House of Bonaparte

Scope of project

This project identifies members of the royal house of House of Bonaparte, First and Second French Empires.

Overview

The House of Bonaparte is an imperial and royal European dynasty founded by Napoleon I of France in 1804, a French military leader who rose to notability out of the French Revolution and transformed the French Republic into the First French Empire within five years of his coup d'état. Napoleon turned the Grande Armée against every major European power and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, founding the dynasty.

Throughout its history, the dynasty, as well as being Emperors of the French, held various other titles and territories including; their ancestral nation the Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom of Spain, Kingdom of Westphalia, Kingdom of Holland and the Kingdom of Naples. The dynasty was in a position of power for around a decade until the Napoleonic Wars began to take their toll. Making very powerful enemies such as Austria, United Kingdom, Russia and Prussia, as well as royalist (particularly Bourbon) restorational movements in France, Spain, the Two Sicilies and Sardinia, the dynasty eventually collapsed under its own weight.

Between the years 1852 and 1870 there was a Second French Empire, again a member of the Bonaparte dynasty would rule; Napoleon III of France the son of Louis Bonaparte. However after tensions relating to Prussia, the dynasty was again ousted from the imperial throne. Since that time there has been a series of pretenders, supporters of the Bonaparte family's claim to the throne of France are known as Bonapartists. Current head Jean-Christophe Napoléon is ironically from a Bourbon mother.

Countries

• French Empire
• Kingdom of Italy
• Kingdom of Spain
• Kingdom of Westphalia
• Kingdom of Holland
• Kingdom of Naples
• Grand Duchy of Tuscany
• Elba

Titles

• Emperor of the French
• Emperor of Elba
• King of Italy
• King of Spain
• King of Holland
• King of Westphalia
• King of Naples
• King of Rome (courtesy title only)
• Grand Duchess of Tuscany

Bonaparte family

The Bonaparte family were from minor Italian nobility who held most of their property in the hill town of San Miniato near Florence, Italy. The Bonapartes came from a Tuscan stock of Lombard origin. The name derives from Italian, bona (buona) "good" and parte "solution" or "match" (a name bestowed as an expression of satisfaction at a newborn’s arrival). It has been suggested that a certain William Bayne was forced to leave Scotland after the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. He and his family were said to have been shipwrecked in Corsica and settled there. Bayne and his party became known as Boun-de-parte and after two generations the surname Bonaparte was used.

After settling in Florence the family enjoyed a relationship with the then ruling Medici family. Jacopo Bonaparte was a friend and advisor to Medici Pope Clement VII. Jacopo was also a witness to and wrote an account of the sack of Rome, which is one of the most important historical documents recounting that event. Two of Jacopo's nephews, Pier-Antonio Bonaparte and Giovanni Bonaparte, however, took part in the 1527 Medici rebellion, after which they were banished from Florence and later were restored by Alessandro de' Medici. Jacopo's brother Benedetto Bonaparte maintained political neutrality.

The family later separated into two branches: Bonaparte-Sarzana, Nobili di Sarzana had been compelled to leave Florence due to the defeat of the Ghibellines and later when Francesco Bonaparte came to Corsica in 16th century and the island was in Genoese possession.

The Bonaparte tomb lies in the Church of San Francesco in San Miniato.

Crowns held by the family

Emperors of the French

• Napoleon I (1804–1814, 1815), also King of Italy (1805–1814) and Emperor of Elba (1814–1815)
• Napoleon II (1815), styled King of Rome from birth, but never reigned
• Napoleon III (1852–1870)

Kings of Holland

• Louis I (1806–1810)
• Louis II 1810, also Grand Duke of Berg 1809–1813

King of Naples

• Joseph I (1806–1808)

King of Westphalia

• Jérôme I (1807–1813)

King of Spain

• Joseph I (1808–1813)

Grand Duchess of Tuscany

• Elisa Bonaparte (1809–1814)

The family tree

Carlo-Maria (Ajaccio 1746–Montpellier 1785) married Maria Letizia Ramolino (Ajaccio 1750 – Rome 1836) in 1764. He was a minor official in the local courts. They had eight children:'

• Joseph Bonaparte (Corte 1768–Florence 1844), King of Naples and Spain, married Julie Clary, sister of Napoleon's childhood sweetheart, Désirée, who was to become the wife of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the later Charles XIV of Sweden.
  • Edmond Bonaparte I (1795–1845)
  • Julie Joséphine Bonaparte (1796–1796)
  • Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte (1801–1854)
  • Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (1802–1839)
• Napoléon (I) Bonaparte (1769–1821) Emperor
  • Napoléon (II) François Joseph Charles Bonaparte (1811–1832) Napoléon II, son of Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria of the Habsburg dynasty
• Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840)

first wife, Katherina Boyer:

• *Christine Charlotte Bonaparte (1795–1865)
  • Victoire Gertrude Bonaparte (1797–1797)

second wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp:

• *Christine Charlotte Alexandrine Egypta Bonaparte (1798–1847)
  • Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte (1803–1857), ornithologist and politician married Princess Zénaïde Bonaparte (1801–1854)
    • Joseph Lucien Charles Napoléon Bonaparte (1824–1865)
    • Alexandrine Gertrude Zénaïde Bonaparte (1826–1828)
    • Lucien Louis Joseph Napoléon Bonaparte (1828–1895)
    • Julie Charlotte Pauline Zénaïde Laetitia Désirée Bartholomée Bonaparte (1830–1900)
    • Charlotte Honorine Joséphine Pauline Bonaparte (1832–1901)
    • Léonie Stéphanie Elise Bonaparte 1833–1839)
    • Marie Désirée Eugénie Joséphine Philomène Bonaparte (1835–1890)
    • Augusta Amélie Maximilienne Jacqueline Bonaparte (1836–1900)
    • Napoléon Charles Grégoire Jacques Philippe Bonaparte (1839–1899)
      • Zénaïde Eugénie Bonaparte (1860–1862)
      • Marie Léonie Eugénie Mathilde Jeanne Julie Zénaïde Bonaparte (1870–1947)
      • Eugénie Laetitia Barbe Caroline Lucienne Marie Jeanne Bonaparte (1872–1949)
    • Bathilde Aloïse Léonie Bonaparte (1840–1861
    • Albertine Marie Thérèse Bonaparte (1842–1842)
    • Charles Albert Bonaparte (1843–1847)
    • Edmond Bonaparte II (1848–1870), died in the Battle of Sedan, during the Franco-Prussian War
  • Laetitia Christine Bonaparte (1804–1871)
  • Joseph Lucien Bonaparte (1806–1807)
  • Jeanne Bonaparte (1807–1829)
  • Paul Marie Bonaparte (1808–1827)
  • Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891)
  • Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte (1815–1881)
    • Roland Bonaparte (1858–1924) married Marie Blanc
      • Marie Bonaparte (1882–1962)
    • Jeanne Bonaparte (1861–1910)
  • Antoine Lucien Bonaparte (1816–1877)
  • Alexandrine Marie Bonaparte (1818–1874)
  • Constance Bonaparte (1823–1876)
• Maria-Anna Elisa Bonaparte (1777–1820), grand-duchess of Tuscany married Félix Bacciochi Levoy
  • Marie-Laetitia Bonaparte Bacciochi Levoy
• Hortense de Beauharnais Napoleon's stepdaughter.
  • Napoleon Charles Bonaparte 1802–1807
  • Napoleon Louis Bonaparte 1804–1831 King of Holland
  • Maria Eugenia Ignacia Augustina Palafox de Guzmán Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick
    • Napoleon Eugene Louis John Joseph Bonaparte 1856–1879
• Maria Paola or Marie Pauline Bonaparte (1780–1825), married in 1797 to French general Charles Leclerc and later married Prince Camillo Borghese.
• Maria Annunziata Caroline Bonaparte (1782–1839) married Joachim Murat
  • Prince Achille Murat (1801–1847), married Catherine Willis Gray(1803–1867), grandniece of George Washington.
• Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860), King of Westphalia

first marriage, to Betsy Patterson of Baltimore:

• *Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte (1805–1870), married Susan May Williams
  • *Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (1830–1893), married Caroline Le Roy Appleton Edgar
    • *Louise-Eugénie Bonaparte (1873–1923), married in 1896 Count Adam Carl von Moltke-Huitfeld (1864–1944)
      • Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (1878–1945), married Blanche Pierce Stenbeigh: no children.
    • Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851–1921), U.S. Attorney General married Ellen Channing Day

second marriage, to Catharina of Württemberg, including:

• *Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte (1814–1847)
  • Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte (1820–1904), married Prince Anatole Demidoff di San Donato: no children
  • Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (1822–1891), called Plon-Plon married Princess Marie Clothilde of Savoy daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
    • Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte (1862–1926) married Princess Clémentine of Belgium
      • Marie Clotilde Eugénie Alberte Laetitia Généviève Bonaparte (1912–1996)
      • Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie Bonaparte (1914–1997), married Alix de Foresta
        • Charles Marie Jérôme Victor Bonaparte (born 1950)

first marriage, to Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies of the Bourbon family:

• *****Caroline Marie Constance Bonaparte (born 1980)
  • ****Jean-Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Bonaparte (born 1986)

from second marriage, to Jeanne-Françoise Valliccioni (born 1958):

• ****Sophie Cathérine Bonaparte (born 1992)
  • ***Anh Bonaparte (born 1998, adopted)
    • *Catherine Elisabeth Albérique Marie Bonaparte (born 1950)
      • Laure Clémentine Geneviève Bonaparte (born 1952)
      • Jérôme Xavier Marie Joseph Victor Bonaparte (born 1957)
  • Napoléon Louis Joseph Jérôme Bonaparte (1864–1932) Russian general
  • Marie Laetitia Eugénie Catherine Adélaïde Bonaparte (1866–1926)