What happened to the Bonaparte family after Napoleon III died?

Some of the previous answers have already alluded to the fate of the Bonaparte Family. After Emperor Napoleon III (1852–1870) was infamously defeated at the Battle of Sedan against the Prussian Army, the Parisians and the French people rose up and dethroned their Emperor, rallying their arms to try to repel the Prussians when their Emperor so miserably failed to defend them.

Napoleon III fled to Britain, where he remained until his death in 1873, all the while lamenting the rout at Sedan. His only son, Napoleon IV, was proclaimed the French Emperor by Bonapartists, and there was some sympathy for the Bonaparte Dynasty, as I recall that the monarchists in France had much political power in the 1870s and 1880s.

However, as fate would have it, the Bonaparte Dynasty was destined for obscurity following their final defeat at Sedan. Napoleon IV was much adored for his bravery and his heritage. He volunteered to go to South Africa and help the British forces fight the Zulus, taking the very sword Napoleon I used at the Battle of Austerlitz. Ultimately, the young Emperor would not live to see another French Empire, as he was killed in an ambush set by the Zulus. He was heavily wounded before he succumbed in combat, while a few of his fellow comrades were killed while the rest failed to intervene in time.

Dramatic interpretation of Emperor Napoleon IV’s last stand, titled Prince Imperial by Paul Jamin.

And so, the death of Napoleon IV signaled the end of the Bonaparte Dynasty as a force to reckon with in French and European politics. Because all the other sons of Napoleon III were illegitimate, there were no more widely recognized successors who could have made a serious attempt to retake the French throne.

Emperor Napoleon IV, former Crown Prince of the Second French Empire and pretender to the French Throne.

The Bonaparte Dynasty ultimately did go quietly into the night, with their last ditch effort to regain the throne never coming into fruition. In the 1890s, the Dreyfus Affair, a scandal which involved a French Jewish Army Officer known as Alfred Dreyfus being falsely accused of treason. The Catholic, conservative, pro-military Frenchmen almost went to conflict with their secular, liberal Republican French counterparts. The Bonapartes and the remnants of the Bourbon Dynasty had hoped to rally the conservatives under their united banner had the Third French Republic erupted into a civil war, but ultimately this did not happen. After that, the monarchists of France never again even tried to regain the throne.