After his father was dethroned in , he moved to England with his family. In England, he trained as a British Army officer. Keen to see action, he persuaded the British to allow him to participate in the Anglo-Zulu War. In , serving with British forces, he was killed in a skirmish with a group of Zulus.
His early death caused an international sensation and sent shockwaves throughout Europe, as he was the last serious dynastic hope for the restoration of the House of Bonaparte to the throne of France. His education, after a false start under the academic historian Francis Monnier , was from supervised by General Frossard as governor, assisted by Augustin Filon as a tutor.
His valet Xavier Uhlmann [ 3 ] and his inseparable friend Louis Conneau [ 4 ] also figured prominently in his life. The young prince was known by the nickname "Loulou" in his family circle.
At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of — , he accompanied his father as a sub-lieutenant to the front. Still, when the war began to go against the Imperial army, his father sent him to the border with Belgium. He travelled from there to England, arriving on 6 September, where his parents joined him, the Second Empire having been abolished.
Upon his father's death in , Bonapartists proclaimed him Napoleon IV. On his 18th birthday, a large crowd gathered to cheer him at Camden Place. The prince attended elementary lectures in physics at King's College London.
