Bonaparte

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This article is about the family of Napoléon Bonaparte. There is also an article on the Argentine paleontologist, José Bonaparte. For the Olympic medalist, see Bonaparte (horse). There have been a few people named Charles Bonaparte.


House of Bonaparte
France, Italy
Country: Corsica,France,Italy
Titles: Emperor of the French, King of Italy, King of Spain, King of Holland, King of Westphalia, Queen of Naples
Founder: Napoleon I of France
Final ruler: Napoleon III of France
Current head: Disputed:
Charles Napoléon or
Jean-Christophe Napoléon
Founding year: 1804
Dissolution: 1815, 1870
Ethnicity: Italian, Corsican, French
Cadet branches: Prince Canino Line (extinct)
Prince Napoleon Line

Bonaparte is a French family name that is 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.

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[edit] 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 Jacopo was also a witness to and wrote an account of the sack of Rome (1527), which is one of the most important historical documents recounting that event. [1] 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.[2]

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Napoleon the First

General Bonaparte (1801)by Jacques-Louis David
General Bonaparte (1801)
by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon is perhaps 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 Napoléon 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 Jérôme Bonaparte (1784-1860) king of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created from some of the states of northwestern Germany (1807-1813).

Napoléon's son Napoléon 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.

[edit] Crowns held by the family

Imperial coat of arms
Imperial coat of arms

[edit] Emperors of the French

[edit] Kings of Holland

  • Louis I (1806-1810), also Grand Duke of Berg and Celeves (1809-1813)
  • Louis II (1810)

[edit] Kings of Naples

[edit] King of Westphalia

[edit] King of Spain

[edit] Grand Duchess of Tuscany

[edit] The family tree

French Monarchy -
Bonaparte Dynasty

Napoleon I
Children
   Napoleon II
Siblings
   Napoleone
   Maria Anna
   Joseph, King of Spain
   Lucien, Prince of Canino
   Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
   Louis, King of Holland
   Pauline, Princess of Guastalla
   Caroline, Queen of Naples
   Jérôme, King of Westphalia
Nephews and nieces
   Princess Julie
   Princess Zénaïde
   Princess Charlotte
   Prince Charles
   Prince Louis
   Prince Pierre
   Prince Napoleon Charles
   Prince Napoleon Louis
   Napoleon III
   Prince Jérôme
   Prince Napoleon Joseph
   Princess Mathilde
Grandnephews and -nieces
   Prince Joseph
   Prince Lucien-Louis
   Prince Roland
   Princess Jeanne
   Prince Charles
   Prince Jerome
   Napoleon (V) Victor
Great Grandnephews and -nieces
   Princess Marie
   Princess Marie Clotilde
   Napoleon (VI) Louis
Great Great Grandnephews and -nieces
   Napoleon (VII) Charles
   Princess Catherine
   Princess Laure
   Prince Jerome
Great Great Great Grandnephews and -nieces
   Princess Caroline
   Prince Jean-Christophe
Napoleon II
Napoleon III
Children
   Napoleon (IV), Prince Imperial

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

[edit] 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 descendent of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte is actor Rene Auberjonois.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jacopo Buonaparte: Sac de Rome. Écrit EN 1527 par Jacques Bonaparte. Témoin oculaire, hrsgg. by Bonaparte, Napoléon Louis, Florenz 1850
  2. ^ Joshua F. Drake, The Part-books of a Florentine Ex-Patriate: new light on Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Ms. Magl. XIX 164-7, Early Music (OUP), Vol. 33, no. 4 (Oct. 2005), pp. 639-646. [1]

[edit] See also

House of Bonaparte
Vacant
Title last held by
House of Bourbon
Ruled as King of France
Ruling House of the French Empire
1804 – 1814
Succeeded by
House of Bourbon
Ruled as King of France
Vacant
Title last held by
House of Orléans
Ruled as King of France
Ruling House of the French Empire
1852 – 1870
Empire Abolished
Third French Republic Declared
Preceded by
House of Bourbon
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Spain
1808 – 1813
Succeeded by
House of Bourbon
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Naples
1806 – 1815
Preceded by
New Creation
Succeeded the Napoleonic Italian Republic
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Italy
1808 – 1815
Succeeded by
House of Habsburg
Ruled as King of Lombardy-Venetia
Preceded by
New Creation
Succeeded the Batavian Republic
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Holland
1806 – 1810
Kingdom Abolished
Part of the French Empire
Kingdom of the Netherlands created in 1815


[edit] External links