Empress Eugenie’s pilgrimage to the site of her son’s death

With the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879 Prince Louis Napoleon of France asked Queen Victoria for permission to go to South Africa.   As a result of his family’s exile from France after the Franco-Prussian War, he and his mother were living in England.  He hoped to gain a reputation in South Africa, which would assist him in his hopes to be reinstated in France.  At first his request was refused, but after further appeals from himself and his mother, the Princess Eugenie, permission was granted for him to go in a private capacity, as a “spectator” in the role of an additional aid-de-camp to Lord Chelmsford.

He accompanied a reconnaissance patrol was killed in an ambush on 1 June 1879 at Ityotyozi in Zululand.

The body was taken back to the camp and embalmed by the surgeons.  They used what materials were available – mainly salt.  Accompanied by an escort of Natal Carbineers the body travelled via Koppie Alleen, Landman’s Drift, Dundee to Pietermaritzburg and then Durban, from where it sailed to England.  It arrived in England on 10 July, 40 days after he had been killed.

In May 1880, his mother, Empress Eugenie at the age of 54, made a pilgrimage to the remote spot in Zululand where her son, the Prince Imperial, had been killed the year before. Once, when the news of his death was fresh, she wrote:  My grief is savage, unquiet, irascible … let no-one talk to me of the consolations that came from God and which I cannot accept at present,”

Louis’ death was made all the more unbearable to her because his sacrifice had not taken place in the name of France, but in a war against an African people and the Prince had been wearing the uniform of a British officer.

The pilgrimage was not an easy undertaking. The Prince had been killed in a remote gully close to the Ityotyozi river. From the neighbouring British colony of Natal, it would require at least a week of hard travelling by ox-wagon in an area with no roads, and populated by people who had recently suffered the British invasion and war. It was impossible for the Empress to travel alone and the expedition required the personal approval of Queen Victoria.

Sir Evelyn Wood was appointed to command Eugenie’s escort. Wood took his own wife and two of his personal staff, who had fought in Zululand, with him. He knew that the Empress would require to travel in a degree of comfort, even under the rough circumstances in Zululand. Her entourage included an aristocratic French aide, a lady in waiting, two maids, one French and one English, and a French cook. With Wood’s addition of servants and an escort of Mounted Police the expedition totalled 78 people.

Eugenie intended to spend an all-night vigil at the very spot where he had died. The circumstances of the vigil are described by the Empress herself.

“More than once I noticed black forms on top of the bank, which moved silently about and watched me through the tall grasses. This scrutiny was full of curiosity but it was not hostile. I believe these savages wished to express sympathy and pity …. Doubtless they were the very men who had killed my son on this spot … Towards morning a strange thing happened. Although there was not a breath of air, the flames of the candles were suddenly deflected, as if some one wished to extinguish them, and I said to him, “is it indeed you beside me?”

The ghost of Louis Napoleon has been seen on many occasions standing next to the memorial stone marking the “grave”. He is not buried here as his body was taken back to England and his remains, together with those of his father, were re-interred in the crypt of Farnborough Abbey, Hampshire.