You could have a very happy man who had many offspring who attempt to control the throne. Might make for some interesting proceedings.
One sees the prospect of an alliance and a part of the French army to contest control for the throne as a option. (Haven't read this in awhile, but the Elite corp could also at the same time be divided into factions supporting the siblings hoping for greater control with a "puppet Emperor", effectively a junta.)
You could also take the route that a french general, becomes temporary Emperor in the chaos becuase of the one offsprings contesting for the throne and his attempts to wield a very multicultural empire.
Collapse of the Empire probably on the Eastern front and the Western could end up staying a boil allowing the possibility for World War 1 to still have a prospect of a little man assasinating someone of importance.
All in all... French induced Cvil war of the Empire!
Maybe to spice things up you can create a French hegemony due to a successful invasion of Russia, where a right hand man of Napoleon decides to equip the troops with neccessary equipment rather than letting them "live off the land" which fell suspect to "Scorched earth policy" in which there was nothing to live off of.
Everyone contests for the throne of Byzantium? (GB and France, as well as Russian, EVEn Polish resistance fighters.
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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PS. If there is no organization of these ideas, I was just tossing them out there.
I am not, however at the moment spontaneous enough to create names for said characters, though it would be chilling for terrorist organizations or resistances groups to have either be called the "Way of Nazareth" or "Hand of Azrael"
-That is all I got for now.
Or read the "Foundation" series by Asimov, maybe that'll give you an idea... (Science Fiction and Empires.)