Article. The crowd at Louis-Napolons funeral was estimated to have been around 100,000. Their friendship when far beyond what protocol demanded, with Victoria charmed by her courage, charm, and cheerfulness. Among them were the Golden Rose, paintings by Winterhalter (including that of herself with her ladies), by Mme Vige-Lebrun (of Marie-Antoinette and of the dauphin) and by David. Over the fireplace is a portrait medallion of Napoleon III, made by the Venetian sculptor Luigi Borro in 1865. Courtesy Paul Holberton Publishing. Farnborough Hill was the principal home of the Empress Eugnie, the Spanish widow of Napoleon III. In 1873, Napoleon III died following a gallstone operation, and then her son was tragically killed while fighting for the British in the Zululand in 1879. It really is that good, A spectacular Georgian mansion for the 21st century comes to the market at 30 million. She took great care of the placement of the objects returned to her care, arranging them into emotive juxtapositions and statements of lineage. Many are under the impression that certain of her qualities were only acquired in old age, wrote Ethel. They allow us to take a tour through the principal rooms of the house, complete with commentary on the furniture, paintings, porcelain and bibelots that together made the house a mix of dynastic shrine and intimate museum. Empress Eugnie of the French, 1858 The marriage had come after considerable activity concerning who would make a suitable match, often toward titled royals and with an eye to foreign policy. The collection included many precious items, including furniture dating from the First Empire and previously housed in the state apartments at Fontainebleau, as well as an important sequence of Gobelins tapestries, originally made for Louis XV at Marly and showing scenes from Cervantess Don Quixote (today in Richmond, Virginia, US). The architect behind these changes was Hippolyte Destailleur, remembered today for Waddesdon Manor, but whose portfolio extended to projects across Europe. Grainger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo. In accordance with Eugenies last wishes, on her death in 1920 she was buried above the main altar of the chapel in the crypt, flanked by the catafalcs of her husband and son in two side chapels. Accompanied by the Duke of Alba and another great nephew, the Duke of Pearanda, the body of the last empress of the French travelled back by train and ferry to her English home. She made it even bigger, so that eventually it needed more than twenty servants to run it. In 1910 she revisited Compigne, discreetly joining a guided tour. The sensational collections of the Sassoon family, Joan Mitchell Foundation sends cease-and-desist to Louis Vuitton, The week in art news heritage sites destroyed by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, The week in art news flat owners overlooked by Tate Modern win privacy case. The latter was located in a completely new wing, built on by the Empress. When Mrs Pankhurst came to lunch, they took to each other immediately, and Ethel was asked to bring her as often as possible. The complex as a whole is now called St Michaels Abbey. Often curiously ill at ease with priests, Eugnie soon fell out with the canons, who seem to have been a boorish and uncouth group and whose prior was in any case a republican. When his system of wireless communication was established in Canada, she was the first person after Edward VII to whom he transmitted a message. His architect was H. E. Kendall Jnr (180585), a specialist in country houses and lunatic asylums. Realising it was beaten, she foresaw that the kaiser would have to abdicate and that many other crowned heads would have to go with him. The queen told her to stop calling her Your Majesty or Madame Why not sister or friend that would be so much more pleasant. Neither would precede the other through a door, gently remonstrating. Beyond the original portion of the gallery, Eugnie created two completely new inteiors. The pink marble fireplace that Destailleur based on a chimneypiece formerly in the Htel Biron in Paris (now the Muse Rodin), and the two chandeliers, probably brought from Biarritz, are still there, however, as is the oak panelling and richly adorned ceiling, which include decorative features derived from the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. When Charles Tiffany of Tiffany & Co. saw a portrait of the Empress, he knew the shade of blue she wore would become incredibly popular. This suggests that Destailleur was seeking to bring into being the kind of church that ought to have existed at that time. To either side of this are large pieces of walnut furniture. Name variations: Eugenie de Montijo; Eugnie-Marie, Countess of Teba. Empress-Regentif(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'thesocialtalks_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_9',146,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thesocialtalks_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); When the need arose, Eugnie stepped into her husbands shoes and ran the country politically. While her Republican enemies (those who would go on to overthrow the Second Empire and declare the Third Republic in 1870) would depict her as a violent agitator, those closer to her said she assumed the Regent role admirably. This is not immediately obvious from the design of the building, which, apart from the general inclusion of a dome, has little in common with Les Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon I lies buried. It seemed that her central source of torment was the welfare of the needy or sick. The Empress in 1862. [1] This splendidly sombre space is entered via a large porch at the back of the church and down a flight of steps that evokes the open crypt at Les Invalides. She lived there from 1880 to 1920, and it was in Farnborough that she built a Mausoleum to receive the remains of her husband, the last Catholic sovereign of France, and her only child, the Prince Imperial, who was killed in 1879 when fighting with the British Army in the Zulu War. See . By her death in 1920, British newspapers were almost unrelenting in their admiration for the ex-Empress Eugnie, praising her ability to face revolution and significant change, almost alone. Preview and subscribe here. Anthony Geraghty explains how their Mausoleum, which remains a flourishing monastery, is inspired by French and Spanish precedent. She transformed his study into her day room, where she worked at a large desk that was covered with photos and decorated with French porcelain. Eugnie sent the entire contents of the villa to Farnborough, where they furnished the house from top to bottom. Pronunciation: ou-JHAY-knee. Speaking noticeably poor English with a strong accent she invariably dropped her hs Eugnie made comparatively few close English friends. It commemorates not only a sovereign head of state, but, following the death of the Prince, the end of the Bonapartist ideal, which, ever since Napoleon Bonaparte established an empire in 1804, had sought to reconcile the political liberties of the French revolution with the institutional stability of the ancien rgime. Always practical, Eugnie installed a wireless on her yacht, as well as electric light and a telephone at Farnborough Hill. The latter included major works of Napoleon I and his family, by David, Grard and Riesener, and of Napoleon III and his family, by Carpeaux, Winterhalter and others. I am alone now, Eugnie wrote to her blind old mother at Madrid early in September 1879, in a country where I am forced to live and die. She described herself as truly crushed. To purchase a copy, please contact the School onschool@farnborough-hill.orgin the first instance. The design was modelled on the Romanesque crypt of Saint-Eutrope de Saintes, again via the pages of Viollet-le-Duc. Qty: Add to bag Description This was a defining moment for the new regime, placing them amongst the, mpires of Europe. Her judgement did not fail her Bigge ended as private secretary to King George V, who created him Lord Stamfordham. The funerals in their hometown of Chislehurst (Kent) drew in huge crowds, both French and English, a testament to the respect the Imperial family had gained since they arrived in England. In 2014, to commemorate 125 years since the School first started in Farnborough, this lovely book was published describing the history of the School and including many anecdotes from former pupils and staff. This abbey is also known for enshrining a Pontifically crowned image of Saint Joseph . 1837, for his brand, which remains today. Another room re-created the Prince Imperials study at Chislehurst in every detail, with his clothes, his swords and guns, and his books; it was a cross between a museum and a shrine. Before death takes me, I should like to see my Castilian sky for a last time.. Within a decade, Empress Eugnie had lost her Empire, her home, her husband, and her only son, Prince Imperial Louis-Napolon. The Empress bought the Farnborough Hill estate in 1880, following a decade of personal tragedy: the collapse of the Second Empire (1852-70), the death of Napoleon III, and the loss of her only child. Other sovereigns besides Queen Victoria treated her as an equal. the empress is a true Frenchwoman and a great one those who know her well refuse to see her as no more than the embodiment of the Second Empires elegance and glitter in reality she had been a convinced idealist in a cynically materialist society. Before the Csar dclass was released and expelled from France, Eugnie rushed over to Paris to see if she could help, her main reason, however, being to try and unite the two branches of the Bonapartist party. Nowadays I am just a very old bat. Franz-Joseph met her at the station and at dinner wore the star of the Lgion dhonneur with Napoleon IIIs head given to him by the emperor long ago; she looked magnificent, her white hair crowned by a jet tiara, recalled an English friend who was present. This was the grandest room in the house and the only interior at Farnborough to match the scale and opulence of the imperial residences before 1870. She even went to the cinema. The Mausoleum stands to the south of the house, on the brow of a hill close by. From the start she hoped fervently for the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine, and Ethel Smyth recalled what a comfort she was at dark moments, so sane and unshakeable was her faith in ultimate victory. Despite a cut on her face and blood on her dress, the imperial couple arrived at the opera only slightly late. Nevertheless, more than a few contemporaries thought of her as a character out of a play by Corneille, whose women are embodiments of stoicism and endurance, driven by love, honour and duty, and Admiral Jurien de La Gravire often compared her with Chimne in Le Cid. Eugnie again converted her home into a World War One hospital in 1915, supplying it with the latest technologies. Smith 4 books Ratings Friends Following It was the moment when two national schools French Gothic and Italian Renaissance became fused and it was the moment when the French classical tradition, which Destailleur did so much to champion, was first brought into being. He was shocked by her appearance. It was to England that the Imperial family fled after the fall of the Second Empire, their first residence being at Camden Place in Chislehurst. She never tired of travel, her cure for depression, and set out for India on a liner in 1903, although illness forced her to turn back at Ceylon. The visitor who ventures beyond the roundabouts and dual carriage-ways of modern Farnborough will quickly encounter the remnants of an extraordinary 19th-century estate that played an important role in the history of Europe. Before seizing power, Louis-Napolons political vision and social networks had been honed during episodes of exile in London in the 1830s and 40s. We know that she was attracted to the surrounding landscape, which reminded her of the imperial palace at Compigne, and we know that she referred to the house as her cottage, which has echoes of Marie-Antoinette at the Petit Trianon. Smyth, Daudet and Filon testify to the empresss integrity. A whole sea of blue water looked into you. He also noticed her deep Spanish laugh, which conjured up the bull-ring. The French paintings once contained at Farnborough were remarkable. The Prince was forever in her thoughts and she gave permanent expression to her grief at his early death in the grandiloquent Mausoleum she erected in 188388. One of the main reasons why Eugnie moved to Farnborough was her wish to create a worthy resting place for the emperor and the Prince Imperial. She also acquired a gramophone, which Filon thought one of the most perfect I ever heard; she told him, it enables me to listen to entire operas without leaving my home. The Empress Eugnie in England Art, Architecture, Collecting Anthony Geraghty An exploration of the little-known assemblage of art and architecture that Empress Eugnie created in Farnborough in the 1880s. Despite the French crown jewels being put up for public auction in 1887, a large number of priceless possessions were restored to her. Its deployment at Farnborough Hill is not as obvious as it once was, as Eugnies additions have a decidedly French accent, but it was Kendall, working for Longman, who designed the mullion and transom windows of the ground floor and the elaborate half-timbering and decorated gables of the upper storeys. The suite begins with the Grand Salon, which was located in what had previously been the dining room. The Empress Eugenie and Farnborough by W.H.C. The empress Eugnie and the imperial vestments at St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough. Her liking is understandable he went out of his way to treat her as if she was still empress of the French. Their hostess did not even notice and had lost none of her taste for stormy weather, having herself tied in a chair to the mainmast when rounding the Mull of Kintyre in a high sea. After his father was dethroned in 1870, he moved to England with his family. © Fondation Napolon 2023 ISSN 2272-1800. She particularly loved the style of 18th century France and took Marie-Antoinette as her role model. The death of the Prince Imperial in 1879, aged twenty-three, ended all hope of a Bonapartist restoration. Eugnies body still lies with those of Napoleon III and the Prince Imperial in the abbey crypt at Farnborough, where the monks continue to sing an annual requiem for their souls. He brought Jean Cocteau to see her. Winterhalter began an official portrait of Empress Eugnie (Eugnie de Montijo, Condesa de Teba, 1826-1920) shortly after her marriage in 1853 to Napoleon III, emperor of France, but it was not exhibited until 1855. . 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