Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/33

BONAPARTE 27 by the Roman Catholic Bishop Carroll of Bal- timore, brother of Charles Carroll. They re- sided in the United States till March, 1805. While they were on their way to France Je- rome's mother entered a legal protest against the marriage, as contracted by her son during his minority without her consent and without legal publication of the banns in France. This was done at the bidding of Napoleon, who had in vain applied to Pope Pius VII. to cancel the marriage, but had from the first prohibited its registration, declaring it null and void and the prospective offspring illegitimate. The municipal authorities of Paris subsequently issued a decree to the same purport, and Jer6me and his wife were for- bidden to enter France. They landed at Lis- bon, and Jerome had an interview with Napo- leon at Alessandria, Piedmont, May 6, but without succeeding in reconciling him to his marriage. His wife, who had left Lisbon for Amsterdam, was not permitted to land there, and was obliged to sail at once for England, where in July, 1805, she gave birth to a son. Jerome had in the meanwhile been permitted to refnter the naval service, and as commander of a French squadron he obtained from the dey of Algiers the liberation of several hundreds of French and Genoese captives, whom in August he brought safely to Genoa, despite English cruisers. Napoleon promoted him to a higher command under Admiral Willautnez on an ex- pedition to the French possessions in the West Indies ; but being overtaken by a storm, many of the vessels were scattered, the admiral making for American ports. Jerome remained at his post, and with some of the ships suc- ceeded in destroying several English vessels, and on Aug. 26, 1806, reached with a number of captives a small and almost inaccessible port on the coast of Brittany, having barely escaped capture by the Brftish squadron under Lord Keith. This exploit won for him the rank of rear admiral, but he soon left the naval for the military service with the rank of brigadier general. At the same time he was recognized as a French prince, and subsequently (Sept. 24, 1806) the senate made him successor to the throne in the event of Napoleon's leaving no male issue. He commanded a body of Wiirtembergers and Bavarians in the Prussian war of 1806-'7, gaining some successes in Si- lesia, and was rewarded with the grade of general of division, March 14, 1807, and after the peace of Tilsit with the crown of Westpha- lia, which was erected into a kingdom, with Cassel as capital, Aug. 18. In the same month he married the princess Catharine, daughter of the king of Wurtemberg, an alli- ance forced upon him by Napoleon, though he was much attached to his first wife, and had repeatedly urged the emperor to recognize her. But he never saw her again after her departure for England, excepting, as alleged, casually, years afterward in the picture gallery of the Pitti palace in Florence, when Jer6me started aside on beholding her, and was overheard to say to Catharine, "That lady is my former wife," after which he left the gallery and de- parted next morning from Florence. After his accession to the throne of Westphalia, he appointed several learned men as ministers, reopened the university of Halle, emancipated the Jews, and introduced the Code Napoleon ; but his rule was in other respects marked by shocking levity and prodigality, and politically he was nothing more than the deputy or vice- roy of the emperor. In 1809, during the war with Austria, he promptly quelled the insur- rectionary spirit in his kingdom, and proceeded with 20,000 troops to Saxony, entering Dres- den Dec. 1. In the campaign against Russia, in 1812, he led a corps of Germans, and dis- tinguished himself by bravery; but having been guilty of some neglect which disconcerted the plans of Napoleon, he was severely repri- manded by him, and went home in anger. In October, 1813, when the French were driven from Germany, he went to Paris. He was expelled from France in 1814, and was ar- rested with his wife by a body of the allies, but they were speedily released. He then went to Switzerland, and afterward resided in Gratz and in Trieste. On learning the emperor's return from Elba he hastened to Paris, be- came a member of the chamber of peers, and fought at Ligny and Waterloo, displaying a capacity and a bravery which made Napoleon say to him, " Man fr&re, je vous ai connu trop tard." He afterward returned to Paris, and the Wurtemberg envoy holding out to him the prospect of a cordial reception, he proceeded to that country, but was arrested at the fron- tier and compelled to sign a convention, the terms of which made him almost a prisoner of the king of Wurtemberg ; and indeed on his arrival at Goppingen he was treated as such. The chateau of Ellwangen was assigned to him as a residence, where he remained with his family until about July, 1816, when he was permitted to leave ; and on arriving at Augs- burg he was surprised by receiving from the king a patent of nobility creating him prince of Montfort, which he returned under protest to his brother-in-law, the crown prince. He then spent some time near Vienna with the ex- queen Caroline, and here they heard of the death of his father-in-law and of his will, by which Jerome's wife, who had already re- ceived her dowry of 200,000 francs, was not provided for beyond her share of 150,000 francs from her mother's estate. Jerome having been unable to recover 1,200,000 francs which he had deposited with a banker in Paris, and the marquis de Maubreuil having robbed his wife while she was still in France of all her jewelry and of 80,000 francs in money besides, his posi- tion became embarrassing ; and toward the close of 1819 he could hardly defray his travelling ex- penses on his way to Trieste for the restoration of his son's health. In the following year, how- ever, he obtained judgment against his Paris