An heir of the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, this investment banker is based in New York and works for Morgan Stanley. He succeeded his grandfather Louis, Prince Napoléon as Head of the Imperial House of France in 1997 due to a dynastic dispute due to his father “embracing republican principles” and remarrying “without his father’s permission”. In an interview, he stated: “I am a man of my time, as is everyone, but also with certain duties that I’ve decided to take up and certainly no extra rights. I am witness to my family’s past and of its role in history, but I am resolute to face the future. The Bonapartes have always been modern men and even avant-gardistes”.
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It just shows that a humble republican Corsican can start a dynasty and even award himself princedoms and kingdoms. You cannot stop human beings and their endless pursuit of titles. The Bonoparte clan certainly knew how to look after themselves in a very modern way! Most of the old French aristocracy were terrible snooty about Boney and the ‘aristocracy’ he created and surrounded himself with….one or two of the ‘Ducs’ he created were in previous lives shoemakers…
Yes, very modern family. Not many know that Jean Christophe descends from a gentry family in England of royal descent from King Edward I. He is a descendant, via his ancestor Carlo Alberto I, King of Sardinia and progenitor of the modern royal family of Italy, of Sir Henry Sutton of Aram and his wife Alice Hall, daughter of Francis Hall of Grantham, Lincolnshire and his wife Elizabeth Wingfield, daughter of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham and Elizabeth FitzLewis. The Wingfields were descendants of Edward I’s youngest daughter Elizabeth via the Earls of Arundel. Alice Hall Sutton is also ancestral to Princess Diana. Her brother Edmund Hall of Gretford, Lincolnshire was ancestor to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and another brother Francis Hall of Grantham, Lincolnshire, Comptroller of Calais, was an ancestor of Prince Albert II of Monaco as well as colonial American immigrants Sir Grey Skipwith, 3rd Baronet and his sister Diana Skipwith Dale who happens to be my 10x great grandmother. Just a fact of history but has no impact on our lives today in the American cultural fabric.
Christophe ties must link back to Louis XIV; was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria – born at Benavente Palace in Valladolid, Spain, and baptised Ana María Mauricia, she was the eldest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria. She held the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal (since her father was king of Portugal as well as Spain) and Archduchess of Austria. In spite of her birth in Spain, she was referred to as Anne of Austria because the rulers of Spain belonged to the House of Austria. So, it is evident the French throne was once Latin. Now, it just looks like English Imperial successors. Much too far from the House of Bourbons. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Spain and Luxembourg currently have Bourbon monarchs.