Editing Eugénie de Montijo (section)

== Empress ==

===Public life===
[[File:Eugénie_de_Montijo,_Empress_consort_of_the_French.jpg|left|thumb|Eugénie de Montijo – the last empress of the French – in a photograph by [[Gustave Le Gray]], {{Circa|1856}}|317x317px]]
Eugénie faithfully performed the duties of an empress, entertaining guests and accompanying the emperor to balls, opera, and theater. After her marriage, her ladies-in-waiting consisted of six (later twelve) ''[[dame du palais|dames du palais]]'', most of whom were chosen from among the acquaintances to the empress before her marriage, headed by the ''Grand-Maitresse'' [[Anne d'Essling|Anne Debelle, Princesse d'Essling]], and the ''dame d'honneur'', [[Pauline de Bassano]].<ref>Seward, Desmond: ''Eugénie. An empress and her empire''. {{ISBN|0-7509-2979-0}} (2004)</ref> In 1855 [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter]] painted ''[[Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting|The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting]]'', where it depicted Eugénie, sitting beside the ''Grand-Maitresse'' in a countryside setting, with eight of her ladies-in-waiting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fashion and Politics in Franz Xaver Winterhalter's Portrait of The Empress Eugénie surrounded by her Ladies-in-Waiting – Smarthistory |url=https://smarthistory.org/fashion-politics-franz-xaver-winterhalters-empress-eugenie/ |access-date=2023-02-02 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref>

She traveled to Egypt to open the [[Suez Canal]] and officially represented her husband whenever he traveled outside France. In 1860, she visited Algiers with Napoleon.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8768/ |title = Interior of Governors Palace, Algiers, Algeria |website = [[World Digital Library]] |year = 1899 |access-date = 25 September 2013 }}</ref> She strongly advocated equality for women; she pressured the [[Ministry of National Education (France)|Ministry of National Education]] to give the first baccalaureate diploma to a woman and tried unsuccessfully to induce the [[Académie française|Académie Française]] to elect the writer [[George Sand]] as its first female member.<ref>{{cite book |last=Séguin |first=Philippe |title=Louis Napoléon Le Grand |publisher=Bernard Grasset |year=1990 |isbn=978-2253061519 |pages=204–210 |language=fr |oclc=1036680743 |ol=1599191M }}</ref>

Her husband often consulted her on important questions.{{CN|date=May 2024}} She acted as regent during his absences in 1859, 1865 and 1870, as he often accompanied his soldiers on the battlefield to motivate them during the wars. In the 1860s, she often attended meetings of the Council of Ministers, even leading the meetings for a brief space of time in 1866 when her husband was away from Paris.<ref name="McQueen, 2011; p. 3"/> A Catholic and a conservative, her influence countered any liberal tendencies in the emperor's policies.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} Her strong preference was for [[hereditary monarchy]] and she made repeated displays of support for members of European royalty who were in crisis, like supporting a restoration of the Bourbons in Spain or trying to help the deposed monarchs of [[Duchy of Parma|Parma]] and the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]]. According to [[Nancy Nichols Barker]], "her ideas on the principles of government were ill formed and included a jumble of [[Bonapartism]] and [[Legitimism]], whose incompatibility she seemed not to even recognize."<ref>{{cite book |last=Barker |first=Nancy Nichols |author-link=Nancy Nichols Barker |title=Distaff Diplomacy: The Empress Eugenie and the Foreign Policy of the Second Empire |year=2011 |pages=9–10 |publisher=University of Texas}}</ref>

She was a staunch defender of papal temporal powers in Italy and of [[ultramontanism]]. Because of this she ardently tried to dissuade her husband from recognizing the new [[Kingdom of Italy]], which was formed after [[Kingdom of Sardinia|Sardinia]]'s 1861 annexation of the Bourbon-ruled Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and all of the pope's territory outside Rome. She also supported keeping a French garrison in Rome to protect the papacy's continued hold on the city. Her opposition to Italian unification earned her the enmity of [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy]], who stated that "the emperor is weakening visibly and the empress is our enemy and works with the priests. If I had her in my hands I would teach her well what women are good for and with what she should meddle."<ref>Dolan 1994, p. 24.</ref> She also clashed with the French foreign minister [[Édouard Thouvenel]] over the question of the French garrison in Rome. Much to Eugénie's chagrin, Thouvenel negotiated an agreement to wind down the French military presence in exchange for a guarantee of papal sovereignty from the new Italian kingdom. The [[Jean Gilbert Victor Fialin, duc de Persigny|Duke of Persigny]] blamed her influence when Thouvenel was dismissed by the emperor, declaring to Louis-Napoléon that, "You allow yourself to be ruled by your wife just as I do. But I only compromise my future...whereas you sacrifice your own interests and those of your son and the country at large."<ref>Dolan 1994, pp. 24-25.</ref>

She was blamed for the fiasco of the [[Second French intervention in Mexico|French intervention in Mexico]] and the eventual death of Emperor [[Maximilian I of Mexico]].<ref name="Maximilian_and_Carlota">''Maximilian and Carlota'' by Gene Smith, {{ISBN|0-245-52418-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-245-52418-9}}</ref> However, the assertion of her clericalism and influence on the side of conservatism is often countered by other authors.{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|p=}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}}{{sfn|Filon|1920|p=}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1868, Empress Eugénie visited the [[Dolmabahçe Palace]] in [[Istanbul|Constantinople]], the home to [[Pertevniyal Sultan]], mother of [[Abdulaziz]], 32nd sultan of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Pertevniyal became outraged by the forwardness of Eugénie taking the arm of one of her sons while he gave a tour of the palace garden, and she slapped the empress on the stomach as a reminder that they were not in France.{{sfn|Duff|1978|page=191}} According to another account, Pertevniyal perceived the presence of a foreign woman within her quarters of the [[seraglio]] as an insult. She reportedly slapped Eugénie across the face, almost resulting in an international incident.<ref>[http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/womeninpower/Womeninpower1840.htm "Women in Power" 1840–1870, entry: "1861–76 Pertevniyal Valide Sultan of The Ottoman Empire"]</ref>

===Role in the arts===
The Empress possessed one of the most important jewellery collections of her time; Catherine Granger recalls that her purchases were estimated at the enormous sum of 3,600,000 francs, a sum to be compared with the 200,000 francs devoted to the purchase of works of art for her personal collection. The American jeweller [[Charles Lewis Tiffany|Charles Tiffany]], who had already acquired the French crown jewels, bought most of the former Empress's jewels from the government and sold them to the ladies of American high society.<ref>https://www.thecourtjeweller.com/2018/10/empress-eugenies-bow-brooch.html</ref>

[[image:Granada - Avenida de la Constitución, Estatua de Eugenia de Montijo.jpg|Eugénie de Montijo in Granada|thumb|180px]]
The empress was "perhaps the last Royal personage to have a direct and immediate influence on fashion".<ref name="Laver">{{cite book| title=Costume & Fashion| author=James Laver| publisher=Thames & Hudson| year=1995| page=185}}</ref> She set the standard for contemporary fashion at a time when the luxury industries of Paris were flourishing.<ref name="Fury">{{Cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/impress-empress-influence-eugenie-luxury-style-still-felt-today-8824515.html| title=Impress of an empress: The influence of Eugénie on luxury style is still felt today| author=Alexander Fury| work=The Independent| date=18 September 2013| access-date=14 January 2021}}</ref> Gowns, colors, and hairstyles ''"à l'impératrice"'' were avidly copied from the empress throughout Europe and America. She was famous for her large [[crinoline]]s and for rotating her outfits throughout the day, with a different dress for the morning, afternoon, evening, and night.<ref name="Kirkland">{{cite book| title=Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City| author=Stephane Kirkland| publisher=St. Martin's Press| year=2013| page=58=59}}</ref><ref name="Laver"/> The British satirical magazine ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' christened her variously as the "Queen of Fashion", "Imperatrice de la Mode", "Countess of Crinoline", and "Goddess of the [[Bustle]]s".<ref>{{cite journal| title=The Empress's New Clothes: Fashion and Politics in Second Empire France| author=Therese Dolan| journal=Woman's Art Journal| year=1994| volume=15| number=1| page=23}}</ref> She never wore the same gown twice, and in this way commissioned and acquired an enormous wardrobe, which she disposed of in annual sales to benefit charity. Her favored couturier, [[Charles Frederick Worth]], provided hundreds of gowns to her over the years and was appointed the official dressmaker to the court in 1869.<ref name="English"/><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrth/hd_wrth.htm| title=Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895) and the House of Worth| author=Jess Krick| publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art| year=2000| access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref> In the late 1860s, she caused a shift in fashion by turning against the crinoline and adopting Worth's "new" slimmer silhouettes with the skirt gathered in the back over a bustle.<ref name="English">{{cite book| title=A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th and 21st Centuries: From Catwalk to Sidewalk| author=Bonnie English| publisher=Bloomsbury| year=2013| page=8}}</ref><ref name="Fury"/>

Eugénie's influence on contemporary taste extended into the decorative arts. She was a great admirer of Queen [[Marie Antoinette]] and decorated her interiors in revivals of the [[Style Louis XV|Louis XV]] and [[Louis XVI style|Louis XVI]] styles. A general vogue arose for 18th century French design, becoming known as ''"Style Louis XVI Impératrice"''.<ref>{{cite book| title=L'Art de Vivre: Decorative Arts and Design in France 1789-1989| author=Madeleine Deschamps| publisher=The Vendome Press| year=1989| page=116}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/1084| title=Cabinet ca. 1866, Alexander Roux, France| date=1866| publisher=metmuseum.org| access-date=21 January 2021}}</ref> According to Nancy Nichols Barker, her admiration for Marie Antoinette "was nearly an obsession. She collected her portraits and trinkets, lived in her suite at [[Palace of Saint-Cloud|Saint-Cloud]], had constructed a small model of the [[Petit Trianon]] in the park, and frequently engaged [[Count Joseph Alexander Hübner|Hübner]] in lugubrious conversation about the fate of the martyred queen."<ref>Barker, 2011; p. 12</ref>

In 1863, the Empress established a museum of Asian art called the [[Chinese Museum (Fontainebleau)|''musée Chinois'']] (Chinese Museum) at the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]].<ref name="Bonnet"/> She carefully curated the displays of her museum, constituting diplomatic gifts given to her by an embassy from [[Siam]] in 1860, as well as loot taken from the [[Old Summer Palace]] outside [[Beijing]] by French troops during the [[Second Opium War]]. General [[Charles Cousin-Montauban, Comte de Palikao|Charles Cousin-Montauban]] had sent crates of this loot to Eugénie as a gift, with the first shipment arriving in February 1861.<ref>McQueen, 2011; p. 228-230</ref> The collection numbers some 800 objects, with 300 coming from the sack of the Summer Palace.<ref name="Bonnet">{{Cite news| url=https://www.parismatch.com/Royal-Blog/royaute-francaise/Un-lieu-une-histoire-Le-Musee-chinois-de-l-imperatrice-Eugenie-epouse-de-Napoleon-III-au-chateau-de-Fontainebleau-recemment-cambriole-728914| title=La Musée Chinois de l'impératrice Eugénie à Fontainebleau| author=Dominique Bonnet| publisher=Paris Match| language=French| date=21 March 2015}}</ref>

===Biarritz===
In 1854, Emperor Napoleon III and Eugénie bought several acres of dunes in Biarritz and gave the engineer Dagueret the task of establishing a summer home surrounded by gardens, woods, meadows, a pond and outbuildings.{{sfn|Hôtel du Palais: Merimée}} Napoleon III chose the location near Spain so his wife would not get homesick for her native country.{{sfn|Prince|Porter|2010|p=678}} The house was called the Villa Eugénie, today the [[Hôtel du Palais]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thegrandhotelsoftheworld.com/palais/ |title=Hotel du Palais, former Villa Eugenie |publisher=Grand Hotels of the World}}</ref> The presence of the imperial couple attracted other European royalty like the British monarchs [[Queen Victoria]] and the Spanish king [[Alfonso XIII of Spain|Alfonso XIII]] and made Biarritz well-known.

===Role in Franco-Prussian War===
[[Image:Empress Eugénie of the French holding a small parasol.png|right|thumb|Empress Eugénie holding a small parasol, mid-1870s]]
The Empress held anti-Prussian views and disliked the [[North German Confederation|North German]] chancellor, [[Otto von Bismarck]], for what she perceived as his "meddling" in Spanish affairs.<ref name="Wawro, 2003; p. 35">Wawro, 2003; p. 35</ref> She believed that France's status as a great power was under threat, and that a victory against Prussia would secure her son's future rule.<ref name="Wawro, 2003; p. 35"/><ref name="Horne, 1965; p. 36">Horne, 1965; p. 36</ref><ref name="du Camp, 1949; p. 280">du Camp, 1949; p. 280</ref> [[Maxime du Camp]] claimed that, after the [[Austro-Prussian War|Prussian victory over Austria]] in 1866, the Empress would often state that  "Catholic France could not support the neighborhood of a great Protestant power."<ref name="du Camp, 1949; p. 280"/> In 1870, when the [[Causes of the Franco-Prussian War|diplomatic crisis]] which would lead to the [[Franco-Prussian War]] erupted over Prussia's [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]] candidate for the Spanish throne, Eugénie was key in pushing her husband toward supporting what she called "my war" ("C'est ma guerre").<ref name="Wawro, 2003; p. 35"/><ref name="du Camp, 1949; p. 280"/> In one instance she pointed to the couple's son in front of her husband and declared "this child will never reign unless we repair the misfortunes of [[Battle of Sadowa|Sadowa]]".<ref name="Horne, 1965; p. 36"/> [[Adolphe Thiers]] included her, the foreign secretary the [[Agenor, duc de Gramont|Duc de Gramont]], [[Émile Ollivier]], and the military in the pro-war camp behind the Emperor, who was himself indecisive.<ref name="Wawro, 2003; p. 35"/>

After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Eugénie remained in Paris as Regent while Napoleon III and the Prince Imperial travelled to join the troops at the German front. When the news of several French defeats reached Paris on 7 August, it was greeted with disbelief and dismay. Prime Minister [[Émile Ollivier]] and the chief of staff of the army, Marshal [[Edmond Le Bœuf|Le Bœuf]], both resigned, and Eugenie took it upon herself to name a new government. She chose General [[Cousin-Montauban]], better known as the count of Palikao, 74 years old, as her new prime minister. The count of Palikao named Maréchal [[Francois Achille Bazaine]], the commander of the French forces in Lorraine, as the new overall military commander. Napoleon III proposed returning to Paris, realizing that he was doing no good for the army. The empress responded by telegraph: "Don't think of coming back unless you want to unleash a terrible revolution. They will say you quit the army to flee the danger." The emperor agreed to remain with the army but sent his son back to the capital.<ref>Milza, 2009, pg. 80–81</ref> With the empress directing the country and Bazaine commanding the army, the emperor no longer had any real role to play. At the front, the emperor told Marshal Le Bœuf, "we've both been dismissed."<ref>Milza, 2009, p. 81</ref>

The army was ultimately defeated, and Napoleon III gave himself up to the Prussians at the [[Battle of Sedan (1870)|Battle of Sedan]]. The news of the capitulation reached Paris on 3 September. When the empress received word that the emperor and the army were prisoners, she reacted by shouting at the Emperor's personal aide, "No! An emperor does not capitulate! He is dead!...They are trying to hide it from me. Why didn't he kill himself! Doesn't he know he has dishonored himself?!".<ref>{{cite book|last=Milza|first=Pierre|title=Napoleon III|year=2006|publisher=Tempus (Paris)|page= 711|isbn=978-2-262-02607-3}}</ref> Later, when hostile crowds formed near the Tuileries Palace and the staff began to flee, the empress slipped out with one of her entourage and sought sanctuary with her American dentist, [[Thomas W. Evans]], who took her to Deauville. From there, on 7 September, she took the yacht of a British official to England. In the meantime, on 4 September, a group of republican deputies proclaimed the return of the [[Third French Republic|Republic]], and the creation of a [[Government of National Defense]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Milza|first=Pierre|title=Napoleon III|year=2006|pages=711–712}}</ref>

From 5 September 1870 until 19 March 1871, Napoleon III and his entourage, including Joseph Bonaparte's grandson Louis Joseph Benton, were held in comfortable captivity in a castle at [[Wilhelmshöhe]], near [[Kassel]]. Eugénie traveled incognito to Germany to visit Napoleon.<ref>{{cite book|last=Girard|first=Louis|title=Napoleon III|year=1986|publisher=Tempus (Paris)| page=488|isbn=2-01-27-9098-4}}</ref>