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On his brother's recommendation, Joseph attached himself to Reynier. Even before any French troops had crossed the border, the Anglo-Russian forces had beaten a prudent retreat, the British withdrawing to Sicily , the Russians to Corfu.
Thus abandoned by his allies, King Ferdinand had also already set sail for Palermo on 23 January. Queen Maria-Carolina lingered a little longer in the capital but, on 11 February, also fled to join her husband.
The first obstacle the French encountered was the fortress of Gaeta , its governor, Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal , refusing to surrender his charge. On 30 March Napoleon issued a decree installing Joseph as King of Naples and Sicily , the decree reading as follows:. Emperor of the French and King of Italy, to all those to whom these presents come, salutation. The interests of our people, the honour of our crown, and the tranquillity of the Continent of Europe requiring that we should assure, in a stable and definite manner, the lot of the people of Naples and of Sicily, who have fallen into our power by the right of conquest, and who constitute a part of the grand empire, we declare that we recognise, as King of Naples and of Sicily, our well - beloved brother, Joseph Napoleon, Grand Elector of France.
This crown will be hereditary, by order of primogeniture, in his descendants masculine, legitimate, and natural, etc. Joseph's arrival in Naples was warmly greeted with cheers and he was eager to be a monarch well liked by his subjects. Seeking to win the favour of the local elites, he maintained in their posts the vast majority of those who had held office and position under the Bourbons and was anxious to not in any way appear a foreign oppressor. With a provisional government set up in the capital, Joseph then immediately set off, accompanied by General Lamarque , on a tour of his new realm.
The principal object of the tour was to assess the feasibility of an immediate invasion of Sicily and the expulsion of Ferdinand and Maria-Carolina from their refuge in Palermo. But, upon reviewing the situation at the Strait of Messina , Joseph was forced to admit the impossibility of such an enterprise, the Bourbons having carried off all boats and transports from along the coast and concentrated their remaining forces, alongside the British, on the opposite side. Upon returning to Naples , Joseph received a deputation from the French Senate congratulating him upon his accession.
The King then set about forming a ministry staffed by many competent and talented men with whom he was determined to pursue a reforming agenda and confer upon Naples all the benefits of the French Revolution , without its excesses. Marshal Jourdan was also confirmed as Governor of Naples, an appointment made by Napoleon , and served as Joseph's foremost military adviser. Joseph then embarked on an ambitious programme of reform and regeneration aimed at raising Naples to the level of a modern state in the mould of Napoleonic France.
Monastic orders were suppressed, their property nationalised and their funds confiscated to steady the royal finances. The practice of forcibly recruiting prisoners into the army was also abolished and, to counter the perennial plague of robbers and brigands who infested the mountains and preyed upon travellers, military commissions were established with the power to judge and execute, without appeal, all those brigands arrested with arms in their possession.
Although the kingdom was not at that time furnished with a constitution, and thus Joseph's will as monarch reigned supreme, there is yet no instance of him ever adopting a measure of policy without prior discussion of the matter in the Council of State and the passing of a majority vote in favour his course of action by the counsellors.
Joseph ruled Naples for two years before being replaced by his sister's husband, Joachim Murat. Joseph was then made King of Spain in August , soon after the French invasion. Joseph somewhat reluctantly left Naples, where he was popular, and arrived in Spain where he was extremely unpopular. Joseph came under heavy fire from his opponents in Spain, who tried to smear his reputation by calling him Pepe Botella Joe Bottle for his alleged heavy drinking, an accusation echoed by later Spanish historiography, despite the fact that Joseph was abstemious.
His arrival sparked the legitimate Spanish revolt against French rule, and the beginning of the Peninsular War. Thompson says the Spanish revolt was, "a reaction against new institutions and ideas, a movement for loyalty to the old order: Joseph temporarily retreated with much of the French Army to northern Spain. Feeling himself in an ignominious position, Joseph then proposed his own abdication from the Spanish throne, hoping that Napoleon would sanction his return to the Neapolitan Throne he had formerly occupied. Napoleon dismissed Joseph's misgivings out of hand, and to back up the raw and ill-trained levies he had initially allocated to Spain, the Emperor sent heavy French reinforcements to assist Joseph in maintaining his position as King of Spain.
Despite the easy recapture of Madrid , and nominal control by Joseph's government over many cities and provinces, Joseph's reign over Spain was always tenuous at best, and constantly resisted by pro-Bourbon guerrillas. Joseph and his supporters never established complete control over the country. King Joseph's Spanish supporters were called josefinos or afrancesados frenchified. Despite such efforts to win popularity, Joseph's foreign birth and support, plus his membership in a Masonic lodge, [18] virtually guaranteed he would never be accepted as legitimate by the bulk of the Spanish people.
The king had virtually no influence over the course of the ongoing Peninsular War: Joseph's nominal command of French forces in Spain was mostly illusory, as the French commanders theoretically subordinate to King Joseph insisted on checking with Napoleon before carrying out Joseph's instructions.
King Joseph abdicated and returned to France after the main French forces were defeated by a British-led coalition at the Battle of Vitoria in During the closing campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition Napoleon left his brother to govern Paris with the title Lieutenant General of the Empire. Giovanni became mayor of Sarzana and was named commissioner of the Lunigiana by Giovanni Maria Visconti in Their great-grandson Francesco Buonaparte was an equestrian mercenary at the service of the Genoese Bank of Saint George.
In , he went to the island of Corsica , which was controlled by the bank. 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 There also existed a Buonaparte family in Florence , however its eventual relation with the Sarzana and San Miniato families is unknown.
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. Jacopo's brother Benedetto Buonaparte maintained political neutrality. The last member of the Florence family was a canon named Gregorio Bonaparte, who died in , leaving Napoleon as heir. Napoleon I is the most prominent name associated with the Bonaparte family, because he conquered much of Europe during the early part of the 19th century. On 2 December , he was crowned as Emperor of the French and ruled from to , and again in 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 s which included a Bonapartist restoration in its programme. He was a minor official in the local courts.
They had eight children:. The arms of the Bonaparte family were: Gules two bends sinister between two mullets or. In , 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. Arms of Charles-Maria Buonaparte. Arms of Joseph Bonaparte , King of Spain. Arms of Louis Bonaparte , King of Holland. According to studies by G. There are no other legitimate descendants in the male line from Napoleon I or his brothers.
There are, however, numerous descendants of Napoleon's illegitimate but recognized son, Alexandre Colonna-Walewski , from his union with Marie, Countess Walewski. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Bonaparte disambiguation. Added to this was the order from the Emperor in mid-March to leave Italy in order to lend support to the struggle in Champagne. It was only when, on 20 April , his Finance Minister Prina was lynched by the mob in the city that the Viceroy of Italy finally realised the extent of Italian enmity for the French occupier in Milan.
A secret article guaranteed him the protection of his personal wealth. Writing to Napoleon on 25 May , he informed his stepfather that he was resigned to await 'peaceably the fate that the allied powers would be pleased to grant [him]. He was at her bedside with his sister when the former Empress passed away on 28 May.
This mark of friendship reassured the former Viceroy of Italy when he took the road to Bavaria on 11 June. He would never again set foot in France. Having fled to the capital, she was again forced to leave her residence on the Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris on 30 March , the same day as Marie-Louise and the Roi de Rome, before the unstoppable advance of the Allies. Letizia met her daughter-in-law and grandson at Blois shortly before their departure for Austria. The Emperor advised his mother by letter to join Pauline in Nice, and from there to travel together to Rome: Meanwhile, Napoleon had negotiated on 12 April for a payment of , francs to be paid to his mother before he left Fontainebleau for Elba.
Letizia tried to consolidate this revenue by selling her estates in France. And while Napoleon was en route to Elba, he met his sister, who had been waiting for him since 15 April in Le Luc, in the province of Var. Pauline settled in Portici and re-established her correspondence with Lucien, who had installed himself in Rome. Once her financial affairs had been more or less settled, Letizia undertook the voyage to Elba, between 26 July and 2 August , where the fallen emperor had prepared her a room.
Napoleon's Siblings: Throughout his life, Napoleon Bonaparte acted as the protector of his large brood of siblings -- 4 brothers and three sisters. With the death. The House of Bonaparte (originally Buonaparte) was an imperial and royal European dynasty During the reign of Napoleon I, the Imperial Family consisted of the again ruled France: Napoleon III, the youngest son of Louis Bonaparte. of France on 10 November with the help of his brother, Lucien Bonaparte.
Eventually Letizia established herself in the Casa Vantini, next to I Mulini, and spent the following months alongside her son. Pauline rejoined Napoleon and Letizia shortly afterwards, occupying the apartment that Napoleon had prepared in vain for Marie-Louise and the Roi de Rome. Their arrival would never happen, especially after Marie Walewska travelled to Elba in September.
The winter passed in a state of boredom that both Napoleon's mother and sister tried to brighten… until Napoleon thought his moment had come. The news from France seemed to indicate a reversal in Louis XVIII's fortunes, and the emperor confided in his mother than he would not be staying on Elba…. Encouraged down this path by his wife Caroline Bonaparte, Murat tried to consolidate the treaty that had been laid out with the Austrian Empire on 11 January It was a different story with the new occupant of Elba, with whom contact was officially cut: Napoleon's request to the Kingdom of Naples for a chef and a decorator was refused, and the Neapolitan consul in Portoferraio was recalled.
All too aware that he was being watched by the Austrians, who only wanted one false move on his part to renege on the entire treaty, Murat denied in the official press on 27 August the existence of any secret talks between Naples and Elba. In fact, by September the situation showed a real ambivalence on the part of the Murats towards Napoleon: