Charles, Prince Napoléon
French politician
Charles, Prince Napoléon (born Charles Marie Jérôme Victor Napoléon; 19 October 1950) is a French politician who is the disputed head of the Imperial House of France and, as such, heir to the legacy of his great-great-granduncle, Emperor Napoléon I.
Other Bonapartists consider his son, Jean-Christophe, to be the current head of the house and heir. Charles would be known as Napoleon VII.
Family background
Charles is the elder son of Louis, Prince Napoléon (1914–1997), and as such a great-great-grandson in the male line of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, Napoléon's youngest brother. As neither Napoléon I nor Napoléon III of France has surviving legitimate issue in the male line, Jérôme's descendants constitute the only Imperial Bonapartes still living. (The American Bonapartes were senior in descent from King Jérôme, but the last male of that line died in 1945, and the branch was never considered dynastic in France).
In 2011, a study of DNA extracted from Napoléon I’s remains and compared to that of Charles was found to match substantially, which established that Charles was a member of the male line of the Imperial House of Bonaparte. (In 2013, published scholarship comparing DNA haplotype evidence taken from Emperor Napoléon I; Charles; and a descendant of Napoléon's reputed son, Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, verified Walewski's descent in the genetic male line from Napoléon's patriline, but Walewski's mother was never married to the emperor and Alexandre was raised as the legal son of her husband.)
Charles' mother is Alix de Foresta (born 4 April 1926), daughter of Albéric, comte de Foresta. Although she was the only consort of the surviving Imperial line not born a princess, her family had been nobles in Lombardy since the 13th century, becoming counts palatine in 1330, constables of Venice in 1425, then retainers of the powerful Doria family in Genoa. They settled in Provence, France early in the 16th century, where they acquired twenty-two manors and the title of marquis by 1651. Ironically, the Forestas distinguished themselves during the French Restoration as courtiers loyal to the House of Bourbon, and to Henri, comte de Chambord in particular. Long established as squires of large estates and rice paddies in the Camargue, the Forestas often welcomed Charles and his siblings there while they were growing up.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Charles, Prince Napoléon” as french politician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as french politician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q704776. VIAF identifies the subject as 27187357. The Library of Congress control number is n82061046. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1914, 1997 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles, Prince Napoléon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.