A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bacciocchi, Marie Anne Elise
BACCIOCCHI, MARIE ANNE ELISE,
Sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, formerly princess of Lucca and Piombino, was born at Ajaccio, January 8th., .1777, and educated at the royal institution for noble ladies at St. Cyr. She lived at Marseilles, with her mother, during the revolution. In 1797, with her mother's consent, but against her brother's wish, she married Felix Pascal Bacciocchi, a captain in Napoleon's army in Italy. In 1799, she went to Paris, and resided with her brother Lucien, where she collected around her the most distinguished men of the capital. Generous as she ever was towards distinguished talents, she conferred particular favours on Chateaubriand and Fontanes. Conscious of her intellectual superiority, she kept her husband in a very subordinate position. It was she in fact, who governed the principalities of Lucca and Piombino. When she reviewed the troops of the duchy of Tuscany, her husband acted as aide-de-camp. She introduced many improvements.
In 1817 she retired to Bologna, but the following year she was obliged to go to Austria. Here she lived, at first, with her sister Caroline; afterwards with her own family at Trieste, where she called herself the countess Compignano. She died August 7th., 1820, at her country seat, Villa Vicentina, near Trieste. In that city she was distinguished for her benevolence. She left a daughter, Napoleona Elise, born June 3rd., 1806, and a son, who remained under the guardianship of their father, although she requested that her brother Jerome, might have the charge of them.
This princess was endowed with superior abilities, but she sullied them by great faults. Subjugated by imperious passions, and surrounded by unworthy flatterers, she has been accused of many immoralities, and her conduct was certainly deserving of great censure. But had she belonged to the old regime her character would have suffered less from public scandal. The family of Napoleon had to share with him in the obloquy of being parvenues.