FRENCH ELECTION UPDATE :: Napoleon runs for parliament seat

BBC News ^ | June 7 2007 | staff

[BarbaricGrandeur]

Nobility is not the same thing as royalty. Technically a decedent of the Bonapartes would have royal blood because of the marriages they made, not because the Bonapartes were themselves royal, that's what I meant by indirectly.

The elevation of the Bonapartes to, theoretically, the status of a royal line was entirely through marriage, and is subject to debate. Basically those who understand the European notions of legitimacy vis-a-vis Christian monarchy could dispute the claim of the Bonapartes being "royal." Those who have no understanding of it, and thus accept a kind of political [for lack of a better word] realism do not as such distinguish between the "royalty" of a legitimate dynasty vs. the pretensions of a military dictator. Thus under the latter understanding anyone who says he is "king" and has the power to back it up IS king. Regardless of his actually legitimacy.

Where as a legitimist, such as myself, does not accept that possibility. One cannot simply declare themselves royal.

The concession of the royal houses of Europe to Napoleon I in allowing him to marry into the "club" if you will, was made in the hopes that he would then start playing by the rules. It was a mistake and those royal families paid for it.

As for the president turned emperor Napoleon III, the telling point should be that in seeking the hand of a real royal person to "legitimize" his claim, he was rebuffed by the royal families who had seemingly learned their lesson.