Chronicle (1966)

The Death of the Prince Imperial (1979x2)

: 04, 1979

In the summer of 1879 the much-loved son of the Emperor Napoleon III went out with the British army to fight against the Zulus. Ambushed outside a Zulu kraal, the Prince Imperial, heir to the throne of France, was hacked to death by Zulu assegai. The man court-martialled for allowing this atrocity was a Lieutenant Carey. Victorian England was shocked by the death and even more so by the establishment's attempt to make Carey a scapegoat. The precise events leading up to that fatal day are re-told at the very place in Zululand and the transcript of the court martial, only recently available to the public, is used to dramatise extracts from the trial - and reveal the dramatic outcome. Re-aired 10 December 1980