The prince who went to war

10:53am Monday 3rd March 2008

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The safe return at the weekend of Prince Harry from the war in Afghanistan is in contrast to the sad return from battle of another Royal prince who now lies buried in Hampshire.

Napoléon IV, Prince Imperial (full name: Louis Napoléon Eugène John Joseph) was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France and his Empress consort Eugénie de Montijo. His early death in Africa while fighting for Britain sent shock waves throughout Europe, as he was the last hope for the restoration of the Bonapartes to the throne of France.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 he accompanied his father the Emperor Napoleon III to the front. But when France lost the war he was forced to flee with the Imperial Family and settled in England. On his father's death, Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoleon IV.

During the 1870s there was some talk of a marriage between him and Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice.

He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in order to follow in the footsteps of his famous greatuncle Napoleon Bonapart himself.

Finally, with the outbreak of the Zulu War in 1879, the Prince Imperial, with the rank of lieutenant, forced the hand of the British military to allow him to take part in the conflict.

He was only allowed to go to Africa by special pleading of his mother, the Empress Eugenie, and by Queen Victoria herself. He went as an observer, attached to the staff of Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, the commander in South Africa, who was ordered to take care of him. Louis accompanied Chelmsford on his march into Zululand.

The Prince took part in several reconnaissance missions, though his eagerness for action almost led him into an early ambush.

Despite this on the evening of May 31, 1879, Louis was allowed to scout in a forward party scheduled to leave in the morning, in the mistaken belief that the path ahead was free of Zulu skirmishers.

On the morning of June 1 the troop set out, earlier than intended, and without the full escort, largely owing to Louis' impatience. At noon the troop was halted at a temporarily deserted kraal while Louis made some sketches of the terrain. No lookout was posted. As they were preparing to leave, about 40 Zulus fired upon them and rushed screaming uSuthu! ("kill") towards them. The Prince's horse dashed off before he could mount, the Prince clinging to a holster on the saddle.

After about 100 yards a strap broke, and the Prince fell beneath his horse, trampling his right arm. He leapt up, drawing his revolver with his left hand, and started to run.

The Prince was speared in the thigh, pulled the assegai from his wound, and turned and fired on his pursuers.

Another spear struck his left shoulder. The Prince tried to fight on, using the assegai he had pulled from his leg, but weakened by his wounds, he sank to the ground and was overwhelmed.

When recovered his body had 18 assegai wounds. Two of his escort had been killed, and another was missing.

Louis Napoleon's death caused an international sensation, and in one slanderous account Queen Victoria was accused of deliberately arranging the whole thing.

The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was.

Zabanga, his chief assailant, met his death in July at the Battle of Ulundi. Eugénie was later to make a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son died.

After death the Prince was ritually disemboweled, a common Zulu practice to prevent his spirit seeking revenge on his killers in the afterlife. His badly decomposed body was brought back to England and buried in Chislehurst. Later, it was transferred to a special mausoleum constructed by his mother as the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough.

Hampshire, next to his father.

The Empress bought a home at Farnborough and is also buried there next to her husband and brave but illfated son who insisted that after training as a royal soldier he should be allowed to go to war.