Wilhelm Camphausen's painting of Napoleon III (left) and Bismarck after the battle
September 2, 1870: The Battle of Sedan is fought, in the Ardennes Forest, near France's border with Belgium. It is an utter disaster for the French Second Empire. It is the beginning of the German Second Reich.
Since the final fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, France went through the monarchies of Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, son of Napoleon's brother Louis, was elected President following the Revolution of 1848, then seized full power in 1851, proclaiming himself Emperor Napoleon III. (Napoleon's son died in 1832, at age 21, without ever having reigned as Napoleon II.)
Napoleon III was popular among his people for several years. He modernized the French economy, focusing on railways. He reconstructed Paris with new boulevards and parks, and the architectural style that became known as "Second Empire Style," which would become popular in America.
In foreign policy, he led the building of the Suez Canal in Egypt, assisted the unification of Italy to win their alliance, and negotiated a free trade agreement with Britain, bringing the old enemy nations closer together than ever before.
Emperor Napoleon III
But he made 2 great mistakes in foreign policy: The attempted annexation of Mexico ended in disaster in 1867, and the Franco-Prussian War. Nervous about Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's maneuvering to unify the various small German states into a single country, Napoleon III attacked on July 19, 1870.
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck
The French were no match for the German troops. Finally, at Sedan, on September 2, with Napoleon III himself on hand, a German force commanded by Helmuth von Moltke, with King Wilhelm I of Prussia on hand, encircled the French troops, capturing 104,000 men, including the Emperor. Napoleon III personally surrendered to Wilhelm I, and sent word of his abdication as Emperor to Paris.
A Government of National Defense was formed on September 4. They considered having Henri, Comte de Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux, the grandson of the last legitimate King, Charles X, as a parliamentary monarch, Henri V, but he wanted to get rid of all symbols of the French Revolution of 1789-94, including the Tricolor Flag. The French people had grown too attached to the flag, and so he refused to take the throne. France has never had a monarchy again, no matter how powerless.
The Government of National Defense turned out to be useless. On September 19, Bismarck entered Paris. On January 18, 1871, at the Palace of Versailles, built by the most legendary of all French Kings, Louis XIV, the German Second Reich was proclaimed, with Wilhelm I as Emperor, or Kaiser. (Like the Russian title "Czar," the German title "Kaiser" comes from the Roman title "Caesar.")
Taken into the German Empire were the eastern French territories of Alsace and Lorraine. France would take them back in World War I, then Germany would take the entirety of France in World War II, before Allied troops liberated the country. Unlike his grandson Wilhelm II, the great villain of World War I, and Adolf Hitler, that of World War II, Wilhelm I is still admired in Germany, as is Bismarck, the father of the nation, their George Washington.
Later in 1871, the Government of National Defense fell to the Paris Commune, but that didn't last long, either. A series of weak governments under the Third Republic led to France suffering terribly in both World Wars.
Napoleon III died in exile in London in 1873, after years of ill health, at the age of 64. His son, Prince Imperial Louis-Napoléon, never reigned as Emperor Napoleon IV, enlisted in the British Army, and died a hero's death in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, just 23. With him died the last serious hope for a return to monarchy in France.
In 2022, there are 3 pretenders to the French throne, none of whom has made much effort to reclaim it. The Legitimist claimant is Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Duc d'Anjou, age 48, the would-be Louis XX, a direct descendant of Louis XV (but not XVI, XVII, XVIII or XIX), and also descended from Queen Victoria of Britain, Kings of Spain, and (through his mother) Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
The Orléanist claimant is Jean, Comte de Paris, 57, the would-be Jean IV, a direct descendant of Louis-Phillippe.
And the Bonapartist claimant is Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, 36, the would-be Napoleon VIII, a direct descendant of the original Napoleon's brother, Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte.
Like George Washington, Charles de Gaulle probably could have had himself proclaimed King if he'd wanted it. Certainly, there were times when he acted more like a king than Washington ever did. His son, Philippe, served in the French Senate from 1986 to 2004. As of September 2, 2022, he is still alive, age 98.
UPDATE: Philippe de Gaulle died in 2024, at 102. His eldest son and heir, named Charles de Gaulle, turned 77 on September 25, 2025. From 1994 to 2004, he served in the European Parliament. In 1999, he switched to the National Front, a since-dissolved far-right party that often seemed to resemble Germany's Nazis, which would have horrified his grandfather and namesake, not to mention Napoleon III. "It was like hearing the Pope had converted to Islam," a family member said.
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September 2, 1870 was a Friday. This was the dawn of professional baseball, but before the 1st professional league. The biggest rivalry in the sport at the time was between the top team in what was then considered the West, the Cincinnati Red Stockings; and the top team in the East, the Brooklyn Atlantics.
On this day, the Red Stockings beat the Atlantics, 14-3. The Red Stockings finished the season 67-6, with 2 of their losses -- June 14, the 1st game they'd ever lost since their founding the preceding hear, and October 26 -- being dealt by the Atlantics.
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