His father Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach, had many connections to France before his marriage in 1863 to Princess Florestine. His first wife Théodolinde de Beauharnais was a grand-daughter of Empress Joséphine, Napoléon’s first wife. His cousin Catharina had married Jérôme Bonaparte, and their son Prince Napoléon Bonaparte was a senior adviser in the Second French Empire at the time of Princess Florestine’s marriage. Another cousin, Alexander, had married a daughter of Louis Philippe I in 1837. In turn, Wilhelm the 2nd Duke’s wife Duchess Amalie was descended through her mother from Louis XV. So there was no cultural or dynastic aspect in the von Urachs’ past that was anti-French, rather the opposite; but this meant nothing in the climate of "Revanche" between the French Third Republic and the new Imperial Germany.