Murder of Prince Louis Napoleon of France

Hi All,
Does anyone know the name of the Zulu who murdered Prince Louis Napoleon at the Ityotyotsi River.
I do know that the investigators actually subsequently interviewd this person but i have not found a recording of his name.

barry

" Murder" I certainly don't think is was that. The Prince was with the British in Zulu territory where a state of war existed. The Zulu's were protecting their land, The Prince by all accounts took a few with him, so the question could be what was the names of the Zulu's murdered by the Prince before he was killed.

Barry. Why do you say "MURDERED" is this your own opinion or read somewhere.

barry,

The following is from an interview by Sir Evelyn Wood with a Zulu who was present when the Prince Imperial was killed. The interview took place in 1880 when Wood accompanied Empress Eugenie to South Africa to visit the site of the Prince’s death.

“While we were encamped on the Ityatosi, near Seobuza's kraal, I had prolonged interviews with 18 Zulus, whom I examined separately, and from them obtained a detailed account of the surprise of the reconnoitring party of the 1st June in the previous year, in which the Prince Imperial fell, the natives later putting themselves in the exact positions they held that afternoon. There were between 30 and 36 Zulus who took part in the attack.

The Patrol having rested on a hill to the north of the river, descended at three o'clock to Seobuza's kraal, and the Zulu scouts who were watching it hastily assembled all the men within reach. These crept up the bed of the river, and were close at hand concealed in a mealie field, when a friendly Zulu, who was acting as guide, and was killed a few minutes later, informed the British officer in command that he had seen Zulus near, and then it was that the party was ordered to mount. The Zulus purposely waited until this moment, realising that it would be the most favourable moment to attack, and fired a volley. The horse of one of the white escort was shot, and he was immediately assegaied. That of another soldier fell in an ant-bear hole, and the rider was stabbed before he could rise. The rest of the party, except the Prince, galloped hard to the ridge, not drawing rein until they reached some rocks 820 yards from the kraal, when one of them looked round, and they then rode away, still fast, but not at the headlong speed at which they had started. The Zulus in pursuit ran first after the two white soldiers who were on the flanks, three or four men, headed by Zabanga, following the Prince. His horse had jumped just as he was mounting, and his sword fell out of the scabbard. He was very active, and was vaulting on his horse in motion, when the wallet on the front of the saddle broke away, and he fell to the ground, being at this time only 60 yards behind the fugitives. There were seven men who actually fought the Prince. When Langalabalele, pursuing the fugitives, first saw Zabanga he was running away from the Prince, who was rushing at him. Zabanga, crouching in the grass, threw an assegai at him. The first assegai stuck in the Prince's thigh, and withdrawing it from the wound, he kept his foes at bay for some minutes. In the native's words, ‘He fought like a lion; he fired two shots, but without effect, and I threw an assegai at him, which struck him, as I said at the time, but I always allowed Zabanga's claim to have killed him, for his assegai hit the Prince in the left shoulder, a mortal wound. He fought with my assegai, and we did not dare to close with him until he sank down facing us, when we rushed on him.’" (Source: From Midshipman To Field Marshall, by Sir Evelyn Wood)

A Footnote to this interview shows that Zabanga was killed at Ulundi on 4 July 1879.


Petty Officer Tom

Hi 24th, Impi and PO Tom,

Thanks for all your replies.
Zabanga was the name I was looking for .
The choice of the use of the term murder was not mine, neither is it my opinion that it was so. Coup de gras would perhaps be more fitting in this context.
I have quite a number of newspaper cuttings of that time and some seemed to see the Princes' demise in a heinous light, and not as an act of war, and used that verb. This was perhaps because the Prince's role was supposed to be non belligerent, although, being who he was, he did not also see it that way too.

barry

Hi Barry this is from the heroism and tragady by Saul David

" The Zulus where on him in an instant, a warrior named Xabanga being the first to stab
him in the chest.


Cheers
DB14

Barry. Here's food for thought?

"I have know idea who was supposed to have written this. (Some Angry Person) French I bet.!!!!

"I was in the army the time of the Zulu war. Great hardship we got in it and plenty of starvation. It was the Dutch called in the English to help them against the Zulus, that were tricky rogues, and would do no work but to be driving the cattle off the fields. A pound of raw flour we would be given out at seven o'clock in the morning, and some would try to make a cake, and some would put it in a pot with water and be stirring it, and it might be eleven o'clock before you would get what you could eat, and not a bit of meat maybe for two days."

"There was a young Napoleon there, the grandson of Napoleon the First, that was a great man indeed. I was in the island where he was interred; it is a grand place, and what is not natural in those parts, there are two blackthorn bushes growing in it where you go into the place he was buried. And as to that great Napoleon, the fear of him itself was enough to kill people. If he was living till now it is hard to say what way would the world be. It is likely there'd be no English left in it, and it would be all France. The young Napoleon was at the Zulu war was as fine a young man as you'd wish to lay an eye on; six feet four, and shaped to match. As to his death, there was things might
have been brought to light, but the enquiry was stopped. There was seven of them went out together, and he was found after, lying dead in the ground, and his top coat spread over him. There came a shower of hailstones that were as large as the top of your finger, and as square as diamonds, and that would enter into your skull. They made out it was to save himself from them that he lay down. But why didn't they lift him in the saddle and bring him along with them? And the bullet was taken out of his head was the same every bit as our bullets; and where would a Zulu get a bullet like that? Very queer it was, and a great deal of talk about it, and in my opinion he was done away with because the English saw the grandfather in him, and thought he would do away with themselves in the time to come. Sure if he spoke to one of them, he would begin to shake before him, officers the same as men. We had often to be laughing seeing that."

Hello

Bonaparte assassinated by the Zulus and the uncle of his father, a great man?


it's hilarious ...

Cheers

Pascal

H Liittlehand,

Another nice intersting post. Thank you.
I think someone who is au fait with French politics like Pascal and YMOB could comment on this piece

regards,

barry

Dear Littlehand

The French who criticized the Zulus at the time (and the blacks of South Africa in general) who killed Bonaparte, are racist and certainly the Bonapartists, there must have many in the colonial troops who faced the black of South Africa after the 1870 war.

This is typical of some French estimates that African blacks or Arabs are good for nothing, savages etc ...

This is back in fashion in France, because of emigration and this should be even more at the time and especially in Africa, it disgusts me ...

Car should be remembered that Napoleon first killed the revolution and restore slavery (after him, there are only Hitler who restored slavery in europe), he took power by "coup d'état " as will his nephews in 1852 !

Not to mention all the wars in those two so-called emperors ...

So thank you to the Zulu, they saved the French Republic...

Cheers

Pascal

You Baffle me sometimes Pascal.. :lol!:

Why? I say nothing fake ...
Cheers

Pascal

Hi all .

Just want to clear up a couple of points , 24th you say by all accounts he took a few with him or words to that effect , unfortunately
he didnt take any with him .

Littlehand your post was no doubt written by a very upset Frenchman , as it was a close run thing that the Prince got to S.Africa
in the first place . Benjamin Disraeli the Prime Minister of the time objected to the Prince going , but due to the pressure exerted first
by Empress Eugenie and then Queen Victoria he capitulated and agreed . Queen Victoria even said the the Prince must not expose himself to any uneccessary dangers , for we know how venturesome he can be .
cheers 90th.

hI All

Bonaparte has just gone to Zululand because he wanted to serve militarily, assassinations stories were invented by MORON...

Cheers

Pascal

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