Status and Titles
In 14 June 1804 he was made an official member of the imperial family as His Imperial Highness, French Prince (Prince français) Eugène de Beauharnais. By a statute of 5 June 1805 the Emperor added Viceroy of Italy to his titles.
Prince Eugène was adopted by Napoleon on 12 January 1806; while excluded from the French empire's succession, he was given presumptive rights for him and his descendants in the male line to the throne of Italy in the absence of a second son of Napoleon on 16 February 1806, and hence on 20 December 1807 given the title of Prince de Venise ('Prince of Venice'), which had been instituted by article 9 of the decree of 30 March 1806 (when the former Austrian province of Venice was united to Bonaparte's kingdom of Italy) for the Heir Presumptive to Napoleon in Italy.
His stepfather also made him heir to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt in 1810 and hence he technically succeeded as Grand Duke to Archbishop Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, the Prince-Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine, upon the latter's abdication in 1813. This position, however, was purely theoretical, as Dalberg's abdication was due to his Grand Duchy's imminent conquest by the Allied armies.
A further imperial sinecure was Archichancelier d'Etat de l'Empire de France (Archchancellor of State of the Empire of France).
Read more about this topic: Eugène De Beauharnais
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