Julie Clary

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Julie Clary
Queen consort of Spain and the Indies Queen consort of Naples and Sicily Comtesse de Survilliers
Julie Clary and her daughters
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure	8 June 1808 – 11 December 1813
Queen consort of Naples and Sicily
Tenure	30 March 1806 - 6 June 1808
Spouse	Joseph Bonaparte
Issue
Julie Joséphine Bonaparte Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854) Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839)
Full name
Marie Julie Bonaparte (née Clary)
Father	François Clary
Mother	Françoise Rose Somis
Born	26 December 1771 Marseille, France
Died	7 April 1845 (aged 73) Florence, Italy

Marie Julie Bonaparte (née Clary; 26 December 1771, Marseille – 7 April 1845, Florence) was Queen consort of Spain and the Indies, Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Joseph Bonaparte of Naples from January 1806 to June 1808, and Sicily, later Spain and the Spanish West Indies from 25 June 1808 to June 1813.

Background

Julie Clary was born in Marseille, France, the daughter of François Clary (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 24 February 1725 – Marseille, 20 January 1794), a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant, and his second wife (married on 26 June 1759) Françoise Rose Somis (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 30 August 1737 – Paris, 28 January 1815). He had been previously married at Marseille, 13 April 1751 to Gabrielle Fléchon (1732 – 3 May 1758), without issue.

Her sister Désirée Clary, six years younger than Julie, became Queen of Sweden and Norway (as Desideria) when her husband, Marshal Bernadotte, was crowned King Charles XIV John of Sweden (Charles III John of Norway).

Her brother Nicholas Joseph Clary was created 1st Comte Clary and married Anne Jeanne Rouyer, by whom he had Zénaïde Françoise Clary (Paris, 25 November 1812 – Paris, 27 April 1884), wife of Napoléon Berthier de Wagram, 2nd Duc de Wagram (10 September 1810 – 10 February 1887), son of Marshal Berthier, and had issue.

Her paternal grandparents were Joseph Clary (Marseille, 22 November 1693 – Marseille, 30 August 1748, son of Jacques Clary - son of Antoine Clary and wife Marguerite Canolle - and wife Catherine Barosse - daughter of Angelin Barosse and wife Jeanne Pélissière), and wife (married at Marseille, 27 February 1724) Françoise-Agnès Amaurric (Marseille, 6 March 1705 – Marseille, 21 December 1776, daughter of François Ammoric and wife Jeanne Boisson).

Her maternal grandparents were Joseph Ignace Somis (c. 1710 – Marseille, 29 April 1750, son of Jean Louis Somis and wife Françoise Bouchard), and wife (married at Marseille, 27 May 1736) Catherine Rose Soucheiron (Marseille, 11 January 1696 – Marseille, 18 February 1776, daughter of François Soucheiron and wife Anne Cautier).

Marriage

On 1 August 1794 at Cuges (Bouches-du-Rhône department) she married Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoléon Bonaparte, and later King of Naples and King of Spain.

While living at Mortefontaine, in the Oise department of France, she kept informed from Vichy and Plombières about the new Spanish extra marital conquests of her (much loved always) fiddling husband José I Bonaparte in Spain, either with the Caribbean-Cuban born Dowager Countess of Jaruco, Teresa de Montalvo or one of his first Spanish loves, Maria del Pilar Acedo, marquesa de Montehermoso, rewarded with the Dukedom of Montehermoso or others by the Duke of Frías, a titled pro-napoleonic aristocrat from the highest nobility since the last third of the 15th century.

The defeat of the French Napoleonic Army at the Battle of Vitoria, on 21 June 1813 and the entry of allied troops in Paris in 1814 led Julie to buy the castle of Prangins in Switzerland, near the Lake Léman.

The Battle of Waterloo meant the doom for the Corsican born Bonaparte, and José, surnamed Count of Survilliers, bought an important property in the State of New York, near River Delaware with costly and beautiful stolen Spanish paintings ransacked from Madrid and palaces, castles, monasteries and town halls "found" along the route back to France.

Later life

Julie, however, went with her daughters to Frankfurt where she stayed for some six years, away from her French-American husband, later settling in Brussels and then to better climates, to Florence, Italy, Serristori Palace living practically alone from French people and being recognized by all sorts of people as a charming, quite, peaceful lady, spanning this period of European travels for some 26 years and departing from the company of her younger sister Désirée, pretended long ago, without much success by Napoleon Bonaparte itself, as the Swedish people and her husband, the new Swedish King and former French General Bernadotte wished her to be in Stockholm.

It is only in 1840 that ailingJosé I, the former ephemeral King of Naples and Sicily, Spain and the Indies, decided to leave the United States and go to Florence visit his former Queen, full of dignity and apparently much loved by many. In spite of his many former extra marital affairs, she always referred to him as "my beloved husband".

José I Bonaparte died in her arms on 28 July 1844 at the age of seventy-three. She died eight months later on 7 April 1845, at the age of seventy-four. Husband and wife were buried side by side at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence.

Seventeen years later, in 1862, the self-proclaimed French Emperor Napoleon III brought Joseph Bonaparte's remains back to France and had them inhumed to the right of his younger brother, the Emperor Napoleon I.

The remains of Julie, always discrete, always a French Revolution lady of bourgeois background, are still at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence besides those of her daughter, Charlotte, who had died in Lucca, in Italy, on 3 March 1839, at the age of thirty-seven, when giving birth to a stillborn child.

Children

Joseph Bonaparte and Julie had three daughters:

• Julie Joséphine Bonaparte (1796-1796);
• Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801-1854) had twelve children);
• Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802-1839), married in 1826 Napoléon Louis, eldest son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and Hortense de Beauharnais, widowed in 1830.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Julie Clary

Manuel Ríos Mazcarelle, Reinas de España, Casa de Borbón, I, Alderabán, El legado de la historia, Madrid, 1999, 1ª edición, ISBN 8488676573, 291 pages, (Spanish).

Succession