BEAUHARNAIS, Eugène de, duke of Leuchtenberg, prince of Eichstadt, viceroy of the kingdom of Italy, born at Paris, 3d September, 1781; died 22d February, 1824. He was son of Alexandre Vicomte de Beauharnais and Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, afterwards the Empress Josephine. His family having fallen into pecuniary embarrassments, their property was confiscated, and Eugène, being removed from school, was apprenticed to a joiner. He did not, however, remain long at this humble occupation. By means of friends whom his mother had acquired in the directory, he was enabled to enter on a military career under Hoche, who employed him as his état-major. About the end of 1795 he came to Paris, where he presented himself before General Bonaparte to demand the sword of his father, which, after the disarmament, had been deposited in the magazine of the place. Bonaparte, struck with the noble and manly bearing of the youth, not only acceded to his request, but took an interest in him and his family, which exercised an important influence on their subsequent fortunes. Bonaparte, having been appointed to the command of the army of Italy, married madame de Beauharnais, 8th March, 1796, a few days before setting out on his new destination. Eugène, whom he appointed his aid-de-camp, shortly after followed him to Italy, but arrived only at the time of the preliminaries of Leoben. After the treaty of Campo-Formio, Eugène was sent on an important mission to the Ionian Islands, which, in consequence of this treaty, had fallen under the domination of the French republic. In 1798 he followed Bonaparte in his expedition to Egypt, and soon became distinguished by his zeal, activity, and valour. On the 8th November, having entered Suez at the head of the advanced posts, he was rewarded by the general-in-chief with the rank of lieutenant. He was among the foremost, some months afterwards, in the storming of Jaffa, where he received the capitulation of the prisoners. At one of the attacks on St. Jean d'Acre he was severely wounded. He accompanied Bonaparte on his return from Egypt, and landing at Frejus on the 9th October, 1799, was, after the 18th Brumaire, nominated captain of the chasseurs of the consular guard. In 1800 he accompanied Bonaparte in the campaign of Italy; was present at the battle of Marengo, in which he distinguished himself during that brilliant charge which decided the fortune of the day; was named chef d'escadron on the field, and returned with the victorious general to Paris. He was now rapidly promoted from rank to rank; was named general of brigade, and subsequently, in 1804, colonel-general of chasseurs. On the establishment of the empire. Napoleon created Eugène a French prince, conferred on him the office of archichancelier d'etat, and subsequently named him grand-admiral and great-officer of the legion of honour. In 1805 Napoleon having assumed the dignity of king of Italy, nominated Eugène—then only twenty-five years of age—as his viceroy. In the exercise of this high office, Eugène displayed extraordinary sagacity; and the numerous improvements which he introduced in the social and civil institutions of the country, at once won him the affection and respect of the people, and confirmed him in the confidence of the emperor. On the 14th January, 1806, the viceroy obtained the hand of the princess Augusta Amelia, daughter of the king of Bavaria; and Napoleon, desirous of giving him a rank corresponding to this high alliance, declared him his adopted son, under the title of Eugène Napoleon, hereditary prince of France. He farther conferred on him the title of Prince of Venice, and heir-presumptive of the crown of Italy. After the treaty of Presburg, Italy enjoyed three years of uninterrupted tranquillity; but at the beginning of 1809 a new storm threatened to burst on the country. Austria, alarmed at the successful ambition of Napoleon, was about to invade Italy with an army of about 100,000 men, under the command of the Archduke John. To these the viceroy could oppose only about 60,000. Padua fell into the hands of the Austrians, who, however, were defeated at Caldeiro, where Eugène had entrenched his army. In the meantime, the news of the victories of the emperor damped the ardour of the Austrians, while the Italian army was encouraged and strengthened by the arrival of an army under Macdonald. Eugène divided his army into three corps, at the head of one of which he attacked and defeated the Austrians at St. Daniel Malborghetto, and having penetrated the mountain-passes of Carinthia, effected a junction with the grand army, and on the 27th May, 1809, met the emperor at Ebersdorf. On this occasion Napoleon reported in his bulletin, that the viceroy "had exhibited during the campaign all the qualities which belong to the greatest captains." In obedience to the order of the emperor, Eugène now penetrated into Hungary, where, on the 14th June, he gained the battle of Raab, in which he was opposed by an army greatly superior in numbers, under the command of the Archduke John. Next, ascending the Danube, Eugène distinguished himself by the part he took in the great and important battle of Wagram. Unfortunately the splendid career of Eugène now began to excite the jealousy of the other members of the imperial family, who saw in the young hero a dangerous rival, that, in the then most probable event of the emperor's dying childless, might secure the suffrages of the nation, and exclude them from all power and influence. These fears led to those insidious manœuvres which finally brought about the dissolution of the marriage with Josephine, followed by the downfall, not only of Eugène, but of Napoleon himself and his intriguing brothers. Eugène was now to be subjected to what was probably the severest trial of his life. Though tenderly attached to his mother, by whom his affection was ardently reciprocated, the stern will of the emperor devolved on him the exquisitely painful task of acting as mediator in accomplishing the cruel separation, and besides it belonged to his office as chancelier d'etat to announce the determination of the emperor to the senate. Eugène, with the utmost repugnance, obeyed a mandate, resistance to which he well knew would not avert the impending catastrophe, though he thereby sacrificed much of his popularity both in France and Italy. He placed the act of separation before his afflicted mother, and assisted with her in the marriage of the emperor with her rival. In 1812 Eugène took an active part in the campaign of Russia, in which he commanded the fourth corps of the grand army, about 50,000 strong. He distinguished himself in every action, but particularly at the redoubt of Borodino, where he successfully executed the most perilous and most critical movement of the whole campaign. After the departure of the emperor, the chief command devolved upon Eugène, who, placed as he was in a desperate position, never evinced greater bravery or military skill. After a retreat, accomplished in the face of difficulties that none but a general of the very highest order, both for courage and capacity, could have faced and surmounted, he at length reunited with the once more organized army of Napoleon on the banks of the Saale. At the commencement of May, Eugène hastened once more to Italy, where his presence had become indispensable to preserve the kingdom from the inroads of Austria. He soon collected an army of 50,000 men, and at once assuming the offensive drove Frimont out of Villach; but he had to submit to the loss of the Illyrian provinces, his left wing being threatened by General Hiller, who was then in the Tyrol. Meanwhile the king of Naples turned his arms against Eugène, who felt constrained in consequence to ask for an armistice, which, however, was refused. In January, 1814, an army of thirty thousand Neapolitans and ten thousand English and Austrians were on their march for upper Italy. Menaced behind by this new aggression, the viceroy was obliged to quit his position on the Adige, and to fall back behind the Mincio. Here, on the 8th February, Bellegarde was compelled to retreat before the army of the viceroy, although that of Bellegarde was three times their number. This victory closed the splendid military career of Eugène Beauharnais, and put an end to the kingdom of Italy. Napoleon had ceased to be victorious, and France was compelled to succumb under the combined forces of her enemies. The convention of the 16th April deprived Eugène of his viceroyalty, and shortly after he and his wife wandered as fugitives through the mountains of Tyrol, and with difficulty reached Munich. They proceeded thence to Paris, where they were received by Louis XVIII. in a manner befitting their rank, Eugène still retaining the title of prince. He withdrew entirely from public affairs during the reign of the Hundred Days, as well as after the second restoration, and finally retired to Bavaria, where he obtained from the king, his father-in-law, the principality of Eichstadt, with the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg, and the rank of first peer of the kingdom. He had six children (two sons and four daughters) by his marriage with the princess of Bavaria. He died of apoplexy at the age of forty-three.—G. M.
BEAUHARNAIS, Fanny, countess de, a French author, born in Paris, 1738; died in 1813. Her father was a receiver-general of finance, and her husband, the count de Beauharnais, from whom she was separated shortly after her marriage. She
