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26201

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Prince Imperial Memorial, Reserve No.18 7638, Nqutu District

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Public - accessible to all site users

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lulama.venu

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Post date: 07/08/2012
Site Comments:

Archive Import; Significance: Memorial to the Prince Imperial, son of Napolean III, killed in action during the Anglo-Zulu War.
History: Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Napolean, Prince Imperial of France was killed after joining the British forces in Zululand during the Zulu War of 1879 at Ulundi. He was ambushed and killed on the 1st June 1879: his body was taken to England for burial. Another place that brings the bitter course of the Zulu War of 1879 to mind lies to the west of the road from Babanango to Vryheid via Barklieside—the place where Eugene Louis Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince Imperial of France, was killed by Zulus on 1st June, 1879. A monument marks the site amongst the hills at the source of the Itshotshozi River. To reach it one must travel westwards for about six km on a secondary road which leaves the main road at a point some distance north of Barklieside and about 37 km from Vryheid.
The Prince Imperial was born on 16th March, 1856, and was the son of Napoleon III of France and the Empress Eugénie. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 had caused the fall of the Second French Empire and Napoleon III and his family had been obliged to make their home in England. The young prince received a military education at Woolwich and Aldershot.
When the chances of the restoration of the House of Bonaparte in France became increasingly slender, the prince felt that he should justify himself to the people of France by a successful military career. The disaster of Isandhlwana gave rise to great military zeal in England, and the prince begged the British Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Cambridge, to allow him to go out to fight in Zululand. His request was granted and he left for South Africa with the rank of lieutenant. Lord Chelms ford, the British commander in Zululand, by no means welcomed the heavy responsibility this placed upon him, but posted the prince to Colonel Harrison’s scouts at Dundee.
This happened just at the time when Chelmsford started his second advance against Cetshwayo. His army crossed the Blood River and invaded Zululand on 1st June, 1879. The prince was sent in advance with six men under Lieutenant Carey to choose a place for the army to camp that night. The party passed the Itelezi Hill and off saddled their horses to make coffee near an apparently deserted Zulu kraal about 200 metres from the Itshotshozi Spruit. The area round the kraal was overgrown with tall grass and mealie fields except to the north. On the eastern side a donga about two metres deep ran diagonally past the kraal. Suddenly they noticed that about fifty Zulus were stalking them through the tall grass from the direction of the donga. They rushed to their horses and made haste to get away. The Zulus shouted and fired at them; the prince’s horse took fright and bolted, and the prince could not mount. He ran beside the horse, took hold of the saddle-bag and tried to leap onto the animal. The strap broke and he fell to the ground while his horse galloped away. The prince turned on his assailants, fired three shots with his revolver, but was struck down by the Zulu assegais. Two of the men died with him. His body was brought in to the camp on the following day; it was sent on to Durban and then conveyed to England in HMS Orontes.
The place where the prince fell was first marked by a simple cairn. In 1880 the Empress Eugénie visited the place where her son had been killed and a marble cross given by Queen Victoria was then erected. The prince was buried at Chistlehurst, but his remains were later exhumed and reburied together with those of his father, Napoleon III, in a memorial church which the Empress built at Farnborough in Hampshire.
Thus the lonely monument in the veld near Nqutu marks the place where the Bonaparte dynasty came to an end.
Proclaimed 1937"
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Admin Comments:
Bibliography archive: KMC Report 1983; KMC Report 79-3-8, 86-9-7, 87-3-12; Bourguin, S, The Zulu War of 1879. p108-9
Directions:
Site of Prince Imperial's Native Reserve No. 18, Zululand.
 
 

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