Reichstadt, Duke of

(Joseph Francis Charles Bonaparte). Born Mar. 20, 1811, in Paris; died July 22, 1832, in Schönbrunn Castle. Son of Napoleon I. Duke from 1818.

After the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, Joseph Francis Charles Bonaparte lived in Austria from 1814, at the court of his grandfather, the Austrian emperor Francis I. In 1815, after his final defeat, Napoleon I abdicated in favor of his son, whom he proclaimed emperor, with the name Napoleon II. This act never had any significance, although Bonapartists considered the duke the legal pretender to the French throne.