Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist) sons, and it seemed unlikely that he would have any due to the age of his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. His eventual response was to have his marriage to Josephine annulled and to undertake a second marriage with Roman Catholic rites to Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. Their only child was Napoleon, King of Rome, known in exile as "Napoleon II" and as the Duke of Reichstadt. He died unmarried, thereby extinguishing the legitimate descent of Napoleon I. Meanwhile, Napoleon I's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, recognized upon establishment of the First Empire as first in
Imperial Guard (Napoleon I) lavish uniform, but its combat history, as well. A second regiment ("2 Régiment de Chasseurs-a-Cheval de la Garde Impériale") was created briefly from "Regiment d'Eclaireurs Lanciers" in 1815. The dragoon regiments of the line distinguished themselves in the German Campaign of 1805, and so Napoleon decided (in a decree of April 15, 1806) to reorganize the cavalry of the Guard and create within it a regiment of dragoons ("Régiment de Dragons de la Garde Impériale"), made up of three squadrons, headed by 60 officers personally selected by Napoleon. The first squadron was to have 296 men, and be made up