offered Madame Bonaparte a pension during her life of 60,000 francs a year. “provided she does not take the name of my family,” and after some time she consented to return to America, hoping thus to conciliate her imperial brother-in-law. When Jerome was admitted to Napoleon's presence, the emperor upbraided him rudely, and concluded: “As for your affair with your little girl, I do not regard it.” As a reward for his desertion, Jerome was created a prince of the empire, and was promoted admiral. He received subsequently the rank of general. In 1806 he was made by the senate successor to the imperial throne in the event of Napoleon's leaving no male heir, and in 1807 was created king of Westphalia. On 12 Aug., 1807, he married Catherine Frederica, princess of Würtemburg. By his second marriage he had three children, of whom the surviving son, Prince Napoleon, is dynastic heir to the imperial throne. Madame Bonaparte employed every means to maintain the legality of her marriage and the legitimacy of her son. When Napoleon III. mounted the throne, a formal trial was granted her. Jerome, the father, appealed to the council of state to forbid “Jerome Patterson” to assume the name of Bonaparte. Nevertheless, the council decreed that the son of Madame Elizabeth Patterson was entitled to the name of Bonaparte, although he could not be recognized as a member of the imperial family. After the death of Jerome she brought suit for a share in his estate; but documentary proofs, the fact that the validity of her marriage had been sustained by the church, and the zeal and eloquence of her advocate, Berryer, did not prevent an adverse decision, probably inspired by the imperial court. Her son was, however, recognized by official decree as a legitimate child of France. Jerome Bonaparte, the son, refused to sue for the hand of a daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, as his mother desired, and married Miss Williams, of Roxbury, Mass. Alienated by her proud and ambitious temper both from her son and her father, Madame Bonaparte passed much of her time in Europe, where her unfortunate position attracted sympathy and attention. She inherited a part of her father's wealth in the form of real property in Baltimore, which rose in value and made her a millionaire. She became penurious and misanthropic, but retained her noble manner and brilliant conversational powers. She passed many winters in Florence, and counted with pride royal and distinguished persons among her acquaintance. After the downfall of the second empire and the death of Napoleon III., she actively put forward the claims of her grandson, Col. Bonaparte, who had served with distinction in the French army, and hoped to see him called to the regency, or perhaps to the imperial throne. — Jerome Napoleon, Madame Bonaparte's son, b. in Camberwell, England, 7 July, 1805; d. in Baltimore, where he had passed his life, 17 June, 1870. He was graduated at Harvard in 1826, and studied law, but did not practise. He was never naturalized as an American citizen, and cultivated terms of intimacy with his father and the French court. His management of his inherited fortune and the property that came to him by marriage made him one of the richest residents of Baltimore. He left two sons, who inherited his and their grandmother's wealth. — The elder, Jerome Napoleon, b. in Baltimore, 5 Nov., 1830; d. at Pride's Crossing, Mass., 3 Sept., 1893. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy, but resigned from the service on 16 Aug., 1854, and was appointed a lieutenant of dragoons in the French imperial army. He served through the Crimean war, distinguishing himself at Balaklava, Inkerman, Tchernaia, and the siege of Sebastopol, and received the decoration of the Medjidie order from the sultan of Turkey, the Crimean medal from the queen of England, and became a knight of the legion of honor. Being then transferred to the chasseurs d'Afrique, he served as lieutenant, and afterward as captain in that corps in the Algerian campaign of 1857, and in several actions against the Kabyles. In the Italian campaign against Austria he served with distinction in the battles of Montebello and Solferino and in various skirmishes, receiving French and Italian decorations. He was promoted to the rank of chef d'escadron in 1865, and in 1867 transferred to the empress's dragoon guards. — The younger grandson of Madame Bonaparte, Charles Joseph, b. in Baltimore, Md., 9 June, 1851, was graduated at Harvard in 1871, and at the Harvard law school in 1874, was admitted to practice, and has attained a respectable rank at the Baltimore bar.
BONAPARTE, Joseph, king of Spain, b. in
Corte, Corsica, 7 Jan., 1768; d. in Florence, Italy,
28 July, 1844. He was the elder brother of Napoleon
Bonaparte, became an advocate in Corsica, and
was an early supporter of the French revolution.
He was military commissary of Napoleon's army in
Italy in 1796, French minister to Rome in 1797,
and afterward member of the council of five hundred,
of the tribunate, and of the council of state in
Paris. By his shrewd statecraft and engaging
manners he rendered his brother effective assistance
in his political schemes. He negotiated the
treaty of peace with the United States in 1800, the
treaty with Germany in 1801, and the treaty with
Great Britain at Amiens in 1802. He was sent
with an army to Naples in February, 1806, and
entered the city and assumed, in obedience to Napoleon's
commands, the title of king. In 1808 he
reluctantly exchanged the throne of Naples for that
of Spain. His rule being regulated by his brother's
policy and not by his own well-meaning impulses,
he was twice driven out of Madrid by hostile
armies, and twice reinstated, but in June, 1813,
was defeated by Wellington at Vittoria, and soon
afterward left Spain. In January, 1814, he was
appointed lieutenant-general of the empire in the
absence of Napoleon, and in March he consented
to the capitulation of Paris. When Napoleon
returned in 1815, Joseph went to Paris and exerted
himself to obtain the support of his influential
friends for a restoration of the empire under
constitutional guarantees. He had a single interview
with his brother after the battle of Waterloo,
arranged to meet him in the United States, and sailed
for New York from Royan, 25 July, 1815, under
the assumed name of Comte de Survilliers. He
bought a mansion in Philadelphia, and a country-seat
near Bordentown, N. J . An act to enable him
to hold real estate was passed by the legislature of
New Jersey in 1817, and when he acquired a
summer-place on the edge of the Adirondack forest a
similar law was enacted by the New York assembly.
He was accompanied to the United States by his
two daughters and the prince of Canino, husband
of the elder daughter, Zénaïde; but his wife, who
was the daughter of a merchant of Marseilles and
sister of the queen of Sweden, remained an invalid
in Europe. His benevolence and hospitality,
his affable and courtly manners, and his knowledge
and taste, made him a general favorite. He
endeavored to advance the claims of Napoleon II.
after the revolution of July, 1830, and in 1832,
when the duke of Reichstadt fell ill, he went to
Europe, but remained in England upon hearing of
