Louis-Napoléon was born at the
Tuileries Palace in
Paris, and he was
baptised on 14 June 1856 at
Notre-Dame Cathedral. His godfather was
Pope Pius IX, whose representative,
Cardinal Patrizi, officiated. His godmother was
Eugène de Beauharnais's daughter,
Josephine, the
Queen of Sweden, who was represented by
Grand Duchess Stéphanie of Baden. His education, after a false start under the academic historian
Francis Monnier, was from 1867 supervised by
General Frossard as governor, assisted by
Augustin Filon as a tutor. His
English nurse, Miss Shaw, was recommended by
Queen Victoria and taught the prince
English from an early age. His valet Xavier Uhlmann and his inseparable friend
Louis Conneau also figured prominently in his life. The young prince was known by the nickname "Loulou" in his family circle. In 1868, he visited
Corsica and attended the centenary festival of the
annexation of the island to France. One of the prince's assailants, a Zulu named Langalibalele, threw his spear at the prince, but missed. Another spear, thrown by a Zulu named Zabanga, struck the prince's left shoulder. The prince tried to fight on, wielding the spear thrown by Langalibalele in his right hand and his revolver in his left. However, weakened by his wounds, the prince sank to the ground and was overwhelmed. Zabanga stabbed the prince again with an
assegai, followed by Gwabakana; and then the prince suffered a final blow from Klabawathunga – who stabbed the prince in the right eye – penetrating the prince's brain and killing him. When the prince's corpse was recovered the next day, it was found naked and an examination by surgeon-major F. B. Scott counted 18 wounds – all of which were stab wounds. According to later testimonies from several of the Zulu men who had participated in the ambush of the prince's patrol, only eight of the stab wounds were inflicted upon the prince while he was still alive – the remaining ten stab wounds were done to the prince's corpse. This was due to the ambushers observing the customary Zulu
hlomula ritual, which entailed stabbing the body of an already fallen adversary. The practice was related to the hunt, when all the participants of the hunt were expected to stab the carcass of a particularly formidable kill, like a lion or buffalo. To do the same to a human foe was to acknowledge that he had fought with the ferocity of a dangerous wild animal. Langalibalele confirmed that
hlomula was performed on the prince's corpse because he had "fought like a lion". It also transpired from the testimonies of the prince's Zulu assailants that the prince's corpse was found naked because Klabawathunga had ritually stripped the prince's body of all his apparel, except for a few medals and the locket around the prince's neck which contained a picture of his mother. After giving the prince's clothes to another Zulu man named Dabayane to hold onto, Klabawathunga explained that he personally performed a slight incision on the prince's naked abdomen in order to observe the customary Zulu
qaqa ritual, which was customarily performed on the corpses of slain foes for the purposes of removing a perceived contagious ritual pollution that followed homicide, called
umnyama in isiZulu (meaning 'dark contagion'). It was believed that the swelling that occurred in corpses was due to the homicide victim's soul trying but failing to escape the decaying body, and therefore the killer had a duty to make a hole in their victim to allow the soul to escape lest the killer's own body swell like a corpse. This was the traditional Zulu explanation for the observable swelling of the body which occurs in corpses due to the fermentation of
butyric acid in the gut. The prince's bloodstained clothes had meanwhile been removed in order for Klabawathunga to observe the customary Zulu ritual of
zila, where a killer was required to wear their victim's clothes (polluted by the harmful influences of his blood) while observing customary ritual abstentions in order to cleanse themself of the crime of homicide. The Zulus had not looted the prince's jewellery because it was seen as a dishonourable thing to do to a warrior, and because it was believed the prince's spirit would haunt them if they stole the jewellery, which was misconstrued for a magical talisman. Two troopers of the
Natal Native Horse, Abel and Rogers, as well the Zulu guide accompanying them, died with the prince during the Zulu ambush. Carey and the four surviving men came together about from where the prince made his final stand but did not fire at the Zulus. Carey led his men back to camp. The prince's body was recovered the next day. After a court of inquiry, a court-martial, and intervention by Empress Eugénie and Queen Victoria, Carey returned to his regiment. Carey died in Bombay on 22 February 1883. Louis-Napoléon's death caused an international sensation. Rumours spread in France that the prince had been intentionally "disposed of" by the British. Alternatively, the French
republicans or the
Freemasons were blamed. In one account, Queen Victoria was accused of arranging the whole thing, a theory that was later dramatised by
Maurice Rostand in his play
Napoleon IV. The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was. Langalibalele, his chief assailant, was killed in July at the
Battle of Ulundi. Eugénie later made a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son had died, and where the
Prince Imperial Memorial, paid for by Queen Victoria, had been erected. The prince, who had begged to be allowed to go to war and who had worried his commanders by his dash and daring, was described by
Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, as "a plucky young man, and he died a soldier's death. What on earth could he have done better?" His remains were brought back to
Spithead on board the British troopship , and thence transferred onto HMS
Enchantress for sailing on to
Woolwich Arsenal; overnight, he lay in state in the western octagonal guardhouse by the riverfront. The funeral procession, including Queen Victoria, went from there to
Chislehurst, where he was buried in
St Mary's Catholic Church. On 9 January 1888, his body was transferred to a special mausoleum constructed by his mother as the
Imperial Crypt at
St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, next to his father. The
Prince Imperial had appointed Prince
Napoléon Victor Bonaparte as his heir, thus skipping the genealogically senior heir, Victor's father,
Prince Napoléon. ==Legacy==