BONAPARTE, FAMILY OF. 



BONAPARTE, JOSEPH. 



810 



western powers aud Russia opened at Paris. And on the 16th of the 

 same month, the emperor was made happy by the birth of a son, and 

 a heir to the imperial crown. 



BONAPARTE, FAMILY OF. The father of Napoleon Bonaparte 

 has been noticed under BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON I. We propose under 

 the present head to notice the mother and brothers of the emperor, 

 and the younger members of the family who have acquired distinction. 



LETIZIA. RAMOLI'NO BONAPARTE, born at Ajaccio in Corsica, in 

 August, 1750, married in 1767 Charles Buonaparte, a landed proprietor 

 and a lawyer. Charles fought under Paoli for the independence of 

 the island against the French, and his young wife accompanied him 

 through their mountain expeditions. Their vicissitudes are narrated 

 under BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON I. After her son Napoleon became 

 First Consul of France, Madame Letizia fixed her residence at Paris, 

 where she lived rather retired, but after the empire was proclaimed 

 she received the title of ' Madame Mere :' she had her own household, 

 her chamberlains, ladies of honour, and all the accessories of a court. 

 Des Gazes was appointed her secretary. Her half-brother Fesch had 

 been made a cardinal. Madame Mere was not bewildered by her 

 sudden rise ; she was economical in her expenditure, and contrived to 

 give a handsome sum out of the amount appropriated to the main- 

 teoanoe of her establishment. She is said to have once observed on 

 hearing that she was reproached for her savingness, " I may some day, 

 perhaps, have to find bread for all these kings," meaning her sons. 

 Sho was designated by Napoleon as especial patroness of the charitable 

 institutions of France. After Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, she 

 went to live at Itome, but repaired again to Paris when her son 

 returned from Elba. After his second downfall she went back to 

 Rome, where she spent her latter years in the company of her sons 

 Lucien, Louis, and Jerome, and of her brother Cardinal Fesch. She 

 retained almost to the last her shrewdness of intellect, and has the 

 credit of having been a prime adviser in all the projects of the Bona- 

 parte family. She is said to have been very charitable to the poor. 

 She died in February, 1836. There is a fine seated statue of Madame 

 Mere, by Canova, in the collection of the L)uke of Devonshire at 

 Chatswortli. 



JOSEPH BOXAPAHTE, the eldest son of Charles and Letizia Bonaparte, 

 was bora at Ajuccio in Corsica, January 7, 1768. He received his 

 education at the college of Autun in France, and at the University of 

 1'isa. After the death of his father, he returned to Corsica in 1785. 

 He applied himself to the study of the law, according to his father's 

 wishes. In 1792 he was made a member of the new administration of 

 Corsica, under Paoli, who waa an old friend of the Bonaparte family. 

 In the following yoar, when Paoli declared against the National Con- 

 vention, aud called the English to his assistance, Joseph emigrated to 

 Marseille, where he married one of the daughters of a wealthy banker 

 of the name of Clari, whose younger daughter married Bernadotte, 

 afterwards King of Swe ten. lu 1796 Joseph was appointed commis- 

 sary to the army of Italy, which was commanded by his brother 

 Napoleon. In 1797 he was elected deputy to the Council of the Five 

 Hundred for his own native department of the Liamone in Corsica, 

 that island having been evacuated by the English. Joseph repaired 

 to Paris, whence he was shortly after sent by the Executive Directory 

 .1-1 ambassador to the pope. There was then at Rome a knot of 

 enthusiasts who were bent upon establishing a Roman republic, and 

 they relied upon the countenance and support of the French. On the 

 26th of December 1797, they assembled to the number of about three 

 hundred, under the guidance of a sculptor named Ce.racchi, and 

 proceeded to the palace Corsini, where Joseph Bonaparte resided, 

 vociferating " The Republic of the Roman people for ever ! " and they 

 applied to the ambassador, claiming French protection. Joseph 

 desired them to leave the palace. In the mean time a detachment ol 

 the papal troops, who were in pursuit, arrived in front of the palace, 

 and insisted that the insurgents should leave the premises. Those from 

 within insulted and taunted the soldiers, who at last rushed into the 

 court of the palace to clear it of the fugitives. Joseph, attended by 

 Generals Duphot and Sherlock, came down the staircase to remonstrate 

 with the papal officers, but could not make himself heard in the midst 

 of the confusion, when Duphot, young and impetuous, drew hia sword, 

 and rushed forward, followed by the insurgents, in order to drive 

 away the soldiers. The soldiers then fired, killing several of their 

 opponents, and Duphot among the rest. The insurgents dispersed in 

 the gardens of the palace, aud the soldiers formed themselves in the 

 street outside. These transactions were much misrepresented by the 

 French and their partisans. Joseph wrote in a vehement strain to the 

 Cardinal Doria, secretary of state, complaining of the violation of his 

 residence, and requiring immediate satisfaction. The cardinal hesitated 

 Joseph demanded his passports, aud, heedless of the explanations seui 

 by the Roman government, he set off in the night of the same day to 

 return to France. The Directory then ordered Berthier to take 

 posses-sior of Home. 



Joseph resumed his seat in the Council of the Five Hundred, and 

 dining the absence of Napoleon in Egypt, he and his brother Lucieu 

 prepared the way for his return, and for the revolution which followed 

 Napoleon having become First Consul, made Joseph councillor of state 

 and he employed him in September 1800 to negociate a treaty of peac 

 aud commerce with the United States of North America. Having 

 exhibited some diplomatic skill in this transaction, he wag sent iu th 



ollowing year to Luueville, where he concluded a treaty of peace with 

 be Emperor of Germany iu 1801, and next year he was likewise 

 mployed at Amiens to negociate the treaty with England. He was 

 lade a senator; and on his brother attaining the imperial crown, 

 T oseph was recognised as an imperial prince and grand elector of the 



military 



ommander. Immediately afterwards the emperor announced to 

 oseph, after his usual imperious fashion, but in a private letter dated 

 anuary 19, 1806, his intention to make him king of Naples : " My 

 will is that the Bourbons shall have ceased to reign in Naples. I 

 nteud to seat on that throne a prince of my own house. In the first 

 Dlace you, if it suits you : if not, another." But the intimation of his 

 utentiou to make Joseph a king was followed iu a few days by a plaiu 

 anuouucement that he was to be only a subordinate king : " I intend 

 my blood to reign in Naples as long as it does in France ; the kingdom 

 if Naples is necessary to me." Joseph after a little hesitation accepted 

 /he post. In the following March Napoleon appointed by a decree 

 ' his brother Joseph Napoleou King of Naples and Sicily." Joseph 

 reigned in Naples, though not in Sicily, little more than two years. 

 Acting as his brother's subordinate, he effected fundamental changes 

 n the institutions of the country, the object being to assimilate its 

 nstitutious to those of France. He abolished feudality, suppressed 

 .he convents, and by the sale of their property and that of the crown 

 le restored order in the finances ; he promulgated the French codes 

 and judiciary system ; he began a cadastro, or survey and estimation 

 of the landed property, for the better assessment of the laud-tax ; aud 

 10 established a new and regular system of provincial administration, 

 fie also embellished the capital, began new roads in the provinces, and 

 organised an effective gendarmerie to repress the robber-bands in the 

 provinces. Most of these measures were beneficial to the counti-y, but 

 ;hey were effected in a hasty overbearing manner, liko all the reforms 

 made under Napoleon, and mauy individual rights and interests wera 

 overlooked and sacrificed. The times were stormy, and the country 

 was still teeming with insurrections and conspiracies, which were 

 suppressed in a summary way, and many executions took place. But 

 :he harsh and overbearing character of his government was not due to 

 Joseph himself; on the contrary, he was most anxious to adopt humane 

 and conciliatory measures. But he was constantly overruled aud 

 directed by the emperor, and often in the most peremptory style, in 

 secondary as well as in the more important matters; and Joseph's 

 appeals and remonstrances were dismissed sometimes in a contemp- 

 tuous, sometimes in a petulaut, but always in a very summary manner. 

 [See the Correspondence iu the ' Mdmoires ' referred to below.) It is 

 needless to add that neither the nobility nor the body of the people 

 became reconciled to the new system under a king who listened to 

 their complaints and promised to help them, but whose inability to 

 carry out his good intentions, or even keep his promises, soon became 

 apparent. The Neapolitans soon learnt to despise as well as to fear 

 their new king ; and the pompous proclamations in which he imitated 

 the inflated style of the emperor, proceeding as they did from one who 

 was in fact only announcing the edicts of another, served as fertile 

 themes for the Italian love of caricature. 



When he had been king of Naples little more than two years, 

 Napoleon announced to him his intention to remove him from the 

 throne of Naples and place him on that of Spain : the announcement 

 being made in almost as summary a way as that of his first elevation 

 to regal honours. On the 18th of April 1808 the emperor wrote to 

 say that in a few days he might want him to repair to Bayoune, and 

 then, on the llth of May, came the reason. " The nation, through 

 the Supreme Council of Castile, asks me for a king : I destine this 

 crown for you." The appointment quickly followed. By a decree of 

 June 6, 1808, Napoleon appointed "Joseph Napoleon to be King of 

 Spain and of the Indies," and soon after Joachim Murat succeeded 

 him as King of Naples. In Spain Joseph met with much greater 

 difficulties than at Naples. He tried mildness and conciliation, but 

 even these failed, owing to the stern unbending character of the people. 

 From the first he saw clearly the disadvantages and difficulties of his 

 position. But the emperor treated his suggestions and remonstrances, 

 as well as his frequent passionate appeals to his fr.iternal feelings, with 

 equal disdain, aud during the whole of his nominal rule he was in 

 fact merely the puppet of his brother. During the five years of his 

 Spauish reign, three times he was obliged by the success of the allied 

 armies to leave his capital; the last time (1813) to return no more. 

 Joseph would have wished to be really and not nominally king of 

 Spain, but this was prevented both by the people, who would not 

 submit to him, and by his brother Napoleon, who appointed by degrees 

 his own generals to be military governors in the various divisions of 

 Spain, and they acted quite independent of King Joseph aud his 

 Spauish ministers. More than once Joseph wrote to his brother, 

 requesting to be allowed to resign his crown, as he saw that he could 

 do no good in Spain; aud iu 1812 he repaired to Paris for the sarno 

 object, but Napoleon induced him to remain in his place by telling 

 him that he expected to make peace with England, and then he should 

 withdraw his army from Spain. This was before the Russian expedi- 

 tion. General Foy, iu his history of the war iu the Peuinsula, speaks 

 of Joseph as follows : " When he assumed the crown of Spain, Joseph 



