See Notice sur M. le Vicomte de Bonald (1841, ed. Avignon, 1853), (by his son Victor); Damiron, Phil. en France au XIXe siècle; Windelband, History of Philosophy (trans. J.H. Tufts, 1893); E. Faguet in Rev. des deux mondes (April 15, 1889).
BONAPARTE, the name of a family made famous by Napoleon I. (q.v.), emperor of the French. The French form Bonaparte was not commonly used, even by Napoleon, until after the spring of 1796. The original name was Buonaparte, which was borne in the early middle ages by several distinct families in Italy. One of these, which settled at Florence before the year 1100, divided in the 13th century into the two branches of San Miniato and Sarzana. A member of this latter, Francesco Buonaparte, emigrated in the middle of the 16th century to Corsica, where his descendants continued to occupy themselves with the affairs of law and the magistracy.
Carlo Buonaparte [Charles Marie de Bonaparte] (1746-1785), the father of Napoleon I., took his degree in law at the university of Pisa, and after the conquest of Corsica by the French became assessor to the royal court of Napoleon’s father and mother. Ajaccio and the neighbouring districts. His restless and dissatisfied nature led him to press or intrigue for other posts, and to embark in risky business enterprises which compromised the fortune of his family for many years to come. In 1764 he married Letizia Ramolino, a beautiful and high-spirited girl, aged fourteen, descended from a well-connected family domiciled in Corsica since the middle of the 15th century. The first two children, born in 1765 and 1767, died in infancy; Joseph (see below), the first son who survived, was born in 1768, and Napoleon in 1769. The latter was born in the midst of the troubles consequent on the French conquest, Letizia having recently accompanied her husband in several journeys and escapes. Her firm and courageous disposition showed itself at that trying time and throughout the whole of her singularly varied career. Simple and frugal in her tastes, and devout in thought and manner of life, she helped to bind her children to the life of Corsica, while her husband, a schemer by nature and a Voltairian by conviction, pointed the way to careers in France, the opening up of which moulded the fortunes of the family and the destinies of Europe. He died of cancer in the stomach at Montpellier in 1785.
Letizia lived to witness the glory and the downfall of her great son, surviving Napoleon I. by sixteen years. She never accommodated herself to the part she was called on to play during the Empire, and, though endowed with immense wealth and distinguished by the title of Madame Mère, lived mainly in retirement, and in the exercise of a strict domestic economy which her early privations had made a second nature to her, but which rendered her very unpopular in France and was displeasing to Napoleon. After the events of 1814 she joined the emperor in the island of Elba and was privy to his plans of escape, returning to Paris during the Hundred Days. After the final downfall of Waterloo, she took up her residence at Rome, where Pope Pius VII. treated her with great kindness and consideration, and protected her from the suspicious attentions of the powers of the Grand Alliance. In 1818 she addressed a pathetic letter to the powers assembled at the congress of Aix, petitioning for Napoleon’s release, on the ground that his mortal illness had removed any possibility of his ever again becoming a menace to the world’s peace. The letter remained unanswered, the powers having reason to believe that it was a mere political move, and that its terms had been previously concerted with Napoleon. Henceforth, saddened by the death of Napoleon, of her daughters Pauline and Elisa, and of several grandchildren, she lived a life of mournful seclusion. In 1829 she was crippled by a serious fall, and was all but blind before her death in 1836.
For the Bonaparte family in general, and Carlo and Letizia, see Storia genealogica della famiglia Bonaparte, della sua origine fina all’ estinzione del ramo già esisente nella città di S. Miniato, scritta da un Samminiatese (D. Morali) (Florence, 1846); F. de Stefani, Le antichità dei Bonaparte; precede per una introduzione (L. Beretta) (Venice, 1857); L. Ambrosini and A. Huard, La Famille impériale. Hist. de la famille Bonaparte depuis son origine jusqu’en 1860 (Paris, 1860); C. Leynadier, Histoire de la famille Bonaparte de l’an 1050 à l’an 1848 (continuée jusqu’en 1866 par de la Brugère) (Paris, 1866); A. Kleinschmidt, Die Eltern und Geschwister Napoleons I. (Berlin, 1876); D.A. Bingham, The Marriages of the Bonapartes (2 vols., London, 1881); F. Masson, Napoléon et sa famille (4 vols., Paris, 1897-1900); A. Chuquet, La Jeunesse de Napoléon (3 vols., Paris, 1897-1899); T. Nasica, Mémoires sur l’enfance et la jeunesse de Napoléon jusqu’à la âge vingt-trois ans; précédes d’une notice historique sur son père; Baron H. Larrey, Madame Mère (2 vols., Paris, 1892); Clara Tschudi, Napoleons Mutter: aus dem Norwegischen übersetzt von H. von Lenk (Leipzig, 1901).
The brothers and sisters of Napoleon I., taken in order of age, are the following:—
I. Joseph (1768-1844), was born at Corte in Corsica, on the 7th of January 1768. He was educated at the college at Autun in France, returned to Corsica in 1784, shortly after the death of his father, and thereafter studied law at Napoleon’s brothers and sisters: 1. Joseph Bonaparte. the university of Pisa. He became a barrister at Bastia in June 1788, and was soon elected a councillor of the municipality of Ajaccio. Like his brothers, Napoleon and Lucien, he embraced the French or democratic side, and on the victory of the Paolist party fled with his family from Corsica and sought refuge in France. After spending a short time in Paris, where he was disgusted with the excesses of the Jacobins, he settled at Marseilles and married Mlle Julie Clary, daughter of a merchant of that town. The Bonapartes moved from place to place, mainly with the view of concerting measures for the recovery of Corsica. Joseph took part in these efforts and went on a mission to Genoa in 1795. In 1796 he accompanied his brother Napoleon in the early part of the Italian campaign, and had some part in the negotiations with Sardinia which led to the armistice of Cherasco (April 28), the news of which he bore to the French government. Later he proceeded to Leghorn, took part in the French expedition for the recovery of Corsica, and, along with the commissioner of the French Republic, Miot de Melito, helped in the reorganization of that island. In March 1797 he was appointed by the Directory, minister to the court of Parma, and early in the summer he proceeded to Rome in the same capacity. Discords arose between the Vatican and the French Republic, and it is clear that Napoleon and the French Directory ordered Joseph to encourage revolutionary movements in Rome. On the 28th of December 1797 a disturbance took place opposite the French embassy, which led to the death of the French general, Léonard Duphot. Joseph at once left Rome, which soon became a republic. Repairing to Paris, he entered on parliamentary life, becoming one of the members for Corsica in the Council of Five Hundred. He made no mark in the chamber and retired in 1799.
Before the coup d’état of Brumaire he helped Napoleon in making overtures to Sieyès and Moreau, but otherwise did little. Thereafter he refused to enter the ministry, but became a member of the council of state and of the Corps Législatif, where his advice on the state of public opinion was frequently useful. He had a hand in the negotiations for the Concordat, but, according to Lucien Bonaparte, looked on that measure as “ill-advised and retrograde.” His services in the diplomatic sphere were more important. At Mortfontaine, his country-house, he concluded with the envoy of the United States a convention which bears that name (1800). He also presided over the negotiations which led to the treaty of Lunéville with Austria (February 9, 1801); and he and Maret represented France in the lengthy discussions with the British envoy, Lord Cornwallis, which resulted in the signature of the treaty of Amiens (March 25, 1802). This diplomatic triumph in its turn led to the consolidation of Napoleon’s power as First Consul for life (August 1, 1802) with the chief voice in the selection of his successor. On this question the brothers disagreed. As neither Joseph nor Napoleon had a male heir, the eldest brother, whose ideas of primogeniture were very strict, claimed to be recognized as heir, while Napoleon wished to recognize the son of Louis Bonaparte. On the proclamation of the French empire (May 1804) the friction became acute. Napoleon offered to make Joseph king of Lombardy if he would waive all claim of succession to the French throne, but met with a firm refusal.
Meanwhile Joseph had striven earnestly, but in vain, to avert a rupture with England, which came about in May 1803. In 1805 he acted as chief of the French government while Napoleon was campaigning in Germany. Early in 1806 he proceeded to Naples with a French force in order to expel the Bourbon dynasty from southern Italy, Napoleon adding the promise that the Neapolitan crown would be for Joseph if he chose to accept it. The conquest of the mainland was speedily effected, though Gaëta, Reggio and the rock of Scylla held out for some months. The Bourbon court retired to Sicily, where it had the protection of a British force. By the decree of the 30th of March 1806 Napoleon proclaimed Joseph king of Naples, but allowed him to keep intact his claims to the throne of France. In several letters he enjoined his brother to greater firmness in his administration: “These peoples in Italy, and in general all nations, if they do not find their masters, are disposed to rebellion and mutiny.” The memoirs of Count Miot de Melito, whom Joseph appointed minister of war, show how great were the difficulties with which the new monarch had to contend—an almost bankrupt treasury, a fickle and degraded populace, Bourbon intrigues and plots, and frequent attacks by the British from Sicily. General Stuart’s victory at Maida (July 3) shook Joseph’s throne to its base; but the surrender of Gaëta soon enabled Massena to march southwards and subdue Calabria. During his brief reign at Naples, Joseph effected many improvements; he abolished the relics of feudalism, reformed the monastic orders, reorganized the judicial, financial and educational systems, and initiated several public works. In everything he showed his desire to carry out the aims which he expressed to his consort in April 1806: “Justice demands that I should make this people as happy as the scourge of war will permit.”