In the late 1820s, Louis-Napoleon, alongside his elder brother Napoleon-Louis, joined the Carbonari, an organization whose aim was to dislodge Habsburg domination over Italy. Thanks to him, the exiled prince saw the limits of his radical revolutionary ideas and developed a solid affinity for romantic literature.
The latter had a massive influence and impression on Louis-Napoleon.
When he was 15, the family moved to Rome, where the young prince befriended François-René Chateaubriand, French author and ambassador of Paris in Genoa. The young prince was raised hearing glorious stories about his imperial uncle and radical anti-monarchist revolutionary ideas. During his youth, the exiled prince was tutored by Philippe Le Bas, son of Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas, prominent revolutionary and close friend of the infamous Robespierre. Meanwhile, Louis-Napoleon followed his family to Germany, then to Switzerland. Some fled to the Americas, others to various European countries. Following the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in 1815, the Bonaparte family went to exile in different parts of the world.
