He was born in the Palais-Royal of Paris during the Second French Empire the son of Napoleon's nephew Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte and his wife, Princess Marie Clothilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

He had two younger siblings, Prince Louis (1864–1932) and Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte (1866–1926), later the Duchess of Aosta.

The Empire came to an end in 1870 with the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon III after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

[2] At the time of the death of President Félix Faure in 1899, during the Dreyfus affair, a number of political factions attempted to take advantage of the disorder and Prince Victor announced to a delegation from the Imperialist committee that he would take action to restore the French Empire when he felt that the time was favourable.

In order to achieve this, he announced he would place himself at the head of the movement with his brother, Prince Louis, fighting beside him who he said would be "bringing to the Bonapartist forces his prestige and his military talents as well as his rank in the Russian army".