Footnotes

• Louis Antoine de Bourbon, the only child of Louis Henri de Bourbon (1756-1830) and Bathilde d'Orléans (1750-1822), was given the title, Duc d'Enghien at birth. Shortly after the fall of the Bastille, Louis fled France. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, he held a command in the corps of émigrés organized and commanded by his grandfather, the Prince de Condé (1736-1818) but the invasion was unsuccessful. The young Duc went on to serve under his father and grandfather in the Condé army, and on several occasions, distinguished himself by his bravery and ardour in the vanguard.
  
  Early in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, heard news which seemed to connect the young Duc with the Cadoudal-Pichegru conspiracy and gave the orders for his seizure. French dragoons crossed the Rhine and brought Louis to the Château de Vincennes, near Paris, where a military commission was assembled to try him. Bonaparte, meanwhile had found out the true facts of the case, and the accusations were quickly amended. The Duc was now charged chiefly with bearing arms against France. On the 21st March, Louis was shot in the moat of the castle, near a grave which had already been dug. It is now known that Joséphine and Madame de Rémusat had begged Bonaparte for mercy towards the Duc, but nothing would bend his will.
  
  The Duc's death is discussed in the opening book of Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and was also dramatised in 'The Last Cavalier' by Alexandre Dumas.

---

Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures

---

Auction terms and conditions