House of Bonaparte
French: Maison Bonaparte
Italian and Corsican: Casa di Buonaparte
French imperial family
Coat of Arms of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French
Coat of arms assumed by Emperor Napoleon I
CountryFirst and Second French Empire
Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Spain
Kingdom of Holland
Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Westphalia
Principality of Elba
Principality of Andorra
Grand Duchy of Berg
Principality of Lucca and Piombino
Founded18 May 1804 (1804-05-18)[1][2]
FounderNapoleon Bonaparte
Current headDisputed:
Final rulerNapoleon III
Titles
Style(s)Imperial Majesty (France)
Majesty (other Crowns)
DepositionFrance:
1814 (1st) (1814 (1st))
1815 (2nd) (1815 (2nd))
1870 (3rd) (1870 (3rd))
Italy:
1814 (1814)
Spain:
1813 (1813)
Westphalia:
1813 (1813)
Elba:
1815 (1815)
Cadet branches

The House of Bonaparte is a former imperial and royal European dynasty of Corsican origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Corsican nobleman Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Buonaparte (née Ramolino). Napoleon was a French military leader who rose to power during the French Revolution and who, in 1804, transformed the First French Republic into the First French Empire, five years after his coup d'état of November 1799 (18 Brumaire). Napoleon and the Grande Armée had to fight against every major European power (except for the ones he was allied with, including Denmark-Norway) and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, expanding the power of the dynasty.

The House of Bonaparte formed the Imperial House of France during the French Empire, together with some non-Bonaparte family members. In addition to holding the title of Emperor of the French, the Bonaparte dynasty held various other titles and territories during the Napoleonic Wars, including the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Holland, and the Kingdom of Naples. The dynasty held power for around a decade until the Napoleonic Wars began to take their toll. Making very powerful enemies, such as Austria, Britain, Russia, and Prussia, as well as royalist (particularly Bourbon) restorational movements in France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Sardinia, the dynasty eventually collapsed due to the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the restoration of former dynasties by the Congress of Vienna.

During the reign of Napoleon I, the Imperial Family consisted of the Emperor's immediate relations – his wife, son, siblings, and some other close relatives, namely his brother-in-law Joachim Murat, his uncle Joseph Fesch, and his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais.

Between 1852 and 1870, there was a Second French Empire, when a member of the Bonaparte dynasty again ruled France: Napoleon III, the youngest son of Louis Bonaparte. However, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, 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, Prince Napoléon has a Bourbon mother.

Italian origins

The Bonaparte (originally Italian: Buonaparte) family were patricians in the Italian towns of Sarzana, San Miniato, and Florence. The name derives from Italian: buona ("good") and parte ("part" or "side"). In Italian, the phrase "buona parte" is used to identify a fraction of considerable, but undefined, size in a totum.

Gianfaldo Buonaparte was the first known Buonaparte at Sarzana around 1200. His descendant Giovanni Buonaparte in 1397 married Isabella Calandrini, a cousin of later cardinal Filippo Calandrini. Giovanni became mayor of Sarzana and was named commissioner of the Lunigiana by Giovanni Maria Visconti in 1408. His daughter, Agnella Berni, was the great-grandmother of Italian poet Francesco Berni and their great-grandson Francesco Buonaparte was an equestrian mercenary at the service of the Genoese Bank of Saint George. In 1490, Francesco Buonaparte went to the island of Corsica, which was controlled by the bank. In 1493, he married the daughter of Guido da Castelletto, representative of the Bank of Saint George in Ajaccio, Corsica. Their son, Gabriele, married Maria Durazzo of the Durazzo family.[3] Most of their descendants during subsequent generations were members of the Ajaccio town council. Napoleon's father, Carlo Buonaparte, received a patent of nobility from the King of France in 1771.[1]

There also existed a Buonaparte family in Florence; however, its eventual relation with the Sarzana and San Miniato families is unknown. Jacopo Buonaparte of San Miniato 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.[4] Two of Jacopo's nephews, Pier Antonio Buonaparte and Giovanni Buonaparte, however, took part in the 1527 Medici rebellion, after which they were banished from Florence and later were restored by Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence. Jacopo's brother Benedetto Buonaparte maintained political neutrality.[5] The San Miniato branch extinguished with Jacopo in 1550. The last member of the Florence family was a canon named Gregorio Bonaparte, who died in 1803, leaving Napoleon as heir.[6]

A Buonaparte tomb lies in the Church of San Francesco in San Miniato. A second tomb, the Chapelle Impériale, was built by Napoleon III in Ajaccio 1857.

Imperial House of France

Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801), by Jacques-Louis David
Imperial coat of arms
The Four Napoleons

Napoleon I is the most prominent name associated with the Bonaparte family because he conquered much of Europe during the early 19th century. Due to his indisputable popularity in France both among the people and in the army, he staged the Coup of 18 Brumaire and overthrew the Directory with the help of his brother Lucien Bonaparte, president of the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon then oversaw the creation of a new Constitution that made him the First Consul of France on 10 November 1799. On 2 December 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of the French and ruled from 1804 to 1814, and again in 1815 during the Hundred Days after his return from Elba.

Following his conquest of most of Western Europe, Napoleon I made his elder brother Joseph king first of Naples and then of Spain, his younger brother Louis King of Holland (subsequently forcing his abdication in 1810 after his failure to subordinate Dutch interests to those of France), and his youngest brother Jérôme as King of Westphalia, a short-lived realm created from several states of northwestern Germany.

Napoleon's son Napoléon François Charles Joseph was made King of Rome and was later styled as Napoléon II by loyalists of the dynasty, though he only ruled for two weeks after his father's abdication.

Louis-Napoléon, son of Louis, was President of France and then Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870, reigning as Napoleon III. His son, Napoléon, Prince Imperial, died fighting the Zulus in Natal, today the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. With his death, the family lost much of its remaining political appeal, though claimants continue to assert their right to the imperial title. A political movement for Corsican independence surfaced in the 1990s which included a Bonapartist restoration in its programme.

Crowns held by the family

Emperors of the French

Kings of Holland

King of Naples

King of Westphalia

King of Spain

Grand Duchess of Tuscany

Heads of the House of Bonaparte (since 1852)

Disputed since 1997:

Family tree

Family tree list

Note: Bold for common names
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:

  1. Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte (Corte, 1768–Florence, 1844), King of Naples, then King of Spain, married Julie Clary[group 1]
  2. Napoléon (I) Bonaparte (1769–1821) Emperor of the French: Married (i) Joséphine de Beauharnais; no issue. Adopted Eugène and Hortense de Beauharnais. Married (ii) Marie Louise of Austria;
  3. Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840) Roman Prince of Canino and Musignano
  4. Maria-Anna Elisa Bonaparte (1777–1820), Grand-Duchess of Tuscany, married Felice Baciocchi, Prince of Lucca
    • Marie-Laetitia Bonaparte Baciocchi
  5. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1778–1846), King of Holland, married Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon's stepdaughter
  6. Maria Paola or Marie Pauline Bonaparte (1780–1825) Princess and Duchess of Guastalla, married in 1797 to French General Charles Leclerc and later married Camillo Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona.
  7. Maria Annunziata Caroline Bonaparte (1782–1839) married Joachim Murat, Marshal of France, Grand Duke of Berg, then King of Naples
  8. Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (1784–1860), King of Westphalia

Family tree of Bonaparte

Carlo Buonaparte
1746–1785		Letizia Ramolino
1750–1836
34125678
Lucien Bonaparte
1775–1840
m.2 Alexandrine de Bleschamp		Elisa Bonaparte
1777–1820
m. Félix Baciocchi		Joseph Bonaparte
1768–1844
m. Julie Clary		Marie Louise of Austria
1791–1847		Napoléon I
1769–1821		Joséphine de Beauharnais
1763–1814		Alexandre de Beauharnais
1760–1794		Pauline Bonaparte
1780–1825
m.1 Charles Leclerc
m.2 Camillo Borghese		Caroline Bonaparte
1782–1839
m. Joachim Murat		Catharina of Württemberg
1783–1835		Jérôme Bonaparte
1784–1860		Betsy Patterson
1785–1879
4 childrenNapoléon II
1811–1832		Eugène de Beauharnais
1781–1824
m. Augusta of Bavaria		Hortense de Beauharnais
1783–1837		Louis Bonaparte
1778–1846		Achille Murat
1801–1847
m. Catherine Willis Gray		Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
1814–1847		Mathilde Bonaparte
1820–1904
m. Anatoly Demidov, Prince of San Donato		Prince Napoléon Bonaparte
1822–1891
m. Maria Clotilde of Savoy		Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte
1805–1870
m. Susan May Williams
Charles Lucien Bonaparte
1803–1857		Zénaïde Bonaparte
1801–1854		Julie Joséphine Bonaparte
1796		Charlotte Bonaparte
1802–1839		Napoléon Louis Bonaparte
1804–1831		Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
1802–1807		Napoléon III
1808–1873
m.Eugénie de Montijo		Napoléon V Victor
1862–1926
m. Clémentine of Belgium		Napoléon Louis Joseph Jérôme Bonaparte
1864–1932		Maria Letizia Bonaparte
1866–1926
m. Amadeo of Savoy		Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II
1830–1893
m. Caroline Edgar		Charles Bonaparte
1851–1921
m. Ellen Channing Day
Joseph Lucien Bonaparte
1824–1865		Lucien Cardinal Bonaparte
1828–1895		Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
1839–1899		10 othersNapoléon IV Eugène
1856–1879		Marie Clotilde Bonaparte
1912–1996		Napoléon VI Louis
1914–1997
m. Alix de Foresta
Zénaïde Bonaparte
1860–1862		Mary Bonaparte
1870–1947		Eugénie Bonaparte
1872–1949		Napoléon VII Charles
b. 1950		Catherine Elisabeth Bonaparte
b. 1950		Laure Clémentine Bonaparte
b. 1952		Jérôme Xavier Bonaparte
b. 1957
Caroline Bonaparte
b. 1980		Jean-Christophe Napoléon
b. 1986		Sophie Cathérine Bonaparte
b. 1992
Louis Charles Bonaparte
b. 2022

Bonaparte coat of arms

The arms of the Bonaparte family were: Gules two bends sinister between two mullets or. In 1804, Napoleon I changed the arms to Azure an imperial eagle or. The change applied to all members of his family except for his brother Lucien and his nephew, the son from Jerome's first marriage.

DNA research

According to studies by G. Lucotte and his coauthors based on DNA research since 2011, Napoleon Bonaparte belonged to Y-DNA (direct male ancestry) haplogroup E1b1b1c1* (E-M34*). This 15000-year-old haplogroup has its highest concentration in Ethiopia and in the Near East (Jordan, Yemen). According to the authors of the study, "Probably Napoléon also knew his remote oriental patrilineal origins, because Francesco Buonaparte (the Giovanni son), who was a mercenary under the orders of the Genoa Republic in Ajaccio in 1490, was nicknamed The Maure of Sarzane." The latest study identifies the common Bonaparte DNA markers from Carlo (Charles) Bonaparte to 3 living descendants.[7][8]

Lucotte et al. published in October 2013 the extended Y-STR of Napoleon I based on descendant testing, and the descendants were E-M34, just like the emperor's beard hair tested a year before. The persons tested were the patrilineal descendants of Jérome Bonaparte, one of Napoleon's brothers, and of Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, Napoleon's illegitimate son with Marie Walewska. These three tests all yielded the same Y-STR haplotype (109 markers) confirming with 100% certainty that the first Emperor of the French belonged to the M34 branch of haplogroup E1b1b.

STR strongly suggests that the Bonaparte belong to the Y58897 branch, which means that the ancestor 3000 years ago or a bit more lived in Anatolia, but all relatives in the database with a common ancestor with over a 1000 years are found in their own the Massa - La Spezia small area in Italy.[9][10][11] There are at the moment no relatives in the database older than that, which means they are very rare in Europe.

Living members

Charles, Prince Napoléon (born 1950, great-great-grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte by his second marriage), and his son Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (born 1986 and appointed heir in the will of his grandfather Louis, Prince Napoléon) currently dispute the headship of the Bonaparte family.[12] The only other male members of the family are Charles's recently married (2013) brother, Prince Jérôme Napoléon (born 1957) and Jean-Christophe's son, Prince Louis Napoléon (born 2022). There are no other legitimate descendants in the male line from Napoleon I or from his brothers.

There are, however, numerous descendants of Napoleon's illegitimate, unacknowledged son, Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski (1810–1868), born from Napoleon I's union with Marie, Countess Walewski. A descendant of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte was actor René Auberjonois. Recent DNA-matches with living descendants of Jérôme and Count Walewski have confirmed the existence of descendants of Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, namely the Clovis family.[8]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Julie was sister of Napoleon's childhood sweetheart, Désirée, who was to become the wife of General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (later Charles XIV, King of Sweden).

References

  1. 1 2 Raymond Horricks (1995). Napoleon's Elites. Transaction Publishers. p. 11. ISBN 9781412829281.
  2. ↑ Frédéric T. Briffault (1846). The Prisoner of Ham: Authentic Details of the Captivity and Escape of Prince Napoleon Louis. T.C. Newby. p. 344. carlo maria buonaparte nobility 1771.
  3. ↑ Joël Aubailly (1998). Les ancêtres de Napoléon III. The University of Michigan. p. 26.
  4. ↑ Jacopo Bonaparte: Sac de Rome. Écrit EN 1527 par Jacques Bonaparte. Témoin oculaire, hrsgg. by Bonaparte, Napoléon Louis, Florenz 1850
  5. ↑ Drake, Joshua F. (October 2005). "The partbooks of a Florentine ex-patriate: new light on Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Ms. Magl. XIX 164–7". Early Music. 33 (4): 639–646. doi:10.1093/em/cah154. S2CID 191585911.
  6. ↑ Burke, Sir Bernard (1869). Vicissitudes of Families. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dye.
  7. ↑ Lucotte, Gerard; Thomasset, Thierry; Hrechdakian, Peter (2011). "Haplogroup of the Y Chromosome of Napoléon the First". Journal of Molecular Biology Research. 1 (1). doi:10.5539/jmbr.v1n1p12.
  8. 1 2 Lucotte, Gerard; Hrechdakian, Peter (2015). "New Advances Reconstructing the Y Chromosome Haplotype of Napoleon the First Based on Three of his Living Descendants". Journal of Molecular Biology Research. 5 (1): 1. doi:10.5539/jmbr.v5n1p1.
  9. ↑ "Известные представители гаплогруппы R1b".
  10. ↑ "E-Y58897 YTree".
  11. ↑ "The Napoleon DNA project".
  12. ↑ Herbert, Susannah (12 March 1997). "Father and son in battle for the Napoléonic succession". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 5 September 2003. Retrieved 4 June 2007.
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