Prince Achille Murat
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Charles Louis Napoleon Achille, Prince Murat (January 21, 1801 – April 12, 1847) was born in the Hôtel de Brienne in Paris, France with the courtesy title of Prince of the Two Sicilies. Murat's father was Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Cleves and Berg, Grand Admiral, King of Naples, Marshal of France. His mother was Caroline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves, Queen of Naples. Achille had the titles of Prince Royal of the Kingdom of Naples and Duke of Cleves.
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[edit] Murat flees
After Napoleon was exiled for a second time, Achille Murat sought exile in Austria in the castle of Frohsdorf, in Lower Austria. He eventually crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. On his arrival in New York he made immediate application for naturalization. After a few months in that city, Achille made an extensive tour through the United States.
[edit] In Florida
In 1821, Murat embarked from a Spanish port bound for the United States. He settled in a cottage in eastern Florida but in 1823 purchased an extensive property of 2,800 acres in St. Augustine. This property was converted to a plantation and named Lipona, an anagram of Napoli (Naples), the kingdom over which Achille was once destined to rule. He was a member of the local enrolled militia and briefly a volunteer under his personal friend, Brigadier General Joseph Hernandez.
Murat lived in Tallahassee, Florida during Florida's territorial and early statehood days. During the early phase of the Seminole Wars, and for the previous three years, he was a lieutenant colonel of Florida’s militia and sometime aide to Brigadier General Richard Keith Call. Murat would retain the rank of colonel the rest of his life.
Between 1824 and 1826, Murat bought Lipona Plantation 15 miles east of Tallahassee. In 1824, he was elected alderman of the city in 1824, mayor in the following year, and in 1826 appointed postmaster, which office he held till 1838.
In 1826, Murat met and married Catherine Willis Gray. Catherine was born August 17, 1803 near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Gray was the great-grandniece of George Washington. Murat and his wife moved to New Orleans for several years, where he worked as a lawyer.
[edit] To Europe and back
Following the 1830 revolution in France, Murat returned to Europe and was briefly a colonel of the Belgian Foreign Legion. While in Belgium and France, he had hoped to regain some part of the family fortune that he believed to be his based on the properties of his parents. His attempts were futile and in 1834 the Murats returned to the Tallahassee area.
Murat enjoyed cooking and prepared items such as cow's ear stew, alligator steaks, and roasted crow. He slept on a moss mattress and spoke seven languages.
Murat died in 1847 and was buried at the St. Johns Episcopal Church cemetery in Tallahassee. Emperor Napoleon III provided his widow, Catherine Murat, with a cash sum of $40,000 and an annual stipend so that she would live in a life she was accustomed to. Catherine died in 1867 and is also buried at the St. Johns Episcopal Church cemetery. The St. Augustine house where he lived briefly still stands at the corner of St. George and Bridge Street and is called the "Murat House".
In Tallahassee, the Museum of History and Natural Science has Bellevue Plantation House, the former home of Catharine Murat. There is also a motel named in Prince Murat's honor at the corner of Monroe Street and Thomasville Road.
