#aiglon

[ic-napology]

Remembering the Eaglet's birthday with the best drawing I did about him, he deserves to be safe and happy with his daddy🩷

[thefugitivesaint]

Attila (Aiglon) Sassy (1880-1967), 'Opium Dreams', ''A Ház'', 1909

[enchantedbook]

From the 'Opium Dreams' series by Attila Sassy (1880 - 1967)

[narcissas-wildroses]

Some recent photos of Switzerland and France around the holiday season

[josefavomjaaga]

hello! do you know what ML's relationship was like with her son? it seems they were distant, but i was wondering if it was more complex than that.

Hi and thanks for the Ask! I'm probably not the best person to answer as I've only read up on Marie Louise in passing. But maybe somebody else will be able to add more to the bit I have to offer.

First of all, I take it that with "her son" you mean little Napoleon Franz, King of Rome-turned Duke of Reichstadt. I understand Marie Louise had two more sons from Adam Neipperg (only one of them reached adulthood though). The answer to your question will depend a lot on who you ask, as there is a long standing tradition especially in France to put all the blame on Marie Louise.

Were Marie Louise and the Duke of Reichstadt close? No, surely not, but from what I have read it was also not that cold and distanced relationship that Marie Louise is often accused of. Mostly, it's an interesting detail that in Paris she seems to have been kept deliberately at a distance: The boy's governess, Madame de Montesquiou, "Maman Quiou", took precedence over the empress in the child's rooms. (I understand that was one cause for the state of constant warfare between Madame de Montesquiou and the Duchess de Montebello Louise Lannes.) When Marie Louise wanted to see her son, she had to ask for permission.

I'm not quite sure what to make of "Maman Quiou", frankly. I have come across some journals by Dietrichstein and other future tutors of the Duke of Reichstadt who do not treat her kindly. But considering the animosity between French and Austrian court, that is to be expected.

In her letters to Napoleon, Marie Louise almost always talks about their son (or, as Napoleon put it "my son"). It seems she also regularly wrote to others about him and claimed to miss him dearly, so she cannot have been utterly indifferent. But she was an empress, and as such she had a job to do and was often away from the baby. Not as often as Napoleon, but quite some time.

But of course it was only after the Vienna Congress that relations with her child became truly estranged. After the Hundred Days, in 1816, Marie Louise left her five-year-old son in Vienna, in order to rule over the Duchy of Parma. She has been - rightfully - blamed for it. But to be fair: she actually took possession of Parma in order to secure it for her son. It was only in 1817 when the powers decided that the Duke of Reichstadt would not inherit and that the throne of Parma would fall to another branch of the Bourbons. Who merited another throne because... because... Anyway.

Besides their correspondence, Marie Louise returned to Vienna to visit her son several times: 1818, 1823, 1826, 1828, 1830 and 1832. That's not much, as maternal affection goes, but I believe little Franz still saw his mother more often than Napoleon Bonaparte had seen his after he had been sent to France? I have not checked, though.

Thank you for the Ask!, and please, if everybody has something to add (and I know there's a couple of folks out there who know much more about the matter than I do) feel free to do so!

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 46, 18 novembre 1900, Paris. Costume de patinage. Modèle de la Maison Choque et Collignon, rue Auber, 16. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

Description de la gravure coloriée:

Costume de patinage. — La jupe courte, de ce costume en drap vert thé, faite derrière avec un pli creux est bordée de deux bandes de zibeline. La jaquette, découpée en pointe devant, fermant au moyen de brandebourgs en soie noire, est garnie de bandes de zibeline sur tous les contours. L'ouverture est comblée par un plastron avec col en drap blanc orné d'étroits rubans de velours noir; le col, forme "Aiglon," est fait avec un morceau rabattu garni de ruban de velours et de la même hauteur.

Le chapeau, en velours vert-thé drapé, de forme béret, bordé de zibeline est garni sur le côté de deux pompons; le dessous de la passe est orné de choux en velours vert-thé.

—

Skating suit. — The short skirt of this suit in tea green cloth, made in the back with a box pleat, is edged with two strips of sable. The jacket, cut in point in front, closing by means of black silk frogs, is trimmed with strips of sable on all the contours. The opening is filled by a breastplate with a collar in white cloth adorned with narrow black velvet ribbons; the collar, "Aiglon" shape, is made with a folded piece trimmed with velvet ribbon and of the same height.

The hat, in draped tea-green velvet, in the shape of a beret, edged with sable is trimmed on the side with two pompoms; the underside of the pass is adorned with tea-green velvet puffs.

[microcosme11]

Portraits of the King of Rome by Isabey and Prud’hon (bottom).

[shannonselin]

The army takes an oath to the Emperor after the distribution of eagle standards on 5 December 1804, by Jacques-Louis David, 1810

What is it with Napoleon and eagles? Napoleon’s troops carried an eagle standard into battle; his son was nicknamed the eaglet; Napoleon’s return to France in 1815 was called the flight of the eagle. For a look at how the eagle became a symbol of Napoleonic France, and what those Napoleon eagle standards were all about, see “Why is Napoleon associated with eagles?”