Bonapartism is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In this sense, a Bonapartiste was a person who either actively participated in or advocated for conservative, monarchist, and imperial political factions in 19th-century France.
"The Four Napoleons," 1858 propaganda image depicting Napoleon I, Napoleon II, Napoleon III, and Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial
Jérôme Bonaparte, founder of the legitimate line
Image: Jacques Louis David The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries Google Art Project
Image: Le duc de Reichstadt
The House of Bonaparte is a former imperial and royal European dynasty of Italian origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Corsican nobleman Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Buonaparte. Napoleon was a French military leader who rose to power during the French Revolution and who, in 1804, transformed the French First Republic into the First French Empire, five years after his coup d'état of November 1799. Napoleon and the Grande Armée had to fight against every major European power and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, expanding the power of the dynasty.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801), by Jacques-Louis David
"The Four Napoleons", 1858 propaganda image depicting Napoleon I, Napoleon II, Napoleon III, and Louis-Napoléon
Napoleon II - Napoleon I's only legitimate child
Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, Napoleon I's unacknowledged son
