foreign ship- ping. The emperor charged him with playing into the hands of England, and allowing Hol- land to be used as a neutral ground for his ene- mies. Louis had a stormy interview with Na- poleon in Paris in December, 1809 ; and during his residence in that city he was almost reduced to the condition of a prisoner, the emperor in- sisting upon regarding Holland as a sort of French dependency, and preventing Louis from returning to his kingdom. On the latter's taking measures to baffle the occupation of Amsterdam by French troops, Napoleon threat- ened him with the annexation of Holland. Finally he was compelled to yield so far as to interdict all commercial relations with England, to withdraw the privileges granted to the Dutch nobility, and to organize a powerful navy and army to support France against England in case of need. After assisting at Napoleon's marriage with Maria Louisa, having been previously oblig- ed to sanction his divorce from Josephine, Louis returned to Amsterdam in April, 1810, by way of Aix-la-Ohapelle ; while Hortense, ordered by the emperor to resume her position as queen, took the direct route to Holland, but remained only for a short time, Louis taking little or no notice of her departure. Having been com- pelled to ratify, though only conditionally, a treaty signed by Admiral Verhuel, authorizing small French garrisons in several localities, and his subsequent protests against Napoleon's in- creasing usurpations in Holland proving un- availing, he was finally obliged to abdicate in favor of his eldest surviving son Napoleon Louis, appointing Hortense as regent, and left Amsterdam July 1, 1810, a short time before the annexation of Holland to France. But he never ceased to protest against this measure, and to assert his claims and those of his family to the Dutch throne. He took up his residence at Teplitz, July 9, under the name of Count St. Leu. Resisting Napoleon's order, conveyed to him through Decazes, to return to France, he left for Gratz, and on Dec. 30 declined the estates offered to him by the senate in compen- sation for his throne, and also forbade Hortense to accept the endowment. In August, 1813, after the outbreak of war between France and Austria, he left the latter country for Switzer- land, having repeatedly but in vain applied to Napoleon for the restoration of his kingdom, the emperor finally declaring that he would rather see the house of Orange restored than his brother. Louis made an unsuccessful effort to be reinstated by the people of Holland dur- ing their war of independence, and afterward went to Paris. Napoleon received him coldly, and did not wish him to reside in the capital unless he would relinquish all ideas of domin- ion in Holland, and would sustain his own power, in which case he would be acknowl- edged as a French prince and constable of the empire. Louis nevertheless remained in Paris, maintaining his pretensions with characteristic obstinacy, and was the only one of Napoleon's brothers who durst defy him to the last. After the overthrow of the emperor in 1814, he joined Maria Louisa, who had left Paris against his advice; the allies permitted ' him to reside in France, but he would not witness the humilia- tion of his country, and went to Lausanne. Hortense having obtained from Louis XVIII., through the medium of the czar Alexander, a grant of the domain of St. Leu, with the title of duchess, Louis spurned the king's letters patent, issued May 30, 1814, which raised St. Leu to a duchy ; and he also scorned to accept his share of the annuity of 2,500,000 francs which the treaty of Fontainebleau had provided for him and the other princes of the Bonaparte fam- ily. His protest to that effect was published at Aarau on Aug. 2, 1814, and soon after he left Switzerland for Kome. Hortense refusing to surrender the custody of their son Napoleon Louis, he was obliged to have recourse to the tribunal at Paris, which conceded this right to him March 7, 1815; after which he retired to Florence with the young prince, who died at Forli in 1831. His health, aflfected by this and other sorrows, was soon hopelessly impaired by apoplectic fits, which culminated in partial paralysis. The abortive attempts of his young- est son Louis Napol6on at Strasburg (1836) and Boulogne (1840) became new sources of chagrin. He implored his personal friends among the members of the French cabinet to intercede with Louis Philippe not to de- prive him of his son's society during the last moments of his life. But the king in- sisting upon guarantees which the captive prince would not give, Louis despaired of see- ing him again. When he was apprised of his