The Duke of Enghien was the only son of
Louis Henri de Bourbon and
Bathilde d'Orléans. As a member of the reigning
House of Bourbon, he was a
prince du sang. He was born at the
Château de Chantilly, the country residence of the Princes of Condé – a title he was born to inherit. He was given the title ''duc d'Enghien'' from birth, his father already being the Duke of Bourbon and the heir of the
Prince of Condé, the Duke of Bourbon being the
Heir apparent of Condé. His mother's full name was Louise Marie Thérèse
Bathilde d'Orléans; she was the only surviving daughter of
Louis Philippe d'Orléans (grandson of the
Regent ''
Philippe d'Orléans) and Louise Henriette de Bourbon. His uncle was the future Philippe Égalité and he was thus a first cousin of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. He was also doubly descended from Louis XIV through his legitimated daughters, Mademoiselle de Blois
and Mademoiselle de Nantes''. He was an only child, his parents separating in 1778 after his father's romantic involvement with one
Marguerite Catherine Michelot, a
Paris Opera singer, was discovered; it was his mother who was blamed for her husband's infidelity. Michelot was the mother of Enghien's two illegitimate sisters. He was educated privately by the Abbé Millot, and in military matters by Commodore de Vinieux. He early on showed the warlike spirit of the
House of Condé, and began his military career in 1788. At the outbreak of the
French Revolution, he emigrated with his father and grandfather a few days after the
Storming of the Bastille, and in exile he would seek to raise forces for the invasion of France and restoration of the monarchy to its pre-revolutionary status. In 1792, at the outbreak of
French Revolutionary Wars, he held a command in the corps of
émigrés organized and commanded by his grandfather, the
Prince of Condé. This
Army of Condé shared in the
Duke of Brunswick's unsuccessful invasion of France. , Enghien's secret wife; miniature by François-Joseph Desvernois After this, the young duke continued 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. On the dissolution of that force after the
peace of Lunéville (February 1801), he privately married Princess
Charlotte de Rohan, niece of the
Cardinal de Rohan, and took up his residence at
Ettenheim in
Baden, near the
Rhine. The news ran that the duke was in company with
Charles François Dumouriez and had made secret journeys into France. This was false; there is no evidence that the duke had dealings with either Cadoudal or Pichegru. However, the duke had previously been condemned in absentia for having fought against the French Republic in the
Armée des Émigrés. Napoleon gave orders for the seizure of the duke. French
dragoons crossed the Rhine secretly, surrounded his house and brought him to
Strasbourg (15 March 1804), and thence to the
Château de Vincennes, near Paris, where a military commission of French colonels presided over by
General Pierre-Augustin Hulin was hastily convened to try him. The duke was charged chiefly with bearing arms against France in the late war, and with intending to take part in the
new coalition then proposed against France. His last words were "I must die then at the hands of Frenchmen!" In 1816, his remains were exhumed and placed in the
Holy Chapel of the Château de Vincennes.
Impact of death in the castle of Vincennes Royalty across Europe were shocked and dismayed at the duke's death. Tsar
Alexander I of Russia was especially alarmed, and decided to curb Napoleon's power. Enghien was the last descendant of the
House of Condé; his grandfather and father survived him, but died without producing further heirs. It is now known that
Joséphine and
Madame de Rémusat had begged Bonaparte to spare the duke, but nothing would bend his will. Whether
Talleyrand,
Fouché or
Savary bore responsibility for the seizure of the duke is debatable, as at times Napoleon was known to claim Talleyrand conceived the idea, while at other times he took full responsibility himself. On his way to
St. Helena and at
Longwood, Napoleon asserted that, in the same circumstances, he would do the same again; he inserted a similar declaration in his will, stating that "[I]t was necessary for the safety, interest, and the honour of the French people when the
Comte d'Artois, by his own confession, was supporting sixty assassins at Paris." The execution shocked the aristocracy of Europe, who still remembered the bloodletting of the Revolution. Either
Antoine Boulay, comte de la Meurthe (deputy from
Meurthe in the
Corps législatif) or Napoleon's chief of police, Fouché, said about his execution ''"C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute"'', a statement often rendered in English as "It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder." The statement is also sometimes attributed to Talleyrand. In the 1844 essay, "
Experience",
Emerson misattributes the line to Napoleon himself. In contrast, in France the execution appeared to quiet domestic resistance to Napoleon, who soon set up a military dictatorship by crowning himself
Emperor of the French.
Cadoudal, dismayed at the news of Napoleon's proclamation, reputedly exclaimed, "We wanted to make a king, but we made an emperor". ==Cultural references==