There were plenty of visitors. Eugnie (1826-1920) Empress of the French and wife of Napoleon III who, by her elegance and charm, contributed largely to the brilliancy of the imperial regime and showed calmness and courage in the face of the rising tide of revolution. Upon the request of Queen Victoria, a cross was erected at his death site, and a monument was built in St Georges Chapel. That Jaguars all-electric I-Pace is the 2019 World Car of the Year comes as no surprise to Mark Hedges. When Victoria died in 1901, it was an immense loss to Eugnie, and she grieved for the friend with whom she could speak freely about their life experiences. By her death in 1920, British newspapers were almost unrelenting in their admiration for the ex-Empress Eugnie, praising her ability to face revolution and significant change, almost alone. The kitchen wing was also extended, to provide accommodation for the staff, while there was an entire new annexe of three storeys. In 1892 Eugnie built a villa at Cap Martin between Monte Carlo and Menton, where she was to spend many winters: the Villa Cyrnos (Cyrnos is Greek for Corsica). The principal rooms are located in the main block, dominated by its tower, and the service areas (mostly rebuilt by the Empress) are located in an adjoining wing. They allow us to take a tour through the principal rooms of the house, complete with commentary on the furniture, paintings, porcelain and bibelots that together made the house a mix of dynastic shrine and intimate museum. None of this bothered Eugnie. Despite a cut on her face and blood on her dress, the imperial couple arrived at the opera only slightly late. But it is important to remember that the first emperor had never intended to be buried at Les Invalides. Having received the last sacraments, she died very peacefully at 8.30 the following morning in a room that had once been her sister Pacas bedroom, and in Pacas old bed. As well as a roll of priceless silk that had been presented to her by Sultan Abdul Aziz Eugnie gave them her wedding dress, with which to make vestments. Looking like a ghost, she was driven to Madrid where she stayed with her great nephew Alba in the Liria Palace. The silk hangings survive from that time, but the room has otherwise been stripped of its original contents. Thomas Longman, the publisher, began building the house in 1860. In 1910 she revisited Compigne, discreetly joining a guided tour. Although the band played the Marseillaise instead of Partant pour la Syrie (no one remembered how to play it), many people in the packed church bore famous Second Empire names, as the children or grandchildren of her courtiers Murat, Bacciochi, Primoli, Walewski, Bassano, Bassompire, Clary, Girardin, Fleury. In 1873, Napoleon III died following a gallstone operation. This was likewise conceived around the Gobelins tapestries, the largest of which were displayed here. Here it lay in state for two days, draped in a blue imperial pall which bore the golden eagles and golden bees of the Bonapartes. There is a story that she showed him just what she wanted by tracing the churchs outline on the turf with her walking-stick. The Mausoleum is cruciform in plan, with a short nave, a spacious crossing, and an elaborate chevet. The main reception rooms were at the north end of the gallery and were treated very differently. Kaiser William II would come in 1894. Eugnie was born in Granada and it was presumably she who instructed her architect to take them as his model. The history of the School itself began in 1889 when The Religious of Christian Educationestablished a convent school in Farnborough. In 1870, the Tuileries (the royal and imperial palace in Paris) was converted into a war hospital, where she could often be found caring for the patients herself. The collection included many precious items, including furniture dating from the First Empire and previously housed in the state apartments at Fontainebleau, as well as an important sequence of Gobelins tapestries, originally made for Louis XV at Marly and showing scenes from Cervantess Don Quixote (today in Richmond, Virginia, US). The Mausoleum stands to the south of the house, on the brow of a hill close by. En route she usually stayed in Paris at the Hotel Continental, because it stood opposite the site of the Tuileries, overlooking the gardens where the Prince Imperial had played as a little boy on one occasion a gardener scolded her for picking a flower. Her neck is fleshless, her hands are the hands of a skeleton. She was, after all, ninety-three. The architect behind these changes was Hippolyte Destailleur, remembered today for Waddesdon Manor, but whose portfolio extended to projects across Europe. Her qualities were even likened to Queen Victoria, possessed by no other Empress or Queen of the period. Always practical, Eugnie installed a wireless on her yacht, as well as electric light and a telephone at Farnborough Hill. Their friendship when far beyond what protocol demanded, with Victoria charmed by her courage, charm, and cheerfulness. While she has few illusions about mankind, she detests cynicism. Photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library. Eugnie was shrewd enough to guess that conditions in Germany were very bad indeed when the German army postponed its offensive in the summer of 1918. In 1903, the house was raised to the status of an abbey and the monks extended the modest brick house provided by the Empress with large additions to the north and south, both faced in stone and inspired by Solesmes. We know that she was attracted to the surrounding landscape, which reminded her of the imperial palace at Compigne, and we know that she referred to the house as her cottage, which has echoes of Marie-Antoinette at the Petit Trianon. Empress Eugnie, Saint Cloud and Farnborough Hill, Farnborough, Hampshire, commissioned from the artist (until d. 1920; her . Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library. The general outline of the upper church, with its short nave, its spacious crossing and its apsidal chancel, was based on a pair of late-medieval churches: San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, founded in 1476, and the Capilla Real in Granada, built in 150517. Geraghty repeatedly cites Lucien Daudets Proustian account in 1920 of how visitors to Farnborough could feel the sentimental charge in every object on display: for the Empress Eugnie had brought the past into their own time; her long life enabled it to remain present; with her departure, the past was about to return the past. Her efforts to commemorate Bonapartes during the Third Republic bear comparison with Frances other exiled dynasties, such as the Orlans princes, whose mortal remains were eventually transferred back from Weybridge to Dreux. But, as butterflies do, I still feel I must fly towards the sun. (Palologues account of their meeting should be treated with caution.). Anthony Geraghty explains how their Mausoleum, which remains a flourishing monastery, is inspired by French and Spanish precedent. The Empress bought the Farnborough Hill estate in 1880, following a decade of personal tragedy: the collapse of the Second Empire (1852-70), the death of Napoleon III, and the loss of her only child. The empress believed firmly that, together, France and England were unbeatable. Her most important act of memorialisation, however, was the Mausoleum that she built within sight of the house in 188388. The religious architecture of the period was damned for clinging too closely to Gothic France or for capitulating too fully to Renaissance Italy. She made no attempt to modernise Kendalls heavy Gothic detail, but furnished these spaces with unremarkable modern pieces and hung the walls with new paintings and informal family portraits. (They are still preserved at the abbey.) The complex vault that surmounts the apse begins with vertical wall mouldings, which, as they rise between the rose windows, detach themselves from the wall. Viollet-le-Duc illustrated this in his celebrated Dictionnaire raisonn de larchitecture franaise, which had been published in instalments during the Second Empire. The funerals in their hometown of Chislehurst (Kent) drew in huge crowds, both French and English, a testament to the respect the Imperial family had gained since they arrived in England. The ribs of the vault emerge from, and intersect with, the moulded piers, before culminating in a spectacular series of hanging pendants. She made it even bigger, so that eventually it needed more than twenty servants to run it. Inside the house, she created a museum-like display that recounted the history of the Bonaparte dynasty from the rise of Napoleon Bona-parte, her husbands uncle, up to the death of the Prince Imperial, her only son, in 1879. These canopied settees were made in Italy in 1882 and bought specially for Farnborough, but they exemplify the taste for early-Renaissance furniture that was common in France in the Second Empire. This absorbing book tells the story of Empress Eugnie (1826-1920), the wife of Napoleon III and the last empress-consort of France. France Before seizing power, Louis-Napolons political vision and social networks had been honed during episodes of exile in London in the 1830s and 40s. Farnborough Aerodrome was at the forefront of aviation advances throughout the 20th century - pioneering the first powered flight in Britain in 1908 - and the biennial Farnborough International Airshow is a worldwide attraction, putting this quaint Hampshire town well and truly on the global map. Just a glance at one of her notebooks, in which she jots down reactions to what she is reading or to a stimulating remark, would show you how wide was the gap in sympathy and outlook that had existed between herself and most of the people who then surrounded her. The coffin was taken to the station in the king of Spains state coach, with an escort of halberdiers and footmen carrying tapers. For this, she was awarded a special medal, presented to her by the King, George V, in 1919. The building that rose between 1883 and 1888 is his most substantial religious commission. often visited Eugnie at Chislehurst and then when she moved to Farnborough (Hampshire). The interior is serenely beautiful and immensely grand, owing to the consistent use of internal masonry, the elegant simplicity of the moulded piers, and moving from west to east the magisterial succession of elaborate vaulting types. Photographs by Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library. ", 1427 E. 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 USA. Will Pryce for the Country Life Picture Library. European Architecture, Art: The devastating cholera epidemics between 1865-66 brought Eugnie closer than ever to the French people. Indeed, with its painted ceiling decorated with flowers, it is unmistakably in the style of Napoleon III. The Empress Eugnie of France died in July 1920 after spending 40 years in a house in Hampshire: Farnborough Hill, now owned by the Farnborough Hill Property Trust. Her courage was also displayed when she and Napoleon survived an assassination attempt in 1858 on the way to the opera. The collection itself included large numbers of modern works purchased in 1850s and 1860s at the Paris Salon or universal exhibitions, together with important family portraits. It sits on the brow of a hill, with fine views to the east. She particularly loved the style of 18th century France and took Marie-Antoinette as her role model. The Empress Eugnie of France died in July 1920 after spending 40 years in a house in Hampshire: Farnborough Hill, An exhibition looking at four of the giants of Victorian photography has at its centre a remarkable work by the, 'I wisely started with a map and made the story fit,' JRR Tolkien once wrote. , Pantone No. Over the years there has been further expansion, all of it in keeping with this Grade One listed building. She welcomed new inventions with enthusiasm. Do you know, I wanted to go by aeroplane, but people might have said I was a crazy old woman. Someone else who met her during that winter was the Duchess of Sermonetta, a smart young Roman. Learning in 1917 that the Allies considered Alsace-Lorraine to be part of Germany, she sent the French government a letter written to her by William I in 1871, in which he admitted that the provinces had been annexed purely for strategic reasons and not because their inhabitants were seen as Germans. On the way back the party passed by the battlefield of Isandhlwana, which was still littered with British bones, and at Eugnies suggestion they spent a day burying them, shovelling earth over as many as they could, she herself wielding a spade. Though she never quite recovered from their deaths, Eugnie went on to live for another 40 years, continuing charity work and supporting others in their memory, an inspiring achievement.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'thesocialtalks_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_10',147,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thesocialtalks_com-large-mobile-banner-2-0'); The Queen of England was a great source of comfort and support for Eugnie at the time of those deaths, particularly given that Victoria had lost her husband in 1861. The quick, deep-set eyes shine with a steely, sombre fire and you notice her make-up, the pencilled eyeshadow underlining the rims of the faded eyelashes. She also donated her yacht. The son of a famous writer and one of Marcel Prousts young friends, Lucien Daudet was a homosexual dilettante who was fascinated by the Bonapartes and had great charm, and after presenting himself to Eugnie unintroduced at the Villa Cyrnos in 1899, having arrived on a bicycle, he became almost an adopted son. They had elaborate internal decorations designed by Destailleur and were used to display the principal items of the collection. Cardinal Bourne, archbishop of Westminster, celebrated the Mass for the Dead, the monks chanting the Dies Irae, and Abbot Cabrol gave the address. 1837, for his brand, which remains today. Maurice Palologue first met Eugnie at the Htel Continental in 1901. In September 1881 the empress moved into a new and much larger house in Hampshire, Farnborough Hill, which had been built in the 1860s for Longman the publisher, on a knoll overlooking the minute but fast-growing town of that name near Aldershot. The movement of the Queen, crippled though she was, was amazingly easy and dignified; but the empress, who was then sixty-seven, made such an exquisite sweep down to the floor and up again, all in one gesture, that I can only liken it to a flower bent and released in the wind, Ethel tells us. She would have liked Viollet-le-Duc as architect but, anxious not to upset his new republican masters, he declined. Over the fireplace is a portrait medallion of Napoleon III, made by the Venetian sculptor Luigi Borro in 1865. She took great care of the placement of the objects returned to her care, arranging them into emotive juxtapositions and statements of lineage. Today, Empress Eugnie should be a household name and represent patriotism, benevolence, patience. The latter was located in a completely new wing, built on by the Empress. Therefore, he decided to make it the official. January 2011; Napoleonica La Revue 11(2):183 He, too, had not seen her since 1914, yet she made him feel it had only been the previous week. Destailleur proved an inspired choice, producing a most beautiful building, admired even by Pevsner, which Ronald Knox described as France transplanted into England. Name variations: Eugenie de Montijo; Eugnie-Marie, Countess of Teba. She took this in her stride and adapted commendably: her refurbishing of her Farnborough Home, Farnborough Hill, included all the latest gadgets, including electric lightbulbs and the telephone. A whole sea of blue water looked into you. He also noticed her deep Spanish laugh, which conjured up the bull-ring. The Empress is also buried there. She was a guest on Thistle when the kaiser came on board at Bergen in 1907, and noticed how Eugnie rather liked him, and said he is always most agreeable and charming to her. In 1881 the French authorities allowed her to travel through France so that she could attend the inauguration of a monument to Napoleon III in Milan. The death of the Prince Imperial in 1879, aged 23, ended all hope of a Bonapartist restoration. In December 1919 Eugnie returned to Cap Martin, stopping en route in Paris at the Htel Continental, where Palologue called on her. Though she never quite recovered from their deaths, Eugnie went on to live for another 40 years, continuing charity work and supporting others in their memory, an inspiring achievement. But in 1891 she was a great deal nearer to les vnements, as she always called the downfall of the Second Empire than in 1918. (People had been saying that time had mellowed the empress.) Netherby Hall, Cumbria: Roman foundations, a 16th century tower, a Georgian house and a very 21st century future, The strangest museum in London? It was as an exile from France that he was buried again in English soil, first at Chislehurst and then, from 1888, at Farnborough, where he was reinterred in the crypt of a newly constructed abbey, in effect a chantry, complete with a community of monks to say prayers for his soul. In short, she conceived the Mausoleum as a royal chantry, as kings and queens had done for centuries before her, especially in her native Spain. , including electric lightbulbs and the telephone. (Nikolaus Pevsner described it as an outrageously oversized chalet with an entrance tower and a lot of bargeboarding). The first of these, as we have started to see, relates to contemporary thinking about the evolution of architectural style and the nature of historical change. Nonetheless, she was elated by the Allies victory, believing that God had let her live so long in order to see Alsace-Lorraine restored to France. Moved to Farnborough ( Hampshire ) in 1901 French people inspired by French Spanish... 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