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Bonaparte

  [boh-nuh-pahrt; Fr. baw-na-part]
Bonaparte, Ital. Buonaparte, family name of Napoleon I, emperor of the French.

Parentage

Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, 1746-85, a petty Corsican nobleman, was a lawyer in Ajaccio. He supported (1768-69) Pasquale Paoli, then changed sides and became one of the staunchest leaders of the pro-French party in Corsica. He sent his sons to be educated in France. Napoleon's mother, Letizia, or Laetitia, Ramolino Bonaparte, c.1750-1836, was given the title Madame Mère at Napoleon's court. After the final downfall of Napoleon she found refuge in Rome.

Napoleon's Siblings

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph, 1768-1844, was the eldest of the children of Carlo and Letizia to survive infancy. Having gained some note as French minister to Parma and Rome, he became (1797) a member of the Council of Five Hundred for Corsica. Joseph later negotiated a treaty (1800) with the United States and represented France in the peace negotiations at Lunéville (1801) and Amiens (1802).

When Napoleon became emperor, Joseph bitterly protested being left out of the line of succession. In 1806 Napoleon made him king of Naples, which Joseph administered very inefficiently, and in 1808 he was made king of Spain instead. Thoroughly unsuccessful in defending his throne during the Peninsular War, he reluctantly abdicated in 1813. From 1815 to 1841 he lived mainly in the United States—at Bordentown, N.J. He died in Italy. Napoleon I was born a year after Joseph, in 1769.

Lucien Bonaparte

Napoleon's brother Lucien, 1775-1840, first became prominent as president of the Council of Five Hundred. He took an important part in the coup of 18 Brumaire (1799); by boldly haranguing the troops while the council was about to outlaw Napoleon, who had lost his nerve, Lucien succeeded in dispersing the Five Hundred. The Directory was overthrown, and Napoleon became First Consul. However, Lucien was critical of his brother's policies and married a commoner against Napoleon's wishes.

Lucien went to live in Italy under the protection of Pope Pius VII, who made him prince of Canino. When Napoleon made the pope a prisoner, Lucien attempted to flee (1810) to the United States but was captured at sea by the British and interned in England. He returned to Italy in 1814 and became reconciled with Napoleon, who was then in Elba. Lucien returned to France during the Hundred Days, and after Waterloo he tried to secure the throne for Napoleon II. He died in exile in Italy.

Elisa Bonaparte

Napoleon's sister Elisa, 1777-1820, married Felix Pasquale Bacciochi, an insignificant captain of infantry. Napoleon made her princess of Piombino and Lucca (1805) and grand duchess of Tuscany (1809). Elisa was a competent administrator and was admired for her intelligence. After Waterloo she lived in retirement.

Louis Bonaparte

Napoleon's brother Louis, 1778-1846, was king of Holland (1806-10). He reluctantly married (1802) Hortense de Beauharnais. Napoleon forced him to abdicate because Louis, more concerned for the interests of the Dutch people than for those of France, defied the ruinous Continental System. He died in Italy.

Pauline Bonaparte

Pauline, 1780-1825, was Napoleon's favorite sister. A woman of great beauty and a notoriously promiscuous seductress, she was the subject of considerable scandal. She accompanied her husband, General Leclerc, on the expedition to Haiti. After Leclerc's death Napoleon arranged her marriage (1803) to Camillo Borghese, a member of the Roman nobility, but they soon separated. Pauline, made princess of Guastalla in 1806, fell into temporary disfavor with her brother because of her hostility to Empress Marie Louise, but when Napoleon's fortune failed, Pauline, the only sibling to join him in exile on Elba, showed herself more loyal than any of his other sisters and brothers.

Caroline Bonaparte

Another sister, Caroline, 1782-1839, went to France with the family in 1793 and married (1800) General Murat. Her ambition, joined with that of her husband, made her grand duchess of Cleves and Berg and later (1808-15) queen of Naples. There she did much to stimulate arts and letters and encouraged the recovery of the classical treasures of Pompeii and Naples. Her restless ambition was still unsatisfied; the birth of Napoleon's son destroyed her hope of succession for her own son. She and Murat entered upon intrigues with Napoleon's enemies, but with no positive result. After the fall of Napoleon, Clemens von Metternich tried to save Murat's throne. Murat's rashness, however, led to his execution, and Caroline fled to Austria.

Jérôme Bonaparte

Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme, 1784-1860, served in the navy and was sent to the West Indies. On a visit to the United States he met Elizabeth Patterson, whom he married in 1803, although, as a minor, he lacked the necessary consent. Napoleon refused to recognize the marriage and had little difficulty in changing the mind of the flighty Jérôme, for whom he made (1807) a new match with Catherine of Württemberg.

Jérôme became king of Westphalia (1807-13), fought in the Russian campaign, and led a division at Waterloo. He was more remarkable for his extravagant irresponsibility than for administrative or military skill. Leaving France after Waterloo, he returned in 1847 and later received honors at the court of his nephew, Napoleon III. There he was known as Prince Jérôme.

Later Generations

Of the second generation of the family the most important was Louis Bonaparte's son, Louis Napoleon, who became emperor as Napoleon III (see also separate article for Napoleon II, son of Napoleon I and Marie Louise).

Other members of the family also became prominent. Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 1803-57, prince of Canino, son of Lucien, lived in the United States from 1824 to 1833 and was important as a naturalist, particularly as author of American Ornithology (4 vol., 1825-33, in English). He took part in the Roman insurrection of 1848. Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte, 1815-81, another son of Lucien, after an adventurous career as soldier of fortune, became a French politician. Although a Republican, he accepted the empire of Napoleon III. In 1870 he killed the journalist Victor Noir in the heat of a quarrel but was acquitted of murder.

Pierre was notoriously immoral, as was his cousin Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, 1822-91, commonly called Prince Napoleon or, more familiarly, Plon-Plon. The son of Jérôme and Catherine of Württemberg, he was named as successor to his cousin Napoleon III, in case the emperor should die childless. He was, however, a liberal and on occasion opposed the emperor's measures. His marriage (1859) to Princess Clotilde, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel II, was a move in Napoleon III's Italian policy.

Prince Napoleon became a pretender to the throne after the death of the only son of Napoleon III, Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, 1856-79, the Prince Imperial, who was killed while fighting the Zulus as a member of the British army. Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (Victor Bonaparte), 1862-1926, inherited the claims of Prince Napoleon, his father.

The daughter of Jérôme and Catherine of Württemberg, the princess Mathilde Bonaparte, 1820-1904, was prominent during and after the second empire as hostess to men of arts and letters. Marie Bonaparte, 1882-1962, granddaughter of Pierre Napoléon, was a disciple and friend of Sigmund Freud. She helped Freud escape from Vienna after the German invasion in 1938.

By his American wife, Elizabeth Patterson, Jérôme Bonaparte had a son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, 1805-70, from whom the American line of the Bonaparte family is descended. The most prominent of this line was Charles Joseph Bonaparte.

Bibliography

See W. Geer, Napoleon and His Family (3 vol., 1927-29); F. M. Kircheisen, The Jovial King (1928, tr. 1932); R. M. Wilson, Napoleon's Mother (1933); C. E. Macartney and J. G. Dorrance, The Bonapartes in America (1939); S. Mitchell, A Family Lawsuit: The Story of Elisabeth Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte (1958); M. Stirling, Madame Letizia (1961); D. Stacton, The Bonapartes (1966); O. Connelly, Napoleon's Satellite Kingdoms (1965); F. Fraser, Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire (2009).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Bonaparte
Bonaparte, Charles Joseph, 1851-1921, U.S. cabinet official, b. Baltimore; grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte and Elizabeth Patterson. A lawyer and political leader in Baltimore, he identified himself with reform causes. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him one of the commissioners to investigate conditions in the Indian Territory and in 1905 appointed him Secretary of the Navy. In Dec., 1906, he shifted from this office to that of Attorney General, which he retained until the end of Roosevelt's administration. He was active in suits brought against the trusts and was largely responsible for breaking up the tobacco monopoly. He was one of the founders, and for a time the president, of the National Municipal League.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
Bonaparte

Bonaparte is a French family name of Italian origin. Originally Buonaparte, this family claims numerous influential descendents including Corsican Napoléon I who ruled France during the early 19th century. The Bonaparte family's descendants also include kings of Spain, Naples, Holland and Westphalia, and a second French Emperor, Napoléon III. Supporters of the Bonaparte family's claim to the throne of France are known as Bonapartists.

Buonaparte family

The Buonaparte family were from minor Italian nobility who held most of their property in the hill town of San Miniato near Florence, Italy. The Buonapartes came from a Tuscan stock of Lombard origin.

After settling in Florence the family enjoyed a relationship with the then ruling Medici family. Jacopo Buonaparte was a friend and advisor to Medici Pope Clement VII. Jacopo was also a witness to and wrote an account of the sack of Rome (1527), which is one of the most important historical documents recounting that event. Two of Jacopo's nephews, Pier-Antonio Buonaparte and Giovanni Buonaparte, however, took part in the 1527 Medici rebellion, after which they were banished from Florence and later were restored by Alessandro de' Medici. Jacopo's brother Benedetto Bounaparte maintained political neutrality.

The family later broke in two branches: Buonaparte-Sarzana, Nobili di Sarzana had been compelled to leave Florence due to the defeat of the Ghibellines and later when Francesco Buonaparte came to Corsica in 16th century and the island was in Genoese possession.

The Buonaparte tomb lies in the Church of San Francesco in San Miniato.

Buonaparte arms

The arms of the Buonaparte family were: Gules two bends sinister between two stars or. In 1804 Napoleon changed the arms to Azure an imperial eagle or. The change applied to all members of his family except for his brother Lucien, and the son of Jerome's first marriage.

Napoleon I

Napoleon is the most prominent name associated with the Bonaparte family because he conquered much of the Western world during the early part of the 19th century. He was elected as first consul of France on November 10, 1799 with the help of his brother, Lucien Bonaparte, and president of the Council of Five Hundred at Saint-Cloud. He was crowned Emperor of the French and ruled from 1804-1814, 1815.

Following his conquest of most of Western Europe, the first Napoleon made his elder brother Joseph (1768-1844) king first of Naples (1806-1808) and then of Spain (1808-1813), his third brother Louis (1778-1846) king of Holland (1806-1810) (subsequently forcing his abdication after his failure to subordinate Dutch interests to those of France) and his youngest brother Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860) king of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created from some of the states of northwestern Germany (1807-1813).

Napoleon's son Napoleon François Charles Joseph (1811-1832) was created king of Rome (1811-1814) and was later styled Napoleon II by loyalists of the dynasty, though he only ruled for two weeks after his father's abdication. Charles Louis Napoléon (1808-1873), son of Louis Napoléon, was president of France in 1848-1852 and emperor in 1852-1870, reigning as Napoléon III; his son, Eugène Bonaparte (1856-1879), styled the Prince Imperial, died fighting the Zulus in Natal, South Africa. With his death, the family lost much of its remaining political appeal, though claimants continue to assert their right to the imperial title. A political movement for Corsican independence surfaced in the 1990s which included a Bonapartist restoration in its programme.

Crowns held by the family

Emperors of the French

Kings of Holland

Kings of Naples

King of Westphalia

King of Spain

Grand Duchess of Tuscany

The family tree

Carlo-Maria (Ajaccio 1746-Montpellier 1785) married Maria Letizia Ramolino (Ajaccio 1750 - Rome 1836) in 1764. He was a minor official in the local courts. They had eight children:

  1. Joseph Bonaparte (Corte 1768-Florence 1844), King of Naples and Spain, married Julie Clary, sister of Napoleon's childhood sweetheart, Désirée, who was to become the wife of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the later Charles XIV of Sweden.

  2. Napoléon (I) Bonaparte (1769-1821) Emperor

  3. Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840)

  4. Maria-Anna Elisa Bonaparte (1777-1820), grand-duchess of Tuscany married Félix Bacciochi
  5. Louis Bonaparte, (1778 - 1846) married Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepdaughter

  6. Maria Paola or Marie Pauline Bonaparte (1780-1825), married in 1797 to French general Charles Leclerc and later married Prince Borghese.
  7. Maria Annunziata Caroline Bonaparte (1782-1839) married Joachim Murat

  8. Jérôme Bonaparte (1784-1860), King of Westphalia

Current descendants

The headship of the family is in dispute between Charles Napoléon, born 1950, great-great-grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte by his second marriage; and his son Jean-Christophe (born 1986) who was appointed heir in the will of his grandfather Prince Louis Napoléon. The only other male member of the family is the brother of Charles, Prince Jérôme, (born 1957), unmarried. There are no remaining descendants in male line from any other of Napoleon's brothers. There are, however, numerous descendants of Napoleon's illegitimate, but recognized son Walewski from his union with Marie, Countess Walewski. Of these include the Wattier family and its union with the Bonaparte family. The later descendents were the Peschongs and Herrs. A descendant of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte is actor Rene Auberjonois.

References

See also

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External links

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Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 00:58:58 PDT (GMT -0700)
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