Jerome Bonaparte

Biography

He had only nine years when in 1793, its family took refuge in France, in consequence of his political banishment of the Corsica .

To leaving the Collège of Juilly, where it made its studies, it entered the marine in January 1800, where, the following year, it obtained the rank of lieutenant. His/her brother-in-law, the general Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, took it along to Saint-Domingue. He taken share with the Forwarding of Santo Domingo and was returned little time afterwards by Leclerc, with important dispatches for the first Consul.

Its fulfilled mission, Jerome who had the command of the frigate the Sparrowhawk , set out again at once for the Martinique, and, at the end of 1802, in consequence of the resumption of the hostilities between France and the England, it had order to establish a cruising in front of the roads of Saint-Pierre and the island of Tobago.

A few months afterwards, obliged by the enemy forces to cease its monitoring, it was withdrawn with New York, it married in 1803 there, though minor and without the assent of its family, Elizabeth Patterson, girl of a tradesman of Baltimore. This marriage, like that of Lucien, displeased in Napoleon who, in spite of the pain and the resistance of Jerome, tenderly attached to his wife of which it had a son, made it break due to minority.

In 1805, it returned to France and ran several times the risk to be removed by the English during the crossing.

The Emperor immediately gave the responsability it to go to Algiers to repurchase 250 Génois there that the Dey d' Alger retained in Esclavage.

Following this mission, which it fulfills successfully, it was high with the rank of Captain. Command of a vessel of 74, the Veteran , with a good second it to help, the future admiral Halgan, it passed to the command of a squadron of eight ship of the lines which it led, in 1806, in Martinique. In August, a strong strong gale disperses the buildings, Mr Jerome profits to leave the squadron without warning its superior, the admiral Willaumez and returns about it to France. Continued by the English until Glénans, saved by its pilot Jean Marie Furic, he manages to take refuge with Concarneau where the Vétéran will remain three years.

This year even, it is named Rear-admiral, French prince, with a revenue of a million, is decorated with the Large-Eagle of the Légion of honor and finds its place in the order of family heredity.

In 1807, it leaves the service of sea to take the command of a and army corps of Bavarois Wurtembourgeois, with the head of which it removes the Silesia with the King de Prusse, success which was worth to him the Major general rank of , three months after the Paix of Tilsitt.

In August 1807, Jerome marries the princess Catherine of Wurtemberg, girl of Frederic I {{er}} of Wurtemberg, and six days afterwards, it is created king of Westphalia. The various powers recognize this new monarch, who receives at the same time from the emperor Alexandre Ier of Russia the decoration of the order of Saint-Andrew of Russia.

King Jerome then had twenty-five years and all the ardor of youth. To trust of the position of his brother and his, it often misses moderation and of prudence in the choice of his friends. Extravagant and frivolous, it multiplies the mistresses. The queen whom one calls " The Turkey of Westphalia " , firm the eyes because she adores her husband whom she calls Fifi… Its ministers Beugnot and Reinhart, named by Napoleon to carry out the businesses, cannot reason it. Soon " the king will find his treasure exhausted, his subjects overpowered, his afflicted ministers, the destroyed credit, the resources devoured in advance " … Napoleon was expressed on his account with the Île Grey waxbill with some severity, rightly…

That which one names " Koenig Loustig" its residence with Cassel establishes, introduced into its kingdom the French institutions and abolishes many abuses. It started to join the agreement of the public affairs to it, when the political events returned the prince to the private life. Model state, the Kingdom of Westphalia was to be used as reference to the other German territories. It accepted the first constitution and sheltered the first Parliament in Germanic country. Jerome imported of Paris the Empire style with the language in conformity with the new political aimings and Cassel made cultural great strides without similar. As a member of the Confederation of the Rhine, Jerome wants his army. It is the general Eblé, the future hero of the Bérézina which concludes the company where one finds the general Norman Allix, become divisional Westphalian.

The king of Westphalia made the countryside of Russia of 1812 to the head of a German division which was distinguished with the combat from Ostrovno and to the Combat of Mohilev. Unfortunately following an annoying conflict with the marshal Louis Nicolas Davout, it was let surprise with the battles of Smolensk, thus letting escape the Russian general Bagration. Disastrous fault which made it retrogress under the orders of the Davout marshal. Upset, Jerome leaves the army without preventing, which will involve delays in the movements and returns in Cassel. Furious Napoleon, makes say that the king is sick…

The disasters of 1812 and 1813 forced Jerome to leave his kingdom. The princess his wife did not leave it in the days of the adversity and accompanied it with Paris; but, in March 1814, the husbands had to separate, Jerome to join the empress Marie-Louise of Austria to Blois, and the queen to return in the States of his/her father. It is by leaving Paris, with little distance from this capital, in Fossard, on the road of Fontainebleau, which it was attacked by an armed band that old a Chouan ordered, the marquis de Maubreuil, who had belonged to his house in the capacity as rider with Cassel. The princess lost there her diamonds, her money and the her effects most invaluable, which were removed to him. Catherine showed, on this occasion, which it was not if " turkey " by remembering that it is the cousin of the Tsar, it alerts Alexandre I {{er}}, then Master of Paris. It makes at once seek the swindlers, by the baron Vitrolles and finds most of the spoils.

After the abdication of the Emperor, in 1814, Jerome turned over to the court of Wurtemberg. It was with Trieste with his wife, when the news of the event of the March 20th brought back it to Paris. It had obtained Joachim Murat a frigate on which it managed to embark secretly. It attended the ceremony of the Field-of-May, on June 1st, and the June 2nd, it took meeting among the Pars.

The Davout marshal, Minister for the War, which hates it cordially does not give him command. Jerome followed Napoleon in Belgium, authorized to walk with the general Guilleminot, who orders the 6th division of infantry of the IE body of the general Reille. He deployed with the Four-Arm greatest bravery, but two days later, with Waterloo, him which forever be able to order a company, exceeds the orders in the wood of Hougoumont. It is a disaster where its divison will be misused all the day and will be decimated. Without preparation of artillery, it twice collapsed the elite of the English troops, which, protected by a strong castle where they had been established, made a fire of most fatal. Finally there remained Master of wood after being wounded with the arm. This business in the battle was expensive. It was only envisaged one point of fixing on this wood of Hougomont and Jerome having badly included/understood, engaged all the body of the Reille general, who missed thereafter.

After the Battle of Waterloo, it gains Avesnes where it joins together the remainders of the army then gathers them under Laon. The marshal Grouchy, who reprocessed well since Namur, joined it and they move on Soissons…

After the second abdication, Jerome secretly left the capital, the June 27th, and arrived, not without sorrow, after having wandered a long time in Suisse and France, to join his wife who had taken refuge in her father. He obtained from this last the castle of Ellwangen, but in the condition not of moving away and of not preserving any French from them at his service.

On July 1816, the king of Wurtemberg conferred on his son-in-law the title of Prince de Montfort, under which it was a long time known. It authorized it, in next August, to go with his wife and her children, a son and a girl, with the Château of Bimbourg, close to Vienna, to see there his sister Caroline, widow of the king Murat. Since this time until his re-entry in France, Jerome resided alternatively in a castle close to Vienna and in Trieste.

Jerome Bonaparte solicits into 1847 to return to France, the monarchy of July grants to him but for 3 months, following the events of February 1848 it returned definitively, it lived some time in the retirement, in Paris, in an apartment located Rue of Algiers, 3. The always increasing popularity of its nephew, the prince Louis Napoleon, forced it with much reserve to give less shade to the government of then. This state ceased with the nomination of Louis to the presidency, by six million votes. Jerome accepted the December 23rd 1848, his nomination of general governor of the Invalids and that of Marshal of France, the 1^er January 1850.

He was successively named president of the Senate (1851), and was reinstated, after the re-establishment of the Empire, in the title and the honors of the imperial Prince (1852).

Its body was deposited with the Invalides near that of Napoleon.

Its Memories and its Correspondance was published in 1863.

Family

In 1803, the December 24th with Baltimore (the United States), it marries Elisabeth Paterson (1785 - 1879), without the consent of Napoleon. By imperial decree of the March 11th 1805, the marriage is declared null and the child is born from this illegitimate union, because contracted abroad and without family authorization. Wire born of this union: Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (1805 - 1870)).
In 1807, on August 22nd in Paris (France), it marries the princess Catherine of Wurtemberg (1783 - 1835) girl of Frederic Ier king of Wurtemberg. They had five children of which:

'' Jerome Napoleon '' Charles, known as Prince de Montfort, born with Trieste the August 24th 1814: he was colonel in the army of Wurtemberg and died the May 12th 1847 with Florence;
'' Mathilde '' Létizia, known as the Mathilde Princess, born the May 27th 1820 and dead the January 2nd 1904, which married in 1840 Anatole Demidoff, prince de San Donato (1813 - 1870); they separated in 1847;
'' Napoleon Jerome '' Joseph Charles, known as Prince Napoleon, born the September 9th 1822 and dead the March 17th 1891, which married in 1849 Clotilde of Savoy (1843 - 1911), girl of Victor-Emmanuel II king d' Italie.

Jerome Bonaparte religieusement marries in 1840 the marchioness Justine Percoli (1811 - 1903) first once at Florence, then civilly the January 19th 1853 in Paris, held marriage secret.

The current elder one of the Bonaparte is Charles Napoleon (1950 -…) wire of Louis Napoleon (1914 - 1997) and of Alix de Foresta (1926 -…).

Love life

Jerome Bonaparte had innumerable mistresses and in particular:

the White génoise Carrega, its preferred.
the countess Truchsess-Waldberg
the wife of the general of Will sew
the countess of Bocholtz
the countess of Lowenstein-Wertheim
the marchioness of Azzolino
the Collin countess of Plancy

Physical portrait

“the king is a gracious, thin young man with dark hair and black eyes. Its aspect has something of robust, the bone of the cheek is projecting and the insolence of youth appears under some light folds already formed near the eyes. The chin and a strong nape of the neck points out his/her brother which remainder it does not resemble under the other reports/ratios. ” (of a witness occulaire: Moritz von Kaisenberg) there exist photographs of king Jerome, thing surprising somebody who knew the 1st Empire.

See too

Marine of Empire

External bonds

Jerome Bonaparte
Jerome Bonaparte
Biography online of Jerome Bonaparte (in German)
König Lustik!? Jerome Bonaparte and l´État model of the Kingdom of Westphalia. Exposure of the Land of Hesse 2008. Museum Fridericianum Kassel/Germany

Partial sources

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