The previous year they had been deposed as King and Queen of Westphalia, a kingdom created for Jérôme by his elder brother Napoleon.

He studied at the military academy of Ludwigsburg and served in the army, attaining the ranks of Hauptmann (captain) in 1834, major in 1840, and finally colonel.

In the early 1840s he met and received the author Charles-Victor Prévot, vicomte d'Arlincourt in Stuttgart, who wrote of the young prince: "Prince Jérôme of Montfort, gifted with a handsome face and a graceful physiognomy, is French in spirit and in heart.

His position at Stuttgart is brilliant; and yet it seems he would prefer the most modest home in France to the most beautiful foreign palace.

"[1] Of poor health since childhood, in 1845 Jérôme sought leave to let him enter France, to visit Vernet-les-Bains with its celebrated spring water, which the government of King Louis-Philippe I refused.