BONAPAKTE. 



599 



Fatua. She was so chaste that no man saw her, after 

 her marriage, but her husband ; for which reason, 

 her festivals were celebrated by night, in private 

 houses, and all statues of men were veiled during the 

 ceremony. 



BONAPARTE is the name of an ancient Italian family, 

 which, Louis Bonaparte says, in his Documens histori- 

 ques sur le Gouvernement de la Holland?, was settled in 

 Treviso as early as 1^72, when a Nardilius Bonaparte 

 gained renown as podestd of Parma, and knight of 

 St Maria or Gaudentius. An author of this name, 

 James Bonaparte, a Tuscan nobleman, who lived 

 about 1527, remarks that his family held important 

 offices in the republic of San Miniato, in the Tuscan 

 territory, and had been distinguished in the wars of 

 Florence. A branch of it existed at Sarzana, in the 

 Genoese dominions, and, during the contests of the 

 Guelphs and Ghibellines, settled at Ajaccio, in Cor- 

 sica. From this branch sprang the father of Napo- 

 leon, Charles Bonaparte, who at first fought under 

 Paoli for the independence of Corsica, and, in com- 

 pany with him, left the island, but eventually return- 

 e 1, at the invitation of Louis XV. In 1776, Corsica 

 cliose him one of the deputies of the nobility who 

 were to be sent to the king of France. Before the 

 French revolution, he wrote his name di Bonaparte. 

 < /n account of his health, he subsequently retired to 

 Montpellier, where he died in 1785, forty years old. 



His wife, the beautiful Maria Letitia, born at Ajac- 

 c'o, August 24, 1 750, was descended from the house 

 of Riimolini, which was of Italian origin. She bore 

 him the following children, whose names are cited 

 in the order of birth . Guiseppe, Napolione, Luci- 

 ano, Luigi, Mariana, Paoletta, Annunziada, and 

 Girolamo. Left a young widow, destitute of pro- 

 perty, she sought and obtained friends among the 

 powerful. Her acquaintance with the count of iVlar- 

 boeuf was the foundation of the fortune of her family. 

 The Corsicans maintained that they were all nobles, 

 and refused, therefore, to pay taxes. Louis XV., in 

 consequence commanded the governor to select 400 

 families, who were alone to be considered as noble. 

 In this list Marboeuf inserted the Bonapartes. When 

 the English conquered Corsica, in 1793, Madame 

 Letitia, fled with her daughters to Marseilles. 

 Soon after the 18th Brumaire (9th November), 1799, 

 she went' to Paris ; but not till after Napoleon's ele- 

 vation to the imperial dignity, was homage paid to 

 Madame Mere, who, in pronunciation and language, 

 was half Italian, half French. She maintained a 

 separate household, and was appointed, by Napoleon, 

 protectrke generate des etablissemens de charite. Her 

 benevolence, at this period, was much praised. Some 

 persons, however, deemed her avaricious. She was 

 not dazzled by the greatness which surrounded her. 

 Of her children she entertained the greatest affection 

 for Louis, the ex-king of Holland. In 1814, she 

 went to live at Rome, with cardinal Fesch. Na- 

 poleon seems to have always had much affection for 

 her. She resided at Rome in the year 1829. 



By the treaty of Paris, of November 20, 1815, the 

 whole family of Bonaparte was banished from France ; 

 and, in the edict of amnesty issued by Louis XVIII., 

 Jan. 6, 1816, all Napoleon Bonaparte's relations were 

 excepted. They were to remain in banishment, hold 

 no possessions in France, and dispose of all their 

 property there within six months. The royal ordin- 

 ance of May 22, 18 1C, decreed, that the property and 

 income of the members of the Bonaparte family who 

 had come back on Napoleon's return from Elba, which 

 liad been confiscated by the law of Jan. 12, 1816, should 

 be appropriated to the support of meritorious soldiers 

 and such donees as had lost their donations in foreign 

 countries. For an account of Napoleon Bonaparte* 

 see the following article; for information respecting 



Mariana, afterwards called Elisa, we refer the reader 

 to the article Bacciochi; respecting Paoletta, after- 

 wards called Maria Pauline, to the article Borghese; 

 respecting Annunziada, afterwards called Annonci- 

 ade Caroline, to the article Murat. 



BONAPARTE,* NAPOLEON, was born Aug. 15, 1769, 

 at Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, and was the se- 

 cond son of Charles Bonaparte, a Corsican nobleman.f 

 and Letitia, his wife, whose maiden name was Ramo- 

 lini. His father was desirous to have him educated 

 at one of the military schools in France. Of his ear- 

 ly education, under the eye of his mother, we have 

 no account. Some anecdotes in the memoires of the 

 duchess of Abrantes, relating to tin's and a later pe- 



* Indifferently written Bonaparte and Buonaparte, in 

 the same documents, and speaking of the same person. 

 The former spelling was adopted by Napoleon, when his 

 name began to acquire celebrity ; and in this he conformed, 

 like the rest of his family, to the spelling iu the letters pa- 

 tent of the supreme council of Corsica, dated September I. f, 

 1771. These were in confirmation of an instrument by 

 which the Bonaparte family of Florence, one of the most 

 ancient families of Tuscany, declared its origin to be the 

 same with that of Charles Bonaparte. The council wrote 

 the name in this way in order that the French pronuncia- 

 tion might come nearer that of the Italians, who write 

 similar names indifferently ISuo and Jin, and make no 

 difference in the pronunciation. Take, for instance, Buo- 

 narotti, or Bonarotti ; Biioncompagni, or Boncompagni; 

 and many others. We should not have dwelt on this 

 point, but that some writers affectedly retain the u; as if 

 Napoleon had not a right to spell as he pleased the name 

 which he himself made illustrious. 



t The following account of Napoleon's ancestry is from 

 authentic documents ; and the stories of his descent from 

 one of the Byzantine emperors, as well as those which re- 

 present the Bonaparte family as very obscure, are equally 

 void of truth. In 1120, a Bonaparte was exiled from Flor- 

 ence as a Ghibelline ob nimiam potestatem. (See the booic 

 Del Chiodo of Florence.) In 1170, Curado Bonaparte was 

 knight of the golden spur. 1210, James Bonaparte w.is 

 knight of the golden spur. 1250, Bonaparte, syndic of As- 

 coli, was named commissioner to receive the submission of 

 Monte-Gallo. 1272, Nordilius Bonaparte was podest -i of 

 Parma. 1279, Bonsemblant Bonaparte, his brother, was 

 plenipotentiary to negotiate peace between Treviso and 

 Padua. 1285, Peter Bonaparte was podcstd- of Padua. He 

 overthrew the tyrannical government of the princes Cami- 

 nesci. 1296, John Bonaparte was named commissioner to 

 negotiate peace with Carrara. 1314, John Bonaparte 

 was ambassador to the government of La Marca. 1333, 

 John Bonaparte was podestd of Florence. 1404, John 

 Bonaparte was plenipotentiary to Gabriel Viscouti, duke 

 of Milan. He married the niece of pope Nicholas V. 

 1440, Capsar Bonaparte was elected chief of the elders 

 of the city of Sarzana. 1454, Nicholas Bonaparte was 

 ambassador from pope Nicholas V. to several courts, 

 and vicegerent of the holy see at Ascoli. 1527, James 

 Bonaparte wrote a history of the sack of Rome. He was 

 attached to the court of Rome, and an eye-witness of the 

 sack.. 1567, Gabriel Bonaparte established himself at 

 Ajaccio, receiving several privileges from the republic of 

 Genoa. 1571, Jerome Bonaparte was elected chief of the 

 elders, and deputy of the city of Ajaccio to the senate of 

 Genoa. 1614, Francis Bonaparte was elected captain of the 

 city, and one of the elders. 1648, Sebastian, Charles, Jo- 

 seph, Sebastian, Joseph Bonaparte were successively 

 heads of the elders of the city of Ajaccio from 1648 until 

 17GO. Napoleon Lamellini was the godfather of Sebastian, 

 and introduced the name of Napoleon into the Bonaparte 

 family. Charles, son of Joseph, born in 1746, at Ajaccio, 

 died at Montpellier, in 1785, was a member of the states of 

 Corsica, and a deputy from that assembly to the French 

 court in 1777. In 1830, Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, son of 

 Louis Bonaparte, ex-king of Holland, a young man of pro. 

 mise lately deceased, published at Florence a translation of 

 the above-mentioned account of the sack of Rome, with 

 some historical notices of the Bonaparte family prefixed. 

 There is a mistake, however, in those notices. It is said that 

 Louis Mary Fortunatun Bonaparte went to Corsica in 1612, 

 and, settling at Ajaccio, became the founder of the Bonaparte 

 family in Corsica ; whereas, in fact, Francis Bonaparte of Sar- 

 zana, went to Corsica in 1 5 12, and his son Gabriel, above-men, 

 tioned, founded the family at Ajaccio. It is, however, in, 

 different whether Napoleon was descended from an empe- 

 ror or a cobbler. He himself had little pride of ancestry. 

 In the year 1807, the municipality of Treviso having laid 

 before him a collection of documents which showed the 

 importance of his forefathers in that city, he replied 

 " Everyman, in this world, is the child of his own actions: 

 my titles, moreover, 1 hold from the French people.'' 



