Was Napoleon III the world's first populist leader?

Napoleon III's family was, in the words of historian Edward Shawcross, the most cutthroat mafioso soap opera in the world. Exiled to Switzerland as a boy and disowned by his own father, he spent years as a laughing stock of French politics, twice arrested trying to seize power. Here, in conversation with Danny Bird for this episode of the History Extra podcast, Edward traces Louis Napoleon's strange path from mocked pretender in exile to emperor of the French. Edward, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

We're talking today about Napoleon III, a figure who was born into one of the most extraordinary families in European history, but also into a France that seemed incapable of political stability. And before we meet Napoleon The Emperor. Could you tell me what sort of country he was born into, and how much did growing up in the shadow of his formidable uncle and namesake, the Napoleon Bonaparte, shape his ambitions? Well, it's absolutely political stability is the question that defines 19th century France.

After the revolution, he's born into, as you say, the most cutthroat mafioso soap opera in the world at the time, the Bonaparte, and he is the nephew of the more famous Napoleon who everyone would have heard of, who of course became dictator of France in 1799 and then emperor in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte had a problem. He wanted to found a dynasty, but his wife Josephine couldn't have children. So luckily for him, Josephine had already had two children by a first marriage, and Napoleon Bonaparte had lighted on the innovative solution of marrying his younger brother, Louis Bonaparte, to his stepdaughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, thereby promoting her to sister-in-law, and a slightly bizarre family relationship, but this is the Bonaparte.

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