Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph I
King of Spain and the Indies
King of Naples and Sicily
Count of Survilliers
Joseph Bonaparte, by Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1803)
King of Naples and Sicily
Reign 30 March 1806 - 6 June 1808
(&100000000000000020000002 years, &1000000000000006800000068 days)
Predecessor Ferdinand IV
Successor Joachim I
King of Spain and the Indies
Reign 6 June 1808 – 11 December 1813
(&100000000000000050000005 years, &10000000000000188000000188 days)
Predecessor Ferdinand VII
Successor Ferdinand VII
Spouse Julie Clary
Issue
Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854) Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839)
Full name
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte
House House of Bonaparte
Father Carlo Buonaparte
Mother Letizia Ramolino
Born 7 January 1768
Corte, Corsica, Republic of Genoa
Died 28 July 1844(1844-07-28) (aged 76)
Florence, Tuscany
Religion Roman Catholicism
French Monarchy -
Bonaparte Dynasty

Napoleon I
Children
   Napoleon II
Siblings
   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 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
   Maria Letizia, Duchess of Aosta
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

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte (7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844) was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808), and later King of Spain (1808–1813, as José I). After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself Comte de Survilliers.

Contents

Early years and personal life

Joseph was born Giuseppe Buonaparte in 1768 to Carlo Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino at Corte, the capital of the Corsican Republic. In the year of his birth Corsica was invaded by France and was conquered the following year. His father was originally a follower of the Corsican Patriot leader Pasquale Paoli but later became a supporter of French rule. As a lawyer, politician, and diplomat, Joseph served in the Cinq-Cents and was the French ambassador to Rome. He married Julie Clary on 1 August 1794 in Cuges-les-Pins, France. They had three daughters, Julie Joséphine Bonaparte (1796–1796), Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854) and Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839). He claimed the surviving two daughters as his heirs. He also sired two children with Maria Giulia, the Countess of Atri (Giulio, born 1806 and Teresa, born 1808). Joseph had two American daughters born at Point Breeze his estate in New Jersey by his mistress Annette Savage ("Madame de la Folie"), Pauline Anne who died young and Catherine Charlotte (b. 1822, d. 1890) who married Col. Zebulon Howell Benton of Jefferson County, New York, and had issue .

In 1795 Joseph was a member of the Council of Ancients where he used his position to help his brother overthrow the Directory.

The Château de Villandry had been seized by the French Revolutionary government and in the early 19th century Joseph's brother, Emperor Napoleon, acquired the château for him. In 1806, Joseph was given military command of Naples, and shortly afterward was made king by Napoleon, to be replaced after two years by his sister's husband, Joachim Murat, when Joseph was made king of Spain in August 1808, soon after the French invasion.

Spain

Joseph somewhat reluctantly left Naples and arrived in Spain just in time for the commencement of the Spanish revolt against French rule, and the beginning of the Peninsular War. After a series of early defeats of the French by the remnants of the Spanish regular armies (stiffened by militia and guerrillas) Joseph temporarily retreated with much of the French Army to northern Spain. Feeling himself in an ignominious position, Joseph then proposed his own abdication from the Spanish throne, hoping that Napoleon would sanction his return to the Neapolitan Throne he had formerly occupied. Napoleon dismissed Joseph's misgivings out of hand; and, to back up the raw and ill-trained levies he had initially allocated to Spain—the Emperor sent heavy French reinforcements to assist Joseph in maintaining his position as king of Spain. Despite the easy recapture of Madrid, and nominal control by Joseph's government over many cities and provinces, Joseph's reign over Spain was always tenuous at best, and constantly resisted by pro-Bourbon guerrillas. Joseph and his supporters never established complete control over the country.

King Joseph's Spanish supporters were called josefinos or afrancesados (frenchified). During his reign, he ended the Spanish Inquisition, partly because Napoleon was at odds with Pope Pius VII at the time. Despite such efforts to win popularity, Joseph's foreign birth and support, plus his membership in a Masonic lodge,[1] virtually guaranteed he would never be accepted as legitimate by the bulk of the Spanish people. During Joseph's rule of Spain, Venezuela declared independence (1810) from Spain, the first nation to do so. The king had virtually no influence over the course of the ongoing Peninsular War: Joseph's nominal command of French forces in Spain was mostly illusory, as the French commanders theoretically subordinate to King Joseph insisted on checking with Napoleon before carrying out Joseph's instructions.

King Joseph abdicated and returned to France after defeat of the main French forces to the British at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. He was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French after the death of Napoleon's own son Napoleon II in 1832, although he did little to advance his claim.

America

Joseph lived primarily in the United States (where he sold the jewels of the Spanish crown he had stolen when he left Spain) in the period 1817-1832,[2] initially in New York City and Philadelphia, where his house became the centre of activity for French expatriates, but later moved to an estate, formerly owned by Stephen Sayre, called Point Breeze in Bordentown, New Jersey. Joseph's home was located near the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River. He considerably expanded Sayre's home and created extensive gardens in the picturesque style. When his first home was destroyed by fire in January 1820 he converted his stables into a second grand house. At Point Breeze, Joseph entertained many of the leading intellectuals and politicians of his day.

He was also reputed to have encountered the Jersey Devil while hunting there.[3]

Reputedly some Mexican revolutionaries offered to crown him Emperor of Mexico in 1820 but he refused. [2]

Joseph Bonaparte returned to Europe, where he died in Florence, Italy, and was buried in the Les Invalides building complex in Paris.[4]

Legacy

Ancestry

See also

References

  1. ^ Ross, Michael The Reluctant King, 1977, pp. 34-35
  2. ^ a b "Joseph Bonaparte at Point Breeze". Flat Rock. http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/new_jersey/new_jerseys_ex_king.htm. Retrieved July 8, 2011. 
  3. ^ Schlosser, S. E. (2011). "Joseph Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil". AmericanFolklore.net. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/joseph_bonaparte_and_the_jerse.html. Retrieved July 8, 2011. 
  4. ^ Kwoh, Leslie (10 June 2007). "Yes, a Bonaparte feasted here". Star Ledger. http://www.monmouth.edu/newswire/default.asp?iNewsID=4461. Retrieved 2008-02-19. "Bordentown hardly seems like the setting for a lavish European palace, but the sleepy Burlington County community was once fit for a king. Joseph Bonaparte, who had abandoned the throne of Spain while younger brother Napoleon was losing his grip on Europe, noshed on generous servings of oyster, chicken and wine while living on soil probably inhabited by Native American fishermen thousands of years before, a Monmouth University archeology class has found." 

Further reading

For further reading see, The University of Pennsylvania Press's award winning biography: "The Man who had been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph" written by Patricia Tyson Stroud. This book received the New Jersey Council for the Humanities first place book award in 2006.

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Joseph_Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte] at Wikimedia Commons
Joseph Bonaparte
Born: 7 January 1768 Died: 28 July 1844
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Ferdinand IV
King of Naples
1806–1808
Succeeded by
Joachim I
Preceded by
Ferdinand VII
King of Spain
6 June 1808 – 11 December 1813
Succeeded by
Ferdinand VII
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Napoléon II
— TITULAR —
Emperor of the French
22 July 1832 – 28 July 1844
Succeeded by
Louis Bonaparte
French royalty
Preceded by
Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France
Heir to the Throne
as Heir apparent
20 May 1804 – 20 March 1811
Succeeded by
Napoleon Francis, King of Rome
Preceded by
Napoleon Francis, King of Rome
Heir to the Throne
as Heir presumptive
22 June 1815 – 7 July 1815
Succeeded by
Charles, Count of Artois