Caroline Bonaparte: the story of the ambitious queen of Naples
It was May 18, 1839 when in the palace n. 3358 in Borgo Ognissanti, Florence (now seat of the prestigious Hotel Westin Excelsior), Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon‘s younger sister, died at 11 in the morning.
Marie Annonciade Caroline Bonaparte (1782-1839) is probably the worst known among Napoleon’s sisters. It is often said, indeed, that Elisa was the most intelligent, Pauline the most beautiful and Caroline the most “power-hungry“, certainly the most ambitious.
She was shrewd, intelligent, determined and unscrupulous, in love with power to the point of being defined by Talleyrand: “A head of Machiavelli on a woman’s body”. Metternich, of whom she was the lover, underlines: “Her ambition was to build, for herself and her family, an existence that as far as possible was beyond the reach of Napoleon, even regardless of his fortune”.
After all, Caroline was the most similar to her famous brother. Napoleon said of her: “Caroline was very skilled and very capable. She had the stuff, character and a disordered ambition “.
Caroline grew up in relative obscurity in Corsica until the mid-1790s, when her brother, who was then climbing the military ranks to absolute power, arranged for her to come to France for her education. Caroline is fifteen years old and has become very pretty, especially in her face, even though her head is too big for her body and she is not tall. Later, she will gain weight and her disproportion will become more evident.
Caroline, who was practically illiterate, was sent to the school of Madame Campan (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan had been a lecturer to the daughters of Louis XV and then première femme de chambre of Marie Antoinette, to whom she always remained faithful) in St Germain en Laye, together with her new niece, Hortense de Beauharnais (daughter of Josephine), who was one year younger.
Stormy, stubborn and passionate, the teenager Caroline fell madly in love with one of her brother’s friends and colleagues, the officer Joaquim Murat, tall, handsome, vain with gorgeous curly hair, and went on and on with Napoleon, who didn’t really approve of Murat as a brother-in-law, until he agreed to them getting married.
Seventeen-year-old Caroline became Madame Murat on January 20, 1800 and was no doubt happy at first with her charming husband, who was exactly fifteen years her senior. The Murats were indeed well matched: intelligent despite their poor education, sensual, daring, dynamic and fiercely ambitious, they made a formidable team. Still, both will indulge in many extra-marital affairs.
The couple’s first child, Achille, was born a year after their marriage, on January 21, 1801, and was followed by three other children: Letizia (born in April 1802); Luciano (born in May 1803) and Luisa (born in March 1805).
On May 18, 1804, at the proclamation of the Empire, Napoleon’s brothers took the title of imperial princes, but nothing special was foreseen for his sisters. Carolina is in tears and Madame de Rèmusat gives an account of that evening: “Madame Murat burst into tears, into reproaches; she asked why he wanted to condemn her and her sisters to obscurity, to contempt, while strangers (Napoleon’s sisters-in-law) were covered with honors and dignity”. Napoleon ended up yielding and conferring on Caroline, Pauline and Elisa the title of imperial highnesses.
In addition to titles and honors, Caroline and Joachim continued to receive money for their expensive lifestyle. After the birth of their fourth daughter, they received the Elysée Palace, which they restored at great expense.
On March 15, 1806, the Murat spouses were appointed sovereigns of the brand new Grand Duchy of Berg but this did not mean that the couple stopped complaining. Napoleon’s patience is at the limit: “I have filled you and your husband with gifts! I am thanked with constant complaints… That’s enough! If I cannot have some peace in any other way, I will send you back to your States and forbid you to return to France “.
In 1808 the most prestigious gift arrives, Joachim is appointed King of Naples by his august brother-in-law and Caroline becomes queen.
Caroline will devote herself to the maintenance and restoration of the palaces, in particular the Royal Palace, to archeology and to the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum; she will take care of the gardens and will also intervene in the relaunch of the manufacturing sector, taking care of the coral and silk factories.
She also devoted her attention to the education of young Neapolitan girls. Inspired by the Elisa Institute, created by her sister Elisa Bonaparte, in 1808 she founded a boarding school for women in the ancient convent of Santa Maria della Provvidenza, known as the “Miracles”.
At the end of 1809, Caroline goes with her husband to Paris to witness Napoleon’s divorce. She was then entrusted with the task of preparing the wedding trousseau of Marie Louise of Austria, as well as going to welcome the new empress. Between the two women it is dislike at first sight.
The turning point came when Napoleon’s career began its collapse in 1812 with the failed attempt to invade Russia, followed by the disastrous Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, after which Joachim Murat, aided and supported by his wife who thus was actually turning her back on her brother, began to conclude secret treaties with the Austrians to ensure that he would keep the throne of Naples and all that he had accumulated for himself.
The betrayal obviously infuriated the whole Bonaparte family. Madame Mère was indeed deeply embittered by her daughter’s behavior: “That dude of your husband, who dresses like a parrot and would put feathers all over the place, betrayed the emperor in the time of need. And where were you? What have you done? You told me Murat is not a man who lets himself be controlled. But if a wife can’t control her husband, do you know what she does? She makes herself respected. She thwarts him “.
The couple’s plans crumbled when Napoleon fled Elba making a last return trip during the Hundred Days in 1815 and Joachim decided to take his side, putting everything at risk in a terrible bet which, as we know, failed. Murat fled to Corsica before being arrested by the newly restored king of Naples, Ferdinand I, and summarily executed for treason on 13 October 1815 at Pizzo Calabro.
For Caroline, the doors of exile were opened. For security reasons she changed her name to countess of “Lipona”, that was the perfect anagram of “Napoli” (Naples).
Isolated from the rest of the family, on March 3, 1818, Girolamo Bonaparte wrote to his sister Elisa: “I hope nothing for Caroline, they are anti-French and anti-family – Our position in relation to Caroline is too bad, nothing binds me to her anymore”.
Caroline will move to Frohsdorf Castle in Austria with General Francesco Macdonald, former Minister of War, who was her lover (according to some, he will become her second husband). Finally, in 1832 she was granted permission to reside in Florence, where she bought Grifoni Palace.
During the years spent in Florence, the Countess of Lipona’s children, born from the marriage with Joaquim Murat, lived far from their mother: Luciano and Achille were in the United States, Letizia at Bologna, married to Count Pepoli and Luisa at Ravenna, married to Count Rasponi.
The one who was still considered “the most dangerous of the Bonapartes” never obtained permission to go to Rome to visit her mother, with whom she had partly reconciled, and died alone, with a quick and hidden funeral at the Church of All Saints, where she still rests.
