Der Stock des Carbonaro und ein Berner Degen - Waffen des Prinzen Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Abstract

After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 and his exile to Saint Helena all members of the Bonaparte dynasty had to leave France. One of the exiled was the former Queen of Holland, Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837) and her two sons. Due to family ties Hortense and Louis Napoleon (1808-1873) were able to stay in Konstanz before moving to Augsburg in 1817. In the same year, the Duchess of St. Leu, as Hortense called herself following her departure from France, bought the Château of Arenenberg in the Swiss canton of Thurgau near the lake of Constance, which remained her main domicile between 1827 until her death in 1837. Louis Napoleon attended the Gymnasium by St. Anna, a grammar school in Augsburg before being privately tutored in and around Are-nenberg after 1823. His older brother Napoleon Louis (1804-1831) lived in Italy. He had stayed with his father Louis Bonaparte, former King of Holland, following the royal couple’s separation. The brothers met each winter, either in Rome or in Florence, their father’s place of residence.The princes became members of the ‘Carbonari’, a secret revolutionary society, and took part in an uprising in early 1831, which was aimed at Italy’s liberation from the domination of Austria and other reactionary sovereigns including the pope. During this period, maybe even earlier, Napoleon Louis bought an air-cane from Tomasso Diamante. This gunsmith and sword maker, who called himself an inventor, had been based at Corso no. 410 in Rome since 1826 and seems to have produced this type of weapon since 1808. The object is one of the few extant Italian air-canes from the period 1826-30. Diamante also constructed a breech-loading gun, which he presented to Tsar Alexander I. In February 1831, when the failure of the uprising became obvious, the two young Bonapar-te tried to escape. The older brother, Napoleon Louis died on 17 March in Forli. The princes’ father, the ex-King Louis, sent some of his dead son’s belongings, such as the horse, watch and also the combination weapon, to Louis Napoleon in Arenenberg, Already prior to the Italian adventure Louis Napoleon had tried several times to gain entry into the Swiss military academy in Thun approaching its founder and instructor G.H. Dufour. In 1830 his pleas finally bore fruit. Following the grant of citizenship of the municipality of Salenstein and for the canton of Thurgau to the prince and his mother, Louis Napoleon expressed his gratitude by providing Thurgau, which possessed no artillery, with two 6-poun-der cannons. The prince’s hope that the canton was going to acquire the two further cannons necessary to complete the battery remained unfulfilled and with it his wish to serve as artil-lery officer in the canton of Thurgau. Inspired by his imperial uncle, artillery was Louis Napoleon’s preferred armed service. This was the reason why in 1834 he approached the Berne war council for permission to take part in the military exercise of the Berne militia as artille-ry officer. On 7 July 1834 Louis Napoleon was made honorary captain of the Berne artillery regiment. As such he was provided with a custom-built version of the Berne officer sword with a guard bearing the coat of arms of the canton. The Solingen blade shows the old Swiss heroes William Tell and Winkelried. In 1843 financial reasons forced Louis Napoleon to sell the château of Arenenberg including its contents. When, as Emperor Napoleon III, he was able to reacquire his former home, the Berne sword was still there. In 1906 the former Empress Eugénie, widow since Napoleon III’s death in 1873, presented the château to the canton of Thurgau.