Bonaparte (pronounced in Ital. in four syllables; in Fr. and Eng. in three) is the name of a famous family, and was spelt Buonaparte by the Emperor Napoleon and his father till 1796, though the more usual modern form also occurs in old Italian documents. In the 13th century and afterwards, several families named Bonaparte figure with distinction in Italian records—at Florence, San Miniato, Sarzano, and Genoa. But as the name of Bonaparte occurs in Corsica so early as the 10th century, it is probable that the island may have been their original home. In the 16th century we again find mention of the Bonapartes in Corsica, where in Ajaccio they occupied a respectable position as a patrician or leading family. In the 18th century this family was represented by three male descendants, all residing at Ajaccio: the archdeacon, Lucien Bonaparte; his brother, Napoleon Bonaparte; and their nephew, Charles.—CHARLES BONAPARTE, father of the Emperor Napoleon, was born at Ajaccio in 1746; studied law at Pisa; and married in 1767—without the consent of his uncles—a beautiful young patrician lady, named Letizia Ramolino. In 1768 he removed with his family to Corte, in order to assist General Paoli in defending the island against the French invasion. As the French prevailed, and further resistance was useless, Charles Bonaparte attached himself to the French interest, and in 1771 was included by Louis XV. in the election of 400 Corsican families to form a nobility. In 1773 Charles Bonaparte was appointed royal counsellor and assessor of the town and province of Ajaccio. In 1777 he was a member of the deputation of Corsican nobles to the court of France. In this capacity he resided for some time in Paris, where he gained for his son Napoleon, through the interest of Count Marboëuf, a free admission into the military school at Brienne. In 1779 he returned to Corsica, and in 1785 went to Montpellier for the benefit of his health, where he died the same year. He was a man of noble presence and amiable character. By his marriage with Letizia he left eight children: Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain; Napoleon (q.v.), emperor of the French; Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino; Maria Anna (afterwards named Elise), Princess of Lucca and Piombino, wife of Prince Bacciochi; Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland; Carlotta (afterwards named Marie Pauline); Princess Borghese Annunciata (afterwards named Caroline), wife of General Leclerc, afterwards of Murat, king of Naples; Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia. These members of the Bonaparte family, with the children of Beauharnais (q.v.), adopted by the Emperor Napoleon when he married Josephine, are distinguished as the Napoleonidae of modern French history. By a decree of the Senate (1804), the right of succession to the throne was restricted to Napoleon and his brothers Joseph and Louis, with their offspring. Lucien and Jerome were excluded on account of their unequal marriages. As Joseph, the eldest brother of the emperor, had no son, the descendants of Louis became nearest heirs to the throne.—MARIA LETIZIA RAMOLINO, mother of Napoleon I., lived to see her family placed on the thrones of Europe, and also witnessed their downfall. She was born at Ajaccio in 1750. After the death of her husband she lived for some time in Corsica, and in 1793, when the island came under British rule, removed with her family to Marseilles, where she lived in poverty, mainly supported by the pension given to Corsican refugees. After her son became First Consul she removed to Paris, and when her son was crowned in 1804 received the title Madame Mère, and was made patroness of all the benevolent institutions of the empire. A brilliant court-household was given to her, which, however, was never pleasing to her modest tastes.
Remembering former adversities, and foreboding reverses of the splendid success of her sons, she was prepared for all that followed. After the downfall of Napoleon, Letizia lived with her step-brother, Cardinal Fesch, in winter at Rome, and in summer at Albano, and submitted to her change of fortune with remarkable dignity. She died in 1836, leaving a considerable property, the result of saving habits during her prosperity.
JOSEPH BONAPARTE, eldest brother of Napoleon, was born at Corte, in Corsica, in 1768. On the death of his father he exerted himself to support the younger members of the family, and in 1793 removed with them to Marseilles, where he prepared for the bar. In 1797 he was elected a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and in the same year was sent as ambassador from the republic to Rome. In 1800, after he had proved his ability in several offices of state, he was chosen by the First Consul as plenipotentiary to conclude a treaty of friendship with the United States of America. He signed the treaty of peace at Luneville 1801, and that of Amiens 1802; and with Cretet and Bernier conducted the negotiations relative to the concordat. After the coronation of Napoleon new honours fell to the share of Joseph Bonaparte, who was made commander-in-chief of the army of Naples; in 1805, ruler of the Two Sicilies; and in 1806, king of Naples. Though, during his reign, many beneficial changes of government were effected, these reforms were not managed judiciously; and his humane feelings brought him into frequent collision with his imperious brother, a fact which did not conduce to the efficiency of his rule. In truth, he was far too fond of the fine arts to be a vigorous ruler in stormy times; and he is accused of leaving affairs too much in the hands of his minister, the subtle Salicetti. In 1808 Joseph Bonaparte was summarily transferred by his brother to the throne of Spain, and Murat took his place as king of Naples. For Joseph, this was no favourable change; he found himself unprepared to cope with the Spanish insurgents, and after the defeat of the French at Vittoria in 1813, he returned to his estate at Morfontaine, in France.
After the battle of Waterloo he accompanied Napoleon to Rochefort, whence they intended to sail separately for North America. In his last interview with Napoleon, Joseph generously offered to give up the vessel hired for his own escape, but meanwhile Napoleon had determined to surrender himself into the hands of the English. Joseph became an American citizen, and lived for some years at Bordentown, in New Jersey, U.S., where he employed himself in agriculture, and was highly esteemed by his neighbours. In 1832 he returned to Europe, and he died at Florence in 1844. Joseph was the only one of his brothers for whom Napoleon professed to care anything. He was a handsome, intelligent-looking man, distinguished by the elegance of his manners and conversation.—His wife, JULIA MARIE CLARY, born 1777, was the daughter of a wealthy citizen of Marseilles, and the sister-in-law of Bernadotte, king of Sweden. She was a quiet unambitious woman, with no taste for the splendours of royalty which fell to her share during a few weeks only at Naples, for she never went to Spain. Ill-health appears to have prevented her accompanying her husband to America. She died at Florence in 1845. By her marriage with Joseph Bonaparte she had two daughters.
LUCIEN BONAPARTE, Prince of Canino, and brother of Napoleon, was born at Ajaccio in 1775, and received his education in the college of Autun, the military school at Brienne, and the seminary at Aix. In 1798 he was made a member of the
Council of Five Hundred, and formed a party favourable to the views of his brother Napoleon. Shortly before the 18th Brumaire he was elected president of the Council of Five Hundred, and was the hero of that day. During the ferment which followed Napoleon's entrance, Lucien left his seat, mounted his horse, and riding through the ranks of the assembled troops, called upon them to rescue their general from assassins. Afterwards appointed Minister of the Interior, he was active in the encouragement of education, art, and science, and organised the prefectures. As ambassador to Madrid (1800) he contrived to gain the confidence of King Charles IV. and his favourite Godoy, and to undermine the British influence, which had until then been exercised at the court of Spain. Lucien was a republican in opinion, and therefore opposed to the absolute rule of his brother; and his second marriage to the widow of a stockbroker did not improve their relations. On condition that he would divorce his wife, the crowns of Italy and Spain were offered him; but he refused them, and preferred living in retirement at his estate of Canino, in the province of Viterbo, near the frontiers of Tuscany, where he devoted his time to art and science. Here he enjoyed the friendship of the pope, who created him Prince of Canino and Musignano; but having denounced in his private capacity the arrogant and cruel policy of his brother towards the court of Rome, he was 'advised' to leave the city in which he was at that period residing. In 1810 he took ship for America, but fell into the hands of the English. After the defeat at Waterloo, Lucien Bonaparte alone seems to have preserved his presence of mind. He immediately advised his brother to dissolve the chambers, and assume the place of absolute dictator. After the second ascent of the throne by Louis XVIII., Lucien lived in and near Rome, and died at Viterbo in 1840. He possessed considerable talents and firmness of character. He was in his early years a keen republican, but the weakness of the Directory convinced him that a military consulship was necessary to allay the social anarchy of France. He wrote poems of no particular merit. Lucien had a numerous family. By his first wife he had only two daughters. See Jung, Lucien Bonaparte et ses Mémoires (3 vols. 1882-83).
His eldest son was CHARLES LUCIEN JULES LAURENT BONAPARTE, Prince of Canino and Musignano, born at Paris in 1803. He never exhibited any inclination for political life, preferring the more quiet and wholesome pursuits of literature and science. He acquired a considerable reputation as a naturalist, and especially as a writer on ornithology. He died in 1857. He was a member of the principal academies of Europe and America. His chief publications are a continuation of Wilson's Ornithology of America, and the Iconografia della Fauna Italica.—The second son, PAUL MARIE BONAPARTE, born in 1808, took a part in the Greek war of liberation, and died by the accidental discharge of a pistol in 1827.—The third son, LOUIS LUCIEN BONAPARTE, born in 1813, at Thorngrove, Worcestershire, during his father's imprisonment in England, early devoted himself with equal ardour to chemistry, mineralogy, and the study of languages, and became an authority of the first rank in Basque, Celtic, and comparative philology generally. His election for Corsica in 1848 was annulled, but he was sent to the Constituent Assembly for the Seine department next year, and was made senator in 1852, with the title of highness in addition to that of prince which he already possessed from his birth. Most of his contributions to linguistic science have been privately printed, and, according to a Catalogue (8 parts, 1858-88), the total number of separate books written either by himself or at his instigation and encouragement, amounted to no less than two hundred and twenty-two. Amongst these are a translation of St Matthew's version of the parable of the sower into seventy-two languages and dialects of Europe (1857); a linguistic map of the seven Basque provinces, showing the delimitation of the 'Euscara' and its division into dialects, sub-dialects, and varieties (1863); a Basque version of the Bible in the Labourdin dialect (1865); a masterly treatise on the Basque verb (1869); besides many papers in the philological journals. Under his patronage from 1858 to 1860 a version of the Song of Solomon was produced in twenty-two English dialects, besides four in Lowland Scotch. For long he lived in England, where a Civil List pension of £250 was granted to him in 1883. He died at Fano, on the Adriatic, 3d November 1891.—The fourth son, PIERRE NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, born in 1815, passed through many changes of fortune in America, Italy, and Belgium, and returned to France in 1848. In 1870 he shot a journalist, Victor Noir, a deed which created great excitement in Paris; and being tried, was acquitted of the charge of murder, but condemned to pay £1000 to Victor Noir's relatives. He died in 1881.—The youngest son, ANTOINE BONAPARTE, born in 1816, fled to America after an affair with the papal troops in 1836, and returned to France in 1848, where he was elected to the National Assembly in 1849; he died in 1883.
LOUIS BONAPARTE, third brother of Napoleon, born in 1778, was educated in the artillery school at Chalons, where he imbibed anti-republican principles. After rising from one honour to another he was made king of Holland in 1806; but, in fact, was never more than a French governor of Holland, subordinate to the will of his brother. Yet he seems to have done his best to govern in the interests of his Dutch subjects, and when he found his efforts useless, he resigned in favour of his son in 1810. He returned to Paris in 1814, where he was coldly received by the emperor. After living for some years in Rome—where he separated from his wife—he removed in 1826 to Florence, where he lived in retirement. He died at Leghorn in 1846. Louis Bonaparte was the writer of several works: Marie, ou les Hollandaises (1814), a novel, giving sketches of Dutch manners; Documents Historiques, &c. sur le Gouvernement de la Hollande (3 vols. Lond. 1821); Histoire du Parlement Anglais (1820); and a critique on M. de Norvins's History of Napoleon. Louis Bonaparte was married in 1802 to Hortense Beauharnais, daughter of General Beauharnais (q.v.) by his wife Josephine, afterwards empress of the French.
The amiable and accomplished HORTENSE EUGENIE BEAUHARNAIS, the adopted daughter of Napoleon, queen of Holland and Countess St Leu, was born at Paris in 1783. After the execution of her father, she lived for some time in humble circumstances, until Napoleon's marriage with Josephine. In obedience to the plans of her step-father she rejected her intended husband, General Desaix, and married Louis Bonaparte in 1802. She lived mostly apart from her husband, even as queen of Holland; and on the downfall of the Napoleons, passed her time in various countries. She at last settled at Arenenberg, a mansion in the canton Thurgau, Switzerland, where she lived in retirement, sometimes spending a winter in Italy. In 1831, when her two sons had implicated themselves in the Italian insurrection, the countess travelled in search of them through many dangers, and found the elder deceased, and the younger, the late emperor of the French, ill at a place near Ancona. She died at Arenen- berg in 1837, and was buried near the remains of her mother, Josephine, at Ruel, near Paris. She was the authoress of La Reine Hortense en Italie, en France, et en Angleterre, pendant l'année 1831, and wrote several excellent songs. She likewise composed some deservedly popular airs; among others the well-known Partant pour la Syrie, which the late emperor of the French, with a delicate union of political tact and filial pride, made the national air of France. Of her three sons, the eldest, NAPOLEON LOUIS CHARLES, born 1803, died in childhood in 1807.—The second, LOUIS NAPOLEON, born 1804, crown prince of Holland, married his cousin Charlotte, daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, and died in 1831.—The third, CHARLES LOUIS NAPOLEON, became emperor of the French. See NAPOLEON III.
JEROME BONAPARTE, youngest brother of Napoleon, was born at Ajaccio in 1784. After receiving his education in the college at Juilly, he served as naval lieutenant in the expedition to Hayti. When war broke out between France and England in 1803, Jerome was cruising off the West Indies, and was compelled to take refuge in the port of New York. While in America he married Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879), daughter of a merchant in Baltimore. He fought in the war against Prussia, and in 1807 was made king of Westphalia. His administration of his kingdom was careless, extravagant, and burdensome to his subjects. The battle of Leipzig brought the reign of Jerome to a close. He fought by the side of the emperor at Waterloo. After his brother's abdication he left Paris and visited Switzerland and Austria, but ultimately settled in Florence. At the outbreak of the February revolution (1848), Jerome Bonaparte was in Paris, where he was appointed governor of the Invalides, and in 1850 was made a French marshal. He died in 1860.
His marriage with Elizabeth Patterson having been declared null by Napoleon, Jerome was forced, after he had gained the Westphalian crown, to marry Catharine, daughter of King Frederick I. of Württemberg. After the battle of Waterloo, her father wished to annul the marriage; but she declared her resolution to share through life the fortunes of her husband. Jerome Bonaparte left in America one son, Jerome Napoleon (1805-70), by his first marriage, who was a wealthy resident, though he never became a naturalised citizen. By his second wife he had three children.—The elder son, JEROME BONAPARTE, born 1814, died in 1847.—MATHILDE BONAPARTE, Princess of Montfort, born at Trieste, 1820, married the Russian Count Anatol Demidov, and lived at the court of Louis Napoleon during his presidency.—The younger son, NAPOLEON JOSEPH CHARLES PAUL BONAPARTE, born at Trieste in 1822, passed his youth in Italy; entered the military service of Württemberg in 1837; afterwards travelled in several countries of Europe; and was banished from France (1845) on account of his intercourse with the Republican party. After February 1848 he was elected into the Legislative National Assembly. He commanded an infantry division at the battles of Alma and Inkermann. In 1859 he married the Princess Clotilde, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. After the fall of the empire he took up his residence in England, but returned to France in 1872. On the death of the Prince Imperial, son of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, in Zuhland in 1879, the eldest son of Prince Napoleon became the heir of the Bonapartist hopes. When, in 1886, the chiefs of the Bourbon family were expelled from France, Prince Napoleon and his eldest son were exiled also as pretenders to the throne. He died at Rome, 17th March 1891. See
NAPOLEON, NAPOLEON III., and works cited at those articles: Wouters, Les Bonapartes depuis
1815; Bingham, The Marriages of the Bonapartes (2 vols. 1881).
THE BONAPARTE FAMILY.
Charles Bonaparte.
graph TD
Charles[Charles Bonaparte] --> J1["(1) Joseph, king of Spain, died 1844."]
Charles --> N1["(2) Napoleon I, 1804-14; died 1821.
Duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II.), died 1832."]
Charles --> L1["(3) Lucien, Prince of Canino, died 1840.
Charles, died 1857.
Paul, died 1827.
Louis Lucien, died 1891.
Pierre, died 1881."]
Charles --> L2["(4) Louis, king of Holland, died 1846.
Napoleon Charles, died 1807.
Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III., 1852-70; died 1873).
Napoleon Louis (Prince Imperial), died 1879."]
Charles --> J2["(5) Jerome, king of Westphalia, died 1860.
Prince Napoleon, died 1891.
Victor. Louis. Marie."]