CARLO BUONAPARTE [Charles Marie de Bonaparte] (1746– 1785), the father of Napoleon I., took his degree in law at the University of Pisa, and after the conquest of Corsica by the French became assessor to the royal court of Ajaccio and the neighbouring districts. In 1764 he married Letizia Ramolino, a beautiful and high-spirited girl, aged 14, descended from an old Corsican family. The first two children, born in 1765 and 1767, died in infancy; Joseph (see below), the first son who survived, was born in 1768, and Napoleon in 1769. Simple and frugal in her tastes, and devout in thought and manner of life, Letizia helped to bind her children to the life of Corsica, while her husband, who died in 1785, a schemer by nature, a Voltairian by conviction, pointed the way to careers in France.
Though endowed with immense wealth and distinguished by the title of Madame Mere, Letizia continued to live through all the years of the Empire, mainly in retirement, and always in the exercise of a strict domestic economy. After the events of 1814 she joined the emperor in the island of Elba and returned with him to Paris during the Hundred Days. After Waterloo, she took up her residence at Rome, under the protection of Pope Pius VII., who treated her with great kindness and consideration. In 1818 she addressed a pathetic letter to the powers assembled at the congress of Aix, petitioning for Napoleon's release, on the ground that his mortal illness had removed any possibility of his ever again becoming a menace to the world's peace. The letter remained unanswered, the powers having reason to believe that its terms had been previously concerted with Napoleon. Hence forth, saddened by the death of Napoleon, of her daughters Pauline and Elisa, and of several grandchildren, she lived a life of mournful seclusion. She died in 1836.
For. the Bonaparte family in general, and Carlo and Letizia, see Storia genealogica della famiglia Bonaparte ... scritta da un Sam miniatese (D. Morali) (Florence, 1846) ; F. de Stefani, Le anti chita dei Bonaparte; precede per una introduzione (L. Beretta) (Venice, 1 85 7) ; L. Ambrosini and A. Huard, La Famille im periale. Hist. de la famille Bonaparte depuis son origine jusqu'en 1860 (i86o) ; C. Leynadier, Histoire de la famille Bonaparte de l'an Io5o a l'an 1848 (continuee jusqu'en 1866 par de la Brugere) (1866) ; A. Klein schmidt, Die Eltern and Geschwister Napoleons I. (1876) ; D. A. Bingham, The Marriages of the Bonapartes (i88i) ; F. Masson, Napoleon et sa famille (1897-19oo) ; A. Chuquet, La Jeunesse de Napoleon (1897—gg) ; T. Nasica, Memoires sur l'enfance et la jeunesse de Napoleon; Baron H. Larrey, Madame Mere (1892) ; Walter Geer, Napoleon and His Family (1927) ; Emil Ludwig, Napoleon (Eng. trans., 1927).
The brothers and sisters of Napoleon I., taken in order of age, are the following:— I. JOSEPH (1768-1844), was born at Corte in Corsica on Jan. 7, 1768. He was educated at the college at Autun in France, re turned to Corsica in 1784, and studied law at Pisa. Like his brothers, he embraced the French or democratic side, and on the victory of the Paolist party sought refuge in France. He settled at Marseilles and married Mlle. Julie Clary, daughter of a mer chant of that town. Joseph went on a mission to Genoa in in connection with plans for the recovery of Corsica. In 1796 he accompanied Napoleon in the early part of the Italian cam paign, and had some part in the negotiations with Sardinia which led to the armistice of Cherasco (April 28). He took part in the French expedition for the recovery of Corsica, and helped the commissioner of the French Republic, Miot de Melito, in the reorganization of that island. In March 1797 he was appointed by the Directory minister to the court of Parma, and then to Rome. Discords arose between the Vatican and the French Re public, and it is clear that Napoleon and the French Directory ordered Joseph to encourage revolutionary movements in Rome. On Dec. 28, 1797, a disturbance took place opposite the French embassy, which led to the death of the French general Leonard Duphot. Joseph returned to Paris, and became one of the mem bers for Corsica in the Council of Five Hundred.
Before the coup d'etat of Brumaire he helped Napoleon in making overtures to Sieyes and Moreau, but otherwise did little. He was a member of the council of state and of the Corps Legislati f . He concluded at Mortfontaine, a convention with the United States (1800). He also presided over the negotiations which led to the Treaty of Luneville with Austria (Feb. 9, 18o1) ; and he and Maret represented France in the lengthy discussions with the British envoy, Lord Cornwallis, which resulted in the signature of the Treaty of Amiens (March 25, 1802). On the question of the consolidation of Napoleon's power as First Consul for life (Aug. 1, 1802) with the chief voice in the selection of his successor, the brothers disagreed. As neither Joseph nor Napoleon had a male heir, the eldest brother claimed to be recognized as heir, while Napoleon wished to recognize the son of Louis Bonaparte. On the proclamation of the French empire (May 1804) the friction became acute. Napoleon offered to make Joseph king of Lombardy if he would waive all claim of succession to the French throne, but met with a firm refusal.
Meanwhile Joseph had striven in vain to avert a rupture with England, which came about in May 1803. In 18o5 he acted as chief of the French Government while Napoleon was campaign ing in Germany. Early in 1806 he was sent to Naples to expel the Bourbon dynasty. By the decree of March 3o, 1806, Napoleon proclaimed Joseph king of Naples, but allowed him to keep intact his claims to the throne of France. The memoirs of Count Miot de Melito, whom Joseph appointed minister of war, show how great were the difficulties with which the new monarch had to contend—an almost bankrupt treasury, a fickle and degraded populace, Bourbon intrigues and plots, and frequent attacks by the British from Sicily. During his brief reign at Naples, Joseph abolished the relics of feudalism, reformed the monastic orders, reorganized the judicial, financial and educa tional systems, and initiated several public works.
But he was suddenly called away by Napoleon to take the crown of Spain (May 18o8). There his difficulties were far greater. For the fortunes of King Joseph in Spain and in the eventful years of the Peninsular War, see SPAIN and PENINSULAR WAR. His sovereignty was little more than titular. Compelled to leave Madrid hastily in Aug. i8o8, owing to the Spanish success at Baylen, he was reinstated by Napoleon at the close of the year; and he was thereafter kept in a subordinate position which led him on four occasions to offer to abdicate. After his flight from Spain in 1813 the emperor wrote to the minister of war (July 11, 1813) :—"His [Joseph's] behaviour has never ceased bringing misfortune upon my army ; it is time to make an end of it." Napoleon was equally dissatisfied with his brother's conduct as lieutenant-general of France, while he himself was conducting the campaign of 1814 in the east of France. On March 3o, Joseph empowered Marmont to make a truce with the assailants of Paris if they should be in overpowering strength. On the surrender of the capital Joseph at once retired. The part which he played during the Hundred Days (1815) was also insignificant. After the surrender of his brother to the captain of H.M.S. "Belle rophon" at Rochefort, Joseph went to the United States. In 183o he pleaded for the recognition of the claims of the duke of Reichstadt (king of Rome) to the French throne. He afterwards visited England, and for a time resided at Genoa and Florence. In the latter city, the cradle of his race, he died on July 28, 1844. In person he somewhat resembled Napoleon, but utterly lacked his strength and energy. He was too mild, supine and luxurious for the tasks thrust upon him by his brother. Yet his correspondence and memoirs prove that he retained for Napoleon warm feelings of affection.
By a strange irony this event, the chief event of Lucien's life, was fatal to the cause of democracy of which he had been the most eager exponent. In one of his earlier letters to his brother Joseph, Lucien stated that he had detected in Napoleon "an ambition not altogether egotistic but which surpassed his love for the general weal; . . . in case of a counter-revolution he would try to ride on the crest of events." Lucien's suspiciori of his brother became a dominant feeling; and the relations between them became strained during the period of the consulate (1799— t8o4). He accepted office as minister of the interior, but was soon deprived of it owing to political and personal differences with the First Consul. Napoleon then appointed him ambassador to the court of Madrid (Nov. 1800), where he again fell into disgrace with his brother. He returned to Paris, and again op posed Napoleon's schemes. Lucien's next proceeding completed the breach between the two brothers. His wife had died in 1800; he became enamoured of a Mme. Jouberthou and despite the express prohibition of the First Consul, secretly married her at his residence of Plessis on May 25, 18o3. At that time Napoleon was pressing Lucien to marry the widow of the king of Etruria, and he now ordered him to leave French territory. Lucien de parted for Italy with his wife and infant son, after annoying Napoleon by bestowing on her publicly the name of Bonaparte.
For some years he lived in Italy, chiefly at Rome. In Dec. 1807 the emperor sought to come to an arrangement by which Lucien would take his place as a French prince, provided that he would annul his marriage. This step Lucien refused to take; and after residing for some time at his estate of Canino, from which he took the papal title of prince of Canino, he left for America. Captured by a British ship, he was taken to Malta and thence to England, where he resided under some measure of surveillance up to the peace of 1814. Returning to Rome, he offered Napoleon his help during the Hundred Days (1815), stood by his side at the "Champ de Mai" at Paris, and was the last to defend his prerogatives at the time of- his second abdication. He spent the rest of his life in Italy, and died at Rome on June 29, 184o. He wrote an epic, Charlemagne, on l'Eglise delivree (2 vols. 1814), also La Verite sur les Cent Lours and Memoirs, not completed. For sources see T. Jung, Lucien Bonaparte et ses memoires (1882 83) ; an anonymous work, Le Prince Lucien Bonaparte et sa famille (1888).
See J. Turquan, Les Soeurs de Napoleon (1896) ; P. Marmothan, Elisa Bonaparte (1898) ; E. Rodocanachi, Elisa Bonaparte en Italie (1900).
IV. Louis (1778-1846) was born at Ajaccio on Sept. 2, 1778. His elder brother Napoleon supervised his education and in procured for him admission to the military school at Chalons. Louis went through the Italian campaign of with Napo leon and acted as his aide-de-camp in Egypt in 1798-99. In 1802 the First Consul married him to Hortense Beauharnais, a forced union which led to most deplorable results. In 1804 Louis was raised to the rank of general, and entered the council of state. In the next year he became governor of Paris and undertook various military and administrative duties.
After the victory of Austerlitz (Dec. 2, 1805) Napoleon pro claimed Louis king of Holland (June 6, 1806) . From the first the emperor reproached him with being too easy with his subjects. Their relations were embittered by a violent jealousy which Louis conceived against his wife. In 1808 the emperor offered Louis the throne of Spain then vacant; but on Louis refusing to accept it the honour went to Joseph. In 1809 Napoleon vir tually resolved to annex Holland, in order to stop the trade which the Dutch secretly carried on with England. At the close of the year Louis went to Paris, partly in order to procure a divorce from Hortense and partly to gain better terms for Hol land. He failed in both respects. After the collapse of negotia tions with Great Britain in the spring of 1810, the emperor again pressed Louis hard, and finally sent French troops against the Dutch capital. Thereupon Louis fled from his kingdom and fin ally settled at Toplitz in Bohemia. On July 9, 181o, Napoleon annexed Holland to the French empire. Louis spent the rest of his life chiefly at Rome, concerning himself with literary and philosophic studies and with the fortunes of his sons. Their de votion to the national and democratic cause in Italy in 183o-31 gave him much pleasure, which was overclouded by the death of the elder, Napoleon Louis, in the spring campaign of 1831 in the Romagna. The failure of his other son, Charles Louis Napoleon (afterwards Napoleon III.) , to wrest the French crown from Louis Philippe by the attempts at Strasbourg and Boulogne also caused him disappointment. He died on July 25, 1846. His sons were Napoleon Charles (1802-07), Napoleon Louis (1804-31), and Charles Louis Napoleon (1808-73), afterwards emperor of the French as NAPOLEON III. (q.v.).
The chief works on the life and reign of Louis are le Comte de Saint-Leu, Documents historiques et reflexions sur le gouvernement de la Hollande and ed. (182o) ; F. Rocquain, Napoleon Ier et le Roi Louis, d'apres les documents conserves aux archives rationales (1875) ; Baron A. du Casse, Les Rois f reres de Napoleon (1883) ; A. Garnier, La Cour de Hollande sous le regne de Louis Bonaparte, par un auditeur (Paris and Amsterdam, 1823) ; T. Jorissen, Napoleon ler et le roi de Hollande (1806-1813) (Paris and The Hague, 1868) ; Loosjes, Louis Bonaparte, Koning van Holland (1888) ; L. Withers, De Regeering van Koning Lodewijk Napoleon (18o6—io) (Utrecht, 1892) ; Memoirs of Queen Hortense, ed. by Prince Napoleon and Jean Hanoteau (1928) .
See J. Turquan, Les soeurs de Napoleon (1896).
The chief works relating to Jerome Bonaparte are: Baron Albert du Casse, Memoires et correspondance du roi Jerome et de la reine Catherine (1861-66) and Les Rois f reres de Napoleon (1883) ; M. M. Kaisenberg, Konig Jerome Napoleon; W. T. R. Saffell, The Bonaparte Patterson Marriage; August von Schlossberger, Briefwechsel der Konigin Katharine and des Konigs Jerome von Westfalen mit Konig Friedrich von Wurttemberg (Stuttgart, 1886-87), supplemented by du Casse in Corresp. inedite de la reine Catherine de Westphalie (1888—g3) ; A. Martinet, Jerome Napoleon, roi de Westfalie 0902); P. W. Sergeant, The Burlesque Napoleon (19o5).
VIII. CHARLES LUCIEN JULES LAURENT (1803-1857) prince Viii. CHARLES LUCIEN JULES LAURENT (1803-1857) prince of Canino, son of Lucien Bonaparte, born on May 24,1803, and died July 29, 1857, was a scientist rather than a politician and a correspondent of many learned societies. He married his cousin, Zenaide Bonaparte, daughter of Joseph, in 1822. At the age of 22 he began the publication of an American Orni thology (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1825-33), which established his scientific reputation. A series of other works in zoology followed. He took part in the political agitation in Italy, and he declared himself at Venice in favour of the independence of Italy and the expulsion of the Austrians. He entered the Junto of Rome in 1848 and was elected deputy by Viterbo to the national assembly. The failure of the revolution forced him to leave Italy in July 184g. He gained Holland, then France, where he turned again to science. His principal works were, Conspectus systematis orni thologiae, mastozologiae, erpetologiae et amphibologiae, Ichthy ologiae (Leyden, 185o), Tableau des oiseaux-mouches (Paris, 1854), Ornithologie fossile (Paris, 1858). Eight children sur vived him: Joseph Lucien Charles Napoleon, prince of Canino (1824-65), who died without heirs; Cardinal Lucien Louis Joseph Napoleon; five daughters; Napoleon Charles Gregoire Jacques Philippe, who married the princess Ruspoli, by whom he had two daughters.
IX. LOUIS LUCIEN (1813-1891), son of Lucien Bonaparte, was born at Thorngrove, Worcestershire, England, on Jan. 4, 1813. He passed his youth in England, not going to France until 1848, when, after the revolution, he was elected deputy for Corsica (Nov. 28,1848) ; his election having been invalidated, he was re turned as deputy for the Seine in June, 184g. He sat in the right of the Legislative Assembly, but had no direct part in the COUP d'etat of his cousin on Dec. 2, 1851. Napoleon III. named him senator and prince, but he took hardly any part in politics during the Second Empire, and after the proclamation of the Third Republic in 187o he withdrew to England. There he busied him self with philology, and published notably some works on the Basque language. He died on Nov. 3, 1891, leaving no children.
X. PIERRE NAPOLEON (1815-1881) , son of Lucien Bonaparte, was born at Rome on Oct. 1, 1815. He joined the rebels in the Romagna (1830-31) ; was then in the United States, where he went to join his uncle Joseph, and in Colombia with General Santander (1832). Returning to Rome he was taken prisoner by order of the pope (1835-36). He finally took refuge in England. At the revolution of 1848 he returned to France and was elected deputy for Corsica to the Constituent Assembly. He declared himself an out-and-out republican and voted even with the Socialists. He pronounced himself in favour of the national work shops and against the loi Falloux. His attitude contributed greatly to give popular confidence to his cousin Louis Napoleon (Napo leon III.), of whose coup d'etat on Dec. 2, 1851, he disapproved; but he was reconciled to the emperor and accepted the title of prince. The republicans at once abandoned him. From that time on he led a debauched life, and lost all political importance. In Jan. 187o a violent incident brought him again into prominence. As the result of a controversy with Paschal Grousset, the latter sent him two journalists to provoke him to a duel. Pierre Bona parte took them personally to account, and during a violent dis cussion he drew his revolver and killed one of them, Victor Noir. The High Court acquitted him of murder, and criticism then fell upon the Government. Pierre Bonaparte died in obscurity at Versailles on April 7, 1881. He had married the daughter of a Paris working-man, Justine Eleanore Ruffin, by whom he had, before his marriage, two children: (I) Roland Napoleon (b. 1858) and (2) Jeanne, wife of the marquis de Vence.
XI. NAPOLEON JOSEPH CHARLES PAUL, commonly known as Prince Napoleon, or by the sobriquet of "Plon-Plon,"' (1822— 1891), was the second son of Jerome Bonaparte, king of West 'Derived, it is supposed, from the nickn2.me "Plomb-plomb," or "Craint-plomb" (fear-lead), given him by his soldiers in the Crimea.
phalia, by his wife Catherine, princess of Wurttemberg, and was born at Trieste on Sept. g, 1822. After the French Revolution of 1848 he was elected to the National Assembly as a representative of Corsica, and (his elder brother, Jerome Napoleon Charles, dy ing in 1847) assumed the name of Jerome. Notwithstanding his ostensible opposition to the coup d'etat of 1851, he was desig nated, upon the establishment of the Empire, as successor to the throne if Napoleon III. should die childless. Privately he pro fessed himself the representative of the Napoleonic tradition in its democratic aspect, and associated mainly with men of ad vanced political opinions. At court he represented the Liberal Party against the empress Eugenie. In 1854 he took part in the Crimean campaign as general of division. Returning to France he undertook the chief direction of the National Exhibition of 1855, in which he manifested great capacity. In 1858 he was appointed minister for the colonies and Algeria, but his activity was diverted into a different channel by his sudden marriage in Jan. 185g with the princess Marie Clotilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, a prelude to the war for the liberation of Italy. In this war Prince Napoleon commanded the French corps that occupied Tuscany, and it was expected that he would become ruler of the principality. The next few years were chiefly dis tinguished by remarkable speeches. Unfortunately his indiscretion equalled his eloquence: one speech (1861) sent him to America to avoid a duel with the duke d'Aumale; another (1865), in which he justly but intemperately protested against the Mexican expedi tion, cost him all his official dignities. The fatal war of 187o was resolved upon during his absence in Norway, and was strongly condemned by him. After the fall of the Empire he lived in comparative retirement until in 1879 the death of Napoleon III.'s son, the Prince Imperial (see XIII. below) made him direct heir to the Napoleonic succession. His part as imperial pretender was unfortunate and inglorious, and before his death he was virtually deposed in favour of his son Prince Napoleon Victor. He died at Rome on March 17, 189i. In the character of his intellect, as in personal appearance, he bore an extraordinary re semblance to the first Napoleon, possessing similar insight, and the gift of distinguishing the essential from the non-essential. He was a warm friend of literature and art.
His eldest son, Prince Napoleon Victor Jerome Frederic (1862— ), became at his death the recognized head of the French Bonapartist Party. The second son, Prince Louis Napoleon, an officer in the Russian army, showed a steadier disposition, and was more favoured in some monarchist quarters; in 'goo he was made governor of the Caucasus.
XII. MATHILDE LETITIA WILHELMINE ( 1820—I 904), daughter Xii. MATHILDE LETITIA WILHELMINE ( 1820—I 904), daughter of Jerome, and sister of Prince Napoleon (XI.), was born at Trieste on May 20, 182o, after being almost betrothed to her cousin Louis Napoleon she was married in 184o to Prince Anatole Demidov. His conduct, however, led to a separation within five years. After the election of Louis Napoleon to the presidency of the republic she did the honours of the Elysee till his marriage. She continued to live in Paris, having great influence Ss a friend and patron of men of art and letters, till her death on Jan. 2, 1904.
XIII. NAPOLEON EUGENE LOUIS JEAN JOSEPH (1856-1879) , Xiii. NAPOLEON EUGENE LOUIS JEAN JOSEPH (1856-1879) , Prince Imperial, only son of the emperor Napoleon III. and the empress Eugenie, was born at Paris on March 16, 1856. He was a delicate boy, but when the war of 187o broke out his mother sent him to the army. After the first defeats he had to flee from France with the empress, and settled in England at Chislehurst, completing his military education at Woolwich. On his father's death (Jan. g, 1873) the Imperialists proclaimed him Napoleon IV., and he became the official Pretender. The Bonapartist lead ers thought that he should win his crown by military prestige, and he was persuaded to attach himself as a volunteer to the British expedition to Zululand in Feb. 1879. While out on a reconnaissance with a few troopers he was surprised by Zulus, and killed (June 1, 187g). His body was brought back to Eng land, and buried at Chislehurst.
XIV. The BONAPARTES OF BALTIMORE are a branch of the Xiv. The BONAPARTES OF BALTIMORE are a branch of the family settled in America, descended from Jerome Bonaparte by his union with Elizabeth (b. 1785), daughter of William Patter son, a Baltimore merchant, probably descended from the Robert Paterson who was the original of Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality. The marriage (see under VII. above) took place at Baltimore on Dec. 24, 1803. It was valid according to American law, and Pope Pius VII. refused to declare it void. Nevertheless Jerome was forced to separate from his wife, and after a stay in England she returned to Baltimore. She died in 1879. Jerome's only child by this marriage was Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (1805-187o), who was born in England, but resided chiefly in Baltimore. He was on good terms with Jerome, who for some time made him a large allowance, and father and son occasionally met. His elder son, also called Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (1832-93), entered the French army, with which he served in the Crimea and in Italy.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921), younger son of the first Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, and a grandson of Jerome, king of Westphalia, attained a distinguished place in American politics. Born at Baltimore on June 9, 1851, and educated at Harvard university, he became a lawyer in 1874 and was elected president of the National Municipal League and occupied other public posi tions. He was secretary of the Navy in President Roosevelt's cabinet from July 1905 to Dec. 1906, and then attorney-general of the United States until March 1909. He died on June 28, 1921.
See A. H. Atteridge, Napoleon's Brothers (1909) ; J. B. Bishop, Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1922).