Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/32

This page needs to be proofread.

26 BONAPARTE was remarkably brilliant and beautiful. In her 14th year Freron fell in love with her, and she would have married him if Napoleon had not discovered that his first wife was living. Her next suitor, Gen. Duphot, was killed in Rome in 1797; and Junot applied in vain for her hand, which she bestowed in 1801 upon Gen. Leclerc, whom she accompanied to Santo Do- mingo. She declined to leave him despite the rising of the negroes and the outbreak of the yellow fever; and after her husband had died of that disease (Nov. 2, 1802), she conveyed his remains to France. Their only child died one year after her second marriage in 1803 with Prince Camillo Borghese, who, being the heir of an illustrious princely family of Rome, was selected by Napoleon as a valuable brother-in- law. He almost immediately separated from his wife, whose virtue he suspected, and he only became reconciled to her in her illness toward the end of her life. Napoleon doted upon Pauline, and made her duchess of Guas- talla; but he rebuked her excessive jealousy of Josephine, and resented her rudeness to Maria Louisa by banishing her from his court. She nevertheless led a gay life in the vicinity of Paris and subsequently at Nice, gathering round her many fashionable people of easy virtue. The news of her brother's downfall in 1814 reached her in Italy. Forgetting all pre- vious differences, she proceeded to Elba, made many attempts for his restoration, reconciled him with Lucien and Murat, and sent him all her jewelry, which was afterward found in Napoleon's carriage at Waterloo. She repeat- edly applied for permission to share his cap- tivity at St. Helena, and spent the rest of her life in great affliction, Napoleon's death giving an irretrievable blow to her shattered health. After a long residence in the Borghese palace in Rome, she joined her husband in Florence shortly before her death. The papal author- ities treated her with great kindness, and she endeared herself to the people wherever she was by her patronage of letters and art and by her extensive charities. Canova's marble statue of Pauline (now said to be Queen Victoria's property) represents her as Venus Victrix. Her remains were transferred from Florence to Rome and buried in the Borghese chapel. (See BOBGHESE.) V. Caroline Marie Annonclade, sister of the preceding, born in Ajaccio, March 26, 1782, died in Florence, May 18, 1839. She went with her mother to Paris, and was for some time under the tuition of Madame Carnpan at St. Germain. Murat was one of her many admirers, and Napoleon, over whom she ex- ercised great influence, selected him as her husband. They were married on Jan. 20, 1800, and Murat successively became grand duke of Cleves and Berg (1806) and king of Naples (1808). Superior to her husband in administrative talent, she marked her acces- sion to power as regent in her husband's absence, ty recalling political exiles and re- leasing prisoners of state, and by a felicitous selection of upright and able ministers. She promoted science, letters, and art, improved the material and moral condition of the Neapolitans, established several lyceums and a female seminary, and had extensive exca- vations made, especially at Pompeii, which brought to light many remarkable monuments. She also displayed great courage, especially in 1809, when she animated the drooping spirit of her subjects by exposing herself on the quay within reach of the fire of an English fleet. Her domineering nature, however, brought her into collision with Maria Louisa, and Talleyrand described her as a handsome woman with the head of Cromwell. Alienated from the em- peror's court, she sided against him by joining her husband's secret negotiations with Austria and England. After the disasters which over- whelmed Murat, she took leave of him May 20, 1815, remained in Naples as regent, and invoked the assistance of English marines and the Austrian squadron for the repression of anarchy. She finally left Naples on board an English vessel in company with three of her former ministers, including Macdonald ; on her way to Trieste she met the ship which was con- veying Ferdinand, the restored king of Naples, to his capital. The emperor of Austria object- ed to her residing in Trieste, but permitted her to establish her domicile near Vienna, where she assumed the name of Countess Lipona an anagram of Napoli or Naples. While here she accidentally learned the tragic end of her husband, after which she contracted a secret marriage with Gen. Macdonald, who had never left her since their departure from Naples. Despoiled of her vast personal prop- erty, she was eventually obliged to dispose of her estate near Vienna, and to join her daugh- ters in Italy. Her claims upon the Elysee Bourbon and Neuilly palaces were rejected by France, but an annual allowance of 100,000 francs was granted to her by the chambers shortly before her death. She bore to Murat two sons and two daughters. (See MURAT.) BONAPARTE. I. Jerome, king of Westphalia, youngest brother of Napoleon I., born in Ajac- cio, Nov. 15, 1784, died at Villegenis, near Paris, June 24, 1860. He was educated at the college of Juilly, entered the army as a private in 1800, and soon afterward joined the naval service in the Mediterranean, and in 1801 the expedition to Santo Domingo, rising to the grade of lieutenant. In 1803, while on his re- turn to France by way of the United States, where he was introduced to President Jeffer- son, he fell in love with Miss Elizabeth Pat- terson, the daughter of an eminent and wealthy Baltimore merchant, a young lady of great beauty, then in her 18th year. He deputed the Spanish minister in Washington to solicit her hand, and despite the protest of the French consul and the reluctance of the Pattersons, he married her on Dec. 24, 1803. The con- tract had been carefully drawn by Alexander J. Dallas, and the ceremony was performed