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
Napoleon III Napoleon to sign the preliminary documents of a peace treaty, but Napoleon refused, telling them that the French government headed by the regent, the Empress Eugénie, would need to negotiate any peace agreement. The Emperor was then taken to the Chateau at Bellevue near , where the Prussian King visited him. Napoleon told the King that he had not wanted the war, but that public opinion had forced him into it. The Prussian king politely agreed. That evening, from the Chateau, Napoleon wrote to the Empress Eugénie: "It is impossible for me to say what I have suffered and what