A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bonaparte, Ramolina Marie Letitia
BONAPARTE, RAMOLINA MARIE LETITIA,
Was born at Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, in 1748. The family of Ramolini is of noble origin, and is derived from the Counts of Colatto. The founder of the Corsican branch had married the daughter of a doge of Genoa, and had received from that republic great ad honourable distinctions. The mother of Madame Letitia married a second time a Swiss named Fesch, whose family was from Basle. He was a Protestant, but was proselyted by his wife, and entered the Catholic church. From this second marriage was born the Cardinal Fesch, half-brother of Madame Bonaparte, Letitia was one of the most beautiful girls of Corsica. She married Charles Bonaparte in 1766, in the midst of the midst of civil discords and wars; through every vicissitude she followed her husband, and as few persons have been placed in more difficult conjunctures, few have exhibited such strength of ming, courage, fortitude, and equanimity, The most unexampled prosperity, and most unlooked-for adversity have found her equal to the difficulties of each. Her eight children who lived to maturity were the following:—Joseph, King of Naples, and afterwards of Spain; Napoleon; Eliza, grand-duchess of Tuscany; Lucien; Pauline, princess Borghese; Louis, King of Holland; Caroline, Queen of Naples; and Jerome, King of Westphalia.
In 1785 Charles Bonaparte being sent to France as a deputy from the Corsican nobility, was seized with a cancer of the stomach, and died at Montpelier in the arms of his son Joseph. He left a widow with eight children, and no fortune. Two of the family were educated at the expense of the government—Napoleon at Brienne, and Eliza at St. Cyr—while the others found their mother an instructress capable and energetic. Hers was a character that displayed its resources in difficulties; and she always managed to maintain her children in the position to which they were naturally entitled She was fond of saying of Napoleon, "That he had never given her a moment's pain, not even at the time which is almost universally woman's hour of suffering."
Madame Bonaparte was always kind and generous; in trouble she was the advocate and protectress of the unfortunate. When Jerome incurred his brother's displeasure for his American marriage, his mother restored him to favour; and when Lucien, for a fault of the same sort, was exiled to Rome, Madame Letitia accompanied him. When Napoleon became sovereign, he allotted her a suitable income, upon which she maintained a decorous court. After the disasters of 1816, she retired to Rome, where she lived in a quiet and dignified manner, seeing nobody but her own connections, and sometimes strangers of high rank, who were very desirous of being presented to her. She never laid aside her black, after the death of Napoleon. She died February 2nd., 1836, at the age of eighty-eight. For several of the last years of her life she was deprived of her sight, and was bedridden. Madame Letitia was always honoured and respected by those who were able to appreciate her rare qualities.