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Elected President in 1848
He was 44 years old but his ambition to rule France had become a reality, seemingly against all odds.
President of the French
Political uncertainty
The collapse of the Orléanais monarchy in 1848 caught Louis Napoleon by surprise and the Republicans were ill prepared to take power. In Febuary Louis Napoleon returned to France to offer his help to the Government. He was promptly asked to leave. Despite being an ill prepared government, they made some progressive steps including manhood suffrage, banning slavery in the colonies, passing a right to work decree and abolished hanging. But …economic challenges led to them increasing land tax by 45%, a decision which led to riots in the countryside.
Meanwhile Louis returned to London and signed up as a Special Constable ahead of the Chartist demonstrations.
In France elections were called and the poor track record led to the republicans winning less that 1/3rd of the 900 seats. Most of the deputies elected were monarchists. When Louis Napoleon was president three of them were Louis Napoleon’s cousins (plus ca change).
Further unrest and a rebellion, which was brutally put down, led to further elections in December 1848. Louis Napoleon’s time had come.
Louis’s advantages
Louis had a significant and major advantage over his political rivals – he had been in London in June. This meant that he could not be blamed either for starting the revolution or for brutally crushing it.
He had two other advantages. The first was the Bonaparte name, which had by now become a byword for a better age. Second was the sizeable fortune of his mistress, Miss Harriet Howard, who threw her full backing behind him.
The fact that he wasn’t affiliated with any political party allowed him to be “all things to all men”:
- To the socialists he was a socialist: just look at his books!
- To the conservatives, he was a conservative: just look at his uncle.
This allowed him to build a frankly contradictory of coalition of support, which led to him winning the election with an astounding 74.3% of the vote.
December 1848
By this mass popular vote he becomes president. He is he first to be elected by popular vote and the first to be known as President. Hewas also the youngest president until Macron in 2017.
But, the constitution still limited the President’s power by the Assembly and he had onlt a term of 5 years. One final advantage, his political opposition still underestimated him.
He could have just one term in office
The Presidency
According to the new constitution of 1848, Louis-Napoleon’s term would end in May 1852. The constitution also prohibited elected officials from running for a second term. So, President Louis-Napoleon, in the third year of his four-year mandate, sought an amendment to allow him to serve a second term as president, arguing that one term was not enough to implement his political and economic programs.
Despite his convictions, the National Assembly, fearful that longer terms would lead to abuse of the presidential office and power, refused to consider amending the constitution. Louis-Napoleon subsequently began touring the country in an attempt to garner popular appeal for himself, his policies, and the idea that his presidential term should be extended beyond four years. Despite his widespread appeal, the Assembly’s opinion would not be swayed, so, on December 2, 1851, Louis-Napoleon seized dictatorial powers, claiming the right to do so as a referendum on his universal popularity.
Etching of Louis Napoleon as Prince President.
And he becomes Emperor
A third coup
In 1851, having failed to win a vote to extend his presidency, he decided action was needed. He was already head of government, so this was easy and a far better plan than his two coup attempts.
Help was organised from French Foreign Legion and generals and troops from North Africa, who quietly re-entered Paris during the night and occupied the city. When Paris woke up in the morning, the coup was effectively already accomplished.
There was resistance from some die-hard republicans. They tried to organise a rising but this was put down with brutal efficiency. There were around 300 deaths and 26,000 people and political opponents were arrested. Ten thousand of them were exiled to Algeria and another three thousand were forced to move to new parts of France.
On the 20th December he called a referendum to get the people to legitimize what he had done.
As a result he had a new constitution and 10 years in power ……… and now he starts to call himself “Prince President”.
The following year in November 1852 a referendum is held to ask whether the Prince-President should be made Emperor. The overwhelming answer – YES. So, like his uncle, he is now Emperor of the French .