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Joseph Bonaparte

 

(born Jan. 7, 1768, Corte, Corsica — died July 28, 1844, Florence, Tuscany, Italy) French lawyer, diplomat, and soldier. Elder brother of Napoleon, he served during Napoleon's reign as king of Naples (1806 – 08), where he abolished feudalism, reformed the monastic orders, and reorganized the judicial, financial, and educational systems. He was named king of Spain in 1808, but his attempts at reform there were less successful. In 1813 he abdicated and returned to France. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, Joseph lived in the U.S. (1815 – 32) and later settled in Italy.

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Biography: Joseph Bonaparte
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The French statesman Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), older brother of Napoleon I, was king of Naples from 1806 to 1808 and king of Spain from 1808 to 1813.

Joseph Bonaparte was born on Jan. 7, 1768, in Corte, Corsica. He was the third child of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino but the first to survive infancy. He was educated in Corsica and France and studied law at Pisa. In the Corsican civil war, which marked the early years of the French Revolution, he sided with the French, as did his brother Napoleon. When the anti-French forces were victorious, he and the entire Bonaparte family fled to the Continent.

Settling in Marseilles, he married Julie Clary, the daughter of a local merchant. During the first years of the Directory (1795-1799), Joseph served as a foreign diplomat. In 1796 he helped to negotiate the armistice with Sardinia; in 1797 he was minister to Parma and later Rome. He then sat in the Council of Five Hundred as a representative from Corsica.

Joseph played an insignificant role in the coup d'etat of Brumaire, which placed Napoleon at the head of the French government. In the years of the Consulate (1799-1804), he negotiated the treaties of Lunéville with Austria (1801) and Amiens with England (1802).

After the Bourbons were expelled from the kingdom of Naples in 1806, Napoleon named Joseph king of that poor, backward, and misgoverned state. Joseph introduced educational, judicial, and financial reforms, but his work was cut short in 1808, when Napoleon made him king of Spain. Although Joseph did all within his power to win over the Spanish people - he tried to learn the language, attended bullfights, professed devotion to the Catholic religion, and attempted to discipline the French army - they refused to accept a Bonaparte, as they had refused a Bourbon a hundred years earlier. Driven out of the capital in August 1808, after only 3 months on the throne, Joseph was restored to power by French troops, upon whom he depended during his brief reign.

As the French Empire disintegrated after 1812, Joseph was forced to abandon Spain in 1813 and return to Paris. He served as lieutenant general of France during the last months of his brother's reign. When Napoleon returned to France in March 1815, Joseph was once again at his side, but he played no important role during the Hundred Days. Following Napoleon's second abdication, Joseph went to the United States, where he remained for 17 years. In his declining years he lived first in Genoa and finally in Florence, where he died on July 28, 1844.

Further Reading

John S. C. Abbott, History of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and of Italy (1869), is sympathetic toward Joseph Bonaparte; it remains the best work in English. The anonymous The Confidential Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte with His Brother Joseph Bonaparte (2 vols., 1855) is a translated selection of the correspondence of the two brothers. R. F. Delderfield, The Golden Millstones: Napoleon's Brothers and Sisters (1964), is the best of three good works which deal with the Bonaparte family. The other two are A. Hilliard Atteridge, Napoleon's Brothers (1909), and Walter Geer, Napoleon and His Family: The Story of a Corsican Clan (3 vols., 1927-1929). See also Alain Decaux, Napoleon's Mother (1959; trans. 1962).

Wikipedia: Joseph Bonaparte
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Joseph I
King of Spain and the Indies
King of Naples and Sicily
Comte de Survilliers
Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain by Jean-Baptiste Wicar in (1803)
King of Spain
Reign 8 June 1808 – 11 December 1813
Predecessor Ferdinand VII
Successor Ferdinand VII
King of Naples and Sicily
Reign 30 March 1806 - 6 June 1808
Predecessor Ferdinand IV
Successor Joachim I
Spouse Julie Clary
Issue
Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854) Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839)
Father Carlo Buonaparte
Mother Letizia Ramolino
Born 7 January 1768
Corte, Corsica
Died 28 July 1844 (aged 76)
Florence, Italy

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, King of Naples and Sicily, King of Spain and the Indies, Comte de Survilliers (Corte, France, 7 January 1768 – Florence, Italy, 28 July 1844) was the elder brother of Napoleon I of France, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808) and later King of Spain as Joseph I of Spain. In Spain he was known as Pepe Botella (Pepe Bottle in reference to his supposed alcoholism). He was king of Spain from 6 June 1808[1] to 11 December 1813, but from 13 June 1812 he was back in France.[citation needed]

Contents

Early years

Bonaparte was born Giuseppe Buonaparte to Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino at Corte in Corsica. As a lawyer, politician, and diplomat, he 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 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 Caroline 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 1800s Joseph's brother, Emperor Napoleon, acquired the château for him. In 1806, Bonaparte 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.

Joseph Bonaparte in coronation robes by Baron Gerard

He somewhat reluctantly left Naples and arrived in Spain just in time for their revolt against French rule, and the beginning of the Peninsular War, in which the French were eventually expelled by Spanish guerilla fighters and by an Anglo-Portuguese army. After retreating with much of his army to northern Spain he attempted to abdicate the Spanish throne and exchange it back for the Neapolitan Throne; Napoleon dismissed this as out of hand and sent reinforcements to assist in suppressing Spain. The rest of his reign was tenuous and constantly warring with Spanish guerrillas. He never established complete control over the country.

Joseph Bonaparte's 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, Bonaparte's foreign birth and support, plus his membership in a Masonic lodge [2], virtually guaranteed he would never be accepted as legitimate by the bulk of the Spanish people. During his rule of Spain, Venezuela declared independence (1810) from Spain, the first nation to do so. During the Peninsular War, his command of French forces in Spain proved to be only nominal, as his commanders insisted on checking with the king's younger brother before carrying out Joseph's instructions.

Bonaparte abdicated and returned to France after defeat 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.

French Monarchy -
Bonaparte Dynasty
Imperial Coat of Arms of France (1804-1815).svg

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

In America

Bonaparte lived primarily in the United States in the period 1817-1832[3], initially in New York City and Philadelphia, where his house became the centre of activity for French expatriates[4], 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 of 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.[5]

Joseph Bonaparte returned to Europe, where he died in Florence, Italy and was buried in the Les Invalides building complex in Paris.[6]

Legacy

References

  1. ^ Gazeta de Madrid de 14 de junio page 568
  2. ^ Ross, Michael The Reluctant King, 1977, pp. 34-35
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ PHMC Historical Markers Program
  5. ^ American Folklore: Joseph Bonaparte and the Jersey Devil
  6. ^ 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

External links

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

 
 

 

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